Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Details of how four Kenyans working in South Sudan were killed on Saturday have emerged, as their employer says they are bringing their bodies home.}

Gredo, an NGO sponsored by Unicef, said it was collaborating with security agencies to transport the bodies to Kenya for burial. Three will be transported by air and one by road through Uganda.

The four, whose identities the Nation cannot reveal until their families are officially notified, succumbed to gunshot wounds.

They were young men who had left the country as recently as early this month to be employed in an organisation that works towards “empowerment and development”, according to staff badges found near the bodies.

One of them was born on January 30, 1973 in Kiambu. He had worked for Gredo for only a month as a project coordinator and his contract was to run until September next year.

The job grade of another, from Siaya, could not be immediately established. An entry in the mortuary records had his occupation listed as “civilian”.

Another one, a peer educator, was born 37 years ago in Nyandarua but claimed his home county was Laikipia.

The fourth one, born in October, 1973, had yearned to teach English to the youth Gredo works with. He had landed the job just six days to the fateful day, having travelled from Nairobi.

According to a South Sudanese government dispatch, the four were among six aid workers killed as they travelled to their base in Pibor, a town 340 kilometres northeast of the capital Juba, near the border with Ethiopia.

Around 8am, men in jungle uniforms and carrying rifles stopped vehicles some 50 kilometres north of Juba. They ordered all the occupants out and directed them to lie down.

They then ransacked the vehicles, looting. After a while, each one of the aid workers was shot in the head and the back, sometimes the bullets piercing the body.

Under pressure from Kenyans, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially reached out to South Sudan on Monday to help retrieve the bodies from the bush.

In a statement, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said efforts were under way to have South Sudanese security agents and officials from Gredo and Unicef recover the bodies of the victims.

“The Ministry is working with all stakeholders to ascertain the exact circumstances leading to this tragedy,” said Ms Mohamed, who later petitioned her South Sudanese counterpart Deng Alor Kuol to intervene.

The attack occurred in a region controlled by rebels associated with former Vice-President Riek Machar but they denied killing the workers and pointed a finger at the President Salva Kiir regime.

“The workers were killed by militia sponsored by the government in Juba,” said William Gatjiath Deng, military spokesman for the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO), as Dr Machar’s rebels are known. “They have been killing civilians, which we don’t.

{{REFUTED ACCUSATION}}

“We do not kill those who come to help.”

But Juba denied the accusation, saying the government has been providing security to all.

Later, a South Sudanese government source told the Nation that the bodies were found strewn by the roadside with their hands tied at the back and identification documents scattered nearby.

After several days, Gredo said, all the bodies were recovered and preserved at a mortuary in Juba, waiting to be ferried to Kenya.

The killings have received widespread condemnation, especially since parts of South Sudan are experiencing devastating famine.

“At a time when humanitarian needs have reached unprecedented levels, it is entirely unacceptable that those who are trying to help are being attacked and killed,” said Eugene Owusu, South Sudan’s UN humanitarian coordinator.

UN figures show that at least 12 aid workers have been killed this year in South Sudan, putting the country among the most dangerous for relief agencies.

On March 14, a convoy of humanitarian workers responding to a cholera outbreak was attacked in Yirol East, 240km northwest of Juba. A nurse and a patient were shot dead and another health worker badly injured.

Four days earlier, in Mayendit, where the famine has hit hard, South Sudanese staff of an international NGO were detained by rebels for five days.

Source:Daily Nation

{Police and demonstrators battle in Kinshasa as talks between President Kabila’s government and opposition fall apart.}

Congolese police fired rounds into the air and launched tear gas canisters to disperse hundreds of opposition supporters in Kinshasa on Tuesday after talks between the opposition and President Joseph Kabila’s government fizzled out.

Unrest broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital after Catholic bishops withdrew from their role as mediators between the government and opposition in talks aimed at paving the way for delayed elections later this year.

Demonstrators, some burning tyres at city crossroads, took to the streets in several areas in Kinshasa.

A Reuters news agency witness saw opposition members gathering at the home of the late Etienne Tshisekedi, the main opposition party’s former leader, during a news conference with his son, the new Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UPDS) party leader, Felix Tshisekedi.

Many shops remained closed and some schools called parents to collect their children

Kabila’s mandate ran out in December but polls were not held because of what the government said were budgetary constraints, sparking violent protests at the end of last year in which security forces killed at least 40 people.

DRC’s conference of Catholic bishops (CENCO) helped negotiate a December 31 deal aimed at avoiding a political crisis by ensuring an election this year to elect Kabila’s successor.

