Category Archives: Human Rights

KENYA: RETHINKING POLITICAL PARTY DEMOCRACY IN KENYA BEYOND ETHNICITY

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From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY PAM INOTI
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

With the next general election drawing near, it becomes important to reflect on the issue of political parties and their quest as vessels of democracy consolidation in Kenya. Arguably, political parties in Kenya lack substance, but are just narrow ethnic based. Past behavior is the best indication of present and perhaps future action. The 2007 general election turned out to be a show of might largely between the Western/Rift Valley based ethnic groups and their Central/ Eastern counterparts.

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In any given country, political parties act as the crucial linkage between the people, their leaders, civil society and the private sector, underscoring their necessity as institutions of policy formulation, political, economic and social governance. Political parties regulate the effective removal of leaders who do not fulfill the wishes of their electorate, making them vessels of accountability.

However, the noble role of political parties as envisaged by the fathers of democracy has been circumvented by party kingpins in the Kenyan context. Though it bears similarity with the rest of Africa, I would perhaps not be wrong to posit that the case of Kenya and the surrounding ethnic political party inclinations is far off. Ethnicity forms the base for mobilizing social solidarity and which more often result in political activity.

In 2002, the NARC overwhelmingly trounced KANU because its partners were drawn from various ethnic groups to fight a common enemy. The ethnic groups, while voting, were each convinced that one of their own was at the helm, close to the national cake. During the 2005 referendum vote, the voting pattern took an ethnic twist depending on who was at the Yes or No camp.

On such an important matter as the constitution debate, the ethnic tilt was evident in the referendum results by each of the 8 provinces in Kenya. The Yes and No faction leaders appealed to ethnic sentiments pitting GEMA communities against majority of the other ethnic groups. Arguably, instead of voting for whether the draft was ideal or not, Kenyans ended up voting for the side that their political leaders and ethnic group was in for.

Come the 2007 elections, ethnicity took a more drastic turn when ethnicity became so pronounced resulting to the devastating post-election violence. The election assumed the self-other dichotomy that translated to ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ The people were convinced that unless one of their own won the election, like a honey comb, that is the only way benefits that would trickle down to their regions.

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Ethnicity and kinship ties are the first thing we can think of when asked who we are voting for. Tribe is the first thing Kenyans need to know about one another which then forms the foundations of all subsequent interactions. Evidently, political party leaders have transformed parties into vessels of upward political and social mobility to secure power and access a piece of the national pie. The notion of party leaders securing leadership positions to enrich themselves may be one of the reasons why leadership positions party is highly contested in Kenya.

Picture this: In a random interview conducted by a political scientist 2005, party leaders told of how their leadership positions had “improved their social standing both at the constituency level and nationally.” A whooping 85 percent of those polled mentioned that party leadership had helped them “acquire wealth, prestige, and a measure of power that enabled them to influence government decisions vital for their political survival.”

A big attribute to this factor is that political parties in Kenya is a lack of internal party democracy with no party rules-of-conduct and regulations that govern their existence and operations. But who needs a political party manifesto when a party’s main purpose is to promote its ethnic interest? Instead, parties are more concerned with membership recruitment around elections to support their office bid. They lack any ideology cum policy-driven, but instead focus on playing the ethnic card to secure an election win. Leaders shamelessly stand at public bazaars and appeal ethnic kinsmen for votes with a plethora of promises on what his/her win will mean for the ‘people.’

Not a bad thing per se, but the impact that those kind of terms sets to further alienate other ethnic groups who wonder what their votes will translate into receiving a part of the national cake. Without the said terms, it could be possible that political parties can draw a national outlook that befits a multi-ethnic society like Kenya.

Since the introduction of multiparty politics, Kenya lacked any clear regulations that would govern the formation and existence of political parties. It was not until the Political Parties Act created in 2007 and entered into force in 2008 that saw some semblance of political party order, albeit in their registration.

At inception, FORD is the only political party that can be said to have a nationwide appeal before leadership wrangles divided the party into two factions. Onwards, any political party formed recruits its membership from the party leader’s backyard. Furthering ethnic interests is an invention that began with the Kenyatta government (1963-1978) where the notion of enriching one’s kinsmen soared by the famous Kenyatta quote “my people have milk in the morning while your tribes have milk in the afternoon,” meaning a fruit does not fall far from the tree.

The trend was exacerbated with Moi’s regime (1978-2002) where the Kalenjinis took over key positions in cabinet, civil service and parastatals. In fact, with the introduction of multiparty politics, I remember the campaign promise by pro-KANU contester in my constituency during 1992 and 1997 election to vote in KANU so that the constituency could not be neglected development wise. Talk of dangling a carrot politics to reward the allies and punish the foes.

Likewise, I also attribute ethnic wariness amongst our generation to the education quota introduced by the Moi government in 1985 obliging schools to take 85% of their pupils from the local area, such that students intermingled with other ethnic groups in institutions of higher learning. By then, ethnic bias and stereotypes had already set in, making it easier for politicians to center on that to advance personal interests disguised as ethnic interests.

I do not exonerate the Kibaki government (2002-present) from playing ethnic politics. Whereas his initial NARC government was expected to usher new changes of strengthening ethnic relations, it has instead alienated people further by playing the same fiddle as the previous regimes he once attacked.

As a people, we have also formed the detrimental habit of following ethnic party leader’s position of the divide they are in. We are not concerned on what ideals or policies a party stands for, but instead follow the party leader blindly further tearing our country apart. I see it as a form of ‘personality cultism’ that will continue to divide our country unless we put a stop to it. Show me any single party that promotes national cohesion? I guarantee you there is none at the moment, yet elections are looming around the corner.

The politicians’ talk of G4, G7, Mt. Kenya Alliances and so many others are a myriad of what is yet to be unveiled as 2012 elections draws near. Let us shun ethnic political rivalry. The wounds of 2007/2008 are still raw. Those who do not learn from history are myopic and are bound to repeat the same mistakes. Let one and all arise… May we dwell in unity… is our solemn prayer as a nation. The buck stops with you and me.

Pam Inoti is a student at USIU and an intern with People for Peace in Africa

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

THE CHURCH DEBATE ON DEMOCRACY AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY

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from ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

As the world marks international democracy day today, the big question we are asking, is whether the church democratic. Given that democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives, the answer to this question in that perspective is not.

The traditional position of the Roman Catholic Church for example, as articulated by Pope Leo XIII before the Second Vatican Council, has been that governments should have care for religion and “recognize the true religion professed by the Catholic Church.” It means, in practice, that legitimate government must specifically endorse Catholicism and must put Catholic principles and morals into practice through the laws.

Church was viewed as the only channel through which perfect happiness is obtained whereas the goal of the State was the temporal happiness of man, and its proximate purpose the preservation of external juridical order and the provision of a reasonable abundance of means of human development in the interests of its citizens and their posterity.

The temporal goods on this world were to be used only with the view to attain this perfection happiness to be realized only after death, and consequently a proximate purpose to earn in this life his title to the same. In the pursuit of this latter purpose, speaking in the abstract, he had a natural right to constitute a social organization taking over the worship of God as a charge peculiarly its own.

This could explain why the church has been to slow to embrace liberation theology. This is because liberation theology, a term first used in 1973 by Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian Roman Catholic priest, is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions.

Even though it has been described by proponents as “an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor’s suffering, their struggle and hope, and a critique of society and the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor”, but the fact that it has been characterized by Marxism is the reason why the church has not fully embraced it.

This is probably because the Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of material conditions, taking at its starting point the necessary economic activities required by human society to provide for its material needs.

As the word itself signifies, the fact that materialism is a philosophical system which regards matter as the only reality in the world, which undertakes to explain every event in the universe as resulting from the conditions and activity of matter, and which thus denies the existence of God and soul, and therefore cannot lead to perfect happiness could well explain why liberation theology is a threat.

Materialism is diametrically opposed to Spiritualism and idealism, which, in so far as they are one-sided and exclusive, declare that everything in the world is spiritual, and that the world and even matter itself are mere conceptions or ideas in the thinking subject.

Traditionally the church believes that perfection is not of this world, but the next, that is why a perfect or “pure” Socialism is quite unlikely to exist. This is a system of social and economic organization that would substitute state monopoly for private ownership of the sources of production and means of distribution, and would concentrate under the control of the secular governing authority the chief activities of human life.

The term is often used vaguely to indicate any increase of collective control over individual action, or even any revolt of the dispossessed against the rule of the possessing classes.

Here are some quotes of the traditional teaching of the Popes:

PIUS IX (1846-1878): “Overthrow [of] the entire order of human affairs”
“You are aware indeed, that the goal of this most iniquitous plot is to drive people to overthrow the entire order of human affairs and to draw them over to the wicked theories of this Socialism and Communism, by confusing them with perverted teachings.” (Encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum, December 8, 1849)

LEO XIII (1878-1903): Hideous monster “…communism, socialism, nihilism, hideous deformities of the civil society of men and almost its ruin.” (Encyclical Diuturnum, June 29, 1881)-Click here for his encyclical on capital and labour-Leo XIII – Rerum Novarum

BENEDICT XV (1914-1922):-The condemnation of socialism should never be forgotten
“It is not our intention here to repeat the arguments which clearly expose the errors of Socialism and of similar doctrines. Our predecessor, Leo XIII, most wisely did so in truly memorable Encyclicals; and you, Venerable Brethren, will take the greatest care that those grave precepts are never forgotten, but that whenever circumstances call for it, they should be clearly expounded and inculcated in Catholic associations and congresses, in sermons and in the Catholic press.” (Encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914, n. 13)

PIUS XI (1922-1939):- Socialism, fundamentally contrary to Christian truth
“… For Socialism, which could then be termed almost a single system and which maintained definite teachings reduced into one body of doctrine, has since then split chiefly into two sections, often opposing each other and even bitterly hostile, without either one however abandoning a position fundamentally contrary to Christian truth that was characteristic of Socialism.” (Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931, n. 111) Socialism cannot be reconciled with Catholic Doctrine.

JOHN XXIII (1958-1963):-“No Catholic could subscribe even to moderate socialism”
“Pope Pius XI further emphasized the fundamental opposition between Communism and Christianity, and made it clear that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism.
The reason is that Socialism is founded on a doctrine of human society which is bounded by time and takes no account of any objective other than that of material well-being. Since, therefore, it proposes a form of social organization which aims solely at production- it places too severe a restraint on human liberty, at the same time flouting the true notion of social authority.” (Encyclical Mater et Magistra, May 15, 1961, n. 34)

JOHN PAUL II (1978-2005): Socialism: Danger of a “simple and radical solution”
“It may seem surprising that ‘socialism’ appeared at the beginning of the Pope’s critique of solutions to the ‘question of the working class’ at a time when ‘socialism’ was not yet in the form of a strong and powerful State, with all the resources which that implies, as was later to happen. However, he correctly judged the danger posed to the masses by the attractive presentation of this simple and radical solution to the ‘question of the working class.’” (Encyclical Centesimus Annus ? On the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, May 1, 1991, n. 12)

BENEDICT XVI (2005 – present):- “We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything” The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person ? every person ? needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. …

In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live ‘by bread alone’ (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3) ? a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.” (Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, December 25, 2005, n. 28)

Pope Benedict XVI (as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) became one of liberation theology’s staunchest critics in the 1980s as head of the Catholic Church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. He silenced theologians associated with such scriptural interpretations and appointed traditional bishops.

Some scholars believe it’s because he objected to Marxist-inspired political analysis that some theologians embraced. Others say Ratzinger objected to the independence of base communities, small groups formed to study the Bible and relate it to their own experience of oppression.

Some scholars say Ratzinger and others successfully stifled a movement that was already headed toward extinction because it addressed specific historical and economic situations that have been altered by global capitalism and other factors. Some also say that it was weakened because it relied on a method of scriptural interpretation that has been overtaken by new developments in biblical criticism.

Ratzinger also argued that liberation theology is not originally a “grass-roots” movement among the poor, but rather, a creation of Western intellectuals: “an attempt to test, in a concrete scenario, ideologies that have been invented in the laboratory by European theologians” and in a certain sense itself a form of “cultural imperialism”. Ratzinger saw this as a reaction to the demise or near-demise of the “Marxist myth” in the West.

The good news is that liberation theology is still practiced in rural and middle-class villages in Latin America, and it is studied widely in seminaries in the United States and elsewhere. Some scholars say it has taken new life in feminist, Latino, black and Asian theologies throughout the world. The emphasis has shifted from the poor to those marginalized by race, ethnicity or gender. The focus is less on supporting socialist revolution than critiquing mainstream civil society.

Liberation theology matters because it provides a useful lens for looking at the challenge of how members and leaders of a global church respond to changing political and social environments.

Strictly speaking, liberation theology should be understood as a family of theologies – including the Latin American, Black, and feminist varieties. All three respond to some form of oppression: Latin American liberation theologians say their poverty-stricken people have been oppressed and exploited by rich, capitalist nations. Black liberation theologians argue that their people have suffered oppression at the hands of racist whites. Feminist liberation theologians lay heavy emphasis upon the status and liberation of women in a male-dominated society.

Gustavo Gutiérrez is Latin American Catholic priest who grew up in grinding poverty in Peru, is why employed Marx’s critiques of ideology, class, and capitalism as part of his theological analysis of how Christianity should be used to make people’s lives better here and now rather than simply offer them hope of rewards in heaven.

While still early in his career as a priest, Gutiérrez began drawing on both philosophers and theologians in European tradition to develop his own beliefs. The basic principles that remained with him through the changes in his ideology were: love (as a commitment to one’s neighbour), spirituality (focused on an active life in the world), this worldliness as opposed to otherworldliness, the church as a servant of humanity, and the ability of God to transform society through the works of human beings.

