Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{British High Commission in Kenya has dismissed claims that High Commissioner Dr Christian Turner had taken sides in the just concluded presidential elections.}}

In a statement to the press, the British Foreign Office spokesperson Mr John Bradsaw said the allegations by the Jubilee Coalition against the diplomat are malicious and unfounded.

Mr Bradsaw also explained that the presence of the British military in Kenya is official and restricted to training activities in well-defined areas in agreement with the Kenyan authorities.

“British soldiers currently in Kenya are here as part of the regular training programme at British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) agreed with the Kenyan MoD. This routine exercise is completely unrelated to the Kenyan elections, and was planned nine months ago,” read the statement.

Mr Bradsaw further stated: “Claims of British interference, including by the High Commission, in the electoral process are entirely false and misleading.”

He further explained that British citizens engaged in the electoral process, including a 40 member observer delegation, were properly accredited by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

“Alongside six independent observer missions and representatives from the rest of the diplomatic community, the UK has had 40 electoral observers accredited by the IEBC observing the elections across the country,” the statement stated.

Further the British Foreign Office official reiterated that United Kingdom does not have any position on who is elected Kenya’s President and urged politicians to avoid making inflammatory statements and take disputes to court.

“The UK does not have a position on the question of how to handle the rejected votes. That is for the IEBC, and if necessary Kenyan courts, to determine,” the statement said.

Earlier the Jubilee coalition raised complaints over Dr Turner’s conduct, accusing him of interfering with the process.

“ The Jubilee Coalition is however, deeply concerned about the shadowy, suspicious and rather animated involvement of the British High Commissioner to Kenya Dr Christian Turner in Kenya’s 2013 General Election,” the statement read.

URP Chairman Francis Kaparo, addressing the press at the Bomas of Kenya, demanded that the rejected votes should be isolated in computing the final Presidential results.

“Counting the rejected votes is like walking to city mortuary and counting all dead bodies together with the living people,” Mr Kaparo stated.

He claimed that a parallel tallying by the Jubilee team had pointed to a strong Jubilee win.

“Even if they count the spoilt votes whether they like it or not we have won this elections. Let us just wait and see. It is round one for us,”he said.

At the same time Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Coalition for Reforms and Democracy relocated its base to Tipuana Gardens near the Bomas of Kenya from where its team would be monitoring the computation of results.

NMG

Burundi Chief Justice Emmanuel Jenje has pledged full support to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) in promoting regional integration.

Officially launching the EACJ’s last sub-registry in Bujumbura, Burundi, He noted;

“The Burundi judiciary and government will consistently support the EACJ in raising awareness to promote the integration agenda for the mutual benefit of people in the region.”

He said the Burundi judiciary has always offered cooperation to the EACJ, pointing out that its two judges also serve the EACJ.

He named them as Justice Laurent Nzosaba attached to the EACJ Appellate Division and Justice Jean Bosco Butasi who serves at the First Instance Division of the Court.

“We have never failed to release them whenever the need for serving interests of the EACJ has risen,” the Chief Justice said.

Expressing his pleasure to officiate the launching of the EACJ sub-registry, he advised the EACJ as well as other agencies and institutions to sustain this cooperation.

He said it would embrace many areas of interest, such as training programmes for judges and judicial officers who will administer EAC laws as integration picks up.

CJ Jenje said the sub-registry will help Burundians who wish to file cases at the EACJ do so without the various challenges associated with filing cases in another country.

It will no longer just be hearing about ‘‘The Arusha Court,’ they will start actually seeing their “East African Community Court” among them.

The Burundi minister in the Office of the Presidency in charge of EAC Affairs, Ms Leontine Nzeyimana, commended the decision of the EAC Council of Ministers to allow the Court to open sub-registries in partner states.

She said: “The ministers took this decision mindful of the fact that our citizens today demand that we deliver the justice that they deserve; the one that is accessible, affordable, impartial and qualitative.

“The hope of the council and the entire EAC is that these sub-registries will contribute to the noble goals,” noted Ms Nzeyimana.

She added that the sub-registry will assist those who feel aggrieved by laws or decisions that seem to violate the EAC Treaty and hence undermine the goals and objectives of integration.

Further, it will assist those who wish to have a determination of the EACJ and hopefully a remedial decision of the court.

Ms Nzeyimana emphasised that to have sub-registries within the member states was even more important because the role of the EACJ is expanding in response to the EAC becoming more people-centred and market driven.

The operation of the EA Common Market Protocol will certainly create more demand for judicial services win member states.

Hence the sub-registries will cater for a bigger workloads and enable the EACJ to function efficiently and effectively.

EACJ Judge President Harold Nsekela also informed delegates that several milestones and development process have been achieved.

