IGIHE

Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • Kenya Govt Gives Workers Free Holidays to Revive Tourism

    Kenya Govt Gives Workers Free Holidays to Revive Tourism

    {{Kenyans working in the private sector will from next month enjoy paid-up holidays anywhere in the country, as the government seeks to revive the tourism industry reeling from insecurity. }}

    In a statement released from State House, Nairobi, President Uhuru Kenyatta said that from June 12, companies would be allowed to pay for their employees going on their annual leave and deduct such expenditure in their taxes.

    “Through this measure, we shall directly give at least 25,000 Kenyans a chance to go for a week’s holiday every month at the expense of their employers, bringing over 300,000 additional Kenyan guests in our hotels throughout the country,” Mr Kenyatta said.

    This is part of a new raft of policy measures taken by the government to revamp tourism, which is on its knees following the issuance of travel advisories by major source markets due to high insecurity.

    The steps were agreed upon during a crisis meeting held at State House, Nairobi, between the President and stakeholders to look into new ways of reviving a sector that is a key pillar to the economy.

    The initiative is meant to reduce the impact of the travel advisories, while in the long run boosting local tourism.

    Last week, British tour companies evacuated more than 300 visitors from Kenya following a warning by the UK Government of impending terrorist attacks.

    The government has also agreed to exempt all air-ticketing services by travel agents from Value Added Tax (VAT) to boost the country’s competitiveness as a preferred tourist destination in the region. The exemption takes effect from May 29.

    And the Kenya Revenue Authority was instructed to clear all outstanding income tax-related refunds owed to the tourism industry, also by May 29.

    “We expect this measure to improve sector liquidity and cash-flow,” Mr Kenyatta said.

    The President also directed that all budgetary resources earmarked for foreign visits at the National Government level be reallocated to domestic travel to further boost tourism sector recovery.

    “Similarly, we urge Parliament and the Judiciary to do the same. We also urge the county governments to do the same,” said Mr Kenyatta.

    The proposed changes will be factored into the Budget for the 2014/15 financial year set to be tabled in Parliament next month.

    A decision was also reached to lift the ban restricting the public service from holding conferences and meetings in private hotels.

    The industry has also agreed to give Kenyans better vacation packages than those offered to international visitors. Under the preferential treatment, Kenyans will pay about Sh5,200 daily per person on full-board.

    Nation

  • Kenya’s First Lady Calls for Elimination of Female Circumscision

    Kenya’s First Lady Calls for Elimination of Female Circumscision

    {{ Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has called on all Kenyan communities to bring an end to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).}}

    She condemned the practice and said that it should not have any place in any community during the 21st century.

    “As a country we must aspire to achieve a zero FGM status where every girl can go to school, find and fulfill her destiny, enjoy her rights and contribute to nation building,” she said.

    The First Lady, who spoke at Ngurumani, Kajiado County where she presided over an alternative rite of passage for 278 girls, said Kenyan communities have a rich and beautiful culture but there are some retrogressive aspects.

    “Culture is dynamic. Let us retain the good parts but discard the retrogressive parts,” she said.

    Kajiado Governor David ole Nkedianye said education is the key to eradicating all negative traditional practices.

    “If we educate our girls this practice will disappear,” as he encouraged more parents to endorse the alternative rite.

    The Chairperson of Government’s Anti-FGM Commission Jebii Kilimo said female circumcision is illegal under the law.

    “It is illegal to make a girl go through FGM and chiefs should read the Act and educate the public,” she said.

    The Country Director of Amref Lenny Kyomuhangi said they have been supporting such projects since 2009.

    “More than 3,000 girls have passed through this kind of rite which we have been supporting since 2009,” said Dr Kyomuhangi.

    She said alternative rites of passage also support better maternal health because women would be free from diseases or complication associated with the female cut.

    The traditional ceremony is being adopted by sections of the Maasai community to replace the female genital cut practiced by majority of the pastoralist communities.

