Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{Lack of a policy on regional integration makes it hard for Tanzania’s representatives in the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) to articulate the nation’s position, according to the legislators.}}

The MPs have also accused the Ministry of East African Cooperation of sidelining them in issues pertaining to the integration process.

They expresed these sentiments Wednesday during discussions with Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Committee.

One of the Eala members, Mr Abdul Mwinyi, said although Tanzania was signatory to the integration agreement, the country had not yet formulated the relevant implementation policy.

“Rwanda and Burundi, which joined the EAC a few years ago have already formulated their integration policies,” he said. Mr Mwinyi added that lack of a policy meant that Tanzania had not defined what its position was and what the country wanted.

“The major challenge that Eala members from Tanzania are facing is the fact that the country does not have an integration policy that defines its interests,” he said.

Ms Shy-Rose Bhanji said the East African Cooperation ministry was not cooperative, adding that they felt that the ministry had abandoned them.

She said the ministry was sidelining them from the integration process.Ms Bhanji added that the East African Cooperation deputy minister once said that the Eala members had nothing to do with the ministry, which was not obliged to consult them.

“We have not been told what we are supposed to do to safeguard the country’s interests. Even the ministry does not recognise us because the deputy minister once said that we are not under it,” she said.

The Eala members also complained that they had no official offices for carrying out their day-to-day duties. They added that they lacked research experts to help them deal with technical issues.

Reacting to the remarks, the committee’s chairperson, Mr Mussa Azzan, said the team would today meet East African Cooperation ministry officials and present the legislators’ grievances. He said the committee would also advise the ministry to complete drafting the integration policy.

Full East African Co-operation operations started in 1996 when the Secretariat of the Permanent Tripartite Commission was launched in Arusha.

Considering the need to consolidate regional co-operation, the East African Heads of State, at their second summit in Arusha in 1997, directed the Permanent Tripartite Commission to start the process of upgrading the Agreement establishing the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation into a treaty.

{{The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has allowed the prosecutor to amend charges facing president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta.}}

Pre-Trial judge Ekaterina Trendafilova granted Fatou Bensouda permission to add charges to state that “victims were also killed by gunshot in Naivasha.”

“Thus, from an evidentiary perspective, the prosecutor has fulfilled her statutory duty by presenting evidence which supports her allegation that victims were also killed by gunshot in Naivasha.

Suffice to mention that the four witness statements presented by the prosecutor reveal that guns such as G3 rifles and more commonly AK47s were used in the killings of Luos in Naivasha. As the Appeals Chamber has stated in one of its early judgments,” Trendafilova said in her communication.

Trendafilova further explained that by amending the charges, no new charges were introduced since it was the Pre-Trial Chamber that dismissed the allegations by the prosecution that victims were shot using guns after the prosecution failed to provide evidence to prove it.

“The chamber explicitly rejected the prosecutor’s allegation that weapons were used in Naivasha due to lack of evidence, and stated: The chamber clarifies that the use of weapons and uniforms is established by the evidence only in relation to the events in Nakuru.

Conversely, the chamber does not at this stage of the proceedings find sufficient evidence to substantiate the prosecutor’s allegation that weapons and uniforms were used in Naivasha,” Trendafilova recalled.

“Thus, it is apparent that the nature of the requested amendment does not aim at adding an additional charge or substituting an existing charge with a more serious one.

Rather, it is a re-insertion, on the basis of the new evidence presented, of an already known specific factual allegation for an existing charge of murder in Naivasha – a location that has already been referred to in the Confirmation of Charges Decision.

It follows that the Single Judge does not need to hold a hearing for the purpose of deciding on the prosecutor’s request,” she asserted.

Though the prosecution is not allowed to do investigations after confirmation of charges according to the Rome Statute, the judge said under special circumstances it is allowed to continue with investigations even after charges are confirmed based on reasons given by the prosecutor in her request.

Trendafilova said based on complaints by the prosecution that the government of Kenya failed to cooperate with the court and was also unwilling to submit required information to help in the investigations, the Pre-Trial Chamber allowed the prosecution to continue with investigations after charges had already been confirmed.

She also based the approval on security challenges owing it to the alleged intimidation of victims and witnesses.

Another concern that allowed the prosecution to continue with investigations at such a stage was also the challenges that it faced in getting ‘insider witnesses to provide information to the court.’

“In the context of the present case, the prosecutor managed to furnish the chamber not only with evidence supporting the existence of the factual allegation, but also with a reasonable justification for the continuation of her investigation subsequent to the confirmation hearing,” Trendafilova asserted.

Kenyatta’s legal team on Monday urged the ICC to dismiss the case against him after prosecutors last week dramatically dropped all charges against his co-accused former Head of the Civil Service Francis Muthaura after a key witness withdrew testimony.

It was the first time ICC prosecutor decided to drop a case since the world’s first permanent independent war crimes court began operating in 2002.

Lawyer Steven Kay on Monday said all the five charges against Uhuru should now also be reconsidered.

