Category Archives: Crime

KENYA: KISUMU JOURNALIST WAS CARJACKED TORTURED AND ROBBED

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

A Kisumu based investigative freelance journalist last week carjacked robbed, robbed of mobile phones and money before being abandoned in a disused Murom quarry, which is located four kilometers outside the City’s outskirts.

Shem Kosse who is a regular contributor to the popular WEEKLY CITIZEN, while in the company of a friend who is a prominent businessman in the town had a very pleasant evening. They had taken few bottles of beers at the famous hotel’s restraint where they also enjoyed an evening meals of the delicious tilapia fish.

The two left Lakeview hotel at about 11 PM and drove to the Club Signature which is only one street away from the hotel. The Club, they found had no parking space for their car. They moved further to another street down and found a parking space at the nearby petrol station.

After securing the parking space, they parked their vehicle and walked on foot back to the Club Signature a short distance where they stayed until almost close to midnight.

Kosse and his companion left the Night Club at about 1.A.M and walked on foot back to the Petrol station where they had left their vehicle. Upon reaching their car, they found another vehicle parked too close to their. The second vehicle had four occupants who appeared to be chewing “Miraa” and relaxing. And because it was parked too close to their car, the two went to the other vehicle and kindly requested them to move their car backward to create a space for them to move out. The men obliged and reversed a few steps backward their vehicle. But hell broke out when Kosse and his friends tried to open the door of their vehicle. All of a sudden the four occupants of the second vehicle turned out to be criminal thugs. They swiftly whipped out pistils and ordered Kosse and his friend inside their own car at the back seat. The men produced ropes and tied Kosse and his friend on the vehicle”s back eats. Three of the thugs got into their own car leaving one who was heavily armed with two pistils who took the command of the steering wheel and drove of from the scene and through the town with the other car following closely.

At this point one of the thugs hit Kosse on the forehead with the gun bat. He was bleeding profusely from his facial wound, but the thugs did not bother. They were driven to Kanyakwar area near Miwani Junction road on the main Kisumu-Kakamega road. The thugs then branched off and drove into a disused quarry, which is located next to the stalled headquarters of the Lake Basin Development Authority { LBDA}.

The two captives were made to scrawl into the quarry walking on their knees. Inside the quarry the thugs produced more ropes from their heavy jackets and tied their hands from behind as well as their legs and abandoned them for a while, only to return a few minutes later and threatened to shoot them .At this juncture the four thugs stood on the edge of the quarry and pointed their guns down on the captives. The thugs then selected the ignition key of Kosse”s friends sleek car a brand new Rav-4. They threw down into the quarry the rest bunch of keys which hit Kosse’s friend hard on the chest.

The thugs then drove away on both cars, but only after ransacking the captives pockets and fleecing them of their money. Kosse lost Kshs 3900. While his friend lost Kshs 12,000 in hard cash.

It was now approaching 4AM in the morning the two struggled for hours before untying themselves using a sharp stone. From there Kosse and his friend walked by foot in the darkness up to Kondele suburb about 4 kilometers from where they took a boda boda motorbike which took them to Kisumu Central Police Station where they reported the incident. Of late there is a sharp increase of carjacking by heavily armed thugs, and on sharp increase incident the stolen vehicle are hardly retrieved or traced.

Ends

KENYAN LEADERS ARE INTERESTED IN LOOTING NOT ACHIEVEMENTS

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From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014

Dennis from Nairobi writes: “Dear Father Beste, I find Kenyans interesting when one achieves like Lupita did we are proud but when it comes to leadership on the political scene like the late Okoth Owiro ( may his Soul rest in peace ) once said it is all about misdemeanor, harangue and intrigue.

Why can’t we just play to the rules of the game? You saw what happened on Friday with ODM elections, I need not say more. Let us like Lupita play the second fiddle look at the role she played it was humiliating, hurting and humbling but from thence she has achieved greatness, not just in Kenya but the worldwide.

It reminds me of the late Professor Wangari Mathaai during Moi’s regime, real achievers not given what they deserve in terms of recognition and respect yet looters, conmen, mediocre pampered with accolades and titles they don’t deserve not to mention the offices they hold.

Let us cast our eyes yonder and consider what is excellent and what is honorable. Kenya can do better. Look at the battle of supremacy all misplaced forgetting that what matters is service to the people of Kenya”

You are absolutely right Dennis. Our Kenyan leaders are busy strategizing how much they can loot in order to be billionaires overnight. That is why they are not interested in Kenyan achievers like Lupita Nyong’o among others.

That is also why Moi’s regime did notrecognize late Professor Wangari Mathaai achievement because she was against looters in his government, including land grabbers. Kenyan politicians are historically known for their state finances laundering across the world to buy properties and companies in London, New York and South Africa and even a 10,000 hectare ranch in Australia.

The leaked document, dated April 2004, is clearly self explanatory – being one of the preliminary reports received by the Government of Kenya (described in the report as the “client”). The persons stated as “Targets” are President Moi’s closest associates and relatives.

Kibaki’s regime was no different. He was surrounded with conmen, looters and grabbers. Within a short time of his rule allegations that corruption had cost Kenya $1bn – nearly a fifth of its state budget featured prominently.

It was the latest in a series of setbacks for President Kibaki since his National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) won a landslide victory in the December 2002 elections. Two of these involve the procurement of passport equipment and police forensic science labs.

The mediocre employee always arrives late to work, blaming the weather or traffic or some other bad luck. This is just because work is not their priority, theirs is how to loot and become billionaires.

That is why once at the office, they take a long time to settle down to work. They come late and leave earlier. They are among the first to go for tea break and lunch, and among the last to get back to his desk. Even when they are actually at their desk, they are usually chatting on their phone or with fellow employees.

Negative ethnicity is then used as a tool to distance themselves from realities. The result of it is hatred among and between communities. This is the similar hatred that developed into conflict as witnessed in 2007/08 and the Rwandan genocide.

This tool undermines nationalism, exacerbates corruption and poor governance as those in power use their communities to shield from public scrutiny and accountability.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com

Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Unnoticed Genocide [in Darfur]

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From: South Sudan Press

Painfully little of this ten-year-old account needs updating—other than massive increases in the mortality and displacement figures . . . “Unnoticed Genocide,” The Washington Post, February 25, 2004

– – – – –

By Eric Reeves

February 25, 2014 (SSNA) — In the remote Darfur region of western Sudan, a human disaster is accelerating amid uncontrolled violence. The United Nations’ undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs has called it probably “the world’s greatest humanitarian catastrophe.” Doctors Without Borders has observed “catastrophic mortality rates.” And yet, so far as most of the world is concerned, it isn’t even happening.

There have been what Amnesty International calls “horrifying military attacks against civilians” throughout Darfur by the Sudanese government and its militias. The government has sent bombers to attack undefended villages, refugee camps and water wells. The United Nations estimates that 1 million people have been displaced by war and that more than 3 million are affected by armed conflict.

Yet Darfur has remained practically a non-story in international news media. One big reason is the fact that the central government in Khartoum, the National Islamic Front, has allowed no news reporters into the region and has severely restricted humanitarian access, thus preventing observation by aid workers. The war in Darfur is not directly related to Khartoum’s 20-year war against the people of southern Sudan. Even so, military pressure from the Darfur insurgency that began a year ago has been instrumental in forcing the regime to commit to peace talks with the south.

But there are now signs that these talks have been viewed by Khartoum only as a way to buy time to crush the insurgency in Darfur, which emerged, inevitably, from many years of abuse and neglect. Despite efforts by the regime to stop it, a widening stream of information is reaching the international community, from tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to Chad (which shares a long border with western Sudan), and according to accounts from within Darfur. Amnesty International has led the way in reporting on Darfur; one of its recent releases speaks authoritatively of countless savage attacks on civilians by Khartoum’s regular army, including its crude Antonov bombers, and by its Arab militia allies, called “Janjaweed.”

An especially disturbing feature of these attacks is the clear and intensifying racial animus. This has been reported by Amnesty International, the International Crisis Group and various U.N. spokesmen. The words “ethnic cleansing” have been used by U.N. officials and diplomats. This term, which gained currency during the breakup of Yugoslavia, is but another description for genocide. But whatever they are called, the terrible realities in Darfur require that we attend to the ways in which people are being destroyed because of who they are, racially and ethnically — “as such,” to cite the key phrase from the 1948 U.N. Convention on Genocide.

Darfur is home to racially and ethnically distinct tribal groups. Although virtually all are Muslim, generalizations are hard to make. But the Fur, Zaghawa, Masseleit, and other peoples are accurately described as “African,” both in a racial sense and in terms of agricultural practice and use of non-Arabic languages. Darfur also has a large population of nomadic Arab tribal groups, and from these Khartoum has drawn its savage “warriors on horseback” — the Janjaweed — who are most responsible for attacks on villages and civilians.

The racial animus is clear from scores of chillingly similar interviews with refugees reaching Chad. A young African man who had lost many family members in an attack heard the gunmen say, “You blacks, we’re going to exterminate you.” Speaking of these relentless attacks, an African tribal leader told the U.N. news service, “I believe this is an elimination of the black race.” A refugee reported these words as coming from his attackers: “You are opponents to the regime, we must crush you. As you are black, you are like slaves. Then the entire Darfur region will be in the hands of the Arabs.” An African tribal chief declared that, “The Arabs and the government forces . . . said they wanted to conquer the whole territory and that the blacks did not have a right to remain in the region.”

There can be no reasonable skepticism about Khartoum’s use of these militias to “destroy, in whole or in part, ethnic or racial groups” — in short, to commit genocide. Khartoum has so far refused to rein in its Arab militias; has refused to enter into meaningful peace talks with the insurgency groups; and, most disturbingly, has refused to grant unrestricted humanitarian access. The international community has been slow to react to Darfur’s catastrophe and has yet to move with sufficient urgency and commitment. A credible peace forum must be rapidly created. Immediate plans for humanitarian intervention should begin. The alternative is to allow tens of thousands of civilians to die in the weeks and months ahead in what will be continuing genocidal destruction.

Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College, has written extensively on Sudan.

Explosion in Attack on Church in Kenya Injures 15

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From: frank patrick materu

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

NAIROBI, KENYA (ANS) — Assailants on a motorbike threw an explosive device into a church compound in southeastern Kenya on June 9, injuring 15 people.

According to a story by Morning Star News, two pastors were among the wounded from the explosion at an evangelistic service of Earthquake Miracle Ministry Church in Mrima village, near the coastal town of Likoni, Mombasa District.

That according to David Njoroge, pastor of the Worldwide Gospel Church.

Assistant Pastor Collins Maseno had both legs broken in the blast, and is in critical condition.

Senior Pastor Dominic Osano suffered serious injuries to his hand and the back of his neck, Njoroge told Morning Star News.

“The Christians living around the scene of the incident are still in shock and are wondering as to the mission behind the attack, while several pastors looked demoralized,” Njoroge said. “But others said prayers will help them stand strong in sharing the Christian faith.”

The blast occurred at 7 p.m., he said, adding that the weapon appeared to be a home-made fuel bomb, though area press quoted police as saying it was a hand grenade. A 10-year-old boy, Dominic Maseno, was reportedly among the injured.

