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Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • 61 Elephant Tusks Seized in Tanzania

    61 Elephant Tusks Seized in Tanzania

    {{Tanzania’s anti-poaching squad in Manyoni District has seized a total of 61 elephant tusks during the past seven days.}}

    The head of the special task force, Mr. Robert Mande, said the seizure was a result of a systematic manhunt by the team for a period of almost two months.

    “We embarked on a strategy to dismantle the poaching network in this area on February 1, 2014. Through the cooperation with the Anti-poaching Zonal Office for Manyoni, we managed to capture five suspects on Monday,” he said.

    The suspects, including a village executive officer, were found in possession of 53 elephant tusks, weighing 169.7Kgs.

    Mande said, “To get the tusks, the suspects might have killed some 26 elephants.”

    Tanzania government, says it will employ some 450 new game rangers in the coming few days to boost the war on poaching.

    {Tanzania’s Natural Resources and Tourism minister Lazaro Nyalandu inspects seized elephant tusks in Manyoni on Wednesday. Five people were arrested in connection with the haul.}

  • AFDB U$19M Loan to Fund Construction in Region

    AFDB U$19M Loan to Fund Construction in Region

    {Shelter Afrique Managing Director Alassane Ba}

    {{Shelter Afrique has signed a U$ 19,963,168 Million loan agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB), one of its primary shareholders.}}

    The loan is intended to boost the trade finance instruments to small and medium enterprises involved in real estate and construction related activities in the country and Africa at large.

    The AfDB’s four-year facility will allow Shelter Afrique to expand its Trade Finance Program launched in June 2011, under a product diversification strategy to address the acute financing shortage facing real estate developers on the continent.

    Shelter Afrique Managing Director Alassane Ba said the facility will contribute to addressing the critical shortage of building materials while creating jobs and income in the region.

    “With strong partnerships with organisations like AfDB, we know we are not too far from finding lasting solutions,” Ba said.

    The agreement will now see Shelter Afrique begin a stronger second quarter of the year having already signed a U$5,065,798 line with Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) for its social housing programe and floating a bond.

    In October last year, the firm raised U$40,387,912 through a bond issue to fund low cost urban housing projects across the country, being the sixth time Shelter Afrique was tapping into the Kenya debt capital markets.

    “The housing industry is experiencing exponential growth and urbanisation and the bulge of a growing middle class which all hamper the provision of adequate housing in Africa.

    AfDB would like to call on government, the private sector and all interested parties to rise to the occasion and address housing as it was a key requirement for development,” Regional Director for AfDB Gabriel Negatu said.

    Shelter-Afrique is owned by 44 African governments, the African Development Bank and the African Reinsurance Corporation.

    It currently has an active portfolio of projects in more than 30 African countries.

  • Uhuru Says Kenya May Stop Hosting Refugees

    Uhuru Says Kenya May Stop Hosting Refugees

    {{President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned that Kenya will no longer continue hosting refugees at the expense of peace and suffering of its innocent citizens.}}

    Uhuru says Kenya hosts more than 1 million refugees in the spirit of good neighbourliness but this has brought pain and suffering through terror attacks which have killed and maimed many innocent Kenyans.

    He castigated the terrorists’ claims that Kenyan soldiers must withdraw from Somalia for terror to end, saying: “Kenyans weren’t in Somalia when terrorists bombed the American Embassy in 1998; Kenyans were not in Somalia when they attacked Mombasa and shot at an aircraft in 2002,” observed President Kenyatta.

    He said Kenyan’s will not be divided by terrorists who want their criminal activities to be seen as a religious war.

    “Terrorists are out to divide Kenyans along religious lines, we have lived in peace and unity we will not allow criminal elements to destroy this peace,” he assured.

    He pointed out that terrorists must know Kenyans of all faith fought to make Kenya free during the struggle for independence and are ready to defend that freedom today.

    Mr. Uhuru described the terrorists simply as “criminals” and asked for the support of Kenyans as the Government deals swiftly with the criminals.

    “As you all know, we are faced with a resurgent extremist movement. It has set out to divide us against ourselves.”

    “By killing and maiming, it hopes to turn us against our brothers and sisters, and to destroy the nation we have laboured so long to build. They have learned too well the old Biblical lesson that a house divided against itself cannot stand,” said the President.

