The way we create, access and share information is changing rapidly. Every time we look something up on Wikipedia, rate an experience on Tripadvisor or enter search terms in Google, we are taking advantage of the increasingly sophisticated way in which technology and digital tools are allowing us to capture, refine, synthesise and structure our collective intelligence.
With the ongoing advances of the semantic web, new sources of and different applications for data and cultural shifts towards greater openness and transparency, our capacity for creating and navigating complex knowledge grows.
These trends in the creation and application of knowledge have huge implications for how we access, create and apply information in health, a field where knowledge held by patients, doctors, medical researchers, nurses, carers, community providers, families and others is all critical in improving our individual health and well-being. Where information is vast and complex – and the need for accuracy and reliability can be a matter of life and death – our ability to orchestrate knowledge in a useful way is a central concern for any health system.
This paper reflects on how understanding of school feeding has changed since the 2009 analysis conducted by the UN World Food Programme, The Partnership for Child Development and the World Bank, which was published as Rethinking School Feeding. Data on school feeding programme outcomes were collected through a literature review. Regression models were used to analyse relationships between school feeding costs (from data that were collected), the per capita costs of primary education and Gross Domestic Product per capita. Data on the transition to national ownership, supply chains and country examples were collected through country case studies.
The authors found that school feeding programmes increase school attendance, cognition and educational achievement, as well as provide a transfer of resources to households with possible benefits to local agricultural production and local market development. Low-income countries exhibit large variations in school feeding costs, with concomitant opportunities for cost containment. Countries are increasingly looking to transition from externally supported projects to national programmes. With a global turnover in excess of $US 100 billion, the authors sustain that school feeding should remain a focus of study with a view to helping countries ensure that their programmes are as cost-effective as possible.
President Obama had a vision which he shared and got full public support and mandate, the vision that are good, fair and balanced for all people. The President is paying the price for the promise he made to save people’s lives with economic collapse.The President promised to serve diligently without veering off into the convoluted plot twists with unnecessary melodrama that afflicted so many people with economic downturn and loss of job opportunities. The country’s economy suffered from budget deficits over the years, a situation created by special business interest who evaded paying taxes and equally defaulted in paying back Government loans on time. There were many other instances of business theft that went on for many years undetected including twisted bankruptcy where businesses shut-down, with instances of irregular ponzi-schemes and Hedge Funding that were reasons for serious budget deficits by the selfish and greedy special business interest group.
To suspend Obamacare for another year is a crime against the people on their medical security. To protect from further medical fraud, the program must commence on time as legislated.
It must be known that, once a federal law has been enforced, it remain a validated law of the land. It is a requirement by law that the Presidency must be respected by all irrespectively. Knowing that President being in-charge of the executive branch, and that the Obamacare having gone through checks and balances in the normal legal dispensation process without a hitch; it is a crime, illegal and contemptuous for any group of politicians or the Speaker to change its course to allow Government Shut-down that serve fundamental public interest to favor special interest of a few, is unacceptable. It is as well breaking the law of many to short-change in ways or form, to bring such matter to be a subject for discussion. Delaying or suspending healthcare for people is deninately a crime that must be disputed by all to protect health security concerns; and politics must not be allowed to interfere with peoples livelihood and health interests.
How does this Gov. Shut-down impact debt default, when the nation’s borrowing go double from default and the limit must be raised from default? How will this help the Government from not defaulting???Does it not mean that these politicians who are after the Government Shut Down are into a jig-saw-cut-deal for their self and greedy interest, and that they are trading short-change business by using Gov. Shut-down purposefully to push Government to default to benefit benefactors? How can people trust Ted Cruz with those behind him pushing for the same??? This is definately a tango to test President Obama ability to leadership. Who will President Obama support, the people or the special interest??? Law is Law and no one is above the law. Obamacare is legally binding and it remains the law. This is the feel President Obama should guard against political actions that are in contempt of the law. This is asking the President to compromise on what is the LAW…….is this right??? Is this what the American people want???
It is unthinkable and despicable that a few special interest Republicans behave this way in a selfish manner to disrepute and embarrass this great Nation on the face of the world. Business community as well have a duty to respect the law.
It is therefore our concern and rights that we the people engage public support to reject the motion of Government-Shut-Down and petition the President to oppose this bad melodrama and instead, use his prerogative to save this ugly situation for the sake of many and equally protect democracy on fundamental service to the people. In these instances and for the ake of security of majority people and the Nation, President Obama has right to use the bligated power vested for the Presidency to VETO any such proceedings to save a situation.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
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What ObamaCare Will Mean for You
Published on Sep 27, 2013
http://www.healthcare.gov and use the new Health Insurance Marketplace to see all of the health plans available in your area and sign up for the one that fits your needs and budget. You can also find out if you’re eligible to pay less for private health insurance or whether you qualify for other free or low-cost programs.
White House White Board: What Obamacare Means for You
Megan Slack
September 27, 2013
11:01 AM EDT
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The Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – means better coverage for those who already have health insurance, and more options for those who don’t, including a new way to shop for affordable, high-quality coverage.
Watch the latest White House White Board to learn more about what the law means for you.
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To Ask China’s Permission First
Bruce Tonkin The current Democrats are certainly not infallible, nor are they immune to criticism. The Republicans, however, have gone from being fiscally reckless (rai […] Frank Sharon This country is lucky to have men like Ted Cruz–Scott Walker—Ron Paul because they are for the people of united states. Obama and the Clintons and quite a […] James Pleiss Senator Cruz is a rare politician in that he understands logic and reasons deductively as any prosecuting attorney would; this presents a problem to so man […]
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Ted Cruz: Has he overplayed his hand? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ted Cruz, an ultra-conservative Cuban American who is leading the current assault on Obamacare, has done more than anybody to bring the federal government to the brink of shutdown. What he has not considered is how America’s foreign creditors will react.
Although China, Japan, and other major creditor nations have no dog in the Obamacare fight, they have a strong interest in preserving America’s basic financial, economic, and social stability. From their point of view, Cruz, a junior senator from Texas and a Tea Party favorite, is not following the script. It is essential that he be smacked down – and he will.
Bruce JapsenContributor
Unbeknownst to Cruz, and seemingly to most of the rest of the Republican party, the creditor nations hold the high cards. If they were to sell just a small proportion of their American assets, they could send Wall Street into a tailspin. They are unlikely to do this but even if they were merely to slow the pace of their buying, bond yields would rocket and stocks could fall 15 percent in the space of a couple of weeks.
It is sometimes suggested that by triggering a sell-off, creditor nations would be cutting their own throats. Actually this is a characteristically myopic Western way of looking at things – a view that completely misunderstands how things have changed now that East Asians call the tune. The point is that the creditor nations are long-term holders who are largely indifferent to short-term fluctuations.
As a general rule, the East Asian creditor nations hate drawing attention to themselves. But they are quite effective behind the scenes in making their views known. One of the most important ways they wield influence is through major Wall Street investment banks. These latter in turn spend large amounts on political contributions, typically backing both Republicans and Democrats. Their money gives them plenty of face time to advise American elected representatives on “good economics,” a term that more and more these days amounts to economics that serves East Asia’s interests. Meanwhile American investors generally are short-term thinkers who rarely show much intestinal fortitude in riding out downturns. As they generally vote Republican, their bleating can be expected to help soften the attitudes of Cruz and his cohorts.
It remains to be seen how markets will react tomorrow but the betting is that, in the absence of a climbdown by Republicans, we will see a significant correction. And if Cruz and his allies continue to stick by their guns in the weeks ahead, we could see damage particularly in techs and other high P/E stocks. For the record, major tech stocks that seem most richly valued on a forward P/E basis include CRM, LNKD, CCI, FB, and ADBE. Although future prospects may justify such valuations, the short-term action could be quite bumpy — certainly bumpy enough to frighten a lot of the Republican rank and file.
By
Jake Miller /
CBS News/ September 22, 2013, 4:29 PM
Budget bill battle over Obamacare opens new GOP schism
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, center, smiles during a news conference with conservative Congressional Republicans who persuaded the House leadership to include defunding the Affordable Care Act as part of legislation to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013. / AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
After the House passed a bill on Friday funding the government for roughly three months but defunding Obamacare, the fight over the budget and the healthcare law shifted to the Senate.
While most lawmakers, including many Republicans, have all but conceded that the Senate will never pass the House bill and will instead re-insert Obamacare funding, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is leading the fight against the healthcare law in the upper chamber, insisted it’s still possible for the Senate to follow the House’s lead.
“Senate Republicans should stand united to stop [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid from changing the House bill and, in particular, from inserting the funding from Obamacare with 51 votes,” said Cruz on “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s going to be the fight procedurally – whether he’s able to use a straight party line vote, just Democrats, to put Obamacare back. And you know what? If Senate Republicans stand together, we can stop Harry Reid from doing it.”
Cruz said he will ask Reid to institute a 60-vote threshold for amendments to the House bill, which would enable the Senate’s 46 Republicans to block any measure re-inserting Obamacare funding if they are able to stand united.
Play Video
Rep. Salmon: Defunding Obamacare “the will of the people”
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Coburn: “We don’t have the ability” to defund Obamacare
But when he was pressed by Fox News’ Chris Wallace on whether his GOP colleagues will stand behind him, the Texas Republican demurred.
“We don’t know right now, and this week, we’ll determine that,” he said. “Look, this has been a fast moving target. You know, just a few weeks ago, we didn’t have any of the votes we needed in the House or in the Senate.”
If he doesn’t get his wish, and the Senate votes to send a bill with Obamacare funding back to the House, Cruz said Republicans should stand strong, even if it means incurring a government shutdown – not that such a result would be the fault of the GOP.
“I believe we should stand our ground and I don’t think Harry Reid and Barack Obama should shut down the federal government,” he said. “Look, the House voted to fund the federal government. If Harry Reid kills that, Harry Reid is responsible for shutting down the government and he should listen to the American people, open the government, fund the government, but don’t fund Obamacare because it’s hurting the American people.”
Despite Cruz’s tough talk, most of the rest of Washington is convinced his push to defund Obamacare will ultimately come up short. And some of the strongest notes of skepticism are coming from his fellow Republicans.
“I am sure the Senate is going to move that bill forward,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., on CBS’ “Face the Nation. “We don’t have the ability… to put a total stop and defund Obamacare. It would be nice if we did. I’d be in the fight.”
Coburn marveled that those who were clamoring loudest for a vote on defunding Obamacare, such as Cruz, are now threatening to halt the legislative the process if it doesn’t suit their ends. “The ironic thing…is that the answer now in the Senate, by those who proposed this strategy, is to filibuster the very bill they said they wanted,” he said.
Even Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has sided with Cruz and other Republicans pushing to defund the law, threw cold water on the likelihood that they could succeed.
“We probably can’t defeat or get rid of Obamacare,” Paul told reporters at a Republican gathering on Saturday, according to the Associated Press.
The skepticism from Paul and Coburn echoed that of other Republicans, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who said this week that it’s not “rational” for Republicans to think they can defund the healthcare law during the budget fight, and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who urged Cruz to “keep quiet” with his hard-line on Obamacare.
House anti-Obamacare budget bill dead on arrival, senators say
Obama to Congress: Pass a budget, quit the drama
Democrats, for their part, agree with their GOP colleagues who believe that de-funding the healthcare law is off the table. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has vowed that any bill that touches Obamacare funding is “dead” when it reaches his chamber.
Play Video
Reid: “Any bill that defunds Obamacare is dead”
In the meantime, though, Democrats are happy to sit back and watch Republicans snipe at each other, saying the infighting demonstrates just how disorganized and ideologically bankrupt the GOP has become.
“Let’s be really clear about this: The Republicans put legislation on the floor that was intended to shut down government. For them, that’s a victory, because they’re anti-government ideologues who dominate the Republican Party,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Sunday on CNN. “The effect of putting the Affordable Care Act on the bill is to shut down government. They know that. They know that has no prospect of prevailing.”
“I call them legislative arsonists,” she continued, warning that Republicans’ obsession with Obamacare could wreak havoc on other, unrelated budget items. “They’re there to burn down what we should be building up in terms of investments and education and scientific research and all that it is that make our country great and competitive. I don’t paint them all with the same brush. And I certainly don’t paint the speaker with that brush. But enough of them in their caucus to shut down government. That would be a victory for them.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told “Fox News Sunday” that Republicans are throwing a “tantrum” because they didn’t get their way in the 2012 election.
“It’s not brute political force that is refusing to defund Obamacare. It’s called the American people and elections. I don’t think in America, we should throw tantrums when we lose elections and threaten to shut down the government and refuse to pay the bills,” she said. “I cannot believe that they are going to throw a tantrum and throw the American people and our economic recovery under the bus.”
Comments:
Unfortunately, partisan dan doesn’t quite understand that both parties spend our money equally — they just have different priorities — and the PPACA fixed the Medicare Part D “donut hole” that saves seniors billions, since the PPACA funded the unfunded GOP legislation!
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jimsmith90210 says:
Quite hypocritical of rafael cruz, the Canadian senator living in texas, to be filibustering “until he can no longer stand” in the Senate, while 26% of his constitutents lack health care — the state with the most uninsured and under-insured residents — which only means he should be championing the ACA instead of fighting it!
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Au contraire!!!
It’s different for the GOP than the Democrats. Things that are okay for the GOP are an outrage when Democrats do them. If Obama was born in the United States, as was his mother, but his father was born in Kenya, that makes him not a US citizen. But if Cruz’s mother was born in the United States, and he was born in a foreign country, that makes him a US citizen. Kind of like how Romneycare is good, but Obamacare is bad. Or how Obama should be forced to make every single school record public, but Romney’s tax returns were nobody else’s business. Or how Anthony Weiner is a horrible, morally corrupt man (he is) but Mark Sanford was such a paragon of virtue that he not only was allowed to finish his term in the House, but then went on to be elected to the Senate. How silly of you, thinking that the GOP should operate under the same rules. I hope you understand now, how absurd the very suggestion is.