Even though Catholicism today is very concerned with the persistence of poverty in a world of plenty, but it does not share Gutiérrez’s characterization of theology as a means for helping the poor rather than for explaining the dogma of the church.

Pope John Paul II in particular expressed strong opposition to “political priests” who become more involved with achieving social justice than ministering to their flocks — a curious criticism, given how much support he provided the political dissidents in Poland while the communists still ruled. Over time, though, his position softened somewhat, possibly because of the implosion of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of the communist threat.

It is to be noted that liberation theology however, is not Gutiérrez’s creation. The liberation-theology movement was partly inspired by the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II as Foundational for Liberation Theology -Page 146 of the Fortress Introduction to Contemporary Theologies says that Vatican II “provided inspiration to reform-minded Catholics and opened the door to laity and clergy alike to engage in radical social and political involvement.”

This is an important point because liberation theology does not ask what the church is, but rather what it means “to be the church in a context of extreme poverty, social injustice and revolution.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

WORLD: WHY OCAMPO WON’T PROSECUTE POPE BENEDICT FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

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From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

An attempt by international group for victims of sexual abuse by priests to sue Pope Benedict XVI through the International Crime Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity won’t go further-Abuse victims sue pope for crimes against humanity.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said it had filed a complaint calling on the court to “take action and prosecute the Pope” for “direct and superior responsibility for the crimes against humanity of rape and other sexual violence committed around the world.”

In a statement, SNAP said members from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the US had travelled to The Hague to urge prosecutors to investigate the pope.

They also asked for three high-ranking Vatican officials — Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, his predecessor Angelo Sodano and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, US William Levada — to be investigated. The SNAP members were accompanied by lawyers from the non-profit US Centre for Constitutional Rights.

The US-based victims network submitted more than 20,000 pages of supporting materials including “reports, policy papers, and evidence of the crimes by Catholic clergy committed against children and vulnerable adults,” it said.

“Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican. In this case, all roads really do lead to Rome,” the centre’s lawyer Pam Spees said in the statement few minutes ago.

While it is true as Dr Pravin Thevathasan, a UK consultant psychiatrist writes in his book, with experience of working with sex offenders and their victims, it acknowledges the failures of the Church and the real suffering of victims, the Pope is not to blame for the abuse.

The Pope will argue on the grounds that the crisis was not one of “paedophile priests” but largely of homosexual priests, with the vast majority of cases involving adolescent and pubescent boys rather than pre-pubescent children.

He will also argue that celibacy is not to blame as abuse figures of Catholic clergy compare similarly with clergy in other religions and denominations in which clerics can marry.

The fact that the abuse of children is far from uncommon in society and, ultimately, abusive priests come from this society and not because of celibacy rule is one of the reasons the argument that the candidates for the priesthood must be selected with care to avoid future abuses.

Since the Catholic sexual abuse crisis erupted a decade ago, there have been numerous attempts to explain its causes, from a lack of fidelity to an over-emphasis on celibacy and clerical privilege.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

USA: A Group, Caring Citizens, promotes a nation’s founding ideals and values

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From: octimotor

Thru discussion meetings after the Sunday service another member the congregation, at a church in Ohio USA, is sharing insights and info. organized and distributed via a national group named “Caring Citizens”. In the space below appears a brief selection from the materials printed for our discussion this Sunday.

Objectives are to motivate conversations between people, to share certain ideals, values. These are ones which history recalls were important in the founding of this nation, USA.

The values are promotion of liberty, and persons taking responsibility to enhance the well being of their neighbors – – both near and far. Furthermore, good quality governance is to be demanded. Public governmental entities are supposed to be in service of, and answerable to, the citizenry – – not the other way around.

This Sunday’s dissuasion occurred on the 10th anniversary of the criminal destruction, of life and property, at the Twin Towers World Trade Center in NY City, NY, USA, Tues. 11 Sept. 2001. In the days shortly thereafter, there had been a brief inspiring period where people had pulled together, turned their attention to the area, and sought to determine, what could they do to relieve the plight of those in distress.

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Empathy and Shared Responsibility

Caring Citizens

Communicating American values are the solution to expanding liberty and human rights to all.

www.EmpathySurplus.com

Health Care

Human rights Principles

Universality

All humans are equal and shall receive health care

Equity

We are all cared for when we need to be.

Accountability

Effective public government responsible for delivery of healthcare human rights

Transparency

Elective, decision making, access to information, and management in health care delivery are clean

Citizen Participation

A strong democracy at all levels protects and empowers health care human rights.

Above the focus of moment was health care. It could just as easily be other points, each in their own tern. Others include, but are not limited to,
– education
– open, fair, honest process for filling elective and appointive offices
– and others.

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Celebrating Citizenship Day, and Constitution (USA) Week, each Sept.

The yearly anniversary of the USA Constitution founding (17 Sept. 1789) shall be known as American Effective Governance Month. This date begins Citizenship Week, which extends thru 24Sept. People should celebrate this documents ratification. They should reflect upon its amendments, especially the Bill of Rights (amd. 1 thru 10). They should focus upon programs of participatory democracy, freedom and fairness for all, and goodwill in the precinct, local community, nation, and throughout the world.

Tears as Kenyans suffer in slavery in Saudi Arabia

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From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

I appeal to the United Nations, Leaders of the world, World Media, friends and sympathizers to look into this sad-state-of-affair and intervene to save the life of this young girl together with other millions of children suffering out there through Human Trafficking.

I will personally try to make phone calls and follow-up on this matter. I also request for special prayers as we have lots of such cases of human trafficking all over the world. Like Mohameweli has put it, it is because of bad political leadership the have such pathetic inhuman situations…….

We must keep praying for these children and God will see us through……Very sad indeed……..As a mother, I am totally torn apart………

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

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— On Sat, 9/10/11, MOHAMEDWELI ABDI wrote

The Kenyan Government is into deal[ing with those who] enslave Kenyans. This really angers me. Indonesia 3 months ago repatriated hundred of thousand sof their citizens from Saudi Arabia after many murders of their people happen in the hands of this idiots. Why is our Government not doing anything to help this helpless citizens. Are kenyan lifes worth anything?

All this shaddy recruitment office should locked and jailed till they bring back Kenyan they sent to Middle East. This is modern day slavery.

Down with our PM and the President.

-Mohamed –

Tears as Kenyans suffer in slavery in Saudi Arabia.
By Joe Kiarie

A fortnight ago, Asha Ali from Likoni, Mombasa, sent an SoS to her parents claiming something terrible was about to happen to her in Saudi Arabia.

The 22-year-old, who left for The Gulf in March, said she has been extremely starved, forced to work for up to six households, and that she was about to be sold out to a slave master in Dubai.

“Mama huyu baba jana aliniuliza nataka kununuliwa wala la, naogopa ataniuwa. Kama Mungu ameandika nitakufa Saudia sina cha kufanya. Mama bye,” (Mum, yesterday my boss asked me if I want to be sold or not. I fear he might kill me

If it is God’s plan that I die in Saudi Arabia, there is nothing I can do. Bye mum) read one of three messages sent to her mother, Mwanaisha Mohamed. Ms Asha has not communicated since, and her fate remains unknown. When contacted by The Standard On Sunday, Yusuf Ibrahim, the Mombasa branch manager of the agency that recruited Asha, could neither explain her whereabouts nor her condition.

Inhuman treatment

This is a plain illustration of the untold misery thousands of Kenyan migrant workers are facing in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other parts of the Persian Gulf under circumstances that exemplify utter modern-day slavery.

It comes amid damning revelations of how deceitful recruitment agents have been helping promote this servitude.

With about 40, 000 Kenyan migrants working in Saudi Arabia, and over 400 of them deported in the last four months, the personal accounts of girls still in captivity abroad are disquieting. They paint a picture of a kingdom where upon entry; most workers have no choice but to surrender their travel documents along with their human rights and dignity to employers.

The most common violations include sexual assault; overwork with no pay, torture, lack of privacy and starvation. Chilling murders sum it all, with the recent discovery of a body of a Kenyan girl locked up in a freezer adding to statistics of unexplained murders of migrants in The Gulf. Fatuma Masoud, a mother of four from Kisauni, also sent an SoS to Mombasa last weekend. She recently fell off a ladder while cleaning her boss’s home at Al Khudar, Saudi Arabia and suffered a fracture to her back. But she continues to be overworked and cannot access any medical help.

“I am always locked in; eat smelly food or leftovers, one meal a day. I am a Kenyan, please help me get out of here, alert my embassy. You are my last hope,” she wrote. When contacted, her employer, Hussein al Doussary, claimed to be unaware of the situation. Ms Fatuma is yet to receive any help. Most survivors make it back to Kenya with broken limbs. And although their accounts mirror scripts akin to gruesome movies, they are the reality.

Devious recruitment agents

“My boss’ family locked me in at all times and forced me to work while stark naked to ensure I neither escaped nor stole anything in the house,” notes a lady who recently fled Saudi Arabia, but who seeks anonymity. As this unfolds, the Government has been busy echoing human rights activists in decrying the form of slavery and admitting its helplessness in seeking a solution, raising questions regarding whom these innocent Kenyans should turn to.

This maze of servitude starts with devious job recruitment agents, who have established complex international networks via which they rake in millions of shillings for shipping out unsuspecting workers. With average profits of between Sh300,000 and Sh400,000 per every person delivered, the agents have stood at nothing to entrap as many Kenyans as possible, whether voluntarily or by force.

To enhance efficiency, they subcontract the recruitment phase to local brokers across the country. Salma Bakari, a seasoned negotiator for various Saudi agents in Mombasa, terms the business irresistible. “I have been receiving Sh10,000 in cash for every employee delivered while others get up to Sh20,000. At some point, the girls were so many I could get 30 of them monthly,” she reveals.

Ms Salma says they traverse villages countrywide to lure girls into taking up jobs abroad. “They just give us their national identity cards and those of their parents. The agents help process passports and visas. The girls are then taken to Nairobi for a medical examination before flying out, with the agents footing the bills,” she notes. She divulges that a group of 20 girls departed for The Gulf last Wednesday night while another leaves on Monday.

Contrary to popular belief, majority of job-seekers who migrate to The Gulf are from middle-class income families, possess some tertiary training and do so voluntarily. Ironically, most of them play an active role, and even incur debts, trying to finance their migration.

Khalid Hussein, the Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) executive director, says about 80 per cent of the migrant workers are Muslim girls aged between 22 and 35 years. The girls are usually promised lucrative jobs as saleswomen, housekeepers, hotel attendants, drivers, waiters, and chefs.

“Most of them are usually employed and doing similar jobs locally, earning an average of Sh10,000 per month. But they find promises of jobs that fetch up to Sh80,000 irresistible, sign contracts and depart, oblivious of what awaits them,” Khalid explains.

He says reality dawns on the migrants once they reach Dammam in Riyadh and are packed into a warehouse that serves as a ‘slave’ market.

“At this point, you must surrender your passport. You can stay here for weeks and all you get is food. The locals usually visit this warehouse to choose the persons they like and force them to serve as cleaners, nannies, cooks or gardeners. Protests of being shortchanged are futile since one has already officially agreed to be owned,” Mr Khalid states.

Warehouse auction

Salma confides that while some agents usually take the girls directly to new employers, others take the girls to the warehouse and auction them for up to a month.

Once enslaved, Khalid says majority of the women are susceptible to extreme human rights violation. But with no friends, relatives of law enforcers to help them, desperate efforts to force their own deportation always prove futile.

“In a day, we receive two to three cases of enslaved Kenyans who want to return back home due to exploitation. Currently, we have 17 cases of sick women detained in Dammam awaiting deportation,” notes the director, whose organisation has now opened a hotline to specifically deal with the crisis in Saudi Arabia.

With slavery outlawed, it is believed the locals subtly use contracts to legitimise and camouflage this custom. For a migrant to work in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, she must first secure a visa via a sponsorship system called kafala. This is a routine practice among Gulf Cooperation Council states used to regulate residency and employment of foreign workers. Under it, expatriate workers can only enter, work, and leave member countries with the consent of their sponsor or a local employer. A worker’s salary, stay, meals, ability to work elsewhere, and even ability to return home are thus entirely at the mercy of employers.

Khalid notes that although both the sponsor and the employee can break the contract, this apparent equality is a mere veil considering that if the worker breaks her contract; she must pay the cost of her return ticket (a fee that the employer would have otherwise paid). She may also be fined or forced to pay debts to the recruitment agency, thus forcing her to continue working.

Once at their workplaces, and without official documents in foreign land, migrants fall under the charge of female employers. Most Middle Eastern households often consist of extended families and this translates to gruelling work that normally includes tasks like cleaning, washing, cooking, tailoring, and taking care of children and the aged.

Working hours range between 11 and 18 hours a day, with the maid obliged to work day and night.

As Asha reveals, she has alongside a Philippine colleague, been working day and night for several households daily. Saudi Arabia officially banned slave trade as recently as 1962, followed by the United Arab Emirates in 1963.

The victims’ plight

The following is a list of some Kenyan girls who have faced servitude in the Gulf.

Carol Wangui

After just three weeks of torture in Saudi Arabia, Wangui forced her deportation last Monday. She is nursing serious back injuries and has stitches following abuse by her employer.

Mariam Zuberi

Has complained of working under very harsh conditions and general mistreatment since flying to Saudi Arabia eight months ago. She has also never been paid and efforts by her family to bring her back home have failed.

Makuu Morocha

Her family has lost touch with her ever since she left Kenya. Even the agent who helped her secure employment claims not to know of her contacts and whereabouts.

Bahati Ramadhan

Bahati has not received a salary for the past one and a half years and neither has she been allowed to return home. She has reported being subjected to severe physical abuse.

