From: Yona Maro
This guide is a practical tool for those involved in national legislative processes and in the design of labour laws, including government officials and representatives of workers’ and employers’ organizations.
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com
From: Yona Maro
A talk by Eric Kimani to the CITAM Leadership Team Retreat on 18th January 2008
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com Kujiondoa Tuma Email kwenda
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My dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for inviting me to come and speak to this distinguished leadership team on this very challenging subject. I would like to issue a disclaimer that I am not intending to provide all the answers to career and personal effectiveness but I will only give a few pointers because it is a wide subject with wide application. It can be discussed at many levels and with multiple applications. I am glad you have chosen the very instructive little book “Who Moved my Cheese” as your point of reference for your retreat. My talk will deal more with “When and what to do when the cheese moves”.
I will be speaking from the backdrop of the famous words of Charles Darwin and I quote;
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change”
I will begin with some definitions to allow us to agree on the context within which I speak.
I define effectiveness as “doing the right thing or the right job at the right time” as opposed to efficiency which has been the thrust for much of the past with calls for producing with minimum waste and minimum effort.
The dictionary defines effectiveness as “having a definite and desired effect”.
In the metaphor of the cheese story, effectiveness is about knowing when the cheese is about to move or has moved. It is about knowing and doing the right job in a changing world. How do you do it? In one company I joined as an internal auditor. I later created the position of Internal Audit and Cost Controller for myself and again later one as Financial Controller. Both positions never existed before. When I left as finance director that position was abolished! I was later to work in the position of Finance Director which was abolished with my departure. Personal and career effectiveness is about doing the right things and not about doing things efficiently which is presumed in your job. I tell people that efficiency is good- it will lead to praise and at best a bonus but only effectiveness will earn you a promotion!
Personal and career effectiveness begins with knowing your roles and finding the balance of those roles. You must begin by defining what you are about. I define my life on two levels;
1. My role as a father, husband and family member
2. My role in society as a leader, entrepreneur and business leader.
To perform these roles I need to be;
1. Physically fit
2. Spiritually fit
3. Informed.
Everyday I seek the balance of these roles. I score them daily on my daily journal and repeated failure to achieve an acceptable score on one sends signals of danger. I have found this approach extremely beneficial in fulfilling my roles. To be able to meet the competing needs I am forced to seek a balance of roles. For example I am often called to exercise with my wife or children to fulfill both my parental and marital role and keep physically fit.
Consider what you want to achieve as a mother, father, community leader or employee. Decide what steps you will take daily to fulfill these roles. Mirror yourself that you are on course and not stagnated by scoring daily or every so often. Life is a game of chess and to quote Marcus Buckingham “The key difference between checkers and chess is that in checkers the pieces all move in the same way, whereas in chess all the pieces move differently. Thus if you want to excel at the game of chess you have to learn how each piece moves and then incorporate these unique moves into your overall plan of attack”.
You must begin by defining your mission if you are going to seek personal effectiveness and career growth. The subject of developing a personal mission statement is for another day.
I will now look at a few ways in which you can seek personal and career effectiveness
1. Do not be too comfortable where you are.
In essence we are all happy when things are working out well. When our jobs look secure; our health is good; our families are doing well; our marriages are working. We indeed get to assume that life will always be like this. Many of us take our jobs for granted. We assume that they are our entitlement; we deserve them. We begin to hang the coat on the chair and take off for a while; we begin to take off unnecessary sick-off. When things suddenly change and there is retrenchment we begin to blame the company; the country the government and the leadership. We blame the system as unjust. I have a friend who lost his job as CEO over 15 years ago and he continues to tell the story to any one who cares to listen that his boss unfairly had him sacked. He never got another job. Not long ago a victim of retrenchment in a company I know did not tell his family of the retrenchment until seven months later when the money run out- He woke up every morning and pretended to his family to go to work! Like one of the characters in the cheese story, he did not want to believe that the cheese had moved.
Many of us take our spouses or our children or friends for granted. I know couples whose marriage broke because they did not take care of the “small matters” around them. Two marriages of friends I know well broke because the wife suddenly realized that the husband could not give up drugs. When I asked the wife when she knew that the husband was on drugs, she said she suspected long before they married but hoped he would give up! She refused to smell the cheese & respond accordingly then. Twenty one years into the marriage he never did and the marriage is now broken!
2. The more important your career/spouse/child/friend is to you the more you want to hold onto them.
Many people have lost the opportunity to grow their careers because they want to remain in the known territory. Someone said that you can never discover new lands until you are prepared to leave the shore. I have watched people wait for a company go down with them and then spend all their years in court corridors seeking compensation. They fail to read the signs of the times. Their fear of change often immobilizes them to taking no action. They forget that fear is an ingredient of our lives. They justify their actions with reasons that border on the ridiculous. They do not keep their antennae up to know what is happening and are caught unawares. I know one executive who lost his job and spent the next many years in court fighting that he was wrongly terminated. At the end of it all he was thoroughly “bruised” by the court battle!
Human beings have a streak to want to do the same things over and over- remaining in their known environment. We have a fear of the unknown. Someone described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Human beings are capable of remaining in denial for years. When we stay in denial our performance and capacity suffers. When we are in denial with our families, we only delay the inevitable with regard to our spouses, our children or our other relationships. Ask yourself this question; Assuming that your current fears are that;
1. You might lose your job
2. You might lose your marriage
3. My son/daughter is on drugs
4. You might be HIV positive
What will you do?
Stephen Covey says “in the space between stimulus and response lies your freedom to chose”.
You must be prepared to leave the comfort zone if you are looking for personal and career growth in a changing world. When I was nearly 40 I decided I needed to read for a degree in Law. For me to get where I am in career I figured that I needed this among other things. It was not easy- I burnt the midnight oil. The opportunity cost was high.
You must recognize fear for what it is –False Evidence Appearing Real!
Like Richard Branson of Virgin says, “If you look at all the miles between, you might not take the first step. Whatever it is you want to achieve in life, if you do not make the effort you won’t reach your goal. Take that first step. What ever your goal you will not succeed until you let go your fears”. Jesus feared so much that he perspired blood and still did it anyway!
The biblical story of digging trenches when not a cloud was in the sky is instructive!
3. It is okay to be afraid and change.
Reasonable fear acted upon is a prerequisite for success. I keep telling people that for myself, bold and fearless as I may seem to many, nothing has made me more anxious than changing career and jobs! Yet I have done it more regularly on average than many. Sometimes I have experienced great fear with regard to my family and my financial security.
Reasonable fear should propel us into action towards desirable positive change.
4. Be alert of your circumstances often to ensure that change is not shifting things around you.
Using the metaphor of the cheese- smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old. Many people lack the simple skill of knowing when circumstances change: when the job is about to disappear; the spouse is on the wrong tangent; the youngster is on the wrong path! As the saying goes, “if you fail to change change will change you.”
