Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{The Kenya Chief Justice Willy Mutunga now claims he has received threats from the dreaded Mungiki sect warning him of dire consequences if the courts issued a ruling against Jubilee presidential candidates Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, in their integrity case.}}

The CJ told journalists on Wednesday that he received a letter on February 18, cautioning him against issuing such a verdict that would stop the two from seeking the presidency.

Mutunga added that the letter, dated February 13, also issued grave threats to ambassadors and judges reminding them of past Mungiki deeds.

He noted that more than five judges had been attacked in the recent pasts with some of the attacks involving lethal weapons.

“My office received a poison pen letter from the Mungiki Veterans Group/ Kenya Sovereignty Defence Squad and it warns against an adversarial ruling on the presidential and deputy presidential candidacy of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto,” he said.

On February 15, two days after the supposed letter was written, the High Court issued a ruling clearing Kenyatta and Ruto.

Mutunga further accused the State of harassment recalling an instance on February 14 when an immigration official tried to bar him from travelling to Dar-es-Salaam since he did not purportedly have clearance from the Head of the Civil Service Francis Kimemia.

He also said that judicial officers were being politically intimidated, ahead of the March 4 general election, but made it clear that he would not be cowed.

“It requires quite some courage, ignorance or political patronage or a combination of all three for an immigration officer, on his own motion, to summon the confidence to stop a Chief Justice from travelling,” he said.

{{Violence, a deeply chauvinistic society and a lack of cash are locking women out of elected office in Kenya, east Africa’s leading economy but a laggard when it comes to female representation.}}

The country’s new constitution guarantees women a third of seats in parliament, but two and a half years since its adoption, Kenya’s male-dominated assembly has still not passed the necessary legislation to put the constitutional principle into practice.

In next month’s general election only one of eight presidential runners is female, and women held just 10 percent of seats in the last parliament, half the sub-Saharan average.

“Society sees our place being the kitchen and the bedroom. Nothing beyond there,” parliamentary candidate Sophia Abdi Noor told Reuters. Noor is the only woman running for parliament in the remote, arid northeast.

Hailing from Kenya’s conservative ethnic-Somali community, Noor and her family have been on the receiving end of public taunts and curses since her first foray into politics in 1997.

“People abused my husband. They told him, ‘Now wear the skirt, let Sophia wear the trousers’,” said Noor, who in 2007 was handed a seat reserved for marginalized groups.

The northeastern region has never elected a female lawmaker.

Across Kenya, from the fertile slopes of the Rift Valley to the steamy Indian Ocean coastline, female political aspirants painted the same picture: politics is the preserve of men in a country that struggles to deal with women in authority.

Many look with envy to Rwanda, where more than half of legislators are women, more than anywhere in the world.

There women have pushed through reforms granting them equal inheritance, property and citizenship rights.

The lack of women in Kenyan politics, critics say, means women’s and children’s rights rarely get a proper hearing in the rowdy parliamentary chamber.

“We are a patriarchal society. Power and money are two things that are very difficult for men to let go of,” said Naisola Likimani, a former head of advocacy at the Africa Women’s Development and Communication Network.

{{GUNS, THREATS AND CONDOMS}}

That desire for power and money – and political office tends to bring both in Kenya – means that violent attacks, or threats of violence, against women are not uncommon.

Last month, Millie Odhiambo was seeking her party’s nomination for the Mbita parliamentary constituency in western Kenya. Before voting even began in the party primary, she says, supporters of a rival loaded the ballot papers on to a pickup truck as three men in police uniforms entered the polling station firing guns in the air.

Their intent, she said, was to spoil the vote.

“I literally had to jump on the pickup to protect that ballot,” Odhiambo told Reuters. She went on to win the ticket.

In other primaries, female candidates said they were threatened with rape and shunned by elders for violating tradition.

One found a rival had littered the polling station with condoms with her name on them in an attempt, she said, to portray her as promiscuous in the eyes of conservative voters.

