Tag: GreatLakesNews

{During the operation, police recovered explosives which were taken for analysis.}

Detectives have arrested a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldier, a former soldier and three other men suspected to be selling explosives in Lang’ata, Nairobi.

During the operation, police recovered explosives which were taken for analysis.

Mr Francis Otieno Oluoch based at Kabete Barracks, former soldier Robert Osano and Mr Nathaniel Kiprono, a security guard at Athi River Mining were arrested on Sunday in Otiende estate by detectives who were posing as buyers.

Police also arrested Mr Johnson Nyarang Omayio and Mr Simon Muturi Gichuki, both residents of Kitengela and Waithaka respectively.

The night operation involved a joint team of detectives drawn from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), KWS and detectives from the Bomb Disposal Unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters.

Investigations have been launched to establish the source of the explosives and also to arrest other suspects.

The soldier based at Kabete had left the service but later re-joined as a Constabulary.

{The Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, has issued a stern warning to former Burundi refugees who have officially been given Tanzania citizenship to refrain from illegally welcoming and accommodating Burundians who have not been naturalised to live in Katumba and Mishamo refugee settlements.}

He has also ordered all Burundians who have illegally entered and stayed in both Katumba and Mishamo refugees settlements in Mpanda District and the newly-formed Tanganyika District to return to their country of origin before the special operation to flush them out starts.

Similarly, the Premier directed the Katavi Regional Defense and Security Committee, led by its chairman, retired Major General Raphael Muhuga, who is the Katavi Regional Commissioner, to routinely inspect the situation at Katumba and Mishamo refugee settlements to uncover Burundi nationals who have been living illegally in the settlements.

Mr Majaliwa has urged former Burundian refugees who have been naturalized and officially become Tanzanians to be vigilant to prevent weapons from neighbouring countries proliferating in their camps.

The Premier issued the directives on Saturday on the first day of his four-day working tour of Katavi Region shortly after Major General Muhuga had read the regional development report, which touched on the defence and security issues in the region, including procedures for naturalisation of the Burundian refugees.

“Some of the newly-naturalised Tanzanians (formerly Burundi refugees) have contested for civil leadership elections and subsequently won the posts. I warn them to refrain from abusing the power of their offices by illegally receiving Burundi citizens,’’ Mr Majaliwa cautioned.

He warned them never to abuse their offices by going back to Burundi and return with more nationals and accommodating them in the camps without following proper legal procedures.

‘’We will not hesitate to take punitive measures against them… the Regional Defence and Security Committee should go to the camps and alert them over my directives before they go to other villages,“ reacted the PM.

In the same vein, Mr Majaliwa asked religious leaders to inculcate into the hearts and minds of their followers the importance of maintaining peace as well as abiding by the country’s laws.

He underscored the importance of strengthening defence and security at all borders to prevent noncitizens from entering the country and cause overpopulation.

The prime minister further raised the red flag over unnecessary levies slapped on small-scale farmers when they carry various agricultural products from their farms. “It is very unbecoming to tax a farmer carrying a sack of cereals from his or her farm,’’ he observed.

Mr Majaliwa directed the municipal council officials to tax businesspeople with huge capital and lay their hands off small-scale farmers, saying that by doing so, they were disappointing farmers who were likely to give up their agricultural activities.

In a welcoming note, the RC briefed the PM that according to the census conducted in 2007, about 160,000 refugees from neighbouring Burundi in Katuma and Mishamo refugee settlements had applied for naturalization.

The RC said some of those refugees who did get naturalisation returned to their country of origin voluntarily.

Meanwhile, Mr Majaliwa has declared that the government will not entertain any request for food relief from any district that will fail to produce sufficient food.

The Premier announced the decision in Mpanda Town when addressing public servants, religious leaders as well as leaders from various institutions gathered at the Mpanda State Lodge.

Mr Majaliwa directed all district commissioners (DCs) to ensure that there is a bumper production of staple food in their respective areas, arguing that every district must have effective plans to produce surplus food.

