Obama’s food security programme in Africa to eliminate hunger is severely criticised by policy makers
Writes Leo Odera Omolo
GROUPS of African leaders and policy makers vehemently opposed to farming initiatives involving organisms have said President Barack Obama’s new food security plan for Africa is mainly meant to help US agribusinesses to bring biotechnology to African countries such as Tanzania.
At the recent G-8 summit of rich countries,President Obama unveiled a USD 3 billion,10-year programme to reduce hunger in Africa.
The US President cast the effort in personal terms,saying,some of his initiatives in Kenya”live in villages where hunger is sometimes a reality.”
According to agencies report appearing in local media,the US President had invited Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete,Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Ghanaian President John Atta Mills to take part in the food security talks at the G-8 meeting at the US presidential retreat outside Washington DC.
President Obama argued in announcing the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition that the advanced farming techniques such as developed by corporate such as Monsanto Cargill and Dupont can be an effective response to the “moral imperative” of ending hunger in Africa. As part of the alliance, agricultural corporation from several countries will collaborate with government officials in selected African nations along with civil society groups and local farmers to increase crop yields.
Mosanto the US-based Corporation, which specializes in biotechnology and research, is reported to be ready to committing USD million to the plan. Research and applications,says it will focus its investment partly on on”Kilimo Kwanza {Agriculture First} project in Tanzania.In addition to making financing more easily available to farmers in Southern Tanzania.
Mosanto says it will seek to introduce new maize hybrid seeds suitable royalty-free to see companies.”
The US –based adds in a press release that it intend to work with Munganisho Ujamiriamali Vijijini Group connecting village entrepreneurs a program that supports micro,small and medium enterprises-on the formation of the co-operatives that enables farmers to collectively negotiate and market their harvest.”
But local critics points out to potential dangers in a programme that relies on private corporate leadership. The the toric is all about small scale producers,but they haven’t ye been a part of G-8 conversation. The goal therefore of the agribusiness corporations is “not to fight hunger, their objective is to make money,”said one such critics.
He added, President Obama’s aim of reducing hunger in Africa by promoting corporate investment si”marginalize farmers in Africa.”
Ends
Kenya: PRESS STATEMENT: Fraud by Political Parties
From: Okiya Omtatah Okoiti
JOINT PRESS STATEMENT BY CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS
A good number of Kenyans, who have carried out searches on the IEBC Website portal at www.iiec.or.ke/rpp, have been shocked to find out that they are members of political parties they never joined or did not even know existed. Apparently, their names were fraudulently used by these political parties to comply with the requirement of the Political Parties Act, 2011, that they recruit “as members, not fewer than one thousand registered voters from each of more than half of the counties.”
Clearly, the Acting Registrar of Political Parties never verified, prior to registering the parties and issuing them with compliance certificates, that each one of the at least 24,000 people, whose names the parties presented as their members, were real members of those parties and that they willingly and freely gave their consent to be so registered, and that the information about them was accurate.
The least the Registrar was supposed to do was to verify with each one of the at least 24,000 founder members presented by political parties that each had consented to be a member of the said party. Apart from protecting the constitutionally secured fundamental rights of individuals, such verification would also prevent mischievous individuals from registering themselves or others in parties they oppose and later claiming that they were fraudulently registered so that those parties can suffer sanctions.
By failing to do that which the law requires or expects of her, the Registrar created a loophole which made it possible for unethical characters, out to register political parties or to harm other parties, to fraudulently use other people’s identities without those people’s prior knowledge or consent.
Under the Constitution, registering anybody as a member of an association of any kind without their prior knowledge and consent infringes on their right to privacy (Article 31). It also amounts to forcing or compelling a person to join an association in contravention of Article 36(2), which categorically states: “Any person shall not be compelled to join an association of any kind.”
It is also improper for the Registrar to publish names of registered party members in a website or in a publicly available register as the same can be used to victimise civil servants and other vulnerable individuals for their political preferences. In fact, it makes no sense to burden citizens by asking them to inspect and validate information that she has already used to certify parties as being compliant with the Political Parties Act, 2011. To make matters worse, not everybody will have the means to check the register and, therefore, many are likely to remain fraudulently listed without both their knowledge and consent. And this could also cause conflict when such a listed person wishes to run as an independent candidate, only to be barred for belonging to a party.
Even if some people check and remove themselves from the register, it will be too little too late since their constitutional right to privacy and the right not to be compelled to join an association of any kind will already have been contravened. All the same we call on all registered voters to verify from the website that their said rights are not being violated.
