Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{Tanzania could adopt a new two-tier parliamentary system that combines Senate and Lower house.}}

Rwanda runs on this kind of system.Kenya also runs on a two teir parliamentary system.

Tanzania members of parliament made the proposal on the two-tier parliamentary system while presenting their views on the new Constitution monday.

The country’s Speaker of the National Assembly Anna Makinda said most of the legislators want the introduction of the Senate as the best way of safeguarding public interests.

She said the Senate should comprise a small number of experts from various fields who would be responsible for enacting and passing laws, among other functions.

Under the current system, where the National Assembly has the responsibility of passing and enacting laws, Makinda said, some of the legislators have been abusing their positions by putting the interest of their parties first with little regard to the interests of the public as a whole.

With the Senate in place, Ms Makinda said, experts would use their expertise to serve public interests.

“You have seen how the current Parliament operates: the walkouts and all manner of chaos are fuelled by party politics… the introduction of the Senate will limit legislators’ functions to only representing their constituencies,” said Ms Makinda.

The two-tier parliamentary system is common in developed countries like the US and England.

The Citizen

{{A total of 40 Rwandese were handed over to the Rwanda immigration department at Chanika on the Uganda-Rwanda border on Friday.}}

They were found without travel documents in Kisoro town, Kisoro district at night in a Kampala bound bus.

Kisoro deputy resident district commissioner Gideon Aheebwa said the Rwandaese came to Uganda in big numbers in buses every day.

“They are free to return as long as they have travel documents,” Aheebwa told the Rwanda immigration officers who received their citizens.

The district Police commander Bosco Otim said the Rwandese, most of them with their families, said they were heading to Kampala, Kiboga, Kibaale and Kyankwanzi districts and other parts of Buganda to look for casual labour.

Meanwhile the residents of Kisoro have asked government to intensify operations to hunt down illegal immigrants whom they said had infiltrated every village in the district in large numbers.

Speaking to the district leaders, residents of Chanika alleged that the immigrants were notorious for house breaking, adultery and violence.

“They freely enter Uganda, marry, steal our property, corrupt our wives, assault us and get away with it,” said Isaac Muhiire a trader at Chanika.

NV

{{UN Security Council and US Government have given a go-ahead to the peace talks in Kampala between the M23 rebels and DRC Government despite sanctions imposed against some of the rebel leaders.}}

The minister of defence who is also the chief facilitator at the talks, Dr. Crispus Kiyonga said that the UN sanctions against the M23 rebel leaders would not affect the ongoing talks.

Kiyonga said, “The sanctions took us by surprise because we were not expecting them. We could not start the dialogue soon after, because we did not want to break the sanctions. We contacted the office of the UN secretary general because we believe he supports the dialogue. We also contacted the US government because they moved the motion to sanction the M23.”

Kiyonga also told journalists yesterday that the Uganda government which is mediating in the talks, had availed to the US and UN, the list of the M23 rebel delegation to the ongoing Kampala talks.

“Both parties (UN and US) have assured us that they support the dialogue and sanctions don’t interfere with the dialogue. As long as member of the delegation has not been affected by sanctions, he can go ahead and participate,” he added.

The UN Security Council last week announced an arms embargo against the M23 rebels and the Rwandan dissident rebel force FDLR operating in the restive eastern DR Congo.

The Security Council committee tasked with monitoring sanctions on DRC also imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on M23 rebel officials Jean-Marie Runiga and Lt. Col. Eric Badege.

Runiga is a key figure in the M23 rebel group’s hierarchy and is a central in the ongoing dialogue in Kampala mediated by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

Uganda is currently holding the chairmanship of the rotational presidency.

Kiyonga also added that Uganda would seek for exemption for participation, to enable any M23 rebel leaders under UN travel sanctions to come to Kampala for the talks.

NV

{{DRC’s opposition parliamentary groups have demanded participation in the ongoing talks in Kampala and the agenda be expanded beyond the assessment of agreements of 23 March 2009.}}

The President of the Parliamentary Group of Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) and allies, Jean Lucien Busa stated in Kinshasa Saturday, January 12.

