Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{More than 30,000 Ugandans face deportation from the United Kingdom (UK) after failing to resolve their asylum and immigration requests, a report by the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons (UK Parliament) has revealed.}}

The report said the current backlog of 500,000 unresolved immigration and asylum cases will not be cleared for another 37 years at the current rate of progress. This condemns Ugandans to more anguish as they wait for their cases to be resolved. Uganda accounts for 30,000 of those cases.

However, the Uganda High Commission in the UK blames the Home Office for failing to expeditiously dispose of cases of Ugandans seeking asylum there.

Speaking at an event to mark Independence celebrations in the UK at the weekend, Mr Innocent Quinoscars Opio, the Second Secretary and In charge of Consular Services at the Uganda High Commission in UK, accused the Home Office of “incompetence” in handling immigration cases.

“We have always raised our concerns and engaged the UK Home Office both formally and informally about their incompetence in dealing with immigration matters especially those concerning Ugandans and other immigrants,” Mr Opio said.

He cited cases of Ugandans on whose behalf the UK Home Office has applied for temporary travel documents from the Uganda High Commission in UK, to facilitate their deportation back to Uganda. He said most of them are victims of unfair and poor handling of immigration cases.

“We also don’t always bow down to pressure especially when they send us applications to expel Ugandans from the UK who are victims of unfair and poor handling of immigration cases,” he added, explaining that this stance was a sign of Uganda’s independence from Britain.

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{{Piracy attacks off the Somali coast have dropped significantly over the past 18-months, the latest count by the International Maritime Bureau reveals.}}

In its most recent bulletin seen by The Standard, the bureau shows that piracy attacks and hijackings dropped from 32 ships and 736 hostages held in January 2011 to 1 ship (FV Naham) and 50 hostages (from 11 nations) being held of late.

And the drop in piracy appears to have spurred shipping between the port of Mombasa and Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, one of Mombasa’s most modern freight firms, Focus Container Freight Station (CFS), has announced the commencement of direct shipment of cargo to Mogadishu from the port of Mombasa effective October 30.

In a paid up advertisement, the firm stated that it had partnered with Banadir Gate and Universal Navigation PTE Ltd to begin trans-shipment of cargo directly from Mombasa port to Mogadishu.

“This is an effort to reduce excessive road transport costs, CFS-related costs and increase transport efficiency. The vessels will load containers and loose cargo from Mombasa and thus minimise storage and other transport related inefficiencies,” Focus CFS said in the advertisement on Tuesday.

The drop in piracy attacks is attributed to the presence of international naval forces and the increased use of self protection measures and private armed security teams by the maritime industry.

Somalis themselves have also become less tolerant of pirates living in their midst and the negative impact they have had on their country.

European Union (EU) Naval Force Liaison Officer in charge of Kenya and Tanzania, Commander Francois Maressxaux, said an estimated USD330 million was paid out as ransom between 2009 and 2013.

“The successful cooperation and coordination that has built up over the past four-years between the international naval forces and the maritime industry has made it difficult for pirates to get out to sea undetected, and when they have their efforts have been thwarted by naval forces or well-equipped merchant ships,” he said.

In May last year, the EU Naval Force carried out an operation dubbed the ‘pirate logistics dump’, destroying a number of skiffs and pirate equipment, thereby destroying any build up of pirate supplies on Somalia beaches and the interest of their investors.

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{{The Kenya High Court has dismissed a case filed by a Non-Governmental Organisation seeking to bar President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto from attending his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).}}

The case was filed by the National Conservative Forum which had argued that Kenyatta and Ruto’s absence was likely to cause imbalance of power in the country, if both were left to travel to The Hague for their crimes against humanity trials.

On Thursday, Justice Mumbi Ngugi ruled that the reasons given by the NGO were “purely speculative”.

The judge also declined to declare that the Rome Statute is inconsistent with the Constitution as argued by the NGO.

“There is no evidence to this effect, and this court has no jurisdiction to do so,” the Judge said, and added that the powers to declare the Rome Statute inconsistent rest with the Legislature.

A Bill to remove Kenya from the Rome Statute is set to be tabled in the National Assembly after MPs adopted a Motion that paved way for the Bill.

A bid by Kenya to rally other African countries for a mass walk out from the statute flopped during last week’s African Union summit where a resolution was reached for Kenya to ask for a deferral of the cases facing its two top leaders.

Ruto on Tuesday announced that Kenya has already filed a deferral request and is awaiting its response.

The AU has advised the Kenyan leaders against attending their ICC trial pending the AU request, but Ruto says he will continue attending the trial while awaiting the resolution.

Uhuru and Ruto argue that they need time to fulfil their constitutional mandate as elected leaders.

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{{Eldoret-based activist Walter Barasa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for allegedly bribing prosecution witnesses, has now taken his fight to the Hague court.}}

Through lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, Barasa has written to the ICC demanding full disclosure of the circumstances surrounding his arrest warrant saying that the court was trying to take him into custody through the back door.

In the application papers, he noted that his request to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) for full disclosure had been turned down, with the office telling him that he would only get it if he surrendered or was arrested by the court.

