Monthly Archives: February 2010

Kenya: National Accord Has Serious Loopholes

From: Christine Baraza

There are two serious problems with the National Accord that was signed in 2008 between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki. The first problem is that the National Accord has serious loopholes and gaps that if not fixed will continue causing trouble for the Grand Coalition. It says that executive power shall be shared on a 50-50 basis without defining what 50-50 basis means in real implementation of the power-sharing.

Secondly, it gives Raila the role of supervising and coordinating Government Ministries. There is no way you can supervise and co-ordinate people without having the power to disciplining them. It can’t just work. People whom you supervise must know that you do have the powers to discipline them in order to follow your orders or else you can’t supervise them.
Thirdly, the Accord lacks clarity on many issues in it. For example, what’s portfolio balance?.. It says that they shall be portfolio balance at all times in government appointments. Does this include the civil service/ ODM says YES,..while PNU says No..These are mere individual interpretations.

When the Accord was made part of the Constitution, there was no serious study of the Constitution so that the constitution conformed to the Accord. This brought the problem of who should be the leader of government business. The Accord says that the PM and the President are EQUAL PARTNERS..What does that mean in terms of Governance?

There is also the problem of what happens when one partner pulls out? It says the coalition comes to an end..What does that mean? Does it mean the remaining partner continues in the government or the country goes for an election? Pnu Interprets this to mean that if ODM pulls out, they remain in government. This doesn’t make sense because the Grand Coalition was formed because it wasn’t possible to determine with certainty who won the 2007 General elections, so PNU cannot remain and run the government. They have no mandate-the mandate of the Kenya government today stems from the National Accord. The Accord was not specific and tended to assume that the Principals were both committed to it. This wasn’t the case. It is clear that KIBAKI was forced into signing the Accord by the circumstances that were obtaining at that time, and therefore PNU seems to have no goodwill at all in respecting the spirit of the Accord.

The only feasible way forward, which many Politicians do not want, is to go back to the drawing board and renegotiate the accord. It will really help move this country forward than steeping the country in bickering all through the years.

KENYA: POLICE NOTIFICATION TO PETITION THE PRESIDENT

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The Officer Commanding Station,
Central Police Station,
P. O. Box 45796,
NAIROBI.

Dear Sir:

LETTER OF NOTIFICATION FOR A PEACEFUL PUBLIC PROCESSION TO PETITION THE PRESIDENT

This is to notify you that we, civil society organisations, including the membership of the National Civil Society Congress, Bunge La Mwananchi, the National Community Based Organisations Council, Amnesty Youth, La Vie Foundation, Integrity Quest and Environmental Rehabilitation of Kenya (IQER), Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION) , Name and Shame Corruption Networks (NASCON) Campaign, Social Reform Centre (SOREC), Social and Public Accountability Network (SPAN), Kibera Human Rights Network, Ujamaa Center, New Vision Kenya, Elimu Yetu Coalition, Daraja, and Kenyans for Justice and Development (KEJUDE), will congregate at Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner for a peaceful procession on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, between 10.00 am and 12.00 pm.

Being non-violent change agents, we will march peacefully from Uhuru Park ’s Freedom Corner, along Kenyatta Avenue , to Moi Avenue , to Harambee Avenue , and terminate at the President’s Harambee House office.

The purpose of the peaceful march is to publicise our general displeasure at President Mwai Kibaki’s lax management of State affairs, especially his habit of treating with kid gloves those implicated in graft, and to petition him to change for the better. We want to see the war on corruption become a high-handed war on the corrupt. We specifically demand that, to facilitate independent investigations into the maga FPE funds, Maize, IDPs funds, and Triton Oil scams that have violated the integrity of the Republic, His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki orders independent forensic audits immediately and suspends the following individuals:
(i) Prof. Sam Ongeri, Minister for Education, for the money stolen in the Ministry of Education, and for publicly admitting that he was not impartial in the discharge of his duties.
(ii) Mr. William Ruto, Minister for Agriculture, for not just failing to stop the theft of strategic maize reserves as we expected him to do as our watchman, but for encouraging the said vice by writing letters recommending individuals to be given a share of the loot, that resulted in the starvation and deaths of many Kenyans.
(iii) Ms. Naomi Shaban, Minister for Special Programmes, for the loss of money meant for the resettlement of IDPs and for the theft of strategic maize reserves that resulted in the starvation and deaths of many Kenyans.
(iv) Mr. Kiraitu Murungi, Minister of Energy, for his complicity in the Triton Oil saga where billions of shillings were stolen from the Kenyans.

Last but not least, we also want the President to either ask Ambassador Kiplagat to resign. If he doesn’t resign, the President should establish a tribunal as required by law to dismiss Ambassador Kiplagat as the Chair of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission, given his compromised past which disqualifies him from being a Commissioner but qualifies him for the witness or the defence box.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

OKIYA OMTATAH OKOITI
Petition Co-ordinator
0722-684777
omtatah@yahoo.com

CC:

(i) Internal Security Minister Prof. George Saitoti
(ii) Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere
(iii) Nairobi PPO
(iv) OCPD Central Police Station
(v) Attorney General Amos Wako
(vi) Kenya National Commission on Human Rights
(vii) Ombudsman’s Office
(viii) Media
(ix) Kinoti & Kibe Co. Advocates

Can Kenyans stand tall all across the world?

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In 2003, we were voted the most optimistic people in the world. This was just after we had handed President Moi a clear defeat in the ballot.

President Moi, being the gentleman that he still is, handed over power so peacefully and the in-coming President Mwai Emilio Kibaki, told us at Uhuru Park in some thundering voice- corruption shall cease to be a way of life in Kenya, and the error of anything goes had ended.

That was then.

9 years down the line, where are we in as far as the fight against corruption is?

During his reign, and despite that promise, we have seen many scandals that have gone unpunished. We have seen him exercise the presidential prerogative on persons jailed for corruption, and now, we have seen him come out very openly in defense of corruption.

As Kenyans, what should be our stand in the current stand-off between the President and the Rt Hon Prime Minister on this matter of corruption? Should we support either based on our tribal inclinations? Or should we look at the vice as a cancer that must be rooted out for the benefit of posterity.

I tend to side with all those forces that are against corruption. I tend to believe that the buck stops with the President when it comes to eradicating corruption in Kenya. But for as long as he remains the main beneficiary of the same, for as long as he keeps protecting all those who are known to have embezzled funds in their Ministries, for as long as he will play it safe, corruption will not cease to be a way of life in Kenya, and the error of anything goes has surely not come.

It is incumbent upon all Kenyans to look at this vice in the eye and stump it out. We have the numbers and we can do it. It is also incumbent upon all journalists and political commentators to henceforth stop enjoining President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga in issues of success and failures. They must make it clear who has failed Kenyans where and how. No more Grand Coalition blame games. It is either Kibaki or Raila.

One man must not hold the stake and stature of all Kenyans across the world. We also need to walk tall amongst the other people of the world.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Proudly Kenyan

KENYA:Thief – In – Chief (General Kaguoya)

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From: KENNEDY KORIR

Unless otherwise proven the President of the Republic of KENYA and Commander -in-Chief of the Armed Forces has turned out to be the Thief – In – Chief.
From his infamous acceptance speech of 2002, the phrase “Zero tolerance to corruption” has turned out to be ‘100% tolerance to Corruption”.

Kenyans are known to forget very fast;
• John Githongo in his book “our time to eat’ says that Kibaki was very well briefed on all the goings in regard to Anglo-Leasing, he however never took any action but instead went for the messenger who finally sought exile in London.
• All the minister mentioned in the Anglo-leasing report and who resigned under massive public pressure have been returned to the cabinet
• Allegations of massive graft in the oil sector (KPA Triton etc) under the watch of the same Anglo-leasing man Kiraitu Murungi have been swept under the carpet
• The FPE and the Maize scandals I am sure are still fresh in your memories ……………look at what our president has done, Please look again!
Under Kibaki’s watch Corruption in Kenya has increased three-fold (look at the TI’s international ratings of Kenya; we are below Nigeria and between Pakistan and the Somalia neighbourhood.

Here is what I totally fail to understand; Under the above what does he mean (I am serious) ………. what does Kibaki means when he says to Kenyans, like he did recently in Gilgil that HIS GOVERNMENT HAS DOUBLE THE EFFORTS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

Ambitious development strategies to increase sugarcane acreage in Tanzania

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TANZANIA PLANS TO RECALAIM MORE ACREAGE OF LAND TO BOOST ITS SUGAR CANE PLANTATION AND IMPROVETHE SUGAR PRODUCTION.

Business News By Leo Odera Omolo in Kisumu City.

In a bid to increase the acreage under sugar production and meet the current shortfall in sugar output, the Sugar Board of Tanzania had embarked on an ambitious project to reclaim part of the Ruipa Basin in Kilombero district in Morogoro region. This concerted effort will release a further 15,000 hectares for cane farming.

The board is the regulator of sugar production and sales in the country. Its managing director, Mathew Kombe, was widely quoted in the media last week as saying that a survey of the area and encroachment valuation is at an advanced stage.
“The additional 15,000 hectares would go along way to supplement the current shortage arable land the sector sorely needs,” said Tanzania Sugar cane Growers Association managing director, Chais Nikokwe.

The country is also refurbishing all its sugar factories, which are yet to put out the 400,000 tones capacity to full use. They have only managed just 290,000 tones. This gives hope to industry’s watchers for further expansion of sugar production in the country with minimal additional factory investment.

Tanzania, according to the influential weekly, the EASTAFRICAN, is also suffering from illegal imports, which are seen locally by experts as holding back development of the sugar sub-sector of the economy.

Even with the combined output, the East African Community’s five member states sugar sector has failed to save the domestic market. However, there is an on-going USD 4.2 million project seeking to modernize sugar production. Of this USD 2.3 million was granted by the Common Funds for Commodities, while USD 1.9 million was raised by Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda.

The project will involve training of sugar stakeholders and importation of about 900 new cane varieties to be tested in the local environment, in a bid to acquire high yield, disease-resistant seeds, with results in, among other things low production costs.

Experts anticipate that after the five years of research, there will be about 10 varieties, which will then be used to transform the East African Sugar industry.

The region’s sugar output would have risen to 1.5 million metric tones per annum.
As of 2008, the East African region consumed a total of 1.2 million metric tones annually. And with output of 1.5 million metric tones after five years, little will be left for export.

Sugarcane is listed among Tanzania’s cash crops. The country has four white sugar manufacturing plants, namely Mtibwa Sugar, TPC Moshi, Kilombero and Kagera Sugar.

The sugar fraternity, under the umbrella of Tanzania Sugarcane Growers Association, has a membership of 18,000 growers.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

IS KIBAKI HONEST ON THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT

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IS KIBAKI HONEST ON THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT?