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jimsmith90210 says:
ButIPlay1onTV says: “Now notice that Cruz is still a Canuck. At least, after he’s run out of congress and exiled back to his home country, he’ll get their free healthcare.”
Maybe not, since the Canadians could agree to take him back on the condition that he will not apply for socialized health care since he is so radically against it, and force him to return to texas for health care – the state that has the highest number of uninsured residents!
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goldenrod25 says:
Strange how the Republicans keep fighting amongst themselves. Seems like McConnell finally grew a pair and put Cruz in his place. Too bad Boehner doesn’t do the same to the TeaParty nuts in the House.
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House Republicans defy Obama on funding bill; government shutdown nears
Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan 2 hours ago
By Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives early on Sunday brought the federal government closer to a shutdown as it voted to delay President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law for a year as part of an emergency spending bill.
By a mostly partisan vote of 231-192, the Republican-controlled House approved the “Obamacare” amendment, despite a veto threat from the White House.
It also voted 248-174 to repeal a medical device tax that aims to help fund healthcare programs under the 2010 law.
And in a sign that lawmakers might be resigned to a government shutdown beginning Tuesday, the House unanimously approved a bill to keep paying U.S. soldiers in the event the government runs out of money to run many programs.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated on Saturday that the House bill would be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is not scheduled to meet until 2 p.m. on Monday.
View gallery.”
U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) (C) walks to the House floor for a series of late-nigh …
Obama also threatened to veto any bill that delays his healthcare restructuring.
There is a slight chance the two sides could reach a funding deal before the government’s fiscal year ends at midnight on Monday. Congress could also act at any time to end the impasse if a shutdown did occur.
But the bitterness of the House debate on Saturday night that spilled into early Sunday did not bode well for prospects of a compromise.
“You have been hijacked by a group called the Tea Party,” Democratic Representative David Scott of Georgia said angrily, referring to the powerful conservative, anti-government movement that holds significant sway over Republicans.
“The American people deserve to have time to see what this monstrosity will do before it is implemented,” shouted Republican Representative John Culberson of Texas, referring to “Obamacare.”
The high-stakes maneuvering between Democrats and Republicans is likely to continue through much of Monday.
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The U.S. House of Representatives remains fully lit during a rare late-night Saturday session at the …
The standoff is also a harbinger for the next big political battle in Washington: a far more consequential bill to raise the federal government’s borrowing authority. Failure to raise the debt ceiling by mid-October could result in the government defaulting on its obligations.
MEDICAL DEVICE TAX
The funding impasse is the culmination of more than three years of failed conservative efforts to repeal “Obamacare,” a program aimed at extending health insurance to millions of those without coverage.
Republicans argue that “Obamacare,” which is set to launch on October 1, is a massive and unnecessary government intrusion into medicine that will cause premiums to skyrocket and damage the economy.
Failure to pass a funding bill would close down much of the government for the first time since 1996. More than a million federal employees would be furloughed from their jobs, with the impact depending on the duration of a shutdown.
The current timetable could leave House Speaker John Boehner with the most difficult decision of his career: whether to approve a straight-forward spending bill passed on Friday by the Senate or allow the government shutdown to begin.
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The U.S. House of Representatives remains fully lit during a rare late-night Saturday session at the …
Neither side wants to be the last to cast the final vote that would lead to a shutdown, a concern that has turned the funding measure into a hot potato tossed between the two chambers.
While polls consistently show the American public is tired of political showdowns and opposed to a shutdown, House conservatives were jubilant about the fight.
“This is a win-win all the way around,” said Republican Arizona Representative Matt Salmon, who described the mood of Republicans before the vote as “ecstatic.”
Republicans and a handful of Democrats also approved an amendment to the bill repealing a tax on medical devices that helps fund the healthcare law to the tune of about $30 billion. That provision, sought with heavy lobbying by the medical device industry, has been supported in the past by some Democratic senators.
In a government shutdown, spending for functions considered essential, related to national security or public safety, would continue along with benefit programs such as Medicare health insurance and Social Security retirement benefits for seniors.
But civilian federal employees – from people who process forms and handle regulatory proceedings to workers at national parks and museums in Washington – would be temporarily out of work.
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U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) (C) walks into the offices of Speaker John Boehner (R- …
The last government shutdown ran from December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996, and was the product of a budget battle between Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republicans, led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Republicans suffered a public backlash when voters re-elected Clinton in a landslide the following November, a lesson never forgotten by senior Republicans, including Boehner.
This time, Boehner tried to avoid a showdown but was overruled by his rebellious caucus, largely influenced since the 2010 election by newcomers endorsed by the Tea Party.
While Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the top House Republicans, worked behind the scenes, they did not deliver floor speeches in support of the bill – something they often do on major legislation.
Instead, some of the House’s most conservative members who drove the “Obamacare” delay effort, dominated the debate.
With Boehner effectively sidelined, rank-and-file Republicans boasted of their unity. Members chanted, “Vote, vote, vote, vote,” in their closed-door meeting, they reported later.
Afterward, Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter of New York, took to the House floor to accuse Republicans of throwing a “temper tantrum” about “Obamacare” under pressure from “Tea Party extremists.”
Conservative and liberal groups, from the Tea Party to women’s rights organizations, have been cashing in on the showdown over “Obamacare,” using it to rally supporters and raise money for next year’s congressional elections.
(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Kim Dixon.; Editing by Fred Barbash, Christopher Wilson and Paul Simao)
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Bill Clinton: When It Comes to Obamacare, GOP ‘Begging for America to Fail’
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The Republican Party is “begging for America to fail” by rooting for President Obama’s signature health care law to fail, former President Bill Clinton said during an interview for “This Week” with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos,
“I’ve never seen a time – can you remember a time in your lifetime when a major political party was just sitting around, begging for America to fail … I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I’ll be shocked if it fails,” Clinton, who attempted during his first term as president to overhaul the country’s healthcare system in the early 1990s, said during an interview taped Thursday in New York while the annual Clinton Global Initiative was taking place.
A recent ABC News-Washington Post-poll found that more than half of Americans are opposed to the Affordable Care Act. But for his part, Clinton is optimistic that with time, the law – known more commonly as “Obamacare” – will grow in popularity.
“I just think that when all these dire predictions don’t come out, if they don’t – I believe that pretty soon, within the next several years, this’ll be like Medicare and Medicaid. And it’ll be a normal part of our life. And people will be glad it’s there,” the former president told ABC News.
READ: Clinton Calls Parts of House GOP Proposal to Raise Debt ‘Chilling’
Clinton was responding to a recent suggestion by Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s political future was tied to the success or failure of Obamacare. Graham said he thinks the law will fail.
Clinton told Stephanopoulos he was “not at all” concerned about the potential failure of the Affordable Care Act having any impact on a potential run by his wife for the White House in 2016.
“I think this bill’s already produced a lot of good results and every – look, they are desperate for this bill to fail, because if it’s not a failure, their whole – everything they’ve been telling us since 1980 that government’s bad is wrong. They so badly want it to fail,” he said.
Since being passed in 2010, the Affordable Care Act has been a political lightning rod and has been subject to attempts by Republicans to delay and defund it. The law is at the center of the current fight in Congress that could lead to a government shutdown, which would be the first in almost 20 years.
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Criminal Investigation investigates healthcare fraud perpetrated against the federal and state governments, as well as private insurance companies. In these investigations, CI follows the money trail and considers both tax and money laundering perspectives. Criminal tax investigations are initiated when income generated from healthcare fraud is not correctly reported on tax returns, or when there is an overstatement of expenses on tax returns. Criminal Investigation investigates money laundering when either illegally obtained funds from healthcare fraud are used to purchase assets or when the perpetrators of the schemes devise elaborate methods to conceal their fraudulent proceeds. Money laundering occurs in a wide range of fraudulent healthcare schemes such as false claims, kickbacks, or staged accidents.
Typical healthcare fraud investigations are lengthy, labor intensive, and involve complex issues. To assist in combating healthcare fraud, CI participates in DOJ-sponsored, multi-agency task forces and works closely with several state agencies. These task forces capitalize on the strength and expertise of the participating agencies and have proven effective in dealing with healthcare fraud.
Criminal Investigation’s participation enhances multi-agency healthcare fraud investigations by documenting that the perpetrators of these schemes financially benefited from their fraudulent activities. Currently, CI is involved in the following areas of healthcare fraud: false billings, mental health, nursing home fraud, chiropractic fraud, durable medical equipment fraud, staged accidents, pharmaceutical diversion, and patient referral (kickbacks) schemes.
Statistical Data
Healthcare Fraud enforcement statistics on investigations initiated, prosecutions recommended, indictments, sentenced investigations and months to serve in prison.
Examples of Healthcare Fraud Investigations
Examples of investigations have been written from public record documents filed in the district courts where the case was prosecuted.
June 1st, 2011
Undercover Investigation Reveals Unfair Treatment of Dental Patients
According to the findings of an undercover investigation, dentists overcharge their patients and do not inform them correctly regarding the fact that they can get cheaper treatments through their NHS policies
According to the findings of an undercover investigation, dentists overcharge their patients and do not inform them correctly regarding the fact that they can get cheaper treatments through their NHS policies.
Some even go to the point where they pressure the patients to choose the private insurance, even though these patients could receive the same quality treatment through NHS, but much more cheaply.
There has also been a case where a patient received a quote 4 times more expensive than a non-private insurance quote for a root canal treatment.
These findings have been made public through the “Dispatches” team from Channel for on TV. There have even been sent out members from the public to go for NHS check-up at offices that offer both private and non-private treatments.
After the “patients” have spent on an average 15 minutes inside the office, they came out and said that they have been recommended to go with private care (the focus has been especially on hygienic dental services). An NHS scale and polish treatment costs around £16.50, but instead of that patients have been given quotes for private treatment which is much more expensive.
Some other members of the public were sent to three surgeries where they have been asking about the root canal treatment options.
With the NHS this treatment costs around £198, but instead patients have been quoted rates coming from the private sphere- £678, £598 and £725 respectively.
The opinion of Dr. Anthony Halperin who is a dentist and a member of the Patients Association is that these dentists are not sincere and rightful towards their patients.
The next step is that the coalition is ready to re-negotiate the dentistry deal of the Labour from 2006, to see what changes can be made in order to enforce fair treatment for the patients in the dentistry field.
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Health Care Fraud
Trends and Tips
06/28/10
A pharmaceutical company marketed four drugs to doctors. The drugs had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for specific medical conditions—like rheumatoid arthritis, schizophrenia, and neuropathic pain—but the company promoted the drugs for other uses as well—like post-operative pain, dementia, and migraines—and sometimes in larger doses than the FDA allowed. In some cases, the company even paid kickbacks to doctors to prescribe the drugs for these other uses.
What this company did is known as off-label marketing of prescription drugs, and it’s both illegal and potentially harmful to consumers. After an investigation involving the FBI and our federal and state partners, the company pled guilty to misbranding the drugs and agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle criminal and civil violations…the largest U.S. health care fraud settlement ever.
At the FBI, we take our health care fraud responsibilities seriously as the primary investigative agency with jurisdiction over both federal and private insurance programs. But with total health care expenditures in the U.S. expected to reach $2.26 trillion by 2016 according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the opportunity for fraud will continue to grow—so will our workload. That means we have to find ways to leverage our resources.
Latest Schemes and Scams
As part of its health care fraud program, the Bureau is looking at various fraud schemes involving:
– Home health care;
– Infusion therapy; and
– Durable medical equipment.
We’re also focused on other health care fraud-related crime problems impacting public safety, such as:
– Off-label marketing of prescription drugs;
– Drug diversion (prescription drugs diverted from legitimate supply sources for illicit distribution and abuse); and
– Internet pharmacies
Partnerships are key. A tried-and-true method of leveraging resources is establishing partnerships. And we’ve done just that—with federal agencies like the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration, various state and local agencies, and private insurance groups like the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association.
Our most recent joint endeavor? Our participation in the Department of Justice/Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, or HEAT, and its Medicare Fraud Strike Forces located in several major metropolitan areas.
The HEAT initiative includes senior Justice, FBI, and HHS officials who are focusing their efforts to reduce Medicare and Medicaid fraud through enhanced cooperation. And the strike forces, which use a data-driven approach to identify unexplainable billing patterns by health care providers and then investigate these providers for possible fraudulent activity, are a vital part of the initiative. As a result of strike force efforts, more than 300 cases have been filed and close to 600 defendants charged.
Health care fraud facts:
Health care fraud schemes come in all forms—fraudulent billings, medically unnecessary services or prescriptions, kickbacks, duplicate claims, etc.
Schemes target large health care programs—both public and private—as well as health care beneficiaries. (Medicare and the Medicaid are the largest programs, so they are targeted more often.)
Schemes are committed by health care providers, owners of medical facilities and laboratories, suppliers of medical equipment, organized crime groups, corporations, and even sometimes by the beneficiaries themselves.
FBI health care fraud cases sometimes cross over into other investigative areas, like organized crime, gangs, and cyber crime, where we see criminals beginning to use the proceeds from health care fraud schemes to fund their operations.
Tips to help avoid being victimized:
Protect your health insurance information card like a credit card.
Beware of free health services—are they too good to be true?
Review your medical bills, like your “explanation of benefits,” after receiving health care services and ensure the dates are services are correct.
And if you suspect health care fraud, contact your local FBI office.
The Affordable Care Act. Health Reform. Obamacare. Whatever you’d like to call it, it’s going mean something very tangible for millions more Americans in just four days.
