Tag: GreatLakesNews

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and nine former African presidents have warned that the future of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in “grave danger” due to the failure to organise an election to replace President Joseph Kabila.

Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December, adding to uncertainty in the vast, mineral-rich central African nation, where regional wars from 1996-2003 killed millions of people.

An agreement between Kabila’s ruling coalition and opposition leaders calls for the presidential election to take place by the end of this year, but delays in registering voters and mobilising financing make that increasingly unlikely.

“The failure to organise elections in late 2016, in conformity with the constitution of the DRC, has created an acute political crisis,” Annan and former presidents including South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo said in a statement issued late on Thursday.

“We feel obliged to sound the alarm before it is too late,” it added.

Dozens died last year in violent anti-government protests in major cities, and an insurrection in the centre of the country has killed hundreds and displaced 1.3 million more since last August.

Source:Reuters

Burundi security forces and government-allied militia are continuing to torture and kill opponents, UN investigators said on Thursday, allegations denied by the government.

The investigators from the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on Burundi have been denied entry to the country said there was a “feeling of deep and widespread fear” in more than 470 testimonies gathered from people who had fled to neighbouring countries.

“Today we can say that our initial fears concerning the scope and gravity of human rights violations and abuses in Burundi since April 2015 have been confirmed,” the investigators said in a briefing to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.

Burundi’s government angrily rejected the allegations. “We do not accept the content of this report,” said the country’s human rights minister Martin Nivyabandi.

“This report had only one objective, to send certain senior Burundian officials to The Hague,” where the International Criminal Court (ICC) is headquartered, “and to exclude Burundi as a member of the Human Rights Council,” he said, demanding the UN, “respect the sovereignty of Burundi.”

Burundi was thrown into a political crisis in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term that his opponents said was unconstitutional.

Since then at least 500 people have been killed while over 400 000 have fled the country.

The commission of inquiry, established in September 2016, is tasked with concluding whether any should be held accountable for alleged violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity.

The investigators said on Thursday that both state security agencies and the ruling party youth wing, the Imbonerakure which is considered a militia by the UN, were engaged in torture, rape, disappearances and murder “fuelled by hate speech” from officials.

“We were struck by the particularly cruel and brutal nature of the violations described to us,” the investigators said, citing the use of clubs, rifle butts, bayonets, iron bars, metal chains, electric cables, needles, pliers to rip out nails, burns and violent abuse of especially male genitals.

They also bemoaned the “total impunity” enjoyed by perpetrators in Burundi.

The commission’s final report is due to be presented to the Human Rights Council in September.

Source:AFP

Members of the East African Business Council (EABC), the umbrella arm of the private sector in EAC has elected Uganda’s clearing and forwarding proficient, Kassim Omar as its new chairperson.

Mr Omar is the President of the Uganda Clearing and Industry Forwarders Association (UCIFA) and has been the council’s vice chairperson –Uganda Chapter. He succeeds Burundi’s Audace Ndayizeye- from the Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Elected at their 16th Annual general meeting, Mr Omar will chair the council of 20- member team from the five East African Member states of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania.

However South Sudan the newest member of the community did not get representation because they had not yet elected their representative at the country level.

Giving an update on South Sudan’s status on the private sector council representation, the executive director EABC, Ms Lillian Awinja said: “South Sudan has been invited to join EABC. To this effect the council will be visiting South Sudan early September to sensitize them about the role of EABC.”

Ms Awinja explained that South Sudan’s joining the council was suspended because of the political conflict in that country which saw members of other country sent packing.

New Chair

In his acceptance speech, Omar pledged to push the private sector agenda towards creating a conducive business environment by engaging with the governments to reduce the cost of doing business in the region.

“We will continue to engage with members through consistent and purposeful communication and dialogue in all EAC Partner States and scale up our communication of achievements to ensure the Members are fully informed of EABC work,” Mr Omar pledged.

He further said his team will work towards expanding the EABC’s membership which is currently at 140 members.

From Uganda Mr Omar will represent the council with Mr. Jim Kabeho (Madhavani Group), Mr Stuart Mwesigwa (Roofings Group) and Ms Barbra Mulwana (Nice House of Plastics) also the new chairperson of Uganda Manufacturers association.

Other members

Burundi will be represented by Mr Audace Ndayizeye-Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry Burundi, Mr Petit Jean Ndikumana- Burundi Clearing and Freight Fowarders Association, Mr Boaz Nimpe -Burundi Bankers Association and Ms Jacqueline Ndayizeye-Burundi Women Entrepreneurs Association
While Kenya’s Nick Nesbitt -Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Mr. Luttaf Kassam -Kenya Association of Manufacturers, Mr. Simukai Munjanganja -BAT and Ms. Susan Maingi -Bamburi Cement.

