The grandsons of the late Elly Athembo Onyuro one of the leading pioneer cane farmers and businessmen within Muhoroni, Nyando and Kisumu Districts are appealing to the Provincial Administration and the police to protect them from their two uncles one who contested Muhoroni Parliamentary seat in ODM party ticket in 2007 and contested for Miwani Counrty Assembly in CORD during the last general elections who have made life full of hell for them as they allege that the duo want to deprive them of their late father Isaac Onyuro.
According to the spokesperson of the grandchildren of the late Elly who was famous within the current KIsumu County Robert Elly Onyuro one of his half uncles who is a retired medical clerk and his brother are behaving as if they are a law to themselves as they harass and intimidate them even on their late father’s properties.
Speaking to this reporter on a wheel chair with both broken legs and arms as a result of injuries inflicted by thugs hired by his uncle to harm him and kill him over the said wealth rivalry Robert added that there is a criminal case PF 603/75/2013 AND Case no.75 of 2013 of which his uncle is accused of attacking him and maliciously damaging his late dad’s properties).
He says that his uncle with a group of thugs attacked him demanding that he quits staying in their home which has resulted to him currently staying in Kisumu which is forty five kilometers from his late father’s vast empire of land as he fears that the thugs might attempt to attack and harm him again.
“My uncle has been encroaching on my late father Isaac Onyuro’s properties harassing workers and tenants that he is the estate administrator of my late father which is not true as even during the time my father was alive they were not on talking terms and he would fight my dad which resulted to my dad concentrating in making his own wealth “Robert added.
He added that his uncle should differentiate between their late grandfathers’ wealth and Robert’s father’s wealth saying that his uncle is mixing things with a view of defrauding them as one of the documents within our possessions written by Otieno ,Ragot and Company Advocates calling for the intervention of the Officer Commanding Police Station Ahero in regard to land title nos Kisumu /Kabar/4459,4093,4157 & 4751.
Part of the letter reads “Our clients are Elly Robert Onyuro and Eunice Akinyi(wife of the late Isaac and mother of Robert) and it has emerged that Shem Athembo Onyuro and Gerald Ochieng’ Onyuro have frequently transferred the above mentioned parcels of land into their respective names without following the due process of law without doing succession under the Law of Succession Act Cap 160 Laws of Kenya”.
The letter signed by Advocate Moses Munuang’o on behalf of the said legal firm adds that due to the fraudulent acts of Shem to Onyuro Athembo and Gerald Ochieng’ Onyuro ,an acrimony has emerged between them and other beneficiaries of the estate of Elly Onyuro Athembo and on one occasion he threatened to assault our clients when the latter discovered that they had indeed transferred the land in their favor
According to further documents within our possession the said uncle has written to one of the tenant’s in Ahero Town demanding rent from him yet the building doesn’t belong to him and went ahead to send an Auctioneer to proclaim his properties an action which was stopped by Bruce Odeny and Company Advocates.
The letter which is addressed to Madume Auctioneers of Kisumu reads in part “Your proclamation notice dated 20/6/2013 against one Eric Omondi of Kadinda Cycle Hardware at Ahero town has been placed into our hands with instructions to respond thereto as follows; our client is the equitable owner of the premises you have levied distress and also the landlord of the said Erick Omondi.The said Shem Onyuro Athembo does not own the said property nor is the landlord to Erick Omondi” the letter said in part.
It goes on to tell the auctioneer that at no point did Robert Onyuro instructed him to levy distress against the tenant who is not in any rent default as at the time of his proclamation and wonders where he obtained the instruction and authority to embarrass their client’s tenant as you did and finally demanding that he withdraw the said proclamation.
Robert further says that in his current condition where he is washed ,fed and taken around his uncle has further gone ahead to stop payments for canes he harvested from his late dad’s farm.
“I do not understand the meaning of his letter to the farmer’s co-operative society if it’s not aimed at killing me, these are the monies I use to educate my nine siblings who are in various institutions of learning” Robert added.
The letter written by his uncle Shem Athembo Onyuro to the Chairman ,Secretary and Treasurer of Olikoliero Farmers Cooperation Society and copied to Managing Director Kibos Sugar and Allied Industries Ltd warns of dire consequences should they go ahead and pay Robert for his cane he delivered to the said Co-operative.
“The said land where the cane was harvested he says belongs my late dad Isaac and not my grandfather “Robert added.
But his woes appears to have been selvedge through a letter addressed to Kibos Sugar & Allied Industries by his advocate Bruce Odeny and Company Advocates in regard to unlawful stoppage of cane transaction by Shem Athembo Onyuro against his client who is the administrator of the estate of his late dad Hesborn Isaac Onyuro.
Part of the letter said;”The allegations raised by the said author of the complaint is baseless for the reasons that there is no theft of any cane and further the complainant has not disclosed the respective farms or land parcels in question that the said theft took place and goes ahead to say that the complainant has also not disclosed any documentary evidence to prove ownership of the land or the said harvested and /or delivered cane”
The letter further says that they had instructions that the complainant (Shem Athembo Onyuro) is the brother of the late Hesborn Onyuro who passed away two years ago and never used to enjoy any good terms with the deceased while the deceased was alive.
“The complainant as such is taking an undue advantage of the orphans his late brother left behind to torment them to satisfy his unresolved disputes with his late brother” the letter further says.
It adds that it is in the public knowledge that there are a number of criminal acts that the complainant has subjected the deceased family to including assaults and malicious damage to the deceased property and the cases are currently a subject of a criminal trial against the complainant in Nyando Principal Magistrate Court Criminal Case No.75 of 2013 (Police File 603/75/2013).
The letter also beseeches the Sugar Company to ignore Shem Athembo Onyuro saying he is facing a serious of investigations of forgery of the title deeds belonging to the deceased and illegally transferring them into his own and that investigations are currently underway by the Nyando CID office and as such the current allegations of the complainant are just another of his many theatrics and malice targeted against the deceased’s survivors.
Robert says that after leaving his late dad’s homestead his uncle has again written to him where he currently stays demanding that he pays him rent for his late father’s house he currently occupies.
Contacted for comment Shem Onyuro Athembo said that if the writer had documentary evidence to prove he had no comment but would resort to legal action should the story be written without any documentary evidence to prove.
The national NGO Coordination Board has embarked on a massive recruitment drive of all expectant women in Kisumu County as part of a wider 5 year program to improve maternal and child health in the region.
Executive Director of NGO Coordination Board Dr Hezron McObewa says the board is working closely with health sector NGOs within the county to compliment government efforts geared towards reducing infant deaths.
He says the Board has launched a project with one of the largest NGOs in Western Kenya, OGRA Foundation alongside other sector NGOs like Omega Foundation and Port Florence community hospital to give free National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) cards to expectant women.
McObewa says the pilot project of the program has kicked off in Muhoroni district in Kisumu County where over 100 expectant women within health centres and dispensaries’ have so far been recruited.
He says the women will be issued with NHIF cards as soon as they arrive for their first antenatal care clinic all the way through their pregnancy so that they can get enhanced services at delivery as part of efforts to improve safe deliveries’.
McObewa who is also the OGRA Foundation Founder Trustee and Former Director said Ogra is currently in the process of finalizing Memorandum of Understandings (MOU’s) with dispensaries and health centres within Kisumu County to give them delivery kits to every successful delivery that occur in such facilities.
He said they have asked partner organizations to initially set aside Kshs 6 Million per year for the program to improve maternal and child health care adding that Ogra has committed to set aside Kshs 6Million for the project annually to ensure the program covers all expectant women in the county.
He said project will run for 5 years alongside partnership with other NGOs’ adding that they will have covered the whole Kisumu County by end of June 2014 before rolling out the program in other counties.
INSERT . . .
Ends . .
We must be keepers of our brothers and sister. We must moan with them when they moan, laugh with them with they laugh. We must share situation of life together and this is how we shall build the world to be a better place for all of us.
You made very important points and I agree with you that, Museveni is the plague evoking bad spirit to assault neighbouring peaceful Nations in the great lakes of East Africa. Joined with his friend President Kagame of Rwanda who they share bad behavior where, without empathy or shame, they have caused untold sufferings, loss of lives pain and suffering to the people of East Africa.
With the help of Uganda’s Museveni brother Salim Saleh who is of Somali origin, they introduced private armies and staged them strategically at the neighboring boarders,organized and train Rebel Groups with mercineries ready to ambush and attack in assault and provoke people to war. Acting as aggressors, they instigate and provoke people to war. They use foreign NGOs with some corrupt UN peacekeepers stationed in Africa and as well as they corrupt European Envoys who engage corrupt politicians to steal mineral with other natural resources including oil and gas from Africa where they promote corruption with impunity of high level in offshore trading; and avoid paying taxes.
With this kind of business, they destroy African youths who are enticed to join gang groups for hire in the Rebel for private army and in the mercenaries that plague the havoc of instability in Africa. To an extent, they promoted pirating, drug peddling, trafficking of arm with other sophisticated weaponry, environmental pollution, foreign currency trafficking, child abuse with prostitution trafficking, including injustices that are illegal in nature and that are against the International Treaty and as well are constitutionally unacceptable.
These are reasons why the whole world must stand together against this kind of Human Rights crimes, violation and abuse and protest by demanding equal justice for all.
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon made a serious mistake to halt Congo Army to advance attack on the M23 adversary who attacked to overthrow Congo Government and in the event raped and killed innocent people with many children and women; on the other part, when Goma was invaded through fierce attack by M23 the UN simply watched and M23 captured Goma for 10 days and he did nothing…….did not even charge the M23 aggressors……….and today, he is again giving M23 protection cover…..???? This, we people of African Descent will not allow or take it lying down.
Resolution passed for Congo on July 22nd is not favorable on the side of DRC Congo against M23 invasion is not favorable at all.
We demand that UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon stand down and relieve himself from occupying peoples’ public office in the United Nations immediately so he can be charged with like minded in the ICC Hague………
I am going after UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon and I need all good people of the world to give me support in moral, financial and physical to charge Ban-Ki-Moon with his contemporaries network of special business interest who together inflicted great loss on African livelihood and survival; in such as land grabbing, environmental pollution that caused bad health to people and from industrial mismanagement causing poor climatic conditions with destruction of nature, pain and suffering with extension to human rights crimes, violations and abuse in the adversity of injustices against Africans of all walks of life.
I am going after Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon to answer why he has acted in biasness and against his oath of office to be fair and protect all people the same under legal compliance of the creation of United Nations including the observance of the International Treaty…..thus, causing and failing to provide the sustainable development……. In reverse, UN provided ways and means for killing, looting and stealing Africa peoples’s future, wealth and Natural resource through expounding corruption and impunity and altogether destroyed Livelihood and survival of people of Africa.
The recommendations levelled on the part of Congo Government Army is very unfair. It cannot hold any water against instigation of Kagame and Museveni with invasion of the M23. This is why Congo People are rebelling against United Naions Peacekeeping in Congo………let us be realistic and face true justice…….