Morning Star News said Islamic extremists from Somalia’s rebel Al Shabaab group have been suspected in previous attacks in the coastal areas of Kenya, and 45 pastors have met with government officials to discuss security. The provincial police commissioner, the officer in charge of police, the district commissioner and a county commissioner attended.

The officials accepted the pastors’ request that the government provide security during such Christian gatherings, Njoroge said.

At the same time, Morning Star News reported, the parties agreed that Christian meetings are to end before 6 p.m., he said. The commissioner told the pastors they must keep watch for extremists and report suspected militia groups.

Mombasa police said they were searching for the assailants.

In Nairobi, suspected Al Shabaab members reportedly tossed a grenade into a crowd in the Majengo area of the capital’s largely Somali-immigrant area of Eastleigh, injuring four.

Morning Star

News said Kenyan churches and other facilities have been the target of several bombings and shootings. That’s since Kenya sent troops into southern Somalia in Oct. 2011 in response to kidnappings and other attacks by Al Shabaab rebels from Somalia.

African Union Mission in Somalia forces have been battling the insurgents in Somalia, and northern and coastal areas of Kenya have become places of refuge for retreating rebels.

Morning Star News reported that many Al Shabaab rebels, said to have ties with Al Qaeda, have taken refuge in Garissa in northern Kenya.

Chaplain Julius Mukonzi was killed and 11 others were injured on Nov. 4, when suspected Islamic extremists tossed an explosive device at a church in the Administrative Police compound in Garissa.

At the same time, Morning Star News said, a separatist group known as the Mombasa Republic Council has also been accused of mounting attacks in Kenya’s coastal regions, according to Agence France-Presse.

On Sept. 30, 2012, suspected Al Shabaab militants threw a grenade into an Anglican church in Nairobi that killed 9-year-old Ian John Maina. Several other children attending a Sunday school class were seriously injured in the attack on the Anglican Church of Kenya St. Polycarp in the Pagani area, next to Eastleigh.

Morning Star News said Al Shabaab, which has been designated a terrorist organization by several Western governments, wants to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on Somalia.

Kenya is nearly 83 percent Christian and 8.32 percent Muslim, according to Operation World.

Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to inform those in the free world, and in countries violating religious freedom, about Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith
For more information go to http://morningstarnews.org http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is “A Sheltered Life.”
www.aggressivechristianity.net

KENYA: UHURU AND RUTO RISK RE-ELECTION IF THEY GET RID OF CARTELS OF CORRUPTION

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From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014

Carolyn from Nairobi writes: “Fr Beste thank you for the review of Lenten campaign 2014 booklet. I have a question which has been bothering me very much. My daughter Stacy is 11 years old and has been asking me why Catholics abstain from meat on Fridays during lent.

In my house I don’t cook meat on Fridays even though sometimes Stacy would like to eat meat on that day. What age is forbidden to eat meat?”

Maurice from Lodwar writes: Fr Omolo I always read your articles you post on your Jaluo.Kom. You must be very courageous Father because some of them are direct to the point and you call a spade a spade. Now my question is, do you think President Uhuru and his deputy Ruto can end corruption in Kenya given that the mafia cartels of corruption operate from their offices? Thank you and continue doing this good apostolate.”

Thank you for the question Carolyn. Abstaining from meat on Fridays during lent is the precept number 4 of the Catholic Church (You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church”) in accordance to Canon Law 1252.

It states that only on Fridays in Lent are Catholics, aged 14 and older, bound to abstain from meat. It means your daughter Stacy can just eat meat. Nevertheless, pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.

Can. 1253 further states that it is for the conference of bishops to determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence and to substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.

Thank you for your encouraging compliments Maurice. There are several reasons why Uhuru and Ruto won’t succeed on ending corruption in Kenya. Firstly, the mafia cartels of corruption are powerful individual Kenyans in the Office of the President (OP), under which the Directorate of Personnel Management (DPM) has been domiciled for decades.

This is the most corrupt institution in the country, a fact that the President has admitted. The most corrupt institution in the Office of the President is the internal security docket followed by the Defence docket that has also been under the OP for long and has often been cited as a den of corruption.

The Provincial Administration is no exception, with even funds for IDPs and relief food not being spared. These are powerful cartels that have looted this country and have used the OP as their entry point.

Office of the President is the office that directs who gets what mega contracts in which ministry or department, including the standard railway gauge contract. It is the office where the network of cartels built around the Head of Public Service continues to haunt ministries to date.

Secondly, Uhuru and Ruto cannot end corruption in Kenya because it is the very office, where the same cartels have created the web of cartels that have fleeced this nation continue to be retained in high places in government.

These are untouchable powerful cartels, and so are the senior managers who do their bidding in Deputy President’s Office. These are the cartels who systematically plan for ghost workers’ salaries and various employment sectors.

If Uhuru and Ruto make a mistake of rooting them out, it means they risk being re-elected in office. These are the financers of leaders who promise would work with them if elected.

In fact cartels of corruption in Kenya are many like weed and have spread in all the government sectors. It means if you weed them out other weeds will grow. This is because cartels create themselves as a business system based on global business, special interests, corruption, greed, organized crime and other interests.

Just as Uhuru and Ruto promise to end corruption, Government tenders worth Sh461.8 billion are currently embroiled in controversy, with questions being asked about the procedures followed in awarding them.

They include the Sh425 billion standard gauge railway, the Sh22 billion school laptops project, the Sh13 billion National Social Security Fund tender involving Tassia scheme and Hazina Towers and the estimated Sh1.8 billion paid annually to ghost workers on the government’s payroll.

Given their powerful system is why since 1989 the government has not been able to arrest and charge cartels behind Turkwel Hydroelectric Power Station project. The dam was built at three times the estimated cost, twice the allocated amount and producing energy significantly below capacity.

It is also why the longest-running scandal in the Goldenberg, where the Kenyan government subsidised exports of gold, paying exporters in Kenyan Shillings (Sh) 35 percent over their foreign currency earnings have not been arraigned in court of law.

In this case, the gold was smuggled from Congo. The Goldenberg scandal cost Kenya the equivalent of more than 10 percent of the country’s annual GDP.

The next is to do with a Sh360 million helicopter servicing contract in South Africa in 1998. Despite the military officers argument that the contract was too extravagant and servicing the helicopters could be done locally the government at that time had no power to stop the tender.

Kenya Air Force (KAF) went ahead to spend Sh108 million as a down payment for servicing the Puma helicopters, whose tail number is logged as 418 at Denel Aviation, a South African firm.

Another one was in 2003 when military was split over plans to buy new Czech fighter jets. The plan to buy the jet fighters would have cost taxpayers Sh12.3 billion.

Then it came 2005 plans to buy a sophisticated £20 million passport equipment system from France, as government wanted to replace its passport printing system, created conditions for corruption scandal.

The transaction was originally quoted at 6 million euros from François Charles Oberthur of Paris (a supplier of Visa and MasterCards) but was awarded to a British firm, the Anglo-Leasing and Finance Company Limited, at 30 million euros, who would have sub-contracted the same French firm to do the work.

Despite the lack of competitive tendering Anglo Leasing was paid a “commitment fee” of more than £600,000.

In November 2006, when the government was accused of failing to act on a banking fraud scam worth $1.5bn involving money laundering and tax evasion, nothing could be done to stop the scandal.

The same year, when British Foreign Office minister Kim Howells warned, that corruption in Kenya is increasing the UK’s exposure to drug trafficking and terrorism, nothing was done.

In September 2007, when documents exposing a 500 million Kenyan shilling payroll fraud at Egerton University and subsequent cover up were released, the subject of ongoing legal dispute in the High Court just ended prematurely.

And in June 2008 when the Grand Regency Scandal broke, wherein the Central Bank of Kenya was alleged to have secretly sold a luxury hotel in Nairobi to an unidentified group of Libyan investors for more than 4 billion Kenyan Shillings (approx US $60 million) below the appraised market value, nothing the government of Kibaki could do.

Finance Minister Amos Kimunya negotiated the sale, and was censured in a near-unanimous motion by the Kenyan Parliament, he was briefly suspended. He was re-instated with no expiation.

This followed on the heels of the Safaricom IPO, overseen by Kimunya, which had been alternatively praised and questioned for possible corruption in the execution of the sale. Safaricom is the largest mobile phone service provider in Kenya, having operated with a near-government monopoly for many years. The government of Kenya sold its 50 percent stake in Safaricom in the IPO.

Then there was a scandal became public over the sale of imported maize in 2009, the Triton Oil Scandal regarding the unauthorised releasing of oil by Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) without informing financiers and in October 2012 Japanese land by Foreign Affairs ministry officials that could have saved the country loss of Sh1.1 billion. Moses Wetengular was the minister then.

The litany is so long that you cannot finish in a day. This is just to demonstrate how cartels of corruption surrounding State House are untouchable.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com

Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole

KENYA: THE GOVERNMENT IS TOLD TO STOP LUO – KIPSIGIS TRIBAL SKIRMISHES IN NYAKACH.

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo in Sondu market.

It was as if the hell broke loose on Tuesday night when a band of 80 Kipsigis youth descended on 14 villages with crude weapons during the wee hours of the night and started spearing, slashing and hitting everybody on sight before torching dwelling houses in ten homesteads.

The raid left one man dead with several others injured. a young girl was stabbed in the stomach with what looked like a Somali or maasai swords.

The attacks who an eye witness estimated to have been between 70 and 80 youths were armed with crude weapons like bows and arrows, spears, rungus and swords. The night raid came at between 1. am and 2.am and caught the villagers unaware and apparently in deep sleep.

The unprovoked bloody night raid occurred in the village close to the Luo – Kipsigis border around Holo Trading center almost nest to the main Kisumu –Sondo road. These villages are lying only 2 Kilometers northwest of Sondu borer town where there is full fledged Police station.

The villages which had come under the bloody attack were Ramogi, Kisai, Onyuongo, Koguta, Kandaria, Jimo and Kasai. All the residents of the above villages are members of the various sub- clans of the larger Nyakach. The attack was similar to the one staged by the defunct Kalenjin warriors who carried out politically motivated bloody attack on the same villages during the tribal clashes of 1992.

The attack came only a week after the Kericho County governor Prof. Paul Chepkwony and his Kisumu County counterpart Jack Ranguma had held a peace meeting and urged the border communities to live in peace and harmony and advised them against the outmoded culture like cattle rustling..

The attackers seemed to have been well drilled and both the police and the members of the provincial Administration were at a loss and could not figure out the motive behind it.

Elders in Nyakach said they suspected the attack to be an act of revenge following the recent killing of a Kipsigis man who was in a group of cattle rustlers. He was speared to death and his accomplices fled and disappeared in the darkness. The incident took place a couple of weeks ago.

Communal relations between the Luo-s and the Kipsigis in the area has always been very cordial and warm as members of the two communities mingled easily in Sondu and flourishing border town while carrying out butter trades.

The attackers took away unspecified herds of cattle, sheep and goats. The attackers also stole all valuable house hold goods, utensils, and destroyed cooking sufurias, or anything of value they set their eyes on, in the house whose owners had led the deadly night orgies.