A cross-section of the people interviewed by the ‘Daily News’ in different occasions was of the opinion that the region has a lot of fertile areas but they were not exhaustively used for food production.

The RC said the region was set to examine the regional plans to increase food production as there was plenty of fertile land and water.

The Premier is today expected to visit the Mpanda District Hospital, which is currently serving as regional hospital before proceeding to Katumba refugees settlement in Mpanda District where he will hold a public rally before addressing another meeting at Azimio Grounds in Mpanda Town.

{Skewed picture does not reflect national face.}

Six ethnic communities are hogging nearly three quarters of all jobs in the country’s 31 public universities and colleges, according to a new government survey handed to President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday.

The six communities – Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin, Kisii and Kamba – occupy 70.8 per cent of all jobs available in the higher learning institutions, providing a skewed picture that does not reflect the national face as required by the Constitution.

In total, there are 28,935 jobs in 22 public universities and nine constituent colleges.

This means the six communities are sharing 20,485 slots in the universities leaving the rest to occupy only 8,449. There are 42 communities listed in the report.

The statistics are contained in the draft Ethnic and Diversity Audit of Public Universities in Kenya report dated August 2016.

According to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) study, the largest ethnic group recruited in the service of the institutions is the Kikuyu, which forms 23.6 per cent.

In absolute figures, there are 7,050 Kikuyu employees in the institutions compared with the least represented community, Burji, which has only one staffer.

The report notes that communities such as the Turkana, Maasai, Kenyan Somali, Kamba and Mijikenda were among those that were under- represented compared to their total population.

Instead, the six dominant communities have taken nearly 10 per cent more jobs than what they should legitimately be keeping.

“This severs opportunities to enhance the face of Kenya in these institutions thus excluding the other ethnic communities,” the report says of these glaring disparities.

Universities, being the cradle of knowledge, have for long been viewed as the best expression of nationalism as administrators are the best academicians expected to shun the tribal bigotry that has often threatened to tear the country apart.

MANY CAMPAIGNS

But the latest findings are likely to also pour cold water on the many campaigns that have been put in place to reduce disparities in employment, some of which have been caused by unfair recruitment policies of successive regimes.

According to the National Cohesion and Integration Act 2012, no community should hold more than 33.3 per cent of jobs in any one institution.

But according to the survey, the second for universities and constituent colleges after the first one conducted in 2012, only five institutions have complied with the law. Of the older universities, only University of Nairobi and Egerton University are living within the law.

The report commends the University of Nairobi for moving from the dark side of contravening the law based on the 2012 report to the brighter region this year when only the community with the highest number of jobs, Kikuyu, holds 30 per cent of the places. Although Egerton University is still playing in the desirable league as it was in 2012, it slid a few points towards contravention.

The institution that is contravening the law most in the ranking was Kirinyaga University College where the dominant community, Kikuyu, occupies 82.7 per cent of all the 226 jobs.

The NCIC chairman Francis Kaparo, while releasing the report, was specifically angered by the performance of Kabianga University College which sank deeper into contravention by letting the Kalenjin community to grow 10 per cent more jobs in the last four years.

In 2012, the Kalenjin community in Kabianga held 58.1 per cent of the jobs, which expanded to 68.8 per cent according to the latest report.

Mr Kaparo told Vice-Chancellors (VCs) and Principals to their face at a meeting before President Kenyatta on Tuesday that more than 80 per cent of their institutions were not complying with the law.

He suggested that those that were contravening the law be denied public funding.

MORE LIKELY

Largely, the report showed that universities were more likely to draw the largest number of employees from either the communities where they were located or from the ethnic community of their VCs or principals.

For example, in Kisii University that is located within Kisii County, the VC is a Kisii and the majority of the employees were Kisii.

The case was the same in Dedan Kimathi University in Nyeri County where the majority of staff were Kikuyu. The VC is a Kikuyu and the university is in Kikuyuland.

Other areas cited for same scenario include Moi University in Eldoret, Chuka, Kabianga and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

The report also notes that the universities lacked strong gender representation at the management level.

