Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Four people including three Burundi nationals have been apprehended by police in Morogoro Region after being found in possession of 67 bags of rare armadillo pangolin shells (kakakuona) worth more than 1.4bn/-, which were about to be exported.}

Morogoro Regional Police Commander (RPC), Ulrich Matei, said the suspects were arrested just before midnight on October 28, at Reli Street, Kichangani ward in the municipality, in a warehouse with grinding mill machines.

He said they received a tip-off from community members in the area regarding the activities of the suspects in the area. They apprehended four suspects and also found the bags some of which were ready for export.

The RPC mentioned the Burundi nationals as Kibonese Golagoza (35), Nuru Athuman (32) and Benjamin Gregory Luvunduka (41), who are also residents of Morogoro. A Tanzanian national, Shukuru Mwakalebela (25), who lives at Stesheni in the region, was also nabbed.

According to Commander Matei, the suspects preserved the armadillo shells in 50kg bags and then packed them in 100 kg parcels that also contained beans. The RPC said three of the four suspects who are citizens of Burundi were also facing charges of entering the country without permission.

He said that all the suspects were undergoing interrogation and prosecution was expected to follow. However, RPC Matei said it was too early to talk about specific areas of the country where the animals were killed since the matter was still under investigation.

Armadillos are new world placental mammals with a leathery armour shell. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths.

The word armadillo means “little armoured one” in Spanish. Morogoro Natural Resources Officer, Mr Joseph Chuwa, said that one armadillo on average can have 60 to 100 shells that means the suspects in question killed 670 of them for the illegal business.

Mr Chuwa said the illegal business has been conducted in East and Central African countries in which its large market was in Asian countries.

{Activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo are pressing the government to revive plans for a new mining code, claiming the country, which is Africa’s top copper producer and the world’s largest source of cobalt, needs the higher revenues a revised legislation would generate.}

Congo began reviewing the 2002 mining code in 2012 and last year it proposed hiking profit taxes to 35% from 30%, raising the state’s free share of new mining projects to 10% from 5% and royalties on copper and cobalt revenue to 3.5% from 2%.

In February, however, authorities dropped the planned changes as the move could have driven away investors at a time of historically low commodity prices and energy shortages that were driving down output in the country.

The chamber of mines, an industry lobby group, welcomed the decision at the time. The association had opposed revisions to the code because of the potential negative impact it could have on investment in mining.

Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) chief executive officer, Mark Bristow, even said last year that the planned changes risked destroying the industry in Congo.

But in a report released Thursday, anti-genocide campaign group ENOUGH Project, echoed other non-governmental organizations request by asking the government to complete the mining code review.

“The United States, the African Development Bank, European states, and the World Bank should strengthen Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) implementation in Congo by pressing for EITI reports to disclose the expenditures of state-owned companies, as required by EITI, pushing for full beneficial ownership disclosure, particularly for partners of state-owned companies, and following up on contract transparency,” the document, which analyzes Congo’s political economy over the past 130 years, reads.

“Also, the United States, European Union, World Bank, African Development Bank, and mining companies investing in Congo should urge the Congolese government to complete the Mining Code review with the full participation of civil society,” it adds.

Low copper prices have affected the country’s economy and driven some companies, such as Glencore (LON:GLEN), to suspend operations. As a result, copper production in DRC fell by 3% to 995,805 metric tons in 2015, the first drop in six years.

{Cord leader Raila Odinga has linked President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family to the alleged loss of Sh5.2 billion at the Ministry of Health that is now under investigation.}

Mr Odinga said one of the companies that benefitted from the transactions is associated with the President’s extended family members while another is associated with his close friends and confidants.

“This scandal is President Kenyatta’s. He must deal with it as such. He must tell the country what he knows, when he knew it and what he did when he knew it,” Mr Odinga said during a press conference at his Capitol Hill Towers office, Nairobi.

He said the theft of public funds is a continuation of what started with the National Youth Service where, again, family members and close confidants of the President were implicated as direct beneficiaries of the more than Sh791 million scandal.

“Is the President silent on this and the many other thefts in the country because of this conflicted position? Is he giving up on the war of corruption because it has now entered his own inner sanctum? We have reason to believe so,” Mr Odinga said.