Ideally, it is the duty of the Registrar to ensure that everybody’s privacy is protected. No person should be compelled, by fraud or whatever means, to be a member of a political party. The Registrar cannot shift the burden of protecting Kenyans from herself to the public. And the duty is not on individuals to cure the injury by removing themselves from parties; the duty belongs to the State to prevent any injury. And this can only be done before, and not after the registration and resultant violation of fundamental rights.
According to Article 47(1) of the Constitution, Kenyans are entitled to administrative action that is expeditious, efficient, lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair. In Article 19(3)(a), the Constitution declares that, the rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights belong to each individual.
Hence, we call on Ms. Lucy Ndung’u, the Acting Registrar of Political Parties, to resign immediately for having demonstrated gross incompetence that has facilitated the said violations of the constitutionally secured fundamental rights of Kenyans. And the authorities must stop dilly-dallying and move with speed to appoint a substantive Registrar as required by the law.
Further, we also demand that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) asks the Police to thoroughly investigate the violations and immediately de-register all political parties found to have forged even a single name. Fining them Kshs. one million is inadequate and unacceptable if we desire to destroy immunity. In fact, the officials and political patrons of the parties that will be de-registered should be prosecuted and also be barred from being candidates at the coming general elections for having failed the integrity requirements of the new Kenya.
Finally, if Ms. Ndung’u does not resign and/or the IEBC does not deregister the offending political parties, we shall amend our Constitutional Petition against certain provisions of the Political Parties Act, which is pending in the High Court, for orders to that effect. We will also seek orders compelling the IEBC and the offending political parties to compensate victims to vindicate the violation of their constitutional rights by being compelled to be members of political parties.
We will spare no efforts because a river does not flow higher than its source. If we really crave integrity to our politics, then political parties, the Registrar, and the IEBC, who together are the foundation of our electoral process, must be above reproach. If we allow them to get away with the outrage, we will have planted the cancerous seeds of impunity that will kill the new democratic dispensation.
Signed on behalf of all by:
Okiya Omtatah Okoiti - 0722684777
Date: Thursday, May 31, 2012.
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com
THANK YOU FOR WORK WELL DONE AND KIND SUPPORT DURING UMUGANDA ON 26TH MAY 2012
From: AKR|Association of Kenyans Living in Rwanda
Dear Fellow Kenyan,
On behalf of the AKR Executive committee and the organisers, this is to appreciate your participation during Umuganda last Saturday at Rebero, Kicukiro. This was a great show of unity and love of our host nation, in the spirit of Harambee. Without your support, this would not have been possible. Please keep it up.
Many thanks goes to our sponsors for making the day a big success. Not by any order of merit, I list the sponsors below:
Nakumatt Rwanda;
Mount Kenya University (MKU);
Sleek Communications;
The Kigali Serena;
Mr. Francis Wahome of Grill and Barbeque (commonly known as Car Wash 2);
Skol (asante Mr. David Akelola);
Kenya Airways;
Mr. Gregory Muli of The Ministry of Natural resources of Rwanda (MINIRENA);
Equity bank;
The Kenya High Commission;
AZAM
Special thanks goes to the Secretary General of Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association (KMJA), Hon. Abdulkaqir Lorot, of Milimani Commercial Courts and and Justice Asike Makhandia, the Judge in-charge, Machakos, who joined us during that special event.
For those who missed out, I have attached a short video clip for you. It was work with fun !
Carol
World: My Speech to the Finance Graduates
From: Yona Maro
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com
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By Robert J. Shiller, 30 May 2012
NEW HAVEN - At this time of year, at graduation ceremonies in America and elsewhere, those about to leave university often hear some final words of advice before receiving their diplomas. To those interested in pursuing careers in finance - or related careers in insurance, accounting, auditing, law, or corporate management - I submit the following address:
Best of luck to you as you leave the academy for your chosen professions in finance. Over the course of your careers, Wall Street and its kindred institutions will need you. Your training in financial theory, economics, mathematics, and statistics will serve you well. But your lessons in history, philosophy, and literature will be just as important, because it is vital not only that you have the right tools, but also that you never lose sight of the purposes and overriding social goals of finance.
Unless you have been studying at the bottom of the ocean, you know that the financial sector has come under severe criticism - much of it justified - for thrusting the world economy into its worst crisis since the Great Depression. And you need only check in with some of your classmates who have populated the Occupy movements around the world to sense the widespread resentment of financiers and the top 1% of income earners to whom they largely cater (and often belong).
While some of this criticism may be over-stated or misplaced, it nonetheless underscores the need to reform financial institutions and practices. Finance has long been central to thriving market democracies, which is why its current problems need to be addressed. With your improved sense of our interconnectedness and diverse needs, you can do that. Indeed, it is the real professional challenge ahead of you, and you should embrace it as an opportunity.