Amina Jundo

Has been complaining that she is unwell and not receiving any medical treatment as well as a salary for the past six months.

Binti Saidi

Ceased communicating upon arrival in Saudi Arabia over a year ago. Efforts to have her agent intervene have been futile.

Ushi Hussein

Has complained of being very sick and extremely overworked since October last year. Her pleas to be deported have failed.

Rosemay Wanjiku

Has been held incommunicado in Tabouk, Jeddah ince June this year.

Kenya & Uganda: Investigate without peril: How to support investigative journalism in East Africa?

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from Yona Maro

Investigative journalism distinguishes itself from regular journalism by its depth and subject matter, often involving crime, political corruption or corporate wrongdoing. It can play an essential role in a country’s governance by keeping corporations and government accountable. However, the political and economic environment in some regions of the world present specific challenges for investigative journalists: countries that score low on governance and transparency present particular risks and underline the need to build investigative journalism capacity. This Brief analyses the obstacles to investigative journalism in the East African region, focusing on Kenya and Uganda, and discusses what can be done to help address these barriers.
http://www.cmi.no/publications/file/4125-investigate-without-peril.pdf
—
Kwa Nafasi za Kazi kila siku www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

http://worldngojobs.blogspot.com/ Nafasi za Kazi Kimataifa

Kenya: Police Reforms Are Now More Urgent …… Because of Kibaki & Raila Incompentency

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from Judy Miriga

Folks,

Kenya is now not safe at all….It is because of Kibaki and PM Raila incompetency…..

Many people suspect the Police force, the Mungiki recruit may put Kenya into another quagmire…..since the Police Overhaul Reform according to National Reform Agenda Agreement was not done as required.

With Wetangula outspoken of continuous collaboration and working with Gadaffi is possing more danger specifically so that Gadaffi has declared total guerilla war with the Transitional National Council of Libya……..We are worried Gadaffi’s wealth in Kenya could be used for assault since Wetangula’s outburst that Gadaffi’s wealth are safely Kept for Gadaffi………We are worried because of many roumers that was out before stating that Kenya, Uganda and North Sudan sent Marcinaries to help Gadaffi……..two plus two is equal to four……..could these funds be used to pay off the Mungiki’s, Al-Shabaab and the Somali Pirates working in cohort…….???

If Wetangula is not thoroughly investigated, we are all in for a rude shock and more surprises…..Wetangula’s Foreign Special Interests connection on behalf of the Coalition Govenment could be having business ties with Gadaffi and could have agreed to keep safe Gadaffi’s wealth in the prospect of sharing in the loot……If so, it is very very sad state-of-affair in deed….Their Mission are basically to maintain Power and Control..

These and many others are reasons why Kenya Administration Police had Mungiki infliltrated with Al-shabaab and other Somali Pirates. It is extremely important that The Kenya Police must be dismantled now…….We demand that the Kenya Army in Baracks, Airforce and Navy be released to protect Kenya’s boarders urgently……and also be put on the Streets to safeguard Kenyans security before an overhaul of the Kenya Administration Police is transparently completed…..Kenya is at present not safe…..and Kibaki and Raila must step down and vacate office now………..

The two Principles in the Coalition Government have their priorities upside down…..They must vacate Public Office now…….

Kibaki and Raila have cases to answer at the ICC Hague for misuse, abuse and neglect of Public Office with violation and crimes against Human Rights, as well as exposing the country to security risk in a very dangerous situation. This they did while serving private self with those of Special Interest against the Public Mandate………as opposed to their Oath in Office………

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – –

Police Reforms Are Now Urgent

Thursday, 01 September 2011 00:07 BY HASSAN OLE NAADO

A near death experience few weeks ago on the Nairobi-Garissa highway has re-enforced my belief in why the police force should be reformed as a matter of urgency.

And as I join other Kenyans in calling for urgent and genuine reforms in the police, I wish to pass my most prayerful get-well message to Mr Gabriel Kuya, the police boss of Tana North police division, who sustained serious injuries when he led a small team of police officers to quell riots between feuding operators of matatus plying between Madogo in Tana River district and Garissa town. Mr. Kuya in his capacity as the OCPD has been working closely with KMYA field officers in Tana North district on peace building and reconciliation efforts.

On the fateful day, I was travelling to Garissa town to attend one of the many workshops that our organisation, the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance (KMYA), has been conducting across the country to preach peace among Kenyan youths by urging them to seek peaceful means to the socio-economic problems that they encounter. KMYA is also in the forefront of seeking inter-religious dialogue as a way to encourage peaceful co-existence between Muslims and their fellow countrymen of other faiths.

Ironically, I ended up being the victim of the violence from the very youth I seek to educate when I ran into a mob of rioting matatu operators who were fighting over the control of the route between Madogo and Garissa. Two of my colleagues and I had to abandon the car we were travelling in and run for our dear lives when the car landed on a ditch after losing control as I reversed it in high speed.

But the most unfortunate thing about the whole encounter is the fact that a number of police officers were injured and the OCPD almost lost his life, not because the police were not able contain the situation, but because bureaucratic red tape would not allow police officers on the Garissa side, who were just a stone-throw away, to intervene and assist their outnumbered colleagues from Tana River.

Anybody who has been to Garissa knows that the boundary between Tana River and Garissa districts is the famous Tana Bridge. The fighting among matatu operators that almost cost Mr Kuya’s life occurred about 500 meters from the Tana Bridge inside Tana River (Bura) district, which is in Coast province—yet there was a contingent of police officers on the Garissa side, which is in North Eastern province. Why didn’t the police officers on the Garissa side intervene to assist their outnumbered colleagues on the Tana River side?

The reason the officers on the Garissa side did not intervene is because they were in a different administrative district, and bureaucracy demands that reinforcement for the Madogo operation could only have come from as far as Hola, which is very far away from the scene. So, the police officers on the Garissa side just watched helplessly as their colleagues suffered on the Tana River side.

It is view of this that all Kenyans, including police officers themselves, should demand fast-tracking of reforms in the force so that such nonsensical bureaucracies can be scrapped and ensure efficiency in the chain of command.

My take is that, had the officers on the Garissa side intervened, the skirmishes around Madogo area would not have escalated as they did—officer Kuya would not have sustained serious injuries and his officers injured by stone and spears throwing youth.

This kind of red-tape calls to mind the report of the commission of inquiry into the April 1994 Mtongwe Ferry disaster, where a passenger ferry sank killing hundreds of commuters right in front of the Kenya Navy headquarters.

Justice Msagha Mbogoli who chaired the commission of inquiry castigated the bureaucracy in the disciplined forces when the commission was told that navy officers at the Mtongwe barracks had the equipment, personnel and capacity to rescue almost all the victims before the ferry got submerged in the ocean, but they would not act without command from their superiors.

The question then is; what is the use of having a police force or army that cannot even assist one of their own, let alone the ordinary Kenyan?

It is this kind of bureaucracy, which has bred institutional inefficiency that makes police reforms urgent and mandatory. A new chain of command should be able to ensure that police officers respond to situations without too much red tape, just the way a fire brigade or ambulance crew can respond to emergencies with minimal constraints in the chain of command.

The writer is the CEO of the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance and Deputy Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims.

The Fundamental Rights Of All Kenyans As Guaranteed By The Constitution Of Kenya And The National Accord Must Be Respected By The Grand Coalition Government!

Fundamental Human Rights of all Kenyans must be Respected by the Kenyan Police Commissioner

Where There’s A Will…: Extrajudicial Executions And Police Reform In Kenya
Posted on 26 June 2009
Louise Edwards

Programme Officer – Access to Justice (East Africa)

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Professor Philip Alston, presented his detailed report on Kenya at the recent 11th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. In an extraordinary week of political maneuvering, reinforcing the internal tension that plagues Kenya’s Grand Coalition Government, the Kenyan delegation responded with an oral statement to the Council that contradicted their earlier written response. Having initially denied Professor Alston’s accusations of the widespread and systematic use of extrajudicial killings by the Kenya Police Force, the delegation conceded that there is a problem, but stopped short of acknowledging Government complicity.

The proceedings and outcomes at the 11th Session have received much local and international press. Now, two weeks later, the focus must shift to action taken by the Kenyan Government to address the issues raised by Professor Alston and the fall out from the publication of his report, which included the killing of two human rights defenders that had previously cooperated with his mandate. Despite the eventually positive response from the Kenyan delegation in Geneva, early signs of action are not necessarily promising.

Professor Alston’s report articulated what concerned local and international organisations have been saying about the Kenya Police Force for many years and which the Government failed to acknowledge until their oral statement to the Council – that extrajudicial killings are part of the policing landscape in Kenya. The oral statement also contained a public acknowledgement of Kenya’s weak police oversight mechanisms, the need to establish a local independent police commission and assurances that no human rights defenders would be intimidated or harassed as a result of their cooperation with the UN Special Procedures mandate-holders.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the promising outcomes in Geneva will translate into credible action in Nairobi. Successive promises of reform articulated in a number of strategies and processes over the past 10 years have not been completed or sustained by the Kenya Government. Kenyans continue to be policed by an organisation that lacks sufficient accountability structures, fails to protect or uphold basic human rights and is continually subject to illegitimate political interference. Millions of dollars have been invested in the development and publication of commission reports, task force findings and reform strategies without any genuine steps by the Government to implement systemic reform.

The concerning state of policing in Kenya has received significant national and international attention over the past 18 months. The police response to the 2007 post-election violence brought the issue of political partisanship, impunity and brutality to the fore. The Waki Commission report into the violence strongly recommended comprehensive reform of the Kenya Police Force and Administration Police and Professor Alston’s report reinforced the brutal and corrupt practices that have been permitted to flourish by the unreformed, colonial policing model.

Police reform is a daunting and long term process. It requires substantial law reform, a radical shift in policing culture from one of impunity to accountability and the restoration of trust between police and the community. None of these urgent reforms will happen in Kenya without the political and financial commitment of the Government to undertake reforms of this scope. The recent establishment by the President of a special Police Reform Task Force represents a positive step towards delivering credible advances. However, the Government must translate the Task Force’s recommendations into actual reform that goes beyond improving operational capacity to address governance, accountability and legal structures. Otherwise the Task Force, for all its good intention, will become another failed reform vehicle.

Drawing on the previous recommendations and those foreshadowed to appear in the current Task Force findings, the Government should implement the following minimum reforms:

Constitutional and legislative amendments that clearly separate the operational control of the police from the direct control from the political Executive and provide for transparency in monitoring police performance and conduct,

Strengthening internal and external oversight mechanisms, including the enactment of legislation and budgetary allocation to give full effect to the Police Oversight Board plus the establishment of an independent complaints mechanisms,

Establish a clear demarcation between the role of the Kenya Police Force and the Administration Police,

Improve police human rights training and resourcing to strengthen human rights compliance and operational effectiveness in the prevention, detection and investigation of crime, and

Establish clear legislative guidelines on the use of force, torture and adherence to basic due process that accord with Kenya’s existing obligations under international law.

If the Government is serious about reforming the police, a commitment to implementing past and current recommendations is not enough. It must also take immediate steps that both demonstrate its firm commitment to reform and restore public confidence in the reform process. A positive first action should be the investigation, prosecution and punishment of those police officers who commit or acquiesce to illegal acts including, but not limited to, those responsible for the 2007 post-election violence and the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings.

Other immediate steps must include measures to implement the Government’s guarantee of protection to individuals who have been intimidated or subject to retribution for their cooperation with the UN Special Procedures mandate-holders. Human rights defenders, including members of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights have been subject to threats and some have been forced to flee Kenya. The high profile execution of two prominent human rights defenders, who cooperated with Professor Alston, and the failure by the police and Government to identify those responsible, highlights the inadequacy of protection and security for human rights defenders. While Kenya has a witness protection programme, reform is urgently required to ensure the integrity of its internal processes (including accountability, Executive control and information storage and sharing) before those who are most in need of protection will have confidence in the systems that are designed to deliver it.

The 2007 post-election violence, followed by the findings in Professor Alston’s report, and the tragic consequences for human rights defenders who cooperated with his mandate, have kept the problems with Kenyan policing firmly in the international spotlight. Whether the political will to commit to genuine reform is present in the Grand Coalition Government remains to be seen, but what is clear to the international community is that the need for police reform is more crucial than ever.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an independent, non-partisan, international NGO working for the practical realisation of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth.

www.humanrightsinitiative.org

KENYA
Police Reform? Return To Sender, Say Rights Groups
George Kebaso

NAIROBI, Sep 9 (IPS) – The top policeman accused of supporting Kenya’s post-election violence, in which thousands were killed or raped because of their ethnicity, has been given a cushy job as head of the country’s postal service.

President Mwai Kibaki’s announcement this week that the country’s former Police Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali would be replaced at the helm of the force and re-deployed to the Postal Corporation of Kenya has not been welcomed. (Ali’s former deputy, Lawrence Mwadime, has been given a post in the ministry of livestock development.)

Ali, a retired army general, headed the Kenya Police, responsible for such general police matters as criminal investigations and traffic control; the Administration Police takes charge of security for ministers, members of parliament and other top government officials.

Their public roles often overlap, and both branches stand accused of involvement in the violence that followed elections in December in 2007, the Administration Police playing a part in rigging votes and sowing confusion at polling stations and the Kenya Police directly participating in violence.

Despite the good riddance atmosphere around the country as a man largely seen as a ruling party militant is shuffled away from the top police post, Kenyans are cautious. Many feel that the changes that saw Ali replaced at the helm of the force on Tuesday are as shoddy as the general reform process itself.

For many Kenyans still recovering from the violence that saw as many as 1,300 people murdered, over 3,000 women raped and over 300,000 people displaced, the move is being seen as an evasion of justice.