Rwanda’s representatives are Mr Dennis Karera-Rwanda Hospitality Association.

Vice Chair, Mr Stephen Ruzibiza -Private Sector Federation, Ms Yvonne Makolo-Rwandair and Mr JB Rusagara-Intraspeed / Rwanda Shippers Council.

Tanzania will be represented by Mr Felix Mosha Tanzania Private Sector Foundation- Elected Vice Chair, Dr Samwel Nyantahe -Confederation of Tanzania Industries, Ms Jacquiline Woiso-Managing Director Bank M Tanzania Limited and Mr Alexander Foti-Gwebe-Nyirenda-SBC PEPSI Tanzania.

Source:Daily Monitor

It is now official that the standoff between Jubilee and the opposition over the names of nominees to the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) will only be sorted out in the next Parliament.

This means that operations of the regional assembly are likely to remain paralysed after Kenya’s Parliament adjourned sine die on Thursday without electing law-makers to the regional legislative body.

4 Names

The opposition has remained adamant that it will not add any additional names to the earlier four it had submitted.

Jubilee has also maintained that the opposition must add seven additional names to the four in order for the House to elect four to Eala.

The grandstanding is likely to persist even in the 12th Parliament.

“Nothing will happen in this Parliament over the nominees, wait for the 12th Parliament,” Kitutu Masaba MP, Timothy Bosire told the Nation.

“Jubilee cannot dictate to us who to nominate to Eala, we will not dance to the tune of the music they are playing,” said Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati.

‘No law’

National Assembly Minority Whip Thomas Mwadeghu also maintained that there is no law compelling them to add additional names to the earlier list.

“Cite to me any law demanding that we have to give seven additional names. We will not add anyone to our list,” Mwadeghu said.

“We are within the law to present the four names and we will not add any name.”

The move comes after the joint parliamentary select committee on the nomination of Eala recommended that Rule 6 of the Assembly be deleted to make sure each party nominates for election three times the original figure.

In the report, the committee co-chaired by Katoo ole Metito and Kipchumba Murkomen said the amendment would help to remove conflicts of interpretation in the number of nominees from each party.

Sittings

Following the move, the committee recommended that National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and his Senate counterpart Ekwee Ethuro extend timelines for processes required to facilitate the holding of the elections.

Cord has nominated Judith Pareno, Ronald Ngeny, Abubakar Zein and Kennedy Musyoka.

Eala Speaker Kenneth Madete had earlier written to all member states stating that that the sittings of the assembly has been suspended until Kenya elect its nominees.

“As you may be aware, the Parliament of Kenya is still in the process of electing its members,” reads part letter.

“Due to the foregoing we are unable to proceed with the activities related to the inauguration of the 4th Assembly, this is therefore to notify you that the first sitting of the assembly is hereby suspended until further notice.”

Source:Daily Nation

The tale of the new nominees to the fourth East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has taken a new twist, as South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) revokes its resolution confirming nine members to the august House.

This action comes as the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) was getting ready to hear inter-parties an application filed by Mr Wani Santino Jada, asserting that the act of President Salva Kiir who appointed, by decree, nine persons to represent the partner-state in EALA was in violation of Article 50 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC).

Mr Jada, a 22-year-old citizen of the Republic of South Sudan, had earlier obtained an ex-parte order from EACJ, restraining administering the oath of office, or otherwise recognizing nominees from the Republic of South Sudan pending the hearing yesterday.

Before a panel of judges, under EACJ Principal Judge, Monica Mugenyi, the first two respondents, Attorney General of the Republic of South Sudan, and the Speaker of the Parliament of South Sudan admitted that the appointment and consequent confirmation violated Article 50 of the EAC establishment Treaty.

The South Sudan Justice Minister, Mr James Mayena Oka and Clerk of South Sudan Transitional National Legislative Assembly, Alalla Younis Said told the Court that having learnt of the violation fact, the South Sudan TNLA revoked the approval of the nine nominees and that new elections would have to be held, at least by next week, to meet requirements of Article 50.

On the bench, there were also the EACJ Deputy Principal Judge, Isaac Lenaola and judges Faustin Ntezilyayo, Fakihi Jundu and Audace Ngiye. After the Court was notified of changes in the current state of affairs in regards to the appointments and approval, Mr Jada withdrew his application as it was likely to be rendered an academic exercise.