Young finance professionals need to familiarize themselves with the history of banking, and recognize that it is at its best when it serves ever-broadening spheres of society. Here, the savings-bank movement in the United Kingdom and Europe in the nineteenth century, and the microfinance movement pioneered by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in the twentieth century, comes to mind. Today, the best way forward is to update financial and communications technology to offer a full array of enlightened banking services to the lower middle class and the poor.
Graduates going into mortgage banking are faced with a different, but equally vital, challenge: to design new, more flexible loans that will better help homeowners to weather the kind of economic turbulence that has buried millions of people today in debt.
Young investment bankers, for their part, have a great opportunity to devise more participatory forms of venture capital - embodied in the new crowd-funding Web sites - to spur the growth of innovative new small businesses. Meanwhile, opportunities will abound for rookie insurance professionals to devise new ways to hedge risks that real people worry about, and that really matter - those involving their jobs, livelihoods, and home values.
Beyond investment banks and brokerage houses, modern finance has a public and governmental dimension, which clearly needs reinventing in the wake of the recent financial crisis. Setting the rules of the game for a robust, socially useful financial sector has never been more important. Recent graduates are needed in legislative and administrative agencies to analyze the legal infrastructure of finance, and regulate it so that it produces the greatest results for society.
A new generation of political leaders needs to understand the importance of financial literacy and find ways to supply citizens with the legal and financial advice that they need. Meanwhile, economic policymakers face the great challenge of designing new financial institutions, such as pension systems and public entitlements based on the solid grounding of intergenerational risk-sharing.
Those of you deciding to pursue careers as economists and finance scholars need to develop a better understanding of asset bubbles - and better ways to communicate this understanding to the finance profession and to the public. As much as Wall Street had a hand in the current crisis, it began as a broadly held belief that housing prices could not fall - a belief that fueled a full-blown social contagion. Learning how to spot such bubbles and deal with them before they infect entire economies will be a major challenge for the next generation of finance scholars.
Equipped with sophisticated financial ideas ranging from the capital asset pricing model to intricate options-pricing formulas, you are certainly and justifiably interested in building materially rewarding careers. There is no shame in this, and your financial success will reflect to a large degree your effectiveness in producing strong results for the firms that employ you. But, however imperceptibly, the rewards for success on Wall Street, and in finance more generally, are changing, just as the definition of finance must change if is to reclaim its stature in society and the trust of citizens and leaders.
Finance, at its best, does not merely manage risk, but also acts as the steward of society's assets and an advocate of its deepest goals. Beyond compensation, the next generation of finance professionals will be paid its truest rewards in the satisfaction that comes with the gains made in democratizing finance - extending its benefits into corners of society where they are most needed. This is a new challenge for a new generation, and will require all of the imagination and skill that you can bring to bear.
Good luck in reinventing finance. The world needs you to succeed.
WHY THE WAR ON DRUGS ISN’T AN EASY MISSION
From: Ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2012
It is hardly twenty four hours ago I reported how Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko will not be able to implement the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on the controversial issue of the 1.2 tones cocaine haul seized in 2004 that it is back in Parliament again.
That was then, now the MPs are still demanding a full disclosure of investigations into the matter. Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale is accusing Attorney-General Githu Muigai for keeping a safe distance on the matter when the House was looking for him to answer what he knows on the impounded cocaine.
It is not that Prof Muigai is refusing to answer questions, only that he needs more time to consult the DPP on the queries of how sensitive the issue is and what implication it would entail should they make it public. AG cannot answer the questions on whether names of MPs implicated in the report have a hand or not.
Internal Security Minister George Saitoti had earlier informed the House that MPs Ali Hassan Joho (Kisauni), William Kabogo (Juja), Harun Mwau (Kilome) and Gideon Mbuvi alias Mike Sonko (Makadara) and Mombasa tycoon Ali Punjani are being investigated for alleged drug trafficking.
The names are in a US embassy dossier which former ambassador Michael Ranneberger gave to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (Kacc) some months ago. Mr Kabogo had a dossier of his own, which he claimed also named Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa and Kamukunji MP Simon Mbugua. He also said it implicates the wife of “a very senior person in the country”.
Mr Kabogo and Mr Joho did not only deny all links to drug dealing and insisted that those who had mentioned them be investigated for “peddling falsehoods, Mr Joho demanded unsuccessfully that his name be removed from the list until investigations are concluded, saying the allegations against him were scandalous and meant ‘to kill him politically.’
