Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Claims that Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have isolated Tanzania and Burundi on matters of the East African Community were yesterday brought before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ).}

The matter has been taken by three East African nationals, who filed a petition against the actions of the three EAC partner states of holding ‘illegal’ regional trading bloc meetings in absence of Tanzania and Burundi.

The nationals include Ally Msangi, David Mataka and John Adam Bwenda, who lodged the petition through senior advocate, Jimmy Obed of the Dar es Salaam-based Jimmy Obed Advocates Company.

The three citizens are asking the regional court to issue a ‘stop-order’ on matters that were agreed among Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda in their meetings.
In their petition they said the agreements by the three states were against the protocol governing the formation of EAC.

In another note, the petitioners asked EACJ to warn the three partner states against jeopardizing the trading bloc.

One of the petitioners, Jimmy Obeid said the petition was meant to press the court to issue a statement in an effort to ensure the EAC protocol was respected by all partner states.

Obeid pointed fingers at Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya for breaching the EAC Protocol by holding a meeting between June 24 and 25, this year in Entebbe, Uganda.
Other meetings were held on August 28, this year in Mombasa, Kenya and another one in Kigali, Rwanda.

“Those meetings were against the EAC protocol, as the three states were discussing some of the issues which are within the EAC framework,” the petitioner said, citing some of the sections which have been violated as 71(F), 71(D) and article 12; 3 (3)c, article 6 (a), (b), (d) and (f) and article 8 (1) c and 8 (3)c.

“As citizens of East Africa we, have the right to ask the court to work on our petitions and issue an order that will inhibit implementation of what agreed in those ‘illegal’ meetings by those three states.”

EAC Secretary General, Attorneys General of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are required to respond to the petitions.

IPPMedia

{Since moving to Kenya a decade ago accomplished Sydney ad-man Patrick Richer had met tragedy once before.}

Seven years ago he was one of four passengers in a safari vehicle when it was hit head-on by a truck in December 2006, killing four people including two Australians. Mr Richer escaped with a fractured spine.

His love for Kenya, and his Kenyan wife Lesli, kept him in Africa. ”My wife inspired me to come back to Kenya, to start afresh,” he said in a video filmed by his employer, international advertising agency, Tbwa Flame Tree Advertising.

But on Sunday morning the 39-year-old Australian was shot dead in Kenya by a gang of up to 10 men, including some who were wearing police uniforms when they stormed into his home.

Mr Richer was shot twice in the chest at close range in his house in the upmarket Runda estate in Nairobi in the early hours of Sunday.

Advertising industry personnel told Fairfax Media that jobs in Africa pay more handsomely than those in Sydney but come with obvious risks.

Nairobi police commander Benson Kibue told Kenyan newspaper The Daily Nation that at least 10 attackers, including six who were dressed in administration police uniform, raided Mr Richer’s home just before 2am on Sunday.

The gunmen are believed to have cut through the rear fence and tied up a number of guards before raiding the house and shooting Mr Richer, the Kenyan newspaper The Standard reported .

Mr Richer was taken to Aga Khan Hospital, but was pronounced dead. Mrs Richer, also was home at the time of the robbery but was not injured.

The thieves escaped with a television, phones and two laptops, according to The Daily Nation.

Mr Kibue said no one had been arrested over the robbery, which occurred in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Nairobi and that police were trying to establish whether the suspects in police uniform were in fact officers.

Tbwa Flame Tree Advertising’s Tim Smyth, told local media that Mr Richer was a ”wonderful person” who had been working for the company for about five years.

”He has travelled across Africa to represent lots of companies and lots of brands and has worked with many, many young Kenyans to help them grow their skills and their passion for advertising and creativity,” Mr Smyth said.

”He’s a great ambassador for our industry. He’s certainly going to be sorely missed by many of the young Kenyans that he helped over the past almost decade working in Kenya and across Africa.

”We were about to negotiate some new long-term deals for him to move ahead and continue to work and help us grow our business and industry here. It’s craziness.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Australian High Commission in Nairobi was liaising with local authorities on the incident which led to his death.

smh.com.au

{The African Union (AU) has ‘‘welcomed’’ the defeat of the M23 rebels and called on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to pursue other ‘‘negative elements’’ in the volatile eastern part of the country.
}

In its 406th sitting on Wednesday, the Peace and Security Council of the AU said it ‘‘Welcomes the restoration of State authority in the areas previously controlled by the March 23 Movement (M23) rebellion.’’

