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Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • Juba Drops Preconditions Ahead of Talks with Rebels

    Juba Drops Preconditions Ahead of Talks with Rebels

    {{The South Sudanese government has dropped its demand that a grouping of seven politicians who were arrested at the start of the current conflict be barred from participating in peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.}}

    On Thursday – one day before the scheduled resumption of the next round of talks – South Sudan’s ruling SPLM demanded that the East African regional bloc IGAD, who are mediating the talks, limit negotiations to the two warring factions: the SPLM and the South Sudanese army (SPLA); and the rebels – known as the SPLM/A in Opposition, which was formed in December from army defectors and disaffected politicians.

    The government accuses former vice-president turned rebel leader Riek Machar of attempting to oust president Salva Kiir in a coup, although the allegations have been repeatedly denied by all the accused.

    The government had threatened to boycott the talks over the participation of the seven senior political figures who after their release decided to form a third bloc rather than join Machar, despite having similar political grievances. However, it has since backed down after IGAD – the Intergovernmental Authority on Development – rejected its demands.

    The trial of four senior SPLM officials still on detention has begun in Juba. They have been charged with treason and plotting to overthrow the government.

    The group of seven, who are joined by Rebecca Nyandeng, the widow of SPLM founder and the party’s former chairman John Garang, will now be allowed to participate as a third bloc as they did in the previous round of talks, which produced a tenuous ceasefire deal.

    Attempts to involve South Sudanese civil society in the talks have not been welcomed by either side despite analysts warning that a successful deal will need to reflect more than just the military realities in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile – the states where most of the fighting has taken place.

    No official timetable has been set for the resumption of negotiations, but they are expected resume before the end of the week.

    {sudantribune}

  • Boards of Listed Firms to Have one-third as Women

    Boards of Listed Firms to Have one-third as Women

    {{Capital Markets Authority (CMA) says it is currently reviewing the Code of Corporate Governance that will among other things ensure that the issue of women representation in boards of public listed companies is legalised.}}

    Initially, the regulator wanted companies to abide by the guidelines without making it legal, but CMA Chairman Kung’u Gatabaki complained of lethargy in appointing women to the boards.

    He said the issue of men dominating boards is overdue and it was time the corporate world supports women leadership.

    “Guidelines are like verses in the Bible. The priest will come and quote a certain verse; don’t do this, don’t do that.

    But it’s still up to you to decide whether to do it or not. And that is how the Capital Markets have operated for the last 14 to 15 years,” Gatabaki said.

    He however said this is a process that will involve all stakeholders to ensure that everyone embraces the change.

    “When I initially started appealing to some companies heads to take on board at least a third of ladies as directors, they would tell me, ‘no, you don’t tell us, we will consider when to do it,” he said.

    The CMA chairman was speaking during a women’s forum on Friday organised by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) in Nairobi, ahead of the International Women’s Day on Saturday.

    Gatabaki however challenged women to be daring and apply for some of the top jobs instead of shying away.

    “We embarked on revising our good corporate governance code and guess what? I picked a lady to chair that process. Because again, it’s those fine things that men ignore,” he said.

    During the event, FKE graduated 15 local women from its inaugural Female Future Program, which is designed to help prepare board-ready women to obtain corporate board roles.

    The key steps in the Female Future Program include how to manage a large audience and negotiate issues, providing leadership at the apex, managing organisations effectively and showing that leadership skills are not gender based.

    “I didn’t always plan to be a CEO because I knew the cost of leadership at that level. But it’s very satisfying to get to a position where you can lead an organisation and also open up opportunities for other women to come into managerial positions,” says FKE Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Mugo.

    Mugo however called on men to support women leadership by viewing it as a positive change and not as being against the so called African culture.

    “As a woman you really need a very strong family support to succeed in leadership so that we don’t have a situation where most women who are rising in their careers, have to sacrifice their personal lives; either in broken marriages or a negative an impact on the children,” Mugo urged.

    capitalfm

  • Instagram Lists 10 Happiest African Countries

    Instagram Lists 10 Happiest African Countries

    {{Jetpac is an app that analyzes Instagram photos to create city guides by rating images under topics such as “bars women love” – giving you a real feel of places where people have been through their images.}}

    The app is now giving “smile scores” based on the incidence and strength of smiling in an Instagram photo.

    Of course “smile scores” are hardly scientific and are based on individual perceptions. Also, whether someone smiles or not depends on cultural differences and individual personality traits.

