IGIHE

Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • FDLR Raped 28 Congolese Women in January

    {{The Civil society in North Kivu accuses FDLR rebels of raping 28 women during the month of January in Lubero territory, North Kivu province (eastern DRC).}}

    The spokesman for the coordination of the provincial structure, Omar Kavota, also accuses the Rwandan rebels of looting crops from farmers and imposing taxes.

    Kavota Omar says that this population can no longer meet their basic needs, because the fields are the only source of income.

    It also accuses the Rwandan rebels of forcing some men to transport crops they plundered from the fields.

  • Uganda to Chair JAMAFEST in Kigali

    {{Uganda will chair the first ever East African Arts and culture festival slated to take place in Kigali, Rwanda in February. }}

    The East African Community Secretariat based in Arusha, Tanzania chose Uganda as chair and Rwanda as host for the annual festival with hope to rotate it around the region.

    The Six-day festival will see member states show-case their uniqueness through art and culture in the Rwandan capital from 11 to 17 of February, gender state minister Rukia Nakadama said.

    Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda have confirmed attendance of the festival code named “Juiimiya ya Afrika Mashariki Utamaduni (JAMAFEST)”.

    The theme of the festival is: “Fostering East African Community Integration through Cultural Industries”.

    Arts and crafts pieces, cultural wears, music and dance, literary works, foods and beverages among fortes are to be showcased.

    Rwandan President Paul Kagame will officially open the non-competitive festival with other regional leaders expected to grace the occasion.

    Initially, each member state was to send 50 participants, however, as the D-day draws closer, participants have shown increasing enthusiasm, forcing the organisers to leave it open-ended.

    NV

  • 2013 Press freedom in EAC

    {{South Sudan slipped 12 places in the annual press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) on Wednesday, leaving it at 124th out of the 180 countries ranked}}.

    Chief among the reasons for South Sudan’s slide down the table was the murder of a columnist in Juba on 5 December – the first journalist to be killed in the country since separating from Sudan 18 months ago.

    In comments made to Al Jazeera, the international media watchdog had warned earlier this month that South Sudan’s ranking was likely to fall due to the general heavy handedness of security forces in dealing with journalists and the killing of Isaiah Abraham, who had been a strong critic of the government in his regular opinion pieces published in Sudan Tribune and other news outlets.

    RWB told Al Jazeera that the young nation’s press freedom issues are due to the attitude and bad habits of many members of the government and security services.

    This disdain for journalists can be partly attributed to the experience of being ruled by the Khartoum government, RWB said. In the 2013 press freedom league Sudan remained the 170th worst offender out of the 179 countries included.

    As well as fighting successive Khartoum governments in two civil wars since Sudan’s independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956, southern Sudanese politicians, the press freedom organisation said, had also been influenced during periods when they were part of power-sharing governments.

    Most recently, South Sudan’s former-rebels-turned-governing-party – the SPLM – shared power with Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) for six years as part of a 2005 peace deal that led to the South opting to secede in 2011.

    Shortly after South Sudan declared independence the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that “local journalists fear the former rebels turned government officials who still harbor a war mentality that is unaccustomed to criticism, and that they are not prepared to extend the freedoms they fought hard to attain”.

    Since Abraham’s death, Sudan Tribune’s reporters in Juba have observed a decrease in the amount of comment critical of the government appearing in South Sudan’s press.

    As Sudan Tribune reported two weeks ago, many South Sudanese writers live in fear and receive threats both in person from the security services and anonymously over the phone.

    There are hopes that when South Sudan passes long awaited media legislation the rights of journalists and publishers will be clearer and not left to the whim of politicians and the security services.

    South Sudan was not the only nation to fall significantly in this year’s rankings, with Chad and Zimbabwe by 18 and 16 places respectively. The RWB reports also found that East Africa was stagnating near the bottom of the index:

    {{East Africa: journalists’ graveyard}}

    In Somalia (175th, -11) 18 journalists were killed, caught up in bomb attacks or were the direct targets of murder, making 2012 the deadliest in history for the country’s media.

