Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Dubbed the Bujumbura Peace Run, the event is one of several activities to promote the Burundi peace process and East African Community integration.}

The run, whose launch coincided with the start of the AMF Burundi Chapter last Thursday, is the brain child of a youth group Afrika Mashariki Fest (AMF).

AMF is a regional youth platform that uses art and sports in its advocacy for the promotion of regional integration.

Uganda’s ambassador to Burundi Maj. Gen. Matayo Kyaligonza, who also as Dean of Diplomatic Corps was chief guest, thanked AMF for their efforts to mobilise youths.

“By using sports you are using the right medium to mobilise youth. Sport transcends boundaries with its power to unite and bring happiness.”

The launch took place at Bujumbura’s Bel Air Hotel also in the presence of the country’s representatives to the East African Assembly.

Burundi’s minister for East African Affairs Leontine Nzeyimana, Kenya’s duputy ambassador to Burundi Sylvane Chongwony, Bujumbura Mayor Freddy Mbonimpa and Burundi Athletics Federation president Dieudonne Kwizera all welcomed the initiative.

“We are here to preach peace, cohesion and patriotism to fellow youth as fundamentals of development of Burundi,” stated AMF CEO Ronnex Kisembo.

The youth have been taking a back seat in the region’s integration, Kisembo noted.

“There is an urgent need for the youth to rise and become front runners of this campaign.”

Kisembo thanked all authorities in Burundi for not only welcoming AMF but also embracing the idea.

Fabrice Niragira will head the AMF Burundi chapter. Fidelite Ngenzi will serve as general secretary, Frank Ndisanze (treasurer), Landry Nokira (publicity), Aldine Nezerwe (marketing).

AMF was launched in Uganda in 2013.It has since staged two half marathons in Kampala.

It spread out to Kenya last year where it staged a half marathon in Mombasa.

Source:The New Vision

{Kinshasa – A Democratic Republic of Congo spokesperson condemned as “ridiculous montage” a video purporting to show a massacre of unarmed civilians by DRC soldiers (FARDC).}

But confusion reigned after a later government statement referred to possible “excesses and abuse” by soldiers, two of whom it said were on trial for unspecified charges.

The seven-minute video, which appears to be taken by cellphone, was provided to AFP late Friday by a Congo specialist, who said it might have been filmed on February 11 or 12.

“What kind of army would let someone film while they kill?” said government spokesman Lambert Mende.

“This is the work of desperate people. It’s clumsy and ridiculous. It’s worthy of scenes from a Rambo movie,” he said.

But just hours after Mende’s comments, a government statement said there had indeed been clashes, in December, in the village of Mwanza Lomba, which the video purported to show, between a troop patrol and the “terrorist group” Kamwina Nsapu as well as “other armed assailants”.

The government statement added: “Any excesses and abuse signalled (ascribed to) elements of the FARDC in this operation” had been “taken into account in accordance with the military penal code at the end of this operation last year.

According to the statement, two soldiers, including an officer, “are already facing military justice” without specifying the charges against them.

Reported clashes

A spokesman for the UN mission for the stabilisation of the country, MONUSCO, could not be reached Saturday, but a source in the mission said it was investigating “the video and other claims” regarding operations in the Kasai regions.

Unconfirmed reports have indicated that 50 to 100 people had been killed in clashes between government forces and supporters of a slain tribal chief in the Kasai-Central region in the south of the country.

An AFP analysis was unable to confirm when or where the video was made.

It shows a group of eight soldiers speaking Lingala, the language used by DRC’s army, and Swahili, spoken in the east of the country.

The soldiers advance on a group of people a few dozen metres away who are singing “Our land, our land” in Tshiluba, a language of Kasai-Central.

“These bastards, they’re coming to get killed”, one can be heard saying, and then an order is shouted: “Advance! Shoot!”

The soldiers begin firing, without any attempt to find shelter: Nobody is seen shooting back.

The shooting stops, and the video shows the soldiers amid the bodies littering the ground. They fire at some to finish them off, starting with a woman.

As the camera lingers on one victim in his death throes, a man says, “you’re dying for nothing, for nothing.”

The person narrating the film earlier set the scene.

“Here we are in the village of Mwanza-Lomba, we came across them today. We have shown them that power is the law.

“There are lots of them but we’ll chase them to infinity, he said.

“Look at them, they’re armed with slingshots, wear red scarves around their heads; they have grisgris on their belts,” he says, referring to amulets associated with voodoo.