This skill that tells you when circumstances are changing is key to career and personal growth. Sometimes it is as simple as changes in how your immediate boss responds or treats you; changes in how your spouse dress or reacts; changes in the behavior of our young ones. This is almost what people call a gut feeling! I once worked for a company where, for ulterior reasons, my boss was not particularly impressed with how I was working and I noticed that he began communicating with me through third parties. The writing was on the wall. I choose to leave as early as I could and hence on my terms! When your teenage son or daughter begins to lock themselves in their bedroom –begin to smell change and find out what is happening! When your spouse begins to complain about things that have never bothered them in many years, begin to know that change is in the air. A friend of mine has had a marriage problem now for a couple of years. The errant spouse began telling stories of the need to be away in places they never had to go before; they started coming home late. Eventually what was an admirable marriage hit the rocks!
In one of my earlier jobs, my boss once walked into my office and asked me bluntly “now that you have trained your junior to handle what you do so well, what do you propose to do?” I answered him loudly with a resignation in due course that pleased him and that worked out extremely well for me! Learn to smell when the cheese is getting old!
5. Learn Creative imagination.
Imagine that which you would like. Every successful venture begins with a single thought. It begins with dreaming/envisioning. In the metaphor of cheese it begins with you imagining yourself enjoying new cheese even before you find it- It works like self-prophesy and will lead you to it!
I love telling the story of how years ago as I went through the agony of private study as a mature student of law. The easiest way to get me to do more jogging laps without noticing it was to keep thinking myself as a qualified lawyer. I would draw the guest list for my graduation repeatedly in my mind! In 2003 most of those on my imagined guest list attended my party on being admitted as an advocate of the high court of Kenya!
Personal and career growth calls for planning. Plan how you wish to play the game of life. I plan mine in 5 year blocks, changing and amending as necessary as I go along but I notice without fail that I have largely worked towards my plan for the last two or so decades. Plot your life on paper and say to yourself where you wish to be in 5 years and what you need to do to get there. It forestalls failure and builds your confidence. Plan to succeed. Positive thoughts elicit the energy and desire to take action. Dream and envision what you want. Last year I decided I wanted three things in the next five years. I have nearly achieved two! I turned 50 last month. I started work at 23 and therefore reckon I am half way through my life. I am changing my game plan for the second half of my life. I plan to retire from active work at 75! This is creative imagination.
6. Keep life simple.
Do not over-complicate life through detailed analysis and complicated plans. Like Tom Peters says “if there one thing that makes God laugh is to see us plan, and plan and plan”! The rules of life should be Fail; Fast; Forward. Try it and if it fails try again fast and move on! In the metaphor of your cheese story, you need to know and accept when the cheese moves and that it has moved! Do not spend time and energy mourning the fact that it has moved! A lesson from evaluating my life…everytime the cheese moves, it creates an opportunity for me to reach higher heights and achieve greater success but ONLY IF I seize the moment. The same applies for all of us.
7. Nothing changes like change!
Appreciate that change is unstoppable. Adapt to it. Imagine what happened to the gatherer when he saw his neighbor planting food crops- He must have thought they were out of their mind! Imagine what happened in the agricultural revolution- A single tractor wiped out the jobs of hundreds of people in a flash! Imagine what happened during the industrial revolution with a single conveyor doing what 100 men did previously? Do you remember containerization? What about the information revolution? Do you remember the bank queue of not long ago with many cashiers struggling to serve so few customers? And today a single ATM machine stands on every street corner without anyone manning it and 24/7 and 365 days a year! When I hear some people say computers and email are for the young I laugh at their resistance to change! Enjoy change! Be part of change- this way you will never be out of work. I have been a CEO at a tea company; a tyre company and I would not be surprised if tomorrow I am managing a hospital!
Career and personal effectiveness is about belief in yourself; it is about conquering your natural and imagined fears; it is about identifying, anticipating, monitoring and adopting to a changing world!
In my characteristic style I would like to finish with an instructive true story on change….
General Motors was for many years the market leader in automobiles out of Detroit. Their systems were all geared towards selling big cars. So they continued producing big cars to feed their established system.
They did not adapt to change and their systems, style and structure were all unsuitable for the rapidly changing world with its constantly changing needs. Today Toyota is the world’s leading automobile company. Its ability to sense the cheese moving is phenomenal!
Can you begin to anticipate what will change?
Thank you.
© Eric Kimani 2008
from: Senator Sherrod Brown
Ohioans work hard, and I believe their hard work deserves fair pay, regardless of gender. But today in Ohio, women earn just 85 cents to every dollar a man makes. According to the Joint Economic Committee, that earnings gap means over the course of their working lives, women lose more than $400,000.
That’s unconscionable.
Nearly fifty years ago, Congress passed and President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, making it illegal for employers to pay men and women different wages for the same work. But since then, women have made only minor gains against the salaries earned by men for performing the same work.
I believe that equal pay for an equal day’s work should be an American right. Without congressional action, women will not achieve pay parity with men until 2056. And so, if the pay gap continues, women will never be able to catch up. A lower salary starting at hire doesn’t just mean a smaller paycheck—it means a smaller pension, a diminished 401K, and smaller Social Security check benefits. The discrimination that begins at hire continues for life. There’s nothing fair about that.
That’s why I won’t give up fighting for the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would shore up the Equal Pay Act and create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law while helping women fight pay discrimination when it does occur.
As a father of daughters and as a husband, I know that this pay gap devalues women’s work. And it discourages economic growth—because women make up more than 46 percent of today’s workforce. The pay gap doesn’t affect just women, it also affects their families. Addressing the gender pay gap is a crucial step toward getting our economy back on track.
With 33 percent of married mothers in Ohio serving as their families’ primary wage earner, and more than 6.3 million working single mothers heading families across the United States, it is urgent that women earn the pay they deserve. Our economy works better when women can negotiate fairly and when women are paid what they’re worth.
Unfortunately, 46 Senators—all in the minority—voted against bringing Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor for a vote.
Ohio women are hard working. Many get up early, stand on their feet all day, then head home and take care of their children—and they don’t ask for a handout. They don’t ask for a bailout. But they do ask for equal pay.
They ask that we act now, that we continue the fight for the Paycheck Fairness Act—for women everywhere, and for our mothers, our daughters and our families. It’s these women that I will think about as we continue to fight together for equality and for the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown
U.S. Senator
Washington, D.C.
713 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
p (202) 224-2315
f (202) 228-6321
Columbus
200 N High St.
Room 614
Columbus, OH 43215
p (614) 469-2083
f (614) 469-2171
Toll Free
1-888-896-OHIO (6446)
From: White House; groups-noreply@linkedin.com
Summer Jobs+ is a joint initiative that challenges business leaders and communities to join the Obama Administration in providing hundreds of thousands of summer jobs for America’s youth.