    The Horn of Africa state was the second most dangerous country in the world for those working in news and information, behind Syria.

    In Eritrea (in last place in the index for the sixth successive year), no journalists were killed but some were left to die, which amounts to the same thing. With at least 30 behind bars, it is Africa’s biggest prison for journalists.

    Of 11 incarcerated since 2001, seven have died as a result of prison conditions or have killed themselves. Since the independent media were abolished more than 10 years ago, there are no independent Eritrean news outlets, other than outside the country, and terror prevails.

    East Africa is also a region of censorship and crackdowns. Omar al-Bashir’s Sudan, where more newspapers were seized and the arrests of journalists continued during the summer, is stuck firmly in 170th place, in the bottom 10 of the index.

    Djibouti (167th, -8), which also has no independent media, detained a correspondent of the foreign-based news site La Voix de Djibouti.

    Despite the release of two Swedish journalists arrested in 2011, Ethiopia(137th) fell 10 places because of its repressive application of the 2009 anti-terrorist law and the continued detention of several local journalists.

    (ST)

  • IGAD warns Kenya Elections Might Last upto June

    The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has warned that Kenyan elections could last until June.

    IGAD noted that the upcoming polls were not an event, but a process that might not be concluded on March 4.

    IGAD maintained that the presidential contest could spill into a run-off or be subject to a petition, as a result Kenyans must remain calm and patient.

    “Kenyans in general and institutions of Government should brace themselves for prolonged electoral process that does not end on March 5.”

    “This preparedness is important for sustainable peace after the March 4 polling,” noted IGAD Director of Conflict, Early Warning and Response Mechanism Martin Kimani.

    IGAD officials maintained that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Judiciary were key to the success of the vote.

    The authority said it expected the same efficiency the IEBC used during voter registration.

    Standard

  • SADC Special Force to Hunt Armed Groups in DRC

    {{A contingent of special rapid reaction force will be deployed in eastern DRC to hunt down the armed groups operating in the area.}}

    This special force will be mainly from Southern Africa Community Development Community SADC brigade.

    The deployment was announced January 30, by MONUSCO spokesman, Lt. Col. Felix Bass saying it’s an initiative of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Community Development Community (SADC), will be composed of elements taken from a SADC Brigade.

    During the weekly UN conference in Kinshasa, Lt. Col. Bass explained that this force will consist of 2500 men, some of whom are from ” SADC Standby Brigade ” already “Standby” he said.

    Tanzania and South Africa had also pledged to contribute in the creation of this task force.

    Lt. Col. Bass stated, however, that a battalion of peacekeepers South African MONUSCO will be attached to this force.

    “The MONUSCO, as usual, will be next and could integrate its forces [in the intervention force], once the framework agreement to be signed in Addis Ababa will be signed,” said Lt. Col. Bass.

    Radiookapi

  • Kenya’s top Police Officers to be Fired Over Imposter scandal

    {{In Kenya, a team investigating the activities of alleged police imposter Joshua Waiganjo has recommended the dismissal of suspended Rift Valley Provincial Police chief John M’mbijiwe and Anti-Stock Theft Unit Commandant Remi Ngugi.}}

    The team, which handed in its report on Thursday morning to the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), gave the two top policemen an option to retire or be dismissed.

    The committee however cleared former police commissioner Mathew Iteere and suspended Njoro police chief Nthigah Njeru.

    “The committee says the NPSC should retire John Kaua M’mbijiwe, PPO Rift Valley province and Remi Ngugi, commandant ASTU in the public interest or dismisses them forthwith in accordance with the governing regulations,” NPSC chairman Johnston Kavuludi.

    The report lifted Njeru’s interdiction but recommended that he gets retrained on command and leadership, in addition to being transferred from the Rift Valley region.

    The probe team was however unable to determine if Waiganjo leaked sensitive security information relating to the Baragoi massacre where 42 police officers were killed.

