Burundi reporter sentenced to life imprisonment
Fordarded By Agwanda Saye
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A Burundian appeals court must reverse the ruling against a journalist sentenced to life in prison on vague terrorism charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
A High Court in the eastern town of Cankuzo today found Hassan Ruvakuki, a reporter for local radio station Bonesha FM and French government-funded broadcaster Radio France Internationale, and 13 other defendants guilty of "participating in terrorist attacks" under the country's penal code, Patrick Nduwimana, the interim director at Bonesha FM, told CPJ.
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http://cpj.org/2012/06/burundi-reporter-sentenced-to-life-imprisonment.php
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Buhari Condemns Attack On UN Building in Nigeria
from Yona Maro
Former Head of State and Presidential Candidate of Congress for Progressive Change, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari has condemned Friday bomb attacks at the United Nations building in Abuja in which many lives were lost and several others wounded.
He described the horrendous attack as heart rending devastation and a great challenge to the emotion. Gen Buhari sends condolences to the United Nations, the mourning people of Nigeria and the grief-stricken families who have lost beloved ones in this unfortunate incident: "It is my prayer that the Almighty will comfort all the bereaved and bring speedy recovery to all the wounded" he said.
Gen Buhari however frowned at the lazy official response that has accompanied serial challenges to security in the country.
"There has yet to be any coordinated response by the security forces in the country. It is unprofessional and incompetent for our security agencies to surrender to this omnibus Boko Haram as the only clue to every security challenge."
He said such portends serious danger to the country: "What that means that even foreign interest can enter Nigeria today and wreck havoc and issue a statement in the name of Boko Haram and we will bury our dead and life continues".
He called on those in charge of the country to seriously address all the social problems confronting the country and show focused leadership which is lacking at the moment.
‘Yinka Odumakin.
Spokesman for General Muhammadu Buhari.
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Kwa Nafasi za Kazi kila siku www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
http://worldngojobs.blogspot.com/ Nafasi za Kazi Kimataifa
BURUNDIAN PRESIDENT NKURUNZIZA TO OPEN INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR IN KAMPALA ON FRIDAY
Writes Leo Odera Omolo
Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza will on Friday officially open this year’s annual Uganda International Trade Fair (UGITF) organised by the Uganda Manufacturers Association.
This comes at a time Burundi is seeking to attract more Ugandan investors in sectors like education, energy, communication, and construction.
T.S Mukasa, the trade fair manager, explained that exhibitors and business visitors would be involved in business-related fora, workshops and conferences through the first three days of the week-long fair.
LUKEWARM START? Van Hassan Hussein, the China Machines Uganda engineer, explains to the showgoers how the walking tractor works. The firm deals in agro-processing technology
Though the meetings are importance to the international traders, by yesterday morning when they were supposed to begin, there were no organisers nor participants in the UMA Conference Hall.
They are held to create development ideas, business partnerships and showcase new innovations and technology. The 18th annual trade fair runs from October 6 to11.
Over 920 exhibitors from more than 38 countries across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe are participating, up from 900 exhibited last year.
“The increase of participants benefits the association to improve the infrastructure of the exhibition halls and to also boost the activities of the association,” Mukasa said.
“The fair will offer companies a platform to launch new products and make direct contact with the consumers.”
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Kenyan Albino people want to be given bodyguards to ensure their safety
KENYAN ALBINOS NOW WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE THEM WITH POLICE SECURITY BODYGUARDS AGAINST POSSIBLE KIDNAPPINGS BY WITCHDOCTORS AGENTS.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
Fishermen believe that their fishing nets, weaved with concoction of hairs from the heads of people with albinism could help them make more catches.
Gold miners in the villages believe that if they mix their hair with some albino body parts, and form a magic amulet that the bury in the ground where they are digging, they will harvest more gold or other precious mineral stones of high value.
And now Kenyan people with albinism have expressed fears that cases of abductions against them are high and likely to increase if the government does not beef up security to check on their possible potential abductors.
Tanzanian albinos who fled their country early this year, and took refugee in Kenya’s coastal towns of Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Malindi are reported to have gone underground, and to be in hiding most of the time, and cannot be free to go about their daily businesses for fear of possible abduction.
And last week, the chairman of the Nyanza Albinism Society of Kenya, and Persons with Disability, Mr Julius Rasugu was quoted by the SUNDAY EXPRESS as having asked the government to provide the albinos people with bodyguards to keep off people with criminal intent to abduct and murder them for body parts.
“We are a minority community. Nnot only do we suffer massive prejudice, but we struggle to get jobs and our kids also need bodyguards to get to and from school safely”, Rasugu said.