In January, the bishops warned the deal was at risk of unravelling if politicians did not act quickly to reach compromises and implement it.

The bishops stepped aside on Tuesday after progress on the deal stalled, raising the prospect of renewed violence in a country that has suffered a succession of wars and rebellions.

“We think that there’s no longer anything to do,” Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of CENCO, told Reuters. “We have given all our time and all our energy, and in the meantime, pastoral work suffers.”

Kabila has ruled the mineral-rich central African nation since his father’s assassination in 2001. His critics accuse him of deliberately delaying elections in order to remain in power.

{{‘Grave concern’}}

DRC has never experienced a peaceful transition of power and millions have died in conflicts in the country’s east since 1996, most from hunger and disease.

Meanwhile, the UN, EU, and African Union expressed “grave concern” on Tuesday over violence in the Kasai region, including the reported killing of 40 police officers on Saturday.

The organisations “condemn this despicable act and express their condolences to the families of the victims”, they said, after Congolese national police accused rebels of killing the officers in an ambush.

Together with the International Organisation of Francophonie, they “express deep concern over the grave situation in the Kasai provinces” in central DR Congo.

Source:Al Jazeera

{The Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura has dropped his personal Assistant Jonathan Baroza.}

In the Thursday mini reshuffle, General Kayihura replaced Baroza with CP Ibrahim Sagal from Interpol.

Mr Baroza, according to the reshuffle message is headed for a pending course. Sources say the IGP’s decision to sack Mr Baroza and five others was as result of the warnings from the security group investigating the murder of former police Spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

It is alleged that he was advised to do away with people who are much known to the public as they can be easily infiltrated by criminals.

Police Spokesman, Mr Asan Kasingye said the transfers are normal but asked for some time to gather details regarding the reshuffles.

Source:Daily Monitor

{When Lebanese engineering firm Zakhem won the tender in 2014 to build a 20-inch pipeline in Kenya, it promised to complete the work in 18 months at a cost of Sh48 billion. It hasn’t.}

They later demanded an additional Sh11 billion for the contract.

Kenya Pipeline Company chairman John Ngumi commented to the Nation: “I can only say that we are disappointed.”

Though legally a company can vary its tender by 25 per cent, an avenue used by many firms to get more money from State corporations, Zakhem’s demand has raised eyebrows in Parliament.

The financing of the pipeline was a major undertaking and a $350 million loan facility was arranged by KPC with a banking consortium that included CFC Stanbic Bank, Citibank Kenya (Citi), Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Rand Merchant Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

FABULOUS DEALMAKER

The deal was brokered by London’s East End lawyer Sanjeev Dhuna, a partner with London’s Allen & Overy, who is regarded as a fabulous dealmaker in the law firm. (He was the man who advised StanChart on the financing of Bharti Airtel’s $10.7 billion purchase of Zain Africa).

Dhuna raised the $350 million for the project and KPC was to fund the other costs through its reserves.

Zakhem has been one of the politically correct engineering firms in Kenya ever since they arrived in the 1970s. A well-known family enterprise still led by its founders George Zakhem — author of Men Who Dream Can Do — and his brother Abdallah, the Kenyan business was started by the latter, managing director of Zakhem International Construction Group in Kenya from 1970 to 1982.

From the onset, Abdallah built solid political networks and won big tenders. Doubling as his country’s Honorary Consul in Kenya since 1978, he penetrated the corridors of power and still packs a punch.

With the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon in 1975, Nairobi gave Zakhem a new life and home. It had won its first major tender in Kenya in 1975, to build the premier 14-inch 450-kilometre oil pipeline from Mombasa to Nairobi at $100 million.

FAVOURED BY GOVERNMENT

Soon, Zakhem became one of the companies favoured by government functionaries and was, at times, single-sourced. Others were Yugoslavia’s Put Sarajevo, Soleh Bonneh (Israel) and Jewish billionaire Gad Zeevi’s HZ Construction. Zeevi would later become a business partner with insiders in the Moi regime and his company, too, won lucrative tenders.

Zakhem had been out of the picture — and out of controversy in Kenya — until it won the latest KPC tender. It had shifted some of its business to Nigeria, where Abdallah became a known figure as the chairman of Lebanese Nigerian Friendship Association (Lenifra), which organises high-profile banquets for local and Lebanese businessmen.