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
– – – – – – – – – – –
From: Maurice Oduor
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 5:44 AM
Subject: It is time Kagame and Museveni take back their Rebel Groups out of Congo
Judy thura,
These people have managed to deflect the discussion from the very important point you were trying to make about Kagame and Museveni interfering in Congo. This is unfair. I think my good buddy Mobhare Matinyi of Tanzania is the one who started it all. I don’t know how such things have a tendency to take a life of their own. Mtume !!!!! I don’t know the best way to manage such situations so that the main point of discussion is not sidelined.
But let me say here that I support the initiative you’re undertaking to sensitize people about what’s going on in Congo DRC. Uganda and Rwanda should simply mind their own business and get their M23 and other rebel groups out of the Congo. It’s unfair for these 2 countries to destabilize the whole region just so they can get their hands on the minerals in the Congo. Tanzania pays the biggest price in this situation because all the Congo refugees end up in Tanzania.
Museveni has in the past come out very strongly against the ICC and this is the reason why. He does not want to be a Charles Taylor who was shipped to the Hague for sponsoring rebels to torture people in Sierra Leone. He has managed to outwit Kenya on Migingo Island and is now thirsty for the Congo minerals. That should not be allowed to continue. I don’t know the American position on this. Are they with Museveni and Kagame or are they supporting Kabila and the Congolese?
One way or the other, the world should be outraged about what’s going on in the Congo and as a first step, Uganda and Rwanda should get their rebels out of the Congo. Really.
Courage,
Oduor Maurice wod Ugenya Ukwala
Rebels with a Cause Slam Corporate Greed
Published on Jul 22, 2013
Two new films focus on fringe groups who take social justice into their own hands. With a tongue-in-cheek approach, the films “The East” and “Now You See Me” offer 21st century Robin Hood-type plots where young vigilantes target corporate greed. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
DR Congo: M23 Rebels Kill, Rape Civilians
New Evidence of Rwandan Support for M23
July 22, 2013
[image] M23 rebels take position near the town of Mutaho, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on May 27, 2013.
Not only is Rwanda allowing its territory to be used by the abusive M23 to get recruits and equipment, but the Rwandan military is still directly supporting the M23. This support is sustaining an armed group responsible for numerous killings, rapes and other serious abuses.
Daniel Bekele, Africa director
(Goma) – M23 rebels have summarily executed at least 44 people and raped at least 61 women and girls since March 2013 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Local residents and rebel deserters reported recent forced recruitment of men and boys by the M23 in both Rwanda and Congo.
After a nearly two-month-long ceasefire, fighting resumed on July 14 between the Congolese armed forces and M23 rebels near the eastern city of Goma.
Residents and rebel deserters described recent support from within Rwanda to the abusive M23 forces. This includes regular movements from Rwanda into Congo of men in Rwandan army uniforms, and the provision of ammunition, food, and other supplies from Rwanda to the M23. The M23 has been recruiting inside Rwanda. Rwandan military officers have trained new M23 recruits, and have communicated and met with M23 leaders on several occasions.
“Not only is Rwanda allowing its territory to be used by the abusive M23 to get recruits and equipment, but the Rwandan military is still directly supporting the M23,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “This support is sustaining an armed group responsible for numerous killings, rapes and other serious abuses.”
The latest Human Rights Watch findings are based on more than 100 interviews since March, including with former M23 fighters who left the movement between late March and July and civilians living near the Congo-Rwanda border, some of whom were victims of abuses.
In addition to M23 abuses, Human Rights Watch documented several cases of killings and rapes by Congolese Hutu militia groups operating in and around M23-controlled territory. Some Congolese army officers have allegedly supported factions of these groups, as well as factions of the allied Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – a largely Rwandan Hutu armed group, some of whose members participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Since its inception in April 2012, the M23 has committed widespread violations of the laws of war. Despite numerous war crimes by M23 fighters, the armed group has received significant support from Rwandan military officials. After briefly occupying Goma in November, then withdrawing on December 1, the M23 controls much of Congo’s Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories, bordering Rwanda.
On April 25 and 26, M23 fighters killed 15 ethnic Hutu civilians in several villages in Busanza groupement in Rutshuru territory, and at least another 6 in mid-June, in an apparent attempt to “punish” villagers for alleged collaboration with Congolese Hutu militias.
Other civilians killed by M23 fighters since March include a 62-year-old man who was shot dead because he refused to hand his sons over to the M23, a motorcycle driver who refused to give money to the M23, M23 recruits who were caught after trying to escape, and others accused of collaborating with Hutu militia.
On July 5, four M23 fighters gang-raped a 12-year-old girl as she went to fetch water in her village in Rutshuru. An M23 fighter who accosted an 18-year-old woman near Bunagana shot her in the leg on April 15 when she refused to have sex with him.
Since June, M23 leaders have forced local chiefs in areas under their control to undergo military and ideological training and obtain recruits for the M23. The M23 considers these chiefs to be part of their “reserve force” that can be called upon to provide support during military operations.
M23 fighters have arrested or abducted dozens of civilians in recent weeks in Rutshuru, most of them Hutu. The M23 accused many of them of collaborating with the FDLR or allied Congolese Hutu militias. M23 fighters beat them severely, tied them up, and detained them. The M23 then forced many of them to undergo military training and become M23 fighters.
A former M23 police officer, who deserted in April, told Human Rights Watch that he participated in investigations of killings of civilians. He said that before each investigation, a high-ranking M23 commander, Innocent Kayna, told him: “You will do the investigation. You will say it’s bandits in the neighborhood who killed, not M23.”
Human Rights Watch contacted the M23’s military leader, Sultani Makenga, but he was unavailable to speak about the recent alleged abuses.
Those recruited in Rwanda into the M23 include demobilized Rwandan army soldiers and former FDLR fighters, most of whom had become part of the Rwandan army’s Reserve Force, as well as Rwandan civilians. A 15-year-old Rwandan boy told Human Rights Watch that he and three other young men and boys were promised jobs as cow herders in Congo, but when they got to Congo were forced to join the M23. They were given military training by Rwandan officers in Congo and told they would be killed if they tried to escape. Other M23 deserters also said Rwandan officers were training new M23 recruits.
Former M23 officers who had been part of previous Rwanda-backed rebellions said they recognized officers serving with the M23 who they knew were members of the Rwandan army. Congolese deserters told Human Rights Watch that a number of M23 fighters admitted freely that they were Rwandan. Some said they had served in the Rwandan army’s peacekeeping contingent in Somalia or Darfur.
Recent M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch described frequent – in some cases weekly – arrivals of soldiers and recruits from Rwanda. Sometimes these were rotations, with new soldiers replacing others who had returned to Rwanda. Weapons, ammunition, large containers of milk, truckloads of rice, and other supplies were brought to the M23 from Rwanda. M23 deserters also described phone conversations and meetings in both Rwanda and Congo between senior M23 leaders and people the deserters were told or knew to be Rwandan officials.
All of the recent M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Rwandan soldiers, officers, and trainers were present throughout their time with the M23, and that there had been new arrivals from Rwanda in recent months.
“For the past 17 years, the Rwandan army has repeatedly deployed troops to eastern Congo and backed abusive proxy forces responsible for war crimes,” Bekele said. “As in the past, Rwanda denies it’s supporting the M23, but the facts on the ground speak for themselves.”
Rwandan government and military officials did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s requests for a meeting. Rwandan officials in the past have repeatedly denied allegations that the government is providing support to the M23.
The Rwandan government should immediately halt all support to the M23 because of its broadly abusive behavior, Human Rights Watch said. The United Nations and United States special envoys for the Great Lakes region and donor governments should publicly denounce continuing Rwandan support to the M23 and call for sanctions against senior Rwandan officials responsible for backing the armed group.
The Congolese government should immediately suspend, investigate, and prosecute as appropriate Congolese military officers and government officials who have provided support to the FDLR or allied groups. The government should make clear that abusive militia commanders will not be integrated into Congo’s army as part of any political settlement.
According to international journalists present near the front line and photographs seen by Human Rights Watch, Congolese army soldiers treated the corpses of M23 fighters killed in combat on July 16 in a degrading manner, stripping them, making ethnic slurs, and prodding their genitals with weapons. International law prohibits “committing outrages upon personal dignity,” including against the dead. Human Rights Watch also documented cases in which the Congolese army detained former M23 fighters and alleged collaborators for several weeks without bringing them before a court, and often incommunicado and in harsh conditions.
Congolese military officials should appropriately discipline officers and soldiers responsible for mistreating corpses, and ensure that such acts cease immediately. Military and judicial officials should ensure that captured combatants and civilians are treated in accordance with due process standards, including being promptly brought before a judge and charged, or released. Detainees should not be mistreated or held in inhumane conditions.
Summary Executions and Other Attacks by the M23Human Rights Watch has documented 44 summary executions committed by the M23 since March. M23 fighters have also killed and wounded an unknown number of civilians, including some caught in the crossfire during fighting.
M23 fighters killed 15 Hutu civilians in several villages in Busanza groupement in Rutshuru territory on April 25 and 26, and at least another 6 in mid-June, in an apparent attempt to “punish” villagers for alleged collaboration with Congolese Hutu militias.During the attack on the night of April 25, a group of M23 fighters moved through the villages of Ruvumbura, Kirambo, Nyamagana, and Shinda, killing and looting as they went. A 43-year-old mother of three told Human Rights Watch: “When they started killing people, we scattered into the bush. My husband went back to try to get our belongings, and they killed him. They shot him in the head.”
In late May, M23 fighters shot dead a 62-year-old man in Ntamugenga because he refused to hand his sons over to the M23. On May 15, M23 fighters stopped a motorcycle driver outside Kiwanja and killed him because he did not give them money. In mid-June, M23 fighters shot a moneychanger several times in the chest, killing him. They then told his wife, “Give us money or we’ll do to you what we did to your husband.” She handed over their money, and the fighters left.
In Kibumba in mid-May, an M23 officer, Col. Yusuf Mboneza, ordered the execution of a 24-year-old man whom he accused of being a thief. After the execution, Mboneza called the villagers to a meeting and displayed the young man’s corpse, saying it should serve as a warning to anyone else who might steal.
Others summarily executed by the M23 since March were new recruits and prisoners who unsuccessfully tried to escape.
On June 21, the M23 caught a Congolese M23 fighter known as “Tupac” as he tried to flee near Kabuhanga. They took him back to the military camp at Kamahoro, where the commander ordered the troops into formation and told soldiers to shoot him to discourage other deserters. They shot Tupac twice in the chest at close range. An M23 deserter told Human Rights Watch that he and other recruits were forced to bury Tupac.
After a clash between the M23 and a Congolese Hutu militia group on June 18, M23 fighters looted several villages in Busanza. The fighters demanded money from a 33-year-old woman. When she said she had no money, the fighters cut her on the shoulder with a machete and struck her 11-year-old son on the head. On April 15, an 18-year-old woman was shot in the leg when she refused to have sex with an M23 fighter who approached her at her farm near Bunagana. The victims of these attacks survived with serious injuries.