This week, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced nearly 300,000 new jobs and employment opportunities geared towards low-income youth 16-24, and launched the Summer Jobs+ Bank, an online job search tool to help aid the summer job hunt. Check it out: http://wh.gov/summerjobs
Interested in getting involved?
President Obama is calling on businesses, non-profits, and government to provide pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth in the summer of 2012.
Here’s how you can get started: http://www.dol.gov/summerjobs/Employers.htm
Posted By Kori Schulman
From: Yona Maro
The expert group meeting “Quantitative indicators for the World Programme of Action for Youth” was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 12 to 13 December 2011, organized by the Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DSPD/DESA) of the United Nations Secretariat, in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division and the United Nations Population Division of DESA.
Several experts expressed their desire for an indicator that would capture youth participation in vocational education or other training outside of formal education, in recognition of the importance that such non-formal educational experiences have for youth opportunities in the workplace. Concerns were raised about the quality of existing data on youth literacy. Mr. Voffal replied that improvements to these data would soon be realized as a result of the on-going work of UNESCO’s Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP), initial results of which would be available in 2012.
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc12/RD-EGM-YouthIndicators.pdf
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
From: Yona Maro
Food value chains (FVCs) comprise all activities required to bring farm products to consumers, including agricultural production, processing, storage, marketing, distribution, and consumption. FVCs are changing rapidly in developing countries (DCs), because of population and income growth; urbanization; and the expansion, globally and domestically, of modern food retailing, distribution, and wholesaling fi rms.
The increased output required to meet growing food demand can be sustained only with increased labor, energy, land, and water productivity. Historically, agricultural productivity growth reduces poverty through higher profits for net producers, increased employment and/or real wages for workers, and lower prices for consumers.
http://dyson.cornell.edu/faculty_sites/cbb2/Papers/Science-2011-G%C3%B3mez-1154-5.pdf
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
From: Senator Sherrod Brown
Ohio workers can compete with anyone in the world. And, every day, at places like Nook Industries in Cuyahoga County, Middletown Tube Works in Butler County, and Crown Battery in Sandusky County, Ohio workers are making goods used all over the world.
Ohio has had quicker increases in job growth than other states, and we know the manufacturing sector nationally has gained back some 470,000 jobs since January 2010. That’s good news, but we can do even better.
One way we can speed up our economic recovery is to help Ohio companies find new markets for their products by selling them around the world. We know that companies that export their products around the world create jobs, pay higher wages to employees, and are more likely to stay in business. Export-supported manufacturing jobs already account for an estimated 7.1 percent of Ohio’s total private-sector employment. More than one-fourth of manufacturing workers in Ohio depend on exports for their jobs – the 8th highest percentage among the 50 states.
That’s why the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank is so important.
Ex-Im Bank – the federal agency that helps companies sell their products around the world – provides American businesses with essential trade financing at no cost to taxpayers. By providing loans, guarantees, and insurance, Ex-Im Bank helps Ohio manufacturers enter foreign markets obtaining new international customers and creating new jobs here in Ohio. It does all of this while creating revenue for the U.S. Treasury.
Last week, I joined the head of the Ohio Manufacturers Association (OMA) to call for the reauthorization of Ex-Im, which will no longer be able to help Ohio companies if Congress does not act by May 31. OMA’s Eric Burkland discussed how Ex-Im Bank financing helped Nook Industries ship goods to new customers in China, Korea, and Israel. He noted that because of Ex-Im financing, Middletown Tube now sells steel tubes to customers in Spain and Portugal. And Crown Battery has been able to hire new assemblers, technicians, and engineers.
Despite this record of success, Ohio exports and American jobs are at risk because some in Congress cannot agree to reauthorize the Ex-Im bank.
Exporting is tough, especially for small businesses. Less than one percent of the nation’s nearly 26 million small businesses export their products. In more than 200 roundtables I’ve held throughout the state and in meetings in the nation’s capital, I hear from Ohio small business owners who want to expand and access foreign markets, but due to the credit risks associated with some overseas investments these entrepreneurs cannot secure private financing.
That’s why the Export-Import Bank matters. In 2011 alone, the Ex-Im Bank worked with nearly 100 Ohio businesses to support $429.5 million in export sales.
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, Ex-Im supports 290,000 export-related jobs, and more than 85 percent of Ex-Im’s transactions supported small businesses last year. Renewing the Bank’s charter should be a cause that all Senators support – and the Senate has unanimously reauthorized the agency 25 times since it was established in 1934.
This isn’t a political issue; it’s a matter of American jobs and global competitiveness.
We face a trade deficit with China of about $295 billion in 2011, meaning that we import more Chinese products than we export. China’s Export-Import and Development Banks provide as much as $100 billion in export credits each year, which is more than three times as many new export credits as the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
For Ohio workers in places like Cleveland, Middletown, and Fremont, reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank is a top priority. Reauthorizing the bank should also be a top priority for Congress.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown
U.S. Senator
Washington, D.C.
713 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
p (202) 224-2315
f (202) 228-6321
Columbus
200 N High St.
Room 614
Columbus, OH 43215
p (614) 469-2083
f (614) 469-2171
Toll Free
1-888-896-OHIO (6446)
By Our Reporter
KISUMU
Twenty employees of The Standard newspaper have been sacked , including senior editorial staff over allegations of non-performance, scandals and massive financial loses in the floundering Mombasa Road-based giant.
In addition, the media is expected to reshuffle some of its managing editors.
Among the causalities are Senior Editor in Charge of Production Otuma Ongalo, Foreign Editor Andrew Kemboi, Mombasa Bureau Chief Ngumbao Kithi, Kisumu Bureau Chief Anderson Ojwang, sports journalist Benjamin Waindi, online editor Rosemary Nzioka and Administration Officer Peter Murigi.
Several sources erupted in anger, criticizing the Standard Group management for sacking Kithi, who is suffering from a massive cardiac problem.
A few years ago, he underwent a heart surgery in Kenyatta National Hospital. “This is unfair. How can Standard Group sack a man with a cardiac problem. We call upon the management to just reinstate him in his job. How is he going to survive without a job and he is sick,” a source in the group lamented
At the same time court reporter Evelyn Kwamboka has sent to manage Kisumu Bureau and Parliament reporter David Ochami was deployed to manage Mombasa, one of the most important bureaus in the Kenyan political circles.
In addition, the newspaper sacked five designers, touching off a firestorm of criticism. “There is a crisis in the design and graphics and yet the the newspaper has fired five of the best designers,” said a source.
These sackings have left panic in the newspaper, which has was founded in 1902, but has seen its fortunes plummet in the recent years, paving the way for several online news portals and other alternative weeklies. Media critics poured scorm in the latest move. “This is the bullshit of working in the Kenyan media, you never know when you will be kicked out of the company,” Mwangi Ngamate explained from the Cayman islands.
Early this month, the Jackal News reported that Standard group had plunged into pre-election engineering, effecting some of the most unnecessary, perhaps panic-driven changes in senior editorial. We also warned that there were fears of a Tsumani in Mombasa road.