On Wednesday, Bensouda said she would not drop the crimes against humanity charges facing the president-elect.

She told reporters in Paris that it is only a question of when and not if, Uhuru goes to trial.

Kenyatta’s trial is scheduled to begin in July and he has repeatedly vowed to cooperate with the legal proceedings.

Capitalfm

{{President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta asked Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is disputing his declaration as winner of March 4 to stop speaking about results, but wait for Supreme Court ruling on filed petitions.}}

But in a quick rejoinder Raila who is the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy leader said he would not keep quiet about outcome and petition because it is a political process.

He, however, insisted he would not touch on contents of the case his alliance filed challenging Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s declaration of Uhuru as the winner.

“This is a political process petitioning the presidential election. That is why it is in court. I can’t stop speaking about it. The only thing I cannot do is to talk about the contents of the case,” Raila told CORD leaders at Bomas of Kenya.

Coincidentally Raila’s meeting took place at the place where IEBC had its National Tallying Centre, where the disputed results were received amid rampant complaints of technological failures and collapse of transmission systems.

Uhuru had asked Raila to stop stoking tension over the Supreme Court petition challenging his election as the country’s Fourth President. Uhuru told the Premier to await the ruling on the petition before the Supreme Court, which today is scheduled to mention the three petitions filed.

It was the first time that the President-elect had responded to utterances by Raila who is maintaining IEBC failed the integrity test and did not deliver a credible election process.

Raila filed a petition on Saturday at the highest court in the land seeking to nullify IEBC’s announcement of Uhuru as the winner.

Yesterday, Uhuru accused Raila of politicising the petition claiming the CORD leader had embarked on a public campaign allegedly to influence the outcome of Supreme Court petition.

“Let us give the court a chance. There is no need to discuss the dispute outside the court,” Uhuru said. He spoke while on a tour of the Port of Mombasa accompanied by Deputy President-elect William Ruto.

Uhuru reiterated his Jubilee alliance would abide by the court verdict and that they expected the PM to do the same.

“As we have said before, we will respect the court verdict. If things are good we are ready to work. We are asking Kenyans to uphold peace as we await the court decision,” he said.

Raila filed one of the petitions in which he claims the IEBC oversaw a flawed process based on a tainted voters’ register and inflated figures. IEBC lawyers were due to file the commission’s response last evening.

{standard}

{{The International Criminal Court Prosecution was on Monday tasked to explain how President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta would be charged for contributing to a common plan on his own, after withdrawal of charges against his co-accused Francis Muthaura.}}

Presiding Judge Kuniko Ozaki pressed prosecution lawyer Sam Lowery to explain how Kenyatta individually constituted a common plan in the absence of his co-accused.

Apart from Muthaura being exonerated, charges were not confirmed against former police chief Hussein Ali, who faced similar charges.

“This requires that each joint perpetrator is able to frustrate the commission of the crime by not performing his or her tasks. This means that the common plan could not have succeeded without the contribution of Muthaura or a common plan does not even exist without contribution of Muthaura,” Ozaki argued.

“The acts attributed to Kenyatta we are going to maintain that those acts are attributable to him. The acts that are overlapping between Muthaura and Kenyatta, we would indeed still attribute those to Kenyatta,” Prosecution lawyer Adesola Adeboyejo argued.

Ozaki asked, “You still maintain there was a common plan although now it is not with Muthaura?”

Adeboyejo said: “There is no legal basis why we cannot charge Kenyatta alone even though there was a common plan.”

The prosecution further argued that dropping charges against one co-perpetrator did not mean that charges against the other should also be dropped.

Ozaki asked the prosecution if it wanted to formerly amend the charges to do away with a common plan but the prosecution said it will not make such changes and that charges will remain as a common plan even after dropping charges against Kenyatta’s co-accused Muthaura.

The prosecution was further tasked to explain how Kenyatta’s plan was essential to carry out a common plan in which he is now the only accused. “Common plan means two people making several plans to a common plan.”

Kenyatta’s lawyer Stephen Kay argued; “a common plan to execute crime collapses once the co-perpetrator is withdrawn or shielded.”

He argued that the prosecution did not have enough evidence and that it also failed to listen to earlier warnings given by the defence teams on weak evidence.

He also claimed that prosecution was relying on ‘fraudulent’ witnesses 11 and 12 who gave evidence based on hearsay to support evidence given by witness number four who is no longer in the prosecution list.

Kay also claimed that there were inconsistencies in the evidence provided by other witnesses hence asked the court to refer Kenyatta’s case to the confirmation stage.

“This case was done in a complete rush. There have been significant errors in prosecution decision making. Prosecution has lost the backbone of the case,” Kay argued.

Due to lack of time as put by Ozaki, Kay was asked to make written submissions to support his arguments.

{{Authorities in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State said they destroyed over 300kgs of the illegal drug opium, intercepted from motorists and cyclists in its checkpoint at Lainya County, located 50 miles south of its capital, Juba.}}

Stephen Lukadi Laila, the area Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officer says has been difficult to arrest those involved in the illegal drug trade, due to the absence of roadblocks in the country.