Mr Mbuvi on the other hand described the report “as full of false allegations”, claiming that that three senior police officers who had forced their way into his parliamentary office at Continental House linking him to drug trafficking did that falsely.
US President Barack Obama did not only list Mr Mwau and businesswoman Naima Mohamed Nyakinywa as drug traffickers, slapping harsh economic sanctions against them but also US citizens who do business with Mwau risk going to jail for 30 years or being fined as much as Sh400 million.
Those listed as drug traffickers stand to lose all their property in the US, or any business in which they have an interest. This is because many international financial transfers are processed in the US. The Kingpin Act, signed into law on December 3, 1999, gives the US government power to seize property belonging to people the president believes are drug dealers.
It also gives the government authority to block the property of any person or company “materially assisting in, or providing financial or technological support for or to, or providing goods or services in support of, the international narcotics trafficking activities of a person”. It is the same law that prohibits US citizens from doing business with listed suspects.
Others whose properties have been seized under this law are Manuel Torres Felix (Mexico), Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza (Mexico), Haji Lal Jan Ishaqzai (Afghanistan), Kamchybek Asanbekovich Kolbayev (Kyrgyzstan) and Javier Antonio Calle Serna (Colombia).
US have to be hard on drug dealers following an urban legend which states that most US banknotes have traces of cocaine on them. This is in fact accurate according to 1994 when the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that in Los Angeles, out of every four banknotes, on average more than three are tainted by cocaine or another illicit drug.
Since 2006, some 22,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in US. Thousands more have been wounded, countless others "disappeared or tortured.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC) estimate that profits derived from narcotics rackets amount to some $600 billion annually and that up to $1.5 trillion dollars in drug money is laundered through seemingly legitimate enterprises.
In most cases drug dealers have a wide connection that is why it is very difficult to fight against it. In Afghanistan for instance, Ahmed Wali Karzi, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, instead of being arrested gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.
The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.
Mr. Karzai is also paid for allowing the C.I.A. and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city — the former home of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban’s founder.
This is despite the fact that the Obama administration has repeatedly vowed to crack down on the drug lords who are believed to permeate the highest levels of President Karzai’s administration.
Even the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico is not safe either. In July 2009 the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, Father Hugo Valdemar, told reporters that three bishops in Michoacan have received death threats from drug trafficking gangs.
The bishops were not only to be killed for preaching against the illicit drugs but because one of the churches in Mexico received money from drug traffickers to build the church.
Mexican officials estimate that over 34,000 have been killed in the country due to drug-related violence since 2006. Corrupt officials are allying with criminals to skim drug profits and using the military to murder criminals who might reveal any collusion.
Some churches have benefited from the criminal underworld, receiving hefty donations from members who sit in their pews on Sundays but work as traffickers during the week. That is why most priests are not preaching against the trafficking.
Some priests of course, do not preach against it because they have also been the target of violence. Masses have been interrupted by gunfire, and some priests have been shot dead when they attempt to preach against the trafficking.
It explains why when Pope Benedict XVI at a huge outdoor Mass on Sunday in March this year condemned drug trafficking and corruption in Mexico, urging people to renounce violence in the country where a brutal war between cartels has killed tens of thousands of people, he did that under a tight security.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org
KENYA: TRIBUTE TO THE LATE NOAH IMBAYA
By Agwanda Saye
The late journalist Noah Imbaya Ndaklu was finally laid to rest at his father’s home in Eshikhuyu Village,Ebukanga Sub-Location,Bunyore Central Location ,Luanda Division in Emuhaya District.
His death news was broken to me by Vihiga County reporter Nahashon Obwonya who work me early that Sunday telling me the devastating news.
“Agwanda,your friend Imbaya is dead” he told me and two hours later I was surprised to his phone ringing only for his wife Beatrice to tell me the same
I never had an opportunity to attend his burial which I would have really wished to but circumstances beyond me would not have allowed.
I will eternally be indebted to the entire “Citizen Weekly” fraternity and the entirely family of “Msakhulu” Nabule if I do not say one or two things about the late “Mwalimu” as he was known.
I knew the late while he was at their Moi Avenue offices and anytime I passed by I would always find him buried in past and current editions of publications “digging” into stories as he usually says.
Imbaya never had a desire for much and he never made unrealistic demands from colleagues, he also was a man who would keep his words and a promise he made with you would be as he said always”itakuwa tu hivyo”
Whenever he was home from the City he would asked me if I would be paying for his”Nya Ugenya or Msamaria Mwema” fare back to the city.
All the “deals” I ever made with him he never failed on his part to complete, whenever he assured you that your request is granted he never reneged on it.