    With that being said and a grain of salt, Kenya ranked 8th happiest country in Africa on Instagram by Jetpac with a score of 18.8, whilst South Africa took the title of happiest country in Africa with 31.5 points in the smiling stakes.

  • Ethiopia Accused of Spying on Citizens

    Ethiopia Accused of Spying on Citizens

    {{Ethiopia is using foreign technology to spy on citizens suspected of being critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday.}}

    The report accused the government of using Chinese and European technology to survey phone calls and Internet activity in Ethiopia and among the diaspora living overseas, and HRW said firms colluding with the government could be guilty of abuses.

    “The Ethiopian government is using control of its telecom system as a tool to silence dissenting voices,” HRW’s business and human rights director Arvind Ganesan, said in a statement.

    “The foreign firms that are providing products and services that facilitate Ethiopia’s illegal surveillance are risking complicity in rights abuses.”

    The Ethiopian government dismissed the report as “mud-slinging” and accused the rights watchdog of repeatedly unfairly targeting the country.

    “This is one of the issues that it has in the list of its campaigns to smear Ethiopia’s image, so there is nothing new to respond to it, because there is nothing new to it,” Ethiopia’s Information minister Redwan Hussein, told AFP.

    He said Ethiopia was committed to improving access to telecommunications as part of its development programme, not as a means to increase surveillance.

    “The government is trying its level best to create access to not only to the urban but to all corners of the country,” Mr Redwan added.

    Ethiopia’s phone and internet networks are controlled by the state-owned Ethio Telecom, the sole telecommunications provider in the country.

    HRW said the government’s telecommunications monopoly allows it to readily monitor user activity.

    NMG

  • Nairobi Sex Workers Drop Mini Skirts for Hijab

    Nairobi Sex Workers Drop Mini Skirts for Hijab

    {{Commercial sex workers in some parts of Nairobi have ditched the miniskirt for the Hijab to lure men, a move that has sparked condemnation from Muslim clerics}}.

    The Hijab — worn by Muslim women — is a symbol of piety but sex workers in Eastleigh use it to make men believe that the women they are picking up are either Muslim or from the Coast. Some men also associate it with Ethiopian and Eritrean women.

    Investigations by the Nation revealed that non-Muslim sex workers are wearing the veil to attract men who believe they are less promiscuous than those who put on miniskirts.

    Nairobi’s Jamia Mosque Imam, Mohamed Swalihu, said he was aware that the Hijab was being abused.

    “It is sad and incredible; but it is unfortunately true,” he said. “It is very unfortunate that we see Hijabs being misused by commercial sex workers who are non-Muslims. It is satanic and should be condemned in the strongest terms possible.”

    He said even men had started using the Hijab for criminal activities.
    He said it was sad for Muslim women to enter into prostitution which is contrary to every teaching in Islam.

    Clients’ demands

    But the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance defended the sex workers who were conducting their trade in Hijabs saying they were doing business in line with their clients’ demands.
    The co-ordinator of the alliance, Ms Phelister Abdalla, asked the government to decriminalise commercial sex work, citing high unemployment levels.

    “We want it to be treated like any other profession. Most of us depend on it,” she said.
    Interviews with sex workers at Eastleigh established that men were no longer interested in women who wear miniskirts. Instead, they prefer women from Ethiopia and Muslims.

    One sex worker who chose not to be named said she bought two hijabs which she uses only when she is waiting for clients. She also uses make-up to lighten her complexion.
    According to her, Hijab-wearing sex workers charge the highest prices and have the highest number of pick-ups.

    Random interviews with some of the commercial sex workers revealed that men perceive Hijab-wearing women as more “pure” than the other sex workers. They also perceive them to be less sexually active.

    One sex worker said male clients prefer Ethiopian women and the easiest way to spot one was by the colour of the skin and a Hijab. A sex worker who fits the description can earn up to three times more than one who doesn’t.

    One way that the sex workers camouflage their true complexions is by using red or blue lighting once they get to their hotel rooms.

    The choice of perfume is also used to create the impression that they are Muslim women even when they are not.

    On 12th Street, a host of Hijab-wearing sex workers will be spotted from 8pm.