Starting October 1 — that’s next Tuesday — Americans who need or want health insurance will be able to be able to go to healthcare.gov. They’ll be able to compare plans based on their needs, and they’ll be able to sign up for quality, affordable health coverage.
There are folks out there with questions about what this law means for them. It’s on all of us to make sure those questions are answered. That’s the only way this is going to work.
Our team has put together a great video that unpacks the law, piece by piece, in an incredibly simple way. It explains exactly what October 1 is going to mean for those millions of folks who need coverage.
Take a look, but don’t let it stop with you. We all know at least one person who either doesn’t have insurance, or wants to know more about the law. Forward this on to other folks who you know need to see it.
You’ve probably heard about the 3.1 million young adults who have gained coverage through their parents’ plans, the 6.3 million seniors who are paying less for prescription drugs, and the more than 100 million Americans who have gotten free preventative care like mammograms and cancer screenings.
Right now, the best thing we can do is make sure that, ahead of October 1, we don’t let valuable information like this die in our inboxes. So don’t let it happen. Start talking to your friends, your coworkers, your family members. Answer their questions. Make sure they know how to get covered, and then ask them to help others get covered.
That starts with sharing this video, right now, with the folks you know need to see it:
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013
Tomorrow is World Contraception Day, an annual event taking place on September 26 every year. Countries and regions around the world organize events to mark the day and to demonstrate their commitment to raising awareness of contraception and improving education regarding reproductive and sexual health.
The day is being marked when in Kenya the rising sales of emergency contraceptives commonly known as “morning-after pills” is worrying experts, following growing abuse by Kenya’s sexually active youth.
It is worrying that e-pills are being abused by many youth and underage girls. These pills are sold openly to young girls, including students by private chemists all over Kenya. Just as sex sells, so do the pills.
The drugs are supposed to be used twice per year but the girls take them almost every weekend without considering their side effects. This is because the pharmacists sell these drugs to these vulnerable young girls without doctor’s prescription. These pills are cheap and available. A packet sells for Sh150.
In a radio advertisement at the centre of a controversy in Kenya, a distraught teenage girl asks for help after having unprotected sex. “What shall I do? I’m still in college. What happens to my future, my friends, my family, my life?” she sobs.
Such advertisements have contributed a lot for the use of these pills among teenage girls. Some parents even encourage their girls to use them if they cannot overcome their sexual urges for intercourse.
Many young people are now using the e-pill routinely, some even buying the pills in advance in any case the boy friend insists on sex. College and university girls are using these pills irresponsibly.
Besides side-effects, like nausea, heavy bleeding and cramps, regular use of the emergency contraception may cause infertility and in some instances increase the risk of cancer, still this has not stopped these noble girls from using the pills.
The message these youth are getting is that what matters is that you go out and have fun because you won’t get pregnant. They don’t care about the side effect. The adverts are being sponsored by the US non-governmental organisation funding the campaign – Populations Services International in Kenya.
Besides that, frequent use of the e-pills affects your ovulation cycle and interferes with your fertility cycle. Yet taking the e-pill only solves a quarter of the problem, which is pregnancy, but leaves you susceptible to a myriad of serious STIs.
Furthermore, frequent consumption of the e-pill increases your chances of having an ectopic pregnancy. Again, since e-pills are used to prevent pregnancy within 120 hours of intercourse, girls who use them any time they have sex are at risk of terrible side effects.
E-pills are not supposed to be used as a regular birth control method due to their high hormonal content. Some of the most popular e-pills sold in Kenya are Postinor2, Pregno, Smart lady, Truston2 and Ecee2. Apart from nausea and dizziness, other side effects include vomiting and abdominal pain.
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
Kisumu County Governor Jack Ranguma suffered last week collapsed in his office after the names of the seven people he had proposed to be in the County’s Public Service Board was rejected in totality .
Ranguma had thought that by giving each County Rep kshs 10,000 they were going to pass the entire names of the nominees “Yie utera ot ir madame” (please take me to my wife) he told his aides cursing the County Reps saying they are the most hungry and unreliable lot.
While rejecting the list, the Assembly Members said the list has not met the constitutional requirements regarding appointments of Public officers.
Members of the Kisumu County Assembly cited the issue of leaving out the youth in the proposed list of nominees to the County’s Public Service Board as one of the reasons as to why they rejected the names.
During a heated debate on Wednesday, Members of the County Assembly who contributed during the debate said the issue of people with disability was also left out as none was considered for the proposed appointments.
Members of the County Assembly also claimed that people who have been marginalized and are residing within the county have also not been considered for the positions at the county’s Public Service Board hence leads to rejection.
However, Kisumu County Governor Jack Ranguma described the decision by the County Assembly Members as very disappointing, saying it moves back all the plans that had been put in place by his office to commence the implementation of development activities.
“Of course the County Assembly has the prerogative to approve or decline any appointments based on what is presumed to be fair, logical and meant to serve the good of the county and the people they represent,” he said in a press statement.
Ranguma however said he is still committed to working with all those who value progress and wish to see Kisumu County move away from empty politicking to development adding that this can only be achieved if the County’s Public service board is in place and able to recruit the needed manpower and put in place the necessary Human Resource that can support the development agenda.
“Many youths are jobless in the County and the I had hoped that the establishment of the PSB would enable the absorption of some of the youths into jobs at all levels by end of the year, so as to contribute to the development of the County and this is not just a loss to the County Management but to all Citizens as they will not benefit from any meaningful jobs or services soon”, Ranguma added.
He further asked all Citizens of Kisumu County including elected and nominated leaders to work with him as a team and see real development in Kisumu and not be drawn into endless diversionary politics.
The seven who have since been rejected include Eng. Nahason Ogwang proposed for chairmanship of the Board and Hesbon Owuor Hongo as the Secretary.
Others are Moses Odingo, Jackson Oyoo, Gabriel Amollo, Violet Onyango and Jacinta Kapiyo as Members of the Board.
A regional lawyers’ body want Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to commission an independent expert towards ending the Court of Appeal stalemate.
The East Africa Law Society (EALS) President Mr. James Aggrey Mwamu said that two contradictory reports on the safety of the Elgon Place building in Nairobi is causing confusion. “Two reports in public domain over health risks caused by telecommunication masts next to the building (Elgon Place) where the Court of Appeal should relocate in Upper Hill caused the stalemate,” Mr. Mwamu said.
The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) declared the multi-storied building safe but the Radiation Protection Board expressed reservations.
Court of Appeal Judges have refused to relocate to the building arguing that intense exposure to the telecommunication equipment, which releases radioactive emissions, could lead to sickness and even death.
“The Chief Justice should not snub the fundamental health concerns raised by the Judges,” Mr. Mwamu said. The EALS President said that even the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) raised the red flag over dangers posed by the alleged radioactive masts.
“The LSK are also major stakeholders in delivery of justice and their doubts on health should not be shoved aside,” Mr. Mwamu said.
The EALS President wondered the hurry in relocating the Court of Appeal arguing the Supreme Court where they are currently located is not crumbling.
“The Judiciary deals with fundamental rights of citizens and the Court of Appeal Judges should be protected by similar provisions provided under the Constitution,” Mr. Mwamu said. The EALS President also proposed that the Judiciary call a meeting with the Judges towards settling amicably the stalemate that may cause miscarriage of justice.
The LSK recently also warned lawyers against taking cases to the Upper Hill building until experts cleared the health concerns.
The relocation from the Court is part of a plan to refurbish the building and acquire new premises for the Judiciary over the next five years. Elgon Place was leased for that purpose. The lease has not been without controversy as it is one of the issues between the Judicial Service Commission and Chief Registrar Gladys Boss Shollei.
From: Dickens Wasonga
Date: Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 2:37 AM
To: jaluo karjaluo jaluo@jaluo.com
By Dickens Wasonga.
Leading research scientists all over the World are set to present the latest groundbreaking research on preventing, controlling and eliminating malaria , a killer disease and how they have been working to combat the emerging resistance to drugs, insecticides, among others.
This even as the malaria community celebrates 10 years of progress in driving down the unacceptable number of what happened 50 years ago when donor fatigue and a lack of new tools resulted in a resurgence of malaria incidences that took roughly a million lives a year in 2000.
The malaria community is responding by racing to hold on to the gains of the last ten years, while at the same time continuing to develop the tools that could help to eliminate and eventually eradicate malaria.
The Sixth Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference, the world’s largest gathering of malaria expert,will be held in Durban, South Africa, from 6-11 October 2013.
Leading scientists from across Africa and around the world who are pushing this groundbreaking research forward, will gather to present their latest findings in the areas of malaria diagnostics, control (including insecticides and mosquito behavior), treatment (drugs),and prevention (including long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying and vaccines).
At the conference, subtitled “Moving Towards Malaria Elimination: Investing in Research and Control,” they will be joined by thousands of other experts, national malaria control programme managers, policymakers, health care workers and community members who will highlight new developments and remaining challenges in the fight to defeat malaria once and for all.
Despite unprecedented advances, malaria continues to infect approximately 219 million people around the world each year.
In 2010, it took the lives of an estimated 660,000 people, the vast majority young children in Africa.
History has shown that decrease in support for fighting malaria in areas where significant progress has been made lead to a resurgence of the disease, potentially undoing years of effort and investment and putting millions of lives at risk.
If these patients are not informed to the extend they are making informed choices that they accept to offer their bodies to be used as guinea pigs by researchers, then this act is a serious crime against humanity and it is a violation and abuse of the same.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
– – – – – – – – – – –
Kenyan patients being used as guinea pigs by researchers
Updated Tuesday, September 10th 2013 at 12:36 GMT +3
By PETER ORENGO
Thousands of desperate Kenyan patients are being used as guinea pigs in a thriving multibillion-drug industry with some trials contravening the country’s laws and the international drugs-trial protocols.
A Dutch NGO, Somo, has released a report, Clinical Trials in Kenya, which says some of this research is conducted by individuals, especially university researchers working on their theses. The experiments conducted often raise ethical issues, especially when safety protocals are ignored.
The specialists say the problem is being compounded when desperate Kenyans diagnosed with cancer or HIV volunteer for trials solely to gain access to medicine and treatment.
Those carrying out the trials include poorly-paid university researchers and doctors who willingly use new drugs on patients upon being promised money, or an agreement for further studies in elite institutions outside the country.
The major risk factor here is bio-terrorism where the country could be exposed to harmful substances or even diseases worse than Aids. Those involved include renowned Kenyan professionals, who apart from working for drug companies, authorise the smuggling of medical samples such as blood and body part organs for study outside the country. The cartel is said to include high-level government officials.
“I know that a lot of our doctors and researchers participate, either knowingly or through orders of their superiors, in administering unapproved drugs on patients,” said a lead researcher who accepted to talk so long as he was not named.
“Also, Kenyans, especially those with HIV, are signing up for clinical trials because they think they may somehow end up being cured. Research is big business in this country.”
Moses Otsyula, now head of virology at Kenya’s Institute of Primate Research, raised the red flag a few years ago when he filed a lawsuit against Oxford University and eight British scientists, alleging fraud and theft of samples and research materials, which were ferried outside the country.
Samples
Otsyula was reported in a UK newspaper as saying British researchers “stole” samples of blood and computer data from Kenya’s Nyumbani orphanage where some HIV-positive children had defied expectations by surviving for many years without medication.
Lead researcher Rowland-Jones refuted the claims, saying her team had the necessary permissions for their research, and that any confusion about the status of ethical approval was accidental,
Currently, tens of trials are ongoing in Kenya, mostly by public research institutes with donor funding and a smaller number by multi-national pharmaceutical corporations with local counterparts. These are agencies and institutions working in HIV and Aids vaccine research and development, including IAVI, the NIH-sponsored HIV and Aids Vaccine Trials Network, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Walter Reed Project, the Medical Research Council UK, Wellcome Trust, the French Agency for Research on Aids, the Harvard Aids Institute and the European Union. Due to limited transparency, a complete overview of the trials has not been established.
Research procedures in the developed world are complex, elaborate and stringent, as they should be, if it involves bringing in new drugs to help people in need. Unfortunately, this is not happening in Kenya, says Johannes Odhiambo, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi.
“Although in theory, the application and clearance process in research is clear, there is limited coordination and communication among the national regulators, individual research institutes, so relevant ministries might cause substantial variation in review procedures.”
The country continues to experience a number of controversial issues over drug development for HIV, some concerning the ethical conduct of trials and some revolving around issues of ownership of intellectual property. A number of recent incidences have been exposed, while many other cases go unnoticed.
The first major ethical issue involved the Majengo case. In this incident, the University of Nairobi and University of Manitoba in Canada researchers followed a group of prostitutes in this area of Nairobi, who remained HIV-negative despite long exposure to HIV-positive men. They were hoping to discover what has kept the women HIV-negative and use their findings to develop a HIV vaccine.
Immune
The researchers worked with the Majengo prostitutes for more than 15 years, but later, some of these women, thought to be immune to HIV became infected. It was later reported that a specific cell mechanism in their bodies had kept these women free from infection.
The biggest complaint that came out of the Majengo case study and published in Canadian newspapers was that the prostitutes used in the study were exploited by researchers and had little to show for their contribution to science.
So while science is used as the bait, it is the desire to proft from these experiments that motivate researchers, experts say.
“It’s true, drug companies and donors in the past used some researchers to do their dirty work due to our lop-sided process. Today, every institution has a regulatory guideline. But others may still want to participate in an illegality for money,” said Odhiambo. “They also don’t have any ownership of material.”
In another recent example, a lead researcher warned Kenyans against being duped by experts who claimed he had found a cure for Aids after two patients allegedly turned negative when the doctor administered methotrexate — an anti-cancer treatment drug — and a cocktail of other drugs.