“This calls for a review of the internal policies or practices towards encouraging women in leadership,” the report says.

It notes that only two females head universities in the institutions under study.

The study also noted that people from certain communities were more likely to have higher academic qualifications that others, meaning that there were likely to be differences in the jobs they could land.

Findings of the report also show that universities and colleges that had appointed VCs and principals from communities that are not dominant in the regions where the institutions are based had already improved their ranking in terms of ethnic balancing of the jobs.

Such institutions that had appointed chiefs from communities that were not “dominant” only for them to improve in rankings included Multi-Media University, Egerton, Maasai Mara, Masinde Muliro and University of Eldoret.

The study undertook a survey of all the 22 public universities and their nine constituent colleges.

A questionnaire was shared with each individual university to provide specific details of all their employees, which were then analysed to produce the report.

{As the crackdown on verifying ghost workers nears the deadline next Friday, a total of 16,127 have been identified and removed from the government’s payroll.}

The Minister of State in the President’s Office – Public Service Management and Good Governance, Ms Angela Kairuki, confirmed the report before reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday, adding that the verification exercise has saved 16.15b/- that would have been paid to the phantom workers as August 2016 salaries.

“Until August 17, a total of 16,127 ghost workers have so far been removed. This has helped the government to save 16.15 billion/- that would have been paid to them as August 2016 salaries,’’ Ms Kairuki told reporters.

Meanwhile, the minister has said that 233 civil servants are under their radar on suspicion of being involved in the ghost workers’ scam.

She said that the government has started taking various measures, including sacking three civil service administrators behind the mess as 606 civil servants are being interrogated by both the police and Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).

Ms Kairuki stressed the need for government departments, agencies and institutions who have not yet presented to the ministry the verification report to do so before the deadline.

“My ministry is due to present the official verification report to President John Magufuli with attachments that will list government institutions that have taken action to remove ghost workers as well as those who have declined,” she explained.

She said a total number of 145 government institutions have not yet presented the verification report to her office, reiterating the need for the responsible managements to implement the directives before the deadline or face legal measures.

Among the institutions that have not submitted the verification report are 11 councils, 10 higher learning institutions, 25 hospitals, 12 regional executive directors’ offices, six government authorities, 10 committees, 38 local government authorities and 30 public institutions and agencies.

The minister said that a total of 264 out of 409 employers have presented the verification report to her office and among them (264) 201 confirmed the presence of ghost workers and the rest 63 employers confirmed to have had none in their respective institutions.

On the other hand, Ms Kairuki said that the government is conducting a surprise visit in 70 government institutions including ministries, government departments, regional secretariats, local government authorities and public institutions to prove the verification report of ghost workers presented by the responsible employees to her office.

“My office will provide the information concerning the 70 institutions at the end of the surprise visit in all the offices. The aim is to cross-check their verification reports presented to my office,” she said, adding that the exercise kicked off on August 15.

In another development, Ms Kairuki said that the government is taking various measures, including training of personnel officers involved in the payroll system, to instil a sense of responsibility among officials involved in the payment of salaries.

{Democratic Republic of Congo’s government announced pardons on Friday for 24 people considered political prisoners by the opposition, in a bid to ease tensions ahead of a presidential election set for November.}

Opposition leaders had demanded the release of 26 prisoners as a precondition for participation in talks on the election with President Joseph Kabila, who is due to step down after two terms in office.

“The government … has decided that we can lift the measures (against them) to allow these people to be immediately liberated with the exception of two cases,” Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba told a news conference.

Those liberated include youth activists arrested in what the United Nations and human rights groups said was a growing crackdown on freedom of expression ahead of the election.

They include Fred Bauma and Yves Mawkambula, detained on charges of plotting against President Kabila since their arrests at a March 2015 workshop to promote youth participation in politics. The two men not freed are political party leaders accused of sexual assault and real estate fraud respectively.

The African Union facilitator of those talks, former Togolese prime minister Edem Kodjo, applauded the government’s decision and said the talks would begin next week. There was no immediate comment from the opposition.