Tag: GreatLakesNews

{The bodies were buried on Sunday morning at Kihara army barracks, Nyamwamba Division, Kasese Municipality.}

At least 52 bodies of people killed in last weekend’s fighting in Kasese District have been buried.

The bodies were buried on Sunday morning at Kihara army barracks, Nyamwamba Division, Kasese Municipality.

Each of the bodies was buried in a separate grave after some families failed to identify relatives from the pile of dead bodies that have been at the mortuary for close to a week.

Local leaders and security officials had on Friday resolved that the unclaimed bodies would be buried in a mass grave at the district headquarters.

However, Kasese Resident District Commissioner, Maj James Mwesigye said that they had received instructions to abandon the earlier plan.

On Saturday, district leaders resolved that the bodies be buried at the barracks, since there is no adequate space at the district headquarters located at Rukoki, five kilometers from Kasese town.

This morning each of the bodies were wrapped in large polythene black bags and put in coffins purchased by the police. They were then transported to the burial site in a convoy of police trucks and district vehicles.

At Kihara, there was restriction to the burial site and the police allowed only the media and relatives. Some of the relatives of those missing wailed as the police placed each body in the grave.

The burial was conducted by the police and Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers. It was witnessed by Kasese District chairperson, Geoffrey Sibendire Bigogo and other local leaders.

Julius Ndungu, who has failed to trace the whereabouts of his brother, Gideon Matte, a royal guard, says that he has no option but accept that he could have died in the palace attack.

Ndungu says that the bodies should have been buried in a public area that can easily be accessed. He adds that since the barracks is a restricted place, they may not be allowed at the site if they want to pray for the victims.

{Health workers have made good their threat to boycott work to push the government to implement a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) they signed in June 2013.}

This is after the 21-day strike notice they issued on November 14 expired on Monday.

Dr Fredrick Oluga, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) general secretary, on Monday told NTV that they were keeping off hospitals because the government had dishonoured the CBA for three years.

Their strike is in defiance of a temporary order by the Employment and Labour Relations Court on Friday stopping industrial action , and calls by Health CS Cleopa Mailu and Council of Governors to work as talks continue.

{{1: 16,000 RATIO}}

The medics are pushing for review of job groups, promotions, deployment and transfer of medical officers, as well as remuneration, according to the inked CBA.

In particular, the document addresses understaffing, with the ministry asked to employ at least 1,200 doctors yearly over the next four years to reduce the doctor-patient ratio.

There is one doctor for at least 16,000 Kenyans.

Coast region deputy chairperson Gitau Kagona asked their members not to report to work, accusing counties and the Health ministry of failing to show commitment to improve the working conditions of health staff.

{{BIG ISSUE}}

Dr Kagona said KMPDU has been pushing stakeholders, including the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, to implement the CBA but their efforts have failed to bear fruit.

“We cannot continue to work in an environment which does not support growth of staff. We will support this strike because we want to demand our rights and we will not relent until we are heard,” Dr Kagona said.

He said the poor patient-doctor ratio was a big issue affecting most public health facilities in Kenya.

“We have a big shortage of doctors yet our counties are sending doctors away, saying they cannot hire more doctors. We cannot have good service delivery in hospitals because of this challenge,” he added.

{{EMERGENCY CARE}}

The strike by the nearly 5,000 doctors, clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and interns in those groups is likely to affect service delivery at over 2,700 public health facilities — including Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, where most Kenyans seek emergency medical care.

Also on strike are consultant and specialist medics, medical superintendents, county directors of health, doctor administrators, sub county medical officers, meaning a total shut down of the public-health-service delivery is looming if nothing is done to end the job boycott.

{{PARALYSIS BUG}}

A spot check by Nation.co.ke on Monday revealed that public hospitals were slowly catching the paralysis bug, with some workers set to officially launch their strike.

In North Rift, for instance, doctors are scheduled to meet at at the basketball pitch opposite the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital at 10am to begin the job boycott.

Patients were desperate at the Kakamega County Hospital after they were asked to leave at the start of the industrial action.

No doctor or nurse reported on duty and by 8.30am and most wards were deserted as patients were collected by relatives to seek treatment in private facilities.

A patient was reported to have committed suicide in a toilet next to Ward One but Nation.co.ke could not independently verify if the death was linked to the strike.

{{WARDS EMPTY}}

His wife Merceline Konga said her husband had complained that his condition was getting worse and he could succumb to his illness if taken home.

The County Executive for Health Peninah Mukabane and Health Chief Officer Brendah Makokha visited the hospital to assess the situation.