Dr Patrick Orege of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) in Kisumu and also a former director of the National Aids Control Council says methotrexate has known serious side effects on those who use it. Furthermore, it is not clear how many patients had used the drug before the two claimed they were cured of HIV. There is no evidence to suggest that it was put through scientific clinical trials and the findings published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Experts worry that research guidelines that exists are being overlooked.
“Good science should be able to protect the public from a drug’s potentially dangerous side effects. What we are seeing in Kenya is a lot of abuse by researchers who sometimes give patients toxic drugs with serious side effects. This should not be happening,” said Dr Orege.
In an incident dubbed “Cellphone data mining breakthrough technology,” researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Kemri admitted they used unauthorised data to conduct a survey on how malaria spreads in Kenya without informing the participants, which is unethical going by international research protocols.
A statement posted on the university’s website says between June 2008 and June 2009, the researchers mapped every call or text made by each of 14,816,521 Kenyan mobile phone subscribers to one of 11,920 cell towers located in 692 different settlements.
The other incident is the Asembo Bay Cohort Project where pregnant women in a 15-village study area were enrolled without their knowledge, and monitored at monthly intervals until the final month of gestation when weekly visits were conducted. It recorded an abnormally high neonatal mortality which researchers equated to high HIV prevalence.
And it does not end there. In 2001, a bitter row erupted between the owners of a Nairobi HIV and Aids orphanage and a researcher at Kenya’s Institute of Primate Research over blood samples which were allegedly collected from the minors and siphoned off to Oxford University in the UK.
A researcher who exposed the scandal said the director of the home had been bleeding HIV-positive children with the help of interns from the UK in exchange for money for the institution.
Another study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which reportedly involved the Kenya Medical Research Institute, was later disowned by the Kemri director who said the institution was not aware of such a study.
The study had revealed the discovery of new malaria-transmitting mosquito species in the western areas of Kenya by scientists from London and Kemri.
Since the authors of the study included those from Kemri, we can only deduce that the Kenyan researchers in the project participated without the authority of their bosses.
In Kenya, the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST) is responsible for coordinating all research and advising the government on research-related matters. Two other national bodies involved in ethical review are the Kenya HIV and Aids Vaccine Subcommittee, and the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, both of which are affiliated with the Ministry of Health.
The country has three fundamental documents regulating human subjects research. They include the NCST-promulgated Guidelines for Ethical Conduct of Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects in Kenya, pursuant to the Science and Technology Act of 1979, which set forth a framework for determining if a research proposal is ethical.
The other one is a 2005 Ministry of Health-enacted National Guidelines for Research and Development of HIV/Aids Vaccines. These guidelines specifically address human subjects research proposals relating to the effort to identify HIV and Aids vaccines.
Kemri also has guidelines for research that is conducted through that institution. The institution, established under the 1979 Science and Technology (Amendment) Act, is responsible for carrying out health science research.
“While researchers typically must seek final approval from NCST, certain institutions have final approval power themselves. Two institutions with committees that can grant final approval are Kemri and Kenyatta National Hospital, which are responsible for reviewing all research proposals from Ministry of Health researchers,” said Dr Kizito Lubano, a data analyst at Kemri.
For HIV/Aids vaccine research, investigators must submit a concept paper to the Kenya HIV/Aids Vaccine sub-committee, which will respond with advice. The investigators must next submit a proposal simultaneously to the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and to NCST or another designated ethical review committee. Both of these bodies must approve the research plan.
Unfortunately, these guidelines have not been reviewed since the 1970s and 1980s when they came into force, making the current level of research approvals porous.
It is estimated that some 3,000 doctors each year are paid by drug firms to sign up their patients to tests and on average 15 patients are needed for each trial, according to ProPublica’s Dollars for Docs database. With doctors picking up Sh140,000 per patient, drug companies are spending over Sh3.8 billion, on getting doctors onside. There is no suggestion the companies are implicated in moves to carry out the tests by doctors on patients secretly. Medical fraud experts from the US Food and Drug Administration estimate that one per cent of all new drug trials involve fraud, including failure to get proper consent from patients. This means milions of patients a year are being given unapproved and potentially dangerous drugs without their knowledge.
In a recent document, Steps to Advance the Earliest Phases of Clinical Research in the Development of Innovative Medical Treatments, it was reported that 92 out of every 100 drugs that successfully pass animal trials and go into human clinical testing fail during the human clinical trial phase. The problem is that species differences are so vast that animal results are, at best, a very poor approximation of what will happen in humans or, at worst, dangerously misleading. The alternative is to advance science to the point where preclinical tests are based on human biology, which will better predict what will happen to real human volunteers or patients in the clinical trials.
In Kenya, it is the hands-off approach that is the source of concern.
“People have the right to make their own informed decisions as to whether they want to participate in any research. They must, therefore, be informed about the background of the study, what benefits and risks are involved, how long the study will go on, and they must be able to comprehend the information given,” says former director of medical services Dr James Nyikal in a report, Kenya National Guidelines for Research and Development of HIV/Aids Vaccines.
Article by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala, DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 28 (Reuters) – The Tanzanian government said it was committed to stamping out child labour in small-scale gold mines after a U.S. rights group said thousands of minors were at risk from working in dangerous conditions.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said children as young as eight years old were working in small mines in Tanzania, Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer.
They are at risk of injury from pit collapses and accidents with tools as well as of long-term health damage from exposure to mercury, breathing dust and carrying heavy loads, it said.
“Child labour is a serious problem in small-scale mines,” Tanzania’s deputy energy and minerals minister, Stephen Masele, told Reuters on Wednesday, the same day the report was published.
“More advocacy is needed to ensure parents understand the importance of education for their children,” he
said. “We have been carrying out frequent surprise inspections at mines to crack down on this problem.”
There are more than 800,000 miners working in small-scale gold operations in Tanzania, thousands of whom are children, the rights group said.
“They dig and drill in deep, unstable pits, work underground for shifts of up to 24 hours, and transport and crush heavy bags of gold ore,” said the report titled, “Toxic Toil: Child Labour and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania’s Small-Scale Gold Mines.”
The government has pledged to end the practice, but Human Rights Watch said it was not doing enough.
“On paper, Tanzania has strong laws prohibiting child labour in mining, but the government has done far too little to enforce them,” said Janine Morna, a researcher at the rights group.
“Labour inspectors need to visit both licensed and unlicensed mines regularly and ensure employers face sanctions for using child labour,” she said.
The group said girls who work on or near mining sites sometimes become victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. (Editing by Edmund Blair and Jane Baird)
On Wednesday, August 28, 2013 3:58:23 PM UTC+3, Abdalah Hamis wrote
Children as young as eight-years-old are working in Tanzanian small-scale gold mines, with grave risks to their health and even their lives, Human Rights Watch said in a reportreleased today. The Tanzanian government should curb child labor in small-scale mining, including at informal, unlicensed mines, and the World Bank and donor countries should support these efforts.
The 96-page report, “Toxic Toil: Child Labor and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania’s Small-Scale Gold Mines,”describes how thousandsof children work in licensed and unlicensed small-scale gold mines inTanzania, Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer. They dig and drill in deep, unstable pits, work underground for shifts of up to 24 hours, and transport and crush heavy bags of gold ore. Children risk injury from pit collapses and accidents with tools, as well as long-term health damage from exposure to mercury, breathing dust, and carrying heavy loads. A 17-year-old boy who survived a pit accident told Human Rights Watch, “I thought I was dead, I was so frightened.”
“Tanzanian boys and girls are lured to the gold mines in the hopes of a better life, but find themselves stuck in a dead-end cycle of danger and despair,” said Janine Morna, children’s rights research fellow at Human Rights Watch. “Tanzania and donors need to get these children out of the mines and into school or vocational training.”
Many children who work in mining are orphans or other vulnerable children who lack basic necessities and support. Human Rights Watch also found that girls on and around mining sites face sexual harassment, including pressure to engage in sex work. Some girls become victims of commercial sexual exploitation and risk contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted infections.
Human Rights Watch visited 11 mining sites in Geita, Shinyanga, and Mbeya regions, and interviewed more than 200 people, including 61 children working in small-scale gold mining. The employment of children in dangerous mining work is one of the worst forms of child labor under international agreements, to which Tanzania is a party.
“On paper, Tanzania has strong laws prohibiting child labor in mining, but the government has done far too little to enforce them,” Morna said. “Labor inspectors need to visit both licensed and unlicensed mines regularly, and ensure employers face sanctions for using child labor.”
Child laborers, as well as children living near mining sites, are at serious risk of mercury poisoning. Mercury attacks the central nervous system and can cause lifelong disability to children, whose developing bodies are more easily affected by the heavy metal. The miners, including children, mix mercury with crushed ground ore and burn the resulting gold-mercury amalgam to release the gold, exposing them to poisonous mercury fumes. Even small children who are not working are often present during this process, which is sometimes carried out in the home.
Most adult and child miners are unaware of these health risks. Health workers lack training and facilities and are not equipped to diagnose or treat mercury poisoning. Existing laws and initiatives on mercury have largely failed to reduce mercury use.
Tanzania has helped craft a new global treaty to reduce mercury exposure worldwide, which more than 140 governments agreed upon in January 2013. The Minamata Convention on Mercury, named for the site in Japan of a mercury poisoning disaster half a century ago, will be adopted in October near Minamata.
“Tanzania helped bring about the Minamata Convention on Mercury,” Morna said. “Now, to protect the future of its own people and of its own growing mining industry, it needs to take the lead to protect its children – by monitoring, testing, and treating them for mercury exposure and getting them out of the mines.”
Working in the mines interferes with children’s education. Children working in mining sometimes skip classes or drop out of school altogether. Teachers told Human Rights Watch that school attendance and performance decreased when a gold mine opened nearby. In addition, many adolescents seek full-time employment, including in mining, because they lack access to secondary school or vocational training.
A 15-year-old boy in the Geita district summed up the impact of mining on his life: “It is difficult to combine mining and school. I don’t get time to go through tutoring [which takes place on the weekends]. I wonder about the mine, it distracts me…. One day … I fell sick [after mining and missed classes]. I had pain all over my body.”
The Tanzanian government should expand access to secondary school and vocational training and improve child protection, Human Rights Watch said. The government and donors should provide financial and political backing for the new action plan on the most vulnerable children and include orphans from mining areas in the Tanzania Social Action Fund’s program of grants and conditional cash transfers to vulnerable populations.
The World Bank and other donors to the mining sector should also support steps to end child labor in mining and reduce the exposure of children and adults to mercury, Human Rights Watch said. For example, they should help children transition from work in unlicensed mines to schooling, and ensure that newly licensed mines do not use child labor. A current US$55 million World Bank project to support the mining sector does not directly address child labor.
The gold industry has a responsibility to ensure it does not benefit directly or indirectly from unlawful child labor, Human Rights Watch said. Yet most gold traders Human Rights Watch interviewed in Tanzania had no procedures to keep gold mined by children out of their supply chains.
Small traders typically purchase gold directly at the mines or in mining towns and then sell it to larger traders in Tanzania. Sometimes the gold passes through several intermediaries before reaching the traders who export the gold. According to the Tanzanian government, small-scale miners produced about 1.6 tons of gold in 2012 – worth about US$85 million.
The top destination for gold from Tanzanian small-scale mines is the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Gold is also exported to Switzerland, South Africa, China, and the United Kingdom.
“Whether small or large, Tanzanian or global, businesses should avoid becoming entangled with unlawful child labor in their supply chain,” Morna said. “As those with the buying power, gold traders have leverage over their suppliers. They should use it to protect children and to protect consumers from buying gold tainted by child labor.”
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
Winnie from Nanyuki, Kenya writes: “Dear Editor, I read with keen interest your News Dispatch on how our young girls procure abortion at a high rate. This is shocking as a parent. I also read about the bad use of phones and internet.
I have just been reading today’s Standard (yesterday) how crooked doctors mint money from young girls who go for abortion and how commercial sex workers among minors is alarming in Kenya. I fail to understand why all these do happen and we are just watching”.
Fr Boniface Silayo from Kakamega, Kenya writes: “Dear Fr. Omolo thanks for the articles particularly those about the use of cell phone, internet cyber café as a source of entertainment instead of being means of communication and enrichment of knowledge. This behaviour is leading to many youths into a dangerous disease of addiction, psycho-neurosis similar to drug addicts, alcoholism, depression etc. It is important to recall the moral fabrics to these youths before it is too late.
It is also important to provide enough recreation facilities to the youth and even adult people living in towns. The social fabrics that existent sometimes back in our traditional African setting is rapidly dying away and many people are entering to solitude life without values. Please treat this apostolate with the all the Christian and African means of rebuilding values to the young generations and the cities dwellers who are so much exposed lonely lives”.
Sentiments of Winnie and Fr Silayo are the same to many of our readers. This topic has also been the centre of Fcebook debate since I posted it to my time line. It demonstrates how our society is concerned about our beloved young ones.
Winnie is referring to yesterday story on Standard Newspaper where nineteen-year-old Victoria reenacted how a ‘doctor’ at a clinic in Huruma pumped out blood from her womb using some straw-like plastic. She was 17 then.
Victoria didn’t even know she was pregnant until she started falling sick. She shared with a friend, and she said we need to check out and get rid of it, fast. They went to a local ‘doctor’ at the backroom of a two-roomed, plywood partitioned clinic asked her not to scream. The pain was unbearable. Then the bleeding was unstoppable.
After a few months, she was pregnant again, but unlike the first time when she was asked to pay Sh2,000, she was asked for Sh5,000. Many young girls like Victoria flock such backstreet clinics because it is shameful to be with pregnancy.
Some parents are the first to take their children in such deadly and risk clinics. Some deaths have been reported because some of these clinical officers are not qualified to perform abortion.
For Victoria abortion was the only option because when her parents realized she was pregnant they would disown her- And for parents who encourage their girls to abort do so because of shame or because they wanted them to continue with their school.