The recent events in the fight against corruption in Kenya seem to have raised more questions than answers. President Kibaki set the ball rolling by publicly declaring that the government was committed to fight against corruption. The President’s pronouncement came in the wake of several cases of corrupt deals purportedly committed by senior government officials in the recent past.

As the President was making such pronouncement, it was already a common knowledge that top government officials, including ministers were involved in those corrupt deals. Kenyans expected that the President would respond by asking those implicated in corruption to step aside to allow further investigation. Unfortunately as it turned out, the President was simply playing politics, since he did not tell Kenyans how he was going to fight corruption, nor setting a time frame for the intended action.

And this leads to several questions:
Is President Kibabki really committed to the fight against corruption in the country?
Was he honest when he declared that the government was committed to fight against corruption?
Is he trying to protect corrupt individual for his selfish political interests?

Perhaps, Kenyans would want to forgive him for his now customary empty rhetoric on government’s commitment to fight against corruption, but his siding with, and subsequent reinstatement of corrupt ministers is a clear indication that he is not committed to eliminating the vice in our system, rather than abating it. This in fact, places him in the most awkward position and nobody would ever trust him again on any issue of national importance. It appears now that he is not in touch with the actual reality on the ground, and does not know what majority of Kenyans wants.

On the political front, the President seems to be setting the stage for brutal battle with the ODM, both within and without parliament. The President’s decision to trash the Prime Minister’s action on the corrupt ministers should be viewed in the light of his contempt for the constitutional provision (The National Accord and Reconciliation Act). By reinstating the corrupt ministers, the President seems to be acting in total ignorance of the general wishes of the Kenyan populace. This in fact, is also a direct affront on the Prime Minister and is likely to precipitate further divisions and acrimony between the coalition partners.

What would happen if the Prime Minister refused to recognize the President’s action and declared that he acted not only within the constitutional provisions, but also in the interests of Kenyans? Would it be possible for the two principals to sit down together in the cabinet and engage in any constructive discussions if the parties are divided? What if each of them stood their ground and refused to budge?

The likely scenarios are: there would be no cabinet meetings, the parliament would not pass bill, collapse of the constitution review process, the government would grind to a halt, and one of the coalition partners would pull out of the government, leading to its collapse, according to the National Accord and Reconciliation Act.

In almost all the scenarios, it is President Kibaki who would be most disadvantaged. That is why President Kibaki must reconsider his decision and let the suspension of the corrupt ministers by the Prime Minster stand. The President should let the police to investigate the ministers and give them time to defend themselves in court of laws to prove their innocence.

By:
Tito Bongoman

Privatization of public assets in Kenya shrinks future revenue for the national budget

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Privatization of public assets in Kenya shrinks future revenue for the national budget

Wealth worth about Sh 100 billion which belonged to the public eight years ago is today in the hands of private individuals including foreign companies and groups of rich individuals who are well connected economically and politically.

The most notable is the sale of 30 percent of government shareholding in the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen). The March 2006 KenGen Initial Public Offer saw the government raise Sh 7.8 billion. Barely four months after the KenGen IPO, the country in December 2006 started selling its 18 per cent stake at the Mumias Sugar Company through a secondary offer where it raised Sh 4.32 billion. The the nation of Kenya was the sugar miller’s majority shareholder with a controlling equity stake of 38.4 per cent. But following the sale of some 91 million shares, the people’s shareholding was reduced to just 20 per cent.

The Mumias deal was followed by the sale of 40 percent national stake in Kenya Re-insurance Corporation through an IPO where Sh 2.3 billion was raised. The July 2007 deal saw the nation dispose 240 million shares that belonged to us.

Then came another transaction in November 2007 where the nation sold 51 per cent of Telcom Kenya’s shares to France Telecom for Sh26 billion. Telcom deal saw thousands of Kenyans loss jobs inorder to make the organization generate profit for the buyers.

The Telcom Kenya and Kengen deals were followed by the nation’s offloading of its 25 percent stake in the Kenya’s largest mobile phone service provider and the regions most profitable company; Safaricom. The IPO which saw 10 billion shares that belonged to the public sold was the biggest in the market and saw the nation cash Sh 51 billion.

Before the April 2008 IPO, Safaricom was jointly owned by the government at 60 percent and Britain’s Vodafone, 40 percent.
The appetite to dispose public assets did not fizzle even after the State pocketing the Sh 51 billion from Safaricom. In June 2008 liquidated another Sh 1.4 billion through the sale of 58 million more shares it was entitled in the Kenya Commercial Bank rights issue offer. A rights issue offers existing shareholders additional shares, usually at a discount. The shareholders were being given one new share for every nine held.

“It was a difficult decision to take. However, we currently have many pressing demands on the budget. For this reason, the Government has opted to trade its rights and realise a return for the tax payer,” the then Finance Minister Amos Kimunya had said during the official launch of the rights issue. At the same time, the Kenya sold the Grand
Regency Hotel at Sh 2.9 billion in a state-to-state deal with Libya that Kenyans described as too “sweet” to pass up.

The handing over of the Kenya Railways Corporation where Kenyan and Ugandan people were expecting to liquidate $5 million (about Sh400
million) also falls under this long list. Despite handing over the running of he Kenya-Uganda railway for 25 years to the South African firm, Sheltam Rail Corporation, which leads the consortium called Rift Valley Railways (RVR), details are emerging that the concessionaire did not have the money to pay.

Today, the Kenya has lined 26 other state firms for sale this financial year alone. According to a list tabled in Parliament towards the end of last year, Kenya wants to dispose these public assets to meet the Sh168 billion 2010 budget deficit this fiscal year. The country had planned to raise at least Sh6 billion by June 2010.

On sale include the national fuel distributor Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), giant milk processor, New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (New KCC), Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) and sections of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

Kenya is also planning to divest itself of its 70 per cent stake in the public power generator KenGen and its stake in sugar firms Chemelil, Nzoia, Sony, Miwani and Muhoroni.

The list also includes Karbarnet, Golf and Sunset hotels, Mt Elgon Lodge, Kenya Safari Lodge, and the hotels under Kenya Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC)— International Hotels, Kenya Hotels, Mountain Lodge.

The country also intends to sell its 22.5 per cent stake in National Bank, its 48.8 per cent ownership in Consolidated Bank and 89.3 per cent stake in Development Bank.

Interestingly, despite the selling her assets, the national debt continues to go up. In February last year, Parliament received shocking details indicating that each of the country’s 38 million persons including a baby born last night is indebted to the tune of Sh 27,000. In total, Kenya was at that time indebted to the tune of close to Sh 1 trillion; the internal and external debt stood at Sh972 billion as at December 2008.

External debt stood at 515 billion which is 53 percent of the total debt while internal debt stood at Sh 466 billion or 47 percent of the total debt. Only 35 percent of these debts were under public entities while the rest were under the central government.

The figures today could however be much higher as the Kenya has borrowed heavily in the last 8 months to deal with the food crisis in the country. For example, the nation in January 2009 passed Sessional Paper No 1 of 2009 in order to borrow a further Sh 7.9 billion from US department of agriculture to deal with food crisis.

The figures indicate that we violated our own rules- Section 6 (1) of the External Loans and Credit Act which puts the total external indebtedness at any give time at Sh 500 billion but quickly moved in to push the Sh 500 billion limit to Sh 800 billion.

It is evident that despite liquidation of more and more assets, Kenya’s public debt continues to sore putting the future generation in much more economic risk.

The people of Kenya argument is that the selling of State Corporations has improved corporate governance.
“The divestiture programme has resulted in improved corporate governance practice as vital business decision-making and management instruments are placed in the hands of the private sector,” president Kibaki said on July 16 last year while meeting the business community in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

Another argument for privatization has been to enable ordinary Kenyans own part of the big companies. But the truth of the matter is that the rich and political wheeler dealers have ended benefiting most.

A fact that is lost to Kenyans is that profits made by these companies will now end up in the pockets of few able individuals other than support finance of public services. In the long run, this will only translate in higher taxes.

Some of these assets sold were posting impressive profits each financial year. For example Safaricom, the most profitable firm in East Africa, posted a pre-tax profit of Sh19.9 billion pre-tax profit in the financial year ending that ended March 31, 2008. The Kenyan people and Vodafone Kenya, who were the only shareholders before the IPO pocket Sh2 billion as dividend. Kenya got Sh 1.2 billion as the nation was the majority shareholder. For the year ending March 31, 2009, Safaricom posted a profit of Sh 15.3 billion with Sh 4 billion going to the new share holders as dividend. Analysis at trading of Safaricom shares at the Nairobi Stock exchange reveals that since December, 2008, the shareholding of foreign corporates has been on the rise, increasing by 5.62 per cent as at December, 2009, while that of local corporates and local individuals has decreased by 1.93 per cent and 3.72 per cent respectively within the same period. This means that the dividend payment as time goes by will be paid mostly to foreigners.
In 2006, Kengen posted a profit of Sh 1.7 billion and Sh 1.7 billion in the following financial year.

It is these profits which Kenyans had been relying on after release of dividends to fund health care, education, infrastructure and other crucial services apart from borrowing and tax collection.

It simply means that as the government continues to dispose these assets, it will be forced to borrow more both locally and internationally to finance its budget.

Meanwhile, the few who are able to buy these assets will continue amassing wealth through shares acquisition and dividends hence widening the gap between the rich and the poor in the country.

Privitisation has also led to massive job losses for ordinary Kenyans. For example Telkom Kenya retrenched about 9, 000 people in 2007 and it has continued to do so in the subsequent years bringing the total number to about 15,000.

The lesson here is that while profit for the investors sole, taxation on individual workers falls because of the fall in the total number of workers employed. This in essence means less tax collection (Pay As You Earn) by the government.

Lessons from other countries are that privatization is a bitter sweet tablet for any nation that undertakes it.

In Britain, British trade unions have always been opposed to the removal of state monopolies from the public sector. They have always argued that monopoly tends to favour the powerful and rich at the expense of the weak and poor.

Since 1994 the Italian government has sold equity stakes in some 75 large state enterprises, in the process raising over $125 billion-more than any other country during the same period.

The principal benefits of Italian privatization have been dramatic increases in the size and efficiency of Italy’s stock markets and in the safety and stability of its banking system. Despite such improvements, however, privatization has failed to bring about the increased competition in key industries and lower prices for consumers its planners originally envisioned. Here in Kenya, we saw the country desperately try to set up national oil to counter the insatiable thirst for profit by the oil companies that triggered runaway inflation threatening to bring the economy to the knees. It was not lost to many that the nation had hitherto sold off some of the oil interests to the profit hungry investors

Lessons from the global economic recession are that private companies were the hardest hit with share prices tumbling at the world stock markets. The governments were indeed forced to use tax payers’ cash to bail out these multinational which were on the verge of collapse.