Meanwhile, most wards at the Samburu County and Referral Hospital in Maralal were empty hours before the health worker’s strike kicked off on Sunday midnight.

Relatives were transferring their patients to Wamba Mission Hospital, a private facility in Samburu East.

{{GUN-SHOT WOUNDS}}

Among those caught up in the standoff between the government and the health workers was Mr Lokupuny Lobolia who was nursing gun-shot wounds after he was attacked by bandits in Natiti Village of Baragoi.

“Lobolia was ambushed while grazing their livestock in a nearby forest next to Baragoi Polytechnic by the bandits mid last month,” his cousin Benedict Lokidong’oi told Nation.co.ke.

He said they had no other option but to transfer the patient though they did not have any money to pay at the Catholic-Church-owned facility on admission.

{{EXPECTANT MOTHERS}}

Expectant mothers awaiting Caesarean Section deliveries, children in incubators among other patients had been transferred to other private facilities in Nyahururu, some 130 kilometers away.

Journalists were on Sunday evening barred by hospital administrators from taking pictures of the private ambulances picking up patients at the government facility.

Doctors from Coast are expected to join their colleagues in Nairobi as nurses converge on Coast General Provincial Hospital for instructions from their union officials to join the strike.

In Kisii, no nurse or doctor could be seen at the Kisii Referral Hospital as patients had been left to their own devices.

In Taita Taveta, nurses have announced that they will join doctors in the strike.

{{OVERTIME ALLOWANCE}}

Mr Boniface Mrashui, the Kenya National Union of Nurses branch secretary-general, told Nation.co.ke that the county’s 300 nurse would down their tools.

The nurses accuse the county government of failing to address their grievances.

Mr Mrashui spoke even as the County’s Health Services Executive Gifton Mkaya ‎held onto the hope that the doctors and nurses would agree to negotiations and abandon the strike.

“We have alerted hospital managers to be on the lookout Monday morning,” said Mr Mkaya.

Among the issues raised were pending payment of locum, escort and overtime allowances and promotion of nurses.

{{ENOUGH TIME}}

“None of these issues have been tackled. The agreement was that they were to be resolved before December and failure to honour the agreement had consequences,” he said.

He said the union had given the John-Mruttu leadership enough time to address the issues raised but nothing was forthcoming.

“The county government has proved they cannot honour their promises. We cannot work efficiently because of many challenges facing us at work,” he said.

Moi Hospital in Voi, the largest health referral hospital in the county, has 60 nurses and faces a shortage of 140 patient care-givers

{{CRISIS MEETING}}

Mr Maya said the county government was set to hold a meeting on the strike.

“We plan to hold a departmental meeting this morning to see how we will be able to manage the situation if the doctors and nurses fail to listen to our request to suspend the strike,” he said.

Medics have defended the strike, blaming the government for ignoring their demands and the signed CBA.

{{DEFENDED STRIKE}}

Dr Oluga on Sunday said doctors would not resume work until the government meets their demands.

“We are fighting for wananchi because the agreement will see the number of doctors increase and that they are better trained,” said Dr Oluga. “We have been lenient with our demands.”

{Police and the local leaders had agreed to bury the dead in a mass grave in Bukoki Sub-county on land belonging to Kasese District.}

Government has objected to a proposal to have the bodies of yet unidentified victims of last week’s Kasese attacks buried in a mass grave.

Kasese Municipal Health Centre was by end of Thursday still stranded with 24 bodies but police brought 30 more that had been taken to hospitals in surrounding districts, bringing the body count to 54.

A Thursday meeting attended by district leaders, police, and the Kasese resident district commissioner, had resolved that unclaimed bodies be buried in a mass grave.

“We will bury all and make the grave very well. Now that police has given us the names of those in prison, we shall ask them who is missing and have their names inscribed on the graves,” Kasese Municipality Mayor Godfrey Kabbyanga said.
However, later, Kasese District chairman Sibendire Bigogo, said: “The idea of the mass grave has been abandoned. We had a meeting yesterday and agreed to bury the dead in a mass grave but when they consulted with the Minister of Internal Affairs, government stopped it.”

Mr Bigogo did not give government’s reason but said the minister had directed that bodies be buried in the same place but separately after taking samples of each so that when DNA is done, the respective families can exhume their dead for proper reburial.

Police and the local leaders had agreed to bury the dead in Bukoki Sub-county on land belonging to Kasese District.

Police Director of Operations Asuman Mugenyi was by press time expected to issue the minister’s directive to the mortuary attendants.

Mr Bigogo, however, expressed worry that police was still allowing relatives of the deceased to try to identify the badly decomposed bodies which he said was impossible.