The changes have largely been dismissed as a way to avoid prosecutions rather than a ‘departure from the culture of impunity rule’ in Kenya.

“We have been calling for reforms in this country’s police force for a while now,” said a shop owner in a popular street Nairobi.

“And this country has yearned for a total change that can usher in police leadership that is responsive; leadership that implements punitive ways of dealing with society needs.” He asked for his name to be withheld because he feared repercussions and claimed he is a victim of police harassment and extortion.

Post-election violence survivor Peter Kariuki says he suffered police brutality while in an IDP camp in Nakuru Show Ground, 200 kilometres west of Nairobi. He has accused police of kidnapping and torturing him while in the camp. His only crime was that he belonged to the outlawed Mungiki sect, which has clashed with government repeatedly since since it emerged in the 1980s.

He dismissed the notion that the construction of additional police stations around the country was the solution to the individual safety of Kenyans.

“No way. Police stations can not be my security. My security is myself and my neighbour,” he said.

A number of lobby groups welcomed Ali’s removal, but they strongly cautioned that further changes remain urgent. Speaking to IPS, Hassan Omar, vice chairman of the official rights watchdog mandated by the constitution, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said that Ali’s removal should be a starting point to comprehensive reforms in the force.

“We trust the changes will set the pace for a rebuilding of public confidence in the police and create the necessary momentum for reforms,” he said but cautioned that this must be quickly followed with implementation of the recommendations of a Police Reforms Task Force headed by retired Judge Philip Ransley which called for an overhaul of the entire police force structure.

Omar called on Kenyans to ensure that the government fulfils its promise to reform the police force in totality.

The non-government Kenya Human Rights Commission, headed by Muthoni Wanyeki, also criticised the reassignments. Wanyeki called on the president to be careful with the issue of reforms bearing in mind that the country is waiting to see all senior officers of the force sent home.

“The writing is clearly on the wall that the president should stop playing games with the reforms issue as the country has already agreed that all senior police officers should be sent home to pave way for fresh leadership in the police force,” Wanyeki said.

The Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS), which includes members of the police force, also dismissed the changes as a sham and public relations exercise.

UCKS Secretary General Tom Odege castigated the president, saying that the replacement of only one person cannot convince that the government is focused on reforming the police force.

“One person cannot bring the required change in the police. Reforms in the force are not an act of performing miracles but a practical Kenyan-backed process,” he asserted.

Odege noted that by making a single high-profile change at the top, the president is more interested in preserving the status quo than answering to the desires of the whole country for deep-seated changes.

(END/2009

Kenya & ICC: LOOKING AT OCAMPO SIX AT GLANCE

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from ouko joachim

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

The Ocampo six is just the symptom and not the disease. Although violence in Kenya was part and parcel of the colonial state, which used it to ensure control, after independence, President Jomo Kenyatta used both the carrot and the stick to maintain power, with the use of violence mainly concentrated in the hands of the State.

Opposition parties were subjected to political harassment and those individuals who refused to support the status quo experienced various types of repression and even detention without trial. Rallies by students and others, were dispersed by the GSU using force.

The Government of Kenyatta was responsible for the murder of three political figures, Pio Gamma Pinto, Tom Mboya, and J.M. Kariuki. Kenyatta viewed them as threats to his regime and potential contenders for political power. Individual members of the opposition who agreed to lie low to Kenyatta were weaned back to the fold through appointments to Government positions, and allocations of land as well as provision of other perks.

Under Kenya’s second President Daniel arap, to consolidate his base after becoming the President, Moi rewarded his supporters, particularly the Kalenjin, through appointments to political offices and with jobs in the public service and the military. These individuals given these were viewed by President Moi’s opponents as not qualified or competent.

It explains why all the elections since multiparty era have been marred with violence. It also explains why 2007 electoral violence were systematic attacks on Kenyans based on their ethnicity and their political leanings. Attackers organized along ethnic lines, assembled considerable logistical means and traveled long distances to burn houses, maim, kill and sexually assault their occupants because these were of particular ethnic groups and political persuasion.

It is against the background that according to the Commission of Inquiry into the Post Election Violence (CIPEV) which began on 23rd May 2008 with an announcement published in the Kenya Gazette Notice No.4473 vol. cx-no.4- under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Philip Waki, a judge of Kenya’s Court of Appeal, the 2007 violence was planned.

The aim was that the Kalenjins could get opportunity to get their illegally acquired land by Kikuyus. Ndungu Report noted that throughout the 1980s and 1990s public land was illegally and irregularly allocated “in total disregard of the public interest and in circumstances that fly in the face of the law”. “Land grabbing” and the allocation of public land as political patronage were part of the gross corruption of this period.

Those involved in this allocation were senior public servants, but also local land boards, the courts, and a range of officials including members of the provincial administration, politicians, and others. Land allocations were therefore used to reward “politically correct individuals”

Given that the recommendations of the Ndungu report were never implemented, this has increased the sense of frustration in attempting to deal with land tenure disputes. The fact that institutions which could have been used to resolve land disputes have not been impartial has encouraged individuals to take matters into their own hands and to use violence to resolve them.

Unless land issue in Kenya is resolved, politicians will still use the occasions of future elections to fuel violence. It explains why politicians have capitalized on issues surrounding land, including encouraging violence during elections. In discussions of post-election violence, many Kalenjins argue that it is a product of longstanding anger over land distribution following independence.

They argue that land was alienated by the colonial government and then unfairly parcelled out to Kikuyus and other groups whom they view as outsiders. Many Kalenjins believe that issues relating to land were the reason for both the pre electoral violence in the 1990s and the post election violence after the December 2007 elections.

Why youths are easily used by politicians

Youths are used given that majority of them are unemployed. Also, given that between 1992 and 1996 alone, the number of street children increased 300 percent in just four years, many of these initially rootless children who are now adults are the product of displacement by ethnic violence. They have grown up on the streets and are inured to violence.

The combination of being rootless, having survived amidst violence, plus their need for an identity and a livelihood makes them ready recruits for violent gangs, which exist all over Kenya and are tapped by politicians, particularly but not exclusively during elections. They are devoid of ideology and operate on a willing buyer willing seller basis.

Apart from street children, there is also a growing problem of unemployment among youth who are university educated, estimated to be around 40,000 a year, given that only 150,000 formal sector jobs have been created since 2003, raising the spectre of whether these individuals will also be ready to engage in violence as well if they are unable to find work.

In the past many politicians have used these violent gangs to decimate their opponents, to protect themselves from a dictatorial state in the 1990s, and to gain power then and now. This has itself given gangs such as Mungiki, the Taliban, Chinkororo and others a life and the ability to operate without fear of being caught because they are well protected. That is why the attempts by the government to ban such gangs are fruitless.

It explains further why the main perpetrators of systemic violence have never been prosecuted. That is why, unless this scenario comes to an end, violence in Kenya will always remain endemic, out of control, and used routinely to resolve political differences.

According to paragraphs 90 and 91 of the Waki report, in each clash area, non-Kalenjin or non-Maasai, as the case may be, were suddenly attacked, their houses set on fire, their properties looted and in certain instances, some of them were either killed or severely injured with traditional weapons like bows and arrows, spears, pangas, swords and clubs. The raiders were well organized and co-ordinated. Their attacks were generally under the cover of darkness, and where the attackers were in broad daylight, the raiders would smear their faces with clay to conceal their identities.

The attackers targeted mainly the Kikuyu, but also the Kisii, the Luhya, and the Luo, other non-Kalenjin and non-Maasai communities were not spared. The attacks were barbaric, callous and calculated to drive out the targeted groups from their farms, to cripple them economically and to psychologically traumatize them.

The reasons for clashes according to the various reports were:

1) “Ambitions by Kalenjins of recovering what they think they lost when the Europeans forcibly acquired their ancestral land.

2) The desire to remove “foreigners”, derogatorily referred to as “madoadoa” or “spots” from their midst. The reference was mainly towards the Kikuyu, Kisii, Luo and other communities who had found permanent residence in the Rift Valley.

3) Political and ethnic loyalty.”

The sad part of the story is that of 70 year old Mzee Joseph Mwangi Macharia (Karobe) who watched as seven members of his family were hacked to death – his wife, three sons (aged 36, 33 and 23), one daughter (aged 25), a grandson (aged 6) and a granddaughter (aged 6).

As he pleaded for mercy one of attackers struck his son on the chest with a club and another shot him with an arrow as he tried to escape. Another son was pierced with a spear and his throat was cut. The rest of the family tried to hide inside the house but it was broken down and they were pulled out. His daughter and her child were pulled out and their throats were slit. So was his wife’s throat. That is when Mzee Macharia escaped into a nearby bush and watched as his house was set on fire. He stayed in the bush until the following morning.

On the 31st December Kalenjin warriors were spotted being ferried by lorries from the Ziwa area. They were armed with arrows and bows. Immediately after alighting from the lorries they met with a rival group of Kikuyu youth from Munyaka who were coming from there to defend Kikuyus against the Kalenjin attackers. They were armed with pangas (machetes) and rungus (clubs). The Kalenjins set houses on fire as they retreated.

Most reports from witnesses and others describe large groups of Kalenjin youth blocking roads with felled trees, large boulders, tractors, and the use of petrol to burn dwellings and farms in numerous non-contiguous areas.

In some other cases, reports describe what appear to have been simultaneously coordinated attacks from different points and the need for transport to have brought attackers from miles away to gathering points.

A number of government officials testifying to the Commission also described the violence as spontaneous. A senior provincial government security officer, who testified in camera, told the Commission that it was organized crime.
The larger Nakuru district due to its high Kikuyu population was the hardest hit by the tribal clashes that came to be associated with the region from 1991 to 1998, they include Nakuru town, Molo, Naivasha, Rongai and Subukia Districts.

While Nakuru, Molo and Naivasha Districts have a clear Kikuyu majority, Narok is predominantly Maasai, while Koibatek has a clear Kalenjin majority. In Rongai, the population between Kalenjin and Kikuyu is almost even with a slight margin in favour of the Kalenjin.

With regard to the Mungiki/Kikuyu side, an NSIS report dated 18 December 2007 noted that two Mungiki leaders of the Nakuru chapter were engaging in a recruitment drive aiming at recruiting 300 new members from the Nakuru area.

On 15 January 2008, a week before the most brutal attacks erupted in Nakuru,
NSIS was able to establish that some Mungiki members were planning to discredit the government by instigating chaos in Nakuru, among other places.

After noting the heightening of tension in the Bahati division of Nakuru between the Luo and Kalenjin on one side and the Kikuyu on the other following the eviction of 50 Luos from rental houses belonging to the Kikuyu, NSIS concluded on 18 January 2008 that “confrontations are likely.”

Finally, on 23 January 2008, NSIS had information that a former Nakuru MP was organizing Mungiki members to attack non-Kikuyu people residing within Nakuru town and that the intended targets of the Mungiki included former Nakuru parliamentary candidate and other ODM provincial and district leaders.

Finally, NSIS received information on 25 January 2008 that the Mungiki co-ordinator for Nakuru had advised Kikuyu businessmen in Nakuru Town to close down their businesses and join the sect members in attacking non-Kikuyu to revenge attacks on Kikuyus in North Rift

On the Kalenjin and Luo side, NSIS was informed on 2nd January 2008 of a plan by a group of Luo and Kalenjin youth from the Kaptembwa area of Nakuru to attack the Kikuyu and government supporters and to set ablaze their business premises. According to NSIS, Mungiki was informed of this plan and was able to deploy its members in the affected areas with a view to counter the intended attack. NSIS information on 7 January 2008 was that a Kalenjin chief was leading a group of local elders in mobilizing youths from the Kalenjin community to evict the Kikuyus living in the area.

Planning of Violence in Naivasha: Political Leaders and Mungiki

The Commission received credible evidence to the effect that the violence in Naivasha between the 27th and the 30th January 2008 was pre-planned and executed by Mungiki members who received the support of Naivasha political and business leaders. The Commission has also evidence that government and political leaders in Nairobi, including key office holders at the highest level of government may have directly participated in the preparation of the attacks.

Central to that planning were two meetings held in State House and Nairobi Safari Club in the run up to the election with the involvement senior members of the Government and other prominent Kikuyu personalities.

Evidence produced by NSIS suggests that this agency was collecting information on the planning of violence in Naivasha by Mungiki members and politicians, at both local and national level.

As early as 3 January 2008, NSIS had information that two former MPs of the Kikuyu community were “said to be negotiating with the outlawed Mungiki with a view to have sect members assist the community to counter their attackers” and that Mungiki members were meeting “in an undisclosed location in Nairobi with a view to carrying revenge attacks on Luos/Kalenjins travelling along Nairobi-Naivasha highway on undisclosed date.”

On 15 January, NSIS was informed that Mungiki members were planning to discredit the Government by instigating chaos in Nairobi and Nakuru “while others would raid Kamiti and Naivasha Prisons to rescue their colleagues held there among them [Maina] Njenga.” This supported information presented to Waki team in camera by a senior police officer in Naivasha who had learned on 9 January that “there was a likelihood of the so-called mungiki making a way into prison with the intention of whisking away the chairman [Mr. Maina Njenga] who is currently held in that particular prison.”

Witnesses also informed the Commission that there had been several planning meetings that had been convened in the Kikuyu-dominated parts of the Central Province/Rift Valley Province border. These meetings had been used to recruit fighters, to coordinate communal violence and to organize funding.

There have been reports that a pastor, a former MP and sitting one urged people to take up arms in self-defense in the Limuru area. The allegation is corroborated by the intelligence reports covering the period between 15th January to 15th February, 2008, in a mammoth rally attended by some Kikuyu MPs and politicians.