  • Microsoft Launches ‘Cortana’ Smartphone Assistant

    Microsoft Launches ‘Cortana’ Smartphone Assistant

    {{Microsoft on Wednesday took on Apple’s Siri and Google Now with a smartphone personal assistant dubbed “Cortana.”}}

    Windows Phone vice president Joe Belfiore introduced Cortana onstage at the technology titan’s annual developers conference.

    “Cortana is the first truly personal digital assistant who learns about me, and the things that matter to me most, and knows about the whole Internet,” Belfiore said in a presentation.

    Cortana responds to conversationally spoken requests or commands, using insights gleaned from calendars, contact lists, online searches and other smartphone sources to respond in a manner akin to a real life aide, Belfiore said.

    Cortana’s voice and character is based on a popular artificial intelligence character in Microsoft’s blockbuster Xbox console video game “Halo.”

    It comes as a long awaited counter to the Siri virtual assistant on Apple mobile devices and Google Now capabilities in Android tablets and smartphones.

    Cortana will be in a test, or beta, mode when it becomes available in a Windows Phone 8.1 software update, which is to begin rolling out in the United States in coming months.

    The new version of Windows Phone 8.1 should be available on new phones beginning in late April or early May, according to Belfiore.

    Microsoft met with real life personal assistants while designing Cortana, which is powered behind the scene by search engine Bing, he said.

    As do Siri and Google Now, Cortana can remind users of flights, appointments, birthdays, routes, or other information for managing lives.

    “Imagine a real personal assistant, and the kinds of things you might ask to be organized,” Belfiore said while extolling Cortana’s capabilities.

    After being tested in the US, Cortana will expand to Britain and China, and then other countries.

    In a sign that Microsoft gave Cortana a playful side, Belfiore asked the virtual assistant to reveal the storyline of the next “Halo” game only to be told “I’m quite certain you don’t have the proper security clearance for that information.”

    {{- Wooing the app makers -}}

    Insights into updates of Windows software for mobile devices and traditional computers came as Microsoft wooed developers of the fun, hip, or functional applications that strongly influence decisions about what gadgets to buy.

    Microsoft is also keen to entice business and consumers to remain faithful to its computer operating system — the software platform on which the Redmond, Washington-based company’s fortune was built — as it phases out support for its much-loved but aging version Windows XP.

    “We have a billion-plus PCs (personal computers) that will all be upgrading,” freshly-minted Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella told the gathering of developers.

    “That is a significant opportunity for any application that targets Windows.”

    Nadella told the gathering of developers that Microsoft is “innovating in every dimension” to gain momentum in lifestyles increasingly revolving around mobile devices and services offered by computers in the Internet “cloud.”

    Software improvements were aimed at business, where Microsoft products remain strong, as well as at the booming tablet and smartphone markets.

    Microsoft also used the stage to announced that Nokia will release a set of low-priced Windows-powered Lumia smartphones, starting in developing markets in Asia and India next month before gradually working its way to the United States in July.

    The move takes aim at markets being overlooked and underserved, and breaks from trying to slug it out with Apple iPhones and Android-powered Samsung handsets in countries where buyers are more interested in high-end or medium-tier devices, according to Gartner principal research analyst Tuong Huy Nguyen.

    “They really needed to move the price point of Windows devices down market, and this seems to be a step in that direction,” Nguyen said.

    “The US is essentially a two-horse market with Apple and Samsung; they have tried to push in with previous Lumia devices but it is hard.”

    Microsoft last year announced a $7.2 billion deal to buy Nokia’s phone business and a patent portfolio.

    Former Nokia chief Stephen Elop, now a vice president at Microsoft’s devices division, said there was just “a short time to go” before the acquisition is completed.

    Elop unveiled three new Windows-powered Lumia models during the opening of the gathering of application developers.

    “In building an ecosystem, the appliction challenge is arguably our biggest challenge,” Elop said at a Nokia press event late Wednesday. “That is the thing we really need to focus on.”

    agencies

  • Kenya Court Denies Bail to Cleric Arrested with Grenade

    Kenya Court Denies Bail to Cleric Arrested with Grenade

    {{A Muslim cleric and his wife allegedly found with two grenades during a swoop in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate following a terrorist attack in which six people were killed have been denied bail.}}

    The couple will be helping police with investigations to recover 20 other grenades said to be hidden in the city, the trial court ruled.

    Mr Hassan Mahati Omar and his wife Ms Fardosa Mohammed Abdi were charged with being in possession of two hand grenades on April 1, 2014 at Madina Apartments in Eastleigh Section 7.