    {nation}

  • Congolese Refugees Dead After Boat Capsizes on L.Albert

    Congolese Refugees Dead After Boat Capsizes on L.Albert

    {{At least 98 people died after a boat capsized on Saturday on Lake Albert, which lies between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday.}}

    “Based on information UNHCR has received so far from the authorities and refugees, 41 people were rescued and 98 bodies recovered,” the agency said in a statement.

    The boat, which was ferrying refugees from Uganda back to their native DR Congo, may have been carrying as many as 250 people, according to the UNHCR.

    It was “one of two that left from Hoima district on the eastern (Ugandan) side of the lake on Saturday morning, carrying refugees who had been living at Kyangwali refugee settlement but were heading back home to eastern DRC of their own accord”, the agency said.

    The death toll given by the agency is much higher than the 19 initially reported by Ugandan media on Saturday.

    The survivors have been taken to Uganda’s northwestern Bundibugyo district, where they are receiving care from the Ugandan government, the UNHCR and the agency’s partners, the statement said.

    {france24}

  • AfDB Releases US$1 billion For Infrastructure Development in Kenya

    AfDB Releases US$1 billion For Infrastructure Development in Kenya

    {{The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved about US$1bn for the development of roads and energy and water projects in Kenya over the next five years}}

    The AfDB has already financed several major infrastructural projects including the Thika Superhighway, the upgrade of Outer Ring Road to a dual carriageway and geothermal projects in the Rift Valley.

    Gabriel Negatu from the Eastern Africa Resource Centre of AfDB, said, “We will continue to support the government to enhance physical infrastructure to unleash inclusive growth and also develop skills in the emerging labour market for Kenya’s transforming economy.”

    According to the bank, investment in energy, transport and water will increase access to affordable and reliable electricity, reduce transport costs and time and enhance access to reliable water supply.

    The bank also said it would explore ways of restructuring funds allocated to poorly performing projects or even cancel them, deploying the freed capital to existing or new investments.

    Meanwhile, the East African Community (EAC) has signed a US$6.3mn deal with the European Union (EU) to support regional integration.

    {africanreview}

  • Somali President Calls for ‘Action and Delivery’

    Somali President Calls for ‘Action and Delivery’

    {{Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud has urged the country’s legislators to rise to the challenges ahead towards a planned universal suffrage vote in 2016.}}

    “I congratulate you on this, your fourth session during this government’s period in office,” President Mohamoud told Federal Parliament lawmakers on Sunday.

    “It is now time for action and delivery,” he said, before proceeding to outline the main tasks that lay ahead.

    “This year we have embarked on a review of the constitution, implementation of federalism through state formation, and the democratisation process, all of which activity is to ensure that we realise Vision 2016.”

    The term of the current post-transitional government formed in 2012 expires in August 2016.

    President Mohamoud is by then expected to have laid the ground for a ‘one-man-one-vote’ election, the first in nearly five decades.

    The President also updated the legislators on the ongoing military offensive against Islamic extremists.

    He said that the Al-Shabaab militants were on the run, but noted that that the Al-Qaeda linked group was still a dangerous enemy that had to be eliminated for good.

    “Every day we are taking new ground from an enemy in a headlong flight, putting us in a position to deliver the assistance that is so desperately needed by all those Somalis who have suffered terribly under Al-Shabaab.

    “We now move into stabilisation mode and, with the help of our partners, must deliver basic public services such as humanitarian assistance, security, justice, good governance, healthcare and education.”

    The speech at the People’s Hall came as peacekeepers serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) and Somali National Army (SNA) seized Qoryoley town, 150 km south of Mogadishu, in Lower Shabelle region, from Al-Shabaab.

    The president urged the government and the legislators to build on these successes.

    Reform public finances

    Reform of Somalia’s public financial management system was also progressing well, he said. A new Auditor-General and an Accountant-General have recently been appointed after a competitive, merit-based selection process supported by the World Bank.

    The Cabinet had also approved and sent to parliament legislation introducing a comprehensive taxation system, a critical step towards eventual economic independence.

    President Mohamoud urged the cabinet and parliament to work closely together on the big strategic issues facing Somalia in the coming months.

    Parliamentary speaker Prof Mohamed Osman Jawari said that the MPs in this new session will have to tackle two dozen draft legislations that will pave the way for transition to a fully fledged multi-party system by 2016.

    “If the laws submitted by the cabinet are properly scrutinised by the legislators and eventually passed, they will ease the process of achieving a free and fair elections in Somalia,” said Speaker Jawari.