The M23 was defeated by the Congolese army assisted by a United Nations Intervention Brigade with a mandate to use force.

On 5 November, the rebel group renounced rebellion against the Kinshasa government and dissolved itself.

The AU also called for the DRC government to pursue other armed elements roaming in mineral-rich eastern Congo

“Council encourages the DRC armed forces and the Intervention Brigade to pursue and intensify efforts, in order to neutralise other negative forces.”

The AU named what it termed negative forces as, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the allied Democratic Forces/ National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF/NALU and the Mai Mai militia. All are rebel groups hostile to either DRC, Rwanda and Uganda but based in eastern Congo.

A peace agreement that should have been signed between the DRC government and the M23 rebels flopped on Monday in Kampala after the DRC delegation said it needed more time to study the agreement.

The delegation also accused Uganda, the mediator of the talks, of having an ‘‘interest in M23’’ an accusation Uganda swiftly denied.

No date has been set for the signing of the peace agreement between the M23 and DRC but both sides are reportedly in contact with the mediator of the talks, Uganda’s defence minister, Chrispus Kiyonga

Sudan Vision

{President Uhuru Kenyatta has lined up mega infrastructure projects to be executed in partnership with private investors setting consumers up for payment of user fees for many of the public services currently accessible for free.}

Motorists will be charged road tolls, tenants will pay higher rents for public housing and commuters will pay higher fees on the trains if private money is used to build or upgrade the infrastructure seen as Mr Kenyatta’s legacy projects.

Private investors in public projects have to recoup their money – usually through pay-for-use arrangements such as road tolls.

Under the Public and Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, investors develop the infrastructure and are given a defined period to operate it for purposes of recouping their investment before ultimately handing over the asset to the government.

The arrangement commonly known as Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) has been used in many parts of the world – including South Africa, India and France to build national infrastructure.

“We have to embrace tolling. Look how far it has taken China and India,” Transport secretary Michael Kamau, in whose docket most of the projects fall, said.

The list of approved projects that are open to tolling include construction of a second bridge at Nyali and the building of a dual carriage superhighway between Mombasa and Nairobi and on to Nakuru.

Investors who put their money into Nairobi’s planned 100 kilometre commuter rail are expected to recoup their investment by charging users market rate fees while those who invest in Kenyatta University hostels will recover their money from the accommodation fees paid by students.

Other projects include the construction of 60,000 low cost housing units and 66,000 units for the police.

Business Daily

[Chimpreports]- Traders at Yamaha Centre along Burton Street in Kampala are protesting the sudden rise of rent fees by 100 percent, accusing the landlord of being an “insensitive parasite.”

The traders said the charges were exorbitant and completely unaffordable. Police have reinforced security at the city complex to maintain law and order.

One of the traders identified as Siraje Kabanda said all tenants were Monday notified of the 100 percent rent increment which would take effect starting December.

“This is outrageous. Government should regulate the conduct of landlords. We have decided to close all the shops until this decision is rescinded,” he told Chimpreports.

{President Jakaya Kikwete will be joining Heads of state of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi in endorsing the regional Monetary Union on the 30th of November 2013.}

This was confirmed during the 15th Meeting of the EAC Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs held here with the Council clearing the legal content of the draft Protocol for the establishment of the East African Monetary Union.

Mr Richard Owora Othieno, the Communications Officer with the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat based in Arusha, stated that the Sectoral Council adopted the draft Protocol as it met the requirements of the Treaty and recommended that the Heads of State Summit approves and signs the Protocol in two weeks’ time.

Respective Attorneys General, Solicitors General as well as Ministers responsible for judicial and constitutional affairs directed the Secretariat to make a compilation of all documentation used in the negotiations of the draft Protocol, to be used as working documents in drafting the legal instrument establishing the institutions to support the Monetary Union.

The Sectoral Council noted that whereas Article 2(2) of the Treaty provides that the Customs Union and Common Market are transitional and integral parts of the Community, the Treaty requires that Partner States establish a Monetary Union pursuant to Article 151 of the Treaty.

The Sectoral Council further noted that the Monetary Union will commence upon ratification and the coming into force of the Protocol for all the five Partner States. However, the realisation of the Monetary Union shall be progressive.