“I am uncomfortable with the idea of police continuing to allow people to identify the bodies of their relatives” Mr Bigogo said.

He added: “They are now checking the bodies based on the finger nails. People are going to end up burying bodies that are not theirs.”

{{Other news}}

Meanwhile, police has refuted reports that children could have been caught up in the attack on the Buhikira palace and killed.

There have been reports that some of the people living at the palace had children with them.

“Among the suspects we have, there are only adults both women and men,” police spokesman Andrew Kaweesi, said.

{IBTimes UK can reveal exclusive firsthand accounts of a campaign of fear and intimidation against the opposition.}

As the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) teeters on the brink of a major crisis, IBTimes UK has received firsthand accounts from prominent members of the political opposition, whose homes have been attacked as the government steadily escalates what has been branded a “campaign of intimidation”.

President Joseph Kabila will stay in power beyond the two-term limit set by the constitution, Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi, the chief diplomatic adviser to the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has said, according to reports on Friday (2 December).

Kabila has been in power since 2001 and served two full terms, as permitted by the Congolese constitution. His mandate expires on 19 December 2016 and he is barred from seeking a third term in office, but Kabila has been accused of manoeuvring to ensure he can remain in power indefinitely.

The DRC has endured one of the bloodiest civil wars in modern times and faces a fateful moment later this month when he is due to stand down.

{{Fear and intimidation in the DRC}}

Opposition figures Gabriel Kyungu (the president of Rassemblement in Katanga) and father and son duo Charles and Christian Mwando have all had their properties vandalised.

No arrests have been made, but in an exclusive interview, Kyungu alleged that the government was behind the attack. “It’s the regime of Kabila that is organising to engage in what we call ‘state terrorism’ [against political opponents like us],” he said.

Kyungu’s home came under siege in the early hours of Wednesday (30 November) morning. He claimed a group of men tried to enter the compound and attack him.

The attackers were confronted by his security guards, who prevented them from scaling the wall. “Because they failed to enter my house, they set fire to my front door, using tires and petrol,” said Kyungu. The flames, which engulfed the entrance, had to be extinguished by authorities.

The attacks are not isolated incidents, but form part of a wider campaign of fear as Kabila seeks to tighten his grip on power. Kyungu said: “[These incidents] have become common since 19 September – when the regime killed protesters in Kinshasa. And the regime is letting it happen.

“As political opponents, we no longer have the right to be safe and be secured by the state. Not only are people from Katanga oppressed, it’s the entire population of the republic that is oppressed by the regime. Each time we want to organise a demonstration anywhere, in all the provinces, the regime in place summons the heavily armed army to attack the population.”

On 19 November, just days before the attack on Kyungu’s compound, Christian Mwando’s home was targeted after he left in defiance of a government ban on demonstrations to “counter this restriction to freedom”.

“At the moment when I was going back home, I received a phone call from my wife telling me she had sought refuge in the corridor of our home with the children. The house was attacked by a group of people who, at the moment when she was speaking to me, were smashing down all the windows with rocks,” he said.

Fearing for his family’s safety, Christian alerted both the police and Monusco, the UN’s largest and most complex peacekeeping operation. But this was not the end of the terrifying ordeal for the Mwando family.

He estimates that up to 100 attackers “armed with machetes and batons” had congregated around his home chanting war songs.

They were unable to gain entry into his compound as the guards had closed the gates.

“That’s why they stayed outside and started throwing rocks that destroyed all the lamps outside, the windows, the windshields of the vehicles parked inside [the courtyard],” said Christian. He claims their objective was to burn his house to the ground.

“When these people left my house, then went on to attack my father’s [Charles Mwando] home, which is not far from mine,” he said. “They managed to destroy the vehicles and smashed the windows but fortunately were not able to enter the house.”

At the time of the attack, Christian’s three children, aged nine, 11 and 15, were at home with their mother. They have now been removed from the country as Christian fears for their safety.

During the melee, neighbours managed to apprehend two of the assailants and handed them over to Monusco, who took their identities and transferred them to the police. Following the incident, Christian went to file a complaint at the court in Lubumbashi, who contacted the police to ask for the perpetrators’ testimonies – only to be told their whereabouts are now unknown.

Crucially, Christian alleged that he had been told by one of the attackers themselves that they had been recruited by the provincial Minister of Interior, Kasongo Kibale, raising questions over the state’s involvement in the incident and the steady erosion of democracy in the country.

“We are entering a bloody dictatorship,” said Christian. “This means fear is beginning to take hold and I think Kabila wants to gain time , so that he can entrench this fear. He knows that, within six or eight months, he will no longer face the same pressure from the people because he would have spread terror.