The raiders turned the villages up and down and forced some families to flee their homes leaving their clothes behind as most of the fled naked to save their skin from being lynched by the merciless attackers. Although the situation is relatively calm there is tension and the Nyakach resident have called upon the government to arrest the situation, restore peace and apprehend the trouble makers from both side of the border before it goes out of hand.

It was reported that both the regional commissioners for Kericho County and its Kisumu County were having a series of crucial security meeting while exploring the possibility the lasting solution.

Ends.

World & Kenya: ICC to terminate President UHURU KENYATTA’s case

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From: maina ndiritu

Tuesday February 11, 2014 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) will terminate cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta before the end of this month, a senior official of the ICC has exclusively said According to the official, the judges at the ICC held a brainstorming meeting on Saturday where they resolved to terminate the case facing Uhuru Kenyatta on technical grounds.

The judges argued that the Office of the ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, did not convince the judges on why Uhuru’s case at the ICC should be adjourned indefinitely until the Kenyan Government agrees to give the, his financial details.

They said they cannot hold Uhuru Kenyatta hostage because the Kenyan Government and Uhuru Kenyatta are two different parties in the case.

“Uhuru is sued by the ICC as an individual and the Kenyan Government is another entity,” one of the ICC judges said.

The session was a closed door affair and only Bensouda and victim’s lawyers were allowed to enter.

The ICC judges are now waiting for Kenya’s Attorney General, Prof Githu Muigai, who will brief them on the Government position regarding the ICC cases facing Uhuru and his Deputy, William Ruto.

After Githu Muigai’s briefing, the judges will wait for another 14 days where they will officially terminate Uhuru’s case under the Procedures and Rules of the Rome Statute.

KENYA: FOR GOD’S SAKE JUBILEE SHOULD NOT UNCOVER WOUNDS OF PEV

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From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2014

Vivian from Nairobi writes: “Fr Beste what do you say about the members of the Jubilee Coalition who are drafting a motion for the National Assembly seeking to summon Justice Philip Waki to disclose the full contents of an envelope he handed over to the former International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, containing names of key individuals implicated in post-election violence?

Don’t you think this is going to spark yet another clashes among ethnic communities. For God’s sake I pray that Adan Duale should not try this. In Kenya we are just trying to heal from the clashes of 2007/08 and now they want to take us back again surely”.

Vivian you are absolutely right, by bringing Waki to open the other secret envelopes is to spark fire. This comes days after immediate former ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo admitted in a radio interview last week that he had been under pressure then from some Western diplomats in Nairobi to pressure judges to declare President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto unfit to run in the General Election.

National Assembly Majority Leader Adan Duale insists Waki must be brought to the Parliament to reveal other names which were not given to Ocampo. By revealing the secret names in the list according to Duale will help confirm widely held contentions that the cases were part of a nefarious design by the West to fix Uhuru and Ruto.

According to Duale, it was clear Koffi Annan was working with envoys from United States, Britain, France and Germany to have Uhuru and Ruto locked out in order to ensure Raila Amolo Odinga ascended to power.

By revealing secret names Duale wants to demonstrate that Uhuru Kenyatta never supported President Mwai Kibaki as alleged to have planned, financed, and coordinated the violence perpetrated against the perceived supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement, the political party of the President’s rival, during post-election violence from 27 December 2007 to 29 February 2008.

According to Duale Uhuru had no control over the Mungiki organization and as such never directed it to conduct murders, deportations, rapes and other forms of sexual violence, persecutions, and other inhumane acts against civilians in the towns of Kibera, Kisumu, Naivasha, and Nakuru.

Kenyatta was summoned to appear before the Court on 8 April 2011 and the confirmation of charges hearing was held from 21 September 2011 to 5 October 2011, in conjunction with the cases against Mohammed Ali and Francis Muthaura. All the charges against Kenyatta were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012.

Francis Muthaura was indicted on 8 March 2011 with five counts of crimes against humanity with regard to the situation in the Republic of Kenya. As the Head of the Public Service, Secretary to the Cabinet, and Chairman of the National Security and Advisory Committee of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, he is alleged to have planned, financed, and coordinated the violent response against the perceived supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the political party of the President’s rival, during post-election violence from 27 December 2007 to 29 February 2008.

Specifically, Muthaura was alleged to have directed and paid Mungiki forces loyal to the President to attack civilians and instructed Mohammed Ali, the Commissioner of the Kenya Police, not to intervene against Mungiki forces.

Muthaura was allegedly criminally responsible for murders, deportations, rapes and other forms of sexual violence, persecutions, and other inhumane acts perpetrated by Mungiki forces against civilians who were perceived to be loyal to the ODM in the towns of Kibera, Kisumu, Naivasha, and Nakuru.

Muthaura was summoned to appear before the Court on 8 April 2011 and the confirmation of charges hearing was held from 21 September 2011 to 5 October 2011, in conjunction with the cases against Mohammed Ali and Uhuru Kenyatta. All the charges against Muthaura were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012. He was later left free for lack of evidence.

William Ruto was indicted on 8 March 2011 on four counts of crimes against humanity with regard to the situation in the Republic of Kenya. He is alleged to be the leader of an ad hoc organization created by members of the Kalenjin ethnic group which was created to perpetrate violence on behalf of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the political party of presidential candidate Raila Odinga, during post-election violence in December 2007 and January 2008.

On 1 August 2011, the charges were reduced to three counts. Ruto, as the a top leader in the ad hoc Kalenjin organization, directed Kalenjin youths to target civilians of the Kikuyu, Kamba, and Kisii ethnic groups, which were perceived to be supporters of the Party of National Unity, the political party of Odinga’s opponent during the election.

Ruto is alleged to be criminally responsible for the murder, deportation, torture, and persecution of civilians in the towns of Kapsabet, Nandi Hills, Turbo, the greater Eldoret area. Ruto first appeared before the Court, voluntarily, on 7 April 2011 and through the confirmation of charges hearing, which was held in conjunction with the cases against Henry Kosgey and Joshua Sang. All the charges against Ruto were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012.

Joshua Sang was indicted on 8 March 2011 on four counts of crimes against humanity with regard to the situation in the Republic of Kenya. He is alleged to a top leader of an ad hoc organization created by members of the Kalenjin ethnic group which was created to perpetrate violence on behalf of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the political party of presidential candidate Raila Odinga, during post-election violence in December 2007 and January 2008.

On 1 August 2011, the charges were reduced to three counts. As a broadcaster for the Kass FM radio station, Sang incited Kalenjin youths to target civilians of the Kikuyu, Kamba, and Kisii ethnic groups, which were perceived to be supporters of the Party of National Unity, the political party of Odinga’s opponent during the election.

He is alleged to be indirectly responsible for indirectly for the murder, deportation, torture, and persecution of civilians in the towns of Kapsabet, Nandi Hills, Turbo, the greater Eldoret area. Sang first appeared before the Court, voluntarily, on 7 April 2011 and through the confirmation of charges hearing, which was held in conjunction with the cases against William Ruto and Joshua Sang. All the charges against Sang were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
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KENYA: SUGAR INDUSTRY IN KENYA IS ON THE VERGE OF TOTAL COLLAPSE

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Sugar industry feature By Leo Oder5a Omolo in Kisumu City

Sugar millers in West Kenyan have huge stockpile of unsold produce in their warehouses.

The millers have reported that they are unable to sell the commodities as the local market is currently flooded with cheap sugar imported from Brazil and Egypt finding its way into Kenyan market via unscrupulous folk working in cohort with sugar barons who are reportedly importing cheap sugar from foreign sources. The sugar barons are said to be having connections with the powerful government officials in high places.

The traders in question are the same people responsible for poor cane prices but the Kenya Board, which is the industry regulating body is unable to intervene.

Farmers and millers have appealed to the KSB to come out of its slumber and rescue the sugar industry from totally collapsing.

Frustrated Millers are now said to be in the process of declaring thousands at their workers redundant because of sugar worth millions which the companies were unable to sell in the local market which is currently flooded with imparities sugar. The situation is so pathetic as it threatens to drive Kenyan workers in the sugar industry out of their jobs while we are exporting our money to benefit came farmers and workers in Brazil, Egypt and other sugar producing foreign countries.

Perhaps the Jubilee government headed by the hard working President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is kept in the dark about multiple arts of economic sabotage through the malfeance the dumping from regions outside COMESA .

A structure deficit exists in COMESA with their surplus from domestic sources and weak compliance for that portion destined to Kenya.

There is urgent need for Kenya key players in the industry to lobby for the exclusion of sugar from rules of origin teamwork and only all our COMESA FTA countries with surplus trafrom domestic production to expert to Kenya.

SNC of Egypt, a government corporation, imparts on government authorization from Brazil over one million metric tones annually for local market supply stabilization and the export the sugarcane into COMESA FTA under rules origin; a glaring loophole must transfer economic welfare to Brazil and producers at the expense

Kenyan sugar cane farmers in the Lake region and western Kenya SIIC of Egypt, a government corporation, imports an government authorization to aim Brazil over one million metric tones annually for it local market supply stabilization and le-export the same quantity into COMESA FTA under rule of origin, a glaring loophole that transfers economic welfare to the Brazilians producers at the expense of the Kenyan sugar cane farmers in the Lake region and in Western province.

It is worth to be remembered that. Egypt is pursuing a mixed economic model of country and free market approaches.

Tax evasion, which is so rampant among private millers who under declare production and sell sugar-un-invoiced. Immigration breaches on work permits through the use of low skilled migrant labor from India and Paikstan…is prevalent in some privately owned sugar mills………some process sugar millers who under dealer production and sell sugar uninvoiced immigration measures on work per unit through the use of low skilled migrant labour train Pakistan and India is prevalent in privately owned sugar mills.

These breaches of fair labour practices allow transfer across traction mixing through inflated repatriated remuneration and contribute to you unemployment in the country

Transfer prices for imported parts and materials act through our country’s own incorporated supplies companies in the UK and India.

Dumped sugar from UAE and Somalia, India, Brazil is fueling crime through financing it. Contraband dumped sugar is used to under through “duty money.”

Incorporate businessmen from Somalia community posing as large sugar traders are the one funding crime from sugar trade, which 15 million Kenyans who depends on locally produced sugar supply chain both directly and indirect arein danger of t of further impoverishment if order is not restored.

Sugarcane farmers / producers have suffered a deadline in farm produce prices from Kshs. 4,300 to Kshs. 3,200 per t0n of produces in the last 18 months and is in danger of further declare to Kshs. 2,500

Unprecedented counterfeiting of packaging for leading sugar brands of Mumias Sugar Company and Sony Sugar is blatantly being carried out by contrabands and sugar traders dumping the non-COMESA sugar in local market.

The produce packed in counterfeit packaging of these two leading companies are openly sold in the coastal towns, North Eastern and part of Eastern, Rift valley and Mount Kenya regions of Kenya. The government therefore should out a thorough investigation about the source of repacked and trended sugar calling in the main supermarket outlets and tact for wholesomeness.

The government should also address public health concerning that radioactive waste and harmful heavy metal could be released to un-susceptive consumer public in Kenya.

