THE PROPOSAL TO SPLIT NYANZA INTO TWO PROVINCES HAS GENERATED A LOT OF CONTROVERSIES.

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

Residents of Luo-Nyanza, especially those living in the old greater Southern Nyanza appear to have wholeheartedly welcomed the recent proposal by the government to have Nyanza, one of the most populous regions in Kenya, split into two administrative Provinces, we can now authoritatively report..

A cross section of people interviewed over the weekend were of the opinion that the time was very much ripe for such an exercise. They said the split would bring the administration and governance closer to the people, terming those opposed to the idea as self-seekers serving the interest of an individual but with no people’s aspirations.

A group of civic leaders in Nyatike,Migori,Ndhiwa and Rongo even called for a referendum to determine the people’s wish on the issue. “At the present, our people seeking government services at the Provincial levels are made to travel for more than 200 kilometers to Kisumu in order to get such services” said one leader.

The civic leaders also opined that the splitting of Southern Nyanza region, having close to twenty five administrative districts, covering Kisii,Kuria and Luo regions is long overdue. The Gusii region has 13 districts followed by South Nyanza with ten districts and two extra districts in Kuria region, namely East and West Kuria district.

“We don’t mind being grouped in one Province with our neighbors Abagusii and Kuria communities in one Province with its headquarters to be located either in Kisii town or Rongo Town. After all we were living under one district during the colonial period, which was known as South Nyanza.”, said one civic leader in Homa-Bay who requested his anonymity.

The civic leaders have cited frustration the residents were facing, particularly those who are forced to travel from far flunk places like Mfangano Island, Gwassi, Kadem, Muhuru Bay and Kuria to Kisumu for urgent administrative matters.

Other reasons being advanced by the supporters of the split include frustration the Luos from Southern Nyanza are said to be getting from their cousins from the old Central Nyanza region. The region covering Siaya, Kisumu, Bondo,Ugenya,and Nyando district are very close to the Provincial headquarters in Kisumu.

It is being alleged that the Southern Nyanza Luos are being frustrated under the leadership of the Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the ODM.

The demand for the separation of Southern Nyanza Luos from their cousins in the old Central Nyanza was invigorated by a terse SMS message allegedly posted by a Nairobi based Luo lawyer. The message seriously blamed Raila Odinga for practicing discrimination against the Southern Nyanza Luos in the allocation of plum government and parastatal jobs.

The SMS message received across the entire length and breadth of Luo-Nyanza listed 21 people said to have been appointed in top government and parastatal organizations as having come from Raila Odinga’s home turf of Bondo district, leaving the rest of Luoland with only two of these new appointments. It questioned the rationale of the solidarity and unity of Luos.

Digesting the contents of the SMS message, it emerged that out of the ten administrative districts, only Mr. Karoli Omondi Ocholla Gaa, a young technocrat from Gwassi constituency, who is serving as Raila Odinga personal assistant, is the only individual person who got a job in the grand Coalition government of ODM and PNU.

Karoli had contested the year 2007 general election on ODM ticket, but lost the election in the preliminary stage to the incumbent John Mbadi. Rumor making the round is that he is the landlord. who owns the Orange House, which is hosting the ODM secretariat.

It is further being alleged that Mr. Karoli Omondi, a weel to do former banker, is also the owner of Raila Odinga Centre in Upper Hill, where “the Agwambo” had established his campaign headquarters during the 2007 presidential election campaign, and as such Karoli’s appointment could have been influenced by their intimate relationship.

Raila’s own two sister have secured plum government jobs. One is a board member in one of the parastatals, while his elder sister Dr.Wenwa Akinyi has clinched the Consulate General in Los Angels, USA.

But those privy to the SMS information said the man whose name is featuring in the latest SMS is Mr Hesbone Mariwa Dulo, a resident of Rarieda district. He is a former banker who hails from Asembo and has been appointed the chairman of the Agricultural Finance Corporation {AFC}.

Out of four or more Permanent Secretaries from Luo Nyanza who are serving in the grand coalition government, majority hail from Bondo and Siaya. They are technically all related to the Odingas in one way or the other.

Luo MPs close to Mr. Odinga are being blamed for apathy approach to development activities in Luo-Nyanza and lack of sensitivities to important issues affecting the community. The MPs stand blamed for not advising the Prime Minister adequately on burning issues affecting the community. One such issues is the conspiracy and scandals involving the 10,000 acres nucleus estate farm belonging to Miwani Sugar Mills Company.