“You realise that when we are attacked like this in our homes, we suffer. When our supporters are locked up in jail, that TV and radio stations are closed down and that we no longer have the right to express ourselves, that we no longer have the right to assemble or demonstrate – what options will we have left?”

Ida Sawyer, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said:

“In recent weeks, repression in the DRC against activists, the opposition protesters, and the media has intensified at an alarming rate as the 19 December deadline approaches for when President Kabila is due to step down at the end of his constitutionally mandated two-term limit.

“Since security forces responded to protests the week of 19 September with brutal and excessive force – killing at least 66 people and possibly many more – government officials and security forces have banned all political meetings or demonstrations and arrested dozens of activists, journalists and opposition members who tried to organise or participate in peaceful protests.

“In the southern city of Lubumbashi, the homes of opposition leaders have also been targeted. On 19 November, dozens of unidentified assailants vandalised the homes of Mwando Nsimba (Charles), one of the leaders of the G7 opposition coalition, and his son and Member of Parliament, Christian Mwando, while on 30 November, unidentified assailants set fire to the house entrance gate of another G7 opposition leader, Gabriel Kyungu.

“These attacks appear to be part of the broader crackdown to spread fear and intimidation among opposition leaders, their supporters, and others who have called for President Kabila to step down at the end of his mandate.”

IBTimes UK contacted the DRC embassy in London to comment on the allegations, but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.

{Burundi’s 18-month social and political crisis has directly impacted funding for centres for rape victims.}

A Burundian charity has raised the alarm bells over a critical lack of funding for specialist centres for rape victims as it emerged that at least 3,000 children have been raped in the conflict-ridden country since 2014.

In the aftermath of its 1993-2005 civil war that left some 300,000 dead, Burundi had one of the highest incidences of rape in the world. In response to rape and war-related sexual violence, international organisations such as Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and donors including the European Union helped set up health centres for women and children in the small East African nation.

One such centre, Seruka, which opened in the capital Bujumbura in 2004 under the wing of MSF Belgium, found that at least 700 children have been raped in Burundi since the beginning of this year, 800 in 2015 and more than 1,000 in 2014.

Joselyne Kwizera, coordinator of the centre, told news website IWACU the majority of the victims identified were from some of the poorer areas and outlying districts of Bujumbura – including Kamenge, Cibitoke, Kanyosha and Musaga.

According to MSF, previous success in addressing sexual and gender-based violence in post-war Burundi’s centres lay in the fact that all services, medical, psycho-social and legal, were accessible to patients through the same facility.

But, Burundi has been gripped by a deadly social and political crisis for the past 18 months which has left an estimated 1,000 dead, 6,000 imprisoned and 20,000 missing, and security and diplomatic implications have directly impacted funding for centres such as Seruka.

Once financed by several European nations including Belgium and the Netherlands, funding for its programmes was not renewed. The European Union, which also helped fund the centre, suspended all financial support to Burundi in March this year.

With impunity marking life in today’s Burundi in particular with regards to sexual violence, Kwizera warns that, since the beginning of the crisis, victims are not receiving adequate treatment and support because of lack of finances. Because of widespread insecurity, the staff from the centre no longer travel across the country to raise awareness about sexual violence.

“The Seruka centre faces a serious financial problem,” the coordinator explained, highlighting how she has had to dismiss six nurses. Describing how Seruka is struggling to achieve its goal of providing emergency care, Kwizera said: “Sometimes, due to this lack of resources, victims are [only] treated after 72 hours, a duration beyond which prevention is no longer effective. They are victimised twice.”

{{Impunity and corruption encourage rape}}

Estella Iyakaduhaye, a psychotherapist at the centre, said delaying treatment and support for child victims of sexual violence is “dangerous for the physical and mental health of the child because the victim of a rape needs urgent care”.

Similar centres, including the Family and Community Development Centre (CDFC) in Cibitoke Province, which deals with victims of gender-based sexual violence (SGBV), face the same problems. Richard Nkurunziza, the centre’s deputy coordinator, confirmed the CFDC has almost no funding. “We’re doing as well as we can,” he said, adding that fewer personnel is available to welcome, listen and support the growing number of victims.

The majority of these victims, from families with modest or no means, are unable to afford medical expertise and healthcare, which Nkurunziza estimates at around FBU12,000 (£5.7, $7.2) per expertise.

With the state recently banning a prominent human rights organisation and several other non-profit groups, a lack of legal support compounded by the absence of lawyers for legal aid and payment of legal fees means growing difficulties to prosecute and pursue perpetrators. “We are faced with a sector that really lacks financial resources. Cases of corruption, impunity and out-of-court arrangements encourage further rape,” Nkurunziza explained.