The respondents conceded that the President of South Sudan has no mandate to appoint EALA members. They also produced a letter revoking the appointments signed by the speaker of the Parliament.

Consequently a consent was filed to the effect that the appointed members of EALA from South Sudan is revoked and that it would prepare the election rules to comply with Article 50 of the Treaty and that they will repeat the exercise after approving their election rules. The third respondent was EAC Secretary General.

Reports reaching the ‘Daily News’ here had it that the South Sudan MPs supported a motion raised by Chairperson of Legislation and Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Dengtiel Ayuen Kur, who formed an opinion that it would be just to withdraw the parliamentary approval of the nine members who were confirmed by the assembly in March this year.

Mr Kur was quoted as saying in TNLA that although South Sudan sent its members to the Assembly, it had turned out that some basic requirements of the Treaty were not met.

Source:Daily News

One person was killed and nine others wounded when a grenade exploded in Bujumbura, in a neighbourhood of the capital known as an opposition bastion, the city’s mayor said Thursday.

“A grenade was thrown and exploded among a group of people who were having a beer near the bus station in Musaga,” Freddy Mbonimpa told AFP of the incident which occurred on Wednesday evening.

Witnesses said many police officers went to the scene with some seen firing their weapons.

“Those were warning shots fired into the air,” the mayor said, adding police had opened an investigation “to find the criminals behind this attack”.

Musaga, in the south of the city, is a bastion of opposition where protests erupted two years ago over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a disputed third term in office, which he went on to win.

Failed coup

The demonstrations swelled into a major crisis which even saw a failed coup attempt. Since then, Musaga has seen regular anti-government protests.

The unrest has claimed between 500 and 2,000 lives and more than 400,000 Burundians have been forced into exile, rights groups and the UN say, while there have been reports of hundreds of cases of torture and forced disappearances.

Last month, three members of the youth league of Burundi’s ruling party — considered a militia by the UN — were killed in a grenade attack in the same neighbourhood.

The “Imbonerakure”, whose name means “The Watchmen”, has long been accused of using barbaric methods to achieve political ends on behalf of Nkurunziza and his ruling CNDD-FDD party.

Four days later eight people were hurt in a grenade explosion in a northern Bujumbura neighbourhood considered a CNDD-FDD stronghold — the scene of a string of similar attacks that have left two people dead and around 20 injured in less than a month.

Source:AFP

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday two staff kidnapped when armed men attacked their convoy in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last week had been released.

The workers were abducted on June 7 between Kirumba and Beni in North Kivu province while on a humanitarian mission, prompting a Red Cross appeal for their immediate release.

A Red Cross statement said the pair were freed on Thursday morning.

Spokesperson Christine Cipolla said the organisation was relieved their ordeal was over but deplored an abduction she said threatened humanitarian work.

An ICRC spokesperson told AFP its operations remained suspended in the region, where it has been aiding 5 000 families, following the abduction of the two, whose nationality has not been revealed.

“We have suspended our movements in North Kivu province until further notice … awaiting security guarantees,” the spokesperson said.

The eastern DRC has been rocked by more than 20 years of armed conflict among both domestic and foreign armed groups, fuelled by struggle for control of lucrative mineral resources as well as ethnic and property disputes.

North Kivu has served as a base for rebels fighting with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) since 1994 and sees frequent kidnappings.

Source:AFP

The United Nations has documented dozens of cases of serious child abuse including rape and kidnap in five days of violence by Congolese militias, it said Wednesday.

The UN’s mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, said it had recorded 62 cases of “serious” child abuse by armed groups in the violence-wracked east, and by followers of slain militia leader Kamwina Nsapu in the country’s centre, between June 5 and 9.

“The fate of child victims of armed conflict in the DRC remains a permanent concern,” MONUSCO spokesperson Theophane Kinda told reporters in Kinshasa.

Kinda said that among others, the UN had documented “25 cases of child kidnap and 16 cases of the recruitment and use of child soldiers by armed groups” in both parts of the country.

“A total of 19 cases of rape and sexual violence perpetrated against underage girls have been identified,” he added.

The UN has repeatedly deplored the abuse of children’s rights in vast, unstable DRC- particularly in the east, which has suffered more than 20 years of armed conflict, fuelled by struggle for control of lucrative mineral resources as well as ethnic and property disputes.

Since last September, the central Kasai region has also been rocked by a violent tribal uprising led by followers of Nsapu, who was killed in a military operation in August after rising up against the government.