He claimed that one of the companies mentioned, Estama Ltd, which was paid to supply 100 container clinics at Sh1 million each, and which have never been supplied, is associated with people in the Presidency.

Mr Odinga noted the government was working hard to deny its involvement in corrupt practices by initiating investigations meant to hoodwink the public that it was committed to unearth those behind the scandal.

According to the internal audit report, Sandales International Ltd, which was paid Sh41 million has Ms Kathleen Kihanya, Ms Nyokabi Muthama and Mr Samson Kamiri as directors.

A COUSIN

Ms Kihanya is a cousin of President Kenyatta and has worked for his election campaign team in the past. Ms Muthama, on the other hand, is a sister of the President.

A marketing professional, Ms Kihanya worked in Mr Kenyatta’s failed presidential campaign in 2002. But after the elections, Mr Kenyatta, who won the Gatundu South seat, asked her to help set up a structure to manage the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

She also managed his appointments, and media relations, which she ran from the Uhuru Kenyatta Centre. After six months, Uhuru appointed her his CDF chairperson.

The other firm in the scandal is Life Care Medics, associated with Mr Richard Ngatia Waweru (500 shares) and Mr Paul Ndungu (500 shares), was paid Sh201 million. It was incorporated in August 12, 2013.

For Estama Ltd, since incorporation on June 19, 2008, it has never filed returns. The names of directors of the company are Mr Ambrose Makanga Ngari, (500 shares) and Ms Esther Wahito Makanga (500 shares).

Medafrica Ltd, the other company named, has not filed any annual returns since its incorporation August 12, 2013. It is owned by Ms Njage Makanga and Ms Naomi Wanjiku Mirithu, with 400 and 100 shares, respectively.

“The President cannot claim to know nothing about these individuals. And Kenyans know who these people are to the President,” the former Prime Minister said.

But Ms Kihanya, who is the Managaing Director of Sandales International, said it is wrong for some Kenyans to be demonised simply because they are related to the President.

“It is true, this is my company. But, we have done nothing wrong. We have done a clean business and there are documents to prove that,” she said on Friday.

DISMISSED ASSERTION

Mr Odinga dismissed Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu’s assertion that investigations are being carried out over the matter saying before an internal audit report is prepared, those adversely mentioned must have been interrogated.

Mr Odinga said the ongoing investigations by the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) and other investigative agencies are knee-jerk reactions that will not lead to prosecution of the key masterminds of the deal. “That the government is saying people are being investigated is all rubbish,” Mr Odinga said. Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi, on the other hand, called for the President to resign for failing to tackle corruption.

Mr Mudavadi said as the country’s chief executive officer, the President had absconded his duties and should vacate office.

“A government that allows its officers to steal from the vulnerable Kenyans can only have wished them death. The worse is yet to come,” he said.

Last evening, the Cooperative Bank, which is said to have received Sh265 million, noted the payment was in respect of two Letters of Credit established on the account of business. “The delivery of the commodities was to Kenya Medical Supplies Authority,” Mr Ngumo Kahiga, the bank’s head of marketing and communication, said.

{CCM wants leaders’ accounts probed CHAMA Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has called upon the government to probe the account of the chairperson of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee as well as those responsible for overseeing the expenditure of public institutions that face allegations of fraud.}

The party has also called for special audits in all public institutions and ministries which have been blamed over misuse of public funds and those found should be taken to task.

Addressing a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, CCM Spokesperson, Mr Christopher Ole Sendeka, said the chairperson’s personal accounts should be audited to check for the correlation between their incomes and their account balances.

He made the remarks in connection with the current Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the financial year ending June 2015, which had discovered irregularities in the major sky city project at Kigamboni – a joint venture project between the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and Azimio Housing Estate.

According to the report, a valuation in the contract had indicated that an acre was valued at 800m/-, but a fresh valuation by NSSF found out that the acre was valued at a mere 25m/- and the project was covering 20,000 acres. “The current hatred for the government shown by Zitto Kabwe in fighting corruption shocks me.

He was once the chairperson of one of the committees that dealt with such moves. I am surprised to note that he is fighting in defence of the interests of some of these institutions’ top leaders who are his close friends,” said Mr Sendeka.