He explained that the Tanzanian courts have been imposing death sentences on those found guilty of killing Albinos, but Albinos who fled from that country and crossed into Kenya, as well as those who are Kenya citizens, still live in fear because there are people who still believe in witchcrafts, and who think that the limbs of an albino could make them wealthy.
Rasugu regretted that a number of fishermen in both Kenya and Tanzania believed that weaving the red hair from an albino into their fishing nets, will attract a heavy catch, because of the golden glimmer.”
He added., “Gold Miners in several countries in this region believe that if they mix our hair with some albino body parts, they will form a magic amulet that they will bury in the ground they are digging to harvest more gold”.
He claimed that many of them have in the recent past been abducted and brutally murdered in a Tanzania and their body organs taken for rituals.
Mr Rasugu, who is a primary school teacher, said the Albinos are entitled to government security and their freedom guaranteed as proper human rights.
In Burundi, he said over 12 albinos have so far lost their lives, while over 40 of them have bee killed in Tanzania since mid 2007, by people who use their body parts, including hair, limbs and genitals for witchcraft.
“It is painful that even our graves, when we die will be plundered and our decomposing bodies exhumed for a merciless dirty trade. If we stop the malicious beliefs, then we can as well stop the murders,” Rasugu said.
Mr Rasugu said the government needs to assure the Albinos of their security and give them a chance to serve in the public service, saying some of them are highly qualified people, but only either denied a chance because of discrimination or fear for their personal safety.
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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
The fragile Coalition government of Kenya is being run by the international bullies behind the scenes, using paid hit men like Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo
The fragile Coalition government of Kenya is being run by the international bullies behind the scenes, using paid hit men like Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo
From: Akech
My fellow country men/women;
(By the way, I do not have PhD, so be kind to my rumbling below)
While most of you are taking shots at each other over the squabble between Raila and Ruto, the fragile Coalition government of Kenya is being run by the international bullies behind the scenes using paid hit men like Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo.
Annan and Ocampo are paid consultants representing the interests of NATO (United States, Great Britain, and Europe) in their war against terrorism. The US has invested a lot of capital in Mwai Kibaki since that State Dinner hosted by George W. Bush at Whitehouse in his honor in 2003. Because of this relationship with Mwai Kibaki, PNU is the US, Great Britain and European Union favored ruling party in Kenya.
The Mau saga and The Hague stick were merely ploys introduced to dismantle and put ODM out of commission. It would be a miracle if the Pentagon members can manage to sort out their differences and realize that those poor Kenyans who flocked their rallies were counting on them to bring real changes in Kenya! Apparently, it does not look like the big egos will allow them to do that. I wonder whether these people are not just concerned about themselves, immediate families and their close fiends.
What is more worrisome is that there are parallels between the implosion within ODM right now and what was happening in Rwanda a few months before the 1994 genocide.
(1)US has been a staunch supporter of Paul Kagame and his Rwanda Patriotic Front since its creation by Tutsi exiles in Uganda. The leaders in the RPF army were trained and equipped by US and its European allies.
(2)A year or two prior to Rwanda genocide of 1994, there were a series of power sharing negotiations between the government of Rwanda, under President Juvenal Habyarimana and the then leader of Rwanda Patriotic Front, Paul Kagame, held in Arusha, Tanzania.
(3)During these negotiations, the Rwandan government was pressured and threatened with international sanctions by the US and his European allies to grant power sharing concessions to RPF. Habyarimana granted so many concessions to RPF that made it difficult for the president to justify to his hard line supporters that he was not handing over ruling powers to a minority ethnic group, the Tutsis, under leader Paul Kagame.
During the colonial rule and shortly after independence from the Belgians, the Tutsi minority had supreme powers over the Hutus (85%) and other tribes.
(4)The last straw came just a day before the beginning of the genocide. The hardliners in Habyarimana party were unable to standby and watch what they saw as a military coup by Paul Kagame and his Tutsis minority, through continuous pressure from US and it allies. That day, the plane carrying the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana (Hutu), and Burundi President Cyprien Nitanyamira (Hutu), who were retuning from reconciliation meetings in Arusha, Tanzania, was brought down by a surface-to-air missile just, before its landing at Kigali Airport. The Rwanda genocide began a couple of hours later that night , April (6-7) 1994
(5)To date, the person or people responsible for the downing of the plane have never been identified. Yet there are international investigators in Rift Valley trying to talk to the locals to unearth who exactly incited the 2007 elections riot that killed 1,000 Kenyans.