The “few news sources” I ever introduced him with never at no time ever lamented to me that he was neither “a bother nor an irritant”.
To sum it all, Imbaya was a man who to me kept his word in any arrangement you made with me, whether socially or professionally.
He knew the perimeters of “a deal” and never mixed his social issues with “serious news sources” at times the said people I introduced him to would always ask me why he never always communicated with them.
He was born on 5th August 1972 to Mzee Simon Ndakalu Nabule and Mama Roda Ndakalu Nabule of Eshikhuyu Village.
He has left behind a widow Beatrice Auma and three Children,he started his Primary School at Lunga Lunga then Emukhunzulu where he did his KCPE ,he joined Emusire High School and excelled in his KCSE exams then joined Moi University Eldoret where he graduated with a BA degree in Linguistics and Sociology.
Upon graduating ,he was employed as a high school teacher in various secondary Schools such as Emusire, Emabyima, Essabra and lastly Eshibinga before joining “Weekly Citizen” as a sub editor Per excellence,
As his colleagues say he was an intellectual per excellence and his incisive and probing mind and in his transition at such a tender age the family lost a breadwinner.
“His quaint sense of humor will forever etch smiles on the faces of those lucky to have worked or socialized with him” his colleagues at Headlink Publishers Ltd lamented.
He died after short illness at St.Francis Hospital Mortuary
Kenya: Press Statement by NYSA on the Youth Fund Scandal
From: Emmanuel Dennis
Please find attached the Press Statement on the embezzlement of the Youth Fund.
We shall be releasing the entire dossier on our website shortly.
Kind regards,
Emmanuel
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Emmanuel Dennis Ngongo
Chief Executive Officer
National Youth Sector Alliance (NYSA)
2nd Floor, World Alliance of YMCA Building, PAWA254 Hub
State House Crescent, Off State House Avenue
P.O. Box 8799, 00200, Nairobi Kenya
Cell: +254722619005
My Bio:http://www.emmanueldenis.blog.com/
Blog: http://emmanuel-ed.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Emmanueldennis
http://facebook.com/emmanuel.dennis
www.nysa.co.ke/ www.thegreenteams.org
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NATIONAL YOUTH SECTOR ALLIANCE (NYSA)
A National Multi-Stakeholder Change Alliance focusing on Policy Dialogue for Keny Stakeholder Change Alliance focusing on Policy Dialogue for Kenyan Youth
STATEMENT BY THE NATIONAL YOUTH SECTOR ALLIANCE ON THE FINANCIAL IMPROPRIETY OF THE YOUTH ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT FUND
NAIROBI 29thMay 2012
The Youth Enterprise Development fund was launched in 2006 by President Mwai Kibaki with an initial disbursement of KShs1 billion. The fund was established by a legal notice under the State Corporations Act 2007. The fund’s mandate was to address the rising youth unemployment in the country, as well as provide youth entrepreneurs with capital for business startup and growth. The Fund was converted to a state corporation later in 2007, under the ministry of Youth & Affairs and Sports(MOYAS).
In a letter dated 28thNovember 2008, the Kenya National Audit Office detailed audit queries to the then Chief Executive Officer of the Fund. The Ministry denied having lost any money but confirmed receipt of the investigation report.
Internal fights ensued between the then chair Hellen Tombo and then Minister Prof Hellen Sambili over action to address the issues at Management level, consequence of which the then CEO Mr. Wario was suspended. KACC was called in but before the completion of investigations, the then CEO was reinstated without any explanations.
As the country heads to the next election, the Youth have become the natural target for votes by all leading contenders of the Presidency, Senators, Governors, Members of Parliament to County, Women and Ward representatives. Action is yet to be seen from Parliament to which YEDF reports its achievements. This issue will be the LITMUS TEST, if indeed young people are priority for them. The time for accountability has come when MPs must demonstrate their commitment to ensuring the benefits of YEDF to young people are real and the funds available are not misdirected.
Mismanagement, Impropriety and Embezzlement of Youth Funds The National Youth Sector Alliance (NYSA) takes exception to the issues of impropriety that have freshly emerged at the YEDF. The audit report dated 30 th April 2012 details the misappropriation of millions of shillings from the youth fund in fraudulent claims. The audit, done by the fund’s internal audit team, found questionable imprest claims and payments as follows;
1. Weaknesses in the entire system of the Fund
2. Lack of a procurement Specialist
3. Poor performance under contract performance in 2011/2012
4. Engagement of financial sector partners without due diligence to the Public Procurement and Disposal (Public Private Partnership) Regulations, 2009.