Rape by the M23Human Rights Watch has documented 61 cases of rape of women and girls by M23 fighters between March and early July. Because of the stigma surrounding rape and fear of reprisals, the actual number of victims may be much higher. Many of those raped were in their fields or collecting firewood. M23 fighters accused some of them of being the “wives” of FDLR fighters. Most of the rapes occurred close to M23 positions, and some victims recognized the attackers as M23 fighters they had seen before. The rapists frequently told their victims that they would be killed if they spoke about the rape or sought medical treatment.
A 12-year-old girl told Human Rights Watch that an M23 fighter caught and raped her in June as she and her friends were buying sugar cane in a field near an M23 position in Rutshuru:
I saw a [M23] soldier. I started running, but I tripped on a piece of sugar cane and fell. The soldier caught up with me and said he would kill me because I tried to flee. I stopped then because I was very scared. Then he raped me. I cried out, but he closed my mouth.
A 17-year-old girl said M23 fighters had raped her twice. The second time, in June, occurred when she was alone in her house after M23 police abducted her husband and forced him to join a night patrol:
The M23 fighter came into my house and asked me where my husband was. He then put a knife to my chest and said he was going to kill me, and that I should give him money. I told him I didn’t have any money, that my husband took it with him on patrol. I was sitting on the bed with my child. The soldier fought with me on the bed. He was stronger than me and he had a gun. Then he raped me.
A 35-year-old Hutu woman who was raped by an M23 fighter near Bunagana in June told Human Rights Watch:
When he finished, he left me in the forest. I was shaking and turned toward the ground, crying.… The one who raped me was an M23 fighter whom I know. I recognized him, but what can I do to him?
Forced Recruitment, Including of Children, and Abductions by the M23Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of cases of forced recruitment by M23 forces since March, including of children. Recruitment appears to have increased in recent months as the M23 has struggled to keep its forces’ numbers up. Over 700 M23 fighters and political cadres fled to Rwanda when Bosco Ntaganda’s faction of the M23 was defeated by an M23 faction led by Makenga in March, an estimated 200 M23 fighters were killed during the infighting, and scores of fighters have deserted.
Since June, the M23 leadership has held several meetings with local chiefs and other community leaders and demanded their help in recruiting new fighters. In early June, the M23 forced local leaders and chiefs to attend a week-long military training conducted by Rwandan officers. They also received “ideological training,” which included the M23’s vision for taking over Congo.
The chiefs were released but are supposed to form part of a “reserve force” that can be called upon when necessary. The M23 ordered them to find recruits in their villages and send them to the M23. One local leader who participated in the training told Human Rights Watch that they had been told to give M23 officials the names of demobilized youth in their villages, so that the M23 “could then go themselves, find the demobilized youth, and make sure they joined up.”
The M23 have arrested Hutu civilians whom they accused of collaborating with or supporting the FDLR or Congolese Hutu militia groups. The fighters detained, beat and whipped these civilians, and took many of them to an M23 military camp, where they were trained and forced to become M23 fighters.
A 19-year-old secondary school student told Human Rights Watch that he was recruited by the M23 in March while he was farming near Kalengera, in Rutshuru:
I saw the M23 come and surround me. They asked me if I was an FDLR, and I said no. After that, they started whipping and beating me. They tied me up and took me to Rumangabo, where they locked me in a cell. After two days, they untied me, but left me in the cell for a week. After, they told me I would become a soldier. They then started the military training. There were 80 of us being trained. There were 10 officers from Rwanda who led the training. They told us we had to become soldiers so we could fight to liberate Goma and then continue on to South Kivu.
On June 3, the M23 went from house to house in Kiwanja’s Kachemu neighborhood, apprehending about 40 young men and boys whom they accused of collaborating with a local militia group. The fighters beat the civilians and detained them in a cell at the M23’s base in Nyongera. Many had difficulty walking the next day as a result of the ill-treatment. About half of the youth were released after their families paid the M23 guards; 20 were taken to Rumangabo to be trained as fighters.
In other cases, families do not know what happened to abducted relatives. In March and April, for example, M23 fighters in Busanza abducted four young men whom they accused of collaborating with a Congolese Hutu militia. Their families have not heard from them since.
Congolese army soldiers captured by M23 fighters described torture and other ill-treatment in detention. One soldier, who was taken by the M23 in December and escaped in early July, said that two other soldiers held prisoner with him were beaten to death. For three days, the rebels hit the prisoners with sticks and stomped on their chests, while their legs and arms were tied together. While beating them, the M23 demanded information about where the Congolese army was hiding its weapons. The two men were not given medical treatment and died in detention.
M23 Recruitment in Rwanda and Other Rwandan Support
Based on interviews with 31 former M23 fighters who deserted since late March and numerous civilians living on both sides of the border, Human Rights Watch has documented military support from Rwanda to the M23. The support includes the provision of weapons and ammunition. Armed men in military uniform have moved regularly from Rwanda into Congo to support the M23; these could be new recruits and demobilized soldiers who were given uniforms before crossing into Congo, or serving Rwandan soldiers.Rwandan army officers have been seen at M23 bases, leading training for new recruits, and recruiting for the M23 in Rwanda.
Those recruited in Rwanda and taken across the border to fight with the M23 include demobilized Rwandan soldiers and former FDLR fighters who are part of the Rwandan army’s Reserve Force, as well as civilians, including boys. Between January and June, UN peacekeepers demobilized and repatriated 56 former M23 fighters who said they were Rwandan nationals. But M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch, as well as the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo, said that Rwandan army officers forcibly brought back Rwandan nationals who escaped the M23 and tried to return to Rwanda.
Human Rights Watch has documented the cases of seven Rwandan children, ages 15, 16, and 17, who were forcibly recruited in Rwanda in March and April, forced to fight with the M23, and were later able to escape. Human Rights Watch has received reports of other children recruited in Rwanda in recent months who have not been able to escape.
A 15-year-old Rwandan boy told Human Rights Watch that he was forcibly recruited from his village in Nyabihu district in Rwanda with two other boys and a young man in late April. The four of them were making bricks when two men in civilian clothes offered them jobs as cow herders in Congo. The two men then took them by motorcycle to the Congolese border, and on to an M23 military camp. They were forced to become M23 fighters and were warned that they would be killed if they refused or tried to escape.
The 15-year-old said that Rwandan army officers gave them military training for 10 days and that many other Rwandans were in his group of 58 new recruits. He said some of the Rwandan recruits tried to escape, but they were caught and brought back to the camp.
A Congolese M23 officer who deserted in late May told Human Rights Watch that Rwandan recruits and soldiers arrived regularly throughout his time with the M23, from November through May. He said the soldiers would come and go, as they rotated in and out. The recruits were given military training and forced to stay in Congo. Many tried to flee back to Rwanda, he said, but some were caught once they crossed into Rwanda and were taken back to the M23.
One deserter told Human Rights Watch that a Rwandan soldier in his unit had told him in April that he was a demobilized soldier and had come to fight in Congo so he could have a higher rank in the Rwandan army when he went back. He said that two other Rwandans in his unit had escaped to Rwanda in March, but had been re-recruited and brought back to the M23. A former M23 officer said that two Rwandans in his unit escaped in mid-April. Soon after they arrived in Rwanda, the former officer said, neighborhood authorities informed military intelligence officials, who brought the young men back to the M23. They were detained by the M23 for a week, then redeployed.
M23 deserters and Rwandan villagers said that Rwandan soldiers and new recruits often crossed the border on foot at night, using remote trails through Virunga National Park.
Two former M23 officers told Human Rights Watch that some of the Rwandan fighters in their units told them they had served in Somalia or Darfur as part of the Rwandan army’s peacekeeping contingent. Several M23 deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch, who had served in previous Rwanda-backed rebellions, said they recognized Rwandan army officers from their past experiences with the Rwandan military.
A Congolese man from Ntamugenga was forcibly recruited in May and forced to start military training. “In our group, there were 107 in the training,” he said. “Most of the others were Rwandans. They told me they had been tricked and were promised money if they came to Congo. Many of them were children. The army officers from Rwanda gave us the training, and they told us themselves that they lived in Rwanda. [After the training], there were demobilized soldiers from Rwanda and some ex-FDLR in my group.”
Several M23 deserters who escaped since late May described to Human Rights Watch the difference in the way the M23 treated Rwandans and Congolese within the rebel movement. One said:
Rwandans are favored. They’re given uniforms immediately, they’re given blankets, and they get boots. They’re spoiled. When they talk, they talk like they are the owners of the movement. I felt this threat. [They] called me a loser. They said, “You are worth nothing in your country.” They insulted me with things that you can’t say out loud. They said, “You Congolese, you may have studied a lot, but you’ve never been to the front.”
M23 deserters described deliveries of weapons, ammunition, food, phone credit, and other supplies from Rwanda. One former officer said that the wives of Rwandan officers often came to the M23’s positions in Congo to visit their husbands, bringing with them letters from family members in Rwanda.
All of the M23 deserters Human Rights Watch interviewed said the presence of Rwandan soldiers, officers, and trainers continued throughout their time with the M23, and that new arrivals – often bringing with them military and other supplies – continued coming from Rwanda in recent months.
Three former M23 officers close to the movement’s leadership told Human Rights Watch that the M23’s senior commanders spoke on the phone and met regularly with senior Rwandan army officers until at least late May or June, when the three deserted. Sometimes Rwandan officers came to Tshanzu or Rumangabo to meet with the M23 leaders, and sometimes the M23 leaders went to Rwanda for meetings.
Rwandan Support for M23 Military Operations
M23 deserters and civilians from near the Congo-Rwanda border reported an increase in support from Rwanda to the M23 at the time of three recent periods of heavy fighting – during infighting between two M23 factions in March; during fighting between the M23 and the Congolese army around Mutaho in late May; and before the fighting north of Goma in mid-July.
After the M23 split into two factions, Rwandan officials backed the faction led by Sultani Makenga against Bosco Ntaganda. A former M23 officer in Makenga’s faction told Human Rights Watch: “We were saved by Rwanda, and it’s thanks to their support that we were able to defeat Ntaganda’s group. They sent us ammunition and well-armed troops.”
Days before the fighting in Mutaho in late May, a young Congolese man told Human Rights Watch that M23 fighters abducted him in Kibumba groupement in mid-May. The fighters took him across the border into Rwanda, where they met a group of Rwandan soldiers. He and others with him were forced to carry containers of milk and boxes of ammunition and walk with the soldiers and rebel fighters back into Congo.
A 19-year-old Congolese student who was forcibly recruited by the M23 in March told Human Rights Watch that he and other M23 fighters were taken across the border into Rwanda in mid-May to pick up a delivery of weapons and ammunition and bring them back to the M23. They crossed into Rwanda at Gasizi and the following morning carried the weapons and ammunition to Kibumba in Congo. “The weapons were in two trucks,” he said. “We unloaded small bombs, machine guns, cartridges, and rocket launchers. Other Rwandans met us [in Gasizi] to help us carry the weapons back to Kibumba.”
Numerous local residents who were at or near the border between May 19 and 23 told Human Rights Watch that they saw groups of armed men in uniform crossing the border from Rwanda into Congo, including at Kasizi, Kabuhanga, and Hehu hill.