FM stations broadcasting in vernacular were also adversely mentioned in the Waki Report on post-election violence. It recommended that authorities should investigate media houses accused of disseminating irresponsible information the culprits
Kass FM, which broadcasts in Kalenjin, Inooro (Kikuyu) and Lolwe FM (Luo) were among stations mentioned, the commission said in its report released yesterday.

Kameme and Coro FM, all broadcasting in Kikuyu, were also named by the report as among those cited by witnesses for using derogatory language. So far only Kass Frm broadcaster, Mr Joshua Shang has been implicated.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
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CENSORSHIP

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from mjlugaziya@ . . .

From: liberty.quotes@ . . .
Subject: Arthur Lelyveld, Bruce E. Fleury, Carey McWilliams

“Censorship…is always and everywhere an evil. Censorship means the screening of material by an authority invested with power to ban that which it disapproves….And who is that paragon to whom we would be willing to entrust such authority?”

— Arthur Lelyveld

(1913-1996) Rabbi within the movement of Reform Judaism
Source: Censorship: For And Against, 1971
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Arthur.Lelyveld.Quote.A342

“Censorship in any form, represents a lack of trust in the judgment of the individual.
The passage of time provides the best perspective for sorting the wheat from the chaff.”

— Bruce E. Fleury

Author, lecturer, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
Source: 1982
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Bruce.Fleury.Quote.3FEB

“I am opposed to censorship in all forms, without any exceptions. As a matter of social philosophy, I do not like the idea of some people trying to protect the minds and morals of other people. In practice, this means that a majority seeks to impose its standards on a minority; hence, an element of coercion is inherent in the idea of censorship.”

— Carey McWilliams

(1905-1980) American author, editor, and lawyer
Source: Censorship: For And Against, 1971
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Carey.McWilliams.Quote.A7BA

Somalia: In the Line of Fire- Somalia’s Children Under Attack

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from Yona Maro

South and Central Somalia has been the scene of armed conflict since the collapse of Siad Barre’s government twenty years ago. Children born in 1991 in this part of Somalia and who are entering their 20th year have never known respect for human rights, peace, the rule of law and an effective government. Amnesty International delegates interviewed refugees who had recently fled Somalia, to get as much as possible, an up-todate description of the situation in their country. This report also includes testimonies from adults who suffered human rights abuses when they were children, or who shed light on children’s experiences.
http://www.amnesty.ch/de/laender/afrika/somalia/dok/2011/rekrutierung-von-kindersoldaten-ist-kriegsverbrechen/ai-report

—
Kwa Nafasi za Kazi kila siku www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

http://worldngojobs.blogspot.com/ Nafasi za Kazi Kimataifa

Kenya: Freedom of Speech and Association in Miguna Miguna Saga is Threatened

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from Judy Miriga

Folks,

1) I do not support the move of Okinda and others to threaten Eric Oduya. The New Constitution brought on surface to the voiceless, a voice of reason to recogn with. The Truth is a Fact, but if you doubt it, you can only defend it with convincing good reasons, the era of threats are all over and gone. Threats are therefore not acceptable……..

2) I do not support sacking of people without due cause or reason causing them untold suffering, agony and mental torture. PM Raila cannot fund or support Peasant Farmers in Luo Nyanza in an organize independent planned arrangement that benefit all in a fair manner, BUT can easily organize in a heart beat for those projects in the South of Human Industrial Area like the “Top Skin Cut” for Chinese harvest……. how do you balance project of “The Cut” to food for “Survival”……??? These are signes of failed priorities……not good qualities for a Leader…..!!!…..Funny enough, this is only secluded in Luo Nyanza per se….!!!!!

3) PM Raila is a servant of the people not the Boss………and a Servant must listen and pay attention to what the people want and how they wish to be governed……he must be slow to send Boot-Soldiers in a Mission to inflict injury to voters…….

4) What Raila did is a show of Dictatorship with an iron fist. In it there is no mercy nor Human empathy. In reality, many Luos have suffered in the past and have spent all their lifetime money to buy favour and support from PM Raila. We have facts and figures. We are ready to table and lay bare when worse come to worse. We will not accept repeat of what we have struggled to achieve over the years. Raila can have the Army of the world, but we will face him squarely………The truth will be told in day broad daylight and in the Sunshine………We want Raila to defend himself against these allegations personally if he want to win interests of both Locals and the International……….Luos are suffering that is a fact, …….A case of Mollasses has history dating back to include Robert Ouka wuod Seda, where an ugly dissagreement between Raila and Ouko over Mollasses was not a secret. Raila should come clean and tell the world, why he is engaging in under current scheme to instil fear on those who challenge is unacceptable way of doing things. He said he accepts challenges, why is he not providing a level playing field for free speech. Yes, these are undercutting very dangerous maneuvres and deals that must be ironed and cleared in the open. It is because, we have lost many of our Luo Statesmen including Dr. Robert Ouka wuod Seda being a Kanu damu, was genuinely loved by all, if not for selfish self-centred attitude with dangerous sneaky undercutting maneuvres, he would be still alive today……..if we only shared in Love, Caring and Unity with each other, the brain from Luoland was doing so well to improve economic condition of the whole Nation, would have put Luo Nyanza into a path of economic development for sustainable progress instead of being dormant and by day going backwards soiled in poverty…….to a point today, we are a sell-out……..In the event we are not benefiting or profiting, but our Natural Resource and Wealth is taken by Chinese and Indians on a BLANK CHECK. The same is the reason we suspect, why mysteriously after short illness and in a sudden death we lost Mr. Kassim Owango, after working so hard and putting things in the perspective for KIE, Kenya Industrial Estates development Agenda for Medium and Small business entrepreneurship and COMESA, for the Common Trading Eastern Business Block……….His problem got expounded over serious disagreemnt of Water Hyacinth in Lake Victoria, and again because of sneaky maneuvres, some people made allegations that Kassim was not social with people, I disagree this should not be a short-cut to terminate life….and equally, that does not demand for his life being cut short because, to some and most importantly, his family valued him………We know he was working so hard so the Luo Nyanza and the People of Kenya generally, do not loose the valuable Wealth of Lake Victoria along with its Natural Resources in and around the Lake pase…….After his death, Lake Victoria and Migingo was taken in a heartbeat………We have people like Joshua Okuthe equally a Millionaire Luo who never engaged in politics at all, had also to die suddenly and suspeciously. In Mombasa we had prominent Lawyers like the late Ibrahim Onyango the great fearless lawyer in Mombasa with John Metho Chief Registrar also died mysteriously, some Asians in Mombasa who had direct connection with high level politicians were untouchable, and so the fact of knowing reasons for their death died in thin air………why cant we worry about how our prominent Luos just die like chickens…. and nothing happening…..who has been paid or has a hand in how Luos have to be finished and why????……..

5) Why should our would be politicians not get into politics in Luo Nyanza freely without buying or corrupting their way out….??? Who said Raila owns Luo People or Luoland. Today, food production from Luo Nyanza land is targeted by the Corporate International Business community and one such is Dominion Investment, who carries business free hand without regulation or policy……many things are happening wrong, why cant we say anything how we can improve the situation other than being given a free blank check to do as he wishes in Kisumu Nyanza……Local and District Professionals would have been engaged in the plan and avoid unbalanced situation between food consumption and that for Trade in a smart greener thinking. We are worried the Agricultural business in Luo Nyanza are for PetroDollar, for Ethanol, for big money, the reason Majority Luos are being pushed out of their Community village land……..the businessmen are keen of how they can wipe all Luos through “Top Skin” Conspiracy, after they have failed in Malaria and HIV/Aids factor, a slow death puncture,…… so they can have the Luo Lands for their business venture, how can we keep quite? What is it that is not going on right for these Politicians cum Businessmen why they do not involve the Local Community in Cooperative Development Venture where shared interest and value is faily a common factor…………and especially we noted after these Luo deaths, their wealth equally dissappeared…….Dont we need an International Investigation Team here with ICC Ocampo to help us unravel the puzzle of these sudden deaths………. and therefore, we do not want Boot-Soldiers or bootlickers to scare us with irresponsible statements…..

6) How did the illegal Somalis, Pirate Somalis and Al-Shabaab in Eastleigh got IDs to stay and do business freely in Kenya if there is no conspiracy? How does the Government of Somalia operate from Eastleigh if the Coalition government is not under some sort of conspiracy and is completely rotten…….???

7) What is the purpose of the New Constitution and the Referendum if Security of all Citizens and Freedom of Speech and Association is not guaranteed to the people of Kenya….. How will the Needs and Demands under Public Mandate be delivered if Freedom of Speech and association is not guaranteed…..???……..How will we trust these leaders if they are not challenged on matters based on Truth……???

8) Miguna has a right to go public and speak the Truth. If he chose to have gone silent, he could have disappeared and would have been like those Luos who are long gone under suspecious circumstances……..This is because, PM Raila and Kibaki are working out deals together, and as usual, Luos are the ones sacrificed and who faces the brunt of casualties………..I therefore support the stand of Miguna Miguna just as Rose Kagwiria puts it simple and clear……

9) Do we have answers why some Somalis were sent back from Uganda to Kisumu and are seen operating between Siaya and Kisumu, are these the Mafia Macenaries…..??? Are these meant to scare the people of Luo Nyanza from having independent minds to choose and vote freely and fairly……???

Finally, I am smelling problems ahead, I am worried that the 2012 election will not be free and fair. We demand that the United Nations and the International Leaders step in and help unravel some of the rotten things that are suspeciously undercover, that still will continue to hold Kenyans from getting into the Road to sustainable Governance with Just rule of law, through making ICC and Ocampo to thoroughly interrogate the two Principles, i.e. Kibaki and PM Raila………as we will never be on the track to achieve Reform away from Corruption, Graft and Impunity for a better future …….

This is all because, PM Raila Asked for It……..!!!

In Dignity and for Fairness, let us dialogue without Fear or Intimidation, so the Truth Shall Set us all Free……!!!

Thank you all,

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – –

Subject: MIGUNA MIGUNA LATEST SMS TO JOURNALISTS

WIKILEAKS KENYA

We leak like there is no Plumber…

MIGUNA MIGUNA LATEST SMS TO JOURNALISTS

On August 15, 2011, in Ministers, by admin
“PM claims my suspension is “normal government procedure”. Can he name the procedure & what law allows it? What procedure violates due process, the principle of natural justice & the Constitution and remains valid? I work 4 the executive whereas Midiwo works 4 the legislature; what law allows him to be involved in the “procedure?” What law & gvt procedure allows them to leak the letter to the press b4 it’s delivered to me? Can the PM particularise the “charges”? Can he name the investigating agency? What law allows suspension without pay? The PM can’t hide under non-existent “government procedure”. What he has said amounts to misinformation & disinformation! It won’t work. Miguna Miguna

Sent from Samsung Galaxy S

Tagged with: journalists • Kenya • media • Miguna

— On Mon, 8/15/11, mark osano wrote:

From: mark osano
Subject: Miguna Miguna is an example of a misused Luo Lot!

I agree with you how do we know that miguna breaks the law if he is fighting his case a lone something is wrong RAO should clean his house before 2012.

From: Michael Okinda
Oloo

Let us be people who can stand up and shout when things are not going on rather than agree with even things we know are not right.

Miguna double is a bull and you never scratch a bull and go scotch free, he must charge at you. This is what PM has been capitalizing on and has helped him defeat many battles.

One thing the PM should know is that ‘bado mapambano’ and if he has disgracefully rewarded one of his lieutenant then he is greatly compromised.

Whoever game him this idea must have been the damnest of all.

That was Moi’s behaviour and if he can do it to Miguna, then what make u think that he wont do it when he becomes the Country’s CEO? With that, I don’t see change

You cannot embarrass you lieutenant like that?

From: MBEMBA NZIU
JT,

I know you as a smooth operator and I know you are smarter than this.

Instead of issuing threats you should be discounting these allegations with facts not threats

Your threats will only confirm the fears in most” forrummers” that this could actually be true!

Why the threats why not just deny this from an informed position? Iam smelling a rat.

Mbemba.

From: Michael Okinda
Subject: MIGUNA SLAMS RAILA

I absolutely agree with Miguna double, PM must be man enough to know how to handle his advisor and not suspend him just like Moi used to do. If he is the atom of change we are anxiously waiting for then the features must be evident now. He claims so, he must demonstrate so.

What is it that Miguna did more worse than Ruto that has made him be suspended without even half pay? What was his staff got to do with that? Especially is someone has aggressively championed your ideas?

Honestly this is dispeakable and dishonesty of the highest order. Miguna was not treated right and he has the right to spill the beans.

Truth be told, this has cast doubt on PM’s suitability as a champion of open speak.

USA: Second Amendment & SuperCongress

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From: octimotor

Consider the issue concerning nations’ citizens and their being officially allowed, vs not allowed, to “keep and bear” firearms.

Between, on one hand, USA, and on the other hand places such as UK and Kenya, there has over the national histories to date been political / social traditions on this matter which have differed markedly from each other. In the former, this condition has been officially allowed to the citizenry, while in the latter settings, it has not. In the USA this has been referred to the “second amendment rights”, under the national constitution.

USA, at the moment, has been in the midst of heated disputes & negotiations between the legislative branch and executive branch over national debt, its ceiling, the ability of the nation to avoid default upon paying its expenses. US practice has thus far been for the power to allow or deny the nation’s spending of money on given purposes to rest with congress. Now, though, arising out of the debt ceiling negotiations there is a new institution coming onto the scene, called a ‘super congress’.

The article below draws attention to potential risks posed by this new institution. Rather than being narrowly limited to specialize in “streamlining”, “expediting”, the details of national debt ceiling, of budgets cutting, the topics it is allowed to address are instead very broad.

The prospect, that the ‘supercongres’ may be used as a tool to sneak into becoming statutes a number of controversial & unpopular anti-2nd amendment measures which the previously “un-streamlined” legislative political process had stalled, is highlighted by the article below.