Mwanza-Lomba is in Kasai-Oriental, between Mbuji-Mayi, the capital of the state, and Kananga, the capital of Kasai-Central.

The region has been wracked by violence since a tribal chief, Kamwina Nsapu, was killed by government forces in mid-August.

More than two dozen people have been killed in the area since the start of the year, and the United Nations mission in the country has said it will send at least 100 peacekeepers to the Kasai-Central region.

Source:AFP

{Ugandan authorities have seized more than a tonne of ivory, chopped into small pieces and treated with a chemical intended to prevent it being detected, the national wildlife protection service has said.}

The haul was made in a Kampala suburb on Saturday, before it could be loaded at Entebbe international airport and flown off to an unknown destination, the authorities said.

A Liberian and two suspects from Guinea Bissau have been arrested in Kampala, Uganda’s wildlife authority spokesman Simplicious Gessa told AFP.

{{Laws lax }}

“In a joint operation with police, we recovered over 1,000kg of ivory suspected smuggled from either Tanzania or Democratic Republic of Congo and the operation is ongoing,” Gessa said.

He added that the Ugandan authorities suspect the smuggling network goes beyond the three in custody “involving shipping agents and other officials as the consignment was suspected to be going through Entebbe (airport)”.

The traffickers may have used Uganda “because our laws are a little lax on trafficking”, calling for harsher laws against wildlife smugglers “so that Uganda is not used as a smuggling route”.

{{30,000 killed }}

Some 30,000 African elephants are illegally killed each year for their ivory tusks, mainly to satisfy demand in the Asian market for products coveted as a traditional medicine or as status symbols.

Uganda is a key transit country for the illegal trade, especially from Congo’s huge forests.

The trade is estimated to be worth $600 million annually.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the African elephant population recorded its biggest drop in a quarter century last year, with an estimated population of 415,000 elephants, 111,000 fewer than a decade ago.

Source:AFP

{A majority of Kenyans would not mind voting for political aspirants who splash money and promise them rewards during election campaigns.}

Findings of a survey on voter bribery tendencies in the country reveal a deeply entrenched habit, with more than half of the respondents confessing that their choice of candidate is easily influenced when they are bribed.

At the centre of it are the voters who have no problem giving their votes in exchange for “something small”.

After all, it appears to be an ‘accepted tradition’ in Kenyan politics, the respondents argued, pointing to weak enforcement systems and political parties and institutions that appear to condone the practice.

The findings are contained in a report titled ‘Voter Bribery as an Election Malpractice in Kenya; A Survey Report Dec 2016,’ to be officially launched later this week.

{{HIGH LEVELS}}

The findings of the survey carried out by Interthoughts Consulting and commissioned by the Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German political foundation, point to a high likelihood that voter bribery will still be witnessed at high levels in the 2017 General Election.

Out of the 514 respondents from the 10 counties surveyed between April and June, 2016, 56 per cent confessed to having ever received a bribe from a political party aspirant or candidate.

From each of the 10 counties — Nakuru, Bomet, Kiambu, Kisumu, Machakos, Meru, Kilifi, Migori, Trans-Nzoia and Kakamega — more than 50 per cent confessed that they would easily give their vote to the person who gave them something or promised to reward them.

Bomet County had the highest proportion of respondents who had ever received a bribe at 64.71 per cent followed by Kisumu, Nakuru, Kakamega, Kilifi, Trans Nzoia, Kiambu and Machakos while Migori had the lowest at 41.51 per cent.

{{DISHING OUT HANDOUTS}}

Various forms of voter bribery were identified in the survey, ranging from frequent fundraisers (harambees) during the period preceding elections and during campaign periods to dishing out handouts to the voters.

It is also during this time that you will see aspirants jostling to pay school fees and hospital bills and even take care of funeral expenses, particularly to the voters who the politicians had probably avoided and kept off in the past.

Politicians also make promises of individual direct benefits in varying rewards, from jobs to tenders.

They will also pay a sum of money for people who attend their political meetings in form of transport reimbursements and allowances and some will also give out clothes such as t-shirts and lessos in the name of electoral material.

Some aspirants or candidates also pay for opinion polls, influencing the process and results of the same.

{{10 COUNTIES}}

This is the first survey on voter bribery tendencies in the country, showing perceptions and challenges to address them.

Findings were based on debates and discussions that involved voters, aspirants, political parties and opinion leaders in the 10 counties visited. Questionnaires were also administered to 514 respondents.