    They were also charged with being members of an al Shabaab terrorist cell operating in Kenya.

    The prosecution said the two are suspected to be involved in terrorism and that on April 1, “they were found to be members of the al Shabaab after being found in possession of the two grenades which were meant to be used for terrorism activities.”

    While opposing their request for release on bond, prosecutor Isaiah Mwiranga told the court that the two were needed to help trace the hidden explosives and that they may interfere with ongoing investigations.

    Their lawyer Chacha Mwita claimed the defence would prove the “grenades were planted on the suspects.”

    The prosecutor said the recovered weapons were part of a larger cache being sought in an on-going probe.

    The prosecutor objected to a suggestion by Mr Mwita that the suspects have so far been cooperative and would not abscond if released.

    “They remain a security threat to this country and its citizens and the application for bail is meant to defeat justice,” the prosecutor said.

    He said officers from the anti-terrorism police unit were not yet through with investigations.

    Magistrate Elena Nderitu said there were sufficient reasons to compel the court to detain the suspects until such a time those investigations are complete and to prevent them from interfering.

    The case will be mentioned on April 17.

    The cleric and his wife were arrested after police mounted a security operation in Eastleigh following a terrorist attack on March 31.

    Nation

  • Kenya Wants EABC Tenure Extended

    Kenya Wants EABC Tenure Extended

    {{Kenya will continue to hold the chairmanship of the regional business lobby if the rotational period of leadership is extended to two years.}}

    According to the Executive Director of East African Business Council, Andrew Luzze, the extension of the EABC term of rotation is one of the key issues to be discussed during this year’s AGM scheduled for April 4.

    Kenya is currently holding the chairmanship of the board under Bidco Oil Managing Director Vimal Shah pictured above.

    Previously, the East African Business Council (EABC) has had annual rotational leadership within the five member states.

    The Chair is held on annual basis and it rotates among the five countries of the EAC, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

    “Some of the key issues to be discussed during this AGM will include offer of Diplomatic status for EABC Staff by host countries of EAC, elect the Chair, Vice-Chairs and members of the Executive Committee and appoint auditors and fix their remuneration among others,” said Mr Luzze in a statement.

    Mr Luzze also noted that the meeting will also discuss the location of EABC’s headquarters given that Rwanda had offered to provide a land for the council to set up its head offices in the country.

    The meeting looks to bring together all members of the east African community business body from the five Partner States where they elect a team to lead them for a year.

    The EABC board is made up of 22 board members with four representatives from each Partner State and one past chairperson as well as the Secretary who is the Executive Director of the Council

    NMG

  • SolarCity to invest US$7M in Tanzania’s Off-Grid Electric

    SolarCity to invest US$7M in Tanzania’s Off-Grid Electric

    {{US-based solar services company SolarCity is to invest US$7mn in Tanzanian solar lighting services company Off Grid Electric to produce off-grid solar power.

    According to industry sources, SolarCity has teamed up with venture firms Vulcan Capital and Omidyar Network in this investment, which is part of the initiative to develop off-grid solar in developing nations.}}

    Off-grid solar refers to electricity generation in areas with little or no access to power due to scattered population. This energy is generated in a self-sufficient manner without any dependence on the main electricity grid or other public utilities.

    Off.Grid:Electric stated that it uses a mobile payment platform which allows customers in Africa to purchase solar lighting in small amounts, rather than having to pay for an entire solar power system upfront.

    This approach is becoming increasingly attractive in the developing world due to the use of cell phones, added the company.

    Lyndon Rive, CEO of Solar City, said, “Solar power is already more cost-effective than kerosene and other polluting power sources that are common in the developing world.

    Many emerging economies skipped the build-out of phone lines to go straight to cell phones, and the combination of solar and storage can obviate the need for more power lines. Off Grid’s growth could have a profoundly positive impact on the economies, human health, and air and water quality in the markets it serves.”

    With a minimum of US$5 per month, Off.Grid:Electric said it provides access to solar power through its M-Power energy hub in Tanzania, adding that it also encouraged potential buyers to switch from using kerosene lamps to solar.

    The investment allows SolarCity to enter the off-grid solar market where mobile money platforms are enabling pay-as-you-go services in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

    In the past six months, Khosla Ventures, DFJ, Omidyar Network and Gray Ghost Ventures have invested US$13mn in off-grid solar lighting companies in Africa, stated reports.