On May 20, for example, a teacher in Kasizi, who lives next to the border, saw three trucks arrive at the border at about 5 p.m. A large number of armed men in Rwandan military uniforms with Rwandan flags on their uniforms got out of the trucks and crossed the border into Congo on foot, through the forest, just to the side of the official border crossing.
On May 21, a local resident told Human Rights Watch, he saw at least several dozen soldiers with Rwandan flags on the shoulders of their uniforms by the Ruhunda market in Kibumba at about 11 a.m., walking in single file. They had weapons and some were carrying boxes. Some who appeared to be of a higher rank carried walkie-talkies.
Human Rights Watch also received reports of increased movements of armed men from Rwanda into Congo in the days leading up to the fighting that broke out on July 14.
A farmer told Human Rights Watch that on the evening of July 10 he was visiting a relative who lives next to the Rwanda border in Kibumba groupement when he heard the sound of vehicles, looked out the window, and saw armed men in uniform going from the border toward Kibumba. Some were on foot and others in vehicles.
A farmer who lives on the Rwandan side of the border said he saw similar movements of trucks between July 7 and 11, in the evenings, bringing soldiers to the Rwandan army military position at Njerima. The men got out of the trucks at the border and crossed into Congo on foot.
Another Rwandan civilian who lives near the border, in Rubavu sector, told Human Rights Watch that Rwandan army officers called him and other local residents to a meeting in early July. A Rwandan army captain leading the meeting told those present that the FDLR was close to the border. “Instead of letting the war come to Rwanda,” he said. “We will go to the other side.”
Four days later, the same Rwandan civilian saw hundreds of Rwandan soldiers cross the border into Congo, carrying heavy weaponry. “Some had heavy guns, the kind that break down and three men each take one section,” he said. “Others were carrying mortars. Most of the men were on foot, but they also used two trucks covered with sheeting.”
This man said he saw another large movement of Rwandan soldiers cross into Congo on July 8, a week before fighting broke out between the M23 and the Congolese army. During the following week, he saw smaller groups of soldiers cross into Congo.
A Rwandan farmer who lives near Kabuhanga village said he saw groups of several dozen Rwandan army soldiers cross into Congo between June 20 and June 30. He also saw a larger group cross on July 12, two days before fighting broke out.
Abuses by Hutu Militia with Support from Congolese Military Personnel
The M23’s control of territory weakened following the infighting between two M23 factions in March. Since then, Congolese Hutu armed groups, including the Popular Movement for Self-Defense (Mouvement populaire d’autodéfense or MPA), have carried out attacks in and around M23-controlled territory, and killed and raped several civilians. UN officials and former Hutu militia fighters told Human Rights Watch that some factions of these groups have received support from Congolese military personnel.
A 16-year-old girl told Human Rights Watch that on June 17, she, two other girls and an older woman who were coming home from their farm in Rutshuru were gang-raped by several Hutu militia fighters. In June, MPA fighters killed the local chief in Buchuzi, in Busanza groupement, as well as two M23 policemen. The fighters accused the chief of recruiting members for the M23. The attack followed a clash on June 6, when M23 fighters attacked the MPA and looted 12 houses and took dozens of goats.
Some of these Congolese Hutu groups are allied with the FDLR, which has long carried out horrific abuses against civilians in eastern Congo, including killings and rapes. Sources interviewed by the UN Group of Experts, cited in the group’s leaked interim report in June, said that Congolese army soldiers have supplied ammunition to the FDLR and that local Congolese army officers operating near M23-controlled territory and FDLR commanders “regularly meet and exchange operational information.”
Background on the M23 and Recent FightingThe M23 was formed in April 2012 after a mutiny by former members of a previous Rwanda-backed rebellion, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), whose members had integrated into the Congolese armed forces in 2009. With significant support from the Rwandan military, the M23 gained control of much of Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories in Congo’s North Kivu province. In late November, the M23 seized the main eastern city of Goma, again with significant Rwandan military support. The M23 withdrew from Goma on December 1, when the Congolese government agreed to peace talks.
On February 24, 11 African countries signed the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Region in Addis-Ababa, under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The signatories – including Congo and Rwanda – agreed not to interfere in the internal affairs of neighboring countries; not to tolerate or provide support of any kind to armed groups; neither to harbor nor provide protection of any kind to anyone accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, acts of genocide or crimes of aggression, or anyone falling under the UN sanctions regime; and to cooperate with regional justice initiatives. The former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, was appointed UN special envoy for the Great Lakes Region to support implementation of the Framework Agreement.
On March 18, Ntaganda, one of the M23’s leaders, surrendered to the US embassy in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, following his defeat during infighting between two M23 factions. He was transferred to The Hague, where he is to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. Over 700 M23 fighters and political leaders loyal to Ntaganda also fled to Rwanda, including four people on UN and US sanctions lists: Innocent Zimurinda, Baudouin Ngaruye, Eric Badege, and Jean-Marie Runiga.
Zimurinda and Ngaruye have been implicated in ethnic massacres, rape, torture, and child recruitment. They should not be shielded from justice but instead arrested and prosecuted without delay, Human Rights Watch said.
Makenga and Kayna (known as “India Queen”), who are still in Congo, are also on UN and US sanctions lists and are wanted on Congolese arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Talks in Kampala, Uganda between the Congolese government and the M23 have made little progress. The Congolese government has insisted that it will not integrate into its forces or reward people implicated in serious human rights abuses, including those who are on UN sanctions lists. Providing official positions to human rights abusers can encourage future human rights violations and is an affront to victims of past abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
After the M23 withdrew from Goma in December, a ceasefire had largely held between the M23 and the Congolese army until heavy fighting broke out around Mutaho, eight kilometers northwest of Goma, on May 20 to 22.
Fighting between the M23 and the Congolese army resumed on July 14 north of Goma.
Since its internal split in March, the M23’s control over some territory has weakened, allowing the FDLR and allied Congolese Hutu groups to carry out incursions there.
A new Force Intervention Brigade , an African-led, 3,000-member force made up of troops from South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi, is being deployed to eastern Congo. The force is part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, and has a mandate to carry out offensive operations against armed groups operating in eastern Congo. The M23 has strongly opposed the deployment of this force.
Recommendations
To the Rwandan government:
Immediately end all support for the M23;
Cooperate with efforts to bring to justice M23 commanders allegedly responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious abuses, and ensure that any such commanders who have fled to Rwanda are not shielded from justice;
Investigate and prosecute as appropriate Rwandan civilian and military officials who may be responsible for aiding and abetting war crimes by the M23 and other rebel forces in Congo.
To the Congolese government:
Suspend, investigate, and prosecute as appropriate Congolese civilian and military officials who may be responsible for aiding and abetting war crimes by the FDLR and allied armed groups;
Reject any settlement that rewards M23 leaders allegedly responsible for serious abuses, including Sultani Makenga and Innocent Kayna;
Appropriately discipline officers and soldiers responsible for mistreating corpses, and ensure that such acts cease immediately;
Ensure that captured combatants and civilians are treated in accordance with due process standards, including being promptly brought before a judge and charged, or released; ensure that detainees are not mistreated or held in inhumane conditions.
To the UN and US special envoys to the Great Lakes and governments providing aid to Rwanda and Congo:
Denounce continued support to the M23 from Rwanda, and support sanctions against senior Rwandan officials responsible for supporting the M23 since 2012;
Seek to ensure that any settlement between the Congolese government and the M23 excludes integration into the Congolese army of M23 leaders, including those on UN and US sanctions lists, implicated in war crimes and other serious abuses;
Press for the arrest and prosecution of military commanders, including members of the M23, implicated in war crimes and other serious abuses;
Suspend donor assistance to the Rwandan military for as long as it supports abusive armed groups in Congo, and continue to seek independent information about the use of Rwandan territory to recruit M23 members and the involvement of the Rwandan military in supporting the M23; include strong human rights benchmarks as part of other assistance programs to Rwanda.
Why do we keep doing same thing as if we are insane.According to
Albert Einstein insanity is doing same thing and expecting same
results.
When Moi went to Canada he came back and forced 8-4-4 to us and any
civil society that raised a complain were crushed.We all have eyes and
ears how that system messed our education system.Most students are
just passing exams and forgetting what they learnt.
Let Jubilee team think hard before pushing those laptops to pupils.We
are gambling with our kids future.
—
Thanks
Gibson Amenya
Founder and Partner
Level Moja Capital Solutions K Ltd
+254-722-825417
Every year, 287,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth, and 6.9 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday. Almost all these deaths occur in developing countries where mothers, children and newborns lack access to basic health care. While child mortality rates have declined in recent decades, 19,000 mothers still mourn the loss of a child each and every day – an unthinkable number of heartbreaks. This is especially tragic since most of these deaths could be prevented at a modest cost.
This year’s report looks at the critical first day of life, when mothers and their newborns face the greatest threats to survival, and when there is tremendous opportunity to save lives. It highlights approaches that are working to bring essential health care to the hard-to-reach places where most deaths occur. And it shows how millions more lives each year can be saved if we invest in proven solutions and help mothers do what’s best for their children. If we don’t save lives on this critical first day, we will never truly end preventable child deaths.
This report contains our annual ranking of the best and worst places in the world for mothers – but no matter if they’re in the United States or Malawi or India, all mothers are fundamentally the same. Every night, millions of mothers around the world lean over their sleeping newborns and pray that they will be safe, happy and healthy. It’s what we all want for our children. And it’s certainly not too much to ask.
When a child is placed into his mother’s arms for the first time, that woman’s life is changed forever. The moment is brief and precious. We must seize the opportunity to invest in this most basic, most enduring partnership – between a mother and her child – if we are to change forever the course of history and reduce newborn deaths.
Link:
Your kids are a great blessing. You can be more patient for a mishap that happens to you but when it comes to your kids, you are very sensitive and cannot see them in pain, tragedy or chronic sickness. Below are some of the tips through which you can avoid several emergency situations popping up when your kids are at home:
1- Don’t allow kids to go to washrooms alone till they clearly understand the usage of hot and cold water taps.
2- Keep medicines away from your kids. Recently a friend of mine had to take his daughter to hospital in emergency as she ate 10+ tablets from the shelf. Although the hospital washed her stomach but did not take any responsibility for any mishap. My friend has to sign the disclaimer which stated that in case of any mishap the whole responsibility would be on the parents.
3- Don’t put chairs or sofas near windows, especially if you are living in flats. We have read so many news about kids death falling from windows.
4- Consider windows/doors closing brackets. If you have IKEA in your area, buy one from there.
5- If you have sharp edged dining or lounge tables, consider rubber based edge protectors. (Visit IKEA)
6- Keep the match or lighter away from the stove.
7- Keep the knives, scissors and other sharp edge cutlery away from the reach of kids.
8- Cleaning agents (floor cleaners, crockery cleaners, toilet antiseptics etc) must be out of reach. Be sure to close the bottles tightly. Toddlers have the tendency of putting everything in mouth.