5. Exaggerated fuel consumption and misuse of work tickets, and falsification of youth payment schedules by officers of the fund (Outright Theft by the staff) which goes against the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, 2004, Public Officers Ethics Act, 2003 and Employment Act, 2007.
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NYSA, 2
nd
Floor, World Alliance of YMCA Building, State House Crescent, off State House Avenue
P.O. Box 8799, 00200 Nairobi. •Cell: +254 722619005 • Tel: Tel: +254 20 145131 • info@nysa.co.ke •Website: www.nysa.co.ke
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pg1
6. Lack of proper communication channels
7. Non authentic pre-disbursement under the Business Development Services , where some activities amounting to 1,133,500.00 were paid for but never took place
8. Fictitious receipts for county sensitizations expenditures
9. Impropriety over 4,231,000.00 million that was spent on agri business sensitization
10. Systemic weaknesses originating from lack of an implementation matrix with strategies.
The National Youth Sector Alliance can confirm that indeed based on the internal audit, the YEDF has been looted with the full knowledge of very senior government officials.
DEMANDS FROM THE YOUTH OF KENYA
1. The current MPs and aspiring MPs must demonstrate their commitment to young people in Kenya to access financial services, profitable enterprise, quality (basic) health services, security, representation (the National Youth Council) and protection of basic rights as enshrined in our Constitution.
2. The Board of Directors, Mandated to safeguard the Fund with Fiduciary responsibility, on behalf of the Kenyan youth must take political responsibility; explain to Kenyans their role in the mismanagement of the funds.
3. The Minister and Permanent Secretary, to take Political responsibility and step aside for a proper forensic audit and prosecution of the staff culpable of misappropriation of the funds.
4. The Artoney General and Director of Public Prosecution to institute full investigations into the alleged impropriety, and prosecute the culpable individuals. The Youth shall appoint their independent lawyers to join in the Legal team.
5. As the buck stops with the President and the Prime Minister, the youth of Kenya shall be waiting for immediate action on their commitment to Agenda 4 of the National Accord which they have abrogated to their shelves.
The National Youth Sector Alliance shall continue to mobilize young Kenyans from all over the country to begin to pay vigil on these issues until action is taken. The next course of action shall be announced if the above 4 demands are not implemented within 7 Days. The National Youth Sector Alliance (NYSA) is a conglomeration of over 350 youth organizations, youth sector actors, NGO’s, Societies, FBO’s, CBO’s Youth Groups, among others in the country coming together for purposes of ensuring coherent Policy engagement with Government, Private Sector and other relevant stakeholders.
Signed for and on behalf of the Youth of Kenya.
The National Youth Sector Alliance
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NYSA, 2nd Floor, World Alliance of YMCA Building, State House Crescent, off State House Avenue
P.O. Box 8799, 00200 Nairobi. •Cell: +254 722619005 • Tel: Tel: +254 20 145131 • info@nysa.co.ke •Website: www.nysa.co.ke
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Chinese Capabilities for Computer Network Operations and Cyber Espionage
From: Yona Maro
The PLA’s sustained modernization effort over the past two decades has driven remarkable transformation within the force and put the creation of modern command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) infrastructure at the heart of the PLA’s strategic guidelines for long term development. This priority on C4ISR systems modernization, has in turn been a catalyst for the development of an integrated information warfare (IW) capability capable of defending military and civilian networks while seizing control of an adversary’s information systems during a conflict.
The effects of preemptive penetrations may not be readily observable or detected until after combat has begun or after Chinese computer network attack (CNA) teams have executed their tools against targeted networks. Even if circumstantial evidence points to China as the culprit, no policy currently exists to easily determine appropriate response options to a large scale attack on U.S. military or civilian networks in which definitive attribution is lacking. Beijing, understanding this, may seek to exploit this gray area in U.S. policymaking and legal frameworks to create delays in U.S. command decision making.
Earlier in the past decade, the PLA adopted a multi-layered approach to offensive information warfare that it calls Integrated Network Electronic Warfare or INEW strategy. Now, the PLA is moving toward information confrontation as a broader conceptualization that seeks to unite the various components of IW under a single warfare commander. The need to coordinate offensive and defensive missions more closely and ensure these missions are mutually supporting is driven by the recognition that IW must be closely integrated with PLA campaign objectives.
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
News from Congressman Mike Turner
from: Chuck Watts
to: Congressman Michael Turner
subject: Re: News from Congressman Mike Turner
Dear Congressman Turner,
Thanks for the update. If we are to make all Americans stronger, it's important to protect and expand human rights, click on The Treaty and its fundamental values and principles. But you already know this.