    “The committee listened to evidence but we were unable to get conclusive evidence on whether he revealed this information at a security meeting,” said committee member Kioko Kilukumi.

    capitalFm

  • EAC, AfDB Sign $23M Agreement for Payment & Settlement Systems Integration

    {{The EAC Secretariat and the African Development Bank (AfDB) signed a US$ 23 Million Grant Agreement for support of a Payment and Settlement Systems Integration Project (EAC–PSSIP).}}

    The Agreement was signed by EAC Deputy Secretary General Dr. Enos Bukuku on behalf of the EAC Secretary General and Mr. Gabriel Negatu, the AfDB Regional Director.

    The signing took place on January 28, at the AfDB East Africa Resource Center in Nairobi, Kenya.

    EAC-PSSIP is an integral part of the EAC’s Financial Sector Development and Regionalization Project’s higher level objective of broadening and deepening the financial sector and is aimed at complementing the integration of the regional financial market infrastructure to facilitate the undertaking of cross border funds transfers in support of the economies of the region as a whole, together with providing outreach to rural areas in order to encourage greater participation in the formal financial sector.

    The EAC-PSSI, whose objective is to contribute to the modernization, harmonization and regional integration of payment and settlement systems specifically aims at:

    i. Enhancing convergence and regional integration of payment and settlement systems; and,

    ii. Strengthening a harmonized legislative and regulatory financial sector capacity in the Partner States.

    The Project is structured under the following components:

    Component 1: Integration of financial market infrastructure through the integration of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) across the region and the centralization in a single database of all regional payment flows;

    Component 2: Harmonization of financial laws and regulations;

    Component 3: Capacity building by strengthening of financial sector regulatory and legislative capacities.

    During the signing ceremony, the AfDB Regional Director, Mr. Gabriel Negatu highlighted the importance of this project which is aligned to the 4th EAC Development Strategy and the EAC Common Market Protocol.

    He mentioned that the Project will focus on trade facilitation, establishment of a single market in financial services, establishment of the EAC Monetary Union and integration of ICT into regional development initiatives, amongst others.

    On his part, the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, Dr. Enos Bukuku reiterated the commitment of the EAC Secretariat in ensuring that this project contributes to the modernization, harmonization and regional integration of payment and settlement systems for the overall progression of the payment and settlement systems under the Financial Sector Development and Regionalization.

    The signing of this agreement comes after extensive consultations with key stakeholders (EAC Partner States’ Central Banks, Commercial Banks and Financial Services Providers) which enabled the conclusion of negotiations between AfDB and the EAC Secretariat that took place on 30 October 2012 in Tunis, Tunisia.

    This was followed by the approval of the project by the AfDB Board on 5 December 2012.

    The EAC Deputy Secretary General was accompanied by Mr. Tharcisse Kadede, Director of Planning and Mr. Godfrey Kazinduka, Resource Mobilization Specialist for the EAC Financial Sector Development and Regionalization Project (EAC-FSDRP).

    EAC

  • Kenya, S.Sudan in talks over Road Development

    {{The governments of Kenya and South Sudan have kicked off consultative talks with various international donors to fund the Sh90 billion Juba-Eldoret development Corridor.}}

    Finance Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua said the World Bank and African Development Bank have already shown interest of funding the project and are currently helping the two governments get more financiers as well as ensure all the resources are in place before the actual construction begins.

    Kenya’s Roads Minister Frankline Bett said the study and design work on the Kenyan side has already started and is expected to be completed by May this year.

    The Juba-Eldoret corridor is part of the Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport project (LAPSET) but will be managed separately.

    The section to be undertaken by the government of Kenya is classified as road A1 which starts from the northern boarder of Tanzania at Isebania through Mukuyu, Kisumu, Kakamega, Kitale, Lodwar, Lokichogio to Nadapal.

    The government of South Sudan will then start from Nadapal all the way to Juba.

    Once the road is completed, it will serve the capital of South Sudan, Juba, and the Eastern part of South Sudan, the location of the main oil exploration.

  • Banana Flour Threatens Wheat Dominance

    {{Using ripe banana as a substitute for sugar when sweetening biscuits–themselves made out of banana flour– is among the things a women’s group from Kisii in western Kenya has come up with in order to beat the economic challengers its members face.}}

    Kenyuni Women Group from Nyaura ward in Kisii district was founded 16 years ago with the aim of helping women from the area escape widespread poverty.