Currently, the Government of Malaysia is under pressure to buy back all shares of PLUS Expressways Bhd which it does not already own and take over its existing asset backed liabilities. The government is also under pressure to acquire from the concessionaires several other highways.

The argument is that the government and the public will collect more money from the highways if it buys back from the concessionaire instead of waiting for the expiry of the agreement in 2030.

Kenya is presently contemplating to also put under concessionaire some of its highways and it should learn from countries like Malaysia and its own experiences with the Rift Valley Railways.
After the wave of de-privatisation of water services facilities that started across the world two years ago, municipalities in Europe are now buying back the electricity utilities they sold to private investors in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In Germany for example, numerous city and regional governments have already ended the privatisation of the electricity facilities, or are in negotiations with the private owners.

“The local governments are now convinced that municipal utilities are public goods that belong to state hands,” Christoph Goebel, mayor of Graefelfing town was quoted last month as saying.

In Ottobrunn, another town on the periphery of Munich, the local government has just grounded a city-owned electricity provider. It says “the selling of the municipal utilities to private companies, which only obey the shareowners’ interest, has proven to be a mistake.”

In the federal state of Bavaria alone, some 2,000 licences for municipal utilities given to private companies 20 years ago are due to end this year. Most cities are unwilling to extend these licences, according to mayors and law counsellors. Instead, city governments are planning to take back the management of electricity and water facilities.

The city governments are only belatedly following the advice of economists and local activists. These are the hard lessons Kenya ought to learn from and avoid grave mistakes that may push ordinary Kenyans into high levels of poverty.
Ends/..

Mwangi Waituru
Principal, The Seed Institute
National Coordinator, Global Call to Action against Poverty Kenya
waituru@gmail.com

—
IT IS IN OUR HANDS

Kenya: Kibaki Hiding Under Raila’s Coat in the Fight Against Corruption

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Kibaki Hiding Under Raila’s Coat in the Fight Against Corruption
From: Christine Baraza

Frm the reports on Nation today and Standard newspapers, one can now see clearly that President Kibaki is not ready to fight Corruption and hiding under Raila Odinga’s coat in the fight against corruption. After Raila met his officers and asked them to step aside for proper investigations just like he asked Ongeri and Karega thats when Kibaki saw red and realized that the ball has been on his court as long as 2002 and he has always protected corruption. Remember when he asked if Michuki had eaten anyones goat? Now that the PM acted and ashamed the devil..thats when Kibaki acted and even pretended that he had also asked the PM officers to step aside.

Kibaki is showing hypocrisy in the fight against corruption and Raila has shown all Kenyans who have ears and eyes to see that he is readu to fight corruption in this country. He has asked his own officials to step aside and they have heeded hs call…thats when a hypocrite called Kibaki rushed to newsrooms and added the names of Kiome, Karega and Ali and then decided to add the names of Omondi and Isahakia who had by that time already tendered their letters for stepping aside.

Kenyans must start distinguishing hypocrites in the fight against corruption and those who really want to fight corruption. Kibaki as the President of this country has ZERO will to fight corruption and dont be surprised If all the people Kibaki has mentioned will be back in office within 90 days. These are gimmicks that Kibaki has used very well in the past and he will use them again. There is no will in Kibaki to fight corruption…To PNU corruption as Kiraitu once said is a way of funding the political party called PNU..Kenyans must have faith that Raila Odinga will fight corruption with zeal and all his energy. He means business when it comes to fighting corruption.

Am I A Polygamist Or A Valentine?

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This being Valentines’ Day, I would like to clarify some issues.

So welcome to this press conference. I want to state something that I want you to hold dear and permanently in your heart.

You know, and I know, and everyone knows that I am married and have only two wives. And everyone in Kenya and my friends on facebook should know it, but hush about it because I do not want Uncle San (US) to know. But I keep getting flowers and kisses and strange comments from other women and men alike.

I want to make it very clear that I have only two dear wives, Cheruto & Olga. I do not have any other, neither is none other my valentine, nor I theirs. And anybody who knows me, and knows my family and knows how I live, know that I have only have two wives and this is acceoptable in my culture. Unless their primary purpose is to seek to become my third Valentine, no one except Cheruto & Olga should send me flowers, kisses or call me names like ‘polygamist’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘honey’ or ‘dear’ all of which cause aspersions or diversions from the reality of normal life. For I ain’t gay or a polygamist in a true sense of the word. I will explain this shortly.

So Ladies and Gentlemen I decided to make it public and to appeal to you the public to listen to what I say. And not to continue sending me flowers, kisses or call me names like ‘polygamist’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘honey’ or ‘dear’ for this does not help anyone else have a genuine ‘Valentine.’

I have also had to say that I have only 5 children. Jakwath & Hawi by Cheruto, and Odhis, Oketch & Ninah by Olga and her late husband who died of this mongrel HIV. I love them all very much, and they are my genuine ‘Valentine’. But how did I get here?

You see, I lost all my 5 siblings of HIV too. Cheruto, Jakwath, Hawi & I live and have all decided to stay permanently in the US but would love you to pass the dual citizenship clause in the new constitution. In so doing, I am a cursed son of my father. My father who is in his late seventies rightly worried about my house in Gem, Lundha becoming ‘Gunda’ or an empty shell. So last Thanksgiving while visiting our ancestral land, my father sought and introduced me to Olga. He wanted me to marry a local lady whose children would inherit our ancestral land. At first I was vehemently opposed to this idea until Cheruto begged me to do it. You all know that Cheruto and I want more Children and are currently not contended whith the two plus the adopted three.

Olga was also opposed to this idea initially, but after I wooed her and proposed to her, in a traditional marriage, I ‘adopted’ her as an asexual wife. You may not understand how badly I wanted to help her live with Aids and not necessarily die from it. I also wanted Odhis, Oketch & Ninah to have a good life and education and most of all, call me a father again. In doing what I never planned or until then had thought of as uncouthed or repugnant, I lived true to my traditions. My father cleansed off the curse he had heaped upon me, because he will now bequeath Odhis, Oketch & Ninah with our ancestral home and land.

So there you have it. You now know everything and I do not have to repeat it. But in case you do not know, just ask Cheruto or I. We will tell you. But seriously, it is not possible for me to go on and on repeating the same thing when some people keep sending me flowers, kisses or call me names like ‘polygamist’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘honey’ or ‘dear.’ You know that that is Uongo and it is without the truth.
All I would like to appeal to you on this Valentine’s Day is to listen to what I say, and to think the right things and channel the right feelings to the right person. Send flowers alright, but to your loved one or to a single person whom you’ve been admiring and had no courage to ask. Verily I say unto you, many women are not married because they’ve not been asked. Don’t give up or take short cuts or alternative routes like sending fellow men flowers! This can lead to abnormal behaviour and will not save humankind.

Now I got into this very foul mood, after reading some statements today from some fella which gave stories and others calling me names like ‘Jadoho.’ I do not want to repeat, but I want to say quite frankly anyone bent on that course will see me in court or wherever they will see me, and we shall deal with him. (LOL) No other way, no other way whatsoever. For the reason that there’s no genuine purpose for people who are not my valentines wanting to continue sending me flowers, kisses or call me names like ‘polygamist’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘honey’ or ‘dear,’ I do not have such lies around my self.

So Ladies & Gentlemen, ask any questions you may have, I will be happy to reply to you. Ask now or never. Lest I too feel tormented the way Lucy felt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSlTW8mjirs

—
Joram Ragem
wuod Ndinya, wuod Onam, wuod Amolo, wuod Owuoth, wuod Oganyo, wuod Mumbe, wuod Odongo, wuod Olwande, wuod Adhaya, wuod Ojuodhi, wuod Ragem! (Are you my relative?)

GOOD GOVERNANCE:LESSONS FROM RWANDA’S CONSTITUTION

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One reason why Rwanda’s progress in the past few years is unparalleled in
the region is its 2003 constitution and the respect for it. One of the
things it outlaws is divisionism in all its forms including tribalism. As we
make ours, please read it for comparision.

Fuambo Janyandito
___________________________________________________

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF RWANDA.

We, KAGAME Paul,

President of the Republic;

Given the Fundamental Law of the Republic of Rwanda as amended to date, especially the Arusha Peace Agreement in its part on Power-Sharing in its article 41, and in its part on Miscellaneous Issues and final Provisions in its article 22;

Considering that the new Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda was adopted by Rwandan Citizens in the Referendum of 26 May 2003 as confirmed by the Supreme Court in its ruling n°……………….of……………………..;

DO HEREBY PROMULGATE THIS CONSTITUTION AND ORDER IT BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE OF THE REPUBLIC OF RWANDA.

PREAMBLE

We, the People of Rwanda,

1° In the wake of the genocide that was organised and supervised by unworthy leaders and other perpetrators and that decimated more than a million sons and daughters of Rwanda;

2° Resolved to fight the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations and to eradicate ethnic, regional and any other form of divisions;

3° Determined to fight dictatorship by putting in place democratic institutions and leaders freely elected by ourselves;

4° Emphasizing the necessity to strengthen and promote national unity and reconciliation which were seriously shaken by the genocide and its consequences;

5° Conscious that peace and unity of Rwandans constitute the essential basis for national economic development and social progress;

6° Resolved to build a State governed by the rule of law, based on respect for fundamental human rights, pluralistic democracy, equitable power sharing, tolerance and resolution of issues through dialogue;

7° Considering that we enjoy the privilege of having one country, a common language, a common culture and a long shared history which ought to lead to a common vision of our destiny;

8° Considering that it is necessary to draw from our centuries-old history the positive values which characterized our ancestors that must be the basis for the existence and flourishing of our Nation;

9° Reaffirming our adherence to the principles of human rights enshrined in the United Nations Charter of 26 June 1945, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide of 9 December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of 21 December 1965, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights of 19 December 1966, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 19 December 1966, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1 May 1980, the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights of 27 June 1981 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989 ;

10° Committed to ensuring equal rights between Rwandans and between women and men without prejudice to the principles of gender equality and complementarity in national development;

11° Determined to develop human resources, to fight ignorance, to promote technological advancement and the social welfare of the people of Rwanda;

12° Considering that after the Transition period, Rwanda shall be governed by a Constitution comprising ideas expressed by Rwandans themselves;

Now hereby adopt, by referendum, this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic of Rwanda.

TITLE ONE

THE STATE AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

CHAPTER ONE : GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article one

The Rwandan State is an independent, sovereign, democratic, social and secular Republic;

The principle governing the Republic is “government of the people, by the people and for the people”.

Article 2

All the power derives from the people.

No group of people or individual can vest in themselves the exercise of power.

National sovereignty belongs to the people who shall exercise it directly by way of referendum or through their representatives.

Article 3

The territory of Rwanda is divided into Provinces, Districts, Cities, Municipalities, Towns, Sectors and Cells.

