From: Judy Miriga
Good People!
The concerns of the people are very clear. This is the moment all Kenyans and the world are united against acts of terror. No amounts of threats or fear-factor shall win over democratic space for good governance where people’s livelihood and survival is threatened. Reform change under the New Constitution in Kenya, brought about democratization process which the people want. The Police Reform for purposes of security to all, is one agenda top on the list that was underscored. Police Reform leadership demands that, all must go through a clearance threshold process, to determine Responsibility with Integrity of a person put in-charge to discharge and render services in compliance with public mandate requirement; failure to which people have rights to demand for change. No amount of mini reshufling will save Uhuru/Ruto government from pressure of the angry people who are faced in the urgency of now………….the urgency to reform economic security, social welfare security and political security which sums up peoples safety-net to secure their progressive development agenda without fear, intimidation or manipulation…………..
It is troubling that, from the beginning people complained about Kimemias’ appointment. It should not have taken Uhuru and Ruto this long to cooperate and do what the people want. Consequently, after the terror attack at Westgate, the pain in the minds of many are evident. No serious leader would want to do something that would compromise their trust for the people. The manner at which the appointment is hurriedly made to replace Kimemia is suspicious and is not right which is about to cause ripples of serious conflicts endangering peace amongst the people of Kenya.
Uhuru and Ruto governance is very much on a shaky ground and this is not the time Uhuru and Ruto want any kind of pressure from the public who now feel cheated after the Westgate terror attack where too many questions still linger that require to be addressed urgently before people unite to hit the streets all over the world with songs to demand Uhuru/Ruto leadership is threatening human rights, livelihood and survival…….that, ”Uhuru/Ruto must go”……….When fire begin to burn, it is just right to do what is right, to put out the fire from burning and save a situation instead of letting fire to go up in flames and burn everything into ashes………..
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com/
– – – – – – – – – – –
1) —– Forwarded Message —–
From: Fred Osewe
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 11:15 AM
Subject: BREAKING….JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
They colluded and betrayed Kenyans on this appointment just the same way they “consulted” to stage manage the West Gate scandal! Talk of digital but empty shell leaders!
In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man- if you want anything done ask a woman.
From: Maurice Oduor
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 10:38 AM
Subject: BREAKING….JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
Roz,
They consulted to make a tribal appointment. What else is new. As long as those 2 are concerned, Kenya is made up of Kikuyus and Kalenjins only. What a way to run a country of 42 tribes !!!!!!
On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:25 AM, roz kahumbu
wrote:
Karario. I guess The President and the Vice President consulted.
Next?
roz
From: mark kirario
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:18 PM
Subject: BREAKING….JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
What the hell is this, just coming hot on hills of the WESTGATE sober appeal slogan “we are one” country, one population?
Uhuru could have used this chance to heal and reconcile ‘our’ country by making a bypartisan choice, not necessarily from his own and Rutos tribe.
Any among the remaining 40+ strong tribes who can perform better adminstrative functions than that financial guru, could have done the trick.
If we speak the truth, we are branded tribalist, selfish and egocentric minds.But I remind them this, that the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
When it comes to government appointment (s) the ruling elites just knows only one or two tribes, but cry wolf and crocodile tears at the time of national calamities, foreign barbaric intrusion like the Westgate siege, and any other terrorist attack.
Rewind back your memory and reflect how Kenyans wholeheartedly contributed via m-pesa, how they lined up to offer blood donations, how the military and uniformed armed policemen picked randomly accross the republic, put their lives on the line to save other Kenyans.
Then bang, back to old usual ways…..SHAME….
Kirario
——————————————
2) —– Forwarded Message —–From: Jack Ndunya
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 9:36 AM
Subject: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
I here you all Brethren, Indeed lots of questions arise as a result of mishandled flow of information by the people concerned which if combed to the teeth, will put all to questio. 1. We were told the KDF had “neutralized” the terrorists! were also informed that the terrorists were “cornered”, the meaning of both words are,
Neutralize means to render ineffective, meaning they were dis-powered.
cornered means The area enclosed or bounded.
Now,, all these words were spoken by the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and the Chief of staff before the building caved inn, so the Big Q is WHO brought the three floors of the West gate down if the terrorists had been immobilized?
Where are the deadly weapons which were used by the terrorists?
The eleven who were arrested, where were they captured?
Jexx in the hood
From: Evans MACHERA
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 6:52 AM
Subject: Re: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
Judy,
China have their interests and style of approach to international issues guided by their foreign policy ;- be friendly and make economic gains. Anything else,ikae.
So get valuers to count the losses, and tender for the mall re-building and re-construction and you will see China in true colours.
Peace be still.
Evans MACHERA
From: Judy Miriga
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 3:01 AM
Subject: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
Good People!
Hard questions indeed with so many questions that continue to
remain unanswered………Where are the arrested terrorists ???
AND why does it take China so long to send their rambi rambi?
