Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{Tanzania has called for the African Union and the international community to support various peacekeeping missions led by regional groupings in Africa.}}

President Jakaya Kikwete made the call in Dar es Salaam yesterday as he opened the 368th ministerial meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council.

President Kikwete said since regional groupings are the ones close to the countries that experience political instability, it is wise for the AU and international community to work with regional groupings to find the solution.

“Since AU is a big organ, it is better for it to support regional groupings like Sadc and Ecowas in tackling conflicts in Africa because through regional groupings, it becomes much easier to coordinate these missions,” he said.

However, President Kikwete warned the AU and the international community not to take roles that contradict those led by regional groupings.

Speaking about the AU fiftieth anniversary scheduled for next month, President Kikwete called for AU member states to remain resolute in insuring democracy and the rule of law flourish in Africa.

“We have come a long way as a continent, from the days of frequent military coups to the present situation where there are very few conflicts,” said he.

Speaking about the meeting, the minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Bernard Membe, said among other issues, the meeting will discuss about the political crisis in Madagascar.

According to him, since the AU Peace and Security Council was formed in 2004, it has already held more than 200 meetings in resolving conflicts and crises in Africa.

For his part, the AU peace and security commissioner, Mr Ramtane Lamamra, said the meeting will receive a report from the Madagascar political crisis mediator, the former Mozambique president, Mr Joachim Chisano.

Mr Lamamra said he was optimistic that the Madagascar crisis will soon be addressed because all stakeholders in Madagascar have been involved in mediation meetings.

According to him, the meeting will thoroughly discuss measures on how the crisis should be addressed. Mr Lamamra commended Tanzania for its role in addressing political crisis in Africa.

“For the past fifty years, Tanzania has played a big role in addressing political crisis in Africa…the most recent example was how President Kikwete was involved in solving a political crisis in Kenya,” said he.

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{{A South African, Gauteng High Court has thrown out a case filed by Hydraform International (PTY) Limited against a Ugandan expatriate working there. }}

The court presided over by High Court Judge Mathibedi A J ruled that businessman Harrison Busingye who owns shares in Hydraform a block making machines company had a right to sell out his shares to willing buyers.

Hydraform management had obtained an X- party order to attach all his shares.

Busingye one of the former directors has 5.64 percent shares circa $1.185m (shs3bn) of the total Hydraform Holdings.

In a 30 page judgment, Mathibedi pointed out that the application and granting of the order for attachment was erroneously sought and erroneously granted in Busingye’s absence.

Busingye appealed against the respondents’ decision to drag him to court after they sought to dismiss him as one of the directors of the firm and deny him his shares in the company.

“That’s because the applicant is an incola of this court, his property should not have be attached. Section 28 (1) of the Supreme Court Act 59 of 1959 (The Act) prohibits the “attachment of person or property to found jurisdiction (being) ordered by a court of any division against a person who is resident in the Republic,” said the judge.

According to the case number 09675/2012 the judge noted that “…..it is an essential principle of South African Law that a person. That the court should not make an order that may prejudice the rights of parties before it.”

The court ruled that it was wrong for the respondent (Hydraform) to cancel the expatriates’ work permit on flimsy grounds.

The judge noted that Busingye still had an active bank account, was a resident with a known residential address, had a child studying in South Africa and has a tax identification number.

The court ordered Hydraform to pay the costs of the suit and rescinded an earlier judgment made by his Lordship Justice Nicolls on March 20 2012.

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{{In Kenya, Police in Kisumu have arrested a woman in connection to the theft of a police officer’s pistol that occurred in a hotel on the night of April 14.}}

The policeman was part of a team that had been providing bodyguard duties to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga when he visited the region.

Nyanza police Boss Joseph ole Tito on Monday confirmed the arrest and said that the woman is helping police in investigating the matter. He however declined to disclose further details.

The woman is expected to be arraigned in court on Tuesday.

The gun, a Ceska pistol, had nine 15-millimetre bullets.

Sources say that the officer whose firearm was stolen spent the night at Kisumu’s Dalc hotel with the woman. On waking up, he found the woman and his gun missing.

He had retired to the hotel after carrying out escort duties to the former PM who had visited Suba district on that day.

Police are investigating the possibility that the pistol was used by a criminal gang to commit robberies in Migosi and Gudka estate over the weekend.

“These were serious robberies and they took place just after a police officer attached to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s guard lost his pistol.

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{{A Somali journalist working for the government broadcaster was shot dead outside his home in the capital Mogadishu on Sunday, the fourth reporter to be murdered in the country this year, the union of journalists said.}}

Mohamed Ibrahim Rageh, who worked for Somali National Television and Radio Mogadishu, was killed by unknown assailants as he returned home after work, according to Abdirahim Isse Addow, director of Radio Mogadishu, who was quoted by the National Union of Somali Journalists.

Three other journalists had been killed in Somalia so far this year, the union said.