Some Recommended Articles:
Raising Confidence in Children
18 ways to make parents feel great
Story: Mr. Educated and Mr. Wisdom
8 Points to consider for buying a Sofa
About Author: Junaid Tahir, a telecom engineer and a passionate blogger, writes articles on wisdom, happiness, stress management and life enhancement subjects. His articles can be read Here
Residents of Dago Nyahera Kogada a village which is located on the outskirt of Kisumu City were all of a sudden plunged into the mourning mood following the death of a 31 year old villager after the encounter with an eight feet long fierce African tropical Black Mamba snake,
Washington Juma Orure Kaoko31 and a father of three was resting inside his parent’s home when the children of a neighboring home raised the alarming saying they were being attacked by an aggressive serpent which had slithered into their homestead.
Orure Kaoko decided to rush to the scene, which was only 30 yards outside his parent’s home fence to the rescue of the children. His mother, however, cautioned him against confronting a an aggressive snake with stones and that he needed something better like a walking stick, but the deceased ignore the advice of his mother and rushed to the scene.
Upon entering the next home the deceased found the children who had raised the alarm were throwing stone at the snake near a fence. He too wanted to kill it with the two stones, which he had picked up at his homestead. The snake retaliated aggressively and chased them back, but as they were running while escaping the possible fatal attack, the deceased slipped and fall down to the ground.
He black mamba which was on a full flight just running on its tail with its head raised as high as six feet high while hissing loudly jumped over him fatally giving him a fatal bite to the waist, shoulder and on the head.
The deceased managed to stand on his feet, but instead of seeking help for transport to the neighbor or going straight to the hospital went to his house and lay on his bed take an afternoon zester w while the snake’s venom penetrated his destroying all the important body organs. It was the small children who went to hid at home and informe his parents how the deceased had suffered snake bite. He Was rushed to St Monica Catholic Mission hospital six kilometers away, but the doctor refused to admit him a saying he was almost as good as dead.
The deceased was the youngest brother of a prominent Kisumu business tycoon Mr Gordon Kaoko who firm known as the Gulf Fitters and contractors.
The body was immediately removed from the Kisumu District hospital morgue and take to the star hospital mortuary for preservation ending the burial arrangement.
The last decade has witnessed enormous progress in expanding access to education worldwide. The job is not yet finished: 61 million primary school aged children are still denied the opportunity to learn. But as we continue to make progress and look ahead to 2015 and beyond, it is vital to shine a light on the ‘hidden exclusion’ affecting children’s education around the world.
Our proposed focus for the goal, targets and framework post-2015 is grounded, in part, in an analysis of the social, demographic, economic and political changes that are shaping the wider world. Many of these forces are creating a very different context to that which existed in 2000 when the Millennium Development Goals were set. This report explores a number of these trends. Five of the most noteworthy have particular consequences for education post-2015.
There was drama at Raga Primary School in Karungu Division, Nyatike district after parents and pupils went on the rampage demanding the transfer of the head teacher after he burned pupils’ sandals.
The head teacher collected the sandals from the over 400 pupils and set them ablaze arguing they are not part of the school uniform.
Today, pupils and parents demonstrated up to the school carrying placards and twigs demanding his immediate transfer from the school.
The head teacher who is also the Migori KNUT vice chairman locked his office and fled from the angry pupils and parents.
The pupils who accompanied their parents on barefoot vowed never to resume classes until the head teacher is transferred.
Nyatike district education officer Kinaiya Siloma confirmed that his office is aware of the incident and there is already a panel constituted to look into the matter.
Siloma however urged parents to give dialogue a chance and not to disrupt the learning process of their children.
A Nairobi based businessman Mr Edward Omol has made a hefty donation of 10,000 pair of rubber-sporting shoes worth K,shs 2.6 million.
The shoes which is to be distributed to the nursery and primary schools pupils in the entire Seme constituency within Kisumu County included those small sizes fitting nursery schools children to the medium numbers that is fitting lower, medium and upper primary pupils.
Mr Omolo who contested the newly created Seme parliamentary seat in March this year, on a ODM ticket but lost to the incumbent Dr. Nyikal said children learning under a highly hygienic conditions stands a better chance of furthering their education to e higher height of success.
The distribution will be done on the basis of 360 per each school. The donor conducted the distribution of the shoes while accompanied by four Assembly representatives from the entire Seme constituency and members of the school committees, PTA chairman and opinion leaders in a colorful ceremony which started at Kirindo Primary School.
The donor handed his donations to the School’s committee chairman Kilion Otieno and another Kisumu and Mombasa based businessman, Mr George Abaja who is a director of a construction firm.
Also accompanying him were four County Assembly representatives Benter Nduta ,Ogoli, Okoth Diang’a and Makadede four local Assembly representatives. All the four thanked the businessman and asked him to maintain the same spirit of helping the unfortunate people.
Other schools which benefited from this hefty donation were Bundi, Jimo, Kayila Siala, Reru, Gumo and Kayila. THe businessman also donated 20 green houses to be used by other school’s pupils in growing vegetables, fruits and other cash crops and promised to donate more
This was the largest donation ever made for the schools in the region by an individual and it has since rekindled politics of the area a fresh with a lot of murmuring going around.
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013
Some of our readers have asked my opinion what I think about Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu engaging in politics contrary to her commitment before being appointed. Readers were referring to the introduction of widow of late Makueni senator Mutula Kilonzo, Nduku, to President Uhuru Kenyatta in Machakos on Sunday by Ngilu to vie for Makueni senate seat.
While unveiling the Jubilee Cabinet, President Uhuru told Kenyans that the condition for appointment of Ngilu and Najib Balala, who had unsuccessfully vied for the Kitui and Mombasa senatorial seats respectively, was on condition of keeping off politics.
My opinion has always been clear that I don’t care whether Ngilu, Balala, Kasungu Kambi engage in politics even though they promised they would not. I don’t care because it is very unfortunate that I will not live to see Kenya you can call yours because this will happen in 50 years to come and many of us would have already died.
That is also why I don’t care whether Uhuru and Ruto mobilized their ethnic communities to ascend to power, whether they rewarded their supporters because they helped them grab the power. Even if Raila won I would still not acknowledge his victory because of using Luo and Kamba communities to win.
It is also why I don’t care whether Francis Kimemia blocked Raila from entering the VIP lounge at Jomo Kenyatta airport or any other airports, or whether Uhuru is retaining PCs, DCs, Dos or county commissioners.
Instead I care very much and it is indeed bothering me so much about 2.3 million Kenyan youths who are facing serious unemployment time bomb due to bad governance in Kenya since 1963 when Kenya claimed to have achieved Independence.
Since independence Kenyan youths have been the most frustrated social groups in the country. That is why I don’t blame more than half of them being responsible for crimes reported nationally as researchers are saying.
My worry is that this is expected to keep growing and reach a peak nationally in about ten years’ time. It means that this “demographic trap” could see “more crime, militant gangs, terrorism, labour unrest and political violence” among other social ills.
Many young Kenyans cannot get jobs because they don’t have usable qualifications or skills, having dropped out of various institutions before completing their studies due to lack of school fees caused by abject poverty and unemployment of their parents as well.
Different economists describe the situation as worrying for a country with such a youthful population and a birth rate of close to three per cent against an economic expansion that is not creating as many jobs as needed.
This may explain the formation of youth vigilante groups that make it easy for violent actions to take place. The age at which the youth engage in crimes is given between 16-25 years. Yet still, we don’t blame them because the high unemployment rates increase the likelihood of violence and conflict.
It is also why you cannot blame young girls who turn into immorality and prostitution. This has been blamed for high rates of school dropouts. Some of these girls have opted to sleep with wealthy men with hope to make easy money.
This explains why teenage pregnancy is on the rise I Kenya. Girls are dropping out of school after they have found they are being expectant. These girls start boycotting classes before they are suspected that they were expectant.
Teenage pregnancy refers to girls becoming pregnant when in either primary school or high school, basically below 18 years of age. This means they have to drop out of school to first take care of themselves and the baby when it is born.
This trend has forced some communities in Kenya to marry off young girls from age 10 to men old enough to be their parents. At this tender age, these girls have not being exposure to any form of sexually education and have no clue of what their husbands expect from them. They become baby making machines.
Lack of a stable family structure push the girls to look for security else where and this is when they get lured in relationships which have devastating effects on their lives. Lack of stable family structure because many of these parents are unemployed, they can’t bring up their children financially, take them to school, so they resolve into alcoholism to forget the burdens they undergo.
That is why due to poverty, girls are forced by their parents to sell their bodies as a source of revenue for the family, just to cater for their basic needs. Most of these girls don’t care even if they contracted HIV/ Aids. In fact they are almost like dead walking people.
It also explains why some young people are abusing drugs rampantly and of course this will also increase the sexual activities. This is a major contributor to increased cases of under age and unwanted pregnancies.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
from: Ouko joachim omolo
*The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images*
FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013
The month of May is ending with lots of shocking news. First it was the news that show the head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference filmed this weekend
http://video.corriere.it/widget/players/player_tv_video_iFrame.shtml?width=398&height=223&videoId=http://static2.video.corriereobjects.it/widget/content/video/rss/video_10e5d234-c545-11e2-896c-3db9fdd7e316.rss&channelName=ITALIA&advChannel=Dall>giving
Holy Communion to a notorious “transsexual” and homosexualist political activist who goes by the name Vladimir Luxuria, at the funeral Mass of a controversial Genoan priest.
The deceased priest, Fr. Andrea Gallo (hereafter referred to as Don Gallo), strongly opposed Catholic teaching on sexuality. In the video clip, published by the national newspaper Corriere della Sera, Angelo Bagnasco, the Cardinal Archbishop of Genoa is seen giving Communion to Luxuria, and another transsexual at the funeral of Fr. Andrea Gallo.
Three thousand flocked from all over Italy for the funeral of Don Gallo, the priest they called the “pretaccio communista” (an ironic use of “lousy communist priest”) and the “angelic anarchist”. Some participants wore t-shirts with the slogan, “Tell me who to exclude and I’ll tell you who you are”.
Standing in front of a group of priests wearing rainbow stoles and addressing the gathered thousands, Vladimir Luxuria gave a eulogy in which he thanked Don Gallo for “letting us open the doors of your church and your heart.”
“Thank you for having us transgender creatures feel willed by God and loved by God. We hope that many will follow your example and someone will apologize.”
Born Wladimiro Guadagno, actor and former prostitute Vladimir Luxuria (“Lust” in Latin) was a member of the Italian parliament and a founding member of the Communist Refoundation Party.
Although he remains physically a male, he claims “female identity” and is famous in European politics as the first openly “transgender” member of any European national legislature. In 1994 he helped organise Italy’s first Gay Pride festival in Rome.
Gallo, whose casket was decorated with a scarlet scarf, was known for his promotion of Marxist ideologies, and was popular with the more radical end of the homosexualist movement having participated in June 2009 in the Genoa Pride demonstration, complaining to the press about the “uncertainties” of Catholic teaching on homosexuality.