The law determines the number, boundaries, organization and functioning of Provinces, Cities, Municipalities, Towns and Districts.

Article 4

The Capital of the Republic of Rwanda is the City of Kigali.

The law determines the organization, functioning and operation of the City of Kigali.

The Capital can by law be transferred elsewhere within Rwanda.

Article 5

The national language is Kinyarwanda. The official languages are Kinyarwanda, French and English.

Article 6

The national symbols of Rwanda are the flag, the motto, the seal and the national anthem.

The national flag is made up of three colours : green, yellow and blue.

The flag comprises the following colours from the bottom to the top : a green strip, followed by a yellow strip both of which cover half the flag.
The upper half is blue and bears on its right hand side the image of the sun with its rays of golden yellow. The sun and its rays are separated by a blue ring.

The law determines the characteristics, significance, usage and ceremonials of the national flag.

The motto of the Republic is : UNITY, WORK, PATRIOTISM.

The Seal of the Republic is made up of a circular green rope with a green knot at the base, bearing on its upper part, the imprints « REPUBULIKA Y’U RWANDA ». At the bottom of the knot is the motto of the Republic : «UBUMWE, UMURIMO, GUKUNDA IGIHUGU ». All these inscriptions are in black against a yellow background.

The Seal of the Republic also bears the following ideograms : the sun with its rays, a stem of sorghum and a branch of a coffee tree, a basket, a blue wheel with teeth and two shields one on the right and one on the left.

The characteristics, significance, usage and protection of the Seal are determined by law.

The national anthem is “RWANDA NZIZA”.

The characteristics and ceremonies of the National Anthem are determined by law.

Article 7

Every person has a right to nationality.

Dual nationality is permitted.

No person may be deprived of Rwandan nationality of origin.

No person shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality or of the right to change nationality.

Rwandans or their descendants who were deprived of their nationality between 1st November 1959 and 31 December 1994 by reason of acquisition of foreign nationalities automatically reacquire Rwandan nationality if they return to settle in Rwanda.

All persons originating from Rwanda and their descendants shall, upon their request, be entitled to Rwandan nationality.

The conditions of acquisition, retention, enjoyment and deprivation of Rwandan nationality are determined by an organic law.

Article 8

Suffrage is universal and equal for all citizens.

Suffrage is direct or indirect and secret, unless the Constitution or another law provides otherwise.

All Rwandan citizens of both sexes who fulfil the requirements provided for by the law have the right to vote and to be elected.

The law determines the conditions and modalities for the conduct of elections.

CHAPTER II : FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Article 9

The State of Rwanda commits itself to conform to the following fundamental principles and to promote and enforce the respect thereof:

1° fighting the ideology of genocide and all its manifestations;

2° eradication of ethnic, regional and other divisions and promotion of national unity;

3° equitable sharing of power;

4° building a state governed by the rule of law, a pluralistic democratic government, equality of all Rwandans and between women and men reflected by ensuring that women are granted at least thirty per cent of posts in decision making organs;

5° building a State committed to promoting social welfare and establishing appropriate mechanisms for ensuring social justice;

6° the constant quest for solutions through dialogue and consensus.

TITLE II

FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE CITIZEN

CHAPTER ONE : FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 10

The human person is sacred and inviolable.

The State and all public administration organs have the absolute obligation to respect, protect and defend him or her.

Article 11

All Rwandans are born and remain free and equal in rights and duties.

Discrimination of whatever kind based on, inter alia, ethnic origin, tribe, clan, colour, sex, region, social origin, religion or faith, opinion, economic status, culture, language, social status, physical or mental disability or any other form of discrimination is prohibited and punishable by law.

Article 12

Every person has the right to life. No person shall be arbitrarily deprived of life.

Article 13

The crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes do not have a period of limitation.

Revisionism, negationism and trivialisation of genocide are punishable by the law.

Article 14

The State shall, within the limits of its capacity, take special measures for the welfare of the survivors of genocide who were rendered destitute by the genocide committed in Rwanda from October 1st, 1990 to December 31st, 1994, the disabled, the indigent and the elderly as well as other vulnerable groups.

Article 15

Every person has the right to physical and mental integrity.

No person shall be subjected to torture, physical abuse or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

No one shall be subjected to experimentation without his or her informed consent. The modalities of such consent and experiments are determined by law.

Article 16

All human beings are equal before the law. They shall enjoy, without any discrimination, equal protection of the law.

Article 17

Criminal liability is personal. Civil liability is determined by law.

No one shall be imprisoned on the ground of inability to fulfil obligations arising from civil or commercial laws.

Article 18

The person’s liberty is guaranteed by the State.

No one shall be subjected to prosecution, arrest, detention or punishment on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a crime under the law in force at the time it was committed.

The right to be informed of the nature and cause of charges and the right to defence are absolute at all levels and degrees of proceedings before administrative, judicial and all other decision making organs.

Article 19

Every person accused of a crime shall be presumed innocent until his or her guilt has been conclusively proved in accordance with the law in a public and fair hearing in which all the necessary guarantees for defence have been
made available.

Nobody shall be denied the right to appear before a judge competent by law to hear his or her case.

Article 20

Nobody shall be punished for acts or omissions that did not constitute an offence under national or international law at the time of commission or omission.

Neither shall any person be punished with a penalty which is heavier than the one that was applicable under the law at the time when the offence was committed.

Article 21

No person shall be subjected to security measures except as provided for by law, for reasons of public order and State security.

Article 22

The private life, family, home or correspondence of a person shall not be subjected to arbitrary interference; his or her honour and good reputation shall be respected.

A person’s home is inviolable. No search of or entry into a home may be carried out without the consent of the owner, except in circumstances and in accordance with procedures determined by law.

Confidentiality of correspondence and communication shall not be subject to waiver except in circumstances and in accordance with procedures determined by law.

Article 23

Every Rwandan has the right to move and to circulate freely and to settle anywhere in Rwanda.

Every Rwandan has the right to leave and to return to the country.

These rights shall be restricted only by the law for reasons of public order or State security, in order to deal with a public menace or to protect persons in danger.

Article 24

Every Rwandan has the right to his or her country.

No Rwandan shall be banished from the country.

Article 25

The right to asylum is recognized under conditions determined by the law.

The extradition of foreigners shall be permitted only so far as it is consistent with the law or international conventions to which Rwanda is a party.

However, no Rwandan shall be extradited.

Article 26

Only civil monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is recognized.

No person may be married without his or her free consent.

Parties to a marriage have equal rights and duties upon and during the subsistence of a marriage and at the time of divorce.

The law determines conditions, forms and effect of marriage.

Article 27

The family, which is the natural foundation of Rwandan society, is protected by the State.

Both parents have the right and duty to bring up their children.

The State shall put in place appropriate legislation and institutions for the protection of the family and the mother and child in particular in order to ensure that the family flourishes.

Article 28

Every child is entitled to special measures of protection by his or her family, society and the State that are necessary, depending on the status of the child, under national and international law.

Article 29

Every person has a right to private property, whether personal or owned in association with others.

Private property, whether individually or collectively owned, is inviolable.

The right to property may not be interfered with except in public interest, in circumstances and procedures determined by law and subject to fair and prior compensation.

Article 30

Private ownership of land and other rights related to land are granted by the State.

The law specifies the modalities of acquisition, transfer and use of land.

Article 31

The property of the State comprises of public and private property of the central Government as well as the public and private property of decentralized local government organs.

The public property of the State is inalienable unless there has been prior transfer thereof to the private property of the State.

Article 32

Every person shall respect public property.

Any act intended to cause sabotage, vandalism, corruption, embezzlement, squandering or any tampering with public property shall be punishable by law.

Article 33

Freedom of thought, opinion, conscience, religion, worship and the public manifestation thereof is guaranteed by the State in accordance with conditions determined by law.

Propagation of ethnic, regional, racial or discrimination or any other form of division is punishable by law.

Article 34

Freedom of the press and freedom of information are recognized and guaranteed by the State.

Freedom of speech and freedom of information shall not prejudice public order and good morals, the right of every citizen to honour, good reputation and the privacy of personal and family life. It is also guaranteed so long as it does not prejudice the protection of the youth and minors.

The conditions for exercising such freedoms are determined by law.

There is hereby established an independent institution known as the “High Council of the Press ».

The law shall determine its functions, organization and operation.

Article 35

Freedom of association is guaranteed and shall not require prior authorization.

Such freedom shall be exercised under conditions determined by law.

Article 36

Freedom of peaceful assembly without arms is guaranteed if it is not inconsistent with the law.

Prior authorization shall only be necessary if the law so requires and solely in the case of assembly in the open air, in a public place or on a public road, to the extent that such is necessary in the interests of public safety, public health or public order.

Article 37

Every person has the right to free choice of employment.

Persons with the same competence and ability have a right to equal pay for equal work without discrimination.

Article 38

The right to form trade unions for the defence and the promotion of legitimate professional interests, is recognized.

Any worker may defend his or her rights through trade union action under conditions determined by law.

Every employer has the right to join an employers’ organization.

Trade unions and employers’ associations have the right to enter into general or specific agreements regulating their working relations. The modalities for making these agreements are determined by law.

Article 39

The right of workers’ to strike is permitted and shall be exercised within the limits provided for by the law, but the exercising of this right should not interfere with the freedom to work which is guaranteed for every individual.

Article 40

Every person has the right to education.

Freedom of learning and teaching shall be guaranteed in accordance with conditions determined by law.

Primary education is compulsory. It is free in public schools.

The conditions for free primary education in schools subsidised by the Government are determined by an organic law.

The State has the duty to take special measures to facilitate the education of disabled people.

An organic law determines the organization of Education.

Article 41

All citizens have the right and duties relating to health. The State has the duty of mobilizing the population for activities aimed at promoting good health and to assist in the implementation of these activities.

Article 42

Every foreigner legally residing in the Republic of Rwanda shall enjoy all rights save those reserved for nationals as determined under this Constitution and other laws.

Article 43

In the exercise of rights and enjoyment of freedoms, every person shall only be subjected to the limitations set by the law in order to ensure the recognition and respect of others’ rights and freedoms, good morals, public order and social welfare which characterize a democratic society.

Article 44

The judiciary as the guardian of rights and freedoms of the public ensures respect thereof in accordance with procedures determined by law.

CHAPTER II : THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE CITIZEN

Article 45

All citizens have the right to participate in the government of the country, whether directly or through freely chosen representatives in accordance with the law.

All citizens have the right of equal access to public service in accordance with their competence and abilities.

Article 46

Every citizen has the duty to relate to other persons without discrimination and to maintain relations conducive to safeguarding, promoting and reinforcing mutual respect, solidarity and tolerance.

Article 47

All citizens have the duty to participate, through work, in the development of the country; to safeguard peace, democracy, social justice and equality and to participate in the defence of the motherland.

The law shall organize national service, whether civil or military.