In next month’s general election, 156 women will battle it out against men for parliamentary seats, a sharp fall on the 269 who contested the last ballot in 2007.

This is, in part, because another 300 will focus their bids on the 47 seats reserved for women representatives of each county, a new post. This, however, will only guarantee women 16 percent of the overall seats in the chamber.

A complete lack of political will was to blame for the last parliament’s failure to implement constitutional guarantees of affirmative action, said social policy analyst Atieno Ndomo.

“People who are benefiting from this arrangement have no interest whatsoever to change it,” she said.

Kenyan lawmakers are among the best paid in the world.

{{THE “IRON LADY”}}

One woman determined to shatter the common belief that Kenya is not ready for a female president is Martha Karua.

Nicknamed the ‘Iron Lady’ after the steely former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the former justice minister is the only female presidential candidate in the March 4 vote.

She won’t win. The latest opinion polls show her with just 1-2 percent of the vote, a sign Kenyan voters are still not ready to depart from the old-boys-club style of politics that has defined Kenya’s political scene since independence.

Karua’s gender, and the fact she is divorced, often count against her in this deeply religious society.

“A woman is supposed to be under men,” said 23-year-old Hyphe Ouya at a rally attended by Karua. “We don’t believe a woman could be president.”

Women politicians don’t only need to change the minds of men like Ouya, they also need cash to run their campaigns.

One Nairobi think-tank estimates that the front-runners Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta will spend a combined $350 million on their campaigns, a record for Kenya .

Personal wealth and political and business ties are key to wracking up such huge campaign funds. Karua has said she can’t match their spending power.

But sidelining women from politics when they make up more than half of Kenya’s 40 million-strong population is not an option, says Karua.

“If you don’t include women, then it is a sham democracy,” she told Reuters.

“I don’t want my daughter ever to be told that Kenya is not ready for a woman president. If there is a glass ceiling, I am here to break it.”

({TrustLaw is a global legal news service run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and covering women’s rights and governance issues})

{{The High Court is yet to give a ruling in preliminary objections raised by Uganda’s Attorney General and the Secretary General of the East African Community, opposing a petition in which two NRM youths are seeking to recall Uganda’s members of the EALA on ground that they were illegally elected.}}

The ruling had been slated for last week, but the court deferred it to an unnamed date in future on the ground that it was not ready for delivery.

Earlier, the youths, Jeremiah Birungi Kamurali and Robert Araali Byaruhanga Tumusiime filed a petition contending that Uganda’s members to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) were illegally elected and should be recalled and fresh elections should be conducted.

However, before the petition could be heard, the Attorney General and the EALA’s Secretary General opposed it saying that they had filed it late and contrary to the Parliamentary Elections Act that stipulates 30 days within which they should have filed it.

It had been also argued that apart from Kamurali’s affidavit supporting the petition, Tumusiime, the second petitioner, had not sworn an affidavit as required by law.

It had been further argued that the petitioners should have petitioned against the 9 members that represent Uganda on the EALA, because the outcome would be affecting them and; therefore, they should not be condemned unheard.

It had also been argued that the High Court had no jurisdiction to hear such matters concerning the EALA elections.

{{Six out of every 10 Tanzanian students who sat last year’s ordinary secondary level examinations attained the lowest grade possible, government results showed Monday.}}

Close to 54 per cent of students tested picked up Division Zero in National Form IV exams, a big rise from the 32 per cent who had failed to score in 2011.

Some were so dismal that they instead resorted to writing insults on the answer sheets after the realisation that they were completely unprepared.

Private schools dominated the charts of best performers. Of the top 20, only two public schools made it to the list, with a flustered government blaming inadequate teachers and poor infrastructure.

Some 397,126 students of the 411,230 who were registered sat the national exam. Of these, only 23,520 of these managed to score between Division One and Division Three, just under six per cent of those who were eligible.

Some 1,641 scored Division One, a drop of 0.68 per cent on the number of those who excelled the previous year.