Surplus production stocks from prior years, kept in open shortage in countries such as Brazil, India one reproduce of choice for dumping to countries with weak regulatory regimes. The open manner of handling could expose Kenyan Public Health concerns since such sugar is meant for further KRA and KEB’s are powerless in contending the vice involving trip money in Kick back.

End.

Stop Violence Against Girls in School: Success Stories

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From: Yona Maro

Every day millions of girls in Africa and across the world see their rights violated, without having the opportunity to express themselves or be heard, either because they are children or simply because they are female, and as a result they are constrained into submission both to men and wider society, as dictated by “morality” and patriarchal culture.

One of the single most important opportunities that could lead to their independence – education – is also denied to them, as families do not prioritize their children’s education, much less that of girls. Moreover, laws, policies and regulations, in general tend not to safeguard girls’ rights and even when they do they are not properly implemented.

On countless occasions, girls are accused of or blamed for the violence they experience, and are often held responsible for the consequences of the violence of which they are victims, on the pretext that they should have done something to avoid it, or should have avoided doing whatever it was that provoked the violence.

In this document, you will also find stories told by the girls themselves (from Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique) about how they have been able to challenge the deeply-rooted culture of violence in all sections of society, and how the community-level work helped to promote changes in legislation, policy, school regulations and harmful practices at home and in the wider community. The collection of strategies and windows into the lives of girls and their communities that make up this document are worth reading, as they will undoubtedly inspire you to help thousands of girls whose rights continue to be denied across the African continent and indeed, the wider world.
Link:

http://www.ungei.org/files/ActionAid-Stop_Violence_Against_Girls_at_school_project_in_Ghana_Kenya_and_Mozambique-success_stories-_Nov_2013.pdf

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DRC; ICC: Q&A – – Hearing to Confirm the Charges Against Bosco Ntaganda at the International Criminal Court

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From: Abdalah Hamis

On February 10, 2014, the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will hear evidence against Bosco Ntaganda, a rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a short hearing to determine whether the case against him should proceed to trial.

Ntaganda has been implicated in grave crimes in eastern Congo over the past decade, but managed to avoid arrest for almost seven years after the ICC issued its first arrest warrant for him in 2006. His long record of involvement with a succession of armed groups responsible for killings, rapes and other atrocities had made him a symbol of the impunity for grave abuses that has plagued eastern Congo. Having Ntaganda finally face justice is a momentous development for accountability in Congo and for the victims and rights advocates who worked over the years seeking his arrest.

The hearing for Ntaganda underscores the vital role of the ICC in ensuring accountability for grave international crimes when national courts are unwilling or unable to do so. Over the past year, some African governments and the African Union have criticized the ICC, calling on African member countries not to cooperate with the court and seeking immunity from prosecution for heads of state. Amidst this, the Ntaganda hearing is a powerful reminder that the ICC is often the only hope for justice when impunity prevails at the national level.

1. Who is Bosco Ntaganda?

2. What are the ICC charges against Ntaganda?

3. What happened in Ituri?

4. How did the ICC gain custody of Ntaganda?

5. What will happen at the February hearing?

6. What rights does Ntaganda have during the hearing?

7. Can victims participate in the hearing?

8. Who is paying for Ntaganda’s lawyer?

9. What happens after the February hearing?

10. Is the ICC prosecuting Ntaganda for crimes committed after 2003?

11. Why the delay in bringing Ntaganda to the ICC?

12. Didn’t past pressure to arrest Ntaganda encourage him to start a new war in North Kivu province?

13. How will people in Congo follow the proceedings in The Hague?

14. What else is the ICC doing in Congo? What more should it do?

1. Who is Bosco Ntaganda?

Bosco Ntaganda is a rebel leader who has been active in various armed groups in eastern Congo since the late 1990s. For several years, he also served as a general in the Congolese army. He has been sought by the International Criminal Court for war crimes since 2006.

Ntaganda was born in 1973 in Kinigi, Rwanda. He fled to Congo as a young teenager amid attacks on ethnic Tutsi in Rwanda. He began his military career in 1990 in the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Rwandan rebel group based in Uganda; the RPF went on to stop the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and formed the government that is still in power in Rwanda today. Ntaganda then joined the new Rwandan army and participated in the Rwandan military invasion of Congo in 1996. In 1998, during the “Second Congo War,” he joined a Congolese rebel group backed by Rwanda, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD). He subsequently moved among various Congolese militias before joining the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in 2002. The UPC was an armed group that purported to further the interests of the Hema ethnic group in the Ituri district of north-eastern Congo.

From 2002 to 2005, Ntaganda served as chief of military operations under the UPC’s leader, Thomas Lubanga. During that period, forces under Ntaganda’s command were implicated in many serious human rights abuses, including ethnic massacres, torture, rape and the widespread recruitment of children, some as young as 7. Lubanga was the first person to go to trial before the ICC. He wasconvicted in 2012 for recruiting and using child soldiers in Ituri and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Ntaganda was the co-accused in that case but managed to elude justice until he surrendered in 2013. During that time, he continued to lead troops responsible for grave abuses and received significant support from backers in the Rwandan military.

2. What are the ICC charges against Ntaganda?

In the first ICC arrest warrant in August 2006, Ntaganda, like Lubanga, was charged with the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under 15 as soldiers and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the context of the armed conflict in Ituri in 2002 and 2003. The ICC issued a second arrest warrant against Ntaganda in July 2012, with four additional counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against humanity, including charges of murder, attacks against the civilian population, rape and sexual slavery, pillaging, and persecution, all allegedly committed during the Ituri conflict in 2002 and 2003.

The second arrest warrant addressed concerns expressed by Congolese activists and Human Rights Watch about the narrow scope of the charges initially brought against Lubanga and Ntaganda. The expanded set of charges is more representative of the range of grave crimes allegedly committed by the UPC in Ituri. The additional charges are important in bringing justice to the victims of these further crimes, who belong predominantly to the Lendu ethnic group, and enabling them to participate in proceedings at the ICC. This had not been possible in the Lubanga case as the charges were limited to the use of child soldiers by the UPC, most of whom were from the Hema ethnic group. However, the additional charges do not cover crimes committed in North Kivu province since 2006.

3. What happened in Ituri?

Ituri district has been one of the worst affected areas in eastern Congo’s prolonged conflict. Localized fighting between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups that began in 1999 over land disputes expanded after Ugandan military forces backed Congolese armed groups. As the conflict spiralled and armed groups multiplied, more than 60,000 civilians died. Competition for the region’s lucrative gold mines and trading routes was a major contributing factor to the fighting. Foreign armies and local militia groups fought each other and committed numerous abuses, often targeting civilians. Armed groups, such as Ntaganda’s UPC, carried out widespread ethnic killings, torture and rape.

Human Rights Watch documented in depth serious human rights abuses in Ituri in the early 2000s, including in three detailed reports in 2001, 2003 and 2005. While the situation has become significantly more stable in recent years, armed groups are still active in some parts of Ituri.

4. How did the ICC gain custody of Ntaganda?

Ntaganda is the first accused to surrender voluntarily to the ICC. In a surprising twist of events, on March 18, 2013, he turned himself in to the United States embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, and asked to be transferred to The Hague. His motives remain unclear. Prior to his surrender, there had been clashes between two factions of his most recent armed group, the M23, in eastern Congo. The faction opposed to Ntaganda had gained the upper hand. This may have prompted Ntaganda to flee Congo. Ntaganda may also have lost the support of his Rwandan backers, leading him to fear for his life and to surrender.

Cooperation by the United States – although not an ICC member country – was critical to enable the prompt and efficient transfer of Ntaganda to the ICC, on March 22, 2013. Cooperation by Rwanda and Congo, which did not oppose the transfer, also helped facilitate it.

5. What will happen at the February hearing?

The hearing to confirm the charges against Ntaganda is not a trial. It will allow the judges of pre-trial chamber II to evaluate whether the prosecution has enough evidence to move ahead with a trial on the charges cited. The prosecution need not present all of its evidence at this stage but enough to satisfy the judges that there are “substantial grounds to believe” that Ntaganda committed the crimes alleged. This is a higher burden than the “reasonable grounds to believe” standard used by the chamber when issuing arrest warrants.

Ntaganda, through his defense counsel, can object to the charges, challenge the prosecution’s evidence, and put forward his own evidence. However, the hearing is not aimed at determining guilt or innocence.

The pre-trial chamber has indicated that the hearing will start on February 10. It was initially scheduled to start on September 26, 2013 but was postponed at the request of the Office of the Prosecutor to allow more time to prepare the case, as it had been dormant for several years.

6. What rights does Ntaganda have during the hearing?

Ntaganda’s rights during this hearing are similar to his rights during the trial. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to a fair and expeditious hearing, conducted impartially.

In advance of the hearing, Ntaganda has been provided with a document containing the charges sought by the prosecutor, as well as a list of the evidence the prosecutor intends to rely on at the hearing.

The disclosure of this evidence, as required by the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, has been on-going for several months. In recent filings, Ntaganda’s defense lawyers raised concerns about delays in the disclosure process and about the prosecution’s inability to disclose 116 documents containing exculpatory information. In the case against Lubanga (Ntaganda’s co-accused), proceedings were halted twice because of difficulties related to the disclosure of evidence collected by the Office of the Prosecutor under confidentiality agreements with the sources.

In accordance with the Rome Statute, Ntaganda is entitled to have the proceedings held in a language he fully understands and speaks. During his initial appearance before the court, he indicated that he “understands French somewhat… but speaks Kinyarwanda fluently.” Balancing issues of fairness and potential costs and delays incurred through extensive translations, the pre-trial chamber has decided to allow the translation into Kinyarwanda of documents considered central and material to the preparation of Ntaganda’sdefense.

7. Can victims participate in the hearing?

Under the Rome Statute, and for the first time before an international criminal tribunal, victims of the alleged crimes can participate as an independent party to the proceedings. This is an important feature of the ICC that can contribute to bridging the gap between victims and a court located thousands of kilometres away from where the crimes were committed. As participants, victims can go beyond appearing as witnesses for the Office of the Prosecutor and can present their views and concerns.

The court has agreed that 922 victims can participate in Ntaganda’s confirmation of charges hearing. These victims are separated by the court into two distinct groups: one group consists of 97 former UPC child soldiers and their relatives; and the other consists of 825 victims of UPC attacks and their relatives. Each group will be represented at the hearing by a common legal representative from the ICC’s Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV). An assistant counsel will be based in Congo. The creation of two distinct groups follows concerns expressed by victim applicants that victims of Hema ethnicity (the ethnic group purportedly represented by the UPC), on the one hand, and Lendu and other non-Hema victims, on the other, might have diverging interests in this case.

The common legal representatives of the victims are expected to make opening and closing statements at the hearing and to seek permission to make oral and written submissions to the chambers.

8. Who is paying for Ntaganda’s lawyer?

Under the Rome Statute, a defendant has the right to legal counsel during criminal proceedings and is entitled to financial assistance from the court if they cannot afford a lawyer. Ntaganda’s lead counsel is Marc Desalliers, an experienced international criminal lawyer who was also part of Lubanga’s defense team.

Ntaganda has declared to the court that he is indigent and cannot pay for his legal representation. The registrar of the ICC, the court’s chief administrator, has granted him provisional legal aid during the pre-trial phase. However, this decision can be reversed at any time if the financial investigation conducted by the registrar shows that he can bear the costs of his legal defense.