    {africanreview}

  • Gold Mining Begins in South Sudan

    Gold Mining Begins in South Sudan

    {{New Kush Exploration & Mining (NKEM) and the state government of Eastern Equatoria have begun the first gold mining exploration in three counties of Kapoeta region, South Sudan.}}

    Anthony Viljoen, director of NKEM said, ”We have been granted a license of operation to undertake gold mining and exploration in the state by the central government in Juba.

    New Kush has conducted wide-ranging consultations with leaders in the counties of Kapoeta North, South and East.”

    According to a government survey, Eastern Equatoria has great potential for mining of various minerals.

    Tutus Lokwacuma, the commissioner of Kapoeta East county, encouraged the exploration, saying gold mining could create employment opportunities for locals and help develop the region east of the state of Equatoria.

    Viljoen added that his company had several mining equipment items at Mombasa in Kenya, which are ready to be transported to South Sudan.

    ”We hope our company will be able to extract large amounts of quality gold and reduce the amounts that are smuggled out of South Sudan without being taxed,” he said.

    According to industry sources, South Sudan has been engaged in a dispute with Sudan over the transport of oil to international markets and there has been a year-long halt in production.

    Since then, the northeastern African nation has been trying to recover from the shutdown and looking at alternative sources of revenue.

    {africanreview}

  • ‘Al-Shabab Point Man Shot Dead in Mombasa

    ‘Al-Shabab Point Man Shot Dead in Mombasa

    {{Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, has been shot dead outside the coastal city of Mombasa, police and witnesses say.

    His corpse lay on a road with what appeared to be wounds to the head and body, Reuters news agency reports. It is not yet known who killed the cleric.

    Mr Shariff, known as Makaburi, had been listed by the UN as a recruiter for the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group.

    He is the third Muslim cleric to be killed in Mombasa since 2012.

    Riots broke out in parts of the city as news of the cleric’s killing spread,

    .}}

  • $957m for US Embassy Terror Victims in Dar es Salaam

    $957m for US Embassy Terror Victims in Dar es Salaam

    {{A federal judge in Washington U.S. has awarded a total of $957 million as compensation to victims of the 1998 US embassy bombing in Dar es Salaam.}}

    Mr Thomas Bates ruled that the governments of Iran and Sudan were liable for the attack that killed or wounded 23 Tanzanians and Americans.

    However, the ruling is no guarantee the specified sum will be paid to the victims any time soon — or ever, according to a report in a US law journal. “Judgments are notoriously difficult to collect in state-sponsored terrorism cases,” says the report published on Monday.

    Mr Thomas Fortune Fay, an attorney representing the Tanzanian and US citizens, said on Monday that efforts would now begin to identify Iranian and Sudanese assets that could be seized to pay the damages awarded by Mr Bates.

    Mr Fay had noted earlier that Sudan paid $13.4 million in damages in 2009 to the families of victims of a bomb attack in 2000 on a US destroyer docked in Aden, Yemen.

    The attorney described the ruling as “a significant step in assuring that these American and Tanzanian victims of terrorism receive justice for the suffering they experienced as a result of deliberate and calculated mayhem by the governments of Sudan and Iran”.

    The US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi were hit in simultaneous bombings on August 7, 1998, killing over 200 Kenyans, 10 Tanzanians, 12 Americans and two attackers. Thousands of people were wounded.

    Mr Bates entered three sets of judgments on March 28.

    He awarded $488 million to 12 US victims and their family members; a total of $420 million to four Tanzanians wounded in the blast and to the estates of five Tanzanians killed in the attack; and $49 million to an additional two US citizens wounded in the explosions.

    “The 1998 embassy bombings shattered the lives of all plaintiffs in this case,” Mr Bates wrote. “Reviewing their personal stories reveals that, even more than 15 years later, they each still feel the horrific effects of that awful day.

    “Damages awards cannot fully compensate people whose lives have been torn apart,” the judge continued. “Instead, they offer only a helping hand. But that is the very least that these plaintiffs are owed.”

    A separate case involving about 500 Kenyans affected by the Nairobi attack has dragged on in the US court system for more than a dozen years.

    The attorney representing the Kenyans declared at the time of the 15th anniversary of the bombing last August that he remained “absolutely confident” of a favourable outcome.

    Sudan and Iran were held liable in Mr Bates’ judgments because of the assistance their governments are alleged to have given to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, which carried out the twin attacks.

    Sudan harboured bin Laden from 1992 to 1996, a period when al Qaeda began plotting the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania.

    {{NMG}}