But women like Victoria rarely learn from mistakes. After her second abortion, Victorial joined a local high school and settled down for her studies. But soon she met a garbage collector who would smile at her everyday, then started buying her chips and giving her bus fare. After a while, she was “in love”. She fell pregnant for the third time. She was in Form Four. She went ahead and sat her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams last year while pregnant.
At eight months, she decided get rid of it. She paid Sh6,000 to another ‘doctor’ who told her that it was a small matter. This time, the doctor injected her hand and then used a tool that look like a crochet needle.
Winnie also raised a concern on commercial sex workers of underage girls taking place nearby towns of Mai Mahiu and Gilgil where the crisis is coupled with a recent increase in cases of defilement with majority of the minors affected belonging to the sex workers.
With a prevalence of 7.1 percent, the trading center emerged the top with the high number of truck drivers and commercial sex workers attributed to the number. The increase in cases of defilement in the area is recording between 3-5 cases per week. Mai Mahiu, Kihoto and Karagita estates are some of most affected areas with parental negligence blamed for the increase.
A survey conducted by Kenya’s national statistics bureau suggests 10,000 to 30,000 children under 18 are involved in commercial sex, according to Grace Banya, chief technical advisor for the International Labour Organization, which works towards eliminating child labour.
“What is terrifying is that some of the children involved in commercial sex are as little as 10 years old yet this is the worst form of child labour,” Banya told the Standard.
Part of the reason for involving in sex worker is due to Government’s failure to stem unemployment, which now stands at 70 per cent. Many parents can’t afford taking their children to school due to lack of employment. Many of these underage girls sex workers are school dropouts in class 8-their parents can’t take them to secondary schools or any course.
Kenya’s National Aids Control Council estimates there are more than 7,000 commercial sex workers in Nairobi alone while more are spread in main economic hubs of Kisumu, Eldoret and Mombasa as well as border towns of Busia and Malaba.
Approximately 7,000 sex workers operate in Nairobi per night with each having an average of 3-4 clients, which translates to between 21,000 and 28,000 sexual activities a night.
In Kisii township underage commercial sex workers is located at Kisii old bus stage, stretches downwards to the junction that connects to Kisii’s capital round about. This area is active from as early as 7pm, with skimpily dressed ladies some young enough to be in late primary or high school.
The street is lined up with parked trailers and trucks until the wee hours of the morning. These girls flock to truck drivers and turn boys who give them food and money after the service.
Around the area the lodging landlords are making a killing from the trade due to the unique way the workers ‘sell their goods’. As the night progresses the sex workers will be fairly distributed across the town CBD with higher concentration around major night spots and drinking dens selling cheap liquor. This scenario is more compounded on weekends starting Friday through Sunday, game nights and holiday seasons.
Apart from local sex workers, at least 50 girls, aged between ten and 15, are sold every week to tour operators and tourist hotels at Sh60,000 each as sex workers and to star in pornographic movies according to recent report released on Tuesday by the International Peace Institute (IPI) which says that the girls are trafficked or smuggled to Nairobi from North Eastern Province and Somalia.
The report says the girls are taken to massage parlours or beauty shops, where contacts from tour operators and hotels come to select the ones they wish to take as sex workers. Tour operators and hotel workers also operate as traffickers and brokers.
The report says the trafficked children are then taken to scheduled villas in Mombasa where sex tourism thrives. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has estimated that about 10,000 people are trafficked into Coast Province each year.
Mombasa is a destination for people trafficked from as far as Uganda, Somalia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. The report claims that most traffickers are Somalis and those who head and control the network are known as makhalis.
In Nairobi and Garissa, the report claims that some traffickers operate as travel agents for airlines. They pay taxes for their legitimate businesses to ensure that they do not attract queries from Government authorities. There are at least five to ten makhalis in northern Kenya and in Eastleigh in Nairobi.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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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
Chinese and African Leaders Herald a New Era of Health Cooperation at First China-Africa Health Ministers’ Meeting
Leaders issue Beijing Declaration to set priorities for health collaboration at the first meeting of health ministers under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)
BEIJING, China, August 16, 2013/ — Today, dozens of African health ministers and Chinese health officials gathered at the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development (http://www.focac.org/eng/) to map out new efforts to support Africa’s long-term health progress and shape the future of China-Africa health cooperation. This was the first-ever meeting of health ministers under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) since it was established in 2000, demonstrating the highest level of political commitment to tackle Africa’s most pressing health challenges together.
At the Forum, health ministers and officials launched the Beijing Declaration of the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development, which sets a roadmap for jointly addressing key health challenges across Africa, including malaria, schistosomiasis, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, immunization and vaccine preventable diseases. Under the Declaration, China and African countries will embark on new efforts to achieve sustainable, long-term health solutions, such as increasing partnerships on joint research and addressing the shortage of healthcare workers. China and African countries will engage further with private enterprise to encourage technology transfer and increase access to low-cost health technologies that meet high quality standards. The Declaration emphasizes that such health cooperation efforts will align with African countries’ priorities as well as national and regional development plans.
“China and African countries have enjoyed strong and effective partnerships on health for half a century, based on our common experiences and our shared vision for a brighter and healthier future for all our citizens,” said Hon. Min. Awa Coll-Seck, Minister of Health of Senegal. “The Beijing Declaration solidifies our governments’ commitments to developing and implementing Africa-led strategies that drive sustainable health progress and improve the lives of people across the continent.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of China sending medical teams to African countries, with the first team sent to Algeria in 1963. Since then, thousands of medical personnel have served in 43 African countries. China has also worked with African partners and international organizations to build hospitals and malaria centers, train health workers and increase access to antimalarial treatments and other health technologies. Academic institutions and private companies have also supported these efforts.
Now, China and African countries are exploring opportunities to build on this progress and contribute new resources, innovation and leadership to drive health progress across Africa. “Chinese and African citizens live on the same planet, under the same sky. China’s partnership with Africa is rooted in humanitarianism. As President Xi described, this love has no borders,” said Hon. Dr. Li Bin, Minister of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission. “I believe the Chinese Medical Teams will strive to make a greater contribution in the future.”
In this new era of collaboration, Chinese and African government officials and other stakeholders will work closely together to identify sustainable solutions to health challenges. This will include bolstering human resources capacity in African countries, supporting domestic manufacturing capacity, and increasing access to low-cost, high-quality health products.
These joint efforts will draw on and leverage China’s own experiences with improving public health in a resource-limited setting. China will also share the tools and expertise it has acquired through its investments in health research and development, the production of health technologies, and its current health reform effort to expand healthcare to all citizens.
China and African countries will also work closely with key global health stakeholders to support China-Africa health cooperation, including multilateral organizations, international NGOs and civil society organizations. Representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, African Union, World Bank, GAVI Alliance and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria were observers of the Forum. These international partners have been critical to the health progress already made in both China and African countries, and their expertise and experiences can support deepened and more effective China-Africa health cooperation.
“The decades of collaboration between China and Africa has long been characterized by friendship and goodwill,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. “China is now a significant force in Africa’s development, with substantially increased commitments and engagements. This is a south-to-south model of development cooperation based on mutual interests and respect.”
The Ministerial Forum builds on important discussions in Botswana at the 4th International China-Africa Health Cooperation Roundtable, which took place for the first time in Africa in May 2013.
The Forum is held under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and is hosted by the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, formerly the Ministry of Health. Together, these meetings have laid the groundwork for continued South-South collaboration between China and African countries on pressing health challenges.
Distributed by African Press Organization on behalf of the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development.
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2012
Last Saturday Rev Fr Augustine Achaha of the Apostles of Jesus Missionaries presided over a wedding ceremony between Emily Matunda Mwafusi and Christopher Mwakatili Chorongo, one of its kind in 3 years at St Thomas Catholic Church in Magadi Soda, Ngong Diocese.
Basing his 37 minutes homily on extramarital sex and infidelity in marriage, Father Achaha caused laughter when he asked a question on what good do men get in other women’s wives that is not in their wives.
People laughed of course, but the truth of the matter is that cases of extramarital sex and infidelity in marriage are on the rise. Here in Kenya the act is popularly known in Swahili as ‘mpango wa kando’ (extramarital sex).
This is where a married man keeps a mistress elsewhere without the knowledge of his wife. A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner but can have children that the man must take care of as his rest of the lawful children.
The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually, but not always, secret. There is an implication that a mistress may be “kept”—i.e., that the lover is paying for some of the woman’s living expenses including paying school fees for children and paying rent.
Because of its graveness this act may carry moral or religious and consequences in civil or religious law. It can lead to separation or divorce.
In Judaism the Torah prescribes the death penalty through stoning for adultery, which is defined as having sex with a woman who is married to another man. Two witnesses of good character had to testify in court for the case to be even considered by the judges.
Extramarital sex is considered to be immoral by most Christian groups, who base this primarily on passages like 1Cor 6:9-10: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor those who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Extramarital sex has historically been considered to be one of the more serious and damaging sins, possibly because of passages like 1 Corinthians 6:18 that speak of it as sinning against one’s own body.
In Islam the law prescribes severe punishments extramarital sex, by both men and women. Premarital sex could be punished by up to 100 lashes, while adultery is punishable by stoning.
There are reasons men give for cheating on their wives. They do so because they have become unsatisfied with their wives. Cheating usually occurs in the phase of companionate love, when couples begin to settle down, have kids and solidify the life being built together.
There are five categories leading to infidelity. One is opportunistic infidelity which occurs when a partner is in love and attached to a partner, but surrenders to their sexual desire for someone else. The opportunistic infidelity is driven by irrepressible lust, situational circumstances and/or opportunity, and sometimes, pure risk-taking behavior.
The second category is obligatory infidelity based on fear that refraining from someone’s sexual advances will result in rejection, and being unwilling to handle such rejection, resulting in surrender to them. Some people end up cheating solely on the need for approval from somebody, even though they still hold a strong attraction to their committed partner.
The third category is romantic infidelity which occurs when the cheater is in the process of “falling out of love” with his/her partner. The person’s self-perceived obligatory commitment to the relationship’s tenets and overall life-meaning is likely the only thing still keeping them with their partner in this example.
The fourth category is conflicted romantic infidelity which takes place when a person both falls in love with and has a strong sexual desire for multiple people at one time, even though s/he may already be committed to a partner.
In this circumstance the person feels s/he cannot tell his/her committed partner about what has happened, but is nevertheless unable to resist the compulsion.
The fifth category is commemorative infidelity which occurs when a person has completely fallen out of love with their spouse, but is still in a committed relationship with them.
If divorce results from infidelity, research suggest that the “faithful” spouse may experience feelings of low life satisfaction and self esteem; they may also engage in future relationships fearful of the same incidence occurring. Divorce is one response to marital infidelity.
The church is concerned about these issues because marriage and the family are of fundamental importance for the Church and for society.
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
A radical Muslim preacher wanted for questioning over the acid attack on two British tourists in Zanzibar was shot on Saturday night as he fled police trying to arrest him.
Sheikh Issa Ponda is understood to have survived the raid and was on the run but injured, police sources told The Daily Telegraph.
He had visited Zanzibar in the weeks running up to the attack on Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both from north London, who were on Saturday still in hospital being treated for their injuries.
Ponda earlier this month met with the imprisoned leaders of a Muslim separatist group, Uamsho, who police believe may have inspired the attack on the two women.
Tanzania’s director of public prosecutions, Elieza Feleshi, on Friday ordered that the cleric be arrested after accusing him of inciting violence, for which he was convicted earlier this year and given a 12 month suspended sentence.
“He narrowly escaped from the police in Morogoro, he was shot by our officers, but we are pursuing him,” said Faustine Shilogile, a senior police commander in Morogoro, the town 110 miles west of Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, where Ponda was shot.
The women, both aged 18, were admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Friday where they were receiving treatment for burns inflicted in an unprovoked attack while they were on a volunteering holiday.
Family members of the pair are believed to be keeping a bedside vigil, after the teenagers were flown home yesterday and immediately sent to the capital’s regional burns centre.
A hospital spokesman confirmed the women continued to be treated by medics, and their conditions were described as “stable”.
Miss Gee has already taken to Twitter to say: “Thank you for all your support x”.
Their doctor, Andy Williams, a consultant burns and plastic surgeon, said: “We can confirm that Katie and Kirstie have been transferred to our care at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s burns unit where we’re still assessing their injuries.
“Both families would like to thank everyone that’s helped to bring the girls back.
“The families now wish to have time with the girls and that the media would respect their privacy at this difficult time.”
A photograph released by the girls’ families showed the injuries one of them suffered in the attack.
The girl is shown wearing an open striped shirt and a silver necklace.
What appear to be acid burns are clearly visible on her chin, neck and upper chest.
One of the girl’s injuries are much worse than the other’s, it was reported, because helpers used dirty water on her burns.
One of the victims was reportedly immersed in the sea in the aftermath of the attack at Stone Town, a beach resort, and the salt water helped her skin.
“That completely altered the result: the salt water and the acid,” Miss Trup’s father, Marc, said.
“The other girl panicked, ran around, made her way to a public toilet.”
When “they got to the medical centre there was no shower,” he added. “They were throwing dirty water at her.”
from: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2013
Homa Bay County Governor Cyprian Awiti expressed concern over the weekend about cases of school pregnancies and early marriages in his county. This is the county where cases of teachers defiling their students have proved uncontrollable. Many schoolgirls have dropped out of school after getting pregnant.
The problem extends to the neighboring Migori County where Suba and Nyatike districts have has been mostly affected. Other districts include Homa Bay, Ndhiwa, Mbita and Rachuonyo. These districts have been hit hard by the vice where a school could record up to ten cases of pregnancies in a year.