Miwani Sugar Mills Company went burst close to ten years ago, and chances of its revival is growing remotely by days. A cartel of wealthy Indian entrepreneurs are currently involved in an expensive legal tussle, seeking judiciary approval to have the farm handed to them under suspicious transactions. Other alleged plans hutched by the cartel is to get the Miwani estate farm leased to them for forty years. If the exercise is carried out, this could be the death nail placed on the coffin of Miwani Sugar Company.

The Miwani farm scandal is even worse than the Goldenberg or Anglo leasing. But the Luo MPs are keeping mum., giving credence to allegations of being compromised. Some of the ODM cabinet Ministers, it is further being alleged, are frequenting the homes and offices of the Asian group that want to acquire Miwani farm corruptively.

Some of the MPs and Minister included have gone silent. Even the usually outspoken and eloquent Muhoroni MP Patrick Ayiecho Olueny, in whose constituency Miwani Sugar Mills is located has gone quiet, though his constituents are the sufferers.

One such MP, it is even being alleged has been promised 2,000 acres free of charge if he helps the cartel to change the status of the farm to themselves. .The indigenous people of Kano plains who owned the land before it was grabbed and handed over to the Sugar firm investors by the colonialists in the mid 1920 have vowed to fight back by all means at their disposal if the need be. They want Miwani revived or sold to other investors who can resuscitate the mill and have it back into production so that their youth can get employment.

Luo MPs have surprisingly gone silent over the Miwani affairs, leaving room for dreadful rumors and speculations that most of them have been compromised, while the Asians have been heard bragging how they have pocketed every one and sundry. Other rumors making the round have it that except for the Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his elder brother Dr. Oburu Oginga, the Bondo MP who is also an Assistant Minister for Finance, all the other Luo Mps have been compromised.
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If the Luo MPs could speak the loudest in Parliament about the Grand Regency Hotel saga, why are they so silent over the Miwani farm scandal? Miwani is wholly owned by the government and all efforts have been put in place to frustrate its privatization. The present crop of Luo MPs will be judged harshly by the future generation if they let Miwani farm go.

ENDS

– – –
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 02:42:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: SOUTH NYANZA LUOS IN FAVOUR OF SPLIT OF NYANZA POROVINCE INTO TWO

A NEW WAVE OF CRIME OF CHILD KIDNAPPING IS THE LATEST DANGER WHICH IS SENDING SHOCK-WAVES TO URBAN FAMILIES.

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

Kenya is an African nation which is prone to all sorts of serious and organized crimes such as the bloody cattle rustling, bank robberies, politically motivated assassinations, tribal land clashes and ethnic armed conflicts, which at times pitting only member of the same tribe against their neighbors.

The latest such skirmishes could be traced to inter-clan full scale war between the Nyabasi and Buirege in the newly created Kuria East district. The bloody war forced the government to dispatch a contingent of the crack paramilitary unit, the dreaded General Service Unit {{GSU}.to the area a couple of weeks ago.

The on-going Mungiki sect massacre of villagers in Kirinyaga and Nyeri districts, which has claimed close to 50 lives within the last two months are some of the examples portraying Kenya as a nation in crisis.

All the warring groups pitting the dreaded and outlawed Mungiki sect and a group of vigilante youth masquerading as the local community policing the villages. Both side have suffered causalities almost of the same number of people hacked to death with crude weapons. And strangely enough, all the combatants are members of one tribe, the Kikuyus.

And in the Mt. Elgon district in Western Province, close to 200 people were killed last year by the rebels of the People’s Land Defense Army. The situation became so worse to an extent that the government had to deploy the Kenya army to restore law and order, The fragile peace has since returned to the region, but many people are still staying from their homes and villages in fear of being attacked, though the rebels seemed to have been crushed and destroyed.

This time around Kenya has added to its long list of serious crimes, the new waves of child kidnapping and thereafter the demand for huge sums of money in ransom for the safe return of the victims.

The amount of money demanded by kidnappers is too colossal and beyond the riches of the common Kenyan families. The kidnappers are targeting school going children. Many families living and working in urban areas and cities like Nairobi, Mombasa .Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru and even smaller towns like Nyeri, Kisii, Machakos and Kericho are no longer safe places for young children to walk alone to and from schools.

The fact that these kidnappers had the gut of sending an SMS to a government Minister warning her of an impending plan to have her daughter kidnapped tells a million stories. The MP for Kasarani, Ms Margaret Onoro, one of the Nairobi suburb constituencies was forced to dash to the school last week to ensure that her child was safe. The Ministers and MPs are all provided with armed security police details for their own safety.