Gallo was called Gay Character of the Year by homosexualist activists. In March this year Don Gallo told media that the Catholic Church needs an openly gay pope
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/03/07/Italian-priest-calls-for-gay-pope/UPI-54211362661597/
and said that homosexual priests should be allowed to “express” their sexuality. “Because repression leads to pedophilia,” Gallo told ANSA news agency, adding that he had been sexually abused as a young priest.
No formal canonical sanction was ever laid against him during his priestly career. An obituary in Avvenire, the Italian bishops’ official paper, called Gallo “Priest of the road for the weak,” and said he gave “a witness of Christ and of the Church.”
Under the governance of Cardinal Bagnasco, who had been named a “front runner” for the last Conclave, Genoa is a haven for priests who openly oppose Catholic teaching and discipline.
When this was taking place, 29 years old male Andrew Mbugua Ithibu goes to court to have his name changed from Andrew Mbugua Ithibu to Audrey Mbugua Ithibu. He went to court after he was unable to win Government recognition of her new status as a woman.
She accuses the national examinations body of preventing her from being employed by refusing to change her academic certificates to reflect her current gender status. The case is seeking orders to compel the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) to change her names in the examination certificate.
Audrey says she was born male and diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder seven years after completing High School and scoring a grade of A-minus. After completing High School in 2001, Andrew decided she wanted to be a female and chose the name Audrey.
Another shocking story making the headline this month was that of a Form Three Audrey Janet Radul who was abducted on her way to barber shop to have her hair cut on May 9. Her teacher at Nyamonye Girls’ High School in Bondo, Siaya County, had sent her to have her hair cut because it had chemical, which was against school rules.
She went missing since May 9 but resurfaced 21 days later on Wednesday, the day the *Daily Nation* published a story about how she went missing without trace
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Girl-went-for-haircut-never-to-return-/-/1056/1865590/-/x7f1f7/-/index.html
. She was in Bondo at the shopping centre heading to the barber shop to cut her hair when a saloon car approached her.
The man asked her for directions to a place she did not know. Although she told him she had no idea, he insisted on shaking her hand. She later found herself in a dark room. The man had told her to mind her on business and keep quiet if she wanted to live long.
Janet described the room where she was taken hostage as very dark and she could not distinguish day from night. The room had no ventilation and the door was always closed from the outside.
As days went by, two other girls were brought in; one a Form Two student and the other a Standard Seven pupil. They were called Marion and Victoria respectively; Marion was in a grey skirt, white shirt and grey windbreaker while Victoria was in a blue uniform with a white collar.
Later, some two men — an Indian and an African — came for the two and she remained alone again. The men appeared to be dealing in sex trade because she heard one say: ‘I like this little one, she looks so young. He was referring to Marion the class seven girl,”
Another shocking news making headline was that of a 20-year-old man from USA confessed to smothering a 14-year-old girl, keeping her body in a suitcase, and trying to set her remains on fire because she would not have an abortion.
In another story, 26-year-old pregnant mother Zhang Yinping was dragged to the local Family Planning Office in Yuyue, Hubei, for a forced abortion. Despite being 6-months pregnant, the Family Planning Officials reportedly went ahead with the forced surgery. After the surgery, Ms. Zhang suffered a massive hemorrhage and died the following morning on May 24th.
China’s one-child policy is routinely enforced through brutal measures including forced abortions and sterilizations, and crippling fines that can amount to several times a family’s annual income.
It is at the time statistics from the Nepalese Health Ministry indicate that more than 95,000 abortions were performed between April 2010 and April 2011, up from 89,000 the year before and 51,000 the year before that.
In 2002, Nepal legalized abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy, a deadline that is extended until the 18th week in cases of rape, incest, fetal disabilities, or if the woman’s health is in danger.
It is quite shocking that at Barcelona’s Sant Pau Hospital, which is co-administered by the Catholic Archdiocese of Barcelona, killed an unborn child earlier this month in a pre-scheduled abortion based on the “suspicion” of deformities that normally do not pose a medical danger to the mother, according to internal hospital documents obtained by LifeSiteNews.com.
The documents contradict repeated and vehement denials by Barcelona’s Cardinal Archbishop Lluis Martinez Sistach, who has dismissed numerous reports published in the Spanish media and abroad regarding the killing of the unborn at the facility since they first began to be published in 2010.
The documents, written in Catalonian and Spanish, include copied text in Word format apparently taken from hospital computer records, as well as two screen shots of hospital computers. They indicate that a woman entered the hospital on May 13 at 10 a.m. “for a medical interruption of pregnancy because of a suspicion of fetal osteochondrodysplasia with thoracic hypoplasia.”
According to standard medical references, osteochondrodysplasia is a disorder that causes stunted bone growth and is often associated with dwarfism. Thoracic hypoplasia is a lack of complete growth in the chest area.
The archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, has stonewalled pro-life groups for years regarding numerous reports of abortions at the hospital, which began appearing in the media in 2010, when the Spanish newspaper *ABC *revealed government records indicating that several Church-affiliated hospitals in the Catalonia region had been performing abortions for years.
In 2011, the Cardinal began to publicly deny the reports, claiming that abortions do not occur at Sant Pau, adding that an order had been given not to perform abortions.
However, the evidence of the killing of unborn children at Sant Pau has continued to pile up.
The sad news is that after your abortion, you may go through a number of different emotions. Some women feel relieved; some feel sadness and grief, whereas others may have mixed feelings.
You may also develop an infection after your abortion, heavy vaginal bleeding with large clots, severe lower abdominal pain, high temperature and generally feeling unwell, unusual or unpleasant smelling vaginal discharge.
* *
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.*
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
* *
From: Dickens Wasonga
Date: Tue, May 28, 2013 at 1:20 PM
Subject: Decade’s Largest Global Conference on Wom?e?n and Girls bagan today in Kuala Lumpur
To: jaluo karjaluo
Thousands of international leaders and advocates call for investments in women’s health and rights at Women Deliver 2013.
By: Dickens Wasonga.
Today, more than 3,000 world leaders, policymakers and advocates representing over 150 countries convened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Women Deliver 2013, the decade’s largest meeting focused on girls’ and women’s health and rights.
The conference will feature more than 100 sessions with talks by some of the world’s leading voices on girls’ and women’s issues, including Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Chelsea Clinton, Board Member of the Clinton Foundation; Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Foundation (UNFPA); and Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Malaysian Prime Minister Honorable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak led the opening ceremony on the first day of the meeting.
The Women Deliver 2013 conference will focus on themes including:
· the economic and social benefits of investing in girls and women;
· how to achieve the goal of reaching 120 million more women with voluntary family planning services by 2020; and
· the need to place girls and women at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda.
During the meeting, organizations such as the World Bank, the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization will release major new research and reports focused on the benefits of investing in girls and women.
“Women Deliver 2010 was critical in showing that investing in girls and women is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for the economy and good for society,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who gave opening remarks at Women Deliver 2010 and later that year launched the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. “Women Deliver 2013 will be an opportunity to keep up the pressure and to affirm our plans for the period ahead.”
Women Deliver 2013 takes place at a critical time, just days before the Secretary-General will receive recommendations for the post-2015 development framework. Conference speakers and attendees will call for action to ensure that girls and women are prioritized in the lead-up to the 2015 Millennium Development Goal deadline and beyond.
Salem Ministries which is a Kisumu based Christian Ministry will host a free medical camp within Siaya County the birthplace of the USA President Barrack Obama which will be conducted by a group of volunteer nurses from California and Washington Seattle from the United States of America.
The free medical camp will take place at Uhasi in Pala Sub Location
According to the head of Salem Ministries Bishop Pheobe Onyango the free medical camp will take place between 13th and 14th of May this year and will comprise eight people from the US under Unbox Life and together with local nurses and doctors.
“There will be general treatment and the main target will be to try and de worm the children and test and treat malaria” Onyango added.
She added that her organization targets to offer the services to over two thousand people for the two days event.
“We target people from all the Constituencies making Saiya County to come for the free medical camp and we hope that people from Ugenya,Alego,Rarieda,Gem ,Bondo and Ugunja constituencies will attend ,my worry is that the duration might be a challenge but we will try to attend as many as possible “she added.
She however said that should they be overwhelmed by the number of those seeking medical attention then they might be forced to add another day.
“She added that she has followed all the laid down procedures with the authorities in regard to the event saying all the authorities concerned are fully aware of the free medical camp.
· New action plan to eliminate two of the main killer diseases of children in Africa – pneumonia and diarrhoea – launched by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.
· UN states that universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa alongside availability of vaccines and treatments, is critical in ending preventable child deaths.
· Ending preventable pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths would save the lives of over 1 million children in Africa every year.
LONDON, United-Kingdom, April 11, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Today, UNICEF and the WHO have launched a new action plan tackling for the first time two of the three biggest killer diseases of children under five in Africa – pneumonia and diarrhoea. The plan aims to end preventable deaths of children in Africa from these diseases by 2025, which would save over 1 million lives a year.
Nelson Gomonda, WaterAid’s Pan-Africa Programme Manager (http://www.wateraid.org), said:
“This Action Plan is all about doing more of what we already know works: Increasing access to drinking water and adequate sanitation, promoting breast feeding, improving availability of vaccines and making sure that treatment is on hand when children need them.
“It is the responsibility of African Governments to embrace and implement the plan and the cost of inaction and failure will be high and measured in the lives of the continent’s children. With the support and assistance of organisations like WaterAid and donors, we can succeed in ending these preventable deaths.”
Every year in Sub-Saharan Africa over 600,000 children under five die of pneumonia while more than 400,000 die of diarrhoea. Between them, they account for over a quarter (28%) of all the child deaths on the continent.
The Action Plan calls for a substantial shift is in how poverty reduction efforts are coordinated in Africa. Aid programmes need to bring together different areas of work, such as access to drinking water, health and education, to make them more effective.
The new plan calls on governments to prioritise investment in the poorest and least-served population groups. For example, in Africa’s towns and cities, nearly three-quarters (73%) of the richest people enjoy access to adequate sanitation, while for the poorest groups in these areas only 15% have access.
Alongside dozens of development charities, WaterAid has signed a joint statement in support of the new Action Plan that declares:
‘We can save countless lives by using an integrated approach to fighting disease, improving access to proven interventions and by prioritising efforts to reach the poorest and most marginalised children. As the latest data demonstrate, the Global Action Plan on Pneumonia and Diarrhoea provides the most cost-effective approach and will help achieve the greatest impact in reducing child deaths.’
The statement offers recommendations for developing country governments, businesses and donors.
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of WaterAid.
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013
Butere Girls High School drama club and the entire school are so disappointed. Their drama, ‘Shackles of Doom’, which depicts unequal distribution of resources and dominance of top positions by main ethnic groups, will not be staged at the national drama festivals, despite topping the western region contest.
The play was stopped by the Drama Committee even after Butere District Education quality assurance officer Isaac Ngaya said he watched the play and found no offending sections that warranted censorship. The claim was that the play contained hate speech and for that matter it was offensive.
The play acted by two girls wondered whether nepotism will really end in Kenya. Even before Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have not been sworn in their government has been accused of nepotism.