    Kisii is a region where banana grows easily and nearly every household has planted some. Growing banana for sale was one of the initial activities the group started, but it was not long before they realised that their effort was mainly benefiting the middle man.

    Mr Jeremiah Nyemesa, one of the three men in the group that has 20 women, told Africa Survival Series that on wisening up to this exploitation, they sat down to evaluate their options.

    “We decided to engage value addition experts and figure out the way forward, which is when we discovered that we can make flour out of banana,” he said.

    Through trial and error, they discovered that not all banana species could produce usable flour. They then classified their products into two: banana to be ripened and that for processing into flour.

    Today, banana flour is the most popular in Kisii and even beyond. For its diverse uses, it is correct to say that wheat has a strong rival.

    With banana flour, one can bake virtually everything that was once made using wheat flour only. From cakes, bread biscuits and chapati, the banana flour is revolutionising the region’s baking industry.

    Using traditional methods, the bananas are harvested, peeled, cut to small pieces then dried under the sun before being ground into flour using a mortar and pestle. It is then sifted and packed for sale at the group’s small shop.

    “Demand soared within a very short period of time after we introduced it into the market,” says the group leader, Everline Onserio.

    To make sure that they met the demand, the group required each member to grow a minimum of 40 banana trees, while those with large parcels of land are encouraged to grow more.

    {{Banana jam}}

    Everline said the group has further adapted quick banana ripening methods to cope with the demand, which apart from being used as sweeteners for other banana flour products are also used to make banana jam.

    To do this, the group uses a ripening chamber that resembles a cupboard where the bananas are laid on several top shelves while the bottom one is lined with avocado.

    “Locked in the ripening chamber, avocado produces gas that works as a catalyst to banana ripening process and instead of five days, it takes two days and a half to get ripe and ready for use bananas,” she said.

    In this way, the group is able to cope with the soaring demand that comes from domestic consumers as well as small scale entrepreneurs who are using banana flour to bake things which they once depended on wheat flour alone.

    After this value addition, the group’s income increased almost immediately, jumping from $2,800 to $10,800 a year.

    The group also adds value to milk collected from villagers to make a yoghurt-like product called Malla amongst the Kisiis. Nyemesa said Malla though is not made by using the start-up culture that yoghurt uses.

    Saying why she chose banana flour over wheat, a cake vendor known as Maria said banana is cheaper by almost half compared to wheat, making her products more affordable and in turn increasing her sales volumes.

    Again, using traditional methods, the group grows and dries vegetables which are then packed for sale.

    Nyamesa says they decided to preserve vegetables as well because of the need for food security caused by unpredictable climate change.

    “By doing this we are ensuring food supply for the future instead of throwing them away as is the case when they are sold fresh,” he said.

    NMG

  • AU Leaders Fail to Sign Deal on Neutral Force in DRC

    {{African leaders failed on Monday to sign a U.N.-mediated peace deal aimed at ending two decades of conflict in eastern Congo, said a senior Congolese diplomat, who pointed to concerns over who would command a new regional military force.}}

    The agreement was to include the deployment of several thousand extra soldiers to tackle armed militias in the mineral-rich east.

    The brigade would fight under the banner of the U.N.’s MONUSCO peacekeeping force.

    Diplomats at an African Union summit in Ethiopia said the troops would come from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), notably Tanzania.

    Leaders from the Great Lakes region had originally been expected to sign the deal on Monday morning.

    Seraphin Ngwej, a senior diplomatic adviser to Congolese President Joseph Kabila, said SADC members had raised questions over who would command the intervention force – SADC or MONUSCO.

    “(SADC) wants assurances the brigade can do what they want it to do,” said the diplomatic source who declined to be named.

    U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he had postponed the signing because of “procedural differences” and stressed there were no fundamental differences on the agreement’s content between the eight regional states involved.

    A fresh rebellion launched last year in Congo’s east, a region where ethnic tensions and vast mineral deposits have fuelled a series of cross-border wars – raised fears of another conflict in the borderlands zone.