“The Prosecution is not inclined to discuss disclosure prior to your client’s arrest and surrender to the court, whether voluntary or not. However once this occurs, the Prosecution is prepared to sit down with you to address any immediate concerns you may have at such time,” Kaufman quoted the OTP as saying.

He further claimed that the OTP had illegally attempted to recruit Barasa as a witness against Deputy President William Ruto by threatening him with arrest.

Kaufman told Pre-Trial Chamber II that the OTP had told his client that he would be arrested if he declined to give evidence that Ruto tampered

with witnesses.

“In a nutshell, the OTP investigator attempted to extort collaboration from the suspect by informing him that he could either testify to witness tampering at the behest of Deputy President Ruto or be arrested himself,” wrote Barasa’s counsel.

The former journalist, who is still enjoying State security, also says that the OTP tried to lure him to another country so that he could be arrested despite there being judicial proceedings in Kenya regarding the OTP request to have him extradited.

Judge Cuno Tarfusser issued the sealed warrant against Barasa on August 2 but it was made public on October 2.

“The single judge did not however give the Prosecution a mandate to entrap the suspect by hoodwinking him into travelling to a jurisdiction where his arrest could be effected by prior arrangement,” argued Kaufman.

The 41-year-old is being sought by the ICC for allegedly bribing two prosecution witnesses by up to Sh1.5 million, and attempting to bribe a third witness so that they could recant their testimony against Ruto.

He has already denied the charges and is currently pursuing legal proceedings at the Kenyan High Court to prevent the OTP request for his extradition from being implemented.

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{{More than 30,000 Ugandans face deportation from the United Kingdom after failing to resolve their asylum and immigration requests, a report by the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons (UK Parliament) has revealed.}}

The report said the current backlog of 500,000 unresolved immigration and asylum cases will not be cleared for another 37 years at the current rate of progress. This condemns Ugandans to more anguish as they wait for their cases to be resolved.

Uganda accounts for 30,000 of those cases, while it could no be immediately established how many Africans were at risk.

However, the Uganda High Commission in the UK blames the Home Office for failing to speedily dispose of cases of Ugandans seeking asylum there.

Speaking at an event to mark Independence celebrations in the UK at the weekend, Mr Innocent Quinoscars Opio, the Second Secretary and In charge of Consular Services at the Uganda High Commission accused the Home Office of “incompetence” in handling immigration cases.

“We have always raised our concerns and engaged the UK Home Office both formally and informally about their incompetence in dealing with immigration matters especially those concerning Ugandans and other immigrants,” Mr Opio said.

{{‘Unfair’}}

He cited cases of Ugandans on whose behalf the UK Home Office has applied for temporary travel documents from the Uganda High Commission in UK, to facilitate their deportation back to Uganda. He said most of them are victims of unfair and poor handling of immigration cases.

“We also don’t always bow down to pressure especially when they send us applications to expel Ugandans from the UK who are victims of unfair and poor handling of immigration cases,” he added, explaining that this stance was a sign of Uganda’s independence from Britain.

The Uganda High Commission also highlighted the issue of dual citizenship, saying that those Ugandans who acquire British citizenship automatically cease to be Ugandans. However, they can take advantage of the recently-passed dual citizenship law which requires them to re-apply for Ugandan citizenship after acquiring British passports.

The foreign office said it is only after re-application that the dual citizenship is regularised through a dual-citizenship certificate given at the end of the process.

NMG

{{Kenya has endorsed a move by the region to have joint efforts to bring peace to border areas between Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan, in what appears to be an attempt to end perpetual tribal raids.}}

In a meeting on Monday chaired in Kampala by Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni, ministers in charge of security and regional relations from Kenya, Ethiopia and Kenya agreed to “an integrated plan” to have communities living in these areas live in peace.

In a 12-point communiqué issued after the Monday meeting, the ministers said they would be “committed to the establishment of strong institutional arrangements” that ensure every campaign for peace or security is harmonised for the ‘Karamoja Cluster.’

The ‘Karamoja Cluster’ is an IGAD phrase used to describe cross-border region of four IGAD member countries. They are south western parts of Ethiopia, north western Kenya mainly in Turkana County, south eastern parts of South Sudan and north eastern parts of Uganda.

According to IGAD, these areas are located “in the peripheries” of their respective countries and share a history of under-development, marginalisation and insecurity.

As it is now, each of the country connected to the ‘Karamoja Cluster’ deals with its own security problem even though communities living here are mostly pastoralists who bump into each other over water and pasture.

“The ministers identified lack of effective coordination and harmonisation of these efforts as the main reason behind limited progress,” said a statement after the meeting.

In August, ten people on the shores of Lake Turkana were killed after they were reportedly ambushed by suspected Ethiopian bandits in Todonyang.

This wasn’t the first time such an incident happened. In 2011, about 15 people were killed after raiders attacked the same area.

But the areas have started appearing on the map as oil explorers continue to find oil and governments identify the need for security.

The Monday meeting, said the communiqué, was meant to review national policies and regional programmes for peace, security and development in the ‘Cluster’.