– om –

– – – – – – – – – – –

http://www.infowars.com/super-congress-to-target-second-amendment/

Super Congress To Target Second Amendment

Unconstitutional body created by debt deal to get “even greater super powers”

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Infowars.com

Monday, August 1, 2011

The so-called “Super Congress” that is about to be created with the debt ceiling vote will have powers far beyond just controlling the nation’s purse strings – its authority will extend to target the second amendment – eviscerating normal protections that prevent unconstitutional legislation from being fast-tracked into law.

As the Huffington Post reported last month, the debt deal that has already been passed by the House and faces the Senate tomorrow will create an unconstitutional “Super Congress” that will be comprised of six Republicans and six Democrats and granted “extraordinary new powers” to quickly force legislation through both chambers.

Legislation decided on by the Super Congress would be immune from amendment and lawmakers would only be able to register an up or down vote, eliminating the ability to filibuster. The Speaker of the House would effectively lose the power to prevent unpopular bills from making it to the House floor.

But far from just being a committee that would make recommendations concerning the debt ceiling, the body is now to be granted “even greater super powers, according to multiple news reports and congressional aides with knowledge of the plan,” writes Michael McAuliff.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled no punches in making it plain that the Super Congress would have supreme authority. “The joint committee — there are no constraints,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “They can look at any program we have in government, any program. … It has the ability to look at everything.”

That includes introducing laws to restrict the second amendment, states a Gun Owners of America bulletin, warning that the body would be “a super highway for gun control

“Gun owner registration … bans on semi-automatic firearms … adoption of a UN gun control treaty — all of these issues could very well be decided over the next 24 hours,” states the GOA release.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) echoed Reid’s sentiment, asserting that the Super Congress was “not a commission, this is a powerful, joint committee.”

The Obama administration has already indicated that it will take the deciding vote as the de facto 13th member of the Super Congress. During his press briefing today, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that the government would work with the Super Congress to hike taxes in 2012 and beyond.

Barack Obama has already exercised his fetish for executive autonomy by launching the attack on Libya without Congressional approval, bypassing Congress and having the EPA declare carbon dioxide a pollutant, as well as the appointment of ten state governors directly selected by him who will work with the federal government to help advance the “synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States”.

The administration’s zeal to target the second amendment “under the radar,” as Obama promised earlier this year, has also manifested itself in the form of ATF harassment of gun owners who purchase two or more firearms, despite the fact that the law to mandate such a policy failed to pass.

The establishment of a “Super Congress” will completely demolish the credibility and the authority of the system of elected representatives. It represents another final nail in the coffin of the American Republic and its replacement with an executive dictatorship run by the political elite.

******

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Freedom on the Net 2011

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from Yona Maro

In order to illuminate the emerging threats to internet freedom and identify areas of opportunity, Freedom House created a unique methodology to assess the full range of elements that comprise digital media freedom. This report examines internet freedom in 37 countries around the globe, including Australia, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. The study’s findings indicate that the threats to internet freedom are growing and have become more diverse. Cyber attacks, politically-motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure have emerged as especially prominent threats.

http://www.freedomhouse.org/images/File/FotN/FOTN2011.pdf

—
Kwa Nafasi za Kazi kila siku www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

http://worldngojobs.blogspot.com/ Nafasi za Kazi Kimataifa

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KENYA: WHERE IS OMTATAH & GEORGE NYONGESA

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— On Sat, 7/23/11, Rose Kagwiria wrote:

From: Rose Kagwiria

Guys

Can somebody find out if all is well with these guys. Their phones are now off. Where are their lawyers? I never saw any lawyer mentioned anywhere

They gave an alarm yesterday that they were being transferred to some funny destination. We are busy condemning them but today as am writing this email, there phones are off. What happened? Anybody aware of their where about? The issues at hand is about our public funds. Is this what Kenyans want? When you shout out, you are silenced, yet the PEV suspect guys are enjoying themselves. I hope their heads have not been torn in pieces. Can somebody confirm?

from Judy Miriga

Folks,

This calls for urgent dispatch and reporting of the United Nations Security council, as we cannot trust the two Principle leaders of the Coalition Government.

This is a way moulded to silence critics of the Status Que, the Civil Society from engaging in public interest, while legitimate temperature to electioneering is being pumped and dangerously raised…….

Let the world intervene and help the situation………

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

— On Sat, 7/23/11, Rose Kagwiria wrote:

From: Rose Kagwiria

Judy

I hope people have not been told to be silent about the matter for their own security.

— On Sun, 7/24/11, CAROLYNE RUTO wrote:

From: CAROLYNE RUTO

Fellow Countrymen,

1. I would like to confirm that Omtata, George and the other 29 are fine and at Industrial Area remand like some colleagues here have indicated.

2. The Magistrate, Grace Macharia, did have them remanded till Wednesday 27th, However, the team of lawyers and advocates working on this case ( Antony, Momanyi and Myself) are trying to have them prrovide an appeal to this ruling of Mrs Macharia to appear in court on Monday (25th) before Justice Ochieng at the High court since our constitutional petition was being mentioned before him on this day. So what we are hoping to achieve is to mention the petition at the High Court as well have an appeal which we will have filed by the court time Monday heard. We will post you on what happens and what orders do issue from the High court.

3. Just to let you know that there is alot of good will from all quarters supporting this cause, National Politicians, several citizens who want to get involved in one way or the other and several High ranking people in government not to mention dedicated Human Rights organizations, with a very special mention to IMLU (Independent Medical Legal Unit).

4. I have read all the posts concerning the Omtata condom remark in court. I had no issue with it. Those of you watching it on TV clips or on streams might not appreciate the circumstances the comments were made. Some People naturally hate Omtata so would look for anything that does not look good to Crucify him. Omata is a poet and Playwright. The Condom remark was typical literal imagery, and i agree with him. I have actually penned a piece that i am sending for local print with the title, the Courts risk being condoms at the expense of being institutions of Justice. Some of us who claim the moral high ground and of course we are entitled, would find this sort of remark or line disparaging, but we feel the same about the Justice system just that we might not use the exact imagery. The activists have myriad cases,one on Ongeri in which they were arrested in December 2009, One on Kimunya on the sale of Grand regency, one on Members of Parliament increasing their salaries and the list is endless. George Nyongesa and Omtata find themselves in all these cases, Omtata’ s case list last i checked are 13, R vs OMtata….all these being cases where he has been either demonstrating or picketing . These rights are constitutionally ingrained, article 37 of the constitution and the constitution shows how you can limit these rights, article 24 of the constitution, so no one, unless they are “being used as a condom” can purport to limit these rights in any other way…if indeed Kenya is a republic and believes in the rule of law, unless there is no rule of law. Most of you found the condom remark disparaging, and shockingly the Police even charged him with the same offense in Kibera. Now, the comment would amount to contempt in case it was, But it wasn’t since the law stipulates what to do in cases of contempt as well as what a magistrate can do when an offense is committed before him/her, section 38 of the Criminal Procedure code. The magistrate did not find it an offence, only said, court had taken Judicial notice of the imagery, so what is all these holiness?… You must also appreciate that before the activists were brought to court, Omtata had just been bludgeoned on the fore head by the Deputy OCPD of Kilimani a Mr. Chebii, so he was both in pain and anger at his rights being violated when the real thieves were fetting their concubines with tax payers Money. It is possible to go on and on in defending him on this, but lets let this condom remark pass it was juts imagery.

5. Let us all as citizens, be vigilant in helping to ensure the rule of law in Kenya and that the constitutional is implemented to the letter as well as obeyed in the performance of duties as therein directed.We might not do it a la omtata but lets do something in our small ways. This coalition government, is of Ali Baba and many thieves. God Bless Kenya.

Agostinho

KENYA: DEMOCRACY AND JOURNALISTS’ ROLE OF MOI ERA PURGES

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From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2O, 2011

In history, religion and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Yet, as Dr John Esibi, a renowned and veteran journalist with catholic background expresses in his book, it needs courage to stand for what you believe in.

He hails then Thika based Mary Hill School Chaplain cum journalist Rev Fr Dominic Wamugunda Wakimani for lashing out at former dictator President Daniel arap Moi, couragiously suggesting to him to step aside and allow new leadership to spearhead the genuine democratic changes.

Fr Wamugunda used his journalistic power to challenge old leaders as well to quit political scene, saying their idea have become irrelevant and obsolete. Fr Wamugunda further noted that projects initiated by Moi such as Nyayo Bus Corporation and Nyayo Wards, had all flopped.

Lake Basin Authority Development had been pushed to near collapse- the Central Bank of Kenya had been used to provide liquidity to politically well connected financial institutions such as Trade Bank, Pan African Bank and Exchange Bank.

Such banks were being used to launder the residential campaign money into convertible currencies abroad. In 1992 alone, the Central Bank printed and released for circulation more than 12 billion Kenya shillings. 7 billion shillings was used by Kanu as slush fund to manipulate the electoral process (Finance, March 31, 1993).

Another courageous journalist who used his writings to liberate Kenya was Otieno Mak’Onyango of the East African Standard Newspaper. He was arrested by Moi regime and charged with treason, accused of being behind the August 1, 1982 coup attempt. He was detained and tortured.

He was arrested from his place of work – The Standard Newspaper, Likoni Road Office, Nairobi – on August 17, 1982 at about 6.30 pm by one Patrick Shaw of CID Headquarters in the company of an Asian police officer. He was told he was required at the CID Headquarters to answer some questions in connection with one Prof. Otieno Osanya and what he had gone to do in his house situated on Ngong Road sometimes in July, the previous month.

At the CID headquarters, he was left in a room where he waited until about 10 pm when he was taken to and booked at Eastleigh Police Station for the night by some officers. The next day he was collected from the police station and taken back to CID Headquarters where he was questioned on how he knew Prof. Otieno Osanya and what he had gone to do at his Ngong Road House.

Later in the day, he was taken before one Inspector Charles Mwangi who told him he had been instructed to charge him with the offence of treason in connection with the events of the August 1, 1982, which charge he denied. At about 7 pm, he was taken and detained at the GSU Headquarters on Thika Road. Here he found Prof. Otieno Osanya and one Raila Odinga. From then on, the three of them were to remain together.

The charges against them were, subsequently, consolidated into one case – both he and Raila were jointly charged with Treason and Osanya, Misprison of Treason. The charge against Raila and himself alleged that on diverse days prior to July 31, 1982 within the Republic of Kenya, the two, jointly and with others not before the court, imagined, conspired and attempted to overthrow the Government of Kenya through unlawful means contrary to section 40 (i) (a) (iii) and (b) of the Penal Code Cap 63 Laws of Kenya.

In his statement to the police, he clearly spelt out how he knew Prof. Otieno Osanya and what he had gone to do at his Ngong Road House on a material day. He had gone to check the suitability of the House, then vacant and under repair, for rental by a staff of the German Embassy, Mr. Alvenslaiven who had just arrived in the country. His information was that the Police (Mr.Patrick Shaw) did in fact confirm with Mr Alvenslaiven the reason for him having gone to the said House.

They were subjected to all manner of torture throughout the period they were being held in custody. The torture was physical, mental and psychological. This was not limited to them as the suspects but their families as well. For the two or so weeks they were being held at the GSU headquarters, they spent days on end without food. This had to, if at all, be supplied by relatives who had to deposit the same at the CID Headquarters. Once in a while, the CID officers remembered to bring the food over, often times when this had gone bad.

One eventful night – August 20, 1982 or thereabouts – at the GSU Headquarters, a group of senior Police/GSU officials, led by the then Commissioner of Police, Ben Gethi, invaded the cells where they were being held at about midnight. They pretended they were investigating the events of the August 1, 1982. Later on, however, they learnt the Commissioner had been at the camp for a totally different mission – to mobilize the GSU personnel to attack a contingent of the Armed Forces said to have been sent to flash him (Gethi) out of the camp where he had gone hiding.

In his cell, Gethi demanded to know his role in the August 1 coup attempt. The last thing he wanted to hear is his claim that he was not involved in the crime. He maintained he played a leading role and he must state so.

Insisting he had a major hand in the crime, Gethi handed him a set of papers to write down in detail his involvement in the crime. Besides writing his role in the crime, he was to apologize and ask for mercy from the Commissioner of Police himself. He wrote on the papers he was given that he was innocent and had no role whatsoever in the crime.

On returning to his cell after visiting both Prof. Osanya and Raila in their respective cells, Gethi read his statement and tore it to pieces saying what he had written was a lot of rubbish. He gave him more papers and ordered him to, this time round, write as ordered. He again went to the other cells before returning a second time. The story was the same.

The third time Gethi read his statement declaring him innocence, he was so angered that he grabbed him by the head and bashed his head against the wall. He asked of Gethi why he was killing him? This earned him the wrath of a Mr. Mbuthia who was in Gethi’s company. “Who are you ?” he roared “to talk to the Commissioner of Police like that.” He kicked him with his boots, injuring him seriously on both legs. Just then, a Presidential Aide, then residing at the GSU camp, came by. He peeped into his cell and saw what was happening and simply walked away without uttering a word. On seeing the Aide, Gethi and his group appeared uncomfortable and walked out. They never came back.

Arising from the beatings by Gethi and his group, he spent the rest of the night in a lot of pains. He had difficulties keeping his balance as his head went round and round, even to a point of loosing memory. The following day, he reported the attack to Patrick Shaw when he came to the camp at about 4 pm. He complained of his condition. He took him to Nairobi Hospital where he was treated and later returned to the camp.

Denial of food and mistreatment was to continue through to our days in detention. Food served was not even fit for animals. For sleeping, they were given two thin blankets, one to cover with and the other spread on the cold cement floor. Little wonder he developed a perpetual Gout attack during and after his detention life.