Article 48

In all circumstances, every citizen, whether civilian or military, has the duty to respect the Constitution, other laws and regulations of the country.

Every citizen has the right to defy orders received from his or her superior authority if the orders constitute a serious and manifest violation of human rights and public freedoms.

Article 49

Every citizen is entitled to a healthy and satisfying environment.

Every person has the duty to protect, safeguard and promote the environment. The State shall protect the environment.

The law determines the modalities for protecting, safeguarding and promoting the environment.

Article 50

Every citizen has the right to activities that promote national culture.

There is hereby established the Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture.

The law shall determine its functions, organization and operation.

Article 51

The State has the duty to safeguard and to promote positive values based on cultural traditions and practices so long as they do not conflict with human rights, public order and good morals. The State equally has the duty to preserve the national cultural heritage as well as genocide memorials and sites.

TITLE III

POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS

Article 52

A multi-party system of government is recognized.

Political organizations fulfilling the conditions required by law are permitted to be formed and to operate freely; they must abide by the Constitution and other laws as well as democratic principles and they should not destabilise national unity, territorial integrity and security of the nation.

Political organizations participate in the education of citizens on politics based on democracy and elections and operate in such a manner as to ensure that women and men have equal access to elective offices.

The leadership organs of political organizations shall only maintain offices at the national, provincial and Kigali City levels.

Article 53

Rwandans are free to join political organizations of their choice or not to join them.

No Rwandan shall be subjected to discrimination by reason of membership of a given political organization or on account of not belonging to any political organization.

Article 54

Political organizations are prohibited from basing themselves on race, ethnic group, tribe, clan, region, sex, religion or any other division which may give rise to discrimination.

Political organizations must constantly reflect the unity of the people of Rwanda and gender equality and complementality, whether in the recruitment of members, putting in place organs of leadership and in their operations and activities.

Article 55

The Senate may lodge a complaint against a political organization which has grossly violated the obligations contained in the provisions of Articles 52, 53 and 54 of this Constitution with the High Court of the Republic. In case of appeal, the appeal is heard by the Supreme Court.

Depending on the gravity of the violation proved, the High Court of the Republic may, without prejudice to criminal prosecution, impose any of the following sanctions against the political organization found guilty of the violation:

1° formal warning;

2° suspension of activities for a period not exceeding two years;

3° suspension of activities for the whole Parliamentary term;

4° dissolution.

In the event that the final decision of the court of last instance is the sanction of dissolution of a political organization, the Members of the Chamber of Deputies elected on the ticket of the dissolved political organization shall automatically lose their parliamentary seats.

By-elections are held to replace Deputies of the dissolved political organization if the remaining period of their mandate is more than one year.

Article 56

Without prejudice to the independence of each political organization and their collaboration, political organizations officially recognized in Rwanda shall organize themselves in a consultative forum.

The forum is mainly responsible for:

1° facilitating exchange of ideas by political organizations on major issues facing the country;

2° consolidating national unity;

3° advising on national policy;

4° acting as mediators in conflicts arising between political organizations;

5° assisting in resolving internal conflicts within a political organization upon request by that political organization.

The forum’s decisions shall always be taken by the consensus of the constituent organizations.

Article 57

Political organizations which are duly registered shall be given grants by the State.

An organic law shall determine the modalities for the establishment of political organizations, their functioning, the conduct of their leaders, the manner in which they shall receive state grants as well as the organization and functioning of the Forum of Political organizations.

Article 58

The President of the Republic and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies shall belong to different political organizations.

Article 59

Judges, prosecutors as well as members of the armed forces, police and National Security Service shall not be permitted to be members of political organizations.

Other public servants and employees of public enterprises and parastatal organizations may join political organizations but shall not be permitted to take up senior leadership positions of political organizations as specified by an organic law.

TITLE IV

BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER ONE : GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 60

The branches of government are the following :

1° the legislature;

2° the executive;

3° the judiciary.

The three branches are separate and independent from one another but are all complementary. Their responsibilities, organization and functioning are defined by this Constitution.

The State shall ensure that the exercise of legislative, executive and judicial power is vested in people who possess the competence and integrity required to fulfil the respective responsibilities accorded to the three branches.

Article 61

Before taking office, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the Prime Minister, the President of Supreme Court, ministers, ministers of state and other members of Government, senators, deputies, officers of the rank of General and senior officers of Rwanda Defence Forces, commissioners and senior officers of the National Police,
the Vice-President and judges of the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General of the Republic, the Deputy Prosecutor General and such other persons as may be determined by law shall take oath in these words:

« I,………………………. solemnly swear to the Nation that I shall:

1° diligently fulfill the responsibilities entrusted to me;

2° remain loyal to the Republic of Rwanda ;

3° observe the Constitution and the other laws;

4° work for the consolidation of national unity;

5° conscientiously fulfill my duties of representing the Rwandan people without any discrimination whatsoever;

6° never use the powers conferred on me for personal ends;

7° promote respect for the freedoms and fundamental rights of the human being and safeguard the interests of the Rwandan people.

Should I fail to honour this oath, may I face the rigours of the law.

So help me God».

CHAPTER II : THE LEGISLATURE

Section one : Parliament

Sub-section one : General Provisions

Article 62

Legislative power is vested in a Parliament consisting of two chambers:

1° the Chamber of Deputies, whose members shall have the title of « Deputies »;

2° the Senate, whose members shall have the title of « Senators ».

Parliament deliberates on and passes laws. It legislates and oversees executive action in accordance with the procedure determined by this Constitution.

Article 63

In the event of the absolute impossibility of Parliament holding session, the President of the Republic during such period promulgates decree-laws adopted by the Cabinet and those decree-laws have the same effect as ordinary laws.

These decree-laws become null and void if they are not adopted by Parliament at its next session.

Article 64

Every Member of Parliament represents the whole nation and not just those who elected or nominated him or her or the political organization on whose ticket he or she stood for election.

Any imperative mandate is null and void.

The right of vote of a member of Parliament is ad personam.

Article 65

Before taking office, Members of Parliament shall take oath before the President of the Republic and, in case of his or her absence, before the President of the Supreme Court.

The first sitting of Parliament shall be convened and presided over by the President of the Republic within fifteen (15) days of the publication of the election results.

On commencement of each term of the legislature, the first sitting shall be devoted to the taking of the oath of office of members of Parliament and the election of the Bureau of each Chamber.

The election of the Bureau of each Chamber shall be presided over by the President of the Republic.

The Bureau of each Chamber of Parliament is made up of the President and two Vice-Presidents and the Speaker and two Deputy Speakers respectively.
Their duties are specified in a law establishing the internal regulations of each Chamber.

Article 66

The quorum required for each Chamber of Parliament is at least three fifths of its members.

The sittings of each Chamber of Parliament are public.

However, each Chamber may decide, by absolute majority of the members present, to sit in camera at the request of either the President of the Republic, the President of Senate or the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies or a quarter of the members of either Chamber or the Prime Minister.

Article 67

The Chambers of Parliament shall hold their sessions in the Capital City, each at its respective Chambers designated for the purpose except in cases of force majeure confirmed by the Supreme Court upon request by the President of the Chamber concerned. In the event that the Supreme Court itself is unable to hold session, the President of the Republic shall
determine by decree-law the place where the Parliament shall hold session.

Decisions taken in sessions in respect of which there has either been no convocation or no agenda has been distributed or which take place during periods outside the approved time of sessions or outside the designated Chambers are null and void, save as is provided in the preceding paragraph.

Article 68

No one shall at the same time be a member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The office of a Parliamentarian shall not be compatible with being a member of the Cabinet.

An organic law determines offices which are incompatible with the office of a parliamentarian.

Article 69

Members of Parliament shall enjoy parliamentary immunity in the following manner:

1° No Member of Parliament may be prosecuted, pursued, arrested, detained or judged for any opinions expressed or votes made by him or her in the exercise of his or her duties.

2° During the session period, no Member of Parliament suspected of a serious felony may be arrested or prosecuted without the authorisation of the Chamber to which he or she belongs;

3° When Parliament is not in session, no Member of Parliament may be arrested without the authorisation of the Bureau of the Chamber to which he or she belongs, unless he or she is caught flagrante delicto committing a felony or the Bureau of the Chamber to which he or she belongs has previously authorised his or her prosecution or a court of law has passed a
final verdict and sentence against him or her.

Any Member of Parliament convicted of a felony by a court of law of last instance is automatically stripped of his or her parliamentary seat by the Chamber to which he or she belongs, after confirmation by the Supreme Court.

Similarly, each Chamber of Parliament may, in its internal regulations, make provisions for serious misconduct as a consequence of which a member of that Chamber may be removed from office. In such a case, the decision to
remove the member from office shall be taken by a majority of three-fifths of the members of the Chamber concerned.

Article 70

Ordinary sessions of both Chambers of Parliament shall take place on the same dates.

However, the sittings of each of the Chambers as well as the extraordinary sessions shall be held according to each Chamber’s internal regulations.

The two Chambers of Parliament cannot meet in joint session save in cases of debate on issues in respect of which the Constitution mandates a joint session or formal ceremonies instituted by law or other official functions.

When Parliament meets in joint session, the meeting shall be chaired by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and in his or her absence, by the President of the Senate.

Article 71

The Chambers of Parliament shall hold three ordinary sessions of two months each.

1° the first session shall commence on February 5th ;

2° the second session shall commence on June 5th ;

3° the third session shall commence on October 5th.

Where the commencement date of a session falls on a non working day, the opening of the session shall be postponed to the following day; or, if the following day is a holiday, to the next working day.

Article 72

Each Chamber of Parliament meets in an extraordinary session upon convocation by its President or Speaker, as the case may be, after consultation with other members of the Bureau or upon the request of the President of the Republic on the Cabinet’s proposal or that of a quarter of members of the Chamber.

An extraordinary joint session of Parliament may be convened by common agreement between the Presidents of both Chambers, or at the request of the President of the Republic or that of one quarter of members of each Chamber.

The extraordinary session handles only the issues for which it has been convened and which have previously been brought to the notice of members of the Chamber or the Parliament before commencement of the session.

The session shall close upon conclusion of consideration of matters on the agenda for which the session was convened.

An extraordinary session shall not exceed fifteen days.

Article 73

Each Chamber of Parliament shall adopt an organic law establishing its internal regulations.

Such organic law shall determine inter alia :

1° the powers of the Bureau of each Chamber;

2° the number, duties, powers and procedure of appointment of standing committees, without prejudice to the right of each Chamber to establish ad hoc committees;

3° the organisation of departments of each Chamber managed by the Speaker or the President assisted by two Vice-Speakers and two Vice-Presidents as the case may be and the Clerk;

4° the code governing the conduct of members of each Chamber;

5° the different modes of voting, with the exception of those expressly provided for by the Constitution.

