MyAfricanObsession

Uganda situation

2009-09-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Saw this on MG

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday vowed tough action against protesters following riots in the capital city, Kampala, last week that left 14 people dead.

"The time for jokes is over. Whoever participates in a riot, burning or destroying or killing, will be dealt with harshly. The law must be followed," Museveni said while visiting a police station torched during the riots.

About 600 people were arrested and more than 200 of them charged on Monday in connection with the protest against the government's move to block the traditional king from visiting a rural district outside Kampala.

Ronal Muwenda Mutebi, the king of the Baganda -- Uganda's most populous ethnic group -- was to visit the county north-east of Kampala last weekend, but the trip was disallowed for fears it would stoke violence.

Over 500 arrested in Kampala

2009-09-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Latest from here

The first of more than 550 people arrested in connection with two days of riots that shook Uganda's capital Kampala, killing 14 people, will appear in court on Monday.

Security forces have kept a high profile on the streets of Kampala as the traditional Buganda kingdom at the centre of the unrest on Thursday and Friday sought to calm the situation.

"The information we have is that 14 people died during the demonstrations and over 80 people were injured, including a dozen police officers," police spokeswoman Judith Nabakoba told AFP on Sunday.

More than 550 people have been arrested, mainly those who were directly involved in the riots or the ringleaders, said Nabakoba, adding that they were being "screened" at various police stations.

"Most of the suspects are detained at the Central Police Station, Jinja Road, Wandegeya and Old Kampala police stations," she said.

Relatives of the arrested have been given access to them.

Court appearances will begin on Monday on charges of engaging in violent acts and involvement in illegal assemblies, among other offences, the police spokeswoman added.

The violence erupted on Thursday and continued into Friday when police clashed with supporters of Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, the kabaka or traditional ruler of the Baganda people, as subjects of his Buganda kingdom are known.

Stoking the unrest was an attempt by President Yoweri Museveni's government to prevent the politically influential kabaka from attending a youth festival for fear it might provoke violence.

The Baganda are in the majority in central Uganda and in Kampala itself, but the festival - which the Kingdom of Buganda later cancelled - was in an area where a minority group, the Banyala, reject the kabaka's rule.

In a statement on Saturday, the kingdom urged the Baganda "to remain calm and law abiding".

Current-day Uganda takes its name from the ancient kingdom of Buganda which once covered the southernmost part of the country, including Kampala.

The events of the past few days have brought already strained relations between Museveni and the Baganda people to breaking point, the Ugandan press observed on Saturday.

In power since 1986, Museveni is finding himself increasingly politically isolated ahead of the next presidential elections in 2011.

Human Rights Watch has accused the police of using "unnecessary lethal force" during the recent riots. But at a weekend press conference, police chief Kale Kayihura said he had ordered that live bullets or excessive force not be used.

He said he had ordered his men to "just arrest those causing chaos but do not use excessive force because there is no need now."

Rally Cancelled

2009-09-12T01:16:00.001-07:00

Just heard that the rally has been cancelled which we help calm things down. here

A traditional Ugandan ruler canceled a planned rally following two days of deadly riots between his supporters and security forces in a region near the capital, his spokesman said Saturday.

People were moving around on the streets Saturday under the eyes of patrolling police.

Thirteen people were killed after the government prevented a representative of the King of Buganda from traveling to a region near the capital on Thursday. But a spokesman for Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II said he has canceled his planned Saturday appearance in Kayunga after the violence.

The violence stems from disputes between the government and members of the Buganda, one of Uganda's four ancient kingdoms. Members of the Buganda ethnic group have clashed previously with the government over land.

Uganda's traditional kingdoms were banned in 1966 but reinstated by President Yoweri Museveni in 1993. But Museveni has restricted their leaders to a largely ceremonial role to avoid potential political rivals.

Members of the kingdom make up Uganda's largest ethnic group and there is friction between the Buganda and members of the smaller Banyara tribe, who claim the Buganda refuse to recognize them.

This week's violence underlined growing tensions in a nation hailed for its relative stability and economic growth.

And some more...

2009-09-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

And some more info from here

Uganda was braced for further deadly unrest today as a battle of wills between one of the country's traditional kings and its autocratic President has spilled over into street fighting.

The traditional leader of the Bugandans, one of four ancient kingdoms in modern Uganda, was to appear this morning at a rally in an area outside the capital he has been banned from visiting. The attempt to prevent King Kabaka Ronald Mutebi from travelling has caused two days of rioting that have rocked Kampala: clashes between police and supporters of the traditional leader have left at least nine people dead.

Gun shots were heard last night and fires burned in some parts; four radio stations were taken off air as security services tried to impose a de facto curfew. At the heart of the violence is a struggle for land and power between the ceremonial king and the country's long-time President, Yoweri Museveni. The king would like Uganda to switch to a federal model which would allow the Bugandans, as the largest ethnic group, greater autonomy.

The flashpoint came on Thursday when a representative of the Bugandan kingdom was stopped from visiting the Kayunga district outside the capital to prepare for today's youth rally. Authorities said he was stopped because there is tension between the Bugandans and a smaller ethnic group, the Banyara, who live in the same area. Bugandan youth quickly began protesting.

But the heavy-handed response of the Ugandan police and security services, using tear gas and live ammunition, turned the riots into the most serious test of Mr Museveni's 23-year rule.

A photographer with the Associated Press saw a 13-year-old boy shot in the head and a man shot in the back yesterday as stone-throwing protesters fought running battles with police. The boy's mother, who did not give her name, said a soldier in an armoured personnel carrier killed her son. "This kid was not in the protest," she said. "They shot him in a shop." The police chief, Kale Kayihura, has dismissed the rioters as "hooligans" and decried the "senseless lawlessness", which has begun spreading to other Ugandan towns. He blamed the riots on inflammatory and sectarian broadcasts by CBS Radio, which is owned by the Buganda kingdom, and said anyone who caused further chaos would be dealt with "decisively". CBS and three other stations were closed after charges of "inciting violence".

Witnesses in Kampala said the notorious Kiboko Stick Squad, a volunteer militia, was unleashed on passers-by and protesters alike. Television pictures showed severe beatings of civilians, one incident showing at least 30 people stripped to the waist on the roadside and beaten with large sticks by non-uniformed men.

Uganda has been hailed for economic reforms and political stability but critics of Mr Museveni have accused him of rights abuses, and turning the country into a police state. He has changed the constitution to remain in office and will profit from potentially important new oil reserves discovered recently.

Uganda's traditional rulers were abolished by the independence leader, Milton Obote. But they were reinstated by Mr Museveni in 1993, although limited to largely ceremonial roles to prevent them turning into political rivals.

More info...

2009-09-11T01:07:00.000-07:00

More info from AlJazeera

Seven people have been killed and several others wounded in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, during a violent clash between security forces and supporters of a traditional king, witnesses say.

Demonstrators threw stones and burned tyres as they filled the streets of Kampala on Thursday.

Security forces fired tear gas and opened fire at residential blocks, witnesses said.

Protesters rallied after the government banned the traditional king of the Baganda people, Uganda's largest ethnic group, from visiting a region northeast of the capital.

Historic tensions

Authorities had earlier prevented a representative of Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, the traditional ruler of the Buganda kingdom, from travelling to the region to prepare for a political rally, citing fears of violence.

"They are rioting because (the official) was stopped by police from entering into Kayunga," Judith Nabakoba, a police spokeswoman, told the Reuters news agency.

Buganda is one of the east African nation's four ancient kingdoms that was abolished by former leader Milton Obote in 1966 and restored by Yoweri Museveni, the current president, in the early 1990s.

The kingdoms have historically had tensions with the central government.

The traditional king holds a largely ceremonial position in Uganda, but holds considerable influence among the Baganda.

More in Kampala

2009-09-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

Here's some news from BBC

At least two people have been killed in Uganda's capital, Kampala, in clashes between police and rioting supporters of a traditional king.
Police fired tear gas at the protesters who hurled stones and burned tyres. One report said at least seven people died.
The demonstrators protested against the government's attempts to stop the king of Buganda from visiting a region near Kampala where violence was feared.
The king has a big influence among the Baganda, Uganda's largest ethnic group.
At least two people were killed in Thursday's riots in central Kampala, police and witnesses said.
But a photographer working for the Associated Press news agency said he had counted seven bodies, adding that all the victims appeared to be civilians.

King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II - who is constitutionally barred from taking part in national politics - had wanted to visit a hostile part of his community to the north-east of Kampala.
The issue is so sensitive that ethnic Baganda members of parliament walked out of the legislature on Wednesday.
There has also been a long history of tension between the king and central government, particularly over land reform proposals that the Baganda say threaten their community, the BBC's Peter Greste reports.
Buganda is one of four ancient kingdoms in Uganda. It was abolished in 1966 but then restored in the 1990s.

Just Heard

2009-09-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

Just heard this from a friend in Kampala

Kampala - At least two people were shot dead and an unknown number injured in the Ugandan capital Kampala Thursday when security forces fired live bullets and tear gas at demonstrators, local media reports said.
Thousands of people took to the streets to protest against an apparent move to block the king of the Baganda tribe, Ronald Muwenda Muteb, from visiting a town north-east of Kampala.
People began burning tires, blocking roads in the business district and throwing stones and bottles at police and military personnel.
Police fired tear gas and live bullets at the surging crowds and two people were shot dead, according to a report by a private TV station, NBS.
Deputy police spokesman, Richard Musisi told the German Press Agency dpa that he could not confirm the reports.
'A number of people have been injured but we have no figures,' he said.
Shops were closed as the running battles began and thousands of people fled the city centre.
The riots kicked off when police blocked the prime minister of the Bagandan king from overseeing preparations for youth day ceremonies he was due to attend on Saturday.
The Ugandan government also angered the Baganda, the country's largest and most influential tribe, by deploying heavily-armed police and military at the scene of the planned celebrations.
'It is not (up to) the government to give security to our king but it is God who provides it,' the kingdom's spokesman, Meldad Lubega told reporters Thursday morning. 'We can even guard him with spears and arrows because we love him.'
One of the placards held by a demonstrator read: 'Whether we die or not we shall have to go and listen to our king.'
Uganda revived kingdom rule 16 years ago after its abolition in the 1960s, but the current monarchs have no political power and are restricted to cultural functions only.
The Baganda tribe has been at loggerheads with president Yoweri Museveni's government, with the kingdom's administration and its nearly 10 million subjects demanding greater power for their king.