In an earlier reshuffle, Woka Nyawoka was deported from Managing Editor, Weekend Editions and shipped to the Kwashiorkor-ridden County Weekly, paving the way for lackluster Fred Mbugua, who was plucked from the less-prestigious Deputy Managing Editor, Daily Editions.
Experienced Ben Agina was elevated to Senior Associate Editor, Weekend, perhaps to lend a hand to Mbugua, sources claim, explaining that the move was a vindication for Agina who was once news editor.
As a result of a recent 19-25 percent plunge in company overall profits, occasioned by systemic failures in KTN, sources said next time manager are swinging their machete in the television channel that was once the pride of independent TV, but is now a shadow of its former self.
But for now, the major focus in the newspaper, the main pillar of the group since they fear spending so much money on the TV could be counter-productive.
By Agwanda Jowi,
Dear Katibu,
I was really happy seeing you joining the striking Kenya Airports Authority workers and “promising” them that they will not be sacked as a result of their striking.
I am not writing to shower you with pleasantries in regard to the striking KAA workers, actually I have resorted to this open letter because I have not been able to reach you via your mobile phone and I find your press briefings so plain, repeated and boring for an adventurous journalist like me, as I have always told you before, I am a journalist by birth.
The reason behind my writing to you is to still ask you what you have always refused to answer in my many various short messages to your phone in regard to these so called “out of court settlement payment “which is so routinely with the workers saving fund National Social Security Fund(NSSF).
I have heard and seen the cases where they have paid colossal amount to either contractors or quarters purporting to being owed by NSSF, surprisingly you have opted to remain silent in regard to all these issues yet COTU sits in the board of the NSSF, surely Atwoli the way i know you, would you have been quiet if “things never worked your way?”.
I believe COTU has one of its own as a member of the NSSF board was a compromised reached or was it a case of the Animal Kingdom where all animals are equal but some are more equal than others?
As days goes by more and more Kenyan workers are loosing their trusts on you and very soon COTU will be irrelevant and young upcoming unionists like us will never forgive you down to your grave.
Lastly why are you quiet about the horrendous conditions workers are working on in one of the farms owned by former President of this country?
Why do you think Kenyans refused to heed your calls which requested them to participate in a strike during last Christmas? we as future young unionists in this country are watching you keenly and as that Chinese adage goes “one step is the genesis of a million miles journey”
From: Yona Maro
Women workers across Asia and throughout the world continue to face long hours, low wages and discrimination when they try to organise into unions within garment and footwear factories. Millions of young women are making products for companies Nike and Adidas. Over the past decade, under considerable public pressure, these companies have developed standards on workers conditions for their supplier factories. Despite this, there is still a considerable gap between sportswear companies’ policies and the actual conditions inside factories. This article explores a process in Indonesia from 2009 to 2011 which brought together Indonesian factories, international sportswear brands and Indonesian unions to develop a protocol in an attempt ensure that workers’ human rights are upheld inside factories. Women union leaders were instrumental in the development of this protocol and will be integral to the implementation of these new guidelines.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13552074.2012.663623
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Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Writes Leo Odera Omolo
BUSINESSES and governments in Eastern African region will continue to paying hefty perks to hire and retain key professionals, as scarcity of skills and strict entry conduct and regulations continued to have hurt labor movement, a new World Bank survey shows.
The findings run against expectation that the signing of the EAC Common Market Protocol- that should have seen thousands of skilled lawyers, engineers and accountants seek employment in the region would ease the talent war and slow down the compensation race in the East African Community labor market.
The survey shows foreign professionals constitute less than 10 per cent in any of the EAC countries, even as most of the nations suffer huge deficits. There is only relative abundance of professional in Kenya and scarcity in Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania.
Although professionals in Eastern Africa receive low nominal wages relative to their counterparts in developing countries, once their wages are adjusted for purchasing power, professional in Uganda and Kenya are comparatively well paid reflecting the demand for their services.
However, in legal services the very high wage earned by professionals are not necessarily indicative of their scarcity ,but rather of the power of professional bodies which impose strict entry and conduct regulations says the report entitled,” De-fragmenting Africa; Deepening Regional Trade Integration in Goods and Services.”
“Regulations affecting operation of legal and engineering providers including restrictions on prices and fees, advertising, form of business and inter-professional cooperation, are particularly heavy when compared with those in emerging economies,” says the report just released.
It shows that the restrictions imposed on accounting firms are even more stringent, with branches of foreign firms being prohibited in Kenya, Uganda and even the more liberal Rwanda.
Kenya and Tanzania also prohibit ownership or control of foreign accounting and auditing firms by non-locally licensed professionals.
The lack of intra-East African foreign firms participation is because each member states of the EAC grants exclusive rights to contain professionals over certain activities, “said a Kenyan director of the EAC Economic Affairs Richard Sindiga.
The World Bank wants policy makers in Eastern Africa and the continent as a whole to do more to cut down the trade barriers within Africa or it will suffer on the on-going world economic recession.
“It is clear that Africa is not reaching its potential for regional trade, despite the fact that its benefits are enormous.”
Meanwhile tension is high in most of the border posts connecting Kenya and its neighboring Tanzania following the boycott by track drivers and other users of motor vehicle after Tanzanian authorities had unilaterally raised the border crossing fees to USD 200 {Kshs 16,000}
The issue had temporarily raised the political temperature of the region and caused a long pile up of vehicles at the border crossing points, mostly at Taveta, Namanga and Sirare.
It affected the vehicles plying the Voi-Taveta –Moshi route in the Coast Province, and also the Namanga border crossing, which is close to the Kenyan capital City of Nairobi and Sirare border post located in the far southern end of Nyanza Province.
Traders complained bitterly that the move by Tanzania was against the EAC Common Market Protocol signed last July to speed up free movement of goods and persons across the common borders of member states.
On Tuesday, however, an immigration officer working o the Kenyan side of the border at Taveta told he media hat the matter has been resolved after discussions with their Tanzanian counterparts and that its details would be announced soon. The Tanzanian officials, however, were tight lipped and maintain a total silent, only telling this writer to contact Dar Es Salaam for such comments.
Kenyan traders operating at the border post said many Tanzanian were operating their businesses on the Kenyan side of the border without work permit.
“We want to know why Kenyans who wants to do any business in Tanzania have to obtain permits, whereas traders fro Tanzania operates in Kenya freely without any interference”, said a Kenyan trader at Taveta.
Ends
from Chuck Watts; via empathysurplus dot com
TO: Congressman Turner & my email list of about 150 in your district
I got your email about remembering our service members.
It came at the same time as the news that you had withdrawn your compassion for their families and voted to end the Payroll Protection Subsidy to 99% of all Americans. It reported that you are keeping the subsidies to the 1% intact.
These are the family members of our service men and women. Where’s your compassion for them?
