Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{At least 41 people have been killed and 33 others injured in a bus crash west of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, police and Kenyan Red Cross officials say. }}

“It is a horrible scene. Bodies are strewn all over,” traffic police official Samuel Kimaru told media from the scene near the town of Narok on Thursday.

The bus was travelling from Nairobi to Homa Bay on the banks of Lake Victoria.

It was about halfway into the journey when it veered off the road and plunged into a valley, rolling over several times.The Red Cross said the accident occurred shortly after 2:00am on Thursday (23:00 GMT on Wednesday).

“It is difficult to tell exactly what happened but all indications point to speeding and possibly overloading,” the police official said.

“We are having a difficult time recovering the bodies because this place is hilly and bushy.”

“We’ve dozens others injured and we are not certain how many because they were taken to various hospitals. We have officers checking with the hospitals,” Kimaru said

Kenyan roads are notoriously dangerous, with buses badly maintained and often overloaded so operators can maximise profits.

In February, 30 people died in a bus crash in the east of the country, and in July a school bus crash killed 20, most of them children.

Traffic regulations and fines were toughened late last year, although the local press continue to point at police corruption as a major problem.

{{Facebook has revealed that the government of Uganda is among the 74 countries that requested for user account information of some of its citizens on social media platform in the first six months of 2013.}}

The requests are made under the dockets of national security and criminal investigations by governments.

In its first release of the Global Government Requests Report, Facebook’s general Counsel, Mr Colin Stretch noted that the release of the report is aimed at helping the on-going global debate about proper standards for governments around the world to access user information.

The list put out by Facebook shows Uganda was among the five African governments that requested for user information to conduct official investigations.

Five African countries made the list with South Africa leading at 14 requests. Egypt has 8, Ivory Coast 4, Botswana 3, while Uganda had one request.

{{The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has embarked on a relocation programme of 21 black rhinos from Lake Nakuru National Park to Borana Ranch in Samburu County.}}

KWS Spokesperson Paul Muya told Capital FM News that this will align with the International Union for Conservation of Nature requirement of a minimum of 20 rhinos in a park.

“We want to establish a viable stock of the recommended number by the International Union for Conservation of Nature of up to 21 rhinos,” he said.

Muya noted that the number of rhinos breeding at the Lake Nakuru National Park had increased enormously and creating concerns that it may lead to a food crisis for other wildlife at the park.

“We have currently 140 rhinos in the park,” he revealed.

He said this was also in an effort to acquire more space for the rhinos and also in a bid to establish more conservation areas.

“We have also a scientific prove that supports the new established stock; it has also enough food for the black rhino’s,” he said.

Lake Nakuru National Park also has white rhinos in addition to more than 5,000 grazers that include zebras, gazelles, hippopotamus, giraffes, warthogs and baboons.

Even as KWS continues with its conservation efforts, a civil servant was on Monday arraigned in court and charged with being in possession of 17 pieces of elephant tusks.

{CapitalFm}

{{South Sudan’s national legislative assembly has backed down on one of its major provisions on the conduct of business, citing intimidation by president Salva Kiir, who recently warned he would unilaterally dismiss elected lawmakers unless they supported his actions.}}

Kiir appointed the former speaker of parliament, James Wani Igga, as the new vice-president on 23 August, exactly 30 days after he sacked his former deputy, Riek Machar, and dissolved the entire cabinet.

At a meeting with the caucus a day after the announcement, Kiir urged members to endorse Igga’s appointment or risk being removed from their positions.

On the same day lawmakers unanimously endorsed Igga’s appointment, without adhering to the house’s conduct of business or any further debate on his credentials.

In accordance with the parliamentary conduct of business, the speaker should have officially resigned his position in parliament and a new speaker elected before lawmakers vet the appointment.

“No business shall be transacted in the assembly, other than the election of the speaker, when the office of the speaker is vacant”, reads article 5 (3) of the conduct of business of the assembly.

However, during the endorsement of Igga as the new vice-president the reverse had occurred, reportedly due to pressure exerted by the president on the parliament.