Kenya

2009-08-03T10:07:00.001-07:00

Saw this on BBC

More than 4,000 prisoners on death row in Kenya will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, President Mwai Kibaki has announced.
No death sentences have been carried out in Kenya for more than two decades.
Since then more than 4,000 people have been on death row in the country's overcrowded, underfunded prisons.
Giving reasons for commuting all these sentences to life imprisonment, President Kibaki said the law did not allow those prisoners to work.

2009-07-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

Sailing on the waters of East Africa's Lake Victoria, a shine of metal on the horizon catches your eye.
This metal glint becomes Migingo Island.
A rugged rock juts out of the water, measuring no more than a hectare and without a trace of soil; it is covered with tin-built structures and surrounded by fishing boats.

For outsiders, it is hard to see why this rock is raising the diplomatic temperature between Kenya and Uganda.
The neighbours have long been close allies and are even talking of forming a federation and having a single currency in the East African Community.
But both countries claim the island and the row has led to angry exchanges, with one Kenyan MP calling Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni a dictator for saying the island was Kenyan but the waters Ugandan.
Hopes dimmed
Mr Museveni had gone right to the heart of the issue, as local Kenyan official Juma Mbori explains:
"You see, it's in the middle of the deep waters where one gets the right size and quantity of fish."

"Unlike other places, here you do not incur huge transport costs, you just get the fish out of the water and onto the island, you don't have to travel far and spend a lot on fuel for the boats."
Hopes of resolving the island ownership dispute between Kenya and Uganda seem to be dimming.
The two East African nations agreed to conduct a joint survey to verify ownership but now, Uganda has withdrawn and diplomatic temperatures are rising.
Ugandans in charge
The island attracts hundreds of people from neighbouring countries and is abuzz with activity:
Fishermen offload their catch, while others prepare their nets for further fishing expeditions and in one corner of the island, there is a shelter where tons upon tons of fish are weighed and sold to middle men who take them to the mainland.

Slightly away from the shore, music blared from a tin-built bar with its name written outside: Malomalo bar, Kaguta Island.
Kaguta is the middle name of Uganda's President Museveni - a reminder of the passion that surrounds the ownership dispute of the island.
Inside the bar, there were revellers dancing to the music and others just enjoying it from their seats.
I also noticed that there were several brothels where a number of commercial sex-workers conducted their business.
The languages spoken are as varied as the people on the island - there are Kenyans, Tanzanians, Ugandans and Kenyans of Somali origin.
But there is no doubt who is in charge.
On arrival, you are required to first report to the Uganda security office.
For the fishermen and traders, however, the dispute over which country the island belongs to does not seem to be affecting business.
'Different languages, one people'
Ugandan fisherman Wanjala Simon explains: "Lucky Dube sang Different Colours, One People. But here we say different languages, one people.
"We all live here and work together very well. There is no war here," he says.

The dispute originates in the rich fishing waters of Lake Victoria
But ask him which country the island belongs to and his answer is prompt and emphatic: "Oooh! Some people call this island Migingo but Ugandans know it as Kaguta Island, the [middle] name of our president. This island is in Uganda, 100%."
The Kenyans on the island however dispute this.
They cite its proximity to Kenya as proof that Migingo is in their country.
It takes about an hour to sail to Migingo from the nearest Kenyan beach and more than 10 hours from Uganda.
Although their response is muted in comparison to the Ugandans, there is some disquiet, as Kenyan fisherman Clifton Juma illustrates:
"What bothers me is that we say the island is in Kenya but there is nothing that shows it. Look at what government is here, it's Ugandan. The security personnel carrying arms are Ugandan.
"So where is the Kenyan government?"

The Cobra Heart

2009-07-15T04:11:00.001-07:00

I have just received my copy of Ryszard Kapuscinski book 'The Cobra Heart' and really enjoying it. This Polish journalist who spent 40 years in Africa covering every war and revolution......A great writer with a fantastic understanding of the continent of Africa.....well worth a read!!

Stolen Water

2009-07-10T23:15:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the BBC

Authorities in Kenya's capital say they have unearthed a syndicate stealing the city's water to irrigate farms.
Nairobi City Council says nearly half the capital's water was being diverted by dealers working with officials at the water distribution department.
"We know there are cartels. We are cracking down on them," Mbaruku Vyakweli of the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company told the BBC.
There has been widespread rationing across the capital in recent weeks.
Health officials have warned that Nairobi may soon experience outbreaks of water-borne diseases.

I can't wash today because there is no water
Nairobi city resident
Earlier in the week, the board of the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company was sacked for mismanagement.
Mr Vyakweli says he now hopes the syndicates will be crushed.
"We're working closely with the police and we're moving from one area to another," he said.
Rivers dry

Nairobi residents have been going out looking for water
"We sell around 400 litres a day," one water-seller told the BBC.
A 20-litre jerry can of water sells for between 50 Kenyan shillings and 100 Kenyan shillings ($1.30).
Residents in BuruBuru, a suburb in the east of the city, have had no water for three weeks.
"I can't wash today because there is no water - I don't know where I can get it," one local resident told the BBC's Network Africa programme after failing to find water.
Our reporter says the severe water shortage has been compounded by low water levels in Ndakaini Dam, which feeds the city with water.
The dam has a capacity of 70m cubic metres but it is now down to just more than 26m cubic metres.
Environmentalists are attributing the low water levels to the failed rains and the destruction of the Aberdare forest catchment area in Central Province.
Three of the four rivers that flow from the Aberdare forest to feed the Ndakaini Dam have dried up.
Mr Vyakweli said the only hope for Nairobi is that the short rainy season expected in September and October will be plentiful.

This is Brilliant!

2009-07-08T22:26:00.001-07:00

Africa run by puppets

2009-07-08T01:11:00.001-07:00

At a recent prayer breakfast in Kenya, religious matters were pushed aside and instead gluttony was the order of the day.
President Mwai Kibaki struggled to eat a whole chapatti in one go, Prime Minister Raila Odinga spilt tea down his suit and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka struggled after getting a sausage stuck in his mouth.
Luckily, these were just puppets being filmed in the cramped dining room of a Nairobi home for the latest of 13 episodes of the XYZ show.

The satirical puppet show, which was influenced by the British 1980s show Spitting Image and France's Les Guignols, is a chance for a group of scriptwriters and puppeteers to delve into the murky world of Kenyan politics.
The man behind it is East Africa's best known cartoonist, Gado, who has been taking a pop at Kenya's elite for years and encourages people to question events in

SMS in Uganda

2009-07-01T14:30:00.001-07:00

Saw this on the BBC
A mobile-phone service has been set up in Uganda to give people weather forecasts, farming advice and health information through text messages.
US internet firm Google and the Grameen Foundation charity set up the project, which they say will help ease poverty.
Google says the scheme could help about nine million Ugandans who have mobile phones but are without internet access.
Similar projects have already been launched in Ghana and Kenya, but on a much smaller scale.
The Ugandan scheme is available only to those using the MTN network.
They send a text message free of charge, and receive information back in a text message.

Dam closes

2009-06-30T12:08:00.001-07:00

Kenya has closed a 14 megawatts power generation unit at its Masinga Dam due to a long dry spell that has depleted water levels, a statement from the nation's main electricity generator said on Tuesday.

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) said the move would free up water for a second unit downstream and reduce the impact of the closure on the country's power grid, at a time of rising demand.

"Masinga Dam water level has been declining steadily due to poor hydrology for the past two years from 1 956,5 metres in May 2007 to the current level of 1 035,5 metres," KenGen said.

Mungiki

2009-06-25T00:30:00.001-07:00

The death of a boda boda taxi operator, Mr Peter Ngigi, 30, on Saturday in the latest orgy of violence in Kirinyaga district brings back tension and fears of a fresh wave of violence in the volatile area.

The simmering war between Mungiki gang and vigilantes, has resurfaced with members of the outlawed sect striking back to revenge the death of colleagues beaten to death or hanged at a spot christened "The Hague" where Mungiki suspects are executed.

The violence was sparked by an attempt by Mungiki sect members to take control of the area so that they can run illegal extortion rings. The villagers armed themselves to resist the bid.

The new wave of violence has created fear in the area of a possible return of bloody confrontations such as was witnessed in April when 29 villagers were hacked to death at Gathaithi village in Nyeri East district.

The killings were reportedly carried out by Mungiki members to revenge the killing of 16 sect followers by vigilantes a fortnight earlier. Villagers had formed vigilante groups which went round houses flushing out and killing Mungiki suspects.

Was executed

In the the Nation today...

The new wave of killings in which a Mungiki member was executed and the sect members hit back in similar fashion seems to be a see-saw battle with each group trying to stamp their authority.

Since the Mathira massacre, the vigilantes have executed at least eight suspected Mungiki adherents while the Mungiki have killed one vigilante and seriously injured another.

In the days before the fateful night when the Mungiki retaliated and hacked to death 29 villagers with pangas (machetes) and axes, the authorities seemed to have been unperturbed by the gradual and sporadic killing of suspected sect adherents until they were all awakened a fortnight later by the killing of the innocent villagers.

The police seemed content with collecting bodies of Mungiki suspects who had been beaten to death by vigilantes in Kirinyaga and were in no apparent hurry to disarm the vigilantes or arrest those who were masterminding the killings.

The continued killing of suspected criminals and innocent wananchi in Kirinyaga district even after the rude exposure in April of the fragile security situation in the area is an indication that the security agents are yet to take charge.

In the latest incident, it appeared the sect followers were determined to get rid of Kennedy Murimi, 29, the leader of a Kagio vigilante group which has been a stumbling block to the sect's illegal activities in Kirinyaga West district.