Local journalists have described the use of rape as “a weapon of war”, something that Pamella Mubeza, a women’s rights activist and director of the Association des Mamans Célibataires (Association of Single Mothers – AMC) in Burundi, previously confirmed. Since the beginning of the crisis in April 2015, Human Rights Watch found that “hundreds of people have been viciously tortured, killed, raped or disappeared” in Burundi.

{Japan, the country commanding the largest share of motor vehicles populating the entire globe, is committing itself to assist Tanzania and the other East African Countries to start manufacturing cars locally.}

The Deputy Head of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Tanzania, Mr Kuniaki Amatsu, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to support the East African Community’s integration process but especially in the area of automotive industry development.

Envoy Amatsu, who visited the East African Community Secretariat in Arusha, reiterated Japan’s readiness to continue close cooperation with the six-state regional bloc through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

On the other hand, the study on how car manufacturing industry can be established in Tanzania and the other five countries making up the East African Community is in its final stages of completion, preparing the region to make its own motor vehicles here The EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Productive and Social Sector, Mr Christophe Bazivamo, has called for fast-tracking of the study on automotive industry in the region so that the final study report with policy recommendations can be tabled before the Heads of State in April 2017.

“This exercise and the overall study is therefore crucial as it is intended to inform the EAC and potential private sector investors on policy options and modalities that should be adopted to drive automotive industry to the next level,’’ he said.

The EAC Deputy Secretary General made these remarks at the meeting with the Deputy Head of Japan International Cooperation (JICA), United Republic of Tanzania Office, Mr Kuniaki Amatsu who paid a courtesy call on him at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha.

Mr Bazivamo expressed his appreciation to JICA and the government of Japan for agreeing to provide financial and technical support for undertaking the study on automotive industry in the region.

The EAC official disclosed to Mr Amatsu that the Community has developed a regional industrialisation strategy which outlines a number of sectors to be promoted including iron and steel, metals; agro-processing, petrochemicals, gas and fertilisers. It is on the basis of this broad policy framework that the region has made a deliberate decision to promote the development of Automotive Industry, added Bavizamo.

‘’As a region, we have been motivated to develop the automotive industry as we consider it is crucial to provide the population and the business community with affordable means of transport.” Bazivamo informed JICA official that EAC leadership (both Summit and Council) is keen and aspire for the development of a competitive automotive sector in the region.

The courtesy call was also attended by the EAC Director of Productive, Mr Jean Baptiste Havugimana.

The 16th Summit of Heads of States held on 20th February 2015 directed the Council of Ministers to conduct a study on the modalities for the promotion of motor vehicle assembly in the region to stop importation of used motor vehicles and report to the 17th Summit.

{One of the seven G 3 guns stolen from the Booker police post in Mumias weeks ago has been recovered and three suspects arrested.}

Police acting on a tip off about an impending robbery laid an ambush near a sugarcane farm in Mayoni market and found the gun loaded with 20 rounds of ammunition hidden near a river.

Police officers found the suspects at the scene on a motorcycle who were acting suspiciously and sped off when challenged to stop.

The gun had been wrapped in a piece of cloth and hidden in the thicket.

The western region police commandant Moses Ombati confirmed that police officers laid an ambush near the scene after being tipped about a planned robbery by an armed gang.

Mr Ombati said the suspects had gone to collect the weapon for use in robbery on Friday night.

“Our officers were able to detect the gun using special gadgets brought in from Nairobi after receiving a tip off about the activities of the three suspects at Mayoni market,” said Mr Ombati .

Two of the suspects are brothers aged 23 and 39 years while the third is the motorcycle rider.

Mr Ombati said the suspects went to the scene at dusk unaware that they were being trailed by police officers.

When they sped off on the motorcycle after they noticed the officers approaching, the officers shot twice in the air after the suspects defied an order to stop and later combed the bushes leading to the recovery of the gun.

Mr Ombati said villagers who witnessed the incident helped identify the suspects.

“The suspects were later arrested at their home,” said Mr Ombati during a briefing at the western region police headquarters in Kakamega town.

He said the motorcycle rider told police officers he had been hired by the brothers to take them to an undisclosed destination.

The loss of the seven guns had led Genera Service Unit police carry out a ruthless search in the region last week leading to the death of one person dead and several injured. The incident is currently being investigated by Independent Police Oversight Authority.

Mr Ombati appealed to the public to work closely with law enforcers to ensure the remaining six guns and 160 bullets are recorded from the criminals.