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com/
Kimaiyo announces mini-reshuffle in police force to boost security
Updated Thursday, September 26th 2013 at 11:00 GMT +3
By Cyrus Ombati
NAIROBI, KENYA: Four senior police officers including North Eastern Regional Coordinator (RC) Mr Charlton Mureithi have been moved in a mini reshuffle.
Mureithi has been moved to City Hall in Nairobi to be in charge of the newly created Security and Compliance section. He will be replaced by Mr Henry Barmao from police headquarters.
The new Eastern RC is Mr Yaa Baya, formerly the chief licencing officer. Baya will replace Mr Mercus Ochola who has been moved to Kiganjo police college and named the deputy commandant.
The changes were announced by Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo as part of efforts to bolster security in the affected areas.
Most parts of North Eastern had been experiencing insecurity and terror related incidents in the past months which claimed more than 100 lives and injured tens others.
But since April, there has been improved security in the area until Wednesday night when gunmen killed a man in a grenade attack in Wajir Town.
A member of the gang identified as Ayub Omar Gullet, was arrested by police after he was shot on the stomach by his colleagues.
He is being interrogated. Another gang raided a police post in Mandera on Thursday and killed two officers before torching 11 vehicles in rage.
They also bombed the local DO’s office before they escaped with the officers’ guns.
Kenya Works With Interpol to Track Down Mall Attackers
By David Malingha Doya & Sarah McGregor – Sep 26, 2013 6:35 AM CT
Kenyan authorities are sharing a list of suspects with the international police agency, Interpol, to help track down those involved in the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in which at least 72 people died.
“Details of arrested individuals and any other suspects linked to the attack are running through Interpol’s database for potential leads,” the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre said today on its Twitter account.
Kenyan forensic investigators at the scene of the raid are being assisted by experts from Israel, the U.S., Germany, Canadaand Britain in a probe that’s expected to last at least a week, according to Interior Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku.
The government has said it doesn’t expect the death toll to rise significantly. Authorities are sifting through the rubble after three floors in the Westgate Mall collapsed following blasts and a fire that broke out during the four-day standoff. An unknown number of people were held captive or in hiding during the assault.
The attack was the deadliest since al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. Embassy in downtown Nairobi in August 1998, killing 213 people. Al-Shabaab, the Somali-based Islamist militia that claimed responsibility for the Sept. 21 raid, had threatened to strike after Kenya deployed troops in Somalia in October 2011 to fight the militants, blaming them for a series of kidnappings and the murder of a British tourist in Kenya. The al-Qaeda-affiliated group denied the accusations. The dead include 61 civilians, six security officers and five assailants.
More Bloodshed
Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, in a message posted online, said his fighters carried out the mall attack, and warned of“more bloodshed” unless Kenya withdraws its forces from Somalia.
Kenyan security forces used armored vehicles and weapons including heavy machine guns to end the assault. The Kenya Red Cross said that 71 people were missing as of Sept. 24.
There is “increased public anxiety on account of missing persons, the disruption caused by the continued crisis and inadequate information flow,” the Red Cross said today. Ole Lenku said in an interview today that the government’s estimate of the death toll “has not changed” since Sept. 24.
Two Kenyan police officers were killed and one was wounded in an attack today on a county-government office in northeastern Mandera, near the Somali border, the Interior Ministry said on its Twitter account. In Wajir, also in the northeast, one person died and four were injured from a grenade blast in a market yesterday, it said.
Kenyan Stability
Kenya’s relative stability in a troubled region has attracted companies including Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), International Business Machines Corp., General Electric Corp. and Google Inc. (GOOG)to set up bases in the East African nation. The United Nations’African headquarters are also in Nairobi.
The attack may curb government revenue and is “credit negative,” Moody’s Investors Service said in a Credit Outlook report today. The biggest impact on the country’s economic growth will be on its tourism industry, which accounts for 12.5 percent of gross domestic product, it said.
The shilling advanced for a third day, strengthening 0.2 percent to 87 per dollar by 2:27 p.m. and heading for its strongest close since July 19. The Nairobi Securities Exchange’s FTSE NSE 25 Index gained 0.8 percent to 166.53.
Lunchtime Attack
The attack began around lunchtime when as many as 15 gunmen stormed the upscale mall, throwing hand grenades, firing automatic weapons and forcing panicked patrons to flee the building or hide inside the more than 80 shops in the complex. The government said more than 1,000 people were rescued.
Investigators are trying to confirm the nationalities of the attackers, Ole Lenku said. Kenyan Foreign Secretary Amina Mohamed said on Sept. 23 that two or three Americans and a female British citizen participated in the attack. A British national has been arrested in Kenya, according to a statement e-mailed yesterday by the U.K. Foreign Office.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday that investigators haven’t confirmed claims that Americans participated in the attack. “At this point, we don’t have any verification that any Americans have been involved in the attack as attackers,” he told reporters in Washington.
Citizens from the U.K., India, France, Canada, South Africa, China and Ghana are among the dead.
Troop Commitment
African leaders remain committed to continue battling al-Shabaab’s forces in Somalia, the African Union’s Peace andSecurity Council said in a statement on its website.