There was a strong agreement that refusing to collect the bribe to vote was an individual responsibility, with Kisumu leading at 80 per cent followed by Kiambu at 73.81 per cent and Nakuru at 70 per cent.

Some of the respondents, however, said even though they had received bribes from aspirants for political offices and other elective seats, they may not necessarily vote for them.

{{LOST CAUSE}}

The indication was that they would collect bribes but vote for persons of their choice, pointing to a society that is struggling with values, morals and ethics.

According to some of the respondents, they will collect the money for other reasons as long as the aspirants are in the business of dishing it out.

The survey points out that some of those receiving money may not even be registered voters or members of the aspirant’s party while others may be registered far away from the aspirants area, hence cannot vote for them.

Of interest is that there was a high level of awareness that voter bribery is an electoral malpractice and a form of corruption, hence a punishable crime.

{{CORRUPTION}}

On the other hand, however, respondents argue that precedence has been set in previous elections, and experience has shown that persons who engage in voter bribery have not been convicted.

Many respondents also felt that almost all the candidates seeking elective seats engage in corruption, hence their choices are limited.

In some cases, it is the citizens themselves who demand to be given something.

On the spot are political parties, aspirants and their agents who seem to be the drivers of the malpractice.

Many aspirants are moneyed and able to meet the electoral needs. High poverty and low income levels among citizens, especially youths who have no gainful employment were cited as some factors that encourage the malpractice.

{{EXCHANGING HANDS}}

But there is also legal instruments and policies and institutions which have failed to nib the problem in the bud, resulting in weak enforcement of existing laws, which leave culprits going Scot free.

Many Kenyans also have a strong mentality of money exchanging hands for votes, and this is based on experiences in previous elections held over the years.

But CMD warns that while people tend to choose those who have money thinking they are best placed to care of them, the aspirants may have corruptly obtained the money and so easily give it out.

They will, however, still recover the money corruptly, once elected, resulting in a cycle.

“It was clear to them that voter bribery influences how the people vote and results into people electing leaders who are evidently corrupt by having bribed the voters in the first place and hence likely to sustain their very nature of being corrupt even after being elected,” the report to be launched on Friday states.

Source:Daily Nation

{Goma – Militiamen from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Nande ethnic group have killed 25 civilians in the country’s violence-torn east, almost all of them hacked to death with machetes, local officials and activists said on Saturday.}

“In total 25 people were killed, decapitated by machete by the Mai-Mai Mazembe in and around the village of Kyaghala,” Francis Bakundakabo, the local representative of the governor of North Kivu province, told AFP.

“All of these people were Hutu civilians,” he said, adding that the killings took place between 4:00 am and 8:00 am on Saturday morning.

Hope Kubuya, a local civil society activist whose group went to verify the attack, said 24 of the victims had been killed with machetes and one woman shot dead.

“This raid by the Mai-Mai Mazembe in the Hutu village will enflame the inter-ethnic conflict in the region,” he added.

The Mai-Mai are a “self-defence” militia who count members of DR Congo’s Nande, Hunde and Kobo communities among their ranks, in opposition to rivals from the Nyaturu group representing ethnic Hutus.

The area around Kyaghala is majority-Hutu.

The last major attack to strike the volatile region came in December when at least 35 civilians were killed in clashes between fighters from the two groups.

DRC’s Nande, Hunde and Kobo people largely regard Hutus as foreigners, while the migration north of Hutu farmers – forced to abandon their southern territory due to rising land prices and under pressure from powerful landowners – has added to the strain.

Tensions between the Nande and Hutu communities have been growing worse for more than a year, with a series of village attacks by militia groups on both sides in the centre of North Kivu. The province, like much of eastern DRC, has been riven by conflict for more than two decades.

Since December, the DRC’s political crisis has also worsened, with President Joseph Kabila refusing to step down despite his mandate coming to an end.

The international community has urged government and opposition parties in the country to restart deadlocked talks to set up a transition regime ahead of elections due later this year.

Though the vast central African nation is rich in mineral wealth and water, it has long been one of the continent’s poorest nations and rising unrest has only deepened the economic malaise.

Source:AFP

{As the Burundi peace talks come to climax here, some members of the minority groups from the tiny East African nation have emerged, demanding an audience.}

Speaking on behalf of ‘Baswahili group,’ the Kiswahili speakers in Bujumbura, Mr Mugunwe Anzoweeni, demanded the inclusion of the marginalised group, which he said has been sidelined from the talks that envisage a mutual agreement by June, this year.