Article 74

Each Chamber of Parliament shall have its own budget and shall enjoy financial and administrative autonomy.

Article 75

An organic law shall determine rules not provided for in this Constitution relating in particular to the requirements for the conduct of elections of the members of each Chamber of Parliament and the manner of replacing a member of Parliament who leaves office before the end of his or her term. It shall also determine the factors which render a candidate ineligible for election, activities which are incompatible with the office of Deputy or Senator and the remuneration and allowances of the members.

Sub-section 2 : The Chamber of Deputies

Article 76

The Chamber of deputies shall be composed of 80 members as follows :

1° fifty three (53) are elected in accordance with the provisions of article 77 of this Constitution;

2° twenty four (24) women; that is : two from each Province and the City of Kigali. These shall be elected by a joint assembly composed of members of the respective District, Municipality, Town or Kigali City Councils and members of the Executive Committees of women’s organizations at the Province, Kigali City, District, Municipalities, Towns and Sector levels;

3° two (2) members elected by the National Youth Council;

4° one (1) member elected by the Federation of the Associations of the
Disabled.

Article 77

Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 76 of this Constitution, the members of the Chamber of Deputies shall be elected for a five-year (5) term by direct universal suffrage through a secret ballot using a system of proportional representation.

The seats which remain after allocation of seats by dividing votes received by the electoral quotient shall be distributed to political organizations according to the system of the highest surplus.

The list shall be compiled in full respect of the principle of national unity as stipulated in Articles 9 and 54 of this Constitution and the principle of gender equality in matters relating to elective offices as stipulated in article 54 of the Constitution.

Candidates may be presented by a political organization or may stand independently.

A political organization or list of independent candidates which fails to attain at least five per cent (5 %) of the votes cast at the national level during legislative elections can not be represented in the Chamber of Deputies or benefit from grants given to political organizations by the State.

Article 78

Any deputy who, during his or her mandate, either resigns from his or her political organization or resigns from the Chamber of Deputies or is expelled from the political organization to which he or she belongs in accordance with provisions of the organic law governing political organizations or joins another political organization, shall automatically lose his or her seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

Disputes relating to decisions taken in accordance with the proceeding paragraph are adjudicated by the High Court of the Republic in the first instance and by the Supreme Court in the second and the last instance.

In the event of an appeal, the execution of the decision of the court of first instance is stayed until the Supreme Court rules on the appeal.

In the event of a Deputy losing or being removed from office when his or her term still has more than one year to go, the seat vacated by the Deputy shall devolve upon the person who was next on the list on which he or she was elected.

Candidates who are elected by means other than through lists of political organizations who lose or are removed from office as parliamentarians are replaced through fresh elections.

Article 79

Every year, the Chamber of Deputies shall adopt the finance law. It shall receive the finance bill before commencement of the Budget session.

The Chamber of Deputies shall examine the Budget for the next financial year on the basis of the budget implementation report for the current year presented to it by the Cabinet.

Every financial year and before June 30th of the following year, the Cabinet shall submit to the Chamber of deputies the finance bill for the concerned financial year with a report on the implementation of the budget certified by the Auditor General of State Finances.

The Cabinet shall submit a report on the implementation of the budget to the Auditor General of State Finances not later than March 31st of the following financial year.

The finance law determines the State revenue and expenditure of the State in accordance with conditions provided for by an organic law.

Before the final adoption of the Budget, the President of the Chamber of Deputies seeks the opinion of the Senate on the finance bill.

Article 80

In the event that the Finance bill is not voted and promulgated before commencement of a financial year, the Prime Minister authorises by an order a monthly expenditure on a provisional basis of an amount equal to one-twelfth of the budget of the preceding year.

Article 81

No taxation can be imposed, modified or removed except by law.

No exemption from or reduction of tax may be granted unless authorised by law.

The Chamber of Deputies may upon request by the Cabinet and after adoption of a law relating to certain rates of taxes and duties by an organic law, authorise its immediate application.

Sub-section 3 : The Senate

Article 82

The Senate shall be composed of twenty six (26) members serving for a term of eight years (8) and at least thirty per cent (30 %) of whom are women. In addition, former Heads of State become members of the Senate upon their request as provided for in paragraph 4 of this article.

Those twenty six (26) members are elected or appointed as follows :

1° twelve (12) members representing each Province and the City of Kigali elected through secret ballot by members of the Executive Committees of Sectors and District, Municipality, Town or City Councils of each Province and the City of Kigali;

2° eight (8) members appointed by the President of the Republic who shall ensure the representation of historically marginalized communities;

3° four (4) members designated by the Forum of Political organizations’;

4° one (1)university lecturer of at least the rank of Associate Professor or a researcher elected by the academic and research staff of public universities and institutions of higher learning;

5° one (1) university lecturer of at least the rank of Associate Professor or researcher elected by the academic and research staff of private universities and institutions of higher learning.

The organs responsible for the nomination of Senators shall take into account national unity and equal representation of both sexes.

Former Heads of State who honourably completed their terms or voluntarily resigned from office become members of the Senate by submitting a request to the Supreme Court.

Dispute relating to the application of Article 82 and 83 of this Constitution which may arise, shall be adjudicated by the Supreme Court.

Article 83

Members of the Senate shall be citizens of impeccable character possessing the qualities of “inararibonye” who are elected or appointed objectively on the basis of individual merit without regard to political affiliation. They shall be highly skilled in the fields of science, law, economics, politics, sociology, culture or be persons who have held senior positions in the
public or private sectors.

A candidate for the Senate must fulfil the following requirements:

1° satisfaction of the criteria specified in Article 82 of this Constitution;

2° being an inararibonye;

3° having irreproachable morals and probity;

4° not having been deprived of civil and political rights;

5° being at least forty years old;

6° not having been sentenced by a court of last instance to a term of imprisonment of six months or more in respect of which there has been no amnesty or rehabilitation.

Article 84

With the exception of former Heads of State who become members of the Senate in accordance with Article 82 of this Constitution, members of the Senate serve a term of eight years which is not renewable.

Article 85

Without prejudice to Article 197 of this Constitution, nominations of candidates for the Senate to be elected by the District, Municipality, Town and City Councils and the Executive Committees of Sectors in Provinces and the City of Kigali are filed with the Supreme Court at least thirty days before the elections.

The Supreme Court verifies if the candidates fulfil the required conditions, rules on and publishes the list of candidates within a period not exceeding eight days from the date on which it received the nominations.
Elections are conducted in accordance with the procedure determined by the electoral law.

With respect to Senators who are appointed, the organs responsible for the nomination of designated Senator submit the names of the candidates to the Supreme Court, which verifies whether they fulfil the required conditions and rules on and publishes the list of appointed Senators within eight (8) days.

Senators appointed by the President of the Republic are nominated last to enable the President to take into account the principle of national unity among Rwandans.

In the event that some of the candidates are not approved by the Supreme Court, the organs responsible for the nomination may, within a period not exceeding seven days from the date of publication of the list complete the
number provided for.

Article 86

With regard to Senators elected by the Executive Committees of Sectors, District, Municipality, Town and City Councils, a candidate to be elected must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast during the first round or failing, that a simple majority in the second round which must be organized immediately after the first round.

In the event of an elected Senator’s resignation, death, impeachment by a court of law or permanent absence from the Senate on account of any reason when his or her term has a year or more to run, fresh elections are held. In the case of an appointed Senator, the organ which appointed him or her shall determine his or her replacement.

Article 87

The Senate has the specific function to supervise the application of the principles referred to in Articles 9 and 54 of this Constitution.

Article 88

In legislative matters, the Senate shall be competent to vote on :

1° laws relating to the amendment of the Constitution;

2° organic laws;

3° laws relating to the establishment, modification, functioning and dissolution of public enterprises and parastatal organizations and territorial organisations;

4° laws relating to fundamental freedoms, rights and duties of the person;

5° criminal law and laws relating to the organization, jurisdiction of courts and procedure in criminal cases;

6° laws relating to defence and security;

7° laws relating to elections and referenda;

8° laws relating to international agreements and treaties.

The Senate shall also have the authority to :

1° elect the President, the Vice-President and Judges of the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General of the Republic and his or her deputy;

2° approve the appointment of the Chairpersons and members of National Commissions, the Ombudsman and his or her deputies, the Auditor General of State Finances and his or her Deputy, Ambassadors and Representatives to international organisations, Provincial Prefets and heads of public enterprises and parastatal organisations which have legal personality;

3° approve, where necessary, the appointment of such other public officials as shall be required and determined by an organic law.

Article 89

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies shall, without undue delay, transmit to the President of the Senate bills adopted by the Chamber of Deputies relating to matters provided for in Article 88 of this Constitution.

Similarly, the Government shall submit to the Senate draft orders relating to the appointment of the public officers referred to in Article 88 of this Constitution for approval prior to signature.

Section 2 : Initiation and adoption of laws

Article 90

The right to initiate legislation shall be concurrently vested in each Deputy and the Executive acting through the Cabinet.

Article 91

Bills and statutory amendments which have the potential to reduce Government revenue or increase State expenditure must indicate proposals for raising the required revenue or making savings equivalent to the anticipated expenditure.

Article 92

Bills determined by the plenary session to have a sound basis shall first be transmitted to the relevant committee of the Chamber of Deputies for examination prior to their consideration and adoption in the plenary session.

Article 93

The law is sovereign in all matters.

Organic laws govern all matters reserved for them by this Constitution as well as matters the laws in respect of which require related special laws.

An organic law may not contradict the Constitution. Neither may an ordinary law or decree-law contradict an organic law and a decree may not contradict an ordinary law.

In voting upon a bill, there must be a separate vote on each article as well as a vote on the entire bill.

A vote on the entire law is conducted by calling each parliamentarian by name and the parliamentarian votes by replying in a loud voice.

Organic laws shall be passed by a majority vote of three fifths of the members present in each Chamber.

The procedures for voting are determined by a law on the internal regulations of each Chamber.

Article 94

A petition for consideration of a bill or any other matter on an urgent basis may be made by either a parliamentarian or the Cabinet to the relevant Chamber.

When such a petition is made by a member of Parliament, the relevant Chamber decides on the validity of the urgency.

When the petition is made by the Cabinet, the request is always granted.

Upon a decision confirming the urgency, the bill or matter is considered before any other matters on the agenda.

Article 95

With the exception of the organic law on the internal regulations of the Senate, bills on matters in respect of which the Senate is competent to legislate are transmitted to the Senate after adoption by the Chamber of Deputies.

In the event that the Senate does not approve a bill transmitted to it or amendments proposed by the Senate are not acceptable to the Chamber of Deputies, both Chambers set up a commission composed of an equal number of Deputies and Senators which make proposals on matters still being debated.

Both Chambers are notified by the Commission of the compromise reached and the Chambers decide on it.