He said it is high time for the government not to deal with disciplining the finance officers of the institutions only, but also the committees and their chairpersons. He, however, noted that some dishonest businesspersons are not happy with the current president’s move to fight corruption through collection of taxes.

They claim that he is transmitting false information to foreign and local publications thereby ruining the image of the country. “Two foreign newspapers have been publishing such articles on payment from a businessperson to tarnish the good image of the government. What worries me most is that there are two other local tabloids that have taken the lead to disrupt the country’s image, something which is not good for national unity,” he charged.

The CCM Spokesperson pointed out that the government has responded to one of the foreign newspapers’ claims and threatens to expose the local tabloids. Responding to the Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) leader and last year general election opposition presidential candidate and former Prime Minister, Mr Edward Lowassa, who recently gave his evaluation of one year since the last general election among which he had described public office as a ‘miserable’ place to work for.

Mr Sendeka said public offices will only be a ‘miserable’ place to work only to those who do not want to abide by public office ethics and conduct. He added that the fifth phase government intends to restore public office ethics.

Reacting as to why the CCM Chairman, who is also the President of Tanzania, Dr John Magufuli, is not travelling abroad, Mr Sendeka said the president’s decision aims at strengthening internal affairs and it is one of his austerity measures to cut down on unnecessary government expenditure.

“I want to assure those who question why the president does not travel abroad that he will travel when the time is right. Now he is busy working on internal affairs. Further, by sending representatives it helps the country to serve more because it is more expensive for the president to travel as compared to representatives,” explained the CCM Spokesperson.

Commenting on the issue of democracy in the country, Mr Sendeka said that the country’s democracy is in top gear, noting that there is no democracy without boundaries.

“Allowing political rallies throughout the five years while elections are over is to allow poverty to flourish in the country as citizena would be less involved in production,” said Mr Sendeka.

{United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has asked the Security Council for help to resolve a stalemate between peacekeepers and the Democratic Republic of Congo government over what to do with hundreds of South Sudanese rebel fighters.}

In a letter to the 15-member council, seen by Reuters on Thursday, Ban said 755 South Sudanese rebels had crossed into Congo’s Garamba National Park with opposition leader Riek Machar in August. They fled the South Sudanese capital Juba in July, after fighting erupted between Machar’s forces and troops loyal to his rival, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir.

U.N. peacekeepers in Congo extracted Machar, his wife, son and 10 others from Garamba at the request of the Congolese government in mid-August, Ban said.

Since then the United Nations has been trying to broker an agreement between Congo and South Sudan on the repatriation of the fighters or their relocation to a third country until a political deal is in place in South Sudan, Ban said.

On Oct. 3 the Congolese government told the United Nations peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, that it wanted the fighters to leave within a week, but the mission does not have the legal authority to expel the troops from Congo, Ban said.

“At the same time, there is no basis for MONUSCO to continue providing humanitarian assistance to them, as they are no longer in a life-threatening situation,” he said, adding that the mission had told the Congolese government it could not longer take care of the South Sudanese fighters.

“I am, accordingly, bringing the matter to the attention of the Security Council in order that it might take such decisions or provide such guidance as it may deem appropriate,” Ban said.

In August and September, Ban said the peacekeeping mission in Congo removed 755 opposition fighters from Garamba “on lifesaving, humanitarian grounds.” Eight of those died from injuries, malnutrition or ill health while in the mission’s medical facilities, he added.

The United Nations has been in contact with the African Union, East African regional bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the International Committee of the Red Cross to resolve the issue.

The fighters have voluntarily handed over 134 weapons, which peacekeepers will dispose of, Ban said.

Political rivalry between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal a year ago, but fighting has continued.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

{The attack comes just a week after gunmen ambushed Gateway Bus registration UAU 262L killing two people and injuring one at Moli in Magwi County Eastern Equatoria state.}

GULU- Unknown gunmen on Wednesday ambushed yet another Ugandan bus plying the Juba-Nimule road in South Sudan, security officials have said.

The attack comes just a week after gunmen ambushed Gateway Bus registration UAU 262L killing two people and injuring one at Moli in Magwi County Eastern Equatoria state.