At least three Partner States can commence a single currency in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Protocol. On the issue of 77 Articles of the draft protocol of the establishment the East African Monetary Union which were reduced to 31 Articles, the Sectoral Council agreed that the various Articles that were operational in nature had been removed from the draft Protocol and would be used in the enabling laws that will establish the institutions and guide the Monetary Union such as the East African Central Bank.

{{TDN}}

{The fourth meeting of the Friends of Tripartite was held in Arusha recently. The main objective of the meeting was information exchange on progress made with regard to regional infrastructure development in the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite region.
}

While opening the meeting, East African Community (EAC) Secretary General and Chair of the Tripartite Task Force, Dr Richard Sezibera said the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit of Heads of State and Government in June 2011, adopted a developmental integration approach for the Tripartite Free Trade Area built on three pillars namely: Market Integration, Industrial Development and Infrastructure Development.

“Considerable progress has been there and negotiations have intensified to ensure we clinch the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) by June 2014,” he says. COMESA Secretary General, Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, reiterates that the Tripartite Free Area and its different components should be seen as part of the African Union Commission’s aim to establish a Continental Free Trade Area.

“We endeavour to address issues pertaining to multiple membership and different trade regimes of economic blocs in the continent and consequently establishing a Continental Free Trade Area by 2017,” he notes.

In a bid to make the region more competitive by reducing the high costs of transport, trade and energy, thereby creating higher levels of economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction, the Friends of Tripartite meeting discussed various Tripartite Projects.

During these discussions, two projects merged the most critical – Tripartite and IGAD Corridor Programme (TCIP): initiated by COMESA, EAC, SADC and IGAD. The programme is aimed at boosting trade and growth in Eastern Africa. The TICP covers four main transport corridors in East Africa.

Northern Corridor linking the Port of Mombasa to Eastern DRC through Uganda and Rwanda, thereby giving physical interconnectivity across Eastern Africa; the Central Corridor connecting the Port of Dar es Salaam with the Great Lakes region and DRC at Kigoma and through Rwanda at Rusumo and thereafter Burundi; Lamu Corridor connecting the new Port of Lamu to Juba in South Sudan and also to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Djibouti linking the port of Djibouti to Juba in South Sudan through Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Serenje-Nakonde North Sudan Corridor road: a 613 km stretch of the North-South Corridor and is also part of the Dar es Salaam Corridor.

This is the only road between the port of Dar es Salaam and the copper belt of Zambia/ Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The road has failed completely, resulting in frequent accidents and long journey times.

The meeting also discussed the Tripartite Infrastructure Projects Database, expansion of the Mombasa and Dar es Salaam Ports as well as the Northern Corridor Superhighway (pipeline project).

In addition, latest policy and programmatic development were discussed, identifying areas for improved partnerships as well as gaps in support for the Tripartite agenda.

The meeting noted that infrastructure development, regulatory and policy frameworks facilitate cross border trade as well as foreign direct investment by reducing the cost of doing business in the continent as well as enhancing the free movement of people.

Additionally consensus was reached that there is need to focus on generation, distribution and interconnection of energy as well as information and communication technology.

The meeting was attended by Head of the Tripartite RECs and Tripartite Partners including the Department for International Development (DFID), KfW, European Investment Bank (EIB), European Commission, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), BMZ, African Development Bank (AfDB), USAID, TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA), Trademark East Africa (TMEA), the World Bank, DANIDA, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), IFC, ABSA Capital Private Equity, Old Mutual Investment Group Alternative Investments, China Development Bank, and Tripartite Project Preparation and Implementation Unit (PPIU), among others.

The Tripartite is an umbrella organisation consisting of three of Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (REC’s), namely: the East Africa Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The overarching objective of the Tripartite is to contribute to the broader objectives of the African Union (AU), namely accelerating economic integration of the continent and achieving sustainable economic development – thereby alleviating poverty and improving quality of life for the people of the Eastern and Southern African Region.

As such, the Tripartite works towards improving coordination and harmonisation of the various regional integration programmes of its member REC’s.

These regional integration programmes focus on expanding and integrating trade and include the establishment of Free Trade Areas (FTA’s), Custom Unions, Monetary Unions and Common Markets, as well as infrastructure development projects in transport, information and communications technology and energy.