Yet, US, France, Great Britain and the European Union have never seen it fit to employ their superior investigative methods to unearth who assassinated the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on the eve of Rwanda genocide. They have left that single episode to speculations:- Could it have been the Hutu hardliners who were afraid of impending takeover of government by advancing Tutsis RPF, or was it Paul Kagame and it RPF, who wanted to take the power from the Hutus? The environment created was such that either side could have been responsible
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(1)ODM has been vilified by international press since the beginning of 2007 Kenyan election campaigns.
(2)To make the Coalition Government work, Raila and ODM have made many concessions to accommodate PNU and have been, deliberately, assigned tasks which put this political party members at odds with each other, as well as their supporting Kenyan voters, who are now left dangling in the air. Yet, through Kofi Annan, more pressure is being exerted by the international powers and directed primarily at the Prime Minister and his team. The pressure has definitely taken its toll!
(3)Raila has become the axe man in implementing policies which only help put him in conflicts with his base supporters in Kenya, particularly, Rift Valley.
(4)The current implosion within ODM has created an atmosphere in which anyone outside ODM party members can harm either Ruto or Raila or both. Should something like this happen, some ODM supporters will be blamed for a nightmare like that!
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While ODM attention is directed towards the squabbles within Kenya, a barrage of NEW laws and rules of engagement in the newly re-created East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi), with dire consequences to Kenya and Kenyans are taking shape. The continuous disagreements between PNU and ODM in Kenya make it difficult for anybody to determine who is representing ODM's views or or the views of those who gave them support at these EAC negotiations!
One thing is clear; the well known proxy warriors in East Africa and Lake Victoria regions, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, are now the alpha dogs in the EAC. These are the same well trained, battle hardened Ugandan and Rwandan proxies who have been wreaking havoc in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over a million Congolese have been killed, and a million others rotting in refugee camps!
This is the resources looting war the world is not interested talking about. Things are just getting worse with resource lootings in the Congo. New East African Community members are getting into the mineral act:
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/670830/-/qxs6gjz/-/index.html
The borders between these five EAC countries are becoming porous. One does not need a passport to go in and out of each territory! During the 2008 political turmoil in Kenya, it was rumored that Ugandan forces were seen in Western Kenya and Kisumu District, and there has been Migingo Island issue in Lake Victoria. Next time around, it will be the Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi army chaps who will be wreaking havoc in Western and Nyanza Provinces, and they will not need a permission to come in. This is already taking shape, while majority of Kenyans’ attention is focused elsewhere!
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/817786/-/py73rlz/-/index.html
Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo have not yet seen it fit to pay one visit to Laurent Nkunda, Paul Kagame’s right hand man, who is responsible for killing and damaging millions Congolese on behalf of multinational corporations. Nkunda is now living in Rwanda, negotiating the terms for his unconditional release.
What exactly did William Ruto do that has made Annan and Ocampo be hot on his trail? Is he worse than Kagame and Nkunda? I am not trying to minimize the deaths of 1,000 and displacement of 35,000 Kenyans during the 2007-2008 election turmoil. I am merely directing your attentions to what some members of EAC are doing in DRC, and what they may be capable of doing in Kenya should things fall apart!
REPEAT, WHILE KENYANS’ ATTENTION IS FOCUSSED ON POLITICAL TURMOILS WITHIN, THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY LAWS WITH DIRE MILITARY AND TRADE COSEQUENCES ARE BEING SHAPED BY THE RESOURCES WAR LORDS WHO ARE NOW MEMBERS OF EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY!
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/opOrEd/comment/-/434750/817950/-/bpuxnr/-/index.html
LAXITY IN CROSS BORDER SECURITY IN EAST AFRICA COMMUNITY COUNTRIES
LAXITY IN CROSS BORDER SECURITY IN EAST AFRICA COMMUNITY COUNTRIES
From: Fuambo Janyandito
There are daily reports of car thefts near Kenya-Tanzania border, Burundi-Tanzania border, Rwanda-Tanzania border, Rwanda-Uganda border and Rwanda-Burundi border.
This seems to be coinciding with the noble initiative of opening up
borders within the region.
The signing of E A common market protocol does not mean the national security law enforcement and customs agencies should go to sleep.
Why should vehicles pass through border posts without security personnel confirming the ownership and relationship of the driver and the vehicle when vehicles are crossing borders?
Thugs are already taking advantage of this laxity and a vehicle stolen in Isiolo, Kenya can easily cross Uganda into the thin air of Congo.
The national governments should not let security personnel hide under free movement, as they plan together with the thugs, to prey on unsuspecting East Africans.
A Tanzanian in Kenya should always be ready to explain why he is in Kenya, and vice versa, and the public should be trained to promptly report strangers who are neither employed nor doing business. Without harrassing such fellow East Africans who could be visiting, they should be tracked closely.
Security within the community should be well thought out so that new avenues for crime are blocked.