In most cases the victim families are believed to have handled ransom cases quietly and secretly and had their loved ones released unharmed. This has happened in Mombasa, Nairobi, Kisumu and in other towns and urban areas.

Child theft is an old culture with African families, especially the barren women. But it used to be done in a small way, mainly by stealing infants from the maternity wards at childbirth or grabbing herds boys while grazing their family animals in the grazing fields. But such incidents were isolated and remote.

In the latest shocking incident, the gangsters used an AK 47 assault rifle injuring a neighbor who drove to the scene of the kidnapping that left a Nairobi family in grief.

A Nairobi daily, the DAILY NATION described the crime was no longer the preserve of movies when a 15 year old boy, Eugene Nelson Mandela Ochieng’, was kidnapped on Monday morning in a bizarre crime which is rapidly takng its root in Kenyan society.

Mandela’s father, who is also sickling, narrated to the newsmen from his hospital bed where he is receiving treatment for kidney ailment how it happened.. He explained that he had left their residence near Saikia estate in the morning at about 5.45 am. He was in the car with his cousin, a driver and the son Mandela. He explained that his greatest concern when he was leaving their house in the morning for the City Center was to make it in time for the doctor’s appointment at the Upper Hill Medical Center for dialysis. That, however, was changed. Initially, he thought the occupants of a car which was driving from opposite direction were police officers, and he told his driver to unwind down the window. However the thugs led by one who was wielding an AK 47 assault rifle approached their vehicle and ordered them menacingly to lie down, even as the thugs frisked their pockets for valuables.

Mandela, the Form Two teenager at the Eastleigh Secondary School, his cousin and the driver lay down as his father pleaded with the gangster not to harm them. “We had just left our compound. This strange car blocked us and there three people jumped and ordered us to lie down.”, said the father. The gangsters made away with Kshs 13,000 he was carrying and dragged his son to their waiting car, as they demaned Ksh one million ransom for his safe return, and drove off in high speed. The gangsters did not tell them how to deliver the Kshs one million that they demanded as they drove off with the boy.

But while this was going on, Mr. Ochieng’s neighbor, who was driving out of the estate, was fired at by the gangster, seriously injuring him. Although the gangsters had made off with his son, Mr.Ochieng’ and others bravely went to the assistance of the injured man and took him to Nairobi hospital where he was admitted with serious gun wound.

By Tuesday afternoon, nobody had phoned the family to demand the One million shillings the gangster had said they want.

It was later reported that the gateway car was found abandoned in Dandora estate, and the gangsters and the boy had melted in the thin air.

Kenya police has issued a stern warning which is also some kind of good advice to the families which might fall victim of child kidnapping.

The gangster appear to target the children of the well-to-do families, those parents who drives huge fuel guzzling four-wheel Japanese state of the art vehicles.

Parents of school going children are the worried lots in Kenya. Another latest style of robbery is that of kidnapping motorist and then forcing them to visit their ATM banks account at night. It has worked well for the gangsters, but they usually end up with small amount of money, thus changing their tactics to that of child kidnapping.

ENDS
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

– – –
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 08:54:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: CHILD KIDNAPPING MENACE HITS KENYAN CAPITAL, MAKING A GREAT PANICK

THE HOSTILITY BETWEEN THE ISLAMIST TERRORISTS IN SOMALIA MAY JEOPARDISE THE OPERATIONS OF IGAD AND WORSEN THE SECURITY IN THE HORN OF AFRICA.

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

The operations of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development {IGAD} might come to an immediate halt as a result of the on-going political wrangling among its three important member states. IGAD plays pivotal on major political and economic regional issues in this region. It was under IGAD’s auspices that Kenya brokered the volatile Sudan Peace that ended more than two decades of armed conflict between the northerner Arab Moslems and the black Christians in Southern Sudan..

The current hostilities, which is likely to put IGAD activities in jeopardy involves four of its principal member nations, namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and the seemingly ungovernable Republic of Somalia.

President Mwai Kibaki, who is the current chairman of this important regional body is facing what African diplomats have described as ‘litmus test’. He is likely to suffer major political and diplomatic set-back as a result of the present stand off. The stand off came about following allegations that Eritrea is supplying the rebels and Islamist insurgents in Somalia, who are hell-bent on toppling the transitional government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s government.

A top IGAD’s meeting is expected to be held today on the sideline of the AU summit, which starts today in the Libyan City of Sirte. Libyan strongman Col Muamor El-Qadhafi is the current chairman of the African Unity {AU}.