Concerning HR 4310, I was ashamed you voted for a bill that does not protect the basic human rights of Americans and allows:
Indefinite detention of Americans [http://www.restore-habeas.org/]
Continues to discriminate against LGBT Americans in the military [http://www.outandaboutnewspaper.com/article/5445#.T8P7QZlYtKo]
Those whom we remember today, Memorial Day, did not die for what the bill promotes for which you seem to have voted. What has to happen for human rights to become the law of the land?
Chuck Watts
Wilmington, OH
http://empathysurplus.com
On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 10:20 AM, Congressman Michael Turner wrote:
News Brief
Honoring those Who Gave the Ultimate Sacrifice this Memorial Day
Each year on Memorial Day, we honor the men and women of our military who fought and paid the ultimate price for our Nation’s defense. As Americans, we often take our freedom for granted, but we should never forget those whose sacrifice made our freedom possible. As we pay tribute to those who served, I want to reaffirm my commitment to upholding the promises our Nation has made to its active duty service personnel, military veterans, and their families.
This month, the House passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act (HR 4310). As a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, I worked closely with members of the Committee to craft a bipartisan bill that advances our national security objectives, establishes a robust national missile defense, and ensures that veterans and their families maintain access to the care and benefits they have earned through their service. This bill protects veterans and military families from a proposal by the Obama administration to increase most TRICARE enrollment fees and co-pays, and prevents the Administration from implementing new fees.
Under the Budget Control Act of 2011, across-the-board cuts known as a “sequester,” are scheduled to take effect next January, due to the failure of the bipartisan “super committee” to agree on a plan to cut federal spending. I voted against this law, which raised the federal debt ceiling and created the so-called “super committee,” because these cuts would place our national security at risk and have a detrimental effect on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and our regional economy. Funding for the Department of Defense will be slashed by $500 billion, and certain domestic programs face an automatic eight percent across-the-board cut. The federal government must learn to live within its means and balance its budget, but our servicemen and women and their families need not shoulder the burden for Washington’s failure to budget responsibly.
Missing In American Project: WHIO-TV
On May 10, 2012, the House passed, with my support, legislation that protects veterans programs from the sequestration and prevents these catastrophic cuts to our military (HR 5652). I have also cosponsored legislation (HR 1297) that prioritizes spending to ensure that our service members continue to receive their paychecks in the event of a government shutdown or if the debt ceiling is reached. Our troops risk their lives each day to serve our country and protect our national interests. The last thing they need to worry about is whether or not their paychecks will come home to their families on time.
The Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) is now accepting applications from unemployed veterans aged 35-60, who may qualify for up to twelve months of training to learn a new skill or trade under the Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty program. The VRAP is part of a new law, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which I cosponsored to help move unemployed veterans out of the unemployment lines and into the workforce. To learn more about the VRAP program, call 1-800-827-1000, or visit: http://www.benefits.va.gov/vow.
This Memorial Day, let us honor the millions who answered their country's call to duty, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice—the men and women of our armed forces who have made America the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Sincerely,
Michael R. Turner
Member of Congress
KENYA: KISUMU TOWN WEST MP TO GO FOR THE NEW CONSTITUENCY.
By Chak Rachar
Kisumu Town West MP Olago Aluoch has put to rest speculations as to where he was going to defend his parliamentary seat by stating categorically that he was going to contest for the recently established constituency called West Kisumo.
Speaking at Ojolla in the presence of the area voters, Olago added that he needed to put the record straight so that his silence should not be misconstrued to mean that he was going to Central Kisumu comprising the Kisumu CBD area.
“Let me make it clear today so that I end speculations in regard to where I am going to contest, many things have been said but do take it from my mouth that this is my constituency which I seem to be the head and this is where I am going to contest so those who had otherwise should know that today “he added.
He further called on those who think that they can face him to now come forward so that he meets them in the ballot box.
“Let anyone who thinks that he is worth of it to come forward and we square it out, if he defeats me I will accept and if I defeat him he should be ready to accept “he added
Why We Need Laws to Protect What’s Left of Our Forests
From: Yona Maro
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
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By Tom Picken
International efforts to protect forests and the people that live in them have failed so badly that just 20 per cent of forest remains untouched by commercial activity. It is really, really crucial that we find a global system that looks after what remains of the world's lungs.
The question of how best to do this lies at the heart of a recent public debate between Global Witness and WWF over the credibility of the latter's flagship timber sustainability scheme, the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN).