He said the court expects to see and realise more tangible benefits of integration for East Africans in the coming years.

He told Burundi residents that the EACJ has abolished court fees and was in the process of gazetting its rules.

He reminded people who come to the court under Article 30 of the Treaty to respect the time limit of two months imposed for aggrieved persons to act.

The function was also witnessed by the President of the Constitutional Court of Burundi, Lady Justice Christine Nzeyimana, judges and Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Burundi Chapter, members of law institutions, media and other stake holders.

Thecitizen

{{The U.N. Security Council hopes to approve by the end of March a special force to combat rebels in the DRCongo, but some members have concerns that need to be addressed first, Russia’s U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin said on Tuesday.}}

While Churkin did not divulge these concerns, some diplomats worry the creation of the intervention force within the existing peacekeeping operation, known as MONUSCO, could lead to two competing units.

They want more detail on the new unit’s command structure.

“We think it’s very important that the intervention force is fully integrated into MONUSCO,” said one senior council envoy, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“I don’t see opposition” to the proposal, he said, “but we need a lot of clarification.”

South Africa, Tanzania and Mozambique are the most likely candidates to supply the several thousand soldiers needed for the intervention force, but diplomats have questions about the ability of those troops to take on the rebel groups, including the M23, which have taken parts of eastern Congo.

“A lot of hard work is ahead of us in the next few weeks,” Churkin told reporters after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefed the 15-member council on his proposal to strengthen and define MONUSCO’s mandate and create the intervention force.

“There are some issues to be sorted out … Hopefully by the end of the month we will be able to adopt that mandate” resolution, said Churkin.

M23 began taking parts of eastern Congo early last year, accusing the government of failing to honor a 2009 peace deal.

That deal ended a previous rebellion and led to the rebels’ integration into the army, but they have since deserted.

“The intervention brigade will be tasked with containing the expansion of both Congolese and foreign armed groups, neutralizing these groups, and disarming them,” Ban told the Security Council on Tuesday.

In practical terms, U.N. diplomats say, troops in the brigade will have more freedom to open fire without being required to wait until they are attacked first, a limitation that is standard for U.N. peacekeepers deployed around the world.

African leaders signed a U.N .-mediated deal late last month aimed at ending two decades of conflict in Congo’s east and paving the way for the intervention force.

{{Dozens of people were killed when a plane crashed into a residential area of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in bad weather on Monday, police said.}}

At least three survivors were taken to hospital, police sources said, though the exact number of passengers on board was still unclear.

The aircraft, a Fokker belonging to the local CAA company, was coming from the central mining town of Lodja and went down just before landing at Goma airport, the sources said.

The accident took place during heavy rainfall.

“We don’t yet know the number of victims because we’re still looking to get the (passenger) manifest from Lodja. But we estimate there could be between 30 and 50 deaths,” Julien Paluku, governor of North Kivu province said.

Aircraft accidents are frequent in the vast DR Congo, where many planes are old and airports lack modern equipment.

All of the country’s roughly 50 airlines are on the blacklist of the European Union, which has banned them from its airspace.

In February 2012, a close aide to DR Congo President Joseph Kabila was killed when his plane overshot the runway at Bukavu airport in the country’s east.

{wirestory}

{{The EAC secretary general, Richard Sezibera last week told a meeting of manufacturers in Kampala that regional governments are the ones to blame for failing to institute structures that could ease investment in the five member states.}}

The blame, he said, should not be put on the secretariat as a number of channels have been devised but have not been implemented by the regional governments.

“We all acknowledge that we must remove non-tariff barriers, improve infrastructure as well as encourage import substitution, but why isn’t this implemented?” he said.

He added that EAC member states must reconcile their long term visions within EAC’s long term strategies which seek to develop the region.

However, he said regional governments have failed to implement agreed upon strategies as discussed by the EAC secretariat. “It is clear that we must invest in industrialisation if we want integration to succeed. We must stop talking about it and start doing it,” said Mr Sezibera.

He added that integration would remain an illusion as long as member governments fail to implement agreed upon commitments.

{{Facing challenges}}

Members of the five East African states continue to face challenges especially in the movement of goods and services contrary to the EAC deliberations and targets.

The Uganda Manufacturers’ Association chairman, Kaddu Kiberu in his remarks said manufacturers and the entire private sector continue to grapple with poor infrastructure due to lack of implementation of commitments.

“We have spoken about NTBs for years but nothing has happened. And we will continue to talk about them until such a time when EAC governments see some reason to implement them.”

However, Mr David Wakikona, the state minister for Trade said the government was doing whatever is possible with a target of achieving the aims of the EAC.

He said: “…Ofcourse government cannot do enough but it is doing something and we are growing.”