In the event that the compromise decision is not adopted by both Chambers, the bill is returned to the initiator.

Article 96

The authentic interpretation of laws shall be done by both Chambers of Parliament acting jointly after the Supreme Court has given an opinion on the matter; each Chamber shall decide on the basis of the majority referred to in Article 93 of this Constitution.

The authentic interpretation of the laws may be requested by the Government, a member of one of the Chambers of Parliament or by the Bar Association.

Any interested person may request the authentic interpretation of laws through the members of Parliament or the Bar Association.

CHAPTER III : THE EXECUTIVE

Article 97

Executive power shall be vested in the President of the Republic and the Cabinet.

Section one : The President of the Republic

Article 98

The President of the Republic is the Head of State.

He or she is the guardian of the Constitution and guarantees national unity.

He or she guarantees the continuity of the State, the independence and territorial integrity of the country and respect of international treaties and agreements.

The President of the Republic has the right to address the Nation.

Article 99

A candidate for the office of the Presidency of the Republic shall :

1° be of Rwandan nationality by origin;

2° not hold any other nationality;

3° have at least one parent of the Rwandan nationality by origin;

4° have irreproachable morals and probity;

5° not have been convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months or more;

6° not have been deprived of his or her civil and political rights;

7° be at least thirty five (35) years old on the date of submission of his or her candidacy;

8° be resident in Rwanda at the time of submission of his or her candidacy.

Article 100

The election of the President of the Republic shall be by universal suffrage through a direct and secret ballot with a simple majority of the votes cast.

The Supreme Court proclaims the final results of the election.

Article 101

The President of the Republic is elected for a term of seven years renewable only once.

Under no circumstances shall a person hold the office of President of Republic for more than two terms.

Article 102

Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 196 of this Constitution, elections for President are held not less than thirty days and not more than sixty days before the expiration of the term of the incumbent President.

Article 103

An organic law shall determine the procedure concerning the presentation of the candidates for presidential elections, the conduct of elections, the counting of ballots, the modalities of resolving election disputes and declaration of results and the time within which the results shall be declared and other matters which are necessary to ensure that elections are
conducted well and held in transparency.

Article 104

Without prejudice to provisions of Article 196 of this Constitution, before assuming the duties of office, the President of the Republic shall take the oath of office before the President of the Supreme Court in the presence of both Chambers of Parliament in these words:

« I,…………………………. solemnly swear to the Nation that I shall:

1° diligently fulfil the responsibilities entrusted to me;

2° remain loyal to the Republic of Rwanda ;

3° observe and defend the Constitution and the other laws;

4° preserve peace, territorial integrity and consolidate national unity;

5° conscientiously fulfil my duties without any discrimination;

6° never use the powers conferred upon me for personal ends;

7° guarantee the respect of the freedoms and fundamental rights of the human being and safeguard the interests of the Rwandan people.

Should I fail to honour this oath, may I face the rigours of law.

So help me God. »

Article 105

The incumbent President of the Republic remains in office until his or her successor assumes office.

However, the incumbent President may not, during this period, exercise the following powers :

1° declaration of war;

2° declaration of a state of emergency or a state of siege;

3° calling a referendum.

In addition, the Constitution shall not be amended during this period.

In the event that the duly elected President of the Republic dies or is on account of any reason permanently unable or otherwise chooses not to assume office, new elections are held.

Article 106

The office of the President of the Republic is incompatible with the holding of any other elective public office, public function or any other civilian or military employment or professional activities.

Article 107

In the event of the death, resignation or permanent incapacity of the President of the Republic, the President is replaced in an acting capacity by the President of the Senate; in the absence of the President of the Senate, by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and in the absence of both, the duties of the President are assumed in an acting capacity by the
Prime Minister.

The acting President of the Republic referred to in this article shall not make appointments to public office, call a referendum, initiate an amendment to the Constitution, excercise the prerogative of mercy or make a declaration of war.

In the event that the office of the President of the Republic becomes vacant before the expiry of the President’s term, elections to replace him or her are organized within a period not exceeding ninety days.

In the case of the President of the Republic being out of the country, sick or temporarily unable to perform his or her duties, his or her duties are assumed by the Prime Minister.

Article 108

The President of the Republic promulgates laws within fifteen days from the day on which the laws are delivered to the Cabinet.

However, the President of the Republic may before promulgation of laws request Parliament to reconsider them.

In such a case, should Parliament adopt the laws by, in the case of ordinary laws, a majority of two thirds and in the case of the organic laws, a majority of three-quarters, the President of the Republic must promulgate the laws within the period referred to in paragraph one of this article.

Article 109

Upon the proposal of the Cabinet and after receiving an advisory opinion of the Supreme Court, the President of the Republic may call a referendum on issues of general national interest, on a bill of an ordinary law, on a bill of an organic law or decree relating to the signature of an international treaty or agreement which is not inconsistent with the Constitution but has repercussions on functioning of state institutions.

Should the referendum adopt the proposal, the President of the Republic promulgates it within a period of eight days as from the time of proclamation of the results of the referendum.

Article 110

The President of the Republic is the Commander-in-Chief of the Rwanda Defence Forces.

He or she declares war in accordance with the provisions of Article 136 of this Constitution.

He or she signs accords for armistice and peace agreements.

He or she declares a state of siege and a state of emergency in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the law.

Article 111

The President of the Republic has authority to exercise the prerogative of mercy in accordance with the procedure determined by law and after consulting the Supreme Court on the matter.

He or she has authority to mint money in accordance with procedures determined by the law.

Article 112

The President of the Republic shall sign Presidential orders approved by the Cabinet, and these orders are countersigned by the Prime Minister, Ministers, Ministers of State and other members of the Government responsible for their implementation.

He or she shall make appointments of senior public service and military offices as determined by the Constitution and other laws.

Article 113

The President of the Republic shall sign Presidential orders approved by Cabinet regarding:

1° the prerogative of mercy;

2° the minting of money;

3° award of National Orders;

4° implementation of laws when it is his or her responsibility;

5° the promotion and appointment of :

a) officers of the rank of General of the Rwanda Defence Forces;

b) senior officers of the Rwanda Defence Forces;

c) commissioners of the National Police;

d) senior officers of the National Police.

6° appointment and termination of services of the following senior public servants :

a) the President and Vice-President of the Supreme Court;

b) the Prosecutor-General of the Republic and his or her Deputy;

c) the Director of Cabinet in the Office of the President of the Republic;

d) the Chancellor of National Orders;

e) the Governor of the Central Bank;

f) the Rectors of public universities and institutions of higher learning;

g) the Prefets of Provinces;

h) the head of the National Security Service and his or her deputy ;

i) the Commissioners of the Commissions and heads of specialized institutions provided for by the Constitution;

j) the Principal Private Secretary to the President of the Republic;

k) Advisors in the Office of the President of the Republic;

l) the Ambassadors and representatives to international organizations;

m) such other senior public servants as the law may determine as necessary.

Article 114

The President of the Republic represents the State of Rwanda in its relations with foreign countries and may appoint persons to represent him or her.

The President of the Republic accredits Ambassadors and Special Envoys to foreign states.

Ambassadors accredited to Rwanda and Special Envoys present their Credentials to the President of the Republic.

Article 115

An organic law determines the benefits accorded to the President of the Republic and former Heads of State.

However, where a President of the Republic has been convicted of high treason or grave and deliberate violations of the Constitution, he or she is not entitled to benefits due to former Heads of State.

Section 2 : The Cabinet

Article 116

The Cabinet shall comprise the Prime Minister, Ministers, Ministers of State and other members who may be determined, if necessary, by the President of the Republic.

The Prime Minister shall be nominated, appointed and removed from office by the President of the Republic.

Other members of Cabinet shall be appointed and removed from office by the President of the Republic upon proposal of the Prime Minister.

The members of Cabinet are selected from political organizations on the basis of their seats in the Chamber of Deputies without excluding the possibility of appointing to Cabinet other competent people who do not belong to any political organizations.

However, a political organization holding the majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies may not exceed 50 per cent of all the members of the Cabinet.

The President of the Republic receives the resignation of the Cabinet tendered by the Prime Minister.

Article 117

The Cabinet implements national policy agreed upon by the President of the Republic and the Cabinet.

The Cabinet is accountable to the President of the Republic and to the Parliament in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

Article 118

The Prime Minister shall :

1° coordinate the functioning of the Cabinet in accordance with broad guidelines set by the President of the Republic and ensures the implementation of laws;

2° formulate the Government programme in consultation with other members of the Cabinet;

3° present the Government programme to the Parliament within thirty days of assuming office;

4° assign duties to the Ministers, Ministers of State and other members of the Cabinet ;

5° convene Cabinet meetings, draw up the agenda of the Cabinet in consultation with other members of the Cabinet and communicates it to the President of the Republic and other members of the Cabinet at least three days before the meeting, except in matters of urgency which are considered by extraordinary meetings of the Cabinet;

6° preside over the Cabinet meetings. However, where the President of the Republic is in attendance, he or she shall preside;

7° countersign laws enacted by the Parliament and promulgated by the President of the Republic;

8° appoint civil and military officers with the exception of those appointed by the President of the Republic;

9° sign orders in respect of the appointment and promotion of junior officers of Rwanda Defence Forces and the National Police ;

10° sign orders of the Prime Minister relating to the appointment and termination of service of the following senior public servants :

a) the Director of Cabinet in the Prime Minister’s Office;

b) the Secretary General in the Prime Minister’s office;

c) the Vice-Governors of the Central Bank;

d) the Vice-Rectors of public universities and institutions of higher learning;

e) Executive Secretaries of commissions and provinces;

f) Advisors and heads of services in the Office of the Prime Minister;

g) Secretary Generals in Ministries;

h) Directors and other senior officers of public enterprises;

i) members of the Boards of Directors of public enterprises and parastatal organisations;

j) Directors and Heads of Divisions in Ministries and Provinces;

k) Prosecutors at the National and Provincial levels as well as those of the City of Kigali;

l) such other senior public servants as may be specified by a law;

Other public servants are appointed in accordance with specific laws.

Article 119

Orders of the Prime Minister are countersigned by the Ministers, Ministers of State and other members of the Cabinet responsible for their implementation.

Article 120

Ministers, Ministers of State and other members of Cabinet implements laws relating to matters for which they are responsible by way of orders.

The Cabinet functions on the basis of collective responsibility.

An order of the President determines the Cabinet’s functioning, membership and procedures for making decisions.

Article 121

The Cabinet deliberates upon :

1° bills and draft decree-laws;

2° drafts of orders of the President, the Prime Minister and Ministers;

3° any other matters in respect of which the Constitution and other laws vest responsibility in the Cabinet.

A Presidential order shall determine certain Ministerial orders which are adopted without consideration by the Cabinet.

Article 122

The office of member of the Cabinet is incompatible with any other professional activity or membership of Parliament.