Ugandan Swine Flu Hoax

2009-06-22T01:19:00.001-07:00

Saw this on the BBC

A hoax text message warning people that swine flu had broken out in Uganda has caused panic and confusion this week.
It purported to come from the health ministry, told people not to eat pork and promised free airtime for those who passed the message to 25 other people.
The ministry held a press conference denying the "baseless rumour".
But the BBC's Ignatius Bahizi in the capital, Kampala, says the confusion persisted as the ministry often uses texts to spread its health messages.
The Daily Monitor newspaper reports that the hoax message was even debated in parliament.
Our reporter, who received the text on Tuesday night from a friend, says he took it seriously at first.
"Ministry of Health warning; to avoid swine flu which is suspected to be already in Uganda, you are advised not to eat pork or be near pigs for the time being. The first case reported in Ggaba and Nakulabye. Send this message to 25 people and MTN will reward you with airtime," it said.
The ministry released its statement the next day and stressed that well-prepared pork was safe to eat.
Our reporter says people were surprised it hear the text was a scam.
Only recently a health ministry text message warned people about a polio outbreak and urged people to get immunised.
But correspondents say the scam is now the source of some amusement.

Free nets for Uganda

2009-06-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the new visionwebsite

ALL Ugandans will be given free insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the health ministry has said, adding that their distribution will start in September.

Accordingly, the Government is to import 17.4 million mosquito nets, the State Minister for Primary Health Care, James Kakooza, told a press conference at the Media Centre in Kampala yesterday.

The nets will supplement the six million that have already been distributed in the last three years, said Dr. Richard Ndyomugyenyi, the malaria control programme officer.

Priority will be given to children and pregnant mothers, but eventually all Ugandans will benefit, the minister said.

The ministry, according to Kakooza, aims at providing one net for every two people. “Whether they use the nets or not, they should be put up in the house.”
The distribution of the nets is one of the Government’s strategies to
fight malaria, the number one killer in Uganda.

Already, indoor spraying of DDT has been approved after a long battle with environmentalists who were opposed to its use to kill mosquitoes. Once implemented, the initiatives are expected to drastically reduce malaria prevalence in Uganda.

Countries which have achieved universal distribution of mosquito nets, Kakooza said, have lowered the prevalence of malaria to 1%. “We can also do it here in Uganda. It is just a matter of time.”

Uganda spends about sh1,200b annually on managing malaria, or about sh40,000 per person, both in public and private funds.

The Government alone spends sh63b per year, or 10% of the total health budget.

Despite this, malaria remains the leading cause of illness and death in Uganda. According to the health ministry, malaria kills 320 people daily. In addition, it accounts for about 40% of outpatient visits to health care facilities and 20% of hospital admissions.

Asked why malaria incidence was not reducing, Ndyomugyenyi said a national survey would be carried out soon to compile new figures.

“We need to ascertain the progress made in the fight against the killer malaria disease.”

Wired

2009-06-14T22:20:00.001-07:00

Saw this in the new vision
THE East African Marine Systems (TEAMS) cable has been launched at Mombasa by Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki.

Speaking at the function also attended by Uganda’s information and communication technology (ICT) minister, Aggrey Awori, Kibaki said, the landing of the fibre-optic undersea cable at Mombasa was one of the landmark projects in Kenya’s and regional development efforts.

“Some have compared it to the completion of the Kenya-Uganda railway more than a century ago,” he said noting that today’s economies were largely driven by the Internet and other ICT connections.

He pointed out that the project was a public-private partnership between his government and the private sector, geared towards connecting Kenya and the region with the rest of the world and harnessing the power of ICTs.

Kibaki expressed confidence that solutions to the economic crisis would be found using ICT, adding that the future downturns would be easier to foresee, contain and overcome.

He directed the information and communication ministry to come up with programmes for training of the youth in ICTs to catch up with the first world in digital telecommunication technologies.
Kibaki also directed all ministries to adopt ICTs in their plans in order to realise the benefits of technology.

After the installation of the marine fibre optic cable, Kibaki disclosed the next step would be the construction of land-based infrastructure, to make ICT the main pillar of the Kenya Vision 2030, the country’s national economic blueprint.

He emphasised that the East African Marine Systems project also marked a crucial turning point in national and regional efforts to bridge the digital divide with the developed world.

He said the project would empower East Africans to become digital citizens, adding that it re-defines modernity and efficiency and was a big step in the delivery of quality service in the ICT sector.

“I am confident the people in our region, especially the youth, will be the first to rush to take advantage of the high connectivity Internet that will be offered by the project,” Kibaki said.

Zim

2009-06-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

Read this disturbing story on the BBC today.

Growing numbers of children in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution to survive, the charity Save the Children says.
The aid agency says increasing poverty is leading girls as young as 12 to sell their bodies for as little as a packet of biscuits.
It also claims that the coming football World Cup in neighbouring South Africa could soon make things worse.
Unemployment in Zimbabwe is thought to top 90% and many cannot afford to pay for food, medical care or school fees.
The deputy head teacher of a large school east of Victoria Falls told the BBC that hundreds of her female students are now selling their bodies for whatever they can get.

"It could be books, it could be biscuits, chips, some even just to be given a hug."
There is also evidence that many girls are being targeted by child traffickers, Save the Children's country director Rachel Pounds says.
They are thought to have plans to send young Zimbabwean girls to South Africa to feed the appetite of those attending next year's football World Cup finals.

Children of bad Memories

2009-06-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

The Slate website are running this interesting reading.

They call them "enfants mauvais souvenirs," children of bad memories. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi women were systematically raped and forced into sexual servitude by members of extremist Hutu militia groups. Many of these women became pregnant. Since abortion is illegal in Rwanda, some resorted to back-alley procedures or traveled to the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo to terminate their pregnancies. Others gave birth and abandoned the babies or gave them away to orphanages. Still others kept their children and are now struggling to raise them alone in post-genocide Rwanda.

Photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik first became aware of the estimated 20,000 Rwandan children born of rape in 2006. He was traveling on assignment for a Newsweek story pegged to the 25th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic. While in Rwanda, he met Odette, a young Tutsi woman who had been raped repeatedly during the genocide and had contracted HIV as a result. During the interview, she revealed that she was raising a son fathered by one of the Hutu militiamen who had raped her and slaughtered her family. (The subjects' names have been changed to protect their identitites. While the women want the world to know what happened to them, they hope to protect themselves and their children from the censure of their own communities.)
Over the next three years, Torgovnik returned repeatedly to Rwanda to interview and photograph other genocide survivors like Odette. The result is Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape, a new book and traveling exhibition of 30 haunting portraits of Rwandan women and their children. Torgovnik's photographs are accompanied by the women's testimonies—intimate accounts of the horrors they endured and the daily challenges they face, as well as their complicated feelings about caring for children conceived as the result of extreme sexual violence.

Bamboo Bikes

2009-06-09T01:10:00.000-07:00

Saw this on allafrica......read more here

A NEW project in northern Uganda will soon start exporting bicycles made out of bamboo to California. The African Ellipsi Project, a church based organisation, is finalising plans to build a factory in Gulu town to make the bicycles known as Bamboosero.

"One frame of these bicycles goes for $500 in California," Sally Baynton, the executive director of the project told journalists on Wednesday at the Gulu Bible Centre where a sample of the bicycles are being made. She said six sample bicycles would be ready by the end of next week.

"These bicycles are in Ghana and Zambia. We shall make the bicycles in large quantities and ship them to California where there is ready market," she said, adding that the biclyes would be sold cheaply to the locals. Baynton said the bicycles would assist the farmers to transport their agricultural produce to the markets for sale.

According to Baynton, the bamboos are cut into small pieces and then treated for five months to make them strong and water proof before being joined with sisal threads and gum. "They are cheaper, stronger and more environmentally friendly than the ordinary bicycles," she said.

Baynton is being assisted on the project by her husband, Barr and a colleague, Deo Chate. She added that they also plan to start bamboo farms in the north to ensure that there is constant supply of raw material. According to her, the Bamboosero bicycles will be made under the Gulu Hope Project and the proceeds from the sales would be used to drill boreholes, support education and other development activities in the region.

More on Child soldiers

2009-06-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

Found this on all africa today

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have kidnapped more than 200 villagers, including 50 children, in Dakwa, a village in northeastern Congo, about 200km from the border with the Central African Republic. Quoting church officials and local authorities, the radio said several dozen rebels attacked the village at 11:00pm on Tuesday, looting and burning down houses, shops, a health centre and the Catholic mission.

“According to the nurse in charge of the health centre, the rebels retreated with more than 200 persons after a response by a soldier of FARDC (the Congolese army), but returned a few hours later to occupy the village,” the radio reported on Saturday.
A villager who managed to escape was quoted by the radio as saying: “They looted the hospital, taking all the medicines. All the pharmacies have also been looted. The rebels returned to the village later. They are there up to now, slaughtering and eating other people’s goats.”

The residents had reportedly gathered for a vigil. “They surrounded the village. The people were in mourning. They were taken away into the bush,” Marcel Kumbonyeki, the local Catholic priest in Bondo, said.
“They carried out a second attack at 2:00pm on Wednesday. At that time a policeman was shot, then stabbed to death, and they kidnapped the rest,” he said.

One policeman was confirmed killed by the LRA, although the total death toll could be higher, local authorities said. “The total number of people killed is not yet known since many people are missing and many others have fled towards Dingila,” Okapi said.

Great Pictures

2009-06-08T08:03:00.001-07:00

Child Soldiers return home

2009-05-30T02:26:00.001-07:00

The Secretary-General's Special Representative on children and armed conflict has called for urgent support of hundreds of former child soldiers recently released from a demobilization centre in Burundi and reunited with their families.

Read his on the Allafrica website, read more here

The last 340 former child soldiers, formerly associated with the Forces Nationales pour la Liberation (FNL) rebel militia, who have left the Gitega Demobilization Centre, must receive long-term care to ensure a lasting reintegration into their communities, Radhika Coomaraswamy said in a press release issued yesterday.

She also appealed for the discharge of another 44 children who remain with FNL dissidents in the Randa and Buramata assembly sites, urging the Government to finalize their separation without delay.

"Child soldiers endure traumatizing experiences and their long-tern reintegration must remain a priority of the Government," said Ms. Coomaraswamy.

"The promise of peace and tangible support will help them to rebuild their lives," added Ms. Coomaraswamy.

The Security Council has repeatedly voiced its concerns over delays in implementing the 2006 Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement signed between the Government and the FNL, ending a brutal civil war lasting four decades between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.

In December, the Council extended the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Burundi (BINUB) until the end of this year to help restore peace in the small Central African country, where the ethnic conflict has killed hundreds of thousands.

Let us Pray!!

2009-05-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Saw this in the Standard here

Leaders bowed in prayer to seek divine intervention for the myriad problems afflicting the nation.