It’s immoral to ask our service men and women to protect all Americans when YOU are not willing to protect them during times like these. Caring citizens and their representatives are supposed to protect and empower each other.
Where’s your heart? It doesn’t seem to be for the 99%.
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On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:32 PM, Congressman Michael Turner wrote:
News Brief
Remember our Servicemembers during this Holiday Season
By Congressman Michael Turner
The Christmas season offers many opportunities to take part in holiday traditions which carry a great deal of meaning for many Americans. Each year, Americans from around the country gather in our Nation’s Capital to celebrate the season at two prominent holiday events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. The lighting of the United States Capitol Christmas tree is an annual custom that symbolizes the national importance of the Christmas season. This popular holiday tradition originated on Christmas Eve 1913, when a 40-foot Christmas tree was placed on the East Front of the Capitol. It included the words: “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.”
The importance of Christmas in our history has been apparent since the early days of the American Revolution. On the night of December 25, 1776, General George Washington and his army crossed the icy Delaware River into New Jersey, in a prelude to a surprise attack against troops allied with the British at the battle of Trenton. The subsequent American victory was a huge morale boost for the Continental Army and the American public, and a pivotal turning point in the war for Independence. One year later, after a string of defeats by the British, Washington and his army retreated into their winter quarters at Valley Forge, a week before Christmas.
Later, in an effort to reunite a nation still healing from the wounds of the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson unconditionally pardoned “every person who directly or indirectly” fought for the Confederacy on Christmas Day 1868. Through the years, American families have traditionally observed Christmas in their homes and places of worship. In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant officially declared December 25th a national holiday.
We are fortunate to live in a country where our freedoms and rights are firmly established and protected. The responsibility of protecting these rights and for keeping our Nation strong falls upon the men and women who serve in our armed forces. Many service members spend holidays away from friends and loved ones.
There are a number of organizations that provide citizens with an outlet to express their appreciation and support to those who bravely defend the United States overseas. One of these organizations, Operation Show Our Love, was founded by Chris and Cindy St. John of Brookville, Ohio. Operation Show Our Love brings a touch of home to the men and women of our military by collecting items such as DVDs, magazines, snacks, chewing gum, toothpaste, and other everyday necessities, and ships them to troops around the world. The organization has shipped 4,001 care packages and over 111,506 pounds of goods to servicemembers in 28 countries and at sea. To learn more about Operation Show Our Love, please visit their website at :www.operationshowourlove.org or contact Cindy Millikin St. John at CindyMillikin@gmail.com.
As you gather with family and friends this holiday season, please take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas aside from the crowded shopping malls and exchanging of gifts. Remember in your prayers this holiday season our brave troops who are deployed around the world and unable to spend this holiday with their families, as well as those who are less fortunate here at home. On behalf of my wife and our two daughters, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.
By Ndira Uradi in Kisumu City
INDIGENOUS residents of Kisumu County have voiced concern at the just concluded ODM grass root and County branch elections accusing the younger sister of the Prime Minister Raila Odinga of practicing nepotism by importing her relative from their Bondo background to come and grab various elective positions within the County to the chagrins of the indigenous.
Ruth Adhiambo Odinga, who is the marketing director of the Odinga’s family business flagship, the Spectra International, which is managing the Otonglo market based Kisumu Molasses plant is said to have taken an active part in the elections in the Kisumu Town West constituency sub-branch and in the Kisumu County ODM branch elections which took part at the Tom Mboya Labour College, specifically to ensure that only her relatives were elected in the positions of influence.
It is being claimed that she made it sure that only people whose homes are located within the Odinga family Bondo home turf were elected into two key important positions in Kisumu ODM County branch.
Dave Okwatch a native of the Odinga’s Sakwa Bondo home backyard was propelled by Adhiambo to win the Kisumu County branch of the ODM, while Mrs Rosa Buyu also an indignant of Bondo was imposed n women to become the chairperson of ODM branch in Kisumu County.
The Odingas, it is further alleged that Odinga family has always made it sure that Okwatch is always planted to the ODM nominated Councilor in the Kisumu Municipality despite the fact that he had no grass root support from the indignant in the region apart from doing errand job for the family.
Kisumu Count comprises of six parliamentary constituencies, namely Nyakach, Muhoroni, Nyando, Kisumu Town East, Kisumu Town West and Kisumu Rural. And during the election, delegates from those districts and constituencies were coerced an forced to vote for the two were correct ones wanted at the helm of the County branch.
Aspirants from the above mention rural constituencies with the blessing from their localities were locked out of the race
The matter has since elicited bitter complaints and allegation that the Odingas were out t marginalized the Luos by denying them their democratic birth rights.
Hat has aggravated the situation is the reports making the round that Raila’s sister Ruth Adhiambo Odinga is eying the lucrative position of governor for Kisumu County while Rosa Buru a woman born in Sakwa Bondo, but married to a husband a man of Kisumo Location is said to be eying the Kisumu Town West parliamentary seat, which she contested in 2007,but lost narrowly t to the incumbent Jon Olago Aluoch who beat her hand down during the ODM preliminaries, but she crossed over and into Narc of Charity Ngilu whose ticket she used in contesting the election proper against the ODM official candidate.
She has since been recycled in the government appointed Commissions after the other starting the defunct Andrew Legale led the Interim Electoral Boundaries .Commission
The locals are up in arms and now seeing the hands of the Odinga dynasty in full practice at the ODM leadership at all levels. People are wondering how Raila could win the hearts of the electorate in this region, where he has enjoyed massive supports of the voter with such complaints going unaddressed.
Ruth Adhiambo’s concerted effort to ensure the victory of Dave Okwatch and Rosa Buyu has given credence to unconfirmed allegation that she spent most of her time anointing her favorite candidates with those with potentiality of leadership being locked out.
Those who were vehemently oppose to the idea of electing an expatriate to be elected the party official in Kisumu were simply branded “traitors” an outmoded and stale word which was coined by the pro-Odingas during the old KANU-KPU rivalries of the 1960s..
Despite of the manipulations and nepotism, the locals have vowed that the seat for Kisumu County governor must be won by an indignant person with the family root in one of the six constituencies and not an imported person from Bondo even if this would mean mass walkout of Raila’s ODM party.
Meanwhile the race for Kisumu governor position party is slowly picking up and it favor the Mumias Sugar Company Marketing and Sales Director Peter Hongo who has also declared his interest in the powerful regional position.
His other credible challengers include an Insurance guru in Kisumu Simon Ogendo, former executive with the KRA Jack Ranguma, a Nairobi businessman Tom Otieno Alila, another Nairobi business executive with the Microsoft International Luis Otieno Ogingo, all of them indigenous people of Kisumu County.