Rageh’s murder came a week after at least 30 people were killed by a car bomb, suicide bombers and gunmen at Mogadishu’s law courts and a car bomb explosion near the airport.

The attacks were blamed on Islamist militants al Shabaab, who afterwards warned of more to come.

{Agencies}

{{In the lead up to Kenya’s March 4 general election, Kenyans on Twitter (KoT) were increasingly vocal about the stories surrounding the polls, that ‘Western’ media chose to cover.}}

One international correspondent in particular attracted a barrage of criticism from KoT for allegedly stage-managing a report showing some Rift Valley residents planning retribution attacks for the 2007/8 post election violence and the government was not far behind in its criticism of the story.

It is in light of these recent events that a Kenyan student studying at the Washington and Lee University in the American state of Virginia sought to establish from her fellow students whether the apprehension that ‘Western’ media deliberately portrays Africa in a negative light goes beyond KoT.

In a documentary titled Africa in Western Media, Waringa Kamau speaks to both African students at the campus as well as students from the ‘West’ and the consensus, it appears, is the same; a lot of the ‘Western’ media reports on Africa are not flattering to the continent.

“They portray Africa as a place where there are starving children, and they always will need help,” one student from the ‘West’ told Kamau with another concurring, “I guess the first thing that I think of are those commercials that have the starving children with the bones sticking out.”

It is these images which helped the Live Aid concert of 1985 raise billions of pounds to help fight famine in Ethiopia; close to 30 years on however, Kamau feels these depiction of Africa is outdated.

“When I first came here, I had a really hard time adjusting to Lexington because it’s a very tiny town. I shared this with a friend and he looked at me and dismissed what I had said because in his mind I should be used to rural environments,” Kamau narrates in her documentary.

Emmanuel Abrebrese, another Washington and Lee student, from Ghana has also had to deal with the negative impressions created by biased broadcasts on Africa, “Sometimes when I’m speaking English people ask how I do so fluently and assume I must have lived here for some time implying that in order to speak good English you must have lived in the states for a long time but there are good schools in Ghana and that’s where I learnt most of my English.”

“Imagine if African media only told Africans of the shootings in New Town Chicago and Virginia Tech and that became the only story that Africans ever heard about America?” Kamau reasons, “Africa just like the rest of the world has its own set of challenges, but these are not the only story (to be told).”

Another student, Johanna Cho, however believes it will be an uphill battle before stories told by the ‘Western’ media on Africa gain more balance, “People already have an attitude and mindset about Africa and to have the media stray from that storyline is going to be disconcerting to people or they won’t believe it… I think it’s hard to break the mould.”

Blaise Buma, a Washington and Lee student from Cameroon agrees with Cho, “Everyone knows of Somalia, everyone knows of the Boko Haram in Nigeria. Those are the kinds of stories that people always want to read about and that makes it difficult for journalists to go into Africa and provide a balanced report.”

In her documentary, Kamau still insists that change will come, one tweet at a time, “Africans, especially young people are using social media to challenge stereotypical images that make headlines in the West… I believe young Africans can contribute by being more vocal about their experiences and the great things they are doing on the continent.”

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{{South Sudan army (SPLA) Chief of General Staff, Gen. James Hoth Mai has warned the military to stay away from politics and misuse by politicians.}}

The senior military official, while addressing the SPLA forces in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state Saturday, told the forces not to be affected by disagreements between politicians in the capital, Juba, in direct reference to the recent contest between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar.

“Don’t allow yourselves to be misused by politicians in Juba. Some may come to you and say where are my people in the army…so that we can beat those Dinkas or those Nuers. No, only when they come with their ballot boxes is when we shall make choices and vote the ones we want,” he said in a statement .

Gen. Mai reminded the army of their constitutional mandate to protect the people of South Sudan from external threats, but not to be used by politicians for their personal gains.

“This army doesn’t belong to anybody,” he said, adding that politicians should play their politics without involving the army.

There has been unease in recent weeks as the ruling party (SPLM) prepares for its national convention in which to confirm President Kiir, also the current chair of the party, or elect a new chairman who will also be its flag bearer for the upcoming 2015 presidential elections.

The president also issued an order withdrawing some of unspecified delegated powers from the vice president, which caused public outcry.

There have been speculations that the recent shakeup of the army, from removal of deputies to the chief of general staff, was an attempt to maintain political loyalty in the army, which the army command refuted and described as normal.

Four candidates have emerged, in accordance with the recent party’s political bureau meeting, which also urged Kiir to step down.

Among the four senior officials who have expressed their intention to contest include Machar, who also doubles as the party’s deputy chairman, second deputy chairman, James Wani Igga, and Secretary General, Pagan Amum Okiech.

The ruling party has, however, not set the date for the said national convention, which was supposed to take place next month, according to its normal schedule in five years.

The last convention was conducted in May 2008.

(ST)