The continental body will “continue its efforts in Somalia, in order to rid the country and the region of terrorist and criminal groups, and bring about lasting peace, security and stability in Somalia,” it said.
Al-Shabaab has been fighting Somalia’s government since at least 2006. The militant group claimed responsibility in July 2010 for coordinated bomb attacks in neighboring Uganda that killed 76 people watching the soccer World Cup final at two venues. Al-Shabaab said it targeted Uganda because the country had troops serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia.
The African Union has a more than 17,000-member peacekeeping force in Somalia that includes the Kenyan troops.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Malingha Doya in Nairobi at dmalingha@bloomberg.net; Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net
UN court jails Liberia’s Taylor for 50 years on appeal
By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE | September 26, 2013
LEIDSCHENDAM, Sept 26 – A UN-backed appeals court on Thursday confirmed Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor’s 50-year sentence for arming rebels during Sierra Leone’s brutal 1990s civil war.
“The appeals chamber… affirms the sentence of 50 years in prison and orders that the sentence be imposed immediately,” judge George King told the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).
Sent: Thursday, 26 September 2013, 11:59
Subject: Africa: INTERPOL team deployed to assist Kenyan investigation into Westgate shopping centre terror attack
PRESS RELEASE
INTERPOL team deployed to assist Kenyan investigation into Westgate shopping centre terror attack
INTERPOL’s role is to help coordinate the international response in support of the Kenyan authorities
NAIROBI, Kenya, September 26, 2013/ — An INTERPOL Incident Response Team (IRT) (http://www.interpol.int/) has been deployed at the request of Kenyan authorities to provide on-site assistance to the Westgate shopping centre terror attack investigation.
Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/interpol.jpg
Headed by INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services Jean-Michel Louboutin the team includes Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) and data specialists who will carry out real-time comparisons against INTERPOL’s global databases on DNA and fingerprints and other evidence gathered from the crime scene.
The IRT, which arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday, will also ensure the swift dissemination of all forensic information, photographs of the suspected terrorists, details of arrested individuals and any other suspects linked to the deadly assault, to INTERPOL’s 190 member country network for comparison against national databases to identify any potential leads.
“INTERPOL’s role is to help coordinate the international response in support of the Kenyan authorities as they investigate this horrific incident, and to assist their actions at the regional and international levels,” said Mr Louboutin.
“Whether it be through comparison of information against INTERPOL’s global databases, or the issuance of a notice to identify a victim, locate a wanted person, or seek additional information about suspects, we will offer all necessary assistance to help bring those responsible to justice,” added Mr Louboutin.
In addition to the IRT deployment, support is also being provided to Kenya’s national authorities via INTERPOL’s Regional Bureau in Nairobi and the 24-hour Command and Coordination Centre (CCC) at its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France.
The CCC will also act as a central liaison to the INTERPOL National Central Bureaus of all the involved countries to ensure any ante mortem data on those killed during the attack, both victims and suspected perpetrators, is received as quickly as possible by Kenyan authorities.
INTERPOL also stands ready to mobilize additional support from its global network of DVI and other experts, with officers from its Counter-terrorism and Criminal Analysis Units examining all INTERPOL databases to determine whether any links can be drawn between this terrorist act and other incidents around the world.
Distributed by the African Press Organization.
SOURCE
INTERPOL
Suspected terrorists kill two police officers in Mandera town
Updated Thursday, September 26th 2013 at 10:06 GMT +3
By Cyrus Ombati
MANDERA, KENYA: Men believed to be terrorists attacked a police station in Mandera Town near the Somalia border and killed two police officers, injure three others before burning at least 11 vehicles on Thursday morning.
Seven of the vehicles were extensively damaged in the attack, police said.
They also threw a Rocket Propelled Grenade ( RPG) on the local DO’s office burning it down before escaping in the 3 am incident.
Outgoing North Eastern police boss Charlton Mureithi said the gunmen struck as most of the officers at the Administration Police post were a sleep.
“They have caused much destruction and deaths before escaping but we hope they will be caught,” he said.
The attackers are said to have taken their time at the station after ambushing and shooting the officers at close range.
They doused the vehicles parked at the station with petrol before setting them on fire. According to Mureithi, they later threw an RPG on a house at the station before escaping.
The injured officers were expected to be flown to Nairobi later on Thursday for further treatment.
The attack was the second one in a day following another one that occurred earlier on Wednesday night in Wajir Town.
One man was killed and four others wounded following an explosion and shooting.
Police said gunmen hurled two grenades at a crowd but one exploded in the 7 pm incident. And as they were escaping they opened fire killing one man and injured three others.
One of the attackers was injured by the grenade that exploded and was later arrested, police said. He is in custody helping police with investigations.
Wajir police boss Isaiah Odhiambo said they have tightened security in the town.
“We managed to arrive at the scene in time and arrested one suspect in the attack,” he said.
The attacks came in the wake of frequent terror related attacks in the country, the latest being Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, most of which have been claimed by the Al-Shabaab militants who said they are part of retaliation to Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) involvement in the security matters within Somalia.