    Leaders from Narok, Samburu and Laikipia counties were also represented and they expressed intention to introduce the alternative rite of passage in their areas.

    The First Lady said other communities should be encouraged to adopt the alternative rites to phase out the cut.

    capitalfm

  • South Sudan Oil Production Drops 50%

    South Sudan Oil Production Drops 50%

    {{Five months of fighting in South Sudan has cut the country’s economically vital oil production by nearly 50%, the United States special envoy to the country said Thursday.}}

    “The conflict at this point has resulted in a reduction by almost half of oil output from South Sudan,” Ambassador Donald Booth, special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, told African-based journalists in a conference call from Washington.

    Industry sources had estimated the fighting caused a drop in production of between 130,000 and 160,000 barrels per day.

    That is down from around 245,000 bpd before fighting began between government and rebel forces in December.

    Some of the heaviest combat has been in the oil state of Unity, which borders Sudan.

  • Kenya Deports 359 Somalis

    Kenya Deports 359 Somalis

    {{Kenyan authorities have deported 359 illegal immigrants to Somali since the launch of a security crackdown in April 2014, Human Rights Watch has said.}}

    HRW claimed three of those deported are registered refugees.

    “In the latest move, Kenya deported 98 people, including 12 children, to Mogadishu on May 20 without warning the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) about the deportation,” HRW claimed in a statement Friday.

    HRW Senior refugee researcher Gerry Simpson said it was unlawful to force people to return to a country where they risk being persecuted, tortured or exposed to other serious harm arising from generalised violence.

    “Deporting people to conflict zones in Somalia shows a total disregard for their rights and their safety,” he said.

    He added that according to UNHCR, on April 9, the Kenyan authorities deported 83 people, followed by 91 on April 17, and 87 on May 3.

    UNHCR said the Kenyan authorities denied them access to the first three groups of deportees before they left the country.

    In January, UNHCR issued guidelines on returns to Somalia and called on countries not to return anyone before interviewing them and ensuring they do not face the threat of persecution or other serious harm if returned.

    Mr Simpson said the Kenyan government should allow any Somalis identified for deportation to challenge the move in court or to claim asylum.

    “If Kenya is unwilling to stand by its national and international legal obligations and register asylum seekers and consider their claims prior to deportation, it should allow UNHCR to step in,” Simpson said.

    nation

  • Congolese Warlord Katanga Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison

    Congolese Warlord Katanga Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison

    {{The International Criminal Court has sentenced Congolese warlord Germain Katanga to 12 years in jail.}}

    Katanga had been in March found guilty of war crimes.

    “The chamber sentences Germain Katanga to 12 years in prison,” presiding Judge Bruno Cotte told the Hague-based court in its second sentencing since opening in 2003.

    The almost seven years that Katanga has already spend in detention will be deducted from the sentence, he said.

    He is only the second person to be convicted by the court.

    He was behind the 2003 massacre of hundreds of villagers in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    The fighting escalated into an inter-ethnic conflict that is estimated to have killed 50,000 people.

    Katanga, who is known to his supporters as Simba or “the lion”, was found guilty of planning the ambush on the village in the gold-rich Ituri province of north-eastern DR Congo.

    The rebel leader was also found to have procured the weapons – including guns and machetes – used to kill more than 200 of the villagers, but he was acquitted of direct involvement.

    Katanga, 36, was also cleared of using child soldiers and of committing sexual crimes.

    NMG

  • Al-Shabaab Vows to take War to Kenya

    Al-Shabaab Vows to take War to Kenya

    {{Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab vowed Thursday to move their war to neighbouring Kenya, one of the top commanders said in broadcast urging fighters to launch attacks.}}

    “The war will be shifting to Kenya, if they kill a Somali girl we kill a Kenyan girl,” Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, one of the Shabaab’s most senior commanders, said in a radio broadcast.