Although IGAD has been active in campaigning for similar programmes in the past, it would be interesting to see how this goes because numerous peace deals between the pastoralist communities have often been broken.

{{Police chiefs from the five East African Community (EAC) member states have agreed on several measures to combat terrorism in the face of increased threats in the region.}}

The measures, which among others include the formation of focal points in the office of each police boss and the fast tracking of the excellence centre on Counter Terrorism in Nairobi Kenya, were agreed upon at a meeting of the police chiefs organized by the EAC.

Speaking at the closure of the two day meeting, the EAC deputy Secretary General in charge political federation Charles Njoroge said the measures were necessary to the transnational nature of the vice which needs concerted efforts to tackle.

“The ever changing form of terrorism calls for such measures,” Njoroge said at the Kampala Serena hotel on Saturday.

The other measures include the establishment of the Counter Terrorism planning desk to be hosted and coordinated by Rwanda, establishment of the other centres of excellence in member states with comparative advantage in specific areas and holding regular bilateral and trilateral meetings.

The focal points in the various offices of IGPs will be headed by a senior police officer whose task will among others include coordination and exchange on a day to day basis of intelligence on terrorism. Given the urgency of the matter, it was agreed that by Monday the focal points should have designated officers.

Kayihura said member countries agreed to commit more resources so as to activate and fast track the CT excellence centre in Nairobi. “The purpose is to create mechanisms in coordination with the EAC to prevent these terror attacks from happening,” Kayihura said.

The counter terrorism operation desk in Rwanda will be tasked to pick intelligence and evolve a concept plan for the region to tackle terrorism. “This will also involve other security agencies,” Kayihura said. The recommendations of the meeting are to be submitted to the council on inter state security for approval.

It was also resolved at the meeting that member states commit technology, especially at the borders and key entry points as part of additional efforts to combat the vice.

Njoroge pledged to brief the EAC secretariat on the recommendations reached at the meeting ahead of the EAC summit next month at which it is expected that the issue of terrorism will feature prominently.

He also pledged continued support from the secretariat and urged the police in the region to continue networking. Initially though not on the agenda, terrorism took the centre stage following the recent terror attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi Kenya.

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{{Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and his sudanese counterpart Gen. Omar Bashir have agreed to work towards total peace between the two countries.}}

The two met at the African Union (AU) summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday.

This was the first time the two heads of state were meeting face to face in over 10 years since their disagreements during the SPLA and LRA wars in Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda respectively.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, Sudan foreign affairs minister Ali Karti said the two leaders agreed to halt all hostile actions between the two states.

The meeting, Mr Karti said, was “friendly and frank” during which President Bashir revealed ‘very serious information’ about Uganda and President Museveni responded to it.

“I do not think we are now in a position to say there is a final solution to the problems, but in my opinion, there is progress in the understanding of the Ugandan President to the seriousness of the request of Sudan and the information put forward by the President of the Republic of Sudan,” Mr Karti said.

He, however, did not clarify on the ingredients of the “serious information” from President Bashir but noted that the way President Museveni responded to Mr Bashir’s concerns was better than the previous times.

NMG

{{The East African Community is set to harmonise seed and fertiliser policies for its member countries if the recently-launched agricultural inputs systems development project will be successfully implemented.}}

The $300,000 project is funded by Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), a continental organisation with a vision for agricultural prosperity across Africa in order to promote food security and sustainability.

A principal agricultural economist with EAC, Mr Moses Marwa, said the two-year project, whose implementation started in July, also seeks to facilitate the establishment of fertiliser and seed regulatory systems in the region.

“As a bloc, we need harmonised policies for seeds and fertilisers,” he told The Citizen over the weekend as the project managers consulted in Arusha to review its implementation roadmap.

He said currently, each of the five member states – Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda – has its own fertiliser and seed policies, which made it difficult for the regional organisation to implement some projects due to lack of harmonisation.

The same applied to the regulation of the seeds and fertilizer sectors. “Tanzania has its own regulations. Kenya has the oldest regulatory body which acts differently from those in other states. We need a harmonised system”, he pointed out.

Mr Marwa added that the implementation of the project would involve all key stakeholders in the region from the public institutions such as the regulatory bodies, agro-dealers, agricultural research institutions, farmers and consumers.

In the case of Tanzania, the recently-formed Tanzania Fertiliser Authority (TFA) and the Tanzania Association of Seed Traders (Tasta), which is based in Arusha, would be fully involved, he explained.

A policy officer with the Nairobi-based Agra, Dr Franklin Simtowe, said although the Alliance was supporting the project financially, its implementation rested with the EAC secretariat and the partner states with their respective private sector institutions dealing with improved seeds and fertilisers.

“The overall objective of this project is to improve EAC farmers’ access to fertilizers and improved seeds of a wide variety, higher quality, affordable prices and which are better suited to the soil and climatic conditions of the region,” he said.

He expressed optimism that this plan will go in a long way in promoting inter and intra-regional trade of agricultural inputs as well as improving technology transfer.

Besides putting in place regulatory framework in seed and fertilisers, the project would also embark on awareness creation on benefit of use of harmonized policies and related instruments in enhancing intra-regional trade on agricultural products.

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