Efforts by authorities including chiefs to prevent parents from encouraging their daughters to get married at early age have not worked out either. Parents have also encouraged sexual relationships between their underage daughters and the miners in the areas because these miners have some money to spend both on the girl and on the parents.
According to Emily Waga, a senior children’s officer in the area this is happening because where poverty is common, girls become the best way out of it for many families. Many girls according to Ruth Adero, a maternal and child health nurse at Nyatike District Hospital are younger than 18 account for 48 percent of all expectant mothers visiting the Hospital.
Speaking to reporters in his Kisumu office recently, the area director of education Mr.Geoffrey Cherongis said the whole Nyanza Province is affected. Many of these girls are vulnerable because they are orphans and can easily be abused by men.
Apart from mining areas, the worst affected are those who hails from the fishing communities along the shores of Lake Victoria. Up to 13,000 Kenyan girls drop out of school every year as a result of pregnancy, and around 17 percent of girls have had sex before they turn 15.
Even though school’s policy in Kenya is to encourage girls to return to school after they give birth, many felt too stigmatised or had no help to look after their children and therefore stayed away or got married.
Many pregnancies have been reported from the slums. This is because many parents in the slum had inadequate control since work kept them away from their children, sometimes for days.
As a result, children learnt about sex from the wrong sources, such as the numerous video halls that allowed children to view pornographic films.
The girls also have to live in one room with their parents until they are mature, and many of them witness their parents having sex, so they learn about it early.
It is not only Homa Bay County or Nyanza that is affected but Kenya in general. It is reported that in Kenya, teenage pregnancies remain high at 18 per cent though with regional differentials.
In most cases, boda boda riders and relatives are accused of luring young girls with money and other goodies. Other culprits include amorous teachers, male pupils and members of the public.
Perhaps the most recent shocking incident is that of Chepkurkur Primary in Mt Elgon, Bungoma County where 18 pupils got pregnant and dropped out of school in June this year.
In the same month in Cheplanget Primary in Buret, Kericho County, five girls aged between 11 and 16 dropped out of school for similar reasons and boda boda riders were said to be the culprits.
Similarly, a survey by Plan International last year showed a total of 120 schoolgirls in Kilifi County dropping out of school due to early pregnancies.
Another survey by the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) indicates that the Coastal region has the second highest teenage pregnancy rate in Kenya after the former Nyanza province.
The report shows that 26 per cent of teenagers in the former Coast province become pregnant after Nyanza which has a rate of 27 per cent rate. The teenage pregnancy rate for Central is 10 per cent. This statistics were not provided for other regions.
Report indicates that girls aged 15-19 years within coast region had already begun child bearing, while in Murang’a County the highest number of teenage pregnancies accounts for 18 per cent of teenage pregnancies within Central Kenya region.
While according to national figures the youth who are below the age of 18 account for 46 per cent of the national population, about 16 million girls between the age of 16 and 19 give birth a year, this is despite the fact that the Children’s Act provides for children’s rights to education.
In Section 7(1) it states, “Every child shall be entitled to education, the provision of which shall be the responsibility of the Government and parents.” Section 7(2) affirms the right and entitlement for every child to free basic education, which shall be compulsory in accordance with Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Yet the numbers of those teenagers visiting clinics for ante-natal services are few since many cannot afford the services or live too far from the clinics. For others, affording a single meal is a problem.
Before he became pope, Francis spoke his mind about many of the most sensitive topics the Roman Catholic Church faces today and sex abuse among minors was one of them. From “On Heaven and Earth,” published in 2012, and his authorized biography “The Jesuit,” published in 2010 and republished last recently as “Pope Francis, Pope calls for sex education to help curb the mess.
But he warns; this is only if done holistically, with love and not just sex in mind.
“I think it should be done throughout the growth of children, adapted to each phase. … What happens now is many of those who raise the banner of sex education understand it as separate from the person’s humanity. So, instead of counting on a sexual education law for the entire person, for love, it’s reduced to a law for sex.”
The church had initially argued that it was too risky introducing the subject in schools because of suspicions that teachers and organizations that have been campaigning for the use of condoms could use the forum to supply the students with such devices.
In other words, sex education in schools should be handled by teachers of integrity and high morals and who are themselves trained on the issues so as to avoid a negative effect or influence on impressionable minds while trying to shape the lives of the young people.
In Sub-Saharan African by age 20, at least 80 percent youth are sexually experienced. For instance, 73 percent of all Liberian women aged 15 to 19 have had intercourse, as have 53 percent of Nigerian, 49 percent of Ugandan, and 32 percent of Botswanan women.
In many sub-Saharan countries, first sexual activity takes place before marriage. Among Kenyan women, the median age at first marriage is 18.8 years, while the median age of first intercourse is 16.8 years. Data also show that four percent of Kenyan men are married by age 18, although 64 percent report sexual intercourse before that age.
Factors that influence the median age at first intercourse include residence and education. In Kenya, rural young women engage in intercourse earlier than urban women, and the median age at first intercourse for women with no education, three years earlier than women with at least a secondary school education.
In a Ugandan study, 17 percent of young women ages 15 to 18 have undergone an abortion. Most of them are not prepared to take care of the children because the reason for having intercourse was not for having babies.
A review of 13 studies in seven sub-Saharan African countries show that adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19 years account for 39 to 72 percent of all abortion-related complications.
Young men often begin sexual activity earlier and have more sexual partners than young women. In Guinea, the mean age for first sexual intercourse among young men is 15.6 and among young women, 16.3. Further, Guinea’s sexually active young men report a mean lifetime number of four sexual partners, compared to 2.1 partners among sexually active young women.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.comFacebook-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
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2013
Deputy President William Ruto over the weekend on his political tour to woe electorates in Western Kenya to join and support Jubilee coalition said chiefs are to blame for teen pregnancy, threatening they would be sacked if they do not stop the vice. Ruto said chiefs know very well who impregnate these girls and yet they do not charge them.
This is to think naïve. All of us politicians, business men, members of clergy, etc are responsible for the pregnancy of these innocent tender girls. January 10, 2005 was a Monday like today when my article ran on Kenya Times.
The article depicted the drama in an Eldoret when members of the public caught a business man red-handed with a school girl in lodging preparing to have sex. This was just few of such cases that had been reported in that area.
When the 16-year old Form Two girl who admitted to have consented to sex after the business man had bought her some chapati (flat baked bread), was asked why she consented to sex when she was still a minor and at school, the answer crowned it all. We are consenting to sex because our parents cannot afford to cater for our basic needs.
The girl did not shy off to state very bravely that there were several of such business men in the area who lured schoolgirls with money. They even bought them expensive phones, paid their school fees, did for them shopping. “These guys are just good to us”, the girl expressed.
The girl who said the man who is having sex with her even when school is closed was her neighbour said he had bought an assortment of items for her to take to school. He had taken her to a supermarket in town where he did the back-to-school shopping for her before the lodging ordeal.
The girl said almost every girl in that school had an elderly man friend and her case was just very unfortunate because they were caught. The whole thing here is not just sex- it is to do with poverty.
While Ruto was putting blames on chiefs, elsewhere a doctor had been arrested for performing abortion on 17 years old girl. Again this is just few cases of abortions performed on teenagers. On Thursday, September 23, 2004 the same newspaper, Kenya Times ran my story on this ordeal.
The story was about the former Nairobi archdiocese Bishop’s secretary, Father Maloba Wesonga. He had thrown the blame on the leading Catholic leaders including President Kibaki, Leader of the Official Opposition Uhuru Kenyatta and National Assembly Speaker, Francis Ole Kaparo for failing to come forward to condemn abortion in Kenya which was on the rise that year.
A National Assessment of the Magnitude and Consequences of Unsafe Abortion in Kenya had just released its report that year that an estimated 300,000 abortions were being performed annually, 700 daily with 2,600 women dying every year from complications related to abortion.
Catholic leaders could not condemn abortion because the constitution that time did not specify when life of a person begins. That is why in 2004 Lady Justice Rawal acquitted Dr. John Nyamu on the ground that the unborn children were according to Section 214 of the penal incapable of being killed.
This was partly because prosecution had chosen to charge Dr. Nyamu for murder (S.203 of penal code) and not the procuring of abortion (158 to 160 of the penal code). That is also why the judge ignored the provisions of the criminal procedure code that required her to find the accused guilty of killing the unborn even though he had not been charged with it (181(2) of the Criminal procedure code).
Dr John Nyamu was arrested for performing abortion which included 15 foetuses found dumped in a Nairobi river. Fourteen suspects were arrested in connection with the dumping. They included 10 proprietors of various back-street clinics in Eastlands area, where the unborn babies were retrieved.
Even in Tanzania where abortion is restricted by law, there is overwhelming evidence that it is widely practised. Studies show that illegal abortion is one of the major causes of maternal mortality. A study conducted in the Southern Highlands in 1983 estimated that 17 per cent of maternal deaths were directly associated with abortion.
Even in Uganda where under the Penal Code of 15 June 1950 (sections 136-138, 205 and 217) the performance of abortions is generally prohibited, abortion is still performed. As a result, there is a high level of maternal mortality, estimated in 1990 at 1,200 deaths per 100,000 live births.
The reasons women and girls cite for choosing abortion are broadly similar throughout the world: Women may want to stop or postpone childbearing. They may have socio-economic reasons for ending pregnancy — they may not be able to afford the costs of having and raising a child, or they may want to continue pursuing their educational and career goals.
Others may choose abortion because of relationship problems or because their pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. And still others may cite age or health reasons — they feel too young or too old to have a baby or that pregnancy will affect their own or their baby’s health.
At the time Dr Nyamu was accused of performing abortion, every single day Kenyatta National Hospital received between 40 to 60 abortion cases with most of the patients being teenagers and young women barely into their twenties.
It was the same time that Legislator Adeline Mwau wanted to see abortion legalised in Kenya. She argued that there is a strong link between abortion and poverty and that is why if one cannot take care of the baby, the only alternative is to terminate it.
“Is it better to bring up a child who then becomes a street child, or to bring up seven children that one is unable to take care of?,” she was quoted by media as asking and adds that women should continue aborting as long as there is no law in Kenya that forces a man to pay for the upkeep of a child fathered out of wedlock.
Girls and young women who do not want to get pregnant have resorted in taking Morning- After Pill (MAP). MAP works by preventing ovulation or making it difficult for a fertilized egg to implant in the uterine wall. MAP is 75-80 percent effective in preventing pregnancy.
It consists of a relatively high dose of Estrogen & Presterone and is given within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse to women who are ovulating and are near midcycle (ovulation).
Other methods to prevent pregnancies include the Abortion Pill (brand name Mifeprex) which is a form of early abortion caused by the combination of two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone needed to maintain the pregnancy.
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
People from the Continent of Africa deserve fair Human Rights with better Trading engagement away from Politically Engineered conflicts that come as a result of corruption and impunity. People of Africa too have a right to enjoy benefits of peace and happiness and as well, engage in Trading under favorable conducive environment, just like other people from other parts from Industrialized progressive world. I say this because, the resources from Africa is in the world market where we are all consumers of the same; but looking back and considering the pathetic humanitarian situations at which the resources are acquired from Africa, it is extremely traumatizing. It then calls for moral conviction for which I am compelled to petition you, to face this matter boldly, resolutely without looking back and make firm and conclusive response which will save this pathetic situation and ultimately provide safety-net to the proposed Energy project you sold out during your recent trip to Africa.
Since UN Treaties are an internationally credible Law that are as valid as any other Constitutional Law of any Nation in the world, most United Nations ratified their treaties to conform with that of UN. We therefore expect The UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon to engage fairly and be fully committed to guiding member States to be in compliant with Policy Agreement of the UN Conventions or face the law.
Every piece of Africa’s land and every ounce of water are protected by the International and UN treaty rights, including treaty rights for specific countries such like Kenya, Congo, Tanzania or any other Nation in Africa, Asia or in Europe where inherent rights are honored and protected. All these rights (be it Human Rights, Governments Constitutional Rights, Trade Security or Climatic Environmental Change) contribute to effects on Environmental Rights that afflict human health adversely or destroys and pollutes Nature and consequently abuses human rights. Similarly, the same in extension are Agreements recognized within International and UN Treaty.
The People of Congo, South Sudan, Kenya and other parts of Africa, are constantly attacked from outside invasion from the likes of M23 Rebel Groups. This tends to negate natural development that involves good balanced practices needed for fair trading, with sustained job creation to engage the youth and women from Africa.
Since the unscrupulous International Corporate special business interest failed to do fair business deals in Africa, or consult favorably to engage mutually good business practices; the corrupt African Governments found reason to violate and evade their Responsibilities. As a result, they fail to commit mandated business for investment deals on a “Give and Take” to mutually benefit both stakeholders and the investors. But because of humanitarian grounds, and because victims have suffered irreparably, I petition you to engage good Allys to stop this idea of sponsoring Rebel Groups in Africa to kill, destroy, drive away and scare their own local people from their home establishments that results into extreme poverty and deaths instead of advancing development; thus paving ways for extreme business of greed.
Land, Waters, Oil or rare mineral resources, should explicitly be utilized within the acceptable legal framework of the United Nations International Treaty, where the same, through Legislative consultative system in the Government should provide security to public mandate, Land Rights, resource Rights or Taxpayers as obligated in the Jurisdiction …… and this therefore remain a question for Legal Justice system to pursue, remedy and inform.
As a matter of concern, the extremely traumatic of humanitarian situation in the Eastern DRC require urgent, bold, resolute, and morally inspired response by the United States with its Allys from other countries to work tin concerted efforts to bring life in Congo and in Africa to normality. The Regions in Eastern Great Lakes of East Africa are blessed with very good understanding people who love peace. These people are highly educated and can reason well. They are extensively informed and are ready to engage in secured progressive business. This cannot happen when peace and security that offers favorable, friendly and conducive environment to prosper is not assured.