The girls were wondering why in Kenya any leader who comes to power immediately exercises nepotism. Among the most powerful posts have been awarded to Uhuru Kenyatta’s Central and GEMA as well as Ruto’s Rift- Senate Speaker … Ethuro … Rift, Nat. Assembly Speaker … Muturi … Eastern-the girls were crying and wondering who will represent Western, Northern and Coastal who feel cheated by Rift Valley and Central!
Prime Minister Raila Odinga is not spared either. He made sure his ODM party awarded his elder brother Oburu Odinga by nominating him to parliament after people rejected him during the ODM nominations.
Similar case applies to his sister Ruth Odinga who has been awarded ‘deputy governor’ even after Kisumu people rejecting her. Ruth had known before general election that she was going to be awarded the post of deputy governor.
Celebrating Valentine’s Day a day late with pupils at Shiners Centre in Kisumu town on February 14, 2013, Ruth introduced herself to the pupils and staff as “the Kisumu County Deputy Governor and Raila’s sister”. She signed the visitors’ book ‘Deputy Governor Kisumu County’.
This could imply that even if Raila became the president nepotism was not going to end. Earlier on Raila had been accused for having allegedly favoured his relatives and friends as well as the financial heavyweight Luos in the former cabinet appointment to the grand coalition government.
Dr. Oburu Oginga was appointed an Assistant Minister of Finance. The other centre of controversy was the appointment of Mr. Phillip Onyango Sika as the PS in the Ministry of Metropolitan development. The new PS hails from gem constituency also in Siaya and is the relative of the Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo whose mother is the younger sister of Raila Odinga’s mother.
Critics blamed Raila for having ignored Migori, Rachuonyo, Kisumu and Nandio districts only concentrating with appointment of people from Siaya and Bondo districts.
Even Kenyatta was not spared either. He used nomination slots to nominate his relatives. He paid back his first cousin Beth Mugo with a TNA nomination to the senate after Mugo stepped down in favour of Mike Sonko who was elected Nairobi senator.
One of the adjudicators at the regional level, Prof Christopher Odhiambo of Moi University, said their role is not to censure but to suggest improvements in case a play contains offending information.
The author of the play, Cleophas Malala is a politician and a scriptwriter, but his play has been adjudged to be politically incorrect. Despite the ban, Mr Malala says his plays are motivated by his desire to fight for the rights of the oppressed, especially the marginalized ethnic communities in Kenya.
In the zonal, district and regional competitions the play by Butere Girls emerged the winner despite the fact that someone loyal to the government thinks it has a political twist.
The play was motivated by unequal distribution of resources in the country. The play depicts a film shot in the land of the ‘Kanas’, who refer to themselves as the ‘True Kanas’. Their land is rich in oil, but they are ignorant of the treasure that lies beneath their soil.
Malala cited an audit by the Commission for Integration and National Cohesion (NCIC) on distribution of public appointments which showed glaring inequalities in public jobs.
“I am just replaying what happens in our society and even NCIC knows that, so what is my sin?” Malala wonders.
The fact however, remains that the unequal distribution of wealth has always been a huge problem in Kenya since independence that has plagued society throughout the ages. Even as forms of governments of Kenya have changed, the unequal distribution of wealth has remained a constant.
That is why the Butere girls’ actress were crying wondering who will save Kenya from these evil ills. They were crying because the unequal distribution of wealth makes the living conditions of the less fortunate undesirable, because the upper class is usually concerned about gaining and maintaining their own wealth first and concerned about others second.
The girls were crying because it is difficult for the poor to rise above the poverty level, because they are dependent upon what the upper class deems is a fair wage for producing the goods that they make.
Against the background that Karl Marx saw conflict as necessary and desirable to bring about social change. This social change would then result in the equal distribution of wealth and resources.
After viewing the suffering of the masses, Karl Marx hoped that they would rise up against oppression and bring about a social change where there would be an equal distribution of resources.
The conflict that Marx spoke about was not necessarily violence. Conflict referred to tension, differences in beliefs and values, conflict of interest and competition. These all exist in every society and according to Marx, they are the basis for social change.
The play reminds me of my own play I wrote in early 1990s when I was the Rector of Keserian Juniro Seminary. The play “But Why” was banned by the Kajiado Drama Committee because it was asking why The Central Bank of Kenya had been used to provide liquidity to politically well connected financial institutions such as Trade Bank, Pan African Bank and Exchange Bank.
Such banks were being used to launder the residential campaign money into convertible currencies abroad. In 1992 alone, the Central Bank printed and released for circulation more than 12 billion Kenya shillings.
This was the time 7 billion shillings was used by Kanu as slush fund to manipulate the electoral process according to Finance Magazine, March 31, 1993. It was also the time 500 and 200 notes were printed, YK’ 92, used most of 500 notes to campaign for bribery and corruption machinery to make Kanu win the elections.
The printing of 500 notes, 200 and 100 was an addition to 2.35 billion. As of the end of September 1992, the amount of currency in circulation in Kenya was 15.85 billion. It was also during this time that Lake Basin Development Authority had been pushed to near collapse due to general elections.
During that time Kenya had been ranked by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as the 24th poorest country in the world a gross national product per capita of $370 per year-down from the$400 plus attained by the end of the eighties.
The average annual growth rate per capita had therefore been either zero or negative for the eighties. By the year 2000 Kenyan economy was rated negative 0.3 percent according to East African Standard, June 8, 20001.
This was the lowest ever recorded since the collapse of the shilling in 1993 in the wake of the Goldenberg scandal and paper money and the crisis of the 1990’s-instead of answering the question but why the play was banned.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2013
Pope Francis has demonstrated his humility in practice. He has chosen a modest papal ring in silver rather than gold, and one designed decades ago rather than one created specifically for him. It is here that I am touched.
“Ring”, which originally served as both a symbol of the papacy and a seal, is usually cast in gold for successors to St Peter’s chair. “The pope’s decision to renounce precious things and avoid materials such as gold is very much in keeping with his desire to emphasise the religious symbols themselves, not what they are made of.
Pope Francis is already distinguishing himself from his predecessors by shedding embellishments and calling for a “poor Church for the poor.”
It explains why Catholics and the curious flooded St. Peter’s Square to greet Pope Francis on the day of the ceremony to officially install him as pope Tuesday. It explains further why he was applauded as he issued an appeal for the protection of the weak, the poor and the world environment.
His homily touched a crowd of up to 200,000 gathered in front of the Vatican: “I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: Let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”
Pope Francis gave a new example of his preference for simplicity when the Vatican unveiled the symbols of his papacy on Monday. The pope decided to keep the coat of arms and the motto he chose when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Besides this change, Francis chose to keep his old symbols, which allude to the Holy Family and to his membership in the Jesuit order: a sun inscribed with the letters “IHS,” a star to represent the Virgin Mary and a nard flower to represent St. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father.
There was a ripple of applause through a packed St. Peter’s Square, and tears in the eyes of the some of the faithful, as Francis spoke of humility and the need for advocacy on behalf of the poor – themes he has already established as the hallmarks of his papacy.
“Let us never forget that authentic power is service,” he said. “Only those who serve with love are able to protect, defining his idea of protection as “respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.”
It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: Husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents.
It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!
Pope’s message is that “one should never confuse simplicity and humility with weakness.”
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2013
Fifth Sunday of Lent is the final week prior to Easter. Today I celebrated one mass. The first reading was taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, 43:16-21. It talks of God’s promise to restore His people after they have suffered in exile.
The second reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, 3:8-14, and is a warning to the Philippians about false teachers; Judaizers who would try to hang on to the old ways while at the same time claiming to be Christians.
The Judaizers taught that in order to be a Christian, you first had to be a Jew: to be circumcised and to obey all 613 Old Covenant commandments. This question, whether or not Gentile converts to Christianity must first become full and legal Jews, prompted the Council of Jerusalem.
The Gospel is from St. John, 8:1-11 and is about the woman caught in adultery. God wants to prove to us that all of us are sinners. “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
When Jesus and the woman were left alone, he looked up and said, “Woman, where are they?” Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
Specific theme for the Kenya Episcopal Conference Justice and Peace commission Lenten Campaign is the child and the family as the basic unit of society. As the second reading puts it that in Christ there should be no Jew, circumcised, or uncircumcised, in Kenya where tribalism or negative ethnicity as media refer to it nowadays is the order of the day children are faced with lots of challenges as they grow up.
Recently I was challenged by my 11 years old niece when she asked me how comes that Kikuyus do not want other tribes to lead this country, and why specially Luos. That they think they are the only tribe who matter in Kenya as if they own it. No matter how much I tried to convince her that it is not the case she insisted it is.
The question of my niece is the question other children and Kenyans ask about other tribes. It demonstrates how negative ethnicity is tearing Kenya apart. Each tribe in Kenya thinks it is the best.
This is seen specifically when a particular tribe becomes the president. It favours its own tribe mates when it comes to the appointments of key positions in the government since independent. Jomo Kenyatta favoured his tribe mates when he became the president. Daniel arap Moi did the same and now Mwai Kibaki.
This makes tribalism and nepotism to be one of the deadly cancer diseases in Kenya which will take time to heal. Children are growing seeing this and that is why they ask such challenging questions.
Children are aware that this type of bad governance has not only been the main factors hindering Kenya from achieving important development milestones, it is also affecting children emotionally.
Nepotism is the showing of favoritism for relatives or friends based upon that relationship, rather than on an objective evaluation of ability or suitability, for instance by offering employment to a relative, despite the fact that there are others who are better qualified and willing and able to perform the job.
Children need to be told clearly that such type of bad governance and leadership can no longer be entertained in modern society. This can be done in schools and churches. In Kenya this is currently being done in form two through three literature set books, Betrayal in the City, the Caucasian Chalk Circle and the River and the Source.
Betrayal in the City by Francis Imbunga tries to help students understand that power is in the hand of the people and can be used to throw away bad leaders. The play starts by cutting a clear distinction between leaders and the mass.
It opens by showing the life of Nina and Doga who mourn for their lost child, who was killed on an organised demonstration, which was focused on African dictatorship and corruption.
The play portrays Mulili an illiterate soldier who was employed and given high post because the president was his uncle. On the same scene we also meet Jere who is a faithful soldier and he adores African style of life, he and Mulili fell into a fight since they take different courses of reasoning, here Mulili represent the ruling class and its common habits of bulldozing the society.
It demonstrates how the whole country is proven rotten and how harmful speaking the truth is, we see how those dared to open their mouths and the reveal the truth face difficulties, and sometimes going to the extreme of being imprisoned for example Jusper and other prisoners.
Finally some people gather courage and plan a revolution on which now Mulili betrays the president and he realizes how bad he is. It calls for peoples powers to demonstrate against such leadership, to remove them from the office and replace them with leaders who are patriotic-leaders who consider Kenya to equally belong to other Kenyans.
On respect and protection of human life, the Caucasian Chalk Circle fits. This is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. The play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its natural parents.
To demonstrate that all children are equal, whether boys or girls the River and the Source by Margaret A Ogola fits. The novel tries to convince readers that a home without daughters is like a spring without a source. It kills the culture in some societies that think that only boys are valuable in the home.