Infrastructure development is another area that he said government is committed to not just internally but regionally as well.

Meanwhile Prof Samuel Ssejaka of Makerere University Business School, said in a presentation that EAC member states must invest in agriculture due to the region’s comparative advantage.

He said the EAC has the ability to fetch more revenue from agribusiness related investments – including positioning itself as the food basket of Africa.

He added that the private sector must not let politicians lead the integration process but work together as partners.

Monitor

{{UN chief Ban Ki-moon Monday welcomed Somalia’s release from jail of a woman who told a journalist she was raped by security forces, but expressed regret the journalist would remain behind bars.}}

A Somali appeals court dropped charges on Sunday against the woman, who had been sentenced to a year in jail for “offending state institutions,” but reporter Abdiaziz Abdinuur’s sentence was merely cut in half, to six months.

In a statement, Secretary General Ban urged “the Government of Somalia to ensure that allegations of sexual violence are investigated and perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Abdinuur, 25, was detained on January 10 while researching sexual violence in Somalia, but did not air or print any report after interviewing the woman.

He was also found guilty of making a false interview, and entering the house of a woman whose husband was not present.

NMG

{{Somali government has opposed gathering of local political forces in the southern port city of Kismayu aimed at forming an administration for the region which was retaken from the rebel group Al-Shabaab last year.}}

In a statement late Friday the Somali Prime Minister Office expressed regret at the Kismayu meeting which it described as “unconstitutional” and “unilateral”.

“It’s important that what’s happening in Kismayo only takes place within – and not outside – the constitutional framework,” Mr Abdi Farah Shirdon said.

“According to our constitutional mandate, the government won’t accept anything less than correct procedure,” he added.

“We have been extremely inclusive throughout all consultative engagements and played a facilitative role in Baidoa (in Southwestern Somalia) and in Beled Weyne (in Central Somalia), and we expect to do the same in Kismayo as we move towards a federal state.”

“This unilateral act, carried out without reference to the federal government, violates the constitution and is an obstacle to peaceful political development. It neither serves the best interest of the local communities in the area nor that of the new Somali state,”

He emphasised that only the government could call for a conference.

Last year allied Kenya contingent of the African Union peacekeeping Mission (Amison) and Somali government forces as well as local clan militias ousted the militant Islamist Al-Shabaab fighters from the border regions Middle and Lower Juba provinces.

Local leaders in Kisamyo said that it was their constitutional right to form an administration to be called Jubaland for the three provinces along the Kenya-Somalia border but the Somali government object to it, saying: “The government’s constitutional mandate is to establish a federal state as the end goal.”

NMG

{{Uganda is in a state of panic after suspected heavily armed rebels on Monday morning attacked an army barracks located at Mbuya a suburb in Uganda’s Capital Kampala. }}

Some Sources have linked that attack to Ugandan rebels based in the DRC which have been reportedly planning attacks in Uganda.

State media reported 4 of the suspected attackers have been arrested, one killed as Ugandan soldiers pursued them. Others are said to be on the run.

Its alleged they intended to loot an armoury at the Barracks but were repulsed.

This is the first time since 1986 when Gen. Yoweri Museveni captured power that a military Barracks has been attacked.

The exact numbers of the attackers have not yet been established but are said to be more than 50 armed men.

Uganda’s Army spokesperson Col. Felix Kulaigye has called for a press conference . Below is his statement at the Press conference.

………………………………..

{Today Monday March 04, 2013 in the early morning hours at Lower Mbuya UPDF Barracks, a group of thugs attempted to snatch an assault rifle from one of the sentries, to the North East of the Barracks.

Our ever alert troops reacted in time killing one and arrested another. The rest simply fled in disarray.

Police later retrieved the corpse. The intention of these thugs is not yet clear but Police and other Security agencies are carrying out investigations to establish their motive.

The public will be informed of the outcome of the investigations as soon as they are concluded.

Anyone with information in this regard is encouraged to share it with the UPDF; it will be treated with utmost confidence.

The public is asked to remain calm.

UPDF, as usual will do whatever it takes to ensure the prevailing peace is not disturbed.}

{{The United Nations Children’s Fund says more than a quarter of Congolese children are not going to school, including 1.3 million in the mineral-rich Katanga province.}}

UNICEF says more than half of children start school late. It says three times more children are out of school in rural areas than urban.

The agency blamed, in part, low income and educational levels of some parents, early child marriage and child labor in agriculture and mining.

But it also said children are being kept out of school by insufficient funding for education and not enough places at schools.

It quoted education minister Maker Mwangu promising that Congo’s government will immediately invest $40 million in building schools.

UNICEF helped fund the study conducted by Burkina Faso’s University of Ouagadougou and published Monday.