To crown up the Odinga’s dynasty the other rumors making the round is that Raila’s elder brother the Bond MP who the Finance Assistant Minister Dr.Oburu Odinga is to abandon his Bondo parliamentary setf0r the Siaya Senate seat, while Mrs Ida Raila Odinga will go for the left vacant Bondo parliamentary seat. And furthermore Raila’s son Fidel Odinga is to intending to contest and inherit his father’s Lang’ata constituency seat in Nairobi.
Political pundits Kisumu City and observers alike were quick in pointing that if the proposed arrangements were to be implemented it would portray members of the Odinga’s as a family which is exhibiting excessive arrogance which could work against and stir up rebellion and sectional backlash.
Other rumors making the round in the lakeside City s that the Odingas were not comfortable with another Luo man winning the Nairobi City governor position in the forthcoming general elections. Political hirelings closely associated with the family have been heard saying that a Luo cannot be a governor in Nairobi while Raila Odinga is the President of the republic of Kenya, and those not supportive and ascribing to this school of thought have chipped in their opinion citing the reign of the founding President Jomo Kenyatta when his daughter Miss Margaret Kenyatta was the Mayor of Nairobi while her father was the Head of State and the President therefore whoever insisting that a person from Lu-Nyanza cannot be elected to become the City governor is merely advancing selfish argument.
Ends
By: Joseph Mwangi
Nairobi Musicians have given the Music Copyright Society of Kenya seven days to call an annual general meeting to elect new directors as the current office holders are in office illegally after expiry of their r term in October 2011. They are also demanding that their royalties for this year which MCSK has continued to withhold illegally be paid immediately.
They are now blaming MCSK boss Maurice Okoth of mismanaging their hard-earned money claiming he has refused to present MSCK audited accounts for now ten years despite orders from Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK). They allege Okoth has been working illegally with Mitoko & Company Certified Public Accountants to loot their money yet the company had been stopped from transacting any business with MCSK.
A letter dated 29th November 2010 signed by ICPAK Discipline & regulations officer John Wambugu to the Managing partner Mitoko & Company Certified Public Accountants reads “Kindly let us have your urgent response to the allegations set out in the said letter including your working papers fro the audits conducted in the last ten years to reach us on or before December 14th 2010. In the meantime, you are kindly requested to desist from any further dealings with the MCSK until the matter is resolved”. But shockingly, they never forwarded the 10-years audit report as demanded by ISPAK and have continued to work with MCSK illegally.
In a letter dated 14th November 2011 to MCSK, the musicians are now demanding that an AGM be called immediately where Mitoko & Company Certified Public Accountants will be expected to present audit reports for ten years, hold countrywide elections, form parallel committee to oversee and observe MCSK activities and to form a committee to oversee the proposed amendment of memorandum and articles of MCSK.
Investigations now reveal that MCSK is a scam and it’s officials are abusing the power granted to it by the constitution more so on issues relating to management of finace since no one closely monitors the activities of MCSK. In the ten-year audit report, musicians are expecting to be told how much MCSK collects monthly, annually and how much does it spends on the running of its offices and how much does it forward to musicians.
The following questions are expected to raise temperatures during the forthcoming AGM.
1. What other functions MCSK represents apart from collecting and distributing royalties?
2. Is MCSK right to strike deals on behalf of its members? If yes, what method does this body uses to monitor music sales transacted over the internet? Is the method transparent? And if it is, those represented, are they being served with records showing the transactions?
3. Is it right for MCSK to label a member’s work Published by MCSK when it knows very well that the term publisher means the owner, composer or the original creator of such work?
4. If a member wants to pull out of this organization what is the time period for processing pullout requests and what is the procedure?
5. Does MCSK update its members contact information?
a) If no, why?
b) And if yes, how long does it take to update a member’s contact?
c) And how many contact updates request have they undertaken in the past 2 years?
d) Can MCSK produce updated members contact list?
6. Does MCSK as a society frustrates members who do not agree with its way of running things? And if they do, how much power granted to this society by the constitution to oversee the downfall of its disgruntled members?
7. Does MCSK officials charged with overseeing the welfare of Musicians in this country cahoots with corrupt music studio owners and music shop owners to deprive musicians their intellectual property right by manipulating the ownership of works submitted to it by its members?
8. Do all registered members of this society receive their yearly royalties and if not why? If yes, can MCSK as a transparent non profit making organization provide all the payment records since its formation?
9. Can MCSK account for unpaid royalties?
10. What method does MCSK uses to reach each and every one of its members? Is the method convenient to an extent that all its members get notification in time? If no, why?
11. Does this number (020 4440970) belong to MCSK? If it is why doesn’t anyone pick it when dialed?
12. Why MUSIC COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF KENYA instead of COMPOSERS AND PUBLISHERS SOCIETY OF KENYA while there is KENYA COPYRIGHT BOARD?
Good examples are MCSK affiliates ASCAP or (American Society of Composers and Publishers) and BMI or (Broadcast Music Inc.) isn’t MCSK for MUSIC COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF KENYA and KCB for KENYA COPYRIGHT BOARD confusing?
13. Should there be two copyright bodies in one country or is one body enough like the Library of congress in the United States or is this an African way of running things?
14. Why is MCSK website full of images showing sponsors instead of Musicians on whose feet it stands? Is this a mockery or is MCSK a begging bowl? Or isn’t this a ploy by MCSK officials to fool the government and the public that it still depends on sponsors?
15. Why are certain links on MCSK website like distribution dates, Events calendar, money matters, and economic effects in the society points back to home page where there are no contents suggested by the links?
16. Who manages MCSK website and how often is this site updated?
17. Is MCSK a political party where majority rules?
MCSK was founded on the background of fighting for the (weak) since musicians could not collect their royalties from those exploiting their music and it is on this background that MCSK need to reach to each and every one of its members just as it strives to collect royalties from every music user in this country and its affiliates not just a few and not even 99.9999% but 100.0%.
18. Does MCSK live up to this objective and mission?
19. How does MCSK help all of its members raise capital for production of their music like other music societies the world over?
20. Is MCSK stealthily fighting those it is suppose to protect?
While almost 95% of its members cannot afford to buy newspaper on daily basis, about the same percentage of all MSCK members has or have access to at least a basic mobile phone.
21. Why is MCSK insist on using daily newspapers to announce things like AGM, royalty payment in the wake of information technology advancement age where sending SMS and or Email is as less as a single click for blast Email or SMS.
22. Who handles MCSK member’s complaints?
23. Why Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) pushed Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to introduce a sticker that will drive the cost of producing original DVDs and CDs by 50% KRA rejects MCSK proposal. The fact these stickers are not directly purchased from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) KRA played the MCSK way is also a question of another corruption avenue.
If MCSK cannot answer these compelling issues that threaten the welfare of its members, then it has outlived it use.
Summary
Bodies like MCSK, KFF, KPL etc needs a close check by the government, the public, affiliates and its members. These bodies can be great tools to eliminate poverty if not abused, but can be killing weapons (talent wise and life wise) if managed poorly, unprofessionally and unethically.