IGAD ,according to African diplomats in Nairobi, has taken a hardliner stance on extremist Islamists and Eritrea, which it is being alleged is supporting them..Eritrea is a key member of IGAD. The same diplomatic sources say, Eritrea may be looking for a new theater for its continued hostilities with Ethiopia, a neighboring country whose forces had intervened and routed Islamists in 2006.The two countries are technically in a state of war.

A meeting of Igad’s Council of Ministers was held towards the end of last month[of May 2009},which petitioned the UN Security Council to impose the stiffest economic sanction against Eritrea, which is also a member of the same regional organization.

The situation is seriously aggravated by the mutual suspicion that has of late emerged between the Islamist terrorist groups fighting for the control of Somalia and Kenya. This is suspected to have something to do with the recent revelation by the United States that it has sent weapons worth USD 10 million as the emergency military assistance sought for by the embattled transitional government in Mogadishu. And the US, which maintains a very cordial and warm relationship with Kenya is understood to have sent weapons to Somalia with express permission of the UN Security Council, which had imposed strict embargo on military supplies to this war-torn African nation. The UN Security Council and the US government are said to have agreed on the waiver procedures.

The new weapons and ammunitions, whose quantity, the route used in supplying the military hardware has remained a top secret of the US .But the Islamist extremists in Somalia have been secretly pointing an accusing finger at Kenya as the conduit through which the US government channeled the Somalia bound military hardware.

The only IGAD member country, which is openly known to have sent its troops to Somalia is Uganda, and other sources believes the US might have sent its weapons by Uganda ,Uganda provided half of the 4,300 African Unity troops now charged with the responsibility of protecting key installations for the transitional government in Mogadishu.

On the other hand, neighboring Ethiopia has repeatedly made it clear that it has no wish of sending its troops to Somalia, but the Addis Ababa. regime is believed to be extremely worried and uneasy with unfolding situation in Somalia, and it is believed to have secretly dispatched a contingent of reconnaissance military teams to its port of the Ogaden region to vigorously monitor the movement of the Isamists Court in Somalia.

Prime Minister Meles Zanawi was last week quoted by major news agencies as saying that he never believe the transitional government of President Sheikh Shariff Ahmed’s government will not be overthrown by the Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab extremists groups. But he hinted that his country will not watch the situation from a distant, making it clear that Ethiopia was willing to support the government in Mogadishu to stabilize itself at any costs.

The security situation inside the war-ravaged Somalia is the most worrying issues in Eastern African region. Reports appearing in the media last week that the Islamist insurgents have started imposing Muslim Sharia laws inside the territories under their control has struck the civilized world like the Tsunami, especially the cutting off of the arms and legs of four young men allegedly convicted of petty offenses of theft

In an apparently clear message of their growing strength and determination to impose their rule on Somalia,the insurgents issued a stern warning to other suspected criminals of similar treatment..”We have carried out this sentence under the Islamic religion and any robber or bandit will face similar fate”, said a statement attributed to one Sheikh Ali Hussein Mohamed Fidow, al-Shabaab’s Mogadishu supreme leader.

According to press reports emerging from Mogadishu over the weekend,, young men who happened to be the first victims of the Sharia laws had been condemned earlier in the week . The amputation was postponed by the presiding judge of al-Shabaab criminal court until last Thursday morning when the condemned men were paraded in front of a huge crowd of people in Mogadishu area under the insurgent control.. The rebel soldiers proceeded to cut off right hands and left feet of the accused persons whose names were given as Ali Mohamud Geeddy, Osmall Khalif Abdule, Jeylani Mohamed Had and Abdulkhadir Adow Hirale. Eye witnesses told newsmen that the insurgents used long knives to cut off the body parts as punishment for theft. The men screamed in pain, and some spectators were reported to have vomited.

The Al-Shabaab has carried out executions, floggings and single limb amputations before, mainly in the southern port of Kismayo, which is close to the Kenya-Somalia border.

Entertainments such as movies and soccer games are banned in areas it controlls, while men and women cannot travel together using the same public transport. These primitive practices have shocked the Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Moslems, forcing thousands of them fleeing their homes to seek refugee in neighboring Kenya.

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

– – –
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:09:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: HOSTILITIES BETWEEN ERITREA, KENYA, ETHIOPIA AND SOMOLIA POSE THREAT TO IGAD

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

SOMALI pirates marauding the East Coastline will from now onwards find it difficult to hijack ships sailing along the Indian Ocean waters, following a new agreement reached between Kenya and Tanzania to safeguard a trade area of the continental shelf.

The two neighboring East African states are at the same time in the process of finalizing joint regulations and procedures that will go to the depository at the United Nations to tame illegal trading and piracy.