Our parliamentary representatives prayed at a solemn occasion for better economic, political and social conditions.

Focus was on the tattered economy that last year grew at a slower pace than that of clash-torn and lawless Somalia and Zimbabwe’s — Africa’s typical case of a leech bled to fatten the heifer.

Like a family in communion, our leaders who, given a chance, could settle their political rivalries with knives and knobkerries, reflected on the political divisions and the monster of post-election violence.

They listened to Rwanda President Paul Kagame recount painful lessons on what led to rivers of blood in his country in 1994, and the road to healing, forgiveness and reconstruction.

The rest of the nation followed the national prayer breakfast service with excitement and disillusionment. On the one hand the same leaders kneeling down in prayer are responsible for the political divisions and impasse that have rocked the boat and muddied the waters.

It is the same leaders whose unbridled ambitions took us to the throes of a civil war. They are the same ones who despite the hard economic times won’t heed calls to tighten their belts, slash public expenditure, trim the bloated Cabinet, cancel overseas trips, or submit to taxation of their salaries.

The prayers came at a time the consciousness of Kenyans of their tribes and political affiliations is soaring. They took place against the dwindling confidence among Kenyans on the health and efficacy of the Grand Coalition Government and the power-sharing accord signed on February 28, last year. The prayers took place as those uprooted from their homes following the wave of post-election violence soak in the rain in their makeshift camps.

As the prayers progressed, in reference to the internally displaced, the words of Mother Teresa swept across the land: "Hungry not only for bread, but for love. Naked not only for clothing but also for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks, but homeless because of rejection."

Attention also shifted to the thousands who have been bereaved by the killer Mungiki and other organised criminal gangs. The eye was also riveted on the ghosts of tribalism, corruption and inept leadership that continue to hang around our necks. The prayers were about that whichever threaten to drown us on the turbulent global waters by first reducing us into a case study of a failing State.

Today, we must remind our leaders that prayer alone will only take us as far. We must tell them that faith and commitment are the pillars of prayer that is fulfilled.

We must also recall the words of Harold J Seymour: "Leaders are the ones who keep faith with the past, keep step with the present, and keep the promise to posterity." If they fail on this score the nation is cooked.

We must also turn their attention to Sheila Murray Bethel and her teachings in Making a Difference: 12 Qualities That Make You a Leader: "If leadership serves only the leader, it will fail. Ego satisfaction, financial gain, and status can all be valuable tools for a leader, but if they become the only motivations, they will eventually destroy a leader. Only when service for a common good is the primary purpose are you truly leading." Yes, prayers alone will not take us anywhere.

Rwanda intervene on Migingo

2009-05-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

Found this on the daily Monitor

In Daily Monitor of April 22, it was reported that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda “offered to intervene in the row over Migingo Island if it worsens in signs that the row had taken on regional dimensions”. President Museveni was quoted as saying Migingo Island matter was, “survey matter” and not “a matter for politicians, nationals or locals”.

Considering that Kenya is Uganda’s main export route - the railway from Mombassa carries more than 85 per cent of all imports and exports of Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Burundi - then an African solution should be sought on Migingo. And if the Migingo conflict is not handled by the five East African Community leaders, regional co-oporation could collapse. We need an African cure for Africa’s ills.

As we ponder on issues like Migingo, we should consider the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), a plan by African leaders aimed at ending the continent’s isolation. But will there be any useful action on African renewal? Former South African President Thabo Mbeki who was also one of the architects of Nepad, once said the continent must end its wars, get democratic governments, free its trade and do more to welcome investors. These are fine ideas. However, there have been many other grand plans for Africa’s recovery that have failed mainly because lip-service did not translate into real action.

What Africa really needs is a peer review mechanism where governments voluntarily submit to criticism by fellow Africans based on agreed standards. African leaders should establish specific projects and targets such as in education, health, energy, employment, and accommodation all of which can be measured. But this can only be achieved through private investment and not mere donations from abroad.

The most important test of Africa’s new plan will be how it implements the peer review mechanism. In principle, the review should help break the solidarity between African rulers, who support each other to hold on power through rigging elections, banning of opposition parties, and intimidating the press among others. So far, the position taken by the African Union (AU) – that leaders who ascend to power through coups will not be recognised, is a commendable one. Yet coups are not the only threat to democracy in Africa.

When Zimbabwe government rigged a presidential election , many African leaders fell over themselves praising the poll results as legitimate. Other problems in Africa include what many regard as a military coup in Madagascar, the ongoing massacres in Darfur in the Sudan, and the Somalia conflict - all of which need an African cure.

African countries that perform well in aspects of democracy, human rights etc should, therefore, be rewarded with aid and investments. America’s Growth Opportunity Act has already helped boost exports of the participating African countries, including Uganda, by lowering tariffs on many their imports. Rewarding good performers will in turn encourage countries that register poor peer review scores to try performing better. This is because unless they improve their performance, such countries would not attract any aid or investments.

In the case of Migingo Island, what both Kenya and Uganda require to solve the dispute is an African solution. This will especially benefit the people whose livelihood depends on this half an acre island as well as improve regional corporation.

2009-05-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

saw this on Africa today

A Kenyan military helicopter crashed on Tuesday and injured three senior army officers as it patrolled the volatile Kenya-Somali border. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the plane was shot down by enemy fire from the Somali side. However, the Kenyan Department of Defense has denied it.
A loud bang suspected to be from a riffle was heard before the plane came down, according to an eye witness report. Two pilots and a senior military officer, identified only as Colonel Muteti, who is in charge of the Northern region, were injured when the Hughes-MD500 chopper, popularly known within the military circles as 'YY' came down. The incident took place at the Hulugho division in Ijara district at about 3pm. The American made plane is the only one used in the entire African continent.

Those who were injured were airlifted to the Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi and are reported to be in a stable condition.

Confirming the accident, a senior police officer from Ijara District situated in the Northern Kenya, Remas Warui, said the helicopter was patrolling the Kenya-Somali border with another identical plane. Both planes were based at the Kiyungi Millitary base in the tourist resort district of Lamu within the Coast Province. He said they were heading towards the Hulugho Base.

The military plane crash comes after a 60-year-old controversial Somali cleric Abdikadir Abdi was kidnapped from a refugee camp in Ijara district, where he had sought refuge to escape attacks from the Somali militia group, Al Shabaab. The Islamic preacher is reported to have delivered sermons critical of the militia. The group controls most of the Southern regions of Somalia.

The militia, which has links with the Al Qaeda terror organization, has made incursions into the Kenyan territory on several occasions, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake. The organization has also been reported to lay claim to the Kenyan North-Eastern Province, which is inhabited by Kenyan ethnic Somalis.

Meanwhile, the Kenya-Somali border is officially closed.

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Migingo Island

2009-05-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Found this on East Standard

The ‘Wajaruo are mad’ slur by President Museveni caused ripples in East Africa. Kenya’s Parliament passed a Motion calling for United Nations intervention between Kenya and Uganda over Migingo Island. They lambasted their president, accusing him of keeping quiet as Uganda attacked Kenya’s sovereignty and called on him to order the Armed Forces to move in and secure the Island Uganda is claiming.

The MPs who later moved an amendment to the original Motion on the need for involvement of Kenya’s troops to UN intervention accused Uganda of hostility against Kenya and encroaching on her territory. Several of them accused Museveni of being a hostile neighbour pursuing an expansionist policy. They had no qualm, despite the spirited effort for sobriety and respect for the East Africa’s march towards a federation, in calling on President

Kibaki to order the military to move to parts of the country allegedly under Uganda People’s Defence Forces ‘occupation’. The Government side called for diplomacy, arguing declaration of war was unnecessary at this stage, since both countries were undertaking joint survey of the boundary in question. Ikolomani MP Dr Bonny Khalwale, who moved the Motion criticised what he called Museveni’s jingoism and personalised attacks on Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the Luo.

However, when asked to comment on his reading of the slur that could have easily stoked conflict between the two countries and if the Government would implement House resolutions, the Ikolomani MP skirted the issue, just saying: "May be Museveni wanted to be nice to rest of the country. Ugandan embassy (sic) in Kenya must have informed him that the people who uprooted the railway in Kibera were Luos."

Peace Plea

2009-05-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Eldoret Funerals

2009-05-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

News on the funerals for the those who were killed in Eldoret during the troubles!!

Victims of a church arson attack which came to symbolise the ferocity of last year's post-election violence in Kenya are finally being laid to rest.
The 36 bodies have been stored in a mortuary in the western town of Eldoret since the January 2008 mob burning.
Attempts by the authorities to bury them earlier this year in mass graves were thwarted by their families.
Relatives of the victims are attending a ceremony on the grounds of the church where the burials will take place.
President Mwai Kibaki is among the mourners at the ceremony, which is being broadcast live on Kenyan television.
The funerals were delayed amid problems identifying the dead and a dispute over where they should be interred.
Individual graves
In January the authorities tried to bury the bodies in a mass grave in a public cemetery without notifying the relatives.
Furious families rushed to the graveyard and forced officials to dig up 10 of the bodies buried thus far and return them with the rest to the morgue.

Kenya's ethnic divide continues
A member of the organising committee for the burials, herself a survivor of the arson attack, told the BBC's Network Africa programme, that each victim will have their own grave.
"At first we were bitter but we don't feel bitter anymore and we are just ready to lay our beloved to rest," she said.
"According to the peace and reconciliation there's peace in the area."
Eldoret is in the Rift Valley, which was hardest hit by weeks of bloodshed after the disputed December 2007 poll.