That violence has left hundreds of people dead – including two UN investigators in March – and forced 1.3 million others to flee their homes.

The UN has accused the Kamwina Nsapu rebels of a string of atrocities, while also accusing the Congolese army of disproportionate use of force.

The European Parliament on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into the Kasai violence, in a bid to “make sure that the perpetrators of these massacres account for their actions”.

European lawmakers said UN experts should be part of any investigation team, saying in a resolution that they were “deeply concerned by the deterioration in the political, security and humanitarian situation” in DRC.

Last week UN children’s charity Unicef estimated that more than 150 000 children were either partially or completely unable to attend school because of the fighting in Kasai.

AFP

The City of Dar es Salaam is set to go high-tech as the Regional Commissioner (RC), Paul Makonda, plans to instal closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at traffic lights junctions and police stations to increase efficiency and curb corruption.

Mr Makonda will also instal 100 computers at police stations where offenders’ information will be stored, instead of writing on paper as is the case currently.

The Dar es Salaam RC made the remarks yesterday at Oysterbay Police Station when sending off 26 out of 56 police patrol vehicles for major repairs and revamping in Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region, aboard Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) trucks.

He said that the video surveillance at traffic lights will address challenges faced by police officers in apprehending offenders who fail to comply with traffic light signs, through photographic evidence.

According to Mr Makonda, the driver whose personal details including telephone contacts will be under their vehicle number plate in a new system to be launched soon will be required to pay the penalty.

“I am in discussions with the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), the Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA) and the police so of the offender,” he explained.

In a move that will help end corruption of filing of false charges in police stations, Mr Makonda is also overseeing the installation of 20 video surveillance cameras in 20 police stations in the region.

The CCTV cameras will be linked to the RC’s office who is also the region’s chairperson for security and safety committee; the Officer Commanding District (OCD); Regional Police Commander (RPC) and Special Zone Police Commander.

“This will make it possible for any of us to see what is hap pening at any of the charge room offices (CRO) of any of the 20 police stations installed with CCTV cameras and follow it up. There is a major challenge of innocent people being arrested without being charged and are coerced to pay bribes for their release, we want this to stop,” he explained.

Mr Makonda added: “We want to see everyone working and adhering to their work ethics. Those who had been asking for bribes, this should end now.” On the same note, of the 100 computers the RC is installing at 20 police stations, each will receive eight computers.

We can have details of all owners including pictures included with the registered vehicle number plate for ease identification

Source:Daily News

In a declaration they issued on 9 June, the Catholic Bishops of Burundi say democracy is not yet fully understood in the country. They say they are concerned about the people who are being intimidated by some administrative officials.

The statement by the Episcopal Conference of Burundi says the security situation has improved throughout the country compared to the deadly violence that Burundi has experienced since April 2015.

Burundian Bishops say they are concerned by the fact that democracy is not clearly understood in the country. “Some reduce it to the simple fact of holding elections, ignoring the respect of its principles and values, “said Joachim Ntahondereye, Bishop of Muyinga Diocese and Chairman of the Episcopal Conference of Burundi.

The bishops say there is growing apprehension in the country which proves that the future is likely to be tainted with resentment and revolt following the intimidation and political blunders which some people suffer at the hands of some administrative officials.

Bishops said that after discussing the situation in their respective dioceses. They, however, noted slight security improvement in the country but which, according to them, is not very likely to lead to lasting peace.

Democracy is a process

Martin Nivyabandi, Minister of Human Rights, says democracy is a process. “The Government of Burundi is making efforts to promote peace and security in the country, which goes hand in hand with democracy,” says Minister of Human Rights. He also says any administrative authority guilty of oppressing the population by means of his/her position is punished individually.

The bishops of Burundi have opposed the third candidacy of President Pierre Nkurunziza in the 2015 elections. They withdrew the priests and religious observers from the dismemberments of the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) saying they were some irregularities in the 2015 election process.

Amnesty International reports that the current Burundi political crisis has become less overtly violent, although serious human rights violations continued, including unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture or other ill-treatment and arbitrary arrests. “Violence against women and girls increased. The rights to freedom of expression and association were stifled. With increased repression and unchallenged impunity, a climate of fear took root in the capital and elsewhere”, says Amnesty International.

Burundi has plunged into a crisis since the official announcement of the candidacy of President Pierre Nkurunziza in the 2015 presidential elections that he won. Some politicians and members of civil society organizations accuse him of having violated the Burundian Constitution and the Arusha Peace Agreement. According to UN reports, over 400 thousands Burundians have fled the country since 2015.

Source:Iwacu