Tanzania has a basic five-tier educational structure, with those who pass Form IV proceeding for two more years of advanced secondary education if they so elect.

The results of 789 pupils were nullified for cheating, a drop from the 3,303 who opted to use unfair means in 2011.

Some 24 students will be charged in a court of law for using insulting language in the examination.

“We cannot tolerate this habit, those who wrote abusive words should be charged as barring them from attempting the exams prepared by [national examining body] Necta is not enough,” Educational and Vocational training minister Shukuru Kawamba said.

NMG

{{Kenya has confirmed its intention to bid to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019.}}

The East Africans – who last qualified for the tournament in 2004 – have never staged the continent’s biggest sporting event.

They join newly-crowned African champions Nigeria, DR Congo, Liberia, Zambia and Algeria in the race to host the 2019 finals.

DR Congo announced its plans to stage the event last week.

The Kenyans are also bidding to play host to the 2015 African Youth Championships.

“Kenya stands top in Africa as favourites to win these bids,” Football Kenya Federation (FKF) chairman Sam Nyamweya said.

“As a federation we are excited with the support of our parent ministry in this ambitious mission.”

The FKF plans to use two existing stadiums in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and to upgrade venues in the port cities of Mombasa and Kisumu.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has yet to formally accept bids to host the 2019 finals but is expected to do so later this year.

The next two Nations Cups’ hosts have already been decided, with Morocco set to stage the 2015 finals and Libya organising the 2017 edition.

NMG

{{A U.S. congressman from Minnesota has arrived in Somalia for a rare visit by a United States politician.}}

Keith Ellison said Tuesday that his visit to Mogadishu fulfills a request from his constituents with ties to Somalia.

Minnesota has one of the largest populations of Somali-Americans in the U.S.

Ellison noted that the U.S. government recently recognized the Somali government for the first time since the country fell into anarchy in 1991.

President Barack Obama’s administration formally recognized the Somali government on Jan. 17.

Ellison was greeted by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. The president said that Ellison’s visit was a big day for Somalia.

Ellison is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the Minnesota affiliate of the Democratic Party.

Mogadishu has experienced about 18 months of relative peace, after the August 2011 ouster of the Islamic extremists of al-Shabab from the capital by African Union forces.

{wirestory}

{{The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) has delivered its judgment in which the East Africa Law Society had filed a reference seeking declaratory orders that Article 24 of the Protocol on the Establishment of the EAC Customs Union is inconsistent.}}

The article establishes the EAC Trade Remedies Committee to handle matters pertaining to rules of origin, anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures and safeguard measures and Article 54 of the Protocol on the Establishment of the EAC Common Market (which provides, inter alia, that national constitutions , laws and administrative procedures, and competent national authorities shall handle disputes under the Common Market).

The complainants were seeking the EAC court to declare that the provisions of the article are inconsistent with the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.

According to a statement from the secretariat, in its judgment, the Court stated that it has jurisdiction to interpret disputes arising out of the Customs Union and Common Market protocols since these protocols are annexes and integral parts of the Treaty.

“The Court, however, decided that the dispute settlement mechanisms created under the Customs Union Protocol and the Common Market Protocol do not exclude, oust or infringe upon its interpretative jurisdiction and that the impugned provisions (Article 24 of the Customs Union Protocol and Article 54 of the Common Market Protocol) are not in contravention of or in contradiction with the relevant provisions of the Treaty,” notes the statement.

The protocol envisages enhancement and strengthening of partnerships of governments with the private sector and civil society in its implementation in order to achieve sustainable socio-economic and political development.

The EAC is grounded on a number of operational principles, which include: people-centred and market driven co-operation; the principle of subsidiary with emphasis on multi-level participation; and involvement of a wide range of stakeholders in the process of integration.

The treaty also emphasizes in its objective the principle of sustainable development and equitable economic development.

Cooperation in trade liberalisation and development is one of the fundamental pillars of the East African Community (EAC).