In DRC Congo and South Sudan, 70 percent of the economy of these countries heavily depend on oil and mining, therefore, any initiative would have to take into account peoples welfare, security and health protection under Human Rights, security with preservation to preserve cultural livelihood of the people.
We must not under-estimate main purposes with reasons of Terror fighting in Congo and South Sudan. It is a well known fact that, Corporate Special Business Interest are determined to engage in their selfish greed that has caused pain and sufferings to others; and are unwelcomed failed practices that do not add value; which in the first place is the reason for Global Economic Collapse, the disease which is now spreading like bush-fire to Kenya and before long, the world will break into 3rd world war because, people have reached their limits.
Currently, sponsored Private Rebels are terrorizing people and Mercenaries who engage in serious Pirating, illegal Money Laundering, illegal transfer with sale of fire-arms as well with other sophisticated weaponry, Trafficking of child prostitution with Drug trading in the Great Lakes Regions has become the order of the day.
The states surrounding the Great Lakes – which include Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Kenya, and the DRC – have coalesced around these issues without proper management plan to develop a plan of action that requires effective coordination to ensure, there is credibility for security monitoring and as well the Rebel Groups are dismantled and driven out of Congo with their foundation completely destroyed.
To save a situation, a workable sustained process for solution must be established so that, those affected communities who are victims of circumstances get involved in Nation building and are compensated of their loses.
A targeted sustained development project instead of Aid that are short term and do not make any notable impact, must urgently be put to take effect in these regions, otherwise, those who conspired to create the mess for their advantage, would be the same beneficiaries fronting for the AID Funding, and as a result, there will be no tangible effective result for remedy that shall have been implemented……..”since the funding will have gone to those who planned for the damage in the first place”………Loose-ended spoon-feeding Aid to Africa is unsustainable and non-effective and this is where the Neo-colonialism breeds high suspecion in Africa……….What a double tragedy that would be after 50 years of Africa”s independence !!!
It is an open secret with credible documented reports both from the UN, African Envoys and by the NGOs stating that, although Governments in these regions face considerable challenges from the growing strength and sophistication of arms by these rebel groups in the Region, trading across borders only benefit the corrupt politicians with their network of Corporate Special Business Interest to a large extent, leaving out the Government to fall apart with its local people dug deeper into hopeless poverty which is greatly alarming.
It is unfortunate that, Pirating and smuggling is growing dangerously in leaps and bounds in and around the region and there is urgent need to stop these from getting out of control in Africa.
Need to Establish a Functioning Civil Society:
Management of Civil Society with Engagement of the Government to observe and follow the Constitutional policies for public mandate is crucial and very necessary. Since the Government is for the people, Civil Society have rights to be equipped with knowledge to organize themselves so to protect and preserve their Pivotal roles in the Society through engagements.
Civil society guarantee sustainability through popular participation to facilitate a functioning Democracy with good Governance that are established under Just Rule of Law; and by engaging and managing their affairs with humanitarian issues, the Civil Society are able to assist the government in managing their welfare in their Community Organization. Civil Society must equally be engaged in training in order to help with strengthening their government system to expedite service on time. When the Community is informed, they are able to manage their affairs effectively. Any other matters of human rights abuses and the need to protect Rights through policy enactment is a ways the Civil Society will preserve Africa’s minerals resource trading in a more beneficial and sustainable manner. This Natural Mineral Wealth do not last for ever, and it is our responsibility now that we engage to do the right thing.
Consequently, the information exchange encourage the civil society’s participation as Watch-dog that monitors the bad behavior of government employees with reason to re-call irresponsible elected Officials who fail to perform with integrity.
Moving forward in boosting education and strengthening security for civil society on the ground is extremely important and definitely essential.
The U.S. government, must support initiatives for Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania with peace initiative to create management re-organization to provide conflict-free supply chains. If more revenue is invested to legitimizing supply chains, Trading benefits for USA with their Allys will grow more in bounty than where we are presently. A greater substantial proportion of the problem will have been solved, paving ways for sustainable Trading processes in the Region to compete fairly and peacefully under conducive environment that has lesser challenges from terrorism and war. This is the only way to avoid Neo-colonialism.
Progress must be swift and fast so to establish proceedure for order and discipline to instil general rule where all Trading are done in mutually common good for all.
For this to happen there is need to establish a lasting impact that will bring solution. We must follow up on uniformity to Mineral Certification process on all types of Natural Mineral Resource business that involve Oil, Gold, Diamond, Titanium, Colta, Land, Water with observance of International Treaty with United Nations Conventions.
I await to hear from you favorable…..I beg to remain,
Sincerely,
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
– – – – – – – – – – –
Point of Reference from latest news report why action is acutely important and extremely urgent:
Omollo,
Iko Jaluo moja kutoka Gem anaitwa Professor Rading a ver accomplished researcher and educationist. He did a lot of research work and tests on various areas in Kwale. Through him I came to know that Niobium an element so important on stainless steels, and Titanium the stuff they use for manufacturing bodies of Fighter jets which travel at 3times the speed of sound or Mach 3 is available in Kwale in trillions of tons. Infact Kwale holds one third of the total World Titanium.
Way back in 1998 a Canadian Company, which engaged that professor from Gem to do the reseach, was given a license by Baba na Mama Government, to start Mining. Unfortunately the company wanted to loot the area the way all Gentile Companies loot Minerals in Africa. The locals were not put in the picture. Tiomin (the canadian Company started evicting akina Mwana Iddi na Swaleh Bakarii without compensation. They resisted and later the case went to Court.
The Court’s resolution was that these Locals be paid good compensation to make them relocate. But Tiomin said that they did not have that kind of money at that time. With that argument the project came to a holt.
Sometime around 2004 Obako’s Government issued another Fresh license to Tiomin.. At that point Tiomin involved their Government by asking for a Loan from the Canadian Government to help offset the money going to the Locals as compensation. From then on it has been back and forth with no headway.
Now, if the Ching ling Ling were hoping to get into those mines then they are a little late because as I know it the Canadians already have the license. not through Kamwana but one which was issued by Moi and reissued by Kibaki.
Professor ile ya ktoka Gem likwisa fuanya analysis na kuthibitisa availability of several minerals way back in late 80s to mid 90s. Donge!!!
Also did you know that Kwale has the best sand for Casting of any kind be it process casting of Aluminum or steel or Cast Iron. Sand around Kwale town has 99.9% silica. Almost 100%. I personally tested this in a lab. Compare this to other Countries which do a lot of Casting like USA Germany, USSR. Egypt, South Africa etc. Their sand range from 65% – 90% silica
Jagem
President Uhuru Kenyatta steps into global mining power struggle
Updated Tuesday, July 30th 2013 at 17:29 GMT +3
It, by-and-large, has escaped the attention of the madia that Kenya has a resources asset far greater than the oil and gas find, about which there was so much fuss. Down in Kwale, under a wooded hill, sits a deposit of Rare Earths that is of global significance.
Rare Earths are in every mobile phone, in our modern light bulbs, in most modern technologies, and just as the world played a dance of Middle Eastern supremacy over oil and control of oil supplies, so China, more than a decade ago, spotted the power of controlling the Rare Earth market.
Rare Earths
The Chinese President laid out his country’s strategy to be the controller of Rare Earths as the Middle East had controlled oil. He spoke of it. It was spelt out in his speeches. And China moved. With large Rare Earth deposits of its own, it went on to acquire almost all of the world’s mines, in Australia, globally.
It secured more than 95 per cent of all the world’s Rare Earth supplies. No-one can make modern technology without Chinese-controlled Rare Earths, and, predictably enough, the prices have soared in recent years.
Now, Kenyan geologists have long known the country had Rare Earths, together with a handy little mineral called Niobium, also these days in big demand as a strengthener of steels. Geological surveys showed the Rare Earths in Kwale back in the 1950s — a sweet enough mineral asset to mean there was a time that global mining major, Anglo American, hacked a mine shaft into that hill and set out on the path of mining there.
But that international company gave up, unable to get mining go ahead in a country where mining has never happened NOT because the country isn’t packed with mineral resources, but because no mining company could ever manage the politics. Mining takes huge up-front investment. The surveys have to happen first, the mining, the processing plant, the processing, and finally, years down the line comes the first actual piece of revenue.
Investors have to back a mine, for years and in very large sums, to turn it into a revenue stream.
It’s not like selling Coca Cola, and it doesn’t work when the menu on offer is ‘put a lot of money in, but you may lose it all and never see a penny of revenue’. Mining investment takes SOME commitments.
Kenya has never offered that, leaving itself almost isolated in Africa as a country without earnings from natural resources.
But the Kwale thing was bigger still. It certainly sat there for decades undeveloped through a lack of will to convert into a government facilitated investment. A French company tried after Anglo American. Gave up.
Then a little ‘junior’ mining company — first a South African/Australian nexus, then merged with a Toront-listed mining company — began the journey.
That company got further than the others. They prospected and found the deposit was among the richest in the world, possibly the richest, in the percentage of Rare Earths held in the soil.
They also found that the deposit was larger than anyone realised. It now looks as if it may be the second largest in the world, after the world’s largest Rare Earth mine, in China, called Baotou.
But by now, there were more challenges than ordinary, routine, forever, political blockage of mining.
No one ever mentioned in China’s strategy for Rare Earths that it would be a supply dominated by China AND Kenya. The ‘ Kenya’ part wasn’t in the global plan.
Not that anyone has really focussed on that jigsaw puzzle as we gained lots of lovely grants and friendship from China, a free hospital, a beautiful Thika superhighway.
I asked a Chinese First Secretary last week why China had put so much into Kenya recently, and he told me, repeatedly, that it was a ‘beautiful’ country with interesting tourism and great weather.
So I guess China will be putting a lot into Croatia too, with its stunning coastline.
Of course, the truth is, China wanted that mine, and maybe it’s suicide of me to say it, but I think they had got it. Only then our new government was elected, and within three weeks our new President intervened, personally. China did not get the licence. The President met the Canadian-listed international miners, issued their licence, and they have now received their Environment Impact Assessment approvals. The fund raising is underway.
Changing future
And no-one, but no-one, seems to grasp how brave that was. There will be so much pressure over that mine. I’ve seen detailed figures estimating the resource at a worth of US dollars 95 billion — that’s 8 trillion shillings. It’s the biggest thing that Kenya has ever owned that the world wants.
But that resource is a Kenyan birth right. So I don’t care what tribe he’s from: our President just stood up to one of the most powerful forces in the world to harness it for Kenya, setting up an income stream in royalties, 80 per cent of which will go to Government, and our health service, and teachers’ pay, and so much more.
And I’m not sure anyone even noticed. But they should. Because that’s future changing.
And very brave indeed.
COMMENTS:
Rare-Earth DIGGER01 August 2013 3:37 PM
Looks pretty close. The revenue may look tiny in light of the bigger cake, however, that is a direct revenue. there are indirect revenues such as employment and infrastructure development, investments, etc.
twister31 July 2013 11:29 PM
It start low as the company recoup its huge invested, which is usually borrowed attracting huge interests, after some time the Gok will poket as high as 80%.
George k31 July 2013 6:35 AM
Why such a low percentage , someone should explain this
Paulo30 July 2013 3:31 PM
This article is full of praises but lacking in real focus. Praising China for giving us grants that we will end up paying back and being dependant on their input even in cases where we can do better by developing our local capacity is not the way to go. Also, the issue of mining is more complicated than just working out figures in billions and trillions of expected income/production. EIA have been political tools in cases where in the long run, the cost paid by the local population turns out to be far much greater.
Ekhisa30 July 2013 12:05 PM
I still think 80percent of 3 percent of 95b only comes to 2.8B USD leaving the mining company with staggering profits from these at 92B USD…So what is so transformational about that figure…I think the new President did well to stick it for Kenya but the royalties just doesnt make sense…I mean Kenya will only make 250B KES from mining worth of 8 trillion shillings…Not right
Lands officer linked to Sh954m fraud
Ministry of Lands headquarters in Nairobi. Former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.
By VINCENT AGOYA vagoya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, July 31 2013 at 21:44
In Summary
The former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.
A lands registrar has been summoned to court in a case where a widow claims she was swindled out of a Sh954 million ranch using false documents.
Ms Agnes Wangu Gerald Kuria has failed to honour “verbal” summons to honour the court date.
Wednesday, magistrate Peter Ndwiga issued summons after police complained she had ignored orders to present herself to investigators.
Ms Kuria has been enjoined in the case with former Kenya Pipeline Company boss Ezekiel Komen, former District Commissioner Benjamin Rotich, land registrar Tom Mainja and two others.
Ms Kuria has been accused of giving instructions on behalf of the chief land registrar to open green cards in the names of Ezekiel Komen, Eric Kibiwott Tarus, and Kipkorir Kuti for the transfer of land in Eldoret belonging to someone else.
She did this on December 22, 2005 while working as a lands registrar at Ardhi House, Nairobi, it is claimed.
Using positions
The former State officials have been accused of using their positions in government to grab 795 acres of land belonging to Ms Anna Nyogio Kimitei.
Yesterday, the prosecution said it would amend the charges to include Ms Kuria and charge the suspects afresh.
The prosecution alleges the widow lost her land to powerful politicians during the Kanu regime.
It is alleged the politicians subdivided the land and sold it to more than 200 families who have put up commercial and residential buildings.
The widow claims her family bought the land from a white settler, Mr James Gear, on March 10, 1969 but in 2006 was told that “the government had taken it over and allocated it to poor families.”
The court yesterday extended the suspects’ bond of Sh500,000 and ordered them to appear Thursday.