The move comes as plans to have the two states extend their nautical miles in the sea are expected to bear fruits, the EASTAFRICAN weekly has reported in its current edition.

The popular and widely read weekly reported that Kenya and Tanzania have registered with the UN the request to extend their continental shelf, which would make it possible for the two states to tackle cases of piracy and illegal trade much more effectively.

Under the new agreement, the two countries would be able to monitor the environment so that cases of dumping toxic wastes or pesticides or any other chemicals that degrade the environment, would be kept in check.

However, similar agreement between Tanzania and Comoros, Mozambique and Mauritius have delayed to take off due to lack of resources to implement the agreement.

The report quoted Kenya High Commissioner to Tanzania Mr. Mutinda Mutiro as saying that the memorandum of understanding between the two states has already been signed to enhance security and securer water, while envisaging the enormous resources coming along with territorial extension sought by the two countries.

The Kenyan envoy was further quoted by the weekly as having disclosed that the area that previously covered the mandatory 200 nautical miles will now be extended by an extra 150 nautical miles giving the two states more leeway in terms of security surveillance.

The signing of the latest agreement between Kenya and Tanzania comes at a time when insurgents in the territory are on the increase with Somali pirates often seizing ships and demanding ransom. In May this year, Somali pirates hijacked a ship carrying electric wires from Europe meant for huge power project in Southern Tanzania.

The two East African countries are also jointly pondering ways to have the Law of the Sea changed to address the current situation, whereby countries like Somalia without a functional government still have the mandatory 200 nautical miles under their jurisdictions, thus making it difficult to pursue the pirates into their country waters.

Kenya has so far provided a place where pirates would be held and prosecuted, although what should normally happen is for them to be tried in their own country or taken to the International Criminals Court of Justice at the Hague. This has seriously exposed Kenya to a possible reprisal or revenge attack by Islamists international terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab said to be getting financial and material assistance from their master and warlord Osama Bin Laden. “Trying them in their own country, it is obvious is next to impossible. Owing to the prevailing political and military circumstances, thus the increased area. to be our two countries security surveillance decreases their operating areas, which is currently notorious for piracy as well as illegal fishing or illegal trade in the high seas, “said the Kenyan diplomat.

The new agreement defines the maritime boundary from the country of the territorial water as defined in the 1976 Maritime Boundary Agreement .It also says that the basis of maritime boundary delimitation share the parallel of latitude as established in the 1976 Maritime Boundary Agreement.. Kenya and Tanzania met on May 13 deadline to apply to the UN for the extension of the territorial waters by 150 nautical miles, to the current 200 nautical miles of the Exclusive Economic Zone{EEZ}. The extension would also give the two Eastern African nations the right to explore and exploit living, non-living and mineral resources on the seabed and subsoil of the extended continental shelf adjacent to the EEZ.

The potential resources of the extended continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles include petroleum, and gas, iron manganese, copper cobalt, nodules, and nickels and crusts polymeric sulphides and placed deposits.

UN member nations were allowed to enter preliminary data while awaiting comprehensive submissions, if they lacked the resources to make full application. The submission, according to officials in Nairobi would cost Kenya Kshs 700 million {USD 9 million}}.

There have been reported several seizures of ships by Somali pirates in the Horn of Africa, some with relief food for the famine stricken regions, oil and military equipment.

On March 8,2009, Somali pirates captured for the first time a US flagged ship at some point between 240 and 400 nautical miles off the coast of the country’s Puntiland region.

On January 9, five Somali pirates drowned and their share of USD 3 ransom was lost at Sea. Three others in the boat, which had sunk during storm were rescued. The vessel used by these pirates overturned shortly after the pirates had released the Sirius Star, a Saudi based oil tanker, following a two months standoff in the Gulf of Aden.. The hijacked ship, Liberia flagged, is owned by Vein International Marine limited, a subsidiary of Saudi oil company Aramco. Dozens of pirates were involved in the November 18, 200 hijacking oil-laden vessel. The ransom was delivered by airdrop parachuting close for the pirates to collect. They were then allowed to make their escape.

Pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, which separates Somalia on the African continent from Yemen is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

Anew international naval force under the US command began patrolling the area laden to stem the growing problem of pirates along the Somalia coastline. In the past year alone, the Somali pirates carried 163 attacks. The French military recently reported the number was up to 58 hijacking in 2007 alone.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

– – –
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:47:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: EAST AFRICAN NATIONS OF KENYA AND TANZANIA JOINT AGREEMMENT TO CURB SOMALI PIRACY IN THEIR COASTLINE.