They got lucrative tenders in the National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), thanks to President Olusegun Obasanjo, but in Liberia, they left in 2009 under a cloud of controversy after President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf dismissed her confidant Harry Greaves — then head of the State-owned Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation (LPRC) — following a Ministry of Justice probe into alleged bribery in a $24.8 million concession.

In the scandal, LPRC had issued an international competitive bid that produced two finalists: Zakhem estimated the cost of the project at $24.8 million while another construction company, Mechanical Engineering Group (MEG), submitted a $12 million bid. Despite the wide price discrepancy, Greaves unilaterally signed a contract with Zakhem.

In Kenya, Parliament had as far back as 1995 been told that Zakhem was getting contracts even when it was not the lowest bidder.

KPC insiders say that management knew the company had been blacklisted in West Africa when they gave it the pipeline deal and that the tender committee did not get enough time to scrutinise it.

COMPANIES CRIED FOUL

Although the other shortlisted companies cried foul, the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) gave the project a clean bill of health. Zakhem’s competitors had accused the firm of submitting two figures: $591 million and a discounted $485 million. PPARB said this was not the case and gave the company a chance to do yet another pipeline.
“Zakhem was to do new civil works, new stations, install new pumps and instrumentations. It also has to drill the tanks to accommodate the new pipes,” an engineer knowledgeable with the goings-on told the Nation. “We have learnt that two of the members of the PPARB have direct interests in KPC.

“A daughter of one of the board members is employed as a senior manager while another PPARB board member was a past KPC lawyer.”

Shortly after they clinched the tender, Zakhem began holding planning meetings with KPC officials.

“What we realised from the start is that they wanted to make as much money as possible,” said a source who attended the meetings.

At a project meeting in Mombasa, Ibrahim appeared in person to say that he wanted to import some electric mortars from Toshiba Mitsubishi, the Japanese electrical company.

LOUDLY COMPLAINING

He claimed that the 3 megawatt motors required for the main line pump were not available in Kenya.

“He wanted us to downgrade to Zone 2, which means he would save up to Sh10 million per motor if we went for that,” said a source.

In oil industry lingo, “Zone 0” is a place where likeliness of fire is very high and requires special explosion-proof motors. But an engineer said: “He brought mortars for Zone 2 to be used for Zone 0 for approval.”

When some KPC engineers told him that motors of up to 8MW were available in the local market, “they walked out in protest,” an official who attended the meeting recalled.

Once outside, Ibrahim was heard loudly complaining that they had spent a lot of money on that project.

The new pipeline will have a throughput of a million litres per hour, up from 730,000 litres per hour on the current pipeline. Zakhem was also to build a fibreoptic cable along the route besides installing four pumping stations and firefighting systems.

With all these, the country is set to lose Sh40 billion for replacing an infrastructure that was working. It is also set to lose billions of shillings more if it accepts a demand for additional funding to cover delays.

Source:Daily Nation

{Two former East African Legislative Assembly Members of Parliament from Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), who were seeking nomination for re-election in the regional body, were axed in the ruling party’s Central Committee (CC) that met yesterday.}

According to the party’s Ideology and Publicity Secretary, Humphrey Polepole, the party had already forwarded 12 names of successful nominees to the speaker of the National Assembly. However, the names of popular politicians, Ms Angela Kizigha and Ms Shyrose Bhanji who were defending their seats were dropped, ending their political career in EALA at least for now.

The two were among 450 CCM cadres who were flexing their political muscles in a bruising titanic battle to win nomination in their party so that they can be voted by Members of Parliament to represent the country into the regional law making body.

According to Mr Polepole, the CC convened yesterday under the leadership of the party’s chairman Dr John Magufuli and came up with 12 names that will be voted by parliamentarians in the august House to get six EALA members from CCM.

From the mainland, the committee proposed four men and four women while from the Isles the committee proposed two men and two women.

“Among other factors, we considered gender threshold at 50/50 ratio, educational background, experience in leadership, ethics and integrity and both sides of the union, unlike other parties that picked names without going through a proper and transparent democratic process,’’ he explained.

The party’s spokesperson as Zainab Kawawa, Happiness Lugiko, Fancy Nkuhi and Happiness Mgalula (Mainland-women). The proposed names of men from mainland are Dr Ngwaru Maghembe, Adam Kimbisa, Anamringi Macha and Makongoro Nyerere.

From Zanzibar, the CC proposed four names out of which two are men and two are women. They are Abdalla Hasnu Makame, Mohammed Yusuf Nuhu, Maryam Ussi Yahaya and Rabia Abdalla Hamid.

Prior to picking up of the names, Mr Polepole said all the 450 names (out of which 93 were women and 357 were men) were forwarded to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) secretariat for a rigorous vetting process.