Last July, a Global Witness investigation raised important concerns that the GFTN was not delivering on its promise to protect people and the environment, because of a combination of weak membership standards, lax monitoring of members and poor transparency. Some of the worst examples showed a UK timber merchant dealing in illegal timber, a Malaysia logging company clearing orang-utan habitat inside WWF's own "Heart of Borneo" project, and a Swiss-German timber trader whose Congolese subsidiary had links to human rights abuses - all carried out while members of the WWF scheme. WWF initially denied these claims but has now largely accepted them.
These were damning findings which got a lot of attention, and WWF hastened an independent review which has just been made public. It accepts Global Witness claims, acknowledges room for improvement on some of the worst excesses and promises to do a better job of monitoring companies on its books.
These are all positive and welcome steps, which will make a difference in the particular instances cited. But they don't address - and WWF has consistently brushed over - the fundamental question we are posing, about whether the approach they are endorsing will actually do the job of saving forests.
Our main criticism is not that WWF has got too close to companies and failed to hold them to account, although that is true. It is that even if these companieswere playing by the scheme's rules, the system it endorses is fundamentally wrong.
The logic WWF works on is that responsible logging will keep some form of forest standing. But a weighty body of evidence now shows this approach actually makes deforestation in these and surrounding areas more likely over time.
The damage done by incentivising loggers to go deeper into primary forest is hard to overstate. That's why we say operations have to be restricted to areas already subjected to logging, and kept sustainable.
To make this happen, the solutions need to be legally binding, and tackle the perverse incentives to continue logging in new forest frontiers. This is where Global Witness is operating - in tropical forested countries with fragile governments, widespread corruption and rampant illegal logging - working with local civil society to tighten the processes and laws governing forests and monitor the implementation of those laws.
Given the global nature of the industry, we need solutions at this level too, and we have seen some progress. New legislation in Europe banning the import of illegal timber is a welcome complement to tough US laws. But other major markets need to also follow suit including Japan, India and China. And as these laws get implemented, they too need strengthening to not just reject blatant illegal timber, but also make genuine sustainability a condition of entry. This would help purge timber from industrial operations in intact forests from our supply chains.
There are also easier wins in the offing. Take for example the recent legislation in the United States which prohibits any US tax dollars supporting industrial logging in primary tropical forests. Similar legislation in other major countries would send a strong signal to timber markets and other schemes that such operations are no longer acceptable.
The big engine driving deforestation is ultimately consumption. Demand for food, fuel and fibre needs to be contained and made more equitable. Policy makers must face up to this.
But our aim in investigating GFTN was to show that the model at the supply end is broken - the status quo is destroying our forests at breakneck speed, and weak voluntary schemes rubberstamp it. So we need to go back to basics and come up with credible alternatives, armed with legal sanctions, before it's too late. WWF is one of the most iconic names in environmentalism - it must play a key part in driving forward any solution. We hope they and others will engage with us to seek real long term solutions.
Naomi Cidi Aided Artur Brothers at JKIA.
from: Judy Miriga
--- On Fri, 5/25/12, nelsonoreje@ . . . wrote:
Subject: Naomi Cidi Aided Artur Brothers at JKIA.
Date: Friday, May 25, 2012, 3:51 PM
KM, this the reason am so wise. Professor of PK Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Kenya
From: Kuria-Mwangi
Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 15:49:18 -0400
Subject: Naomi Cidi Aided Artur Brothers at JKIA.
Papa Likondi:
So Nelson looks like this? Kichwa ya Moi kabisa.
On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 3:26 PM, Papa Likondi wrote:
Nelson, take on your size and agemates like the late Maruge and leave Maryann alone. Gnu
On 25/05/2012, Maryann Wanjiru wrote:
Nelson,
i will gladly answer that infact be very specific with details once you answer the following questions;
1. what are your views on Anyang Nyongo`s NHIF scandal yaani kula pesa ya wagonjwa
2. pesa za kazi kwa vijana zilipelekwa wapi na Raila
3. kajwang amefikia wapi na kuuza kenyan passports?
answer that then il gladly answer all your questions plus many more you may want to know
On Friday, 25 May 2012, nelsonoreje@ . . . wrote:
Maryann, bingo! How do u feel about your tribesmen mostly getting involved in this saga. U don't have to go silent today. Let's watch an comment as well.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Kenya
From: Oduya - Magunga
Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 10:45:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Naomi Cidi Aided Artur Brothers at JKIA.
Good People,
I am watching Jicho pevu and Naomi Cidi has been mentioned adversely as having aided the Artur brothers to stage manage the VIP press conference at the JKIA. Is this our own Naomi Cidi? Did I hear she wants to hold public office?
I'm damn shocked.
Regards,
Eric.
For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1vs 7.