The arrest, he said, followed an order issued by the Lainya County commissioner last year, which instructed authorities to check all en-route to and from Juba, via the county’s territory.

“More than 22 cases [of opium] have been reported to police authorities since December last year and four were referred to Juba high court,” the CID boss told the press Monday, adding that two cases remain under investigation.

Ajac Tong Dut, one of the arrested suspects, said they deal in the drug to earn a living, saying trade in the illegal drug is on the rise due to the increasing costs of living in the new nation.

The official, however, appealed to the local government sector to approve the establishment of permanent check points in Lainya County to curb illegal dealings in drugs.

According to section 383 of South Sudan Local Government Act, 2008, a person convicted of dealing in illegal drug, pays a fine of at least 500SSP ($125) or serves three year in prison.

(ST).

{{Experts from the East African Community are meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi to discuss plans to empower border communities through the modernization of locally shared markets}}.

The 18 to 20 March 2013 meeting organized in collaboration with the African Trade Policy Centre (APTC) will take place at Hotel Safari Gate and is a follow-up on the 1st Meeting of Experts in Kigali, Rwanda held June 2011 where a proposal for a project entitled “Empowering Border Communities through Modernization of Shared Markets” was considered.

The Kigali meeting recommended, among others, construction of shared markets, storage facilities, improving water and sanitation and building feeder and access roads for border communities.

Border communities all over East Africa would also benefit from electrification, health care centers, garbage collection posts and police posts once the project gets off the ground.

Next week’s meeting in Bujumbura is expected to consider and finalize the detailed draft project report; recommend locations/sites in the five Partner States where the proposed project facilities will be set up; and agree on a roadmap for mobilizing resources for implementation of the project by June 2014.

The 18-20 March experts’ meeting will then recommend to the Sectoral Council on Gender, Youth, Children, Social Protection and Community Development to adopt the project.

{{Sudan has no chances of succeeding if it goes ahead to work with forces opposed to the Government to bring about positive political influence, a top Government official has said.}}

Uganda Tuesday responded to remarks made by the Sudanese speaker of the national assembly Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir.

“They can try but there is no chance of succeeding. We have no intentions whatsoever of overthrowing Sudanese government,” Foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa said.

He maintained that Uganda does not support any rebel group to over throw a legitimate government.

Al-Tahir did not provide any details on Khartoum’s efforts in this regard but his remarks signal a new stage in the already-sour relations between Sudan and Uganda.

The Sudanese government was infuriated this year after rebel forces and opposition groups signed an accord in Kampala last January calling for toppling the regime of president Omer Hassan al-Bashir.

This has prompted Khartoum to lodge several complaints with the African Union (AU) and other regional blocs against Kampala saying the latter is supporting regime change in Sudan.

However, Uganda’s foreign affairs state minister Henry Okello Oryem dismissed the allegations at the time, calling it “the usual Sudanese rubbish”.

Sudanese officials have also suggested that they may ask some of the staff at the Ugandan embassy to leave the country in retaliation.

In a separate issue al-Tahir said that he is consulting with Bashir, defense minister, and intelligence director regarding a possible general but conditional amnesty to rebel groups.

He vowed to receive those who put down their arms in a good manner and integrate them in political or military institutions.

“We want to rid them of the leadership that is taking them to [the path] war and destruction and adopting agendas that does not belong to them” the speaker said.

A number of rebel groups have formed what is known as the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) which includes movements from Darfur as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) that is fighting Khartoum in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

NV

Prime Minister Raila Odinga embarked on a visit of the coastal town of Mombasa and claimed he won the March 4 election.

Offering new figures to back up his claim, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader said the final tally was manipulated after he garnered “5.7 million votes against President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta’s 4.5 million”.

In the March 4 election, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared Uhuru the duly elected President of Kenya having garnered over six million votes against Raila’s over five million votes.

Raila said they would present evidence to prove the claims to the Supreme Court in a petition seeking to reverse Uhuru’s election. ?“Uhuru got 4.5 million votes while I garnered 5.7 million votes. What you saw being remitted from Bomas (the national tallying centre) were dramatised results. You are going to know what IEBC did,” he told the cheering crowds. ?

Raila, who embarked on roadside rallies at the coastal city, told his supporters that CORD’s lawyers would demonstrate to the Supreme Court many forms of malpractices and inflated figures.

He told thousands of supporters who jammed the Moi International Airport in Mombasa that their faith in him would finally be vindicated.

And as Raila landed at the Coast, the President-elect and his deputy, William Ruto, retreated to a luxurious Al Manara Resort in Kwale County.

Ruto joined Uhuru who has been at the Coast since Saturday.

Ruto touched down at the Ukunda Airstrip exactly at 1:06pm aboard a Kenya Police 5Y-GSU jet and declined to talk to the media terming his visit as private.

Raila and CORD received the majority of votes in the region in the March 4 election, capturing 18 out of the 27 parliamentary seats on offer.

{standard}