    NMG

  • US Sends Military Aircraft To Find Kony

    US Sends Military Aircraft To Find Kony

    {{The United States has sent troops and military aircraft to Uganda to help in the search for Lord Resistance Army (LRA) rebel leader, Joseph Kony.}}

    The US doubled its deployment of Special Operations forces to help search for warlord on the orders of President Barack Obama.

    Obama ordered about 150 troops and at least four CV-22 aircraft to Uganda on Sunday, marking the first time the U.S. has sent military planes to find Kony and his fighters.

    The search is focused on the jungles straddling the borders of the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Obama first sent about 100 U.S. Special Forces to the region in 2011, where they have been supporting a 5,000-member African Union Regional Task Force.

    The Pentagon said the U.S. troops are tasked with providing information and assistance, and are armed only for self-defense.

    Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    He waged a brutal guerrilla war against the Ugandan government for nearly two decades before fleeing with his fighters to the jungles of central Africa around 2005.

    Kony is believed to have no more than a few hundred fighters remaining.

    Source: {Voice of America}

  • Cost of East Africa’s Poaching Economy

    Cost of East Africa’s Poaching Economy

    {{Organised crime gangs in East Africa are generating staggering profits smuggling ivory and rhino horn with impunity, experts say, threatening both an irreplaceable wildlife heritage and key tourism industries.}}

    Kenyan and Tanzanian ports are the “primary gateway” for ivory smuggled to Asia, where demand is fuelled by increasingly affluent markets, especially in China, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warns.

    Last year, seizures of ivory shipments reached “record levels”, according to a recent Interpol report.

    “Large-scale ivory shipments — each one representing the slaughter of hundreds of elephants — point to the involvement of organised crime networks operating across multiple countries,” Interpol said.

    Poaching has risen sharply across Africa in recent years.

    Organised gangs with insider knowledge and armed with automatic weapons and specialised equipment such as night vision goggles, brazenly use chainsaws to carve out the rhino horn or remove elephant tusks.

    Veteran Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey has now warned that drastic action must be taken, saying that known ring-leaders in Kenya are operating with “outrageous impunity”.

    The rise in poaching, with animals being slaughtered inside even the most heavily guarded national parks or conservation areas, show that the poachers have little fear of tough new laws designed to stem the wave of killings, he said.

    “They could not operate with the impunity we are seeing if you did not have some form of protection from law enforcement agencies,” Leakey said, as he made an appeal for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to take action.

    “It is a problem of a few criminals… the ringleaders are known,” he added, claiming that a core group of around 20 to 30 people were organising the mass poaching but that none had faced justice.

    {{Big money}}

    It’s a lucrative business: a kilo of ivory is worth some $850 (650 euros) in Asia, with UNODC suggesting ivory smuggled to Asia from Eastern Africa was worth over $31 million (23 million euros) in 2011.

    But such short-term and finite profits generated by the spate of killings are threatening the far more valuable tourism industry, which in Kenya and Tanzania is the second largest foreign exchange earner after agriculture.

    “The African elephant is not currently deemed ‘endangered’ as a species, but its decimation in Eastern Africa could be devastating,” UNODC’s report read.

    “In addition to the reduction in genetic diversity, its loss could seriously undermine local tourist revenues, a key source of foreign exchange for many of the countries of the region.”

    But the region’s two large container ports — Mombasa in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania — are also notorious trafficking hubs, funnelling more elephant tusks to Asia than all of central, southern and west African nations combined.

    The two nations made up almost two-thirds of all large shipments of ivory seized across the entire continent from 2009-2011, according to the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), a tracking database run by wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

    Seizures of containers crammed full of tusks — often hidden under foul-smelling fish or dried chili peppers in a bid to confuse sniffer dogs or discourage detailed searches — are regularly found.

    Much of the ivory smuggled is destined for China, whose rapidly growing economy has encouraged those enjoying disposable income to splash out on an ivory trinket as a sign of financial success.

    “Growing affluence in China, where possession of elephant ivory remains a status symbol, appears to have rendered China the world’s leading destination for illicit ivory,” the UNODC report added.

    The smuggling of rhino horns is a bigger problem for Southern Africa, which has far more of the endangered animals. It is often done by air, due to the value of the horn and its smaller size.

    But scores of East African rhinos are also being killed despite wildlife rangers often risking their lives to protect them.

    NV