Later, the names were forwarded to CC that also forwarded the names of people with requisite criteria to a committee of CCM parliamentarians for voting, before the 12 names were released yesterday. When assessing the names, Mr Polepole said some members who were seeking nomination were axed after the party proved that they had tried to offer bribes during the process.

According to him, apart from removing their names, the party had directed the government through the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau to take appropriate legal action against them.

Meanwhile, ACT Wazalendo party leader, Mr Zitto Kabwe has forwarded a request to the speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai to convene the Parliamentary Standing Orders Committee to deliberate on the latter’s Government Gazzette No 11, released on March 17 announcing the election of EALA members.

According to Mr Zitto, who doubles as Kigoma Urban Law Maker, the speaker’s announcement violated the parliamentary standing orders that provides for representation of all political parties that have representatives in the National Assembly regardless of their number of representatives in the House.

“The speaker issued directives that the positions to be contested in Parliament shall consider the representation ratio in the House, meaning there will be allotment of seats instead of election, a directive that is against the East African Treaty,’’ he insisted.

Source:Daily News

{Two foreign UN contractors who were kidnapped in DR Congo have been found dead, one of them decapitated, the government said Tuesday, as spiralling violence in the vast country sparked international condemnation.}

The bodies of American Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zaida Catalan were found as the UN Security Council prepared for a vote on Wednesday on extending its peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres vowed that the world body would do “everything possible” to bring justice in the case.

“Michael and Zaida lost their lives seeking to understand the causes of conflict and insecurity in the DRC in order to help bring peace to the country and its people,” the UN chief said.

“I trust that the Congolese authorities will conduct a full investigation into this incident. The United Nations will also conduct an inquiry. In case of criminal acts, the United Nations will do everything possible to ensure that justice is done.”

{{VIOLENCE}}

The two were kidnapped by unidentified assailants on March 12 along with four Congolese accompanying them in Kasai-Central province.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende said the woman’s body had been decapitated.

The remote region has been plagued by violence since mid-August, when government forces killed Kamwina Nsapu, a tribal chief and militia leader who had rebelled against President Joseph Kabila’s central government.

The violence has spilled over from Kasai to the neighbouring provinces of Kasai-Oriental and Lomami, leaving at least 400 people dead.

Several days before the two UN experts were kidnapped, a Uruguayan peacekeeper was shot and injured in the same region.

Sharp’s father, John Sharp, said there was a “high probability” the bodies were those of his son and Catalan.

“Dental records and DNA samples will be used to confirm the identities. This will take some time,” he added on Facebook.

{{39 OFFICERS KILLED}}

On Monday, Congolese national police accused rebels of massacring 39 of their officers in Kasai.

The victims were killed in an “ambush” early Friday as they were travelling in trucks, and buried in a mass grave by supporters of the late Kamwina Nsapu, a police spokesman said.

Jordan Anderson, Africa analyst for IHS Markit, cited reports that all 39 had been beheaded.

The Kamwina Nsapu militia “is increasingly taking violent and hostile action against anyone it sees as being outsiders, interfering in the Kasai,” he said.

The United Nations, European Union and African Union on Tuesday expressed “grave concern” over the spiralling violence in Kasai.

The organisations “condemn this despicable act and express their condolences to the families of the victims,” they said.

They called for an “urgent response from the country’s political leaders” to curb the violence and “urge the defence and security forces to exercise restraint in the efforts to restore order in the Kasai.”

The UN Security Council is set to vote on Wednesday on extending its mission in the DR Congo, the largest and costliest UN peacekeeping mission in the world.

The UN has 19,000 soldiers, police and military observers deployed in the mission, costing $1.2 billion annually.

About 100 of those troops were recently dispatched to the Kasai region.

{{PLAYING WITH FIRE}}

France warned last week that drastic cuts to the mission would be tantamount to “playing with fire” as the DRC is also embroiled in election turmoil.

France has circulated a draft resolution to renew the mandate of the peacekeeping mission, but is facing scrutiny from the United States which is seeking cuts to UN peace operations.

The influential Catholic Church in DR Congo brokered a deal in late December to pave the way for elections by the end of 2017, but the agreement has been bogged down in disputes over the appointment of a new prime minister.

Elections would bring an end to the rule of Kabila, in power since 2001.

The Church and the electoral commission said earlier this month that the growing unrest in Kasai threatened to derail voter registration.