“We were snubbed even in the original Arusha Peace Accord, which singled out only the Tutsi and Hutu groups as if these are the only tribes in Burundi… we have other smaller tribes as well as people of Asian origin,” he said.

Last week, the police arrested three suspected Burundians here over their alleged attempts to thwart the ongoing Burundi peace talks under former President Benjamin Mkapa’s mediation.

Mr Mkapa in his capacity as the facilitator of the talks at the Arusha International Conference Centre is still convening the dialogue following consultations with other stakeholders within and outside the country.

Initially, eight-point agenda was identified, with parties adopting them as the key sticking points way back in September 2016.

The eight-point agenda, then formed the thrust of the dialogue and subsequent negotiations, including security and commitment to end all forms of violence, commitment to the rule of law and to end impunity.

Mr Mkapa, the talk facilitator, had invited some of the political parties as well as important political actors to convene in the eight-point agenda to determine areas, which can bring lasting ‘peace’ in the country.

He said stakeholders like the civil society organisations, religious groups as well as women and youth will be invited to later sessions.

The facilitator said inputs from participants will draw up an outline of the would-be agreement to be gradually refined until it’s fully agreed by all stakeholders and signed as the final agreement in June, 2017.

Source:Daily News

{The first batch of Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) troops left quietly for Equatorial Guinea late last year for a covert mission of reinforcing security for that country’s president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and officially to strengthen capacity of the Guinean armed forces, according to highly placed military sources.}

The troops, drawn from different army units — Logistics, Special Forces, Intelligence, Medical and Motorised Infantry — are also said to have left with own military hardware, which the army spokesperson Brig Richard Karemire denied but acknowledged that the first batch left last year for “reconnaissance” before others could go.

“There is nothing like that, as if they were going to fight war. That is not correct,” Brig Karemire told Saturday Monitor.

“Equatorial Guinea is a brotherly country to us, and it is for that reason our forces were invited to help train the Guinean forces to attain a certain level of professionalism — that is all.”

He added: “We are helping our brothers on the continent when we are called upon to, and as [Saturday] Monitor, you should be looking at it that way and supporting us.”
According to the US intelligence agency, CIA fact book, Equatorial Guinea has a small army of about 1,500 troops. It has 400 policemen, 200 navy service members, and about 120 in the air force. The country was thrust into the spot recently for granting asylum to former Gambian strongman Yahayah Jammeh, who was forced out after 22 years in power by Economic Community of West Africa. Mr Jammeh had conceded defeat in the elections but later tried to cling on.

{{Long serving leaders}}

President Obiang Nguema is ranked the longest serving non-traditional leader in the world, with 37 years under his belt. He is followed by Angola’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos with 36 years, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe (36 years); Cameroon’s Paul Biya (33 years); Uganda’s President Museveni (31 years); and Sudan’s Omar Bashir (27 years).

Brig Karemire explained that in the one year renewable mission, according to the Status of Forces Agreement, Equatorial Guinea agreed to cater for transport, logistics, feeding, allowances and other incidentals of the Uganda troops.

Although the army says it deployed about 100 troops to the central African oil-producing but impoverished country, sources familiar with the matter put the numbers at more than 150. The last batch of troops are said to have left on January 17.
Uganda already has more than 6,000 troops in Somalia deployed under African Union and two battalions in the Central African Republic hunting down the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels led by Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The first batch that left under the command of Lt Col Wycliffe Keita had prior to the deployment trained at the UPDF camp in Singo. Lt Col Keita recently served in Somalia under United Nations Guard Unit that protects UN installations.

Asked whether before the deployment the army had sought parliamentary approval, Brig Karemire said approvals are requisite when it is a peace-keeping mission “but in this case, it is not.”

Apparently, the deployment was preceded by back and forth engagements at the highest level.

President Nguema’s minister for external security, Mr Juan Antonio Nchuchuma, was in Uganda on July 16 last year and is said to have carried a “special message” for President Museveni with whom they held a private meeting.

On July 28, the former Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Katumba Wamala, flew to Malabo, the country’s capital, with a special “textual message” for president Obiang Nguema and the two discussed military cooperation, according to information available to Saturday Monitor.

{{The Museveni – Nguema affair}}

The 75-year-old Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo assumed power in August 1979 after mounting a coup that toppled his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, who was also the country’s first president. The former, considered likely to have been a psychopath, is regarded as one of post-independent Africa’s cruellest and corrupt leaders.