For this purpose, the EAC Partner States agreed in the EAC Treaty of 1999 ‘to establish among themselves a Customs Union, a Common Market, subsequently a Monetary Union and ultimately, a Political Federation.

The East African Community Customs Union (Eaccu) commenced its operations within Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda on 1 January 2005. Burundi and Rwanda acceded to the EAC in July 2007.

Customs is, for instance, deeply involved in controlling goods which cross borders, determining goods’ nomenclature and origin, and collecting revenue as well as administering trade policies.

Hence, the manner in which Customs operates highly affects international trade either negatively or positively.

In other words, the manner in which Customs operates can either complicate or simplify the international trade in goods. And this introduces us to the concept of trade facilitation.

Kenya and Tanzania appended their signatures to the Protocol Establishing the East African Customs Union on the 2nd March, 2004.

The East Africa Law Society was represented by Prof Frederick Ssempebwa, Mr Richard Onsogo and Mr Humphrey Mtuy.

The Counsel to the East African Community, Hon Wilbert T.K. Kaahwa represented the Secretary General who was the Respondent in the Reference.

TheCitizen

{{South Sudan on Sunday defended its decision to remove 118 senior military officers from active military service and place them on reserve, a move seen as an attempt to transform the security sector, according to the minister of information.}}

The order, which drew mixed reactions from the general public, includes senior officials serving in the civil administration.

The presidential decree issued on Thursday saw the names of the governor of Unity state, Taban Deng Gai, governor of Eastern Equatoria state Louis Lobong Lojore, governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal state Rizik Hassan Zachariah and the governor of Upper Nile state, Simon Kun Puoc removed from the active military files.

The move followed the removal in January of some 35 top-level military officers, seen as the biggest shake-up to army leadership since South Sudan’s independence in July 2011.

President Salva Kiir issued the order and has since appointed replacements for the officers who were previously serving, most of whom were rebel commanders during the war with the north.

{{SECURITY REFORM}}

Senior officials attribute the changes to government policy aimed at transforming the security sector and other institutions in order to provide services effectively and efficiently.

Insiders say the move is the first of a series of broader reforms. Once the army has been overhauled, it is expected that the government will move on to the security forces, police, public services and eventually the cabinet.

South Sudan’s minister information and broadcasting service, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said the president was acting within the law and according to public demands to transform the national army away from perceptions of it as a guerrilla movement to a professional body.

“The president was not acting outside the law. He was exercising the powers conferred upon him by the transitional constitution. The changes were meant to basically promote growth in the system.

It means giving responsibilities of managing the affairs of this country to the fresh group, people with new ideas which needs to be tried since we are living in the fast moving and developing world”, Marial said.

He said there were still many other opportunities in the country in different areas in which the removed army generals could participate in to help the new nation to grow.

“There are a lot of opportunities which these general will exploit. Some of these generals have administrative background, they have security background, they have business background and they have agriculture background.

It will be an opportunity to utilise their knowledge in establishing and managing private security firms in accordance with the parameters of the law.

“Doing so will bring a positive change in the economy of this country. In fact everybody would be happy to hear that all these retired generals have started producing millions of metric tonnes of food in the next harvesting season which they could not have done while in the active service”, Marial told reporters on Sunday.

However, members of the general public remain skeptical about plans to reassign some of the officers who were removed due to perceptions associated with their performance and competence while serving in the army at different levels.

Meanwhile, Marial has dismissed claims of an alleged coup plot purportedly fermented by some of the generals as one of the reasons behind the president’s decision to embark on security reforms.

“The president still trusts them [the generals]. He has hope in them and they should show good examples in accepting the changes. I know the president may be planning to [re-]assign some of them. Others have actually been assigned.

Those who have requested to go for studies will be facilitated so that they can go and get the knowledge they might need to help them while trying to settle and fit into the society”, he explained.

Marial also said that removed officers should feel proud that they had witnessed the birth of the new nation and the achievement of the objectives for which they fought so hard for during the country’s protracted civil war with the north, adding that he encouraged them to support good governance and accept the changes with good grace.

(ST)