With more than 527 million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately 624 Billion US Dollars, the 26 member countries of the Tripartite make up 57 per cent of the population of the African Union (AU) and just over 58 per cent in terms of contribution to GDP.

This makes the Tripartite vital to the envisaged single market and continental integration of the African Economic Community (AEC)

Tanzania Daily News

{More than 65 asylum seekers who had camped at the Kitale police station after escaping attacks by rebel groups in Congo and Burundi have been taken to the Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana.{}}

Consisting mainly of women and children, the refugees were ferried to the camp through the intervention of the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.

A UNHCR agent John Bororio said the agency was searching for part of the group said to have taken a different route.

“We arranged for the transportation of this group to Kakuma refugee camp after learning of their humanitarian challenge.

That is where they can be assisted effectively,” he said.

The tired, scared and hungry refugees narrated how they dodged death as they witnessed their relatives being killed by rebels on a mission to recruit youths.

Antiokio Bweza, a former headmaster at a primary school in the capital of Goma, Eastern Congo, said he received a strange visit from M23 rebel who wanted him to give up pupils to be recruited in to the militia.

“They came to my office and demanded that I hand over my staff and pupils.

I left them in the office on the pretext of calling the teachers, but I escaped for my life,” said Mr Bweza.

He took his wife and their two-year- old girl and escaped to Western Uganda, where they found refuge at a church.

Church leaders arranged for their trip to Kenya, a three-week journey to Kitale.

Olivier Mutombo was a secondary school student in Eastern Congo, but fled when rebels killed his parents for being government employees.

“The rebels killed my father and mother on separate days on grounds that they had defied their directive and accepted government jobs,” said Mutombo who sustained injuries during his escape.

The Burundians had similar harrowing stories.

{{Daily Nation}}

East African Community member states have been advised to promote a culture of dialogue and tolerance as a means of resolving conflicts both nationally and regionally.

Speaking at a meeting here, Burundi First Vice President Bernard Busokoza, said it came at the right time, when the EAC was facing misunderstandings between partner states in the implementation and fast tracking of agreed matters such as a free labour market and national identity cards as travelling documents within the region.

”We pass our condolences and support to the government of Kenya on the recent terrorist attack in Nairobi that saw the loss of lives and many casualties…our prayers and thoughts are with them,” he said.

He said peace and security were a prerequisite for social development in the EAC, urging partner states to foster and maintain an atmosphere for peace and security through the promotion of good neighbourliness in the region.

“Countries should engage in dialogue and tolerance for conflict prevention and resolution because the outcome will not only build a peaceful nation but region as a whole,” he noted.

According to him, the region had witnessed cyclical instability and civil strife over the last four decades, while a lot of progress had been made in the restoration of the rule of law and inculcation of the culture of peace. Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, the EAC deputy secretary general for Politics, Mr Charles Njoroge, said the bloc was currently in the final stages of starting a council for security which would deal with conflicts and security in the region.

The Citizen

{Burundi has applied to join the Commonwealth group of mostly former British colonies to build closer trade relations with Angolophone economies, Cooperation Minister Laurent Kavakure said. }

Belgian-governed until its independence in 1962, Burundi has switched the primary education system to English from French and is translating all its major laws as a condition of membership, Kavakure said in an interview today with Bloomberg. The country’s national language that’s most widely spoken is Kirundi, while French is mostly used for government services.

“With the Commonwealth membership, the country will have trade relations with these neighboring countries but also with remote countries like India, Sri Lanka, the U.K. and others which are already members of the community,” he said from the capital, Bujumbura.

Burundi, the smallest economy in the five-nation East African Community common market, derives most of its foreign currency from coffee exports and holds mineral deposits including nickel, gold, copper, cobalt, niobium and tantalum.

The country is rebuilding its economy and after a decade-long civil war that erupted in 1993 killed 300,000 people. Growth is forecast by the International Monetary Fund at 4.5 percent this year and 4.7 percent in 2014.

If admitted, Burundi would become the third country after Rwanda and Mozambique to join the Commonwealth without a historical tie to the British colonial system. Rwanda is also a member of the EAC, along with Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which recognize English among their official languages.

Burundi, which plans to remain a member of the 57-nation International Organisation of La Francophonie, is seeking observer status before becoming a full member of the Commonwealth, said Kavakure. The 53-country Commonwealth grouping is home to more than 2.2 billion citizens.

Bloomberg