Presided over by deputy speaker Daniel Awet Akot, the national legislative assembly on Monday continued to table before parliament new motions for deliberation, again ignoring procedural requirement for the election of a new speaker.

Richard K. Mulla, an MP representing Mundri West county in Western Equatoria state, criticised the violation of the conduct of business, saying he suspected the executive leadership of interfering in the affairs of the assembly with the aim to impose a hand-picked speaker.

“The sitting of yesterday [Monday] was illegal and invalid”, he said, arguing that a new speaker should have been elected first before any further parliamentary sittings.

Mulla, who is a senior lawyer by profession, said from Monday he was boycotting parliamentary sittings until the appointment of a new speaker.

Another member of parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday that the parliament was successfully intimidated and bullied to the point that it forgot its constitutional obligations.

He said non-adherence to the conduct of business came as a direct result of the president’s threats to dissolve the parliament or dismiss individual MPs.

“The parliament, which was last week applauded by the people it represents for seriously vetting and rejecting the appointment of Telar Ring Deng as justice minister, is now back to its disgusted role as a rubber stamp for the president or the executive”, he said, adding that the president would likely continue to use threats and intimidation to silence it.

{Sudantribune}

{{DRCongo’s army said it clashed with eastern rebels on Monday, ending a brief lull in days of fighting that has killed and wounded dozens.}}

The violence, the most serious in months, is the first major test for a newly-deployed U.N. Intervention Brigade which has an unprecedented mandate to launch military operations against rebels at the heart of nearly two decades of conflict.

It has fought alongside Congo’s army several times since the latest fighting erupted on Wednesday, but said it did not take part in Monday’s clashes.

The M23 rebels said they were targeted by air strikes and came under heavy weapons fire on Monday afternoon.

“As usual, we expect that ground troops will come in the wake of these bombings,” M23 said in a statement. Congo’s army said rebels had attacked first and it was retaliating.

Congolese army spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli said clashes were taking place at Kibati, about 11 km (7 miles) north of Goma, a city of a million people on the Rwandan border.

The rebels briefly seized Goma in November before withdrawing and committing to Ugandan-hosted peace talks. Negotiations have faltered and the renewed fighting has exacerbated tensions between Rwanda and Congo.

{{South Sudan’s parliament has passed a long-awaited petroleum bill after years of consultation and waits for final approval by President Salva Kiir, a senior lawmaker said on Monday.}}

Officials hope the bill, which regulates for the first time how the government can spend oil revenues, will make the African producer more attractive for foreign investment by improving transparency.

South Sudan has struggled to build up state institutions and establish the rule of law since winning independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of civil war.

The Petroleum Revenue Management Bill was approved in final reading late in July and is now waiting for Kiir’s approval, Henry Odwar, head of the petroleum and mining committee, told Reuters.

He said the bill – which Western donors have long urged – will set out rules on how the government can spend oil revenues, the main source of its budget.

Odwar gave no details but previous versions of the bill show that up to 10 percent of the revenues will have go to a new future generation fund, a nest egg for the time when oil will run out. Part of the money must also go to oil-producing communities.

Diplomats see the bill as key to start legislation and transparency in the oil sector – there is so far almost no data available how oil revenues are being spent, with some of the money ending up in corruption. Business deals are often handed out by officials without tenders or clear rules.

Western oil firms mostly shun South Sudan, a war-torn country which seceded from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict with Khartoum.

Mainly Chinese, Indian and Malaysian firms operate in South Sudan, which used to pump some 300,000 barrels a day until the government turned off wells in 2012 in a row with Sudan through which all exports must go.

Cross-border flows resumed in April with much lower volumes but Sudan has threatened to close the export pipelines in a conflict over alleged rebel support.

South Sudan hopes to explore with the help of France’s Total and U.S. firm Exxon a large area in Jonglei state but rebel and tribal violence has made it impossible to start. It also hopes for a foreign investor to build an alternative pipeline through Kenya or Djibouti to end dependency on Sudan’s infrastructure.

{Wirestory}