    “We are urging all the Muslims in Kenya… to fight the Government of Kenya inside that country, because Kenyans killed your people including children,” Khalaf said in a speech broadcast on the Shabaab’s Radio Andalus.

    Kenyan troops crossed into southern Somalia in 2011 to fight the Shabaab, later joining the now 22,000-strong UN-mandated African Union force battling the Islamists.

    Fighter jets, believed to be from Kenya, have struck Shabaab strongholds this week, as part of the latest push by the AU force against the insurgents.

    “When their soldiers and war planes kill your people, God permits you to retaliate accordingly, we will fight the Kenyans,” Khalaf said, viewed as second in importance only to Shabaab chief Ahmed Abdi Godane.

    The Shabaab, who claimed responsibility for the September 2013 attack on Nairobi’s Westgate mall in which at least 67 people were killed, have also been blamed for a string of grenade blasts and killings.

    Last week, a double bomb attack in a Nairobi market left 10 people dead and scores wounded, while the US has said it was preparing to cut staff levels in Kenya because of the mounting threat of attacks.

    The Shabaab said it was their guerrillas who carried out a deadly ambush on an army convoy in Kenya’s northeastern Mandera region on Monday, close to the border with Somalia.

    Khalaf said the Shabaab had trained fighters and vowed more would be sent to carry out attacks inside Kenya.

    “We have trained the people… they are the ones who carried out the Mandera attack,” he said. “More are going to be sent soon.”

    The US have offered a $5 million bounty for Khalaf, who holds both Somali and Swedish nationality.

    Khalaf, who the US says is both a Shabaab military commander and key fundraiser, reportedly spent over a decade in the Swedish capital Stockholm.

    wirestory

  • UK to Kenya: We Don’t Force Travel Warnings on Citizens

    UK to Kenya: We Don’t Force Travel Warnings on Citizens

    {{The British High Commission in Kenya on Thursday said it did not order its nationals to be evacuated from Kenya.}}

    In a statement, the High Commission said its latest travel advice was against all but essential travel to a specific part of the area around Mombasa.

    “The British Government does not enforce its travel advice. It is for individuals and travel companies to make their own decisions about foreign travel advice and information available from other sources into account,” the mission said.

    The High Commission said it was the responsibility of the British Government to give advice to its citizens after assessing the security situation.

    “The UK has a responsibility to inform British citizens of the potential threats aimed at both Kenya and the international community. Our travel advice reflects solely our objective assessment of the security position. It is kept under constant review.”

    It clarified that it was up to individuals or travel agencies to decide the next course of action after getting the travel warnings.

    “Some British tourists flew out of Mombasa last week on the advice of their tour company, following their decision to discontinue their charter flights to the area.”

    Last week, Britain, Australia, the US and France were reported to have issued travel advisories to their citizens.

    The tourism sector said Kenya would lose Sh5 billion between now and October after holiday cancellations.

    The industry said more than 30 hotels have already been closed in the coast affecting about 100,000 employees.

    The Kenyan Government slammed the travel advisories describing the warnings as ‘unfriendly acts coming from partners who have borne the brunt of global terrorism.’

    In a statement, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho pointed out that the advisories only serve to spread fear and panic in the country.

    He indicated that the countries which issued the latest travel bans should understand repercussions of terror.

    capitalfm

  • Blackthorn Resources Starts Feasability Study on Kitumba Copper Project

    Blackthorn Resources Starts Feasability Study on Kitumba Copper Project

    {{Australian mining firm Blackthorn Resources plans to begin a definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the Kitumba copper project in Mumbwa, Zambia}}

    Mark Mitchell, CEO of Blackthorn Resources, said, ”The company will explore a range of asset-level funding options for financing the development of the Kitumba project. Blackthorn Resources will actively explore all avenues to realise shareholder value for the Kitumba project.”

    The company is currently planning the DFS and is expected to begin the process in Q2 2014.