Concerned countries should cooperate with the ICC in its efforts to identify a suspect’s assets and to seize them if the court asks them to. Establishing an accurate assessment of Ntaganda’s resources is also in the interest of victims who are seeking reparations. Ntaganda is believed to have amassed considerable wealth during his time as rebel leader and army general in eastern Congo, notably through seizing control of fertile land and cattle, and looting and trafficking minerals.

9. What happens after the February hearing?

After the hearing, the judges of pre-trial chamber II will have 60 days to provide a written decision. If the chamber decides that there are “substantial grounds to believe” that Ntaganda committed the alleged crimes, the charges will be confirmed and the case will proceed to trial.

If the judges decide that there is not enough evidence to confirm some or all of the charges, the prosecutor can submit additional evidence and request a new confirmation of charges hearing.

The judges could also adjourn the hearing and ask the prosecution to consider providing more evidence or conducting further investigations in relation to a particular charge. In addition, they could ask the prosecutor to consider amending a charge if it appears that the evidence presented establishes a different crime.

10. Is the ICC prosecuting Ntaganda for crimes committed after 2003?

In 2006, after leaving the UPC following internal disputes, Ntaganda moved to North Kivu in eastern Congo and remained there until he surrendered in 2013. During this period, Human Rights Watchdocumented ethnic massacres, killings, rape, torture and recruitment of child soldiers by armed groups or army units under Ntaganda’s command.

None of the grave crimes allegedly committed in North Kivu province are covered in the current ICC case against Ntaganda, which focuses solely on alleged crimes in Ituri. At this stage of the proceedings, and given time and resource constraints, it is unlikely that the ICC prosecutor will add further charges relating to crimes in North Kivu province in this case.

It is regrettable that the prosecution’s case does not more fully address the range of crimes allegedly committed by troops under Ntaganda’s command. As a result of this limited focus, many atrocities in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces remain largely unaddressed, both at the ICC and before national courts in Congo. The ICC prosecutor should investigate those most responsible for these grave crimes, including high-level military and political officials who backed militias there, including Ntaganda’s. Rebel and Congolese army commanders implicated in grave crimes who are not being sought by the ICC should be promptly investigated at the national level by Congolese judicial authorities.

Abuses carried out under Ntaganda’s command in North Kivu province

In 2006, Ntaganda became military chief of staff of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (Congrès national pour la défense du peuple – CNDP), a Tutsi-led rebel group in the province of North Kivu, backed by Rwanda. Among other grave abuses, CNDP troops under Ntaganda’s command massacred an estimated 150 people in the town of Kiwanja. Ntaganda was present at the time according to video footage filmed by foreign journalists.

In early 2009, the Rwandan and Congolese governments reached an agreement: in exchange for Rwanda’s assistance in ending the CNDP rebellion and putting its leader, Laurent Nkunda, under house arrest, the Congolese government integrated CNDP fighters into the Congolese army and made Ntaganda a general and deputy commander of military operations in eastern Congo. This was despite the ICC arrest warrant against him and the Congolese government’s legal obligation to arrest him.

Ntaganda later became acting commander of military operations and used his position to create a parallel command structure in the Congolese army, with former CNDP soldiers who remained loyal to him. Army troops under Ntaganda’s command carried out numerous attacks on civilians, including killings, rapes and burning homes. In 2009 alone, Human Rights Watch documented the killings of more than 730 civilians by Congolese army soldiers and their allies during military operations against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda, or FDLR), a largely Rwandan Hutu armed group, some of whose members participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Most of these killings were carried out by former CNDP troops under Ntaganda’s command.

In one incident between April 27 and 30, 2009, Congolese soldiers attacked camps in the Shalio Hill area and killed at least 129 Rwandan Hutu refugees, mostly women and children. During the same incident, soldiers abducted at least 40 refugee women and girls, held them as sexual slaves, gang-raped and mutilated them.

From 2009 to 2011, Ntaganda led a brutal campaign against perceived military and civilian opponents, allegedly ordering assassinations, arbitrary arrests, and other unlawful acts. He recruited child soldiers and thwarted efforts to demobilize them. He blocked judicial investigations into abuses committed by those loyal to him and used his influence in the military to confiscate land and increase his wealth.

In April 2012, after the Congolese government signalled it would seek to arrest Ntaganda and break up the parallel command structure in the army, Ntaganda and those loyal to him defected and formed a new rebel group, the M23, named after the March 23, 2009 peace accord between the government and the CNDP. M23 fighters in turn committed numerous grave abuses, including summary executions, rape, and recruitment of child soldiers.

11. Why the delay in bringing Ntaganda to the ICC?

The ICC does not have its own police force and relies on the cooperation of governments to carry out its arrest warrants.

In the period following the first ICC arrest warrant against Ntaganda, in 2006, Ntaganda’s then-rebel group, the CNDP, was in a strong position: it controlled significant territory in North Kivu and militarily repulsed the Congolese army several times. In May 2007, the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, confidentially requested assistance from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC, since renamed MONUSCO) in arresting Ntaganda, but no further progress was made.

In 2009, President Kabila integrated Ntaganda into the army and declared that “now was the time for peace, not the time for justice.” He claimed that Ntaganda was an essential component for stability in eastern Congo. Congolese nongovernmental organizations denounced the deal and called on Kabila to arrest, rather than reward, Ntaganda. Human Rights Watch also called repeatedly for Ntaganda’s arrestand for the Congolese government to fulfil its legal obligations under the Rome Statute.

Over the past decade, the Congolese government has repeatedly integrated known human rights violators into the army as a short-term means to end rebellions. Instead of bringing durable peace, this has fostered a climate of impunity that encouraged, rather than deterred, further abuses.

12. Didn’t past pressure to arrest Ntaganda encourage him to start a new war in North Kivu province?

In April 2012, President Kabila indicated he was prepared to arrest Ntaganda. That, together with the ICC conviction of Lubanga in March 2012, may have been a factor in prompting Ntaganda and soldiers loyal to him to mutiny. Some Congolese officials and commentators have said they believed that it was the insistence on justice that led to the creation of the M23 and a renewed round of fighting in eastern Congo in 2012.

This interpretation overlooks important facts. It is the lack of justice – not efforts to bring abusers to justice – that has encouraged cycles of violence in eastern Congo over the past two decades. Military commanders such as Ntaganda have seen time and again that there was no price to pay for atrocities against civilians. On the contrary, those implicated in grave abuses were routinely rewarded through integration into the Congolese army. This, in turn, encouraged the emergence of numerous new armed groups, many of which have engaged in similar abuses.

Ntaganda was never an “instrument of peace,” as the Congolese government claimed. Soldiers under Ntaganda’s control carried out abuses even after Ntaganda was made a general in the Congolese army. Ntaganda was also implicated in targeted killings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention of people who called for his arrest or denounced alleged abuses until he eventually fled Congo and surrendered.

13. How will people in Congo follow the proceedings in The Hague?

The opening of proceedings against Ntaganda at the ICC bears great significance for the thousands of people across eastern Congo who have suffered, witnessed, or documented abuses by troops under his command. It also sends a strong warning to other abusive commanders still active in Congo.

However, the ICC is located far from the locations of Ntaganda’s alleged crimes. The court faces the challenge of making sure that its proceedings are meaningful for the Congolese people most affected by these crimes and that victims are informed of their rights.

Since 2004, the ICC’s Public Information and Documentation Section has worked to ensure that information about ICC proceedings reaches affected communities in Congo, as well as journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and judicial staff.

The court should make every effort to ensure that information about the hearing against Ntaganda is widely transmitted. It should consider holding a live screening of the hearing’s opening statements in Bunia, the capital of Ituri, where the crimes occurred. This could be followed by a discussion with ICC staff, who could answer questions from the public. As radio is the principal form of public communication in Congo, ICC staff should also ensure that the most popular national and international radio stations broadcasting in Congo have the necessary information about the hearing to cover it adequately. The ICC regularly produces audio and video summaries of court proceedings. Such a summary of the confirmation of charges hearing could be widely distributed and discussed in Ituri and elsewhere, in events organized by ICC staff.

14. What else is the ICC doing in Congo? What more should it do?

The ICC prosecutor has initiated public cases against six suspects in relation to alleged crimes committed in Congo. These include four military commanders accused of crimes in Ituri – Lubanga, Ntaganda, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo – and two FDLR leaders implicated in serious crimes in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. Callixte Mbarushimana, the executive secretary of the FDLR, was arrested in France in October 2010 on an ICC arrest warrant, but pre-trial judges declined to confirm the charges against him for lack of sufficient evidence. He was released in December 2011. Gen. Sylvestre Mudacumura, the FDLR’s military commander, is still in Congo, evading justice.

Overall, however, the number and stature of Congo-related cases before the ICC do not address the scale of the crimes committed since 2002 (the year as of which the ICC has jurisdiction.).

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the ICC Office of the Prosecutor to explore the regional dimension of the conflict in Congo, notably by investigating the role of senior political and military officials in Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda who supported, armed, and financed abusive armed groups in eastern Congo over the years. For example, in 2012 and 2013, Human Rights Watch documentedRwandan support to Ntaganda’s M23 rebellion, which was reminiscent of Rwandan support to previous abusive Congolese armed groups, including the CNDP and the UPC. Human Rights Watch has also called on the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes by the Congolese army and, evidence permitting, to prosecute those most responsible. These steps are crucial for the ICC to make a meaningful contribution to justice in Congo.

While we recognize that the ICC is investigating international crimes in seven other countries, and may lack the resources to take on additional Congo cases at this time, the ICC prosecutor should publicly express her intention to continue the work in Congo in the coming years. The court in turn needs strong, long-term support from ICC member countries, which should commit to allocating sufficient resources to meaningfully address these and other country situations within its mandate.

From its inception, the ICC was never intended, and does not have the capability, to investigate and prosecute all those responsible for grave international crimes in Congo. Under the “complementarity” principle in the Rome Statute, national authorities retain the primary responsibility to bring those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide to account. To strengthen the capacity of Congolese national courts to hear these cases, the Congolese government has drafted legislation to establish “specialized mixed chambers” within the Congolese judicial system, which would be entrusted exclusively to deal with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide and would include national and international staff.

TANZANIAN POLICE IN ONE OF THE BIGGEST MAN-HUNT FOR CRAZY GUNMAN WHO KILLED 8 PEOPLE.

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Migori Town

PANICKING and fear has gripped the residenbts of both sides along the the common border of Kebyta abd Tanzaia following the reports that a crazy gunman who had run amok and shot eight people to death leaving three in serious gun wounds, and who is still at large, could possibly cross the border and sneak into Kenya and cause more havoc with the lives of innocent people.

According to Radio Tanzania, Dar Es Salam and BBC monitored in the neighboring Kenya, the shooting of the eight Tanzanians took place on Saturday if the previous week in Tarime district in the north Mara region. the semi-pastoralists Kuria community, which has spread across the international border line between Kenya and Tanzania with half of the population of this community living on both sides of the border and speaking one vernacular Kuria language. It is therefore much easier for any criminal person on the run and being pursued by police on the either side of the border to sneak to the other and vanish.