According to Ugandan security officials, the Wednesday incident involved a Victory Base bus registration UAK 478V that was attacked at Loboi village in Aruu Junction, Eastern Equatoria state at about 10:30 am.
The bus was reportedly from Kampala heading to South Sudan capital, Juba.
Aswa Regional Police Spokesperson Jimmy Patrick Okema confirmed the incident to Daily Monitor in an interview on Thursday but noted that the bus driver managed to pass through the ambush with all passengers unhurt.

“The bus was shot at several times by the armed men but luckily, the driver drove through without anyone getting shot hurt,” Mr Okema said.

South Sudan rebels demand ransom for abducted Ugandans

He added that, “They were also lucky to have passed through the ambush due to the timely intervention of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army [SPLA] soldiers who repelled the armed men.

According to Mr Okema, the bus attacked was the fourth to have left for Juba Capital that morning at the Ugandan border of Elegu in Amuru District adding that three other buses that left earlier that day successfully reached Juba capital.

“We appeal to travellers to take caution while travelling to South Sudan because of the volatility in the area,” Mr Okema said.

The attack comes in the wake of high insecurity reported in South Sudan following clashes between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar in July this year in Juba Capital that sparked off violence.

On October 10 this year, unknown gunmen suspected to be rebels attacked three Ugandan bound buses at Jabelen in Central Equatoria state about 120 Kilometers from the Ugandan border town of Elegu in Amuru district.

The buses attacked included one owned by Eco Bus Company that was burnt down, Gateway and Friendship whose passengers were briefly abducted and robbed of their valuables before being freed.

Ugandan Police Force and their counterpart from South Sudan recently signed an agreement to hunt down and extradite individuals believed to be behind bus attacks on Kampala-Nimule Juba-Highway.

{The United States embassy in Nairobi, including its consular section, will remain closed today following the shooting incident on Thursday.}

According to a statement posted on the embassy’s website, the consular will resume business on October 31.

However, emergency services for US citizens will be available, the embassy said.

A man was shot dead outside the embassy after he stabbed a General Service Unit (GSU) officer with a knife.

A statement released by the US embassy confirmed the shooting incident adding that, “no Embassy personnel were involved.”

The suspect was trying to forcibly gain entry into the embassy when he was blocked by the Kenyan officer at the gate.

The attacker stabbed the GSU officer on the head and right hand before the officer gunned him down.

{The European Union (EU) has maintained its position as Tanzania’s largest trading partner, with two billion US dollar (over 4trn/-) trade volume last year, a new report has revealed.}

According to the “European Investment in Tanzania: How European investment contributes to industrialisation and development in Tanzania 2016,” report, the European companies also account for 68 per cent of the total Foreign Direct Investments in Tanzania.

Launching the report in Dar es Salaam yesterday, EU Head of Delegation to Tanzania and EAC, Ambassador Roeland van de Geer, noted that the EU companies were also the largest taxpayers, paying 1.1 billion US dollars (over 2tri/-) in domestic tax in 2014, about 25 per cent of the total taxes paid by large taxpayers in the country.

“This goes to show that the over 1,000 European companies and individuals from large multinational corporations to small individual tourism ventures play a significant part in the development of the Tanzanian economy,” he said.

“This publication discusses the competitive edge that Tanzania has in trade, investment and production and the challenges that are currently faced. It also contains clear recommendations on the way forward. EU is committed to continue working with Tanzania and strengthening ties between our regions.

” The European companies have invested in energy, tourism, transport, banking, oil and gas, agriculture, mining, retail and trade, ICT, manufacturing and construction sectors. The envoy said the European private sector is well represented in almost all sectors of the Tanzania’s economy, with crucial impact on revenue collection and job creation.

“These are the best long term solutions for poverty reduction,” he said. EU Business Group Chairman, Mr Morten Juul, noted at the launching ceremony that Tanzania offers peaceful and stable environment, abundant natural resources and favourable geographical location.

“There are ample opportunities for European investors to work alongside local investors to create an active and successful private sector and continue to build the economy,” he said.

“We hope that through continued dialogue we can build an environment that further supports the EU investments in the country and we are willing to share our skills and experiences to address the current business impedi- Continues on Page 3 ments,” said Mr Juul.