More on Migingo

2009-05-13T13:53:00.001-07:00

BBC reporting on the Migingo affair here

Kenyan MPs have expressed fury over remarks made by Uganda's president about ownership of the Migingo islands.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni sparked fury on Monday when he said the islands belonged to Kenya but the water around the one-acre rock was Ugandan.
He suggested that no Kenyans should be allowed to fish off the Migingos under existing boundaries drawn up in 1926.
Parliamentarians in Nairobi want the African Union and the United Nations Security Council to resolve the row.
The two East African nations are conducting a joint survey to verify ownership of the Migingos in the rich fishing waters of Lake Victoria.
The exercise is due to last two months and both countries have agreed to call an independent expert in case of further dispute.
Railways uprooted
President Museveni triggered a fresh diplomatic row over the Migingos when he told the BBC on Monday: "The island is in Kenya, the water is in Uganda.
"But the [Luos, a Kenyan ethnic group] are mad, they want to fish here but this is Uganda."
On Wednesday, one MP in the Kenyan capital accused the Ugandan president of "exporting his dictatorial tendencies".
Another wondered if they should continue to regard Uganda as a friendly country.
Yet another said Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki must consult the UN as she said the Migingo dispute posed a threat to international peace and security.
Furious protesters in Nairobi reacted to Mr Museveni's remarks by uprooting railway lines linking Kenya and Uganda.
The BBC's Anne Mawathe says this caused disruption for landlocked Uganda, which relies heavily on Kenya to transport its goods.
In the Ugandan capital Kampala, the BBC's Joshua Mmali said Mr Museveni's spokesman found himself in the difficult position of having to deny his boss' remarks.
"His Excellency's statement has been misconstrued, misunderstood and taken out of context," he said.

Migingo census

2009-05-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

Latest on the Migingo issue here

Kenyans on the disputed Migingo Island will be counted in the national population and housing census. All parts of Kenya will be enumerated during the national exercise, to be conducted from August 24 to 31, Planning Permanent Secretary Edward Sambili said on Wednesday.

The row between Kenya and Uganda over the island has been raging since the beginning of the year. The two countries have agreed to set up a team of surveyors to determine in which country the island lies. The team has two months to complete the work that will cost Sh140 million.

On Wednesday, Dr Sambili also announced that the census will cost Sh7.3 billion, with more than Sh700 million of this coming from donors. “The government is collaborating with the United States of America Census Bureau to assist in data processing and for transparency, accountability and efficiency, the National Census Steering committee has approved external monitoring of the process by experts,” Dr Sambili said.

Information will be sampled on the size and composition of the population, levels of education, fertility and mortality levels, migration, rate and pattern of urbanisation, labour force participation, housing conditions and availability of household amenities, agricultural activities, information communication technology and forms of disabilities.

Dr Sambili said a shortgae of vehicles, district boundary disputes and the creation of more districts had increased costs and slowed mapping.

Ivory

2009-05-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the New Visionwebsite

ONE hundred pieces of ivory concealed in a sack containing matooke have been intercepted between Masaka and Kampala.

Stephen Kimpwedde, a Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) customs enforcement supervisor, said the sack also contained new plastic bags. It was among 10 sacks of matooke on a bus from DR Congo.

Kimpwedde said the bus entered Uganda through Bwera border post in Kasese district on the way to Kampala on April 30.

“It was difficult to identify the owner of the ivory because the bus operators were duped into thinking that the sack was containing bananas and there were many passengers carrying bananas,” said Kimpwedde.

“We suspect that the owner of the ivory denied the bag the moment queries were raised by the revenue officers.”

He said the officials found the ivory while on a routine check. “We asked the driver to open the baggage chamber. I instructed one of the soldiers to push a metal wire through each sack to ascertain that no other goods were concealed in the matooke.

The wire failed to pass through one of the sacks so we decided to open it,” Vincent Kamugisha, the head of the Masaka URA enforcement team said.

The banana fingers were neatly arranged on top, around the sides and bottom of the sack. A smaller sack containing banned polythene bags (buveera) was in the centre of the sack.

“We initially thought we had recovered only the buveera and took the sack to the regional office. We opened the bag and found 35kg of ivory neatly arranged between the buveera and matooke fingers at the bottom of the sack,” Kamugisha said.

Trade in ivory is banned globally to save elephants, which are listed among the species facing extinction.

Congo elephants are being hunted down for their ivory that is on demand for making ornaments.

This is the second consignment of ivory impounded this year. In both cases, the ivory was traced back to DR Congo.

The impounded ivory, now at the Nakawa URA headquarters, will be handed over to the Uganda Wildlife Authority

White Kenyan faces Jail

2009-05-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

Saw this in the Telegraph today.

Thomas Cholmondeley faces life imprisonment after the surprise verdict at the end of a three-year trial, the most eagerly watched by Kenya's whites since the 1941 White Mischief case.
The 40-year-old son of the 5th Baron Delamere showed no emotion as Mr Justice Muga Apondi read his verdict before a packed Nairobi High Court.
He had been charged with the murder of Robert Njoya, who died from a bullet wound after he was shot on the Delameres' 48,000 acre Rift Valley ranch.
"I find that there is no evidence that the accused acted with malice aforethought," said Mr Justice Apondi, wearing red robes and a white wig in keeping with Kenya's British-inherited legal system.
"It is clear, however, that the accused was the person who fired the bullet which then caused the death of the late Njoya. I therefore reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter."
Mr Cholmondeley's girlfriend, Sally Dudmesh, a jewellery designer, sat in tears after the judgment, being comforted by friends including Saba Douglas-Hamilton, the BBC wildlife programme presenter.
Two lay assessors attached to the court, who had heard all of the evidence, declared Mr Cholmondeley not guilty in a non-binding verdict in March.
Lord and Lady Delamere, Mr Cholmondeley's parents, sat in shock as their son was led back to the cells by prison guards and policemen.
"It really was a dreadful surprise, we really hoped to have him home soon," said Lady Ann Delamere.
"We have to hope that the judge will look nicely upon us and give Tom a light sentence, hopefully of course the time he has already been locked up. That way at least we can have him home finally.
It is not just the shock of the ruling, it's that with a conviction for manslaughter he will not be able to travel to the US or Europe. That's going to scotch a lot of plans we had for the conservancy."
The Delamere's family ranch, one of the largest still in white hands, has recently been turned from a working livestock farm into a wildlife conservancy It was in a remote, busy corner of the estate that Mr Cholmondeley was walking early in the evening of May 10, 2006, showing a friend, rally driver Carl Tundo, potential plots to build a new house.
The pair stumbled across Mr Njoya, who was carrying a freshly slaughtered gazelle, and two friends with their hunting dogs.
When Mr Cholmondeley challenged the men, they set their dogs on him, and he fired towards them. One of the bullets hit Mr Njoya in the buttock.
Mr Cholmondeley immediately gave him first aid, called for a car to carry him to hospital and arranged to cover the medical costs. But Mr Njoya, a 37-year-old father of four young boys, died on the way to the hospital.
The case was greeted with disbelief and anger among ordinary Kenyans.
Mr Cholmondeley had been arrested a year earlier, and charged with murder after shooting another black man trespassing on his land who was later revealed to be an undercover wildlife ranger conduction investigations into the illegal bushmeat trade.
When that case collapsed, there was an outcry from black Kenyans who cried foul, arguing that there was one law for poor blacks and another for rich whites. There were fears of similar reactions if yesterday's verdict had cleared Mr Cholmondeley of any wrongdoing.
Mr Cholmondeley's family is perhaps the most prominent among Kenya's white settler community.
His great-grandfather led many Europeans who at the beginning of the last century carved huge farms out of what was Masai land in the Rift Valley.
The hedonistic exploits of a notorious group of those early white settlers, among whom wife-swapping, drug taking and gin for breakfast were common, earned Kenya's fertile centre the nickname Happy Valley.
Mr Cholmondeley is seen by some Kenyans as the modern incarnation of those former playboys, a description he would vehemently deny.

Baptism

2009-05-05T13:48:00.001-07:00

BBc report that Odinga was Baptized by a self proclaimed prophet...only in Africa here

Born-again Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been baptised by a self-proclaimed prophet known for his doomsday warnings.
He was immersed in a swimming pool in Nairobi by David Owuor, of the National Repentance and Holiness Ministry.
The minister once foretold that half of Nairobi would be destroyed in an earthquake, which never happened.
Mr Owuor told the BBC that Mr Odinga's unity government rival, President Mwai Kibaki, had agreed to be baptised next.
Mr Odinga announced he had been born again on stage alongside Mr Owuor during a mass prayer meeting in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru last month.
On Sunday, a handful of journalists and evangelical Christians were invited to attend the prime minister's baptism ceremony at a private residence in the capital.

Mr Odinga said afterwards: "The Lord works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform and I'm very happy that the man of God has received me and has blessed me."
Mr Owuor told the BBC that although the prime minister had already been baptised as an Anglican Christian, it was better to be fully immersed during the ceremony in the same way as was Jesus.
He added: "The next step is [Mr Odinga is] going to meet the president to discuss with him the date and they're going to call me into this meeting and the president will receive the Lord, will be baptised.
"Today is a major step, a major advancement towards peace in this country because Kenya is on the way out of the woods."
The BBC's Wanyama wa Chebusiri in Nairobi says many people are wondering if Mr Odinga's baptism could breathe a new, perhaps divine, life into the fractious coalition government.
It was formed in February to end post-election violence - that left some 1,500 people dead - which Mr Owuor also claims to have foretold.
However, the unity administration has become increasingly frayed of late amid claims by Mr Odinga that he is being sidelined by President Kibaki.

2009-05-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

More on the Mungiki killings here

Sixteen victims of a suspected Mungiki gang were buried in Nyeri East amid outrage and calls for the punishment of those who carried out the macabre murders.

Leaders, speaking before a row of 16 white coffins bearing the remains of those who were killed, said criminal gangs must be dismantled to end runaway insecurity.

"If those who killed are identified, they must be hanged," said Mukurwe-ini MP Kabando wa Kabando, capturing the mood at a funeral service held at Gathaithi Primary School.

The service, which was thronged by hundreds of mourners, was held within sight of the scene where seven of the victims were killed at Kiaruhiu shopping centre. Twenty-two others were hacked to death about a kilometre away in Gathaithi-Kiangumara village.

Women widowed by the killings stepped before the coffins, their faces pale with pain as church leaders raised hands to pray for them. Some, with white scarves wrapped around their heads, clutched little, now fatherless babies in their arms.

Church leaders called for forgiveness over the attack that left 29 people dead, but the anger seemed to overshadow calls for restraint.

"If you have spilt blood, your blood will be spilt too," said area MP Ephraim Maina.

He said culprits must pay for the killings. Mungiki, an underworld, vicious gang, is said to have been avenging the deaths of about 15 of its members killed by vigilante groups in the neighbouring Kirinyaga District.

They struck at midnight on the night of April 20-21, where they hacked the 29 to death. Most of the victims were killed with single blows to the head and had their skulls split and throats slit.