According to Radio Tanzania the government of Tanzania has sent a large number of policemen into Tarime district, both uniformed and top detectives to try and track down the gunman whose identity could not immediately be established. The motive behind the shooting also remained unclear to the security men in Dar Es Salaam. The gunman is said to be taking only mobile phone handsets and other valuables from the victims .

Kuria people living on both sides of the border are cattle rearing people and the region is cattle rustling infested.

Tanzania has beefed up the security and reportedly sent more than 200 policemen . The reinforcements were called into the area from other regions and the nearby districts.

Many people on the Kenya side of the border appeared to have been unaware of what is happening in Tarime, which is only about 20 kilometers from Sirare border posts, which is the official border crossing point. The two countries have a porous borderline and the longest stretching from Lake Victoria to the India Ocean. Locals on both sides can cross.

However, Kenyans living near the borderline have been cautioned by the local administration to be on the look out and report suspicious stranger person to the nearest police station for interrogation.

The police In Tanzania could not disclose what type of weapon the gunman is using, but his marksmanship indicated that he might have served in the armed forces previously.

Tarime district is laying north of the famous serengeti National game park and north east of the lakeside town of Musoma on the shore of Lake VICTORIA.

ENDS

KENYA: JUBILEE POLITICIAN IN KUIRIA’S SHOP TORCHED DOWN BY UNKNOWN ARSONISTS

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Migori Town

John Magaiwa, a prominent Jubilee politician in Kuria, has reported that unknown arsonists recently set his shop a blaze torching shop goods and other property estimated at Kshs 20 million.

The incident took place at Mabera Trading Center in Kuria West district, Migori County. Unconfirmed reports says the police are holding one suspect who is assisting them In their investigations.

Magaiwa said the incident took please during the night of January 17-18, 2014 Before March 4,2013 general election, Magaiwa who is an ex-civic leader was the ODM branch chairman in Migori County. He had prior to the elections declared his interest in contesting the Migori Senate seat on the party ticket , and even campaigned vigorously for the seat fro close to three years and was tipped as the possible winner.

Magaiwa, however, ditched the ODM and left the party in huff after some of the party MPS from the region held and a locked door secret meetings in an hotel in Nairobi and came up with the idea that the ODM Senate ticket be given directly to the former Kuria MP Dr. Wilfred Machage in perception that his nomination would lure the Kuria voters and convince them to vote for the ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga on man-to-man.

The MPS floated the idea to Raila whom made several impromptu visit to Migori and told his Luo supporters that they should Forget the Senate seat for the area because it would be given on a direct nomination to a candidate from Kuria a minority community which is sharing Migori County with the majority Luos because the Kurias were a marginalized minority.

Among those who had already declared their interests in the Migori Senate seat included the former two the Homa-Bay MP Phares Oluoch Kanindo, the former Mathare MP Gilbert Ochieng” Mbeo. All the three together with Magaiwa had already deposited their money with the ODM head office and were only waiting for the green light to go on with their election contest.

DR Machage was still a top official of the defunct PNU party then headed by the retired President Mwai Kibaki and had not yet ditched the then ruling party.

Magaiwa felt he was betrayed and short-changed by the ODM leadership and crossed into the TNA/URP coalition. The Kuria voters rejected Raila Odinga and the two ODM parliamentary candidates for Kuria East and Kuria West constituencies, which were all swept by the Jubilee.

In the final analysis, the local political pundits believes that it was Magaiwa who became an instrumental tools that helped the Jubilee to an easy major victory over ODM in Kuria. Raila was told that Dr Machage had lost touch with the Kuria voters. But he could not hear of this and bulldozed his way by prevailing upon the party headquarter is which issued a direct party nomination to Dr. Machage,

The former MP won the Senate seat specifically owing to Luo votes, and not Kuria’s.After the March 4, 2013 election Magaiwa went back to his shop business at Mabera Trading Center, which is located along the Migori Sirare road.

Pundits were quick in pointing out that the torching of Magaia’s shop could have some elements of political undertone. This is because of his massive popularity and influence which had helped the Jubilee made inroad into the two Kuria districts dislodging the ODM.

ENDS

KENYA: THE GOVERNMENT IS ASKED TO INVESTIGATE THE ACTIVITIES OF LAND CONMEN IN AWENDO

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo.

The Provincial Administration and police authorities in Migori County have been asked to launch a thorough investigation with the view to apprehending a group of conmen who are reportedly cheating the residents of Awendo and its environs that they could help them regains thousands of hectares, of land on which hey were removed from 30years ago to make room for the establishment of the SonySugar Company.

Before the establishment of SonySugar company in 1977, thousands of local residents were removed from their ancestral land,which now forms the bulks of Sony Sugar on exclusive estate estimated to be measuring about 5,000 hectares. Two sub-locations were affected, These were Waware and Waundha located in Sakwa East location, Awendo district, Migori County..

The land was acquired compulsorily under the Land Acquisition act. The affected families were adequately compensated by the government and asked to move on. Those whose land was acquired had their names gazette in he official Gazette showing the acreage of land each farmer had before it was taken away.

About a month ago a group of people suspected to be conmen formed a committee, and told the affected farmers that their land was not taken away by the government, but had been bought by GEMA As part of its investment wing, and that the cultural-cum-investment organization , which for many years was led by the late Njenga Karume has since surrendered the land and it wanted the same to revert to its original owners. The group has opened an office in Awendo town and Its coordinator is called Mr Richard Mamba Nyamani who is issuing forms and asking the farmers to sign it.

The group has held a series of meetings, the last one was held last week at the home of one William O. Okola, which is close to Miriwa Market.Owing to land scarcity in the area, many farmers who appeared to be ignorant of what is going on have signed those forms hoping that parts of SonySugar nucleus estate farm would be slashed, re-surveyed and given back to the former owners these meetings take places in behind closed door shopping centers in private homesteads instead of being organized in government facilities a such as at the D, Chiefs or D.’s office, and from the looking of things it appears that the local provincial administration is not aware of what is going on.

Some of the enlightened farmers who have seen these forms, immediately became suspicious that this could be the work of conmen out to fleece them of their hard earned money. Some of the resident became suspicious when the group invoked the name of the defunct GEMA and were left baffled and wondering why and how the organization which was mainly operating in Central, Nairobi and Rift Valley region could have managed to acquired thousands of hectares if land in South Nyanza in 1976/1977. Most of them viewed the information as far fetched and as such devoid of the truth and have now called upon the government to investigate.

The residents have called on Migori Governor and Awendo D.C to come out of their slumber. They should come out and enlighten the public on this contentious issue before members of the public are conned of their money.

A survey carried in the area by thus writer revealed there is no land space in the area. All the parcels of land which the government had acquired was handed to he SONY SUGAR Company and almost all under the sugar cane plantations with exception of the small portion of land which was reserved for Awendo Town, and which was under the management of County Council of Migori and later Awendo Town Council. There is not even an iota of vacant land parcel left for anyone to retrieve back.

Asked by thus writer how the land would revert back to the original owners, Mr Mambas said over the phone that all the forms and signatures would be handed to a the group’s lawyer in Kisii Town who in turn would file the case in the High Court to demand that the land inquisition be returned to the owner. The coordinator , however, could not reviel the name of the group’s lawyer in Kisii,

This is not the first time for the residents of the area to suffer under the cunning conmen. A couple of years way back, another group of conmen had emerged in the are which fleeced the residents of thousands of shillings under the pretext that the landless people would be given land and settled in Maasaland at place called Keiyan In Trans-Mara district in Narok COUNTY. The group got away scot-free while laughing all the way to the bank. So far nobody has been given land in that area..

The forms are being distributed ibn an office in Awendo town, where people go and sign them giving particulars of their national identitity cards etc. Those inquiring about the scheme are shown some of the most outdated land maps and copies of stale official gazette publication showing where they former homesteads were located before the mass eviction of 1977.

ENDS

KENYA: DRUGS TRAFFICKING FROM NYANZA NEED TO BE INVESTIGATED BY COMPETENT AUTHORITIES

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CAN THE GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATE CLAIMS THAT ROGUE POLICE OFFICERS ARE INVOLVED IN DRUG TRAFFICKING IN NYANZA?

Investigative Report By Leo Odera Omolo

The easiest way of stamping out bhang trafficking from Nyanza to Nairobi and to other Kenya towns and other illicit cross border trades is to equip the Kenya police with speed boats similar to those deployed in Lake Victoria by the Uganda marine Police.

There is also need to overhaul top policemen working in the sensitive border regions and counties like Migori, Nyatike and Suba regions.

There is rampant rumors, allegations and claims of police complicity in the lucrative bhang trafficking in the region trades. In some yet to be proved incidences racketeers involved in the illicit trades are said to be enjoying protection by some rogue and un-patriotic policemen stationed in the smuggling spots in Migori and Nyatike county.

The recent events and happening shows the illicit drugs coming into the country via porous Kenyan borders with the neighboring countries via Lake Victoria waters.

Large consignments of bhang get into Kenyan mainland side of Lake Victoria through the disputed Migingo Island. Other smaller fishing islands located on Kenya side of Lake Victoria also being used by the drug traffickers as conduit for smuggling and easy access to the mainland regions and eventually to the markets

Such spots include Migingo, Ugingo, Ringiti, Lolwe, Ngodhe and Oyamo islands.

Bhang is also grown in abundance in Sigulu island which is about 10 kilometers off Budalangi shoreline in Busia county. However, smaller quantity of bhang is also said making its way from Tanzania into Kenya on the main Migori highway that is linking the town to Sirare border post. But the ever presence of policemen on checkpoints and road blocks on the road has curtailed the trafficking forcing the smugglers to use ‘panya’ routes using bicycles and boda boda motorbikes.

Reports emerging from Musoma and Tarime towns say bhang is grown in large quantities in some parts of the world famous Serengeti National Gane Parkand in the neighbouring Ukerewe island In Tanzania

Other landing spots of bhang smuggled from Tanzania include Sori and Muhuru Bay towns in Nyatike sub-county within the larger Migori County

A truck loaded with bhang was recently spotted as it loads the illicit drug behind a store in Sori whose street value was estimated to be around Ksh. 50,000.

The incident took place within only three days after police discovered 7 acres of bhang farm on top of Kimaye Hills near with Ong’er in North Kadem ,which is located less than 10 kilometers from Sori town

Close to 60 policemen spent the whole day uprooting the bhang. They were then enforced by over 50 inmates from Migori G.K. prison .The police succeeded in apprehending six men who were tending the bhang farm and took them into custody .The men were reported to have been working for an influential and wealthy politician in the region who is said to be working as a bhang trafficker .

All these is said to be happening despite the fact that in most parts of Nytatike the police road check-points and road-blocks are there the whole day, and traffic police officers manning these check-points re mains in some places even soon after dark

What give credence to the claim of police complicity in the massive bhang trafficking in the region is that most vehicles nabbed by police in roadblocks are always found far away from Nyanza, mostly in Molo,Naivasha ,Nakuru and Narok area .Perhaps this is after such vehicles had travelled long distance from Nyanza while under the alleged police escort ,which saw them passing through Migori,Kisii,Nyamira and Bomet.