For much of the time their case was under investigations, they were being held incommunicado. Any attempt on their part to seek legal or any form of assistance was rejected by both the police and Prison authorities. A case in point was a request he made to both a Mr Giltrap and Supt N’gan’ga to bring him his statement to the police to alter a date. This was totally rejected. It was inhuman treatment through and through.

Njuguna Mutonya’s story is the same. He was accused of being part of unlawful movement, Mwakenya. Although he had committed no crime, he felt invisible net closing around him. Mutonya’s life was just starting to show signs of bright career with his recent promotion as head of Government’s District Information Team. He loved his job.

For the next two days following his arrival at Nyayo torture chambers house-he was forced to accept that he a member of Mwakenya, a fact he vehemently denied. He woke up to find himself dragged out of his watery bed towards the bathrooms by two Special Branch officers. He was stark naked, weak and groggy with sleep. He was thrown into the showers where he collapsed on the floor. They opened the tap and cold water roused him up from his grogginess.

He was forced to remove his clothes-he removed his shirt, trousers and shoes and stood in his socks and pants. He was told to remove the pants and socks-he was stark naked. They beat him thoroughly and forced to stand in cold water until morning. He was ordered to lie on his back facing the security officers.

Mwakenya was a radical political organisation formed in 1979 in opposition to the Kenya regime of President Daniel Arap Moi. It operated underground and in exile. As a result of Mwakenya’s increased activities around 1986 there was an arrest of hundreds of journalists, teachers, students and civil servants. Few arrests were made public, following a ban in July that year on reporting by Kenyan journalists of all arrests and trials carried out on political grounds. None of those arrested and subsequently charged was allowed access to legal counsel.

Other journalists arrested included Wahome Mutahi Mutahi with his brother Njuguna Mutahi in 1986- they were detained in Nyayo House torture chambers charged with sedition and alleged association with Mwakenya movement and later transferred to Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. They were both released after fifteen months without ever being brought to trial. His imprisonment inspired him to write The Three Days on the Cross and Jailbug.

Even during Kibaki tenure things never changed. Sunday Times Senior writer David Ochami was arrested following his commentary on Sunday September 25, 2005 on which he argued that coups in Africa do not occur out of nothing.

He had argued that today, as the president’s men talk of an impending ouster of Mwai Kibaki, there are others who feel this should occur sooner or that the August 1, 1982 mutiny should have been taken to its logical conclusion.

In Africa he said, fewer governments have been ousted through the ballot box or popular uprising than through coup de tats and armed insurgency. “There are good reasons for most coups”, he said. The collapse of the Hezekiah Ochuka experiment he said denied Kenyans the opportunity to live through a military. “Maybe Kenya would be better off now without the first generation of post-independence politicians, mostly likely to have been executed. Perhaps the country could have seen a civil war”, he lamented.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

TRIBUTE TO THE SILENT VOICES OF SOUTH SUDAN HEROES

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From: ouko joachim omolo

Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY JOSEPH ADERO NGALA
NAIROBI-KENYA
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011

As the world welcomed the birth of South Sudan, we should not forget people and heroes who played a critical role in bringing peace and stability between the north and south. In particular we want to pay tribute to some of the silent voices such as Father Carroll Houle MM, Renato Kizito, Comboni missionary, Michael Schultheise, Jesuit priest, emeritus Bishop Taban Paride, and late father Bill Knipe MM.

Others are Father Tom Tesconia MM, who spent a night in my house tying to negotiate with one war Lord from South Sudan, Rev Sam Kobia, former secretary General of World Council of Churches who was my co-chairman during the negations when the two faction split. We also pay tribute to Father Tom Mantica, MM.

As Father Carroll Houle once said “Peace is a process- it is something you cannot see its results immediately. It requires resources, commitment and cooperation between churches, religious communities and the government”.

Among Sudanese church personnel who contributed much to the liberation by shedding their blood include Father Lino Sebit from Torit Catholic Diocese. Lino was ordained priest on 20th April 1997,and just a little more than a year after being ordained to the priesthood, he was arrested in Khartoum along with Father Hillary Boma and 23 others, and falsely accused of having participated in series of bombing in the capital a month earlier.

He was held with Father Boma for a year, beaten and tortured before being released. The case was reported as clear violation of human rights by the UN, the US department both priests were taken to Germany for recuperation.

Father Hillary has never been able to return to Sudan. Lino returned 2000 to take on the role ass vocation director and Vice rector of Kocoa minor seminary, Prior to his appointment as Vice Rector he served at Narus in the parish of St Joseph the worker.

Although he was physically and psychologically health, he had been permanently affected by the experience of torture and imprisonment. He died on September 29, 2008, apparently from complications related to malaria from suffering he had experienced ten years earlier.

This makes his death a form of martyrdom, since his captivity and torture were motivated by the Khartoum government’s antipathy to the church and desire to silence her objections to its oppressive policies and activities.

Earlier in 1960 Father Santurino Lohure a diocesan priest of Torit diocese shed his blood for the liberation of the people of south Sudan. After his death Father Lepoldo Anyua took his place but was later killed and all their remains have been returned back to the diocese for formal burial. Father Saturino Lohure who was to be made bishop but he preferred to support the Sudanese rebels to assist them spiritually and give them courage and guidance, he later became a member of parliament of Khartoum before dictatorship and later escape in exile.

The journey to south Sudan war was long and treacherous one, one that saw millions of Sudanese loose their lives and properties. Organizations that worked tirelessly towards peace in South Sudan include People for Peace in Africa, a voluntary organization that does not have full time staff all staff but has good will.

Since Father Joachim Omolo Ouko, a member of the Apostles of Jesus joined People for Peace in Africa in June 2000-within that short period he has done a lot towards peace in South Sudan. His heart is more in South Sudan than his country Kenya. Many people have been confusing him as a Sudanese. He has reported about Sudan since then and participated in peace negotiations and healing, both in Kenya and inside Sudan.

The joy however, is that after decades of brutal and marginalization, the people of South Sudan have finally gained their independence. The historic event during the formal declaration of independence in Juba was culmination of bigger struggle saw-by some estimates-up to two million people consigned to early graves as thousands of others fled to exiles in neighboring countries including Uganda, Kenya Tanzania, Zaire, Ethiopia.

After People for peace in Africa started the process as other organization got involved, headed by Father Carroll Houle, native of Minnesota who felt that there was an need to star t organizing workshop for Sudanese Women and the youths, he felt at that time that the only way to have dialogue he influenced a number of religious congregations to start assisting both the wearing factions of Sudanese people liberation movements.

While Father Houle is one of the silence voices in our mist, we should not forget those people who contribute like Father Edward Dougherty MM, the current Maryknoll Superior general, Father Tom McDonald who inspired many Sudanese by giving trauma and healing workshop in Torit diocese on Palm Sunday together with Father Joachim Omolo Ouko AJ a courageous Kenyan priest who has ventured into many dangerous spots of Africa.

Father Ouko who gets his courage from Jesus Christ who suffered in liberating God’s people is convinced that such challenges are for the glory of God. Like Father Ouko, Father Ken Thesing MM, who worked with refugees in South Sudan after signing of the comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) courageously, prepared many for resettlement.

Also not to be forgotten is Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat, a friend of People for Peace in Africa who actually approached us to start the faction negation a man many people hailed as a really ambassador for peace if there is anything to go with he is the man that could claim a lot mileage on Sudan. He brought the issue on Sudan to be known beyond the boundaries.

With prayers things became rather very easy tension was reducing as fate would have it, was here in Kenya that at last the war-wearing Sudanese people agreed to sign the CPA that finally brought about a semblance of peace to that war-ravage country, the political divorce that saw the birth of the 54th Africa country.

Despite Euphoria, security and the ‘Curse of oil’ will continue to hang over the worlds 193rd state like the Sword of Democle as it learns to take the first baby steps of nationhood.

A Kenya writer puts it that-a plethora of unfinished business will almost certainly continue to plague the new state. The difficulties birth of the new state following the inevitable split between the Arabanised and Islamist north and the largely Christian and animist south, was mixture of sadness and joy that the south was finally free from oppression and trauma of splitting Africans erstwhile largest nation. The midwives will certainly have to be wakeful to ensure they don’t throw away the baby with the bath water before giving it back to the mother.

In many meetings and interview with Dr John Garang in the bush and before he died l don’t believe he would like to see Sudan divided however he kept that as his personal weapon until he died. But the split come in because the south always had demanded for the separation even when l co chaired the factions split with Rev Sam Kobi already here were some sign in our negotiation that most of the factions were queued for separation.

During our negotiation with factions the history of the SPLA was brought on the table by both faction both main SPLA and the Nassir faction for us to understand the dynamics one of the them was to learn how the SPLA was formed- in 1972 when there was ceasefire after the President Gaffar Muhammed Numeriry agreed to grant conditional autonomy to the south.

Many of the current Minsters including President Salva Kiir was there when the agreement was repeatedly flouted, and war at Dr John Garang’s side when they told their people that time had come to go back to the bush to make one last heave for freedom.

The Commander of the south forces was passed from Major Kerubino Kuanyin Bol to Dr John Garang with the word uttered on May 13, 1983 that is well known to all member of the SPLA. ‘’Garang the son of my mother have you come?’” Major Kerubino posed.

“Take over the command from here Chagain my work is finished give me something to drink and let’s celebrate the start of the revolution. Kerubino was one of the war veterans whose fighting record stretches back to the 1950s were not fortunate enough to live to witness the achievement of the dream.

With my experiences of reporting Africa what Salva Kiir should now do is not to antagonize the north even as he builds bridges with other neighbors. He should be careful not to go the way of Eritrea after it split with Ethiopia, nor follow the example of East Timor.

South should use its independence to nurture mutual ties based on respect with the north as soon as possible. For starters, Kiir should not chase away northerners who wish to remain in the south and vise verse.

He should also borrow a leaf from Rwanda’s book and seriously consider joining the East African Community to create an even bigger trading bloc for the benefit of the entire region. No doubt the Sudanese have learnt their lesson and seen the futility of war. And, therefore, pending disputes like that of Nuba Mountains whose inhabitants fought a bush war alongside SPLA for secession but who are now remaining in the north, must be solved amicably.

South Kordofan, Darfur and Blue Nile conflict hotspots and oil rich enclave of Abyei must not be used by enemies of Sudan to re-ignite animosity and fresh fighting. North and south should exploit diversity for the common good.

Peace in Sudan will definitely benefit the entire region immensely. And to give the devil his due, US should consider lifting sanctions against Khartoum whose leader agreed to let go the south albeit unwillingly.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

India: Is free speech on the way out?

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from Yona Maro

In recent months, India drafted new rules for the web that will allow anyone to demand that internet sites and service providers remove supposedly objectionable content based on a sweeping list of criteria. Even before the rules for internet speech were notified under the IT act in April, the Department of Information Technology had quietly blocked 11 websites, the Center for Internet and Society discovered through a recent Right to Information (RTI) request.

Early this year, the information and broadcasting ministry urged print publications to write more positive stories, even as it proposed amendments to the Press and Publications Act giving the state greater control over content. Among other measures, the amended law would allow local officials to suspend publication and bar anybody convicted of terrorist acts or any other act that endangers the security of the state from printing a newspaper or magazine.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/110628/india-free-speech-internet-laws

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Kwa Nafasi za Kazi kila siku www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

http://worldngojobs.blogspot.com/ Nafasi za Kazi Kimataifa

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THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN AMECEA COUNTRIES

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BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
LANGATA-KAREN
THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2011
TAKE-3

Today entered the third day for the AMECEA deliberation conference with many speakers wondering why women are still left behind, despite the fact that more than 50 percent of the family of God are women whereas 70 percent to 80 percent of the active Church collaborations are women.

This was also the concern of the AMECEA Bishop Delegates to the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. In their statement they wondered why in African society, women are frequently not treated as equal to men, especially in decision-making processes.
The fact that women have the prime responsibility of caring for those that are taken ill with HIV and Aids and of orphans, they themselves have the highest rates of infection from the pandemic in the region.

But even so we must acknowledge that most women in the region have contributed tremendously in various fields. In journalism we have a quite number but just to mention few. In Kenya we have Rosemary Okello-Orlale, the Executive Director African Woman and Child Feature Service (AWC), a media NGO focusing on development communication in Africa.
She is also the Secretary to the Kenya Editor’s Guild as well as the Secretary General of the African Editor’s Forum. She holds MA in New Media Governance and Democracy (Leicester University), Advanced Management Programme (Strathmore Business School), Post Graduate in Journalism (London School of Journalist), and Post-Graduate Diploma in research methodology.

She has also done Population Studies and Research Institute (Nairobi University) and also Executive Education Strategic Frameworks for NGO (Harvard University-John F. Kennedy School of Government). She is also an award winner for the first prize as the best female reporter on ICT in the category of the 2004 African Information Society Initiative media awards.

Another woman who has highly featured is Irene Oloo. She has served in different capacities in the struggle to defend the dignity of women. As the immediate former Executive Director of The League of Kenya Women Voters where she served from 2004 to 2008, Irene is one of the women leaders that took women’s activism to a professional level where accountability for results was her motto.

Prior to that she served as the Programme Liaison Officer for the Engendering Kenya’s Political Processes that saw a much untied women’s movement in Kenya receive resources from various International Development Partners and Donors to level the playing field and prepare women leaders and voters for the 2002 elections.

Irene also has over 6 years International experience where she worked in Somali and the Horn of Africa Region developing and implementing programmes to reintegrate and resettle returning refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) with a clear bias towards Women and children.