Twelve victims who hailed from Kirinyaga were buried on Thursday, but the body of another man killed is yet to be identified.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Internal Security Minister Prof George Saitoti led several MPs in consoling the families.

Yesterday, white crosses leaned against each of the 16 coffins, with inscriptions identifying the remains of those killed.

Among them were those of Joseph Kinyua and his son, Daniel Weru who were buried side by side as they had died. Then, there were two cousins, James Muriuki, a Form Four student, and David Mureithi.

Like those already charged in court in relation with the murders, most of those killed were aged between 18 and 35 years.

Bishop Bob Kabugi, who is the chairman of Central Kenya Bishops Fellowship, said residents had been involved in too much bloodshed since the days of Mau Mau liberation war.

"I’m asking, do you have so much blood that you have to go on spilling it?" he posed.

He said vigilantes must also stop killing people they suspect of being Mungiki members.

But even with the sorrow, it is the outrage that seemed to stand out.

"Those who killed are cursed on earth and in heaven," said Health Minister Beth Mugo.

Ugandan Borders

2009-05-02T09:19:00.001-07:00

Saw this in the New Visiontoday.

ABOUT 1,500 boundary pillars on Uganda’s international borders have been uprooted in the last decades. The removal of the pillars has caused confusion and is partly responsible for the increased number of border conflicts.

The commissioner for geological survey and mines, Moddy Kajumbula, said only 20 of the pillars erected before independence by the colonial administration are still standing. The pillars were meant to provide coordinates by which surveyors could easily demarcate the boundaries.

In the absence of the original pillars, the governments will have to resort to the costly exercise of re-demarcating the borders using the satellite-based geographical positioning system (GPS). “As long as the coordinates are known, the boundaries can still be located,” said Kajumbula.

Some pillars are said to have been uprooted by vandals who believed they contained mercury at the base. Others are said to have been removed by Idi Amin’s soldiers, who thought the pillars might guide the Tanzanian soldiers who were attacking them in 1979.

Besides the row with Kenya over Migingo Island and the Karamoja border, Uganda is embroiled in nine other border disputes which have been difficult to resolve due to the absence of the demarcation pillars.

Most of the disputes are on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both countries disagree over the Mahagi area in Nebbi district, the Vurra border area in Arua district and Rukwanzi Island in Lake Albert.

The Ugandan and Congolese authorities agreed two years ago to jointly demarcate their entire border and plant new pillars. But according to an official in the demarcation committee, the exercise has not yet taken off because the Congolese team is still waiting for funding from their government.

Other border disputes are a 9 km stretch in Yumbe between Uganda and Sudan, the Katuna border area with Rwanda and the Mutukula border area with Tanzania.

According to credible sources, the Sudanese have constructed a health centre in Midigo sub-county in Yumbe and even halted the construction of a road in Moyo. The district leaders have since petitioned the foreign affairs ministry to intervene.

Besides the re-demarcation of the Kenyan border currently being undertaken, Uganda has also agreed with Rwanda to re-survey the boundaries to resolve the dispute at Katuna.

Already, Uganda and Tanzania have resurveyed the border stretch between Lake Victoria and River Kagera; new demarcation pillars have been planted every 300 metres.

Scores of families who thought they were Tanzanians then realised they were actually in Uganda and vice versa. The social, legal and cultural problems associated with integrating into a new country have not yet been resolved.

“What is remaining is the ratification of the boundary between Uganda and Tanzania and the re-settlement of communities that all of a sudden found themselves in a new country,” said a source.

The same problem might arise after the re-demarcation of the borders with Kenya, Rwanda, DRC and Sudan.

Kenyan Church Jury

2009-04-30T22:40:00.001-07:00

Saw this on the BBC
The high court in Kenya has dismissed a case against four men who were accused of involvement in burning to death 33 people in a church in January 2008.
The judge said the prosecution had failed to make its case against the men, who were the only people charged with murder over the attack in Eldoret.
Justice David Maraga also blamed shoddy police investigating in his ruling.
Eldoret is in the Rift Valley, which was hardest hit by weeks of bloodshed after the disputed December 2007 poll.
The four suspects were charged two months after the town's church was torched by a mob on New Years Day 2008.

I am just as outraged at the casual manner in which we are handling serious issues like insecurity in this country and by the attitude of our police force

Justice Maraga criticised the police and prosecuting authorities as he announced the case would be dropped on Thursday in a 45-page ruling in Nairobi.
"The events preceding the commission of this offence cannot have eluded the police as clouds for the gathering storm were there for all to see," he said, reported AFP news agency.
"I am not a politician but I am only a judge and a Kenyan who is just as outraged at the casual manner in which we are handling serious issues like insecurity in this country and by the attitude of our police force in the face of serious crime," the judge added.
Violence erupted after the December 2007 presidential poll amid accusations that then opposition leader Raila Odinga was being robbed of victory by the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki.
A peace deal between the political rivals resulted in a coalition government and an end to last year's disorder, which left an estimated 1,500 people died and 300,000 displaced.
But the unity administration has become increasingly strained in recent months amid claims by Mr Odinga, who is now prime minister, that his party is being sidelined.

Billboard trouble in Kampala

2009-04-28T12:09:00.001-07:00

Saw this on the New Vision website here

FOUR people survived death narrowly yesterday when a billboard fell on their vehicles at the junction between Sixth Street and the roundabout leading to Mukwano Industries in central Kampala.

Avinash Patel, the manager of Pharma Health who was travelling in a Land Cruiser, was pulled out of his crushed car by boda boda riders who rushed to the scene and disentangled him. The Land Cruiser had three occupants.

Another driver, Annet Kagimu, an employee of Kyagalanyi Coffee, managed to jump out of her car.

She was still in shock when The New Vision arrived at the scene.

Stephen Odongkara, the Police officer in charge of traffic, said no one was hurt when the billboard, advertising East African Television, fell on the two cars.

Michael Musani, the officer in charge of traffic in the area, said the billboard was blown off its trunk during the 9:00am downpour.

He blamed the incident on poor workmanship by the constructor of the billboard.

“It seems the contractor did sub-standard work. We are investigating and they will have to compensate the people whose vehicles were damaged.”

The Police, he added, would soon come up with guidelines on erecting billboards in the city.

Flag Lowered

2009-04-28T11:57:00.001-07:00

More on Kenyan gangs

2009-04-28T00:22:00.000-07:00

Found this interesting angle on the recent Kenyan violence here

On Tuesday, Kenyans in the dusty town of Karatina in the central part of the country, President Mwai Kibaki's backyard, woke up to a gruesome sight. The bodies of 24 young men were strewn on a footpath, their hands, legs, heads, chopped off. It was the most glaring evidence of a massacre that had taken place in the witching hours of the night committed by the country's most dreaded gang, the Mungiki.

The Mungiki group is an outlawed association of youth, mainly from the central region of the country. The members are known to engage in strict oathing ceremonies, are highly secretive and protective of their own and are known to be ruthless to those who betray them or go against their dictates. Its hallmarks were the circumcision of women and the sniffing of tobacco, which used to be practised as traditional Kikuyu customs. But the group soon began to terrorise Kenyans, extorting money from businesses and in some towns forcibly circumcising women. In some parts of Kenya, women could not go out wearing jeans or tight trousers. They were stripped naked.

The police proscribed the association a couple of years ago and started arresting its members. But they could not uphold the charges and keep them locked away in jails. The group went underground. But the police slowly started secretly exterminating them, only slowing down when public uproar became too much.

That the Mungiki is a ruthless gang has never been in doubt. They kill mainly by beheading and dismembering their victims' bodies. But never in the history of the country has such a massacre been committed by that gang in such a brazen manner.

When the news filtered across the country, there was horror and trepidation. Yet those aware of how the gang operates knew it was just a matter of time before there was a bloodbath. A week before, some vigilante groups, determined to weed out the outlawed gang, had mounted an operation to eliminate members of Mungiki from the region. For some time it looked like they were succeeding. But reports that were given to the police by the country's intelligence system, the National Security Intelligence System (NSIS), warned of a revenge attack of epic proportions. The police did not act. Yet when the massacre finally occurred the police commissioner, Mohammed Ali, the minister in charge of internal security, George Saitoti, and the prime minister, Raila Odinga, all flew there.

It was too late. Question after question poses itself: why did the police not act? Why has it been so difficult to eliminate the gang?

First, the sheer ruthlessness of the killings told of a gang that was in no fear of the police. In fact most of those who sought police help came face to face with the helplessness of the situation: "When we act, we are accused of extrajudicial killings. We cannot touch anyone here. Deal with it yourselves," one police officer told them.

The failure to act by the police stems from the condemnation they have had to endure in the recent past. Two months ago, the UN's special rapporteur Philip Alston delivered a damning verdict on the police accusing them of eliminating close to 500 members of the gang. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission has been particularly vocal in its condemnation of the police too. But, as if dazed by the bloody might of the gang, they are now, ironically, accusing the same police of failing to eliminate the gang.

The sheer politics involved has left the country hugely vulnerable. The gangs now roam the streets fearlessly, cutting off the heads and hands of their victims and instilling fear in large swaths of central Kenya and some parts of the capital, Nairobi. Yet they know that with an inefficient judiciary, a cowed police force and a human rights body that does not seem to quite know what constitutes human rights (they rarely defend those that the Mungiki kill) they know they are here to stay. How does one deal with the Mungiki? Not even the political leaders appear to have a clue.

The Shadow of the Sun

2009-04-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

As part of my African Obsession I read a lot of books about Africa. It is almost therapy for me. My latest from the Library is Ryszard Kapuscinski's book 'The shadow of the Sun' and tells the story of Polish correspondent/journalist in the early days of the end of colonial Africa.

It is written so well and explains in simple terms, yet with real detail the countries and customs that he see's and experiences. From catching Malaria for the first time (then TB) to finding snake under his bed and driving through a huge herd of wilderbest's.

This is a thoroughly good read and cheaper than a return to Kenyetta airport in terms of transporting yourself there!! (why bother with a return?)

Kenya tension

2009-04-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

A growing rift is being reported in Kenya, read more here

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said fresh elections may be needed if the rift in the power-sharing government cannot be solved.
He is demanding that he be put in charge of government business in parliament, to replace Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Mr Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki agreed to share power last year to end months of post-election violence.
But relations have soured and the two parties have held crisis talks.
Over the weekend, President Kibaki's Party of National Unity accused Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement of "fomenting a coup".
The president's allies say he has the power to decide who should hold the crucial position of leading government business in the house.
The speaker of parliament is due to issue a ruling on Tuesday.