However, after several years in power, president Obiang Nguema became a copy and paste of his uncle. His single party government is known for its repressive tendencies, crackdown of Opposition, and excessive corruption. According to the International Monetary Fund, Equatorial Guinea boasts the highest level of per capita income in all sub-Saharan Africa, at $22,300 (about Shs79 million) per year, about the same as Portugal but more than three-quarters of the population live below the poverty line.

According to the New York based Natural Resources Governance Institute that monitors transparency in extractives, the country is the third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, supplying 304,000 barrels a day, but its oil revenues are mostly misused.

President Nguema is currently deputised by his son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is seen as the next in line. Junior Nguema is known for living large with mansions in America and Europe. Last October, authorities in Switzerland commenced investigations into the wealth of the young Nguema at the request of France on claims of money laundering.

President Obiang Nguema, like other African strongmen, is known for preaching pan-Africanism, especially during African Union (AU) Summits. The 23rd AU Summit was held in Malabo in 2014.

At President Museveni’s swearing-in for a fifth elective term in office last May, president Obiang Nguema was one of the 11 African leaders that graced the occasion.

Source:Daily Monitor

{Two cases filed in court relating to the procurement of ballot papers and the audit of voters register have now put preparations for the August 8 General Election in jeopardy.}

However, the electoral commission maintains it is on course to deliver a credible election.

With barely six months to go to the election, the High Court has put the electoral commission in a tight spot by making several rulings whose net effect has been to interfere with the strict timelines stipulated in the election law.

One such judgment delivered by Justice George Odunga decreed that all decisions made by the former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) headed by the immediate former chairman Issack Hassan since October 4, last year when they were kicked out of office are null and void.

This means the commission will have to review all such decisions.

But, speaking on Friday, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati maintained the commission still had a lot of room for manoeuvre.

“There is still time for procurement. We will start afresh. Ballot papers will be the last thing we will need as per the timelines, way after nominations. And there are about five options in the procurement law and we will see which one to use,” he said.

If push comes to shove, the IEBC is likely to use direct procurement. Direct procurement is applied if there is no time for prolonged process.

In a judgment that quashed an award of printing papers to a Dubai-based company, Al Ghurair Print and Publishing, Justice Odunga said the commissioners’ decision was done illegally.

{{‘TRANSITION CLAUSE’}}

“In my view, once an office is declared vacant, unless there is a transition clause that deems the holder thereof to be still in office, it would, with respect, amount to an aberration to contend that the person whose position is declared vacant is still in the office. In my view, the declaration of a vacancy has the effect of compelling the holder of the office to vacate the office unless otherwise ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction. Once an office becomes vacant it is, in effect, empty and it cannot be contended that an empty office can make decisions.”

“Since the President had declared the offices vacant, the power and authority delegated to the members of the commission cannot be exercised in an acting capacity in circumstances where the Constitution has not donated or granted the mandate or competence,” Justice Odunga added.

The State has said it intends to appeal the decision.

The judge argued that a shoddy job may have ramifications in future.

“All the processes leading to the elections are subject to scrutiny and may well be grounds for nullification of elections. Therefore, to avoid such an eventuality, the preparations leading to the elections must meet the minimum standards articulated in Article 81 of the Constitution that the election system must be free and fair; transparent; and administered in an impartial, neutral, efficient, accurate and accountable manner,” he concluded.

{{UPDATED REGISTER}}

This comes as the commission moves to have an updated register after the second phase of the mass voter registration, which will end on Sunday. In the coming days, the commission has its work cut out as it moves to consolidate the register. From tomorrow it will register all the collated data from regional offices. On Thursday, all registration data will be transferred to the commission’s headquarters at Anniversary Towers in Nairobi to be uploaded to servers, an exercise that should be completed by February 27.

Starting March 1, the IEBC will process updates and transfers before eliminating duplicates and reconciling data on the register, an exercise that is expected to go on until March 31.

Public verification will commence on May 10 and end a month later.

{{CORD CASE}}

But even as Mr Chebukati exudes confidence that the commission is on course to delivering a credible election, it still has to contend with yet another court case filed by the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) stopping audit of the voters register by audit firm KPMG.

The court has issued temporary orders stopping the audit exercise pending the outcome of the case.

The Orange Democratic Movement’s director of elections, Junet Mohamed, dismissed accusations levelled against Cord by the Jubilee coalition that the cases are tailor made to ensure the country does not go to the polls in August, opening a window for Cord to push for the formation of a caretaker government.

“What we are keen on is a credible process leading to election. We cannot close our eyes as illegitimacy happens. Why is Jubilee speaking for IEBC on preparedness?” he posed.

Source:Daily Nation