It is a sweeping story following the lives of three generations of women, from Akoko, born into a traditional Luo community, to her grandchild Awiti, whose children live into the late twentieth century.
Yet still, far from being the cradle in which the life of an individual is nurtured, family can be a source of personal identity in providing the template of social norms and values that go into shaping the individual’s personality.
These values have been however challenged. This is because traditional family structure has been put under pressure from rapid social change, undergoing erosion, and is generally splitting up to such an extent that it is failing to fulfil its primary role of socialization affected by urbanization and modernization.
Today is not as easy as in the past to provide children with the same amount of care and attention they automatically receive in the extended family set-up. Urbanization and modernization directly cuts across ancestry-based residence and mutual social, spiritual, and economic co-operation.
In the modern era the family has gradually shrunk to become the nuclear family, consisting solely of parents and their children – thus denying many parents the assistance they once received from extended family support networks. As a result, many parents find it increasingly difficult to carry out all their work and family responsibilities.
Due to high cost of living children often have to devote most of their day to helping the family in its income-raising ventures. Even if they should manage to attend school, regularly, eventually, the lack of suitable clothing, footwear, or money to buy the basic school equipment and needs encourages them to drop-out voluntarily.
Yet still, marriage has gradually become the individual’s concern rather than a concern of two extended families. The divorce rate has risen sharply. The number of single parent families has increased dramatically despite the fact that for growth and development of a child’s personality, it is desirable for both parents.
More still, a child whose mother is repudiated by the father, or where life at home becomes intolerable due to threats, quarrels, even physical violence, where a father resorts to drinking heavily to drown his sorrows, or abandon his family altogether because of his inability to meet the family needs, develops psychological problems in empathy with the abandoned mother.
Many of these children end-up in the street to earn a living and to support their mother and siblings. Street-children are becoming of great concern of late. They roam the streets, offering their services as load carriers, ice water vendors, scrap metal sorters, wooden toy makers, peanut, orange and banana sellers. The boys chase cars with their wares – a risky business life.
Adolescent girls drift naturally into early marriage, unplanned teenage pregnancies/abortion, frequent childbearing and a new generation of impoverishment. Others may take up prostitution.
The issue of abandoned babies and infants is gradually becoming a problem in this country and may continue to be worse unless measures are taken to redress the fundamental factor of a supportive family system in the modern society.
We have not even talked about over 50 percent of orphaned children as a result of HIV/Aids; either from their parent(s) dying from it, or abandonment as a result of having it. HIV children need three things: Good nutrition, love, and adequate medical care.
Another big problem with our children is sexual abuse which includes the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in.
Any sexually explicit conduct or simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct; or the rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-familial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children.
There is also a problem with emotional abuse, a pattern of behavior that impairs a child’s emotional development or sense of self-worth. This may include constant criticism, threats, or rejection, as well as withholding love, support, or guidance.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
What kills one AFRICAN woman every minute of every single day? / The Most Important “Life” Survey You Will Read
ACCRA, Ghana, February 18, 2013/ — The Most Important “Life” Survey You Will Read
Every survey starts with a simple question.
What kills one AFRICAN woman every minute of every single day?
A: AIDS
B: CANCER
NEITHER
THE ANSWER IS?
C: PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
Somewhere in AFRICA one woman dies every minute of every day from causes related to pregnancy and birth.
The hardest pill to swallow for even the most successful African nations is this: giving life to the continent’s next generation is one of the biggest killers’ of Africa’s women.
More often than not it is preventable: Uncontrolled bleeding, infection, poor medical care and a lack of education still sit at the very heart of this hidden crisis.
Those who survive may still suffer. For every woman who dies during childbirth, it is estimated that another 30 are injured or become sick bringing life to the world. Africa’s poorest are the most vulnerable.
But women themselves are not the only victims. The children left behind are more likely to die simply because they are motherless.
Too many babies also die unnecessarily. In Africa, over a million newborns die each year – that is – nearly four every single minute.
If Africa is to advance, MORE needs to be done. SIGNIFICANTLY more.
Today (18th February 2013), MamaYe (http://www.mamaye.org), a public action campaign to save the lives of mothers and babies will be launched in five countries most affected by the crisis of maternal and newborn mortality: Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Tanzania. This is the first part of a continent-wide campaign which will use digital and mobile phone technology to engage ordinary Africans in the most important fight of all – the battle to save our mothers and babies.
Logo MamaYe: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/mamaye.jpg
At its core MamaYe will challenge the status quo – the fatalism of millions of Africans, young and old, who accept the deaths of mothers and babies as “natural” or “God’s will.”
MamaYe is a campaign to both educate and encourage communities to take collective and individual action for pregnant mothers amongst them. It will seek to overcome the ingrained belief that responsibility for maternal and newborn survival rests elsewhere: with ‘the government’ ‘the ministry’ ‘professionals’ ‘the UN’ or foreign donors. For MamaYe the active participation of Africans as a whole is a critical ingredient.
MamaYe believes that technology can educate, motivate and mobilise people to take direct action to respond to the maternal and newborn crisis in Africa.
By 2016, it is projected that there will be one billion mobile phones in Africa. 167,335,676 Internet users. 51,612,460 Facebook subscribers. In Ghana, for example, mobile penetration in the country has reached a record 80% of the country’s population.
MamaYe has been initiated by Evidence for Action which is funded by the UK Department for International Development, and headed up in the five countries by African experts.
Country Director Ghana Professor Richard Adanu, who is also the Dean of the School of Public Health in Accra, said:
“We all have the power and the potential to save the lives of mothers and newborns.
“Men who support their wives to visit ante-natal clinics are helping to save lives. Taxi drivers who volunteer to get women to clinics in time for the birth can do the same. Voluntarily giving blood also saves lives, by helping women who haemorrhage during childbirth.
“Government officials that ensure clinics are well stocked with drugs and other essentials, are nothing less than life-savers. Midwives that respond to a crisis in the middle of the night are maternal survival heroines.
“We can all play our part. Childbirth is not a disease. We have known for decades what it takes to ensure the survival of women and babies in childbirth. But if our mothers are to survive, then the African public must also step up, take responsibility and become more involved and vigilant.
“MamaYe will provide the evidence, information and tools necessary to empower our citizens to demand change.
All it takes to make the change, is YOU. “
Visit http://www.mamaye.org to find out more about making a life-saving change for mothers and babies of Africa. On this website you will find easy to understand evidence, stories of heroes and heroines, commitments made by the Government and different actions you can take for this important cause.
Make your voice heard and demand more, join the MamaYe campaign at:
• http://www.mamaye.org
• http://www.Facebook.com/MamaYeAfrica
• http://www.Twitter.com/MamaYe
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of MamaYe.
Contact: Rachel Haynes (for in-country contacts, see below)
MamaYe (http://www.mamaye.org) is a campaign initiated by Evidence for Action (E4A), a multi-year programme which aims to improve maternal and newborn survival in sub-Saharan Africa. Funded by the UK Department for International Development, the campaign focuses on using a strategic combination of evidence, advocacy and accountability to save lives in Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.
Web and Social Media
Pan Africa: http://www.mamaye.org | Facebook.com/MamayeAfrica | Twitter.com/MamaYe
Facts about maternal and newborn mortality in Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, the lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 16, compared with 1 in 2,800 in developed countries.
Those who survive may still suffer. For every woman who dies during childbirth, it is estimated that another 30 are injured or become sick bringing life to the world.
Every day, 444 women die in sub-Saharan Africa due to causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth.
In Africa, over a million newborns die each year.
The newborn mortality rate is 44 deaths per 1000 live births in Africa.
Globally, the countries with the highest rates of newborn mortality are mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. (Source: World Health Organization.)
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2012
Tomorrow is Sunday December 30, 2012, the feast of Holy Family. Even though one of the primary functions of the family is to produce and reproduce persons biologically, today the church faces challenges on gay families-click here to see The 10 Most Famous Gay Parents And Their Families.
Today the question is not whether homosexuals should adopt children or not, but rather on whether people involved in homosexual or lesbian relationships be allowed to adopt children, or whether children who grow up in single-sex parented homes advantaged or disadvantaged.
These statistics show the tragic consequences of fatherless and single parent homes in the United States: 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, 85% of all children that exhibit behavioural disorders come from fatherless homes, 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes, 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes, 75% of all adolescent patients in drug abuse centres come from fatherless homes, 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.
While this applies to children who grow up in fatherless homes, mothers are equally important in the lives of children and the results of ‘motherless’ homes are equally tragic. Children, who grow up with two mothers and no father, and those who grow up with two fathers and no mother, will be horribly handicapped in life.
According to Dr Sotirios Sarantakos from Charles Stuart University, Australia, children in normal marriages faired the best, and children in homosexual homes the worst. Children of homosexual couples scored the lowest in language ability, mathematics and sport.
They were more timid, reserved, unwilling to work in a team or talk about home lives and holidays. They felt “uncomfortable when having to work with students of a sex different from the parent they lived with” and were the least sociable.
A study in Family Planning Perspective showed that male homosexuals were at greatly increased risk for alcoholism: “Among men, by far the most important risk group consisted of homosexual and bisexual men, who were more than nine times as likely as heterosexual men to have a history of problem drinking.
The church is opposed to same sex marriages because God’s Word is clear that only a man and a woman can enter into marriage, and this is the foundation for the family. Genesis 2:24 reads, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Malachi 2:15 says that God made a man and his wife one because “He seeks godly offspring.” For those who stray from the wisdom of God, the results are tragic. These statistics show that homosexual homes are less stable, more unfaithful and relationships are shorter, and there is more drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence.
As Reuters report, children growing up in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families are more likely to live in poverty and may be denied legal ties to one of their parents according to report released on Tuesday.
Yet still, the gay issue in the world has become acute. In France, mass demonstrations were held against the government’s intention to legalize gay marriage. In Great Britain, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has resigned. According to local media he left his post because of his inability to cope with homosexuality among the clergy.
In Russia, the Moscow Regional Duma refused to include in the agenda the bill similar to the one recently adopted in St. Petersburg about prohibition of homosexual propaganda to children and adolescents. Allegedly, the document “does not agree” with the federal law.
The primary purpose of the Church in instituting and promoting this feast is to present the Holy Family as the model and exemplar of all Christian families. That is why the Feast of the Holy Family is not just about the Holy Family, but about our own families too. The main purpose of the Feast is to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families, and for domestic life in general.
Above all, our family life becomes sanctified when we live the life of the Church within our homes. This is called the “domestic church” or the “church in miniature.” St. John Chrysostom urged all Christians to make each home a “family church,” and in doing so, we sanctify the family unit.
This is because marriage is too often conceived as the sacrament which unites a man and a woman to form a couple. In reality, marriage establishes a family, and its purpose is to increase the number of the elect, through the bodily and spiritual fecundity of the Christian spouses.
While every marriage intends children, the purpose of every marriage is to establish a Christian family. Yet every Christian family must live in harmony and in prayer, which are the pledges of joy and union.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002