KENYA'S COALITION CRISIS
Dec 2007: Disputed elections spark ethnic violence
Feb 2008: Mediators broker power-sharing government pact
April: Unity cabinet naming delayed amid last-minute dispute
5 Jan 2009: Odinga holds crisis talks; says ODM being sidelined
13 Jan: Inquiry amid claims of agriculture ministry maize cartels
3 April: Cabinet meets on anniversary of political marriage
4 April: Kilanguni retreat collapses in disarray amid arguing
6 April: Odinga labels Kibaki's governing style "primitive"
15 April: Odinga tells Kibaki ODM will boycott cabinet meetings

In response, the prime minister told a meeting of his constituents in Nairobi's Kibera slum:
"We have been pushed around enough. We have reached this point and we cannot retreat. We shall stand firm. If others do not want this then let us go back and hold elections."
Mr Odinga has previously said he was being sidelined in the government.
Earlier this month, his party said it would boycott cabinet meetings, leading to inconclusive crisis talks.
Mr Odinga recently complained at a public rally that no red carpet or toilet were provided for him during an official visit.

Albino

2009-04-25T07:30:00.001-07:00

BBC

Saw this on the BBC

An albino buffalo has been spotted in Kenya for the first time, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) says.
The six-month-old animal was sighted in Hellsgate National Park in the country's Rift Valley.
Unlike normal buffalos that are dark brown in appearance, the albino buffalo is almost beige and easily stands out from the rest of the herd.
There are concerns about the animal's vulnerability to predators and some local people see it as a bad omen.
Senior park warden Nelly Palmeris told the BBC its colouring made the buffalo more vulnerable to attack by predators in the wild.
She also said some communities around the park consider albinism to be a bad omen, which could endanger the calf further.
"We are just coming from a bad drought and the Maasai might associate the famine with this buffalo and kill it," she told the AFP news agency.
To protect the buffalo, KWS is conducting an awareness campaign among the locals and is also tracking the rare animal.
The calf was not noticed at first as the herd was in a dense part of the park when it was born.
Dr Charles Musyoki, a senior wildlife official, told the BBC that albino animals wre very rare and in the past only an albino zebra had been spotted in a Kenyan park.

Migingo picture

2009-04-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Mingingo in pictures!!

Mara

2009-04-24T13:52:00.001-07:00

Wild grazing animals in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve are steadily disappearing, a study has found.
Numbers of giraffe, warthog, impala, topi and hartebeest fell by 50% or more between 1979 and 2002.
The falls are linked to rapid growth of Maasai settlements around the reserve, say scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Their analysis is published in the British Journal of Zoology. "The situation we documented paints a bleak picture and requires urgent and decisive action if we want to save this treasure from disaster," said Joseph Ogutu, the lead author of the study and a statistical ecologist at ILRI.

Dr Joseph Ogutu, ILRI, Kenya"Our study offers the best evidence to date that wildlife losses in the reserve are widespread and substantial. "These trends are clearly linked to the increase in human settlements on lands adjacent to the reserve."
The loss of grazing animals is already having an impact on lions, cheetahs, and other predators, according to researchers.
"The carnivores which depend on these wildlife are the first casualties," said Dr Ogutu. "The numbers of lions are going down. The cheetah numbers are declining. The wild dogs in the Mara system have become extinct." The Masai Mara and the neighbouring Serengeti are world-famous for their exceptional wildlife population - including an annual migration of nearly two million wildebeest.

The Mara itself was recently voted one of the "seven modern wonders of the world". But during recent decades, many species have come under threat from severe droughts, increased poaching, and more intensive grazing by Maasai pastoralists in the "ranchlands" at the fringes of the reserve. Between 1989 and 2003 the ILRI scientists carried out monthly ground counts of seven ungulate species - giraffe, hartebeest, impala, warthog, topi, waterbuck, and zebra.

More on Kenya Violence

2009-04-24T06:34:00.001-07:00

More on Kenya Violence

2009-04-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

More news here

Kenyan police have arrested more than sixty people for allegedly killing 28 villagers in Mathira division in Nyeri district, police officials has announced. The men are believed to be from the banned radical Mungiki sect. The police official said the 28 people were allegedly hacked to death by members of the outlawed Mungiki sect who raided Mathira Division’s Shehe sub-location around 2am this morning.

Local reports said groups of residents started attacking suspected Mungiki members and slashing some of them to death, after the gang had threatened to expel everyone from the town. According to a statement signed by the police spokesman Eric Kiraithe, in recent weeks, residents in Karatina have been subjecting members of the outlawed sect to mob punishment. Police said they received information about a violent clash between the public and Mungiki sect members.

“Police moved to the scene immediately and commenced investigations. So far investigators have confirmed that 24 people have been killed and three have been seriously injured,” Mr Kiraithe told local newspapers. The Mungiki gang mainly from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group has continued to operate despite being banned in 2002, extorting money from owners of minibus taxis and other public transport vehicles according to local reports.

In 2007 more than 100 suspected sect members were killed in a police crackdown after a series of grisly beheadings blamed on the sect. Local police have however appealed the public to report members of the sect committing crimes to police stations instead of using criminal violence against them.

Mungiki clashes

2009-04-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

More on the Mungiki violence here
150,000 Kikuyu passed through British detention camps, and more than 20,000 Mau Mau fighters died in combat. Police crackdowns on Mungiki are not the solution. The government must deal with the issues that provide breeding ground for such organizations. It’s been almost 15 years since we first heard that the police had crashed Mungiki but we all know how alive and well Mungiki is. It’s time for leadership .Unfortunately we can’t expect any from the current crop of weak kikuyu leaders .Hundreds of displaced youths continue to join and sympathy from the educated and well off continues to rise(during the post election violence) .The 2008 election fiasco and settlement “sell out by elites ” has created a vacuum that Mungiki is expected to fill if IDPs are not resettled .

People are looking for firm leadership, Mungiki seems to provide that for some .Too many people have lost faith in political leaders who only care for an elitist agenda for Kenya.Mungiki has its roots in the landless and displaced in Rift Valley. Until those issues are addressed and those who have victimized the community are brought to justice we will all continue to suffer. Landless and ignored IDP only turn into criminal and ruthless gangs when all hope is lost and we act like they don’t exist . Justice delayed is justice denied.

If the 1992 clashes gave birth to Mungiki ,the 2007/2008 clashes have created a bigger monster that will consume the Natio

Kenyan Violence

2009-04-21T00:28:00.000-07:00

Just saw this on the BBC website here

At least 24 people have died in fighting between residents of a central Kenyan town and suspected members of the outlawed Mungiki sect, police say. A police spokesman, Charles Owino, said residents of Karatina had decided to fight back because the sect had been extorting money from local people. Media reports say there has been a spate of killings targeting the sect.
The Mungiki, mainly from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group, are seen as Kenya's version of the mafia.
AFP news agency quoted police spokesman Eric Kiraithe as saying that groups of residents started attacking suspected Mungiki members and slashing some of them to death.At least three more people were wounded in the violence.

'All-out war' Mr Kiraithe said the Mungiki fought back. "We understand that the Mungiki also regrouped and engaged the locals in an all-out war in the villages," he said. "All of those killed were hacked or stoned to death. Our officers tried to restore order, otherwise the situation could have degenerated into something much worse than it is." He added that 37 people had been arrested and more were being hunted. Machetes and other weapons were being collected from the scene.
The Mungiki gang has continued to operate despite being banned in 2002, extorting money from owners of minibus taxis and other public transport vehicles. In 2007 more than 100 suspected sect members were killed in a police crackdown after a series of grisly beheadings blamed on the sect. Last year it was accused of carrying out revenge attacks after ethnic Kikuyus were killed by rival gangs in post-election violence.

The Island debate rolls on

2009-04-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

More news on Miningo here

UGANDA has suggested taking the dispute over Migingo Island to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if bilateral talks fail. "Evidence in our possession indicates that the island is ours," the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Regional Co-operation, Isaac Musumba, said in Nairobi on Friday. "If Kenya believes it belongs to them, they should be ready to present their case."

Musumba, who was attending an international conference on the Great Lakes Region, said Uganda will withdraw its forces from the island when the report by the two countries calls for them to do so. Representatives of both countries on Friday announced that a joint technical committee would be appointed to ascertain if the island belongs to Kenya or Uganda. The committee has to complete its work in two months.

In a bid to cool down emotions which have been running high over the issue, particularly in Kenya, Musumba said the two countries would not go to war over the ownership of the island. "We will not fight Kenya over the island and we are not party to any war arrangement," the minister said. Kenya's Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Richard Onyonka, also ruled out the possibility of war between the two countries.

"We are engaged at a high level and this issue will be handled well," he said. He reminded Kenyans that Uganda hosts 120,000 Kenyan students and insisted that an amicable solution had to be found. The Nairobi-based Standard on Friday published colonial maps from 1917, which were updated in 1946, indicating that Migingo, then known as Ugingo, is Kenyan territory.

The Standard also quoted Kenyan Members of Parliament who accused Uganda of frustrating dialogue and demanded the forcible eviction of the Ugandan Police forces which currently guard the island. The Google Earth map indicates the island is within Ugandan boundaries. Musumba asked Kenyan politicians to desist from inciting the public over the issue. "Inflammatory statements will not work and diplomatic solutions will be pursued by the two neighbouring countries." The Ugandan minister said the Migingo row was a sign of weakness as a result of the absence of border demarcations in Lake Victoria.

Snake Bite

2009-04-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

Mr Ben Nyaumbe was alone on the farm where he has been manager for 10 years, the workers having retired for the day.
And he is unlikely to forget last Sunday. It was the day a python dragged him up a tree at Sabaki Farm in Malindi District in Kenya's Coast province. “I was preparing ugali at 7pm, close to the stable. I stood to pick a packet of flour when the water started boiling.

“As I stood up, I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly, my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python. The struggle was mammoth. “The python, apparently hunting for goats, attempted to bind both my legs. But I struggled hard,” he said. The reptile then jumped onto his left arm and coiled itself round it, between the elbow and the shoulder.