During the post elections period in Kenya in 2007, Irene joined other women leaders to form “Vital Voices”, a non-aligned group that ensured that women played a key role in peace building and negotiations as Kenya struggled to stop the violence that erupted after the disputed elections.

Irene holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree majoring in taxation and is an alumni of the prestigious University of Nevarra, Spain where she qualified in the Advanced Management Program (AMP). She has attended numerous trainings and courses abroad and is set to join The University of Nairobi for a Master’s Degree in Diplomacy last September.

In Uganda, Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi is a Ugandan who has been practicing journalism for the past twelve years serving in different capacities from freelance writer to correspondent, sub editor and Product Editor at The Monitor (now Daily Monitor) an independent daily in Uganda.

Ms Kiapi holds an honours bachelors degree in Mass Communication from Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda) and a Masters degree in Development Studies, University of Leeds (United Kingdom) is currently an independent journalist and researcher with a speciality in development journalism and a bias in gender, reproductive health and human rights.

She contributes feature articles for several media outlets both locally and internationally including news wires like the Rome-based Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) based in The Hague, Netherlands.
She is also actively involved in charity projects promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights among women and girls through HERD Initiative, a local NGO based in the underserved northern district of Moyo.

In Tanzania is Rose Haji Mwalimu trained Journalist with MA in Journalism from
Rostov State University, Russia. Currently Chief Executive Officer of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Tanzania Chapter (MISA Tanzania) after being seconded from State Radio as Zonal Bureau Editor- Seasonal journalist writing for print, trans editor for Inter Press Service and radio producer.

Apart from being a trainer, consultant/designer for radio serial drama using unique methodology called ‘Sabido’ also conducts research and writes books and training manuals. Founder member Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA), Gender and Media Network of Southern Africa (GEMSA), chair of Gender and Media Network of Southern Africa-Tanzania Chapter (GEMSAT), and chair of International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT)-Tanzania Chapter.

Politically, in Uganda women have achieved a lot. In 2003, 25 per cent of the MPs were women, and their number has increased by 44 per cent between 1996 and 2003 (Africa Women’s Report 2004, Addis Ababa). In 2006 the number of women MPs increased due to the increase in the number of districts. Women are also acting as representatives at constituency level and for interest groups such as youth and people with disabilities (PWDs).

While in 1996 only four women served as cabinet ministers, the numbers have since increased, and in 2003 16 women were appointed to ministerial positions. There are also several women at the local council, civil service, and other decision-making levels.

Another prominent woman is Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga Kadaga -she is the current Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament. She was elected to that position on Thursday 19 May 2011 being the first female to be elected Speaker in the history of Parliament in Uganda. She is also the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the Kamuli District Women’s Constituency, Busoga sub-region, a position she has served in since 1989. She graduated with a law degree (LLB) from Makere University in 1978.

In 1996 she served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Regional Corporation) and in 1998 was transferred to the Ministry of Works and Communications. A year later Kadaga became Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the Prime Minister’s office.

In South Sudan the Sudanese Women Voice for Peace (SWVP) is very influential in Peacebuilding- they work with refugee women as they rebuild their lives, organizing women for projects they can do together to raise themselves and their children up from extreme poverty.

SWVP was founded by People for Peace in Africa in the mid-1980s in Kisume Ukweli Pastoral Center when a small group of refugee women from Sudan attended an international women’s conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Sudanese Women’s Voice for Peace led community-building efforts among women living in refugee camps in Kenya and Uganda over the past 20 years, teaching trauma healing and skills for reconciliation. Now that some of the refugees are returning to their home villages in Sudan, SWVP is going with them. Teody Achilo, one of SWVP founders, knows it will take strong women to forge lasting peace in south Sudan.

In Tanzania the constitution reserves 30 per cent of the seats for women. These seats are distributed on the proportional representation basis. Special parliamentary seats for women were first introduced in Tanzania during the one-party era to increase female representation in the legislature.

In Kenya women’s role politically has been ignored-it was only in the seventh Parliament formed after the 1992 that saw elections of only one woman assistant minister in a House of 23 Cabinet ministers, and 66 assistant ministers, its biggest achievement, however, was the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Between 1974-79- Dr. Julia Ojiambo became the first woman Assistant Minister- Housing and Social Services- 1979-83 Assistant Minister of Education-Chairperson of the Labour Party of Kenya since 1993 and Vice-Presidential Candidate in 2007.

She was followed by Grace Ogot- 1991-93 Assistant Minister of Culture and Social Affairs -1992-95 Assistant Minister of Public Works and Housing. It was not until 1995-98 when Kenya had a woman full minister- Winifred Nyiva Kitili Mwendwa became the Minister of National Heritage, Culture and Social Affairs. Also known as Winnie, she was MP for KANU 1974-79 and 1992-98.

Others were as followed-1996-97 Assistant Minister of Education Agnes Mutindi Ndetei 1998 Assistant Minister of Gender and Community Development Marere wa Mwachai 1998-2001 Assistant Minister of Home Affairs, National Heritage, Culture and Social Affairs- 2001-02 Assistant Minister of Heritage and Sports- 2003-07 Minister of Health Charity Kaluki Ngilu- 2008- Minister of Water and Irrigation-MP 1992-97, 1992-97 Leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democratic Party, 1997 Presidential Candidate, from 2000 Leader of Women Political Alliance.

Since 2001 she also became the leader of National Party of Kenya Presidential Candidate in 1997 and from 2001 one of the leaders of the opposition Rainbow Coalition-which won the elections in 2002. Before the elections it was agreed that she would become Prime Minister when the constitution was changed, but the proposed change was turned down in a referendum in November 2005.

Between 2003-05- Minister of Water Resources Martha Wangari Karua- 2005-09 Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs-2006-08 Deputy Leader of Government Business in Parliament- 2008-09 Minister of National Cohesion-MP from 1992. 2003-04 Minister of State in the Office of the Vice-President Linah Jebii Kilimo-2004-05 Minister of State of Home Affairs- 2005 Minister of State in the Office of the President in charge of Immigration- 2003-04 Assistant Minister of Local Government Betty Njeri Tett- 2004-07 Assistant Minister of Housing.

Between 2003-04- Assistant Minister of Tourism and Information- Beth Wambui Mugo 2004-07 Assistant Minister of Basic Education- 2008- Minister of Public Health and Sanitation-Interim Chairperson of Narc-Kenya in 2006. 2003-07 Assistant Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife Prof. Wangari Maathai- leading member of the opposition against former president Moi, an environmentalist activist and detained several times among other women.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

Tanzania: Promoting Women’s Access to Public Services – 2011 Gender-Responsive Public Service Awards: Event in Dar

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From: Hermengild Mayunga

Shared News:

Promoting Women’s Access to Public Services – 2011 Gender-Responsive Public Service Awards

Dar Es Salaam Tanzania: Posted on June 23 2011 | UNWOMEN News Sources| News

On United Nations Public Service Day, the United Nations presented the annual Public Service Awards at a ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Awardees received a trophy and a certificate of recognition. This year’s event is highly symbolic and unique as it is the first time in the history of the United Nations Public Service Award that awards were given for gender-responsive service delivery, as well as the first time that an African nation hosted the event.

The award winners presented their experiences and led discussions on how their services can be replicated and tailored to the specific circumstances of other countries. Gender-responsive service delivery awards were given to public service innovations and initiatives that improved services in any of the following ways:

1.Increased quality and affordability of services for women users;

2.Responded to particular constraints that women face in accessing services, such as security risks, childcare burdens, limited mobility and financial access issues;

3.Implemented mechanisms to support women to easily obtain information about government services; ensured that public servants are sanctioned when women’s needs are ignored or when women’s rights for service delivery are not protected;

4.Increased the ability of women to observe, monitor and analyse government decision-making and processes, including participatory budgeting and planning processes;

5.Introduced incentives and changes in employment policies, including recruitment, promotion, training, compensation and career management policies, to increase the number of women in the public sector at all levels, including those in the front line and at decision-making levels;

6.Introduced a distinctively new approach to promoting the participation of citizens, especially poor women, in policy making.

Award recipients for this category were selected by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration. The first-place winners were from India and Egypt, while the second place winners were from Korea (two) and Oman.

The innovation in India was designed to increase access to justice for poor women who are victims of sexual violence. Northern Indian states have a high incidence of violent crimes against women, and victims and their families often face threats and intimidation not only from perpetrators, but also from police. Women face crosscutting discrimination due to their status in a lower caste, a disability or displacement. In addition, these women’s testimony in the justice system is often disregarded due to discrimination and prejudice.

The innovation of the Swanchetan Society for Mental Health was to develop a 24-hour psychological centre providing trauma counselling to women who were victims of a heinous crime such as public humiliation, lynching and caste-based rape. Providing professional and moral support helped nearly eight thousand women to continue their struggle for justice. The project is the first one in which the Indian Police entered in a partnership with a civil society organization to provide support to victims and is regarded as an important milestone in the judicial system of the country.

The Egyptian winner was a health outreach programme for women. In designing this service, the Ministry of Health was guided by research conducted by the National Cancer Institute in Cairo, which found that breast cancer represented 35.1 percent of female cancers in Egypt with more than 80 percent of such cancers discovered only at highly developed stages. Insufficient efforts have been put towards early detection screenings, and many of Egypt’s rural poor do not have easy access to health care and are unable to afford proper treatment.

The Ministry of Health partnered with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to expand health care provision to women nationwide by using information and communication technologies (ICT). They developed the “Women Health Outreach Programme” (WHOP), a government-funded programme that offers free breast screening and therapeutic procedures for all Egyptian women over the age of 45 within their local communities. Breast health awareness and clinical care delivery are offered at all levels of diagnosis, as well as treatment and post-treatment care.

The first Korean winner was a programme to self-empower young women at risk of prostitution in the Seoul metropolitan area. The core of the programme was to create an empowerment system using education and employment. The programme worked with a late-night street counselling service to identify young women sex workers who might benefit from targeted early intervention programmes. These young women were enrolled in the Self-Empowerment School, and upon graduating could work in the Self-Empowerment Training Shop. Critical to the success of this programme was the cooperation with NGOs, government, and academia in order to build inclusive and sustainable services.

The other Korean winner was an online resource centre for women whose employment had been interrupted due to reasons such as familial or childcare responsibilities. The Gyeonggi Women’s Development Centre (GWDC) is dedicated to expanding women’s career capabilities and economic empowerment. Rather than solely providing education and training, GWDC focuses on career development consulting and job placement, so as to provide a comprehensive programme aimed at improving women’s careers goals and employment. Furthermore, GWDC provided gender-sensitive e-learning by offering high-quality contents and management services that specifically met women’s needs.

GWDC established the first-ever programme in the country aimed at cultivating women information specialists, and initiated a specialized programme for women entrepreneurs. In order to enhance the success of GWDC, an employability index was created to reflect the actual problems and needs of career-interrupted women. The programme also boosts female confidence and accompanies them through every step of the job application process.

The winner from Oman was an initiative by the National Association for Cancer Awareness to introduce Mobile Mammography Units (MMU) as an alternative to hospital-based radiological facilities. The units were operated by an all-female team of technologists. The project attempted to address the constraints that women faced in accessing breast cancer screening services and cancer education due to travel distance, time, and high costs. Previously, many women in the country were not aware of the importance of screening, nor were they willing to undergo the procedure as they saw it as an intrusion of privacy.

The educational information the MMUs provided was critical as was its mobility. The units travelled the country offering free mammography screening and information materials in a time-efficient and accessible manner. The Unit is equipped with a digital mammography machine and a stabilizing system and complies with all WHO regulations.

These five examples show different innovations in improving women’s access to health, education and employment services by recognizing different constraints women face, such as discrimination, gender roles, mobility, and low socio-economic status. UN Women urges all governments, public administrations and service providers to take active and decisive steps towards reformulating policies and programmes to address the biases and constraints women face with service access, and looks forward to the 2012 round of nominations for the UN gender-responsive public service awards.

The United Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. Through an annual competition, the UN Public Service Awards promotes the role, professionalism and visibility of public service.

Source:
http://www.unwomen.org/2011/06/2011-gender-responsive-public-service-awards/

—
Dr Hermengild Mayunga
ORES Tanzania
P.O.BOX 1190
Songea, RUVUMA
Tanzania

Tel +255 25 2600419
Tel +255 784 520680

drmayunga@ores.or.tz
drmayunga@gmail.com
info@ores.or.tz
www.ores.or.tz

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http://worldngojobs.blogspot.com/ Nafasi za Kazi Kimataifa

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Back UP, a few days after an account suspension . . .

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As of 6 June 2011, and for several days, Jaluo dot com was subject to several days outage as a result of account suspension.

The reason behind the suspension: The web hosting organization reacted viciously to a complaint about info content published there. A person named Kahenya Kamunyu, who has a client, Nation Media Group, which is East Africa’s Media House, publisher of The Nation newspaper, lodged the complaint directly with the hosting company.

Back in March 2007, 4 years 3 months previously, material had been sent to us for publication then, under the pin-name, ‘Nation_Centre’. It concerned gossip, improprieties & sex scandals allegedly involving upper management (including the CEO) of NMG.

We did not receive any complaint from NMG, or anyone for that matter, until after our site was suspended.

Thereafter, we got the message suspending our site, from the host company, and became aware of our previously published article which it cited.

The site is now functional again.

We are certainly most surprised, that a web hosting company, located in North America or Western Europe, would have reacted that way.

The matter of contention was not that of a technical problem, late bill payment, nor papers from a court order. Rather, it regarded matters of information or opinion made visible in the context of a news / politics / culture discussion forum more than four years ago!

Please view a statement our relevant policy. It is on the Topic Page, “Conditions & Terms”,
http://blog.jaluo.com/?page_id=13133 , a link found in upper right column of the main page.
Sincerely,

Alan Green, for staff of jaluo . com