    Blackthorn Resources aims to establish the critical path-drilling programme, identify a study manager and prepare a mining licence application in July 2014.

    The CEO added that parellel to the DFS process, the company can hold fully informed discussions with potential partners for the development of the Kitumba project, including funding to complete the work programme.

    An Optimised Prefeasibility Study conducted in April 2014 stated that copper recovery from the mine increased to 92 per cent, with annual metal production of upto 70,000 tonnes and an average of 58,000 tonnes per annum.

    With the Optimised PFS, Kitumba is being perceived as an underground operation, set to produce three million tonnes of ore per annum, with an average head grade of 2.03 per cent copper for 11 years.

    The estimated development cost of the project is US$680mn, including US$185mn for EPCM contractors, owner’s costs and contingencies, added Blackthorn Resources.

    {africanreview}

  • Uganda Wants Regional Force Deployed in S.Sudan

    Uganda Wants Regional Force Deployed in S.Sudan

    {{Fighting is likely to continue in South Sudan without the deployment of an east African regional force to pressure both sides to respect a ceasefire, Uganda’s army chief said Tuesday.}}

    Uganda already has troops in South Sudan fighting alongside government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir against rebel leader Riek Machar, but the country’s army chief said a larger regional force was needed to halt the five-month-old civil war.

    “Is the ceasefire holding? It would need an IGAD intervention force to be in place,” General Katumba Wamala told a briefing at the army headquarters.

    “If IGAD forces are not deployed to compel the two parties to respect the ceasefire, there is a possibility of the clashes happening again,” he added.

    The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is a regional bloc that has been brokering peace talks between South Sudan’s government and rebels, but two ceasefire deals — one signed in January and the other earlier this month — were quickly violated.

    IGAD leaders have called for the deployment of a force to protect ceasefire monitors, but no date has yet been set for putting such a force in place.

    General Wamala said that when an IGAD force is deployed and “there is no vacuum, we shall pull back to our borders” — but did not rule out taking part in an IGAD mission.

    South Sudan’s government has been at war with rebel groups since December 15, when a clash between troops loyal to President Kiir and those loyal to Machar, who was sacked as vice president, escalated into full-scale fighting.

    NV

  • Kenyan Children Rated Among Most Active in the World

    Kenyan Children Rated Among Most Active in the World

    {{Kenyan children have been ranked among the most active in the world while Aussie kids trailed as the least active.}}

    A study released Wednesday, which compared data taken from 15,000 young Australians with that from 14 other countries, found that the most active youngsters overall were in Mozambique and New Zealand followed by Mexico.

    Next came Kenya, Nigeria, England, Colombia, Ghana, Finland and South Africa while Australia was grouped with Canada, Ireland and the United States just above bottom-placed Scotland.

    The study showed that more than 80 percent of Australian children aged 5 to 17 failed to get the recommended 60 minutes of moderate physical activity a day, despite most playing a sport.

    Australian children are among the least active in the world, ranking behind those in Britain and New Zealand, researchers say warning that the sports-mad nation was raising a “generation of couch potatoes”.

    “We do rank quite highly on organised sport participation and we are a sporting nation as we like to say,” Natasha Schranz, a researcher from the University of South Australia, told AFP.

    “But this has clearly shown that it’s not enough because we still rank poorly for overall physical activity levels.”

    Australia’s report card, drawn from data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and a national survey of secondary school students, found that less than 30 percent of children met Australian guidelines of no more than two hours of screen time per day.

    Fellow researcher Grant Tomkinson, also from the University of South Australia, said many youngsters were spending so much time being sedentary they were likely to hurt their health, growth and development.

    Trevor Shilton, from Australia’s Heart Foundation, said the result was a “wake-up call”.

    “We’re raising a generation of couch potatoes,” he said. “Far too many kids are being driven to school and spend most of their time sitting when they get there.

    “What we’re facing is a potential future health crisis where heart disease, diabetes and obesity rates will rise,” he added.

    capitalfm