Police reinforcements meanwhile were sent to strategic points in the capital Kinshasa on Tuesday after clashes between demonstrators and officers in several districts, where tyres were burned and roads blocked.

Source:AFP

{Kayunga District was yesterday the stage for cat and mouse chase scenes between police and Opposition politicians led by former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye.}

The politicians were in the area to hold a rally in support of their anti-land grabbing campaign dubbed “My Land, My Life.”

The district has for years been a hotbed for quarrels between land owners and tenants, occasionally culminating into violence.

Chaos ensued in the afternoon along Ssezibwa bridge when police led by the Savannah Regional police spokesperson, Mr Lameck Kigozi, blocked a convoy enroute to Bbaale Town where the campaign rally had been planned but realised later that Dr Besigye was not at the scene although his car was there.

A war of words ensued between Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Mr Kigozi, who demanded that the former produces a clearance permit from the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, allowing them to hold a rally.

The scuffle lasted for about 30 minutes, and on realising that Dr Besigye had beaten the security ring, police allowed the convoy to proceed to Bbaale amid tight security.

Meanwhile at Bbaale, rally organisers told this newspaper that they had prepared as early as 11am but were dispersed by police officers who removed the tents, disorganising the entire setting.

Police escorted Mayor Lukwago’s convoy up to the venue, where from no-where, Dr Besigye surfaced and after brief moment haggling, was allowed to address the crowd that cheered loudly. Police also learned from here that Dr Besigye had used a different route to the area.

In his address, Dr Besigye said after selling off nearly all State enterprises in the 1990s, the [NRM] government was out of things to take over and now was after people’s land which he urged them to defend.

“The one who stops you from knowing those who steals your land is part of those who steal your land,” he noted, taking a swipe at police, which he accused of always working with influential individuals to evict people from their land.

The rally lasted for about 10 minutes. At around 7pm, police started dispersing the crowds and later escorted Dr Besigye and other politicians out of Kayunga.

{{The law}}

The law gives tenants more rights to resist eviction by landlords. According to the law, land lords need a court order to evict tenants and must notify them before selling their land but some of these conditions are never followed and many tenants are being pushed off their land without court orders and due compensation.

Source:Daily Monitor

{An influential Republican lawmaker pledged on Tuesday that the US will continue providing life-saving food aid to Kenya and neighbouring countries despite the Trump administration’s threatened cuts in international assistance.}

“The president proposes; Congress disposes,” noted Chris Smith, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Africa subcommittee. “Congress will make sure we get humanitarian assistance to where we need it most,” he said.

Mr Smith’s comments were made at a hearing his subcommittee held on the topic of ‘East Africa’s Quiet Famine’.

The chief witness was Matthew Nims, acting director of the Food for Peace programme in the US Agency for International Development (USAid).

Mr Nims said in response to lawmakers’ questions that USAid has so far given a “robust response” to what he described as the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

“USAid has rapidly scaled up and is redirecting its efforts,” he told the House panel. The agency provided about $1.5 billion worth of food resources to drought-affected countries in East Africa as well as to Yemen in 2016, Mr Nims said.

An additional $100 million must urgently be made available, a group of Democratic members of Congress declare in a resolution to be considered by Mr Smith’s subcommittee.

Mr Nims suggested, however, that the US “cannot do it alone.”

In what could be taken as a rebuff of President Trump’s proposed cuts in US funding for the UN, Mr Nims said, “We need all our United Nations, NGO, affected government and donor partners working together to tackle these challenges.”

Pressed on the potential effects of Mr Trump’s call for deep cuts in international assistance, Mr Nims said he had no information on specific amounts of proposed funding for USAid.

“Humanitarian assistance can’t solve these crises,” he warned. The hunger afflicting millions of South Sudanese, Somalis, Yemenis and Nigerians is “man-made,” Mr Nims said, noting that armed conflict is occurring in each of the affected countries.

The USAid official praised the relief efforts being undertaken by the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments.

{{SOUTH SUDAN CRISIS}}

But Congressman Smith was strongly critical of the South Sudanese government’s failure to ensure the safety of aid workers.

He reported that the death toll has risen to seven in the recent attack on members of a South Sudanese NGO.

Three Kenyans and four South Sudanese lost their lives in the March 25 ambush by unknown assailants.

Mr Nims also noted that the government of President Salva Kiir has not implemented its announced plan to levy a $10,000 fee for each aid worker sent to South Sudan by international NGOs.

“Donors and the US ambassador have made it clear that this fee is untenable and will not be paid,” Mr Nims said.

Source:Daily Nation