“It waggled its ragged and scary tail on my mouth. I had to bite it as I struggled, one hand incapacitated,” he said showing a torn part of his lips resulting from the bruising effect of the snake and his mouth. He tried to hold onto a tree, but after about one hour, he got too tired and let go off the tree trunk.

“The snake then got it easy and quickly dragged me on. Systematically, it pulled me up a tree and surprisingly enough, it rested when it reached there,” he said while pointing to broken branches on the tree where he said they “rested.” “This gave me the opportunity to remove my phone from my pocket. I had not been able to do so all the time I struggled”. It was 8.30pm. Mr Nyaumbe called his boss, a local lawyer, Mr Tukero ole Kina, who rushed in a matter of minutes with two police officers.

“The snake was hissing so much they all got so scared. In fact one officer remained in the car, scared out of his skin,” he said.
Mr Kina and one officer went to his help. It was difficult for the officer to shoot the snake “because he could have shot me as we were entangled”, he said. Through their efforts, Mr Nyaumbe managed to tear part of his shirt and covered the python’s head to enable him tie a rope round its neck.

Mr Kina and the police officer pulled the snake down but could not make it as it coiled itself round a branch, meanwhile releasing its victim as it became exhausted. “Finally we both came down, landing with a thud. The other officer came running and helped his colleague put the python in three sacks, hurled it onto a pick up and drove it to Falconry of Kenya, a birds and snake sanctuary in Malindi, 20 kilometres away. But the snake was nowhere to be seen the following day. And Mr Nyaumbe still cannot tell how this happened. “How does a snake escape from a closed room? Did they see the hole they claim the snake made on the sacks? How did it remove the rope from around its neck and my shirt which I had wrapped round its head?” Mr Nyaumbe asks.

Sins of the Father's

2009-04-13T03:28:00.001-07:00

Thought this was of interest........

Two sons of the late presidents of Tanzania and Uganda, Jaffar Remo Amin (42) and Madaraka Nyerere (48) met in Butiama village, in Mara region of Tanzania, 30 years after their fathers fought a bitter war that ended in a humiliating defeat for one and a costly victory for the other.

Accompanied by his colleague and religious leaders, Jaffar laid a wreath on the grave of the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere shortly after arriving there. Jaffar then proceeded to the visitors' room where he signed the visitors' book. "I feel blessed to be here and that is what I have written in the visitors' book," Jaffar one of Idi Amin's over 40 children said.

The historical event in Butiama was aired live for several minutes on the London based BBC Outlook Progamme. Madaraka welcomed Jaffar's visit, saying the historical event would help to cement the relationship between the sister countries.

"This is also a morale boost of the intention of our countries to unite and become one. I believe if Mwalimu and Amin were alive, my father would have invited him (Amin) to Butiama after this event," Madaraka told a gathering that turned up to witness the event. Madaraka also thanked BBC for organising the event.

"This is a good idea because when it was initially reported that some people thought it would provoke tensions but it has not been the case," Madaraka said.

Speaking at the same occasion, Jaffar said Tanzania had set a good example on how true national unity could be achieved under the good leadership of the late Nyerere. "Nyerere is a hero of a united Tanzania. He has shown the world the real meaning of what a union ought to be," Jaffar said. Jaffar also handed over a mat as a gift to Mama Maria Nyerere. Musoma District Executive Director (DED) Dr. Karaine Kuney also lauded the event. "Let us forget the past and the effects of the Kagera war and focus on development issues," the DED said. BBC Swahili Service spearheaded the project to reconcile the two families.

LRA

2009-04-13T03:22:00.000-07:00

Just read this report from Relief web about the LRA's increase abduction of child soldiers.

We got new reports this week that put the number of Congolese abducted by the LRA since December at nearly 1300, almost half of them children. These are significantly higher than previous estimates and heartbreaking evidence about the direction this conflict is taking. But we've always believed that this war can be ended through responsible action and leadership from the U.S., and that fact is no less true today. Joseph Kony must be stopped and our policymakers are in the position to make that happen. The longer they ignore that fact, the worse this war will get -with devastating consequences for the people caught in the crossfire- so we've decided to make it impossible for them to look the other way

More on the Migingo saga

2009-04-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

The saga rolls on......all for a lump of rock sticking out of Lake Victoria!!!

Uganda has no plans to withdraw its forces from Migingo island, the country’s deputy prime minister said on Thursday. First Deputy Prime Minister Eriya Kategaya said that the Ugandan security would remain in the island until the surveyors found a solution to the border row. He was speaking during an interview with NTV Uganda on Thursday evening.

This goes against the Ministerial Agreement signed recently by both countries in a bid to quell tension over the disputed island.
The neighbouring states had agreed to withdraw their forces and that the Ugandan flag would be lowered. It was also agreed that fishermen from both sides would not be harassed.

Mr Kategaya’s statement came as Prime Minister Raila Odinga called for the withdrawal of Ugandan forces.
At the same time, Mr Kategaya, who is also the East African Community minister, accused Kenyan politicians of overplaying the matter in the media. He took issue with the politicians who he claimed referred to them as ‘hyenas’ during negotiations.
He was referring to Lands minister James Orengo’s Luo address to fishermen during a previous meeting in the disputed island. Mr Orengo was telling the irate crowd to calm down in Luo.

Here comes the Man

2009-04-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

Uganda is among the first countries that Barack Obama will visit this month when he starts his first tour of Africa as US president. Obama was expected in London yesterday for the G-20 summit of the world’s wealthiest nations. He commences the Africa tour on April 21, the White House said in a statement.

The five-nation tour will take Obama first to his motherland Kenya. Obama, the first African-American president, was fathered by a Kenyan and mothered by an American. His father Hussein Obama was born in Kogelo, Kenya. “He chose to visit Kenya first because he drew inspiration from the country of his fore-fathers before the embarked on his presidential campaign.

It is only logical that he pays homage to his ancestry,” according to the brief statement issued late last evening. Obama will also visit Rwanda, Swaziland and South Africa.

The White House added that Obama received overwhelming support from Ugandans both here and abroad during his historic campaign to become the world’s most powerful man. While in Uganda, Obama is expected to discuss with President Yoweri Museveni continued funding for HIV/AIDS, value-addition to raw materials and energy development.

Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush poured millions of dollars in grants to fight the pandemics. However, it was not clear whether the two leaders will also hold talks on the Africa Growth Opportunities Act, which allows African nations access to the US market.

The act would make it possible for Uganda to export her Tooke biscuits. The President’s press secretary, Tamale Mirundi, could not be reached for comment. In Rwanda, Obama is expected to make a statement on the 1994 genocide in which about a million Tutsi were slaughtered during the 1994 genocide. The Kigali regime has often accused the West of keeping silent while the bloodshed went on. The charismatic leader will also discuss trade and investment with President Paul Kagame.

Visa News

2009-03-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is good news for anyone planning a trip this summer (if it comes in time?) I have spent days dropping off passports to embassies in London to get that all-important stamp....or queuing at the airport!! If this comes in it will be great. Full story here

THE East African Community has agreed to start a single tourist visa for the region, the tourism minister, Serapio Rukundo, has said. Rukundo said in a statement that the EAC members were discussing a protocol to create and market the region as a single tourist destination. Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda make up the EAC."The private sector has responded positively to uni-visas, although we have not yet set the date to start issuing them," he said.
Rukundo added that the five countries were in the final stages of negotiating for the Common Market Protocol. The protocol involves free movement of people, goods and services across the region.

He said the members had started to coordinate their policies in the tourism industry and were establishing a framework that would ensure equitable distribution of resources. "We are in addition establishing a common code of conduct for private and public tour and travel operators, standardised hotel classification and professional standards of agents in the industry," Rukundo said, adding that they had already agreed on the criteria to classify tourist facilities. He said a collective policy for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wildlife and other tourist sites in the region was also in pipeline.

"They include harmonising policies for the conservation of wildlife, within and outside protected areas, exchanging information and adopting common policies on wildlife management and development, coordinating efforts in controlling and monitoring encroachment and poaching activities." The policy encourages joint use of training and research facilities and developing common management plans for trans-border protected areas.

Rukundo said an agency to coordinate promotional tourism activities would soon be operational. He said the East African Tourism and Wildlife Co-ordination Agency would have the power to mobilise resources and coordinate tourism bodies in the region and brand EAC as a powerful tourist destination.

Volcanoes in DRG

2009-03-31T08:26:00.001-07:00

Latest news here

Two volcanoes may erupt in heavily populated eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where years of fighting have already forced 1 million people from their homes, scientists and aid agencies said. Scientists in Goma, capital of the border province of North Kivu, have in recent weeks registered high levels of seismic activity, considered an early warning sign of an impending eruption, around the Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira volcanoes.

“There is heavy activity around Nyiragongo, but it’s more centred on Nyamulagira, around 13km away,” Dieudonne Wafula, lead scientist at the Volcanological Observatory of Goma, told Reuters on Monday. Nyiragongo, which lies just outside Goma, erupted in 2002, sending a river of lava through the city, destroying thousands of homes and killing dozens of people.

“Red Cross volunteers are on alert to help the population, which still has memories of the (2002) eruption ... which displaced around 400,000 people,” Zebe Kitabingo, head of the local chapter of the Congolese Red Cross, said in a statement. Eastern Congo is still struggling to end more than a decade of lingering fighting between government soldiers, local Mai Mai militias, and rebels that has rumbled on despite the official end of a 1998-2003 war.

No News on Migingo Island

2009-03-31T08:25:00.000-07:00

Latest 'No News' here

A visit to Migingo Island — now at the centre of a diplomatic row between Kenya and Uganda — reveals just how much wealth, an acre of land can hold. As some residents — 80 per cent Kenyan — play pool at the East African Pub, others are out fishing. The waters surrounding the island are known to be lucrative fishing grounds for Nile perch and tilapia.

On their return, the Ugandans collect revenue and subject the Kenyan fishermen to harassment.But last Friday, the fishing boats in Migingo never went out to sail. They stayed put, with the hope that a solution to the ownership dispute would be found. Hundreds of residents, comprising mainly fisherfolk and Ugandan soldiers camouflaged in civilian clothes, stayed by the waters, looking to the approaching speed boats at the horizon, hoping that the ministers from Kenya and Uganda arriving would tell them once and for all, who owns the island.