Reports Leo Odera Omolo
The National Environmental Management Authority {NEMA} has ordered one of the companies prospecting for gold in Migori and Nyatike to close down its pit mines with immediate effect.
The NEMA action followed the recent series of deaths involving mine workers in the greater Southern Nyanza connection to unsafe condition of the mine pits and the safety of gold diggers.
A total of 9 people have died within one month, they included one foreign investor, a Whiteman gold prospector from Zimbabwe.
The three perished inside a gold pit at Nyahera in Central Kasipul Location, Oyugis Division of Rachuonyo South district in the County of Homa-Bay.
The investor is reported to have entered the 20feet deep mine pit in a bid to retrieve the bodies of two of his worker who had suffocated to death from exhaust fumes after the water pump engine they were using in pumping out water which had logged filled inside the pit developed mechanical problem.
The dead investor’s body has since been flown out for burial in his native Zimbabwe country. Th two Kenyan workers hail from within the local communities.
The first death of 3 miners, all members of one family, occurred earlier in the month at Kanyasrega village in North Sakwa Location, Awendo district within Migori County.The pit, a disused former gold mine which was in use in the late 195s and early 1960a. Another man who was rescued from the rubble and rushed to the Hospital later died bringing the number of total victims to four.
The police chiefs in the area later issued a stern warning to the local people to steer clear of the disused mine pits in the area, threatening to mobilize members of the local communities to have the mines sealed off.
It was previously part of Kitere Gold Mines Ltd, which was in later years run and managed by he Commonwealth Development Corporation {CDC} which closed shops in 1063 shortly before the country attained its political independence in 1963.
The white miners left the county in huff in anticipation that chaos and mayhem usually associate with African politics, particularly after or during the elections.
The abrasive Nyatike MP Edick Omondi Anyanga recently appealed to the government to reorganize the mining of minerals in his constituency and in the neighboring region in order toke up the proper account of gold being taken outside the country for exports, to avoid a situation whereby some unscrupulous foreign investor siphoning mineral and exporting them though neighboring counties to avoid taxation by the Kenya Revenue Authority {KRA.
The third death involving three mines diggers took place in Nyatike constituency where three gol miners were buried alive when the land around the pit paved the way hurling tons of soil and rock on the pit as a result of heavy rains which has incessantly pounded the region since October, weakening the ground which paved the way exposing miners to a great danger.
Ends
By Dickens Wasonga
It is official. The country must now prepare for yet another round of total darkness as the over 12000 KPLC staff begins a nationwide strike as from next week.
Speaking to reporters in Kisumu the national vice chairman of Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union Mr. Vincent Okulo said although a meeting is scheduled between the union and KPLC top management for the October 17th , this will no avert the looming strike.
Okulo said the meeting will only discuss the delayed Collective Bargaining Agreement for the period 2011/2012 which was to come into effect from January this year.
The union official said the strike which is likely to spur massive industrial unrest and job cuts as more employers will likely do while seeking to survives its aftermath is the last option for staff in their efforts to battle it out with the newly branded KPLC whose vision of ” powering people for better lives” the union now appear bent to discredit.
The union is demanding immediate conclusion and full implementation of the delayed CBA. In the agreement negotiated last year, the union wants the lowest employee to earn sh.17500 up from13,000. They also want a 13% increment for all the cadres.
Apart from the CBA, the union is also demanding that KPLC absorbs as permanent a all the current staff working on temporary terms.
According to Okulo who is also the union’s secretary general for western Kenya region, only 3000 out of 12000 are KPLC permanent staff.
These are artisans such as the meter readers, disconnection clerks etc many of whom are not even covered medically by the company and whom he claimed die while working due to the risk surrounding their duties.
They also want KPLC to stop giving jobs to contractors arguing that contractors were engaging in shoddy jobs and were also to blame for the persistent power outages experienced in most parts of the country.
Okulo claimed that top managers were allegedly colluding with some of the unscrupulous contractors and that explains the many cases of theft of equipment and vandalism that is common at the firm.
”I have worked here for twenty years now. before the management introduced out sourcing of services and hiring of contractors to do jobs for KPLC, issues such us loss of transformers were not there . power back outs were minimal. Today, these people vandalize equipment, siphon transformer oils and do business with the company supplying materials the same materials they have stolen from us” he said.
Okulo who represents 600 casuals from the western Kenya region said the no amount of intimidation will cow them this time round into abandoning the strike and asked consumers countrywide to prepare by stocking candles.
He said the strike action was within the law and asked the police to keep off and resist attempts by the management to use them to intimidate and harass those who will take part in the industrial action.
In the last such strike, some union officials in the region were arrested by police in Kisumu who locked them up.
The country was plunged into total darkness in 1998 when there was severe drought that saw KPLC introduce power rationing that lasted several months resulting into loss of jobs and impacting negatively in the economy.
ENDS.
From: Joseph Mwangi
A new teachers’ trade union known as Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers was last week registered (registration certificate No.160). In a letter dated 5th October 2011 (Ref.MLHRD/TU/160/1/9) addressed to James Torome (Secretary General) and signed by Registrar of Trade Unions W.K Langat reads “I refer to your application for registration of a trade union under the Labour Relations Act. I am pleased to inform you that I have today registered Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers as Trade Union under the Labour Relations act”.
The union’s current interim officials include James Torome (Secretary General), Lusile Machago (Deputy Secretary General), Gabriel Koinare (Chairman), Amos Karanja (Vice-chairman), Joyce Dumo (treasurer), Stephen Kivui (Vice Treasurer), Josephene Ombari (women representative), Kennedy Kadegu (men representative), Cyprian Njagi (trustee) and Monica Gathu Trustee).
The union intends to recruit 80,000 teachers who have undergone special training at the Kenya Institute of Special Education. The union will be temporarily run from Narok County but will soon relocate to Nairobi. The interim officials are working on voluntary basis.
It now becomes the third teachers union after KNUT and KUPPET. What now remains to be seen is how KNUT and KUPPET leadership will react to the registration of the new Union.
From: Judy Miriga
Folks,
It is my Prayer the Ocampo post will be given to an open public opinion, nomination and endorsements amongst the 4 top candidate picks, before appointment is made.
It will be a fair deal people…a just fair deal for the poor souls from Black Continent of Africa’s Human Rights, livelihood, wealth and destiny.
Ocampo in preparation to exit ICC Hague, presented and displayed a very painful-to-watch press conference with Jeff Koinange of Capital Talk from the Hague….
Watch the video clip attached here under………This is the reason why it should be made more prudent and specifically crucial that participants in a referendum opinion endorsement backed with facts to be made by the people of African Descent in the nomination of who to be at the ICC Hague………Africans who presently crave for Real Justice……..
With a step of faith as we get involved, May our Good God hear and provide answer to our Prayers……..