Police road blocks are everywhere in Migori ,Kisii ,Nyamira ,Kericho and Bomet but the bhang traffickers have always been nabbed in places far away from the region.Many of these are sure to conceal the drugs source of origins and supplies

Gwasi Hills ,Ungoe and Gembe Hills in Gwasi and Mbila constituencies are other areas where bhang is grown in abundance.

Before the coming of Independence in 1963, the colonial authorities knew these places and used to dispatch contingents of regular police GSU and APS.during dry seasons with ….to hunt down and burnt down the bhang as well as the makeshift house erected on hill tops by the farmers and those tending the farms. It worked well, but after the attainment of political independence, the successive KANU regime went into deep slumber and relaxed paving the way for more bhang farms to spring up.

The 7 acres bhang farm which the police discovered last month …..was estimated at KSh. 50 million in street value. The bhang was burnt and destroyed at Macalder Divisional Police headquarters.

Residents have however confided to this writer that there existed other bhang farms along the valley of River Kuja in areas not far away from Gogo falls, which is generating electricity for the KPLC and close to the famous pre-historical Thim Lich Ohinga which is now in the management of the Kenya Museum services.

END

An Epidemic: Nigerian Men Killing Their Nurse Wives In The US

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From: Leila Abdul

“Yes I have killed the woman that messed up my life; the woman that has destroyed me. I am at Shalom West. My name is David and I am all yours.”
Those were David Ochola’s words during his 911 (U.S. Emergency Number) call to authorities after shooting dead his 28 years old wife, Priscilla Ochola, in Hennepin, Minnesota. The 50-years old husband was tired of being “disrespected” by his wife, a Registered Nurse (RN) whom he had brought from Nigeria and sponsored through nursing school only to have her make much more than him in salary – a situation which led to Mrs. Ochola “coming and going as she chose without regard for her husband.” The couple had two children – four years old boy and a three years old girl.

In Texas, Babajide Okeowo had been separated from his wife, Funke Okeowo, with whom he resided at their Dallas home. Upon the divorce, the husband lost the house to his wife, along with most of the contents therein, as is usually the tradition in U.S. divorces where the couple still has underage children. Mr. Okeowo, 48, divorced his wife because not long after she became a RN and made more money than him, she “took control” of the family finances and “controlled” her husband’s expenditure and movement. The husband could no longer make any meaningful contribution to his family back in Nigeria unless the wife “approved” it. He could not go out without her permission. Frustrated that his formerly malleable wife had suddenly become such a “terror” to him to the point of asking for in court and getting virtually everything for which he had worked since coming to the US thirty years prior, the husband got in his vehicle and drove a few hundred miles to Dallas to settle the scores. He found her in her SUV, adorned in full Nigerian attire on her way to the birthday bash organized in her honor. She had turned 46 on that day. Mr. Okeowo fired several rounds into his wife’s torso while she sat at the steering wheel, mercilessly killing her in broad daylight.

Also in Dallas (they sure need anger management classes in Dallas), Moses Egharevba, 45, did not even bother to get a gun. The husband of Grace Egharevba, 35, bludgeoned her to death with a sledge hammer while their seven years old daughter watched and screamed for peace. Mrs. Egharevba’s “sin” was that she became a RN and started to make more money than her husband. This led to her “financial liberation” from a supposedly tight-fisted husband who had not only brought her from Nigeria, but had also funded her nursing school education.

Like Moses Egharevba, Christopher Ndubuisi of Garland, Texas, (these Texas people!) also did not bother to get a gun. He crept into the bedroom where his wife, Christiana, was sleeping and, with several blows of the sledge hammer, crushed her head. Two years before Christiana was killed, her mother, who had been visiting from Nigeria, was found dead in the bathtub under circumstances believed to be suspicious. Of course, Christiana was a RN whose income dwarfed that of her husband as soon as she graduated from nursing school. The husband believed that his role as a husband and head of the household had been usurped by his wife. Mr. Ndubuisi’s several entreaties to his wife’s family to intercede and bring Christiana back under his control had all failed.

If circumstances surrounding the death of Christiana’s mother were suspicious, those surrounding the death of a Tennessee woman’s mother were not. Agnes Nwodo, a RN, lived in squalor before her husband, Godfrey Nwodo, rescued her and brought her to the US. He enrolled her in nursing school right away. Upon qualifying as a RN, Mrs. Nwodo assumed “full control” of the household. She brought her mother to live with them against her husband’s wishes. Mrs. Nwodo quickly familiarized herself with US Family Laws and took full advantage of them. Each time the couple argued, the police forced the husband to leave the house whether he had a place to sleep or not. On many occasions, Mr. Nwodo spent days in police cells. Upon divorcing his wife, Mr. Nwodo lost to his wife the house he had owned for almost 20 years before he married her. He also lost custody of their three children to her, with the court awarding him only periodic visitation rights. Even seeing the children during visitation was always a hassle as the wife would “arrive late to the neutral meeting place and leave early with impunity.” Mr. Nwodo endured so many embarrassing moments from his wife and her mother until he could take it no more. One day, he bought himself a shotgun and killed both his wife and her mother.

Caleb Onwudike’s wife, Chinyere Onwudike, 36, became a RN and no longer saw the need to be controlled by her husband. Mr. Onwudike, 41, worked two jobs to send his wife to her dream school upon bringing her to the US from Nigeria. After four years, she qualified as RN. Once she started to make more money than her husband, she began to “call the shots” at home. She “overruled” her husband on the size and cost of the house they purchased in Burtonsville, Maryland. She began to build a house solely in her name in their native Umuahia town of Abia State, Nigeria, without her husband’s input whatsoever. Mrs. Onwudike came and went “as she liked,” within the US and outside the US. In fact, she once travelled to Nigeria for three weeks “without her husband’s permission” to lavishly bury her father despite her husband’s protestations that they had better things to do with the money. Mrs. Onwudike let her husband know that this was mostly her money and she would spend it however she wanted. Through her hard work, she had risen to a managerial position at the medical center where she worked. Upon her return from burying her father, her husband got one of her kitchen knives and carved her up like Thanksgiving turkey inside their home on New Year’s Day.

Death is death no matter how it comes. But the goriest of these maniacal killings is probably the one that happened here in Los Angeles, California. Joseph Mbu, 50, was tired of his RN wife’s “serial disrespect” of him. The disrespect began as soon as she became a RN. Gloria Mbu, 40, had once told her husband he must be “smoking crack cocaine” if he thought he could tell her what to do with her money now that she made more money than him. Before she became a RN, Mr. Mbu had been very strict with family finances and was borderline dictatorial in his dealings with Mrs. Mbu. However, Mrs. Mbu learned the American system and would no longer allow any man to “put her down.” When Joseph Mbu could not take it anymore, he subdued his wife one day, tied her to his vehicle and dragged her on paved roads all around Los Angeles until her head split in many pieces.

[Author’s note: Although these are true stories, all the names and some of the details of the incidents have been altered as a mark of respect to the families involved. All of the killer husbands noted in these stories were found guilty. Most of them received the death sentence. Only the California and Maryland culprits received life sentences without the possibility of parole.]

It often comes to Nigerian men living in the US as a rude shock when their wives become the household’s bread winner. Having been accustomed to the docility, domestication, subjugation and outright terrorization of women back home in Nigeria, many Nigerian men are astounded when their wives assert their financial, behavioral and social independence. It is commonplace for Nigerian men to take important family decisions without consulting their wives; to travel out of town and indeed out of country without consulting their wives. Some do not even bother to inform their wives! It is not a big deal for Nigerian husbands to answer phone calls from their girlfriends while lying in bed with their wives; to buy expensive gifts for their girlfriends and making only perfunctory, casual attempt to conceal such gifts. It is nothing strange for Nigerian men to, in fact, bring those girlfriends to their matrimonial homes while their wives are home! Some Nigerian men think they have the carte blanche to do what they want because they are the bread winners. What’s the wife going to do to them? Beat them? Leave them? Leave them after one, two or three children? Who’s going to marry her? So Nigerian men think.

This cruel and phenomenal hostage-taking by Nigerian men in Nigeria is what Nigerian women in America are trying to stop. And they figured out the easiest way to begin curtailing these bullish husbands’ wings is to improve their own potential to earn more. A good way to earn a decent pay in the US (unlike in Nigeria) is to become a Registered Nurse. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual salaries of RNs, based on information from May 2012, is $68,000, while the mean annual salary is $69,000. The middle 50% of RNs earns between $54,000 and $78,000. Only 10% of RNs earns less than $44,000, while some 10% earns more than $97,000. The BLS also reports average hourly wages: The median hourly wage of a RN is $32.00 and the mean hourly wage is $33.00. The middle 50% of RNs earns wages of $27.00 to $40.00, with 10% of them earning less than $22.00 while 10% earns more than $48.00 an hour.

Nigerian men in the US are quick to send their “newly-imported” wives to these nursing schools in the hope that once the women graduate, they (the husbands) could take control of their finances and continue their enslavement. You can imagine a man who was probably a menial worker earning less than $30,000 annually in an expensive place like California or New York going back to Nigeria to “oppress” the village with dollars. He finds a “village girl,” brings her to the US and sends her to nursing school. When she graduates and makes twice his salary, he begins to feel inferior to her and his macho instincts take control of him, catapulting his emotions over his sense of reason. If the RN wife decides to take a second or third job, she can easily triple or quadruple the gap between her earnings and those of her menial job husband’s.

Working long hours takes the wife away from home and because nurses are expected to work overnight shifts, you end up with a husband who is usually home alone at night with just the children. Since even “normal” marriages can be potentially stressful endeavors, adding spousal jealousy and a husband who sleeps alone half of the time to the equation will certainly test the limits of the marriage. It is the reason why even when such husbands do not go over the hill to kill their wives, they divorce them in epidemic numbers. A friend in New York told me that RN women there are being divorced in droves as if they are plagues.

What is the big deal if a RN wife makes more money than her husband? There are several other professions in which wives make more money than their husbands. In fact, I know of a few military couples with the wives senior in rank to their husbands even though they joined the military at the same time. Yet, nobody is killing or divorcing anybody. Is this strictly a RN thing?

My hope is that some of these RN wives learn from the many other RN wives who successfully manage their homes in spite of making more money than their husbands. My hope is also that the husbands of these RNs learn from husbands of the many RNs who successfully cope with a wife who makes more than they do. I don’t know how they do it, but for every RN who is killed or divorced by her husband, there are hundreds, if not thousands more who proudly respect their husbands and submit to their husbands’ authority – yes, their husbands’ authority (NOT control and NOT abuse) even here in the US.

By Abiodun Ladepo

Los Angeles, California, USA

Oluyole2@yahoo.com

USA: Rape audits?!

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From: Nita and Shaunna, UltraViolet
Date: Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 12:11 PM
Subject: USA: Rape audits?!
To: Frank Bynum

From: Nita and Shaunna, UltraViolet

A key Republican-led committee just passed legislation requiring rape victims to report their assaults to the IRS–and the bill passed without a single female vote. Can you chip in $10 to help hold them accountable and stop the “rape audit” bill?

http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/1468?t=2&akid=762.6000.Q5Lxt0

Dear Readers:

They’re at it again.