A Summary of
United Nations Agreements
on Human Rights
Contents
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
Convention Against Torture
Convention Against Genocide
The Geneva Conventions
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on Eliminiation of Discrimination Against Women
Charter of the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The UDHR is the first international statement to use the term “human rights”, and has been adopted by the Human Rights movement as a charter. It is short, and worth reading in its entirety — a summary would be about as long as the document itself.
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
This covenant details the basic civil and political rights of individuals and nations. Among the rights of nations are:
the right to self determination
the right to own, trade, and dispose of their property freely, and not be deprived of their means of subsistence
Among the rights of individuals are:
the right to legal recourse when their rights have been violated, even if the violator was acting in an official capacity
the right to life
the right to liberty and freedom of movement
the right to equality before the law
the right to presumption of innocence til proven guilty
the right to appeal a conviction
the right to be recognized as a person before the law
the right to privacy and protection of that privacy by law
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
freedom of opinion and expression
freedom of assembly and association
The covenant forbids torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, slavery or involuntary servitude, arbitrary arrest and detention, and debtor’s prisons. It forbids propaganda advocating either war or hatred based on race, religion, national origin, or language.
It provides for the right of people to choose freely whom they will marry and to found a family, and requires that the duties and obligations of marriage and family be shared equally between partners. It guarantees the rights of children and prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, or language.
It also restricts the death penalty to the most serious of crimes, guarantees condemned people the right to appeal for commutation to a lesser penalty, and forbids the death penalty entirely for people under 18 years of age.
The covenant permits governments to temporarily suspend some of these rights in cases of civil emergency only, and lists those rights which cannot be suspended for any reason. It also establishes the UN Human Rights Commission.
After almost two decades of negotiations and rewriting, the text of the Universal Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was agreed upon in 1966. In 1976, after being ratified by the required 35 states, it became international law.
Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The protocol adds legal force to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by allowing the Human Rights Commission to investigate and judge complaints of human rights violations from individuals from signator countries.
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
– This covenant describes the basic economic, social, and cultural rights of individuals and nations, including the right to:
– self-determination
– wages sufficient to support a minimum standard of living
– equal pay for equal work
– equal opportunity for advancement
– form trade unions
– strike
– paid or otherwise compensated maternity leave
– free primary education, and accessible education at all levels
– copyright, patent, and trademark protection for intellectual property
In addition, this convention forbids exploitation of children, and requires all nations to cooperate to end world hunger. Each nation which has ratified this covenant is required to submit annual reports on its progress in providing for these rights to the Secretary General, who is to transmit them to the Economic and Social Council.
The text of this covenant was finalized in 1966 along with that of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has not been ratified yet.
UN Convention on the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces (I)
Also called the first Geneva Convention
The first Geneva Convention focuses on the rights of individuals, combatants and non-combatants, during war. It is lengthy and detailed, perhaps because human rights are rarely at such risk as during war and, in particular, involving prisoners of war or enemy captives.
Convention against Genocide
This convention bans acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. It declares genocide a crime under international law whether committed during war or peacetime, and binds all signators of the convention to to take measures to prevent and punish any acts of genocide committed within their jurisdiction. The act bans killing of members of any racial, ethnic, national or religious group because of their membership in that group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, inflicting on members of the group conditions of life intended to destroy them, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and taking group members’ children away from them and giving them to members of another group.
It declares genocide itself, conspiracy or incitement to commit genocide, attempts to commit orcomplicity in the commission of genocide all to be illegal. Individuals are to be held responsible for these acts whether they were acting in their official capacities or as private individuals. Signators to the convention are bound to enact appropriate legislation to make the acts named in Article 3 illegal under their national law and provide appropriate penalties for violators.
People suspected of acts of genocide may be tried by a national tribunal in the territory where the acts were committed or by a properly constituted international tribunal whose jurisdiction is recognized by the state or states involved. For purposes of extradition, an allegation of genocide is not to be considered a political crime, and states are bound to extradite suspects in accordance with national laws and treaties. Any state party to the Convention may also call upon the United Nations to act to prevent or punish acts of genocide.
The remainder of the Convention specifies procedures for resolving disputes between nations about whether a specific act or acts constitute(s) genocide, and gives procedures for ratification of the convention.
Convention against Torture
This convention bans torture under all circumstances and establishes the UN Committee against Torture. In particular, it defines torture, requires states to take effective legal and other measures to prevent torture, declares that no state of emergency, other external threats, nor orders from a superior officer or authority may be invoked to justify torture. It forbids countries to return a refugee to his country if there is reason to believe he/she will be tortured, and requires host countries to consider the human rights record of the person’s native country in making this decision.
The CAT requires states to make torture illegal and provide appropriate punishment for those who commit torture. It requires states to assert jurisdiction when torture is committed within their jurisdiction, either investigate and prosecute themselves, or upon proper request extradite suspects to face trial before another competent court. It also requires states to cooperate with any civil proceedings against accused torturers.
Each state is obliged to provide training to law enforcement and military on torture prevention, keep its interrogation methods under review, and promptly investigate any allegations that its officials have committed torture in the course of their official duties. It must ensure that individuals who allege that someone has committed torture against them are permitted to make and official complaint and have it investigated, and, if the complaint is proven, receive compensation, including full medical treatment and payments to survivors if the victim dies as a result of torture.. It forbids states to admit into evidence during a trial any confession or statement made during or as a result of torture. It also forbids activities which do not rise to the level of torture, but which constitute cruel or degrading treatment.
The second part of the Convention establishes the Committee Against Torture, and sets out the rules on its membership and activities.
The Convention was passed and opened for ratification in February, 1985. At that time twenty nations signed, and five more signed within the month. At present sixty five nations have ratified the Convention against torture and sixteen more have signed but not yet ratified it.
Convention on Eliminiation of Discrimination Against Women
This convention bans discrimination against women. The copy of the Convention on Women presently accessible through this page is a fully- indexed HTML document. A linked summary of the document will be written in the next few weeks.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
This convention bans discrimination against children and provides for special protection and rights appropriate to minors. The copy of the Convention on the Rights of the Child presently accessible through this page is a fully-indexed HTML document. A linked summary of the document will be written in the next few weeks.
Charter of the United Nations
The Charter of the United Nations contains some important human rights provisions, in addition to containing the framework for the organization as a whole. This is a fully indexed HTML version of the charter. A summary will be written at some future date.
Created on July 8, 1994 / Last edited on January 25, 1997
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 . .
Clear Channel–the largest owner of AM and FM radio stations–just booted ads for a women’s health clinic, claiming they were “divisive.” Tell Clear Channel that there’s nothing divisive about women’s health care. http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/981?t=2&akid=531.6000.nsBV8f
Dear Readers:
Clear Channel–the largest owner of AM and FM radio stations, including the ones that carry Rush Limbaugh’s show–just booted ads for a women’s health care clinic in Kansas, calling them “indecent” and “divisive.”1
What’s indecent? Absolutely nothing–these ads are straightforward promotions of available health care for women. But apparently Clear Channel decided declaring that your clinic offers “highly qualified gynecologists” and “trusts women to make the best decisions for themselves” is too divisive. (see transcript below)
Their claims are ridiculous–and dangerous.
We cannot let a media corporation get between a woman and her right to critical health information. This story is starting to get attention in online media, including Jezebel, DailyKos, and the Huffington Post.2 If thousands of us speak out quickly, we can help generate a national media firestorm and Clear Channel will be forced to respond. Will you sign the petition telling Clear Channel to put South Wind Women’s Center’s ads back on the air and stop blocking Kansas women’s access to health care information?
Tell Clear Channel that ads for women’s health clinics aren’t indecent or divisive.
At South Wind Women’s Center, our physicians are committed to providing quality reproductive health care in Wichita. Each physician is board-certified in family medicine or obstetrics and gynecology. Between them, they have over 50 years of experience and dedication, ensuring women are able to ensure the care they need when they need it.3
And South Wind Women’s Center was founded to reestablish full access to reproductive health care. The center provides high-quality medical care and trusts women to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. South Wind Women’s Center: entrusting women with their own medical decision-making.4
The radio industry is still recovering from the fallout after hundreds of advertisers dropped Rush Limbaugh’s show when he attacked Sandra Fluke for testifying before Congress about birth control.5 And radio industry insiders know another high profile fight about their meddling with women’s personal decisions isn’t going to go over well.
If enough of us speak out, we can send a strong message to Clear Channel, and others: Media corporations have no business getting between a woman and her right to critical health information.
Tell Clear Channel to stop blocking women from reproductive health care information.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/go/981?t=4&akid=531.6000.nsBV8f
Thanks for speaking out.
–Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Malinda and Karin, the UltraViolet team
Sources:
1. Clear Channel Won’t Run Women’s Center Ads Because They’re ‘Divisive’, Jezebel, July 26, 2013
2. Massive Media Company Pulls Ads for Famous Women’s Health Center, Jezebel, July 24, 2013
Clear Channel Pulls Ads for Women’s Health Clinic, Claiming They Are “Indecent”, DailyKos, July 25, 2013
Clear Channel Pulls Abortion Clinic Ads, Huffington Post, July 25, 2013
3. South Wind Women’s Center Ad 1
4. South Wind Women’s Center Ad 2
5. EXCLUSIVE: 140 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh [Update: 142], Think Progress, March 12, 2012
Rush Limbaugh Still Toxic For Advertisers One Year After Fluke Attacks, Media Matters, March 1, 2013
From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2013
One of you has reacted angrily on my yesterday’s article where LifeSiteNews.com revealed how U.S. Bishops’ foreign relief agency is funding a leading abortion-marketing firm where Catholic Relief Services is distributing a two-year $2.7 million grant to Population Services International (PSI), which networks and trains local providers throughout the developing world to offer “safe abortion.”
Millicent (not her real name) writes: “Fr Omolo to tell you very sincerely I am very disgusted and confused after reading your article on US Bishops funding a leading abortion-marketing firm. Surely Father where is the world heading? Abortion is wrong period! I am just a young girl who is trying to keep Catholic faith but if bishops are behaving this way then better do away with Catholic faith”.
I do not think you should give up your faith because bishops have funded abortion firm. Your faith is entirely based on your God not bishops, not even Pope. They are all human beings like you and can make mistake. I do agree with you totally that abortion is wrong because it kills.
Furthermore you are not the only one who has reacted angrily about the issue. Pro-life leaders have also expressed outrage after LifeSiteNews.com revealed Thursday that the U.S. Bishops’ foreign relief agency is funding a leading abortion-marketing firm.
Catholic Relief Services is distributing a two-year $2.7 million grant to Population Services International (PSI), which networks and trains local providers throughout the developing world to offer “safe abortion.”
President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), Austin Ruse has not only reacted angrily, he wants somebody to get fired over this. He is wondering how groups like PSI is funded by our own Catholic church. “It’s disgusting and for one I am bone-weary of these types of revelations. Heads should roll”, Ruse suggests.
Fr. Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International has also reacted, saying he finds it “incomprehensible” that an organization like PSI was deemed worthy of Catholic funds.
PSI’s “primary mission has always been to promote contraception, abortifacient drugs, condoms, and even surgical abortion,” he said. “Like many other population control groups in the mid-1990s, they started to rebrand their mission as being about ‘health’, using more positive language and adding malaria-prevention programs to their portfolio. But this should not confuse anyone as to their purpose.”
Judie Brown, president of American Life League while reacting on the revelation said the news was “not surprising.” “Catholic Relief Services has historically been advocates, although not publicly – behind the scenes – advocates of population control in the Third World,” she charged.
Brown’s point was echoed by Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, who said CRS implicates itself in population control by the very fact that it receives over two thirds of its funding from USAID.
“CRS knows very well what the principal purpose of USAID is. And it tries to, in various ways, to massage that purpose, and avoid being implicated in the purpose of population control,” he said.
“As far as I’m concerned, they know who’s paying their salaries, and that’s why the money goes to CARE, that’s why the money goes to PSI, that’s why the money goes back and forth to other population control agencies, because that’s what their masters in the federal government demand of them.”
“This is not an agency of the institutional Catholic Church. This is a separate aid agency, which, because it receives two thirds of its funding from the U.S. government, is Catholic in name only,” he added. “No man can serve two masters.”
As LifeSiteNews reported Thursday, PSI’s “reproductive health” agenda is heavily abortion-focused. On its own webpage, the firm explains that it “works to increase access to WHO-approved medical abortion drugs,” and mentions its provision of medical abortions in Cambodia and Nepal.
At a “maternal health” conference in Tanzania on January 16, 2013, a PSI employee delivered a talk titled “Creating the misoprostol market”. (See video here.)
Numerous job ads are accessible online showing PSI seeking to fill various roles in its campaign for globally-accessible abortion. Among them is one seeking a candidate with “clinical proficiency [in] surgical and medication abortion.” For more evidence of PSI’s work in the abortion industry view Thursday’s LSN report.
The good news is that despite all these Americans have not lost their faith in God. According to a new Pew Forum poll 48 percent of Americans say a decline of religion is bad for American society.
Over the past two decades, the number of Americans who mark their religious preference as “none” has undoubtedly grown. Only 8 percent checked that box in 1990. As of May of this past year, 20 percent of all Americans identified themselves as having no religion.
Despite an increase in these “nones,” the majority of Americans are still religious. Over 90 percent of Americans believe in God or a higher power, and almost 40 percent attend religious services weekly.
Even among those who claim no particular religious affiliation in an earlier Pew Forum survey, roughly 80 percent still believe in God or a universal spirit, and a majority describe themselves as “religious” or “spiritual.” According to a recent survey by researchers at Baylor University, most of those who say they have “no religion” also pray.
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
“Creating the misoprostol market”. (See video here.)
http://maternalhealthtaskforce.org/images/GMHC2013_program_web.pdf
most of those who say they have “no religion” also pray.
http://www.baylorisr.org/2013/07/wall-street-journal-the-myth-of-unreligious-america-by-rodney-stark/