The groups believe that the talks did not take into account the whole issue of insecurity in eastern DRC as well as issues related to the country’s governance, democracy and human rights.

According to the statement of the chairman of the MLC and allies, MPs also want the opposition and civil society and diaspora participate in these discussions. Jean-Lucien Busa believes that “a negotiation between the two (Government and M23) is not one.”

He explains that: “The M23 and the government share the responsibility for what is happening in the East. This is a compromise.

Hence the importance of having a political opposition that alternative proposals which can put them face to face that, in the interests of the Congolese people, it kind of talks with the answers that are in line with the aspirations of the Congolese .”

{Sixteen people were injured following a road accident involving three vehicles on Waiyaki Way, in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

The early morning accident involved a bus, trailer and a van on the busy highway.

The injured were rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital by the Kenya Red Cross Emergency Response Team

The16 suffered multiple injuries.

A massive traffic snarl up ensued.}

{{Two French soldiers and a French hostage have been killed during a failed operation to free him in Somalia, the defence ministry says.}}

Commandos backed by helicopters reportedly swooped on the southern town of Bulo Marer during the night, targeting al-Shabab militants.

According to the defence ministry, the hostage was killed by his captors.

The raid in east Africa came hours after French troops intervened in the west African state of Mali.

The French military named the hostage as Denis Allex, who was kidnapped in Somalia in July 2009 along with a colleague, freed the following month.

France was “engaged in a merciless fight against terrorism wherever it is found”, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Paris.

It seems likely that the operation was linked to the intervention in Mali, the BBC’s Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.

The French government knew well the intervention would have dangerous implications for the nine French hostages being held across northern Africa, our correspondent says.

Bodies

According to the French defence ministry, 17 militants were killed in the fighting in the town in the lower Shabelle region.

“Faced with the instransigence of the terrorists, who refused to negotiate for three and and half years and who were holding Denis Allex in inhumane conditions, an operation was planned and carried out,” it said.

“During the assault, violent combat took place. Denis Allex was killed by his captors.”

In a statement, al-Shabab reported a “fierce firefight” that lasted 45 minutes.

Giving no details of its own casualties, the group said it had killed “several” French soldiers and had captured an injured soldier.

The group said Mr Allex had not been killed in the raid, and instead was “safe and far from the location of the battle”. It said an announcement about his fate would be made within two days.

Eyewitnesses in the town heard fighting during the night, then saw bodies this morning. Up to four helicopters were involved in the operation, they said.

Mohamed Ali, a resident of Bulo Marer, told AP news agency by phone: “We heard a series of explosions followed by gunfire just seconds after a helicopter flew over the town.

“We don’t know exactly what happened but the place was an al-Shabab base and checkpoint.”

Another resident of the town, Idris Youssouf, told AFP that details were sketchy because the attack had happened at night.

“But this morning we saw several corpses including that of a white man,” he added.

He said three civilians had also died in the fighting.

Hostage appeal

Of the other French hostages, at least six are being held by the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb group, AFP reports.

Mr Allex, reportedly an agent of France’s DGSE intelligence service, appeared in a video in June 2010, appealing to France to drop its support for the Somali government.

He last appeared in another video in October, looking gaunt and calling on French President Francois Hollande to work for his release.

Somalia has not had an effective central government for more than two decades.

France has a large military base in neighbouring Djibouti, including army, marine and air force units.

{Agencies}

{{Forbes Magazine has published a list of 20 saddest countries in the world.}}

Nigeria is placed at the bottom as ranking high in global index for habouring one of the world’s saddest people.

The magazine says Nigeria’s leadership must move from corrupt practices and official profligacy to render quality leadership to the people.

In East Africa, Burundi is the only country featured placed at position six.

This is contained in the annual development analysis index that was released on Thursday culled by LEADERSHIP from the Magazine’s website, stating that citizens of Nigeria ranked 20th amongst their counterpart sampled across the globe, thus making the country one of the worst country to live in.