Last week, a key Republican-led committee passed the notorious “rape audit” bill, requiring rape victims who get abortions to report the details of their assaults to the IRS.1 And here’s the kicker–the bill passed without a single female vote.

We know that the only way to make Republicans back off their war on women is to hold them accountable in their districts. So we’ve created a powerful ad showing the faces of the 22 men who passed this bill without the support of a single woman.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and in this case, that’s absolutely true.

With the help of UltraViolet members, we’re already pushing this image out far and wide on social media. But to really make this controversy take off, we need to expand the effort with ads targeted at the districts of the men who voted for this horrifying bill so that they can’t ignore us.

If we can raise $20,000, we’ll have enough to make sure this terrible bill dies. Can you chip in $10 to help pull it off?

Yes, I’ll donate $10 to help stop the “rape audit” bill.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/1468?t=3&akid=762.6000.Q5Lxt0

It’s incredible–while most Americans want Congress to focus on jobs and the economy, Republicans remain obsessed with controlling women’s bodies.

It’s almost like they’ve learned nothing from Sandra Fluke, Todd Akin, and the political backlash from the war on women.

But the fact is, by being so blatant about their anti-woman politics, they’re handing us a golden opportunity to make sure this bill and others like it go down in flames.

The ad we created just says it all–22 men and not a single woman telling rape survivors that they need to report their assaults to the IRS when they access abortion services.

Can you chip in $10 to make sure as many Americans as possible see it?

Yes, I’ll chip in $10.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/1468?t=4&akid=762.6000.Q5Lxt0

Thanks for speaking out.

–Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Malinda, Adam, and Gabriela, the UltraViolet team

Sources:

1. House Republicans Are Pushing A Bill That Would Force The IRS To Audit Rape Victims, Think Progress, January 16, 2014

Tanzanian Woman Tried To Get Passport by Identity Theft

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From: Abdalah Hamis

Tonight, 55 year-old Teena Isaac, a citizen of the East African country of Tanzania, is at the Belize Central Prison after she stole the identity of a Belizean woman and used it to try to apply for a Belizean passport.

The passport document would have been the last document she needed to get to fully assume the identity of Carmen Cantun. She already had a birth certificate from the Vital Statistics Unit, complete with all the information belonging to Carmen Cantun. It says that she was born in San Narciso Village in the Corozal District in July of 1966 and that she is supposedly the daughter of Cebastiana Cantun, who resides in San Narciso Village. This birth certificate indicates that it was issued on December 30, 2013.

She also has a social security card which looks authentic, with her picture in the location instead of the real Carmen Cantun. The work of the forgery is impressive; you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’s fake document if a public official didn’t tell you that it was. The social security card was issued 2 Fridays ago on January 3, 2014, and it expires on January 2, 2024.

So, when she went into the Belize City Passport office at the Charles Bartlett Hyde Building yesterday, everything seemed to be in order. She filled out all the application forms, and she produced the 2 prerequisite recommendations from the guarantors, under the new passport regulations. She paid the application fees, and her processing almost went through flawlessly, but the immigration officer got concerned when she was speaking to this woman claiming to be Carmen Cantun. She was being unusually quiet, and when she was asked certain questions, she didn’t respond.

The problem is that she didn’t understand the language that the officer was speaking in. Because the officer looked at her credentials and saw that she was supposedly from San Narciso, Corozal, she made an educated guess and addressed her in Spanish the entire time. She was simply exchanging pleasantries with the woman to get her to relax during the routine interview process. Because Isaac, pretending to be Carmen Cantun, didn’t answer, the immigration officer asked her to step into another room, and that’s when the officers started to press her for answers.

Under questioning, Isaac revealed that she understood English perfectly, but the officers picked up her heavy African accent. She also revealed that she was a Tanzanian national, that she had been in Belize illegally for over a year and a half, since July 22, 2012, and that she violated the visitor’s permit, which granted her a month’s stay in the country.

The officers continued to press her, and they eventually got a hold of her battered Tanzanian passport, which revealed her identity as Teena Iron Isaac, and that’s when the officers charged her with 4 different immigration offenses. She was charged with one count of using a document she wasn’t entitled to use for the social security card, another count for the birth certificate, a third count of falsifying an official document for the forgeries she made to the passport form, and failing to comply with a visitor’s permit.

She was arraigned before Magistrate Dale Cayetano this afternoon, where she pleaded guilty to all the charges. She broke down asking for leniency, admitting to all the forgeries she had perpetuated.

Magistrate Dale Cayetano sentenced her to pay fines to a total of $4,000 forthwith, which she wasn’t able to pay. She will now have the serve the default sentence of 1 year in prison. It is expected that the Immigration Department will apply for a removal order, and she will be deported back to her home country as soon as she serves the time, or pays the fine in the slight grace period most illegal immigrants are given.
Immigration authorities have just started to investigate the case, so they are not sure if the real Carmen Cantun is still alive, or if she has passed away. They do believe that for this level of forgery, Teena Isaac must have had inside help from the Social Security Board and/or the Vital Statistics Unit. The persons who signed for her as her guarantors are also facing investigation. One of them forged on the passport application form that he knew Isaac for 5 years, which is not possible because, as we told you, she was only in the country for 1 and a half years. Under new passport laws such offenses carry stiff penalties.

http://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=27597

Call for Justice: President Kiir and VP Wani Must be Held Accountable for Nuer Genocide in Juba 2013

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From: Sudan Press

Since the horrific killing of the civilians in Juba on 15th December 2013, I have been hearing people crying for justice hoping that the government of South Sudan will talk about the Nuer Massacre in Juba and held those who involve accountable for the crime they committed against the humanity. Surprisingly, the government has consistently been accusing the opposition about unjustifiable attempted coup against the government, instead to dealing with the crisis responsibly. The infiltration of fighting!

I am here to inform the world that genocide was committed by the presidential guards (mainly Dinka) with the order of the president to kill innocent Nuer. The UN and other organisations reported that over 1,000 were killed. Unfortunately our government took a partial position by refusing to publish a correct number of people killed in Juba or attempted to stop the killing of innocent people. I am one of the survivals of the Nuer mass killing that happened in Juba and I witnessed the situation. Below are the numbers of people killed in Juba and those who are affected by the conflict in Juba from 15th- 30th December 2013.

1000 University graduate who went to Juba to look for work were killed simply because they are Nuer.

1000 SPLA soldiers and policemen were killed while on duty to serve lives from 15th – 23rd December 2013 in Juba.

2300 civilians including civil servants and youth were killed

1000 children under 10 year old were killed a long side their parents

More than 3000 people still missing

More than 2000 Nuer people wounded and denied access to medical services by the SS government.

More than 18,000 Nuer escaped to UNMISS compounds for protection.

Therefore the total number of people killed was 5,300. Perhaps these figureswill help the relevant institution of the government and human right organisations bases in Juba to initiate a rigorous investigation about the Nuer massacre. The dead bodies were put in the big containers and bury them in mass grave outside and inside Juba by the Loyal Forces of the president. They also placed some dead bodies in the containers and throw them in the river. Unfortunately, the media was prevented to report on killing of innocent Nuer or to know what the killers were doing with the dead bodies, relatives were denied to bury the bodies of their love ones. I strongly advice the international community to consider what occurred in Juba serious, investigate the cause of it and held those who involve accountable. I will help with the investigation of the scent should I be alive.

The government has been conveying a misleading messages to the community alleged that the conflict was not a tribal conflict while the loyal forces were specifically targeted and killed Nuer in Juba because that was what they were instructed or oriented to do by the President Kiir. Neither Dinka, Cholo nor Equatorian was killed in Juba and those who killed Nuer in Juba were all Dinka, the so call the presidential guards.

For that reason, I believe that this is a tribal conflict. If the president intended to target the communities’ member of those who opposed the SPLAM direction, then, the loyal forces perhaps would have killed other nationality of South Sudan. This would have both the legitimacy of the government’s claim that this is not a tribal conflict.

The so call government spoke person, Makuei Lueth failed to define coup as the government claimed. He has been distorting the cause of the conflict and condemned ‘white army’ for what happened in Jonglie. If in fact, the government was to deal with this crisis responsibly, perhaps what happen in Jonglie could have been avoided. But what the so call “loyal forces” did in Juba after the president announced the curfew was intend killing and elimination of Nuer. No one talk about it event now from the government of South Sudan. This is an indication that the government take side and that it perform it duty in the tribal line. Furthermore, if any civilian was killed in Jonglie I guessed that could have been through cross shooting between the army forces.

Finally, the civilians particularly the white army weighed war against the government simply because the government they voted for killed their innocent children who went to Juba for business and looking for work. Not because they were mobilised by Dr Riek Machar.

The SPLA freedom fighters that joined the opposition did so because their families were killed while they were on duty in Unity State, in Jonglie State and in greater Equatoria region protecting the sovereignty of South Sudan. How on earth should a family of national army soldier plan coup when the father/mother is serving the nation elsewhere?

I call upon the government to show leadership this war. I will keep you update on new development in Juba.

The author of this paper is resident of Juba and can be contact by jangq15@gmail.com

EAST AFRICAN STATES SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO JOINTLY COMBAT TERRORISM IN THE REGION

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo in Kisumu City

SECURITY Ministers of the three Eastern African nations of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda met in Kigali, the Rwandan capital early this week and signed an important pact to jointly combat the activities of the terrorists bin the region.

The new pact according to an impeccable source, will address threats posed by marauding genocidal entities such as { FDRL}, terrorists groups like ADF-Nalu, and the islamists Al-Shabaab, and several transnational crime groups, that require collective security framework.

Kenya”s cabinet secretary for Defense Ms Rachelle Omamo and internal security counterpart Joseph Ole Lenku went Kigali and met with their Ugandan and Rwandan counterparts..They Signed the pactwith the Rwandan Defense Minister James Kabarebe while Ugandan Defense Minister Grispus Kiyongsa signed on behalf of the Kampala regime.

Under the new pact, the three countries which are member states of the East African Community joint forces will tackle the terrorism in the region following the steady raise of terrorism menace in the region.

Addressing newsmen on behalf the group, Rwandan Defebse Minister Kabarabe that the landmark Mutual Defense and security agreement will help the three countries jointly tackle “Negative Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda” [FDRL], WHICH Rwandan government accuse ofhaving links with the perpetrators 0f the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which claimed the lives of close to one million people..

The minister said the Rwandan government has refused to negotiate with FDRL and has accused the UN of backing the rebel movements in the DEMOCRATIC republic of the {DRC} and deploying death squad to murder opponents abroad.

The document was also endorsed by thr Rwandan Internal Security MIinister MUSA fazil Haremana and HIS Kenyan counterpart Arounda Nyakiraima \nd Ole Lenku respectively..

According to Rwandan officials, the pact will seek to address the security challenges that may come with free movement of people..”, he said adding that co-operation between the three countries will bring more benefits t the population.”

The Rwandan Minister hinted that after signing the pact,the next step will be to develop the common foreign policy for the three countries in order to have one voice on the global stage.

He added, “We need to harmonize defense and security with foreign policies.” We must be inclusive and outward looking because dealing with the current global maters require us to work together in the region.

Ends