Thank you all,
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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Ocampo to Pursue Justice http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/3/V4Zw0-STmBg
IS UHURU MUNGIKI ? http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/2/z202E_d4vxo
WAS RAILA INVOILVED http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/1/Vm8tyC5gKAI
ANY MORE EVIDENCE http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/0/iFx2ftLmmhY
Amiyo nyingi duong’
Mak Lweta Ruoth by Carol David. Director: Okidi
Kenya: Top Lawyers Seek Ocampo’s Job
Murithi Mutiga
8 October 2011
Four senior lawyers are seen as early favourites in the race to succeed Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo at the International Criminal Court.
A new prosecutor will be named in the second week of December, an appointment that will be keenly watched as the new prosecutor will take over the two Kenyan cases in The Hague.
Informed sources say the four lawyers are the leading candidates among dozens of candidates in the race to take over from Mr Moreno-Ocampo.
International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz, Mr Ocampo’s deputy Fatou Bensouda, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecutor Hassan Jallow and former ICTY prosecutor Louise Arbour are seen as the top picks.
Different reasons
Mr Brammertz and Ms Bensouda are said to enjoy frontrunner status within the search committee for very different reasons.
Ms Bensouda has the advantage of being an African, a woman and a Muslim. These factors have seen her touted as one of the strongest candidates considering some critics claim the ICC is hostile to Africa. Ms Bensouda is also described as an exceptionally gifted lawyer.
The biggest weakness in her application, though, is her association with Mr Ocampo’s time in office. Some critics say that Mr Ocampo has had an undistinguished record, and he has come under severe criticism for his love for publicity, which critics argue has detracted from the serious work of investigations.
This is how international criminal law lecturer Kevin Jon Heller describes Ms Bensouda:
“She’s brilliant, tough, fair and the reason that the OTP has not collapsed under the weight of Moreno-Ocampo’s incompetence,” he wrote on the law portal Opinio Juris. “She’s also inspiring, having broken though every glass ceiling imaginable in Gambia.”
Ms Bensouda will have to overcome the strong constituency of doubters within and outside the ICC who argue that it is vital that the institution achieves a clean break from the Moreno-Ocampo era.
The outgoing chief prosecutor is yet to win a conviction in The Hague.
The courtroom performances of his team have also come under fire with Francis Muthaura’s lawyer Karim Khan establishing himself as one of the prosecutor’s fiercest critics.
In the latest round of hearings Mr Khan demanded that the judges order an investigation into what he termed “prosecutorial misconduct” in handling the Kenya case and in the prosecution’s dealings with witnesses.
Another strong candidate is Mr Brammertz, a Belgian former professor of law at the University of Liège who is widely regarded as one of the most impressive figures in international law.
He speaks German, Dutch, French and English, and in his role as the chief prosecutor at ICTY, led the team that has assembled the cases against the ICTY’s most high profile suspects – former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic and military leader Ratko Mladic.
Mr Brammertz is seen as possibly the strongest candidate in the race. There are those who say that the ICC should not bend over backwards to pick someone from a developing country, but should be guided purely by merit.
However, to qualify for the position of chief prosecutor one must be nominated by their home state and it is not clear if Mr Brammertz has won the support of Belgium.
It is said that some in Belgium were unhappy at the manner in which Mr Brammertz resigned from his former position as deputy chief prosecutor to Mr Ocampo.
Been unhappy
It is thought that Mr Brammertz quit due to serious differences between him and Mr Ocampo.
He is said to have been unhappy with the chief prosecutor’s methods and was especially disgruntled over the decision of the ICC to take action against the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and its failure to take similar action against the Ugandan army.
A scholar who studies the impact of the ICC’s work in Uganda and Libya, Mr Mark Kersten, says that it is unclear if at a time when the ICTY has its most high profile suspects in detention they will be willing to lose their chief prosecutor.
Another candidate in the running is Hassan Jallow who has been the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003. Mr Jallow is seen as a safe choice. He would be unlikely to shake up the office of the prosecutor too much.
However, Mr Jallow has two things against him. His relatively advanced age – he is 61 which means that he would be 70 at the end of his nine-year term in the OTP- and his nationality.
As a Gambian, Mr Jallow will be one in a crowded field of African candidates that have applied for the job. That list of applicants is said to include three Kenyans, although the Sunday Nation could not immediately establish their identities.
One of their own
If Africans do not succeed in pushing through one of their own, one of the Western candidates that has been touted as a potential replacement is the Canadian former chief prosecutor at ICTY.
Mr Kerster writes no other candidate “has been more involved with issues of justice, human rights and conflict than Arbour …. she is tough as nails and not overly worried about annoying state and non-state actors in the defence of principles and values. At the same time, Arbour is one of those rare characters, unlike Moreno-Ocampo, who don’t feel the need to be flashy or use unnecessarily high rhetoric in the way they go about their business.”
The next prosecutor will be elected by the 10th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
from Tebiti Oisaboke
Please check this out, it might be beneficial to you out there!!
Good luck
TOI
– – –
cities-jobs-future-mainstreet: Personal Finance News from
Yahoo! Finance
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/113551/cities-jobs-future-mainstreet
from Senator Sherrod Brown Senator_Brown@brown.senate.gov
October 6, 2011
Dear Friends,
It’s time to end the partisan bickering and focus on jobs. Too many middle-class Ohioans are struggling to find work, send a child to college, or keep up with their mortgage.
Last month, the President announced his jobs plan and traveled to Ohio to outline the American Jobs Act. Now that he’s announced his plan, I want to hear your thoughts and ideas.
I believe we can build on Ohio’s spirit of innovation and manufacturing heritage to create jobs in clean energy, biotech, and aerospace. But we need to stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas and instead ensure a level playing field for Ohio workers and Ohio manufacturers.
When we stood up to China and enforced trade laws to prevent a flood of cheap imports that undermine Ohio-made products, we saw new jobs in the Mahoning Valley and Northwest Ohio. Helped by federal investments in clean energy, Toledo is now second in the nation in solar panel jobs. By encouraging our state’s aerospace industry, manufacturers in Dayton and Cincinnati have new business opportunities. And by investing in workforce development, Northeast Ohio’s biosciences industry continues to grow.
But we need to do more. And I want to hear your priorities for job creation.
Survey;
Strongly Support; Support Somewhat; No Opinion; Somewhat Against; Strongly Against;
1. Should we cut taxes for employers who hire new workers?
2. Do you support providing funds to state and local governments to prevent layoffs of employees like teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other first responders?
3. Do you think Congress should cut payroll taxes paid by workers and employers as long as the lost revenue to Social Security is replaced?
4. Do you support ending the so-called Bush tax cuts for those who earn more that $250,000 a year?
5. Would you support increased federal investment in infrastructure to create jobs by fixing schools and improving roads, mass transit, and other infrastructure?
http://brown.senate.gov/
Senator Brown’s Offices
Washington, D.C.
713 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
p (202) 224-2315
f (202) 228-6321
and others;