Nigeria also shares the same unenviable position with several other African and Asian countries of the world with the war torn Central African Republic topping the chart as the country harbouring the saddest people in the globe. Below are the first 20:

1. Central African Republic

2. Republic of Congo

3. Afghanistan

4. Chad

5. Haiti

6. Burundi

7. Togo

8. Zimbabwe

9. Yemen

10. Ethopia

11. Pakistan

12. Iraq

13. Liberia,

14. Angola

15. Sierra Leone

16. Guinea

17. Ivory Coast

18. Sudan

19. Mozambique

20. Nigeria

{{The Hague Prosecutor is seeking a minimum of 1,400 hours for her witnesses to testify and be grilled by the defence side on the Kenyan cases, which begin on April 10, and 11.}}

This means, at the rate of four-hour sittings by The Hague court, and only on weekdays, the witness stage in the cases involving Jubilee leaders Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto could take a year or 350 days.

But this excludes weekends, court vacations such as winter, international and local holidays in The Netherlands, as well as other interruptions of hearing in court such as those forced by submissions, applications, verifications and other backroom business.

These hours exclude the time the defence itself will seek for its own witnesses to counter what the prosecution will charge, as well time allocated to any other witnesses called by both the Chamber and the representatives of the victims in the two Kenyan cases.

There could be further delay because the two sets of cases start on alternate days, if the Judges hear them on interchanging weeks because they are being heard by the same bench; Trial Chamber V.

What complicates the cases touching on Uhuru, who is the Jubilee Presidential candidate and Ruto, who is his running mate, is the fact that whether in the run-off stage, or in victory at whatever stage of the election, they would be required to be physically present in the Maanweg Street address at The Hague.

Furthermore, except for Kass FM’s Head of Operations Joshua Arap Sang, who sought ICC’s legal aid, this would mean that former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, Ruto and Uhuru would have to meet their expenses for the duration of the case, even if it takes three years as some of those already heard by the court have.

This would also include legal and upkeep fees for their lawyers, with each one expected to have a minimum of seven and also a retinue of researchers and clerical staff.

Read More…….http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000074765&story_title=Kenya-ICC-releases-evidence-on-Uhuru,Ruto-cases

{{The governor of North Kivu, Julien Paluku has said he would like to see the proposed use of surveillance drones in eastern DRC to be executed in a short time.}}

Local media also reported that Paluku is seconded by some political actors and civil society in the province.

Paluku said the use of drones is beneficial for the stability of the DRC,”I think the DRC needs stability to initiate development. The drones are coming to monitor borders to reassure that nothing happens,” said Paluku.

{{Tanzania Police has arrested a group of suspects including a local leader in connection with the wave of ritual killings targeting women in Mara region.}}

Mara Regional Police Commander Absalom Mwakyoma said the suspects were arrested in Musoma and Butiama districts, where several women have been killed and some of their body parts taken by the killers.

The arrests were made during an operation led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Simon Sirro.

Mr Mwakyoma said the suspects were being questioned and were expected to appear in court soon.

The Police Force headquarters earlier this week dispatched a team to Mara Region to assist in the hunt for people involved in the gruesome killings that have been linked to witchcraft.

Residents of Musoma and Butiama districts have been living in fear for several months since the killings began last August.

Six people have been killed so far, forcing women to curtain their routine activities such as fetching water and firewood and tilling the land.

Frightened residents suspect there is a serial killer on the loose or some crazed people motivated by superstitious beliefs associated with mining.

The first victim was an elderly woman from Mhare Village, who was killed by unknown assailants who cut off and took her legs and tongue.

In October, a Standard Six pupil was killed in Etaro Village as she walked home from Lake Victoria where she had gone to fetch water.

The next victim was a woman from Nyakirira Village, followed by an incident in December in which Ms Blandina Peru of Mahare Village was killed as she was fetching firewood.

In yet another incident, Sabina Mkireri, a resident of Kabegi Village in Nyakatende Ward, was killed by unknown assailants, who fled with her head and genitals.

More killings are said to have taken place in Nyakatende Ward after a constitutional review meeting.

{Thecitizen}