A law determines the remuneration and other benefits accorded to members of the Cabinet.

Article 123

Before assuming office, the Prime Minister, ministers, ministers of state and other members of Cabinet shall take oath before the President of the Republic, Parliament and the Supreme Court.

Article 124

The resignation or vacation of the office of the Prime Minister on account of any reason leads to resignation of other members of the Cabinet.

The President of the Republic receives the resignation of the Cabinet when it is submitted by the Prime Minister.

During such period, the Cabinet only deals with routine business until a new Cabinet is appointed.

Article 125

Each minister, minister of state or other member of the Cabinet may individually tender in his or her resignation to the President of the Republic through the Prime Minister.

The resignation becomes effective if, within a period of five days, it is not withdrawn by the member of Cabinet concerned and the President of the Republic has consented to it.

Section 3 : Public Administration

Article 126

Public servants are recruited, posted and promoted in conformity with the principle of equality of citizens, through an objective, impartial and transparent system on the basis of the competence, merit and integrity of applicants of both sexes.

The State guarantees the impartiality of the leadership of government departments, the Rwanda Defence Forces, the National Police and the National Security Service. They shall all, at all times, ensure impartiality and serve all citizens without discrimination.

CHAPTER IV : RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LEGISLATURE AND EXECUTIVE

Article 127

The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister shall be informed of the agenda of the sessions of each Chamber of Parliament and of its Committees.

The Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet may attend the sessions of each Chamber of Parliament if they so wish. They take the floor whenever they request to do so.

They may, if need be, be accompanied by technical advisers of their choice.

Such technical advisers may only take part in deliberations in Standing Committees.

Article 128

The Chamber of Deputies shall employ the following methods to obtain information and exercise oversight of activities of the government.

1° oral questions;

2° written questions;

3° hearings before Committees;

4° Commissions of inquiry;

5° interpellation.

An organic law shall determine the procedures by which Parliament obtains information and exercises oversight of government action.

Article 129

In the context of obtaining information and exercising oversight of government action, members of the Senate may address oral or written questions to the Prime Minister to which he or she shall either respond in person if the questions relate to the government as a whole or to many Ministries collectively or through the Ministers responsible for the matters
in question.

The Senate may, in addition, set up commissions of inquiry for oversight of government action.

However, it shall not conduct interpellation or initiate a motion of no confidence.

Article 130

The Chamber of Deputies may put the performance of Cabinet or of one or several members into question through a vote of no confidence.

A motion of no confidence shall only be accepted after interpellation and only on condition that the motion is signed by at least a fifth of the members of the Chamber of Deputies in the case of a vote of no confidence against one member of the Cabinet, or by at least a third of the members of the Chamber of Deputies if it concerns the entire Cabinet.

A motion of no confidence shall not be voted upon prior to the expiry of at least forty-eight hours after its introduction and it shall be adopted through a secret ballot by a majority of at least two-thirds of the members of the Chamber of Deputies.

The conclusion of ordinary or extraordinary sessions shall be postponed to ensure the application of the provisions of this article.

Article 131

A member of the Cabinet against whom a vote of no confidence is passed shall tender his or her resignation to the President of the Republic through the Prime Minister.

When the vote of no confidence is passed against the Government, the Prime Minister shall tender the resignation of the Government to the President of the Republic.

Where a motion of no confidence is rejected, signatories to the motion shall not introduce another motion for a vote of no confidence during the same session.

Article 132

The Prime Minister may, upon the proposal of the Cabinet request the Chamber of Deputies to pass a motion on a vote of confidence either in respect of the Government programme or adoption of a bill.

The debate on the request for a vote of confidence may not take place prior to the expiry of at least three full days from the time the request was submitted.

A vote on the motion of confidence may only be rejected through a secret ballot by a majority of two-thirds of the members to the Chamber of Deputies.

In the event that the Prime Minister loses a vote of confidence, he or she submits the resignation of the Governement to the President of the Republic, within twenty four hours.

Article 133

The President of the Republic, after consultation with the Prime Minister, the President and Speaker of the two Chambers of Parliament and the President of the Supreme Court, may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies.

Elections of Deputies shall take place within ninety days after the dissolution.

The President of the Republic shall not dissolve the Chamber of Deputies more than once in the same presidential term of office.

The Senate can not be dissolved.

Article 134

The Prime Minister is obliged to inform the Chambers of Parliament of government activities whenever it is possible.

The Prime Minister communicates decisions of the Cabinet and supporting documents to the Bureau of each Chamber of Parliament within a period of not more than eight days from the date of the meeting of the Cabinet.

Moreover, during the session period, one sitting each week shall be devoted to questions by members of Parliament addressed to members of Cabinet and responses thereto.

The Government is obliged to provide the Chambers of Parliament with all necessary explanations on questions put to the Government concerning its management and activities.

Article 135

The President of the Republic may address the Chambers of Parliament together or separately, either in person or by a message read on his or her behalf by the Prime Minister. There is no debate on such communication.

Should Parliament not be in session, it or one of its Chambers is convened specially for the purpose.

Article 136

The President of the Republic has the right to declare war and inform the Parliament within seven days. Parliament adopts a vote on the matter by a simple majority of the members of each Chamber.

Article 137

A state of emergency and a state of siege shall be governed by the law and declared by the President of the Republic, following a decision of the Cabinet.

A declaration of state of siege or state of emergency must give clear reasons which justify it, must specify the part of national territory to which it applies and its consequences, must indicate the rights, freedoms and guarantees provided by law which are suspended and the duration of the state of siege or state of emergency which may not exceed a period of
fifteen days.

The state of siege or the state of emergency cannot be extended beyond a period of fifteen days without the approval of Parliament, which approval requires a majority of two-thirds of the members of each Chamber.

During war time, when a state of siege or a state of emergency has been declared, the duration of the state of siege may by law be extended beyond the period provided for in the paragraph preceding this one.

The duration of a state of siege must not exceed the period strictly necessary to ensure the return of normal conditions characterised by democracy.

A declaration of a state of siege or of a state of emergency shall not under any circumstances violate the right to life and physical integrity of the person, the rights accorded to people by law in relation to their status, capacity and nationality; the principle of non-retroactivity of criminal law, the right to legal defence and freedom of conscience and religion.

A declaration of a state of siege or of a state of emergency shall not under any circumstance affect the powers of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, Parliament or the Supreme Court nor can it modify the principles relating to the responsibility of the State and of public officials provided for in this Constitution.

No elections of any kind may be held during or within a period of less than thirty days after the state of siege or state of emergency.

Article 138

A state of siege cannot be declared on the entire or a part of the national territory unless the country has suffered or is about to suffer aggression by foreign states, faces grave dangers or in the case of destabilisation of the institutions established by this Constitution.

A state of emergency shall be declared on the entirety or part of the national territory when the country faces a public disaster or constitutional crisis whose gravity does not warrant the declaration of a state of siege.

Article 139

During the period of a state of siege or a state of emergency, the Chamber of Deputies cannot be dissolved and the Chambers of Parliament shall be recalled immediately if they are in recess.

If at the time of a declaration of a state of siege or of a state of emergency the Chamber of Deputies has previously been dissolved or its term has expired , the powers of Parliament relating to a state of siege or a state of emergency shall be exercised by the Senate.

CHAPTER V : THE JUDICIARY

Section one : General Provisions

Article 140

Judicial Power is exercised by the Supreme Court and other courts established by the Constitution and other laws.

The Judiciary is independent and separate from the legislative and executive branches of government.

It enjoys financial and administrative autonomy.

Justice is rendered in the name of the people and nobody may be a judge in his or her own cause.

Judicial decisions are binding on all parties concerned, be they public authorities or individuals. They shall not be challenged except through ways and procedures determined by law.

Article 141

Court proceedings are conducted in public unless a court determines that the proceedings should be in camera on the ground that a public hearing might have an adverse effect on general public order or would outrage public morals.

Every court decision shall indicate the grounds on which it is based, be written in its entirety and shall be delivered in open court.

Courts apply orders and regulations only where they are not inconsistent with the Constitution and other laws.

Without prejudice to the principle of equality of litigants before the law, an organic law relating to organisation and jurisdiction of courts shall determine institution of a single judge in ordinary courts in first instance with the exception of the Supreme Court. The same organic law shall provide for the procedure of application of the provisions of this paragraph.

Article 142

Unless the law otherwise provides, judges confirmed in office shall hold tenure for life; they shall not be suspended, transferred, even if it is for the purposes of promotion, retired prematurely or otherwise removed from office.

In the exercise of their functions, judges follow the law and only the law.

The law on the status of judges and other judicial personnel shall determine the remuneration and other benefits due to them.

Section 2 : Courts

Article 143

Ordinary and specialized courts are hereby established.

Ordinary Courts are the Supreme Court, the High Court of the Republic, the Provincial Courts and the Court of the City of Kigali, the District Courts and the Municipality and Town courts.

Specialized courts, are the Gacaca courts and Military courts.

An organic law may establish other specialized courts.

With the exception of the Supreme Court, ordinary courts may have specialised and/or itinerant chambers established by an order of the President of the Supreme Court upon proposal of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary.

Courts may sit in any locality within the limits of their territorial jurisdiction if the efficient administration of justice so requires and this does not prejudice the normal business of the courts at their permanent seats

However, no special courts shall be created.

An organic law shall determine the organisation, jurisdiction and the functioning of Courts.

Sub-section one : Ordinary Courts

A. The Supreme Court

Article 144

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the country. The decision of the Supreme Court are not be subject to appeal save in terms of petitions for the exercise of the prerogative of mercy or revision of a judicial decision.
Its decisions are binding on all parties concerned whether such are organs of the State, public officials, civilians, military, judicial officers or private individuals.

Article 145

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is provided for in this Constitution and other laws and includes, inter alia :

1° hearing appeals against decisions of the High Court of the Republic and the Military High Court rendered in their first or appellate degrees as provided for by the law;

2° ensuring that Courts act in accordance with the law, coordinating and supervising their activities;

3° ruling on the constitutionality of organic laws and laws establishing the internal regulations of each Chamber of Parliament before their promulgation;

4° upon the request of the President of the Republic, the President and Speaker of the Chambers of Parliament or one-fifth of members of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, the Supreme Court examines whether international treaties and agreements and laws are not inconsistent with the Constitution and issues an advisory opinion before organs concerned take a decision;

5° hearing petitions on the constitutionality of laws and decree-laws;

6° resolving upon request, disputes relating to powers arising between different state organs;

7° hearing election petitions relating to referendum, presidential and legislative elections;

8° trying in the first and last instance criminal cases against the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the President of the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister;

9° administering the oath of office taken by the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister before assumption of their duties;

10° trying the President of the Republic on charges of high treason or grave and deliberate violation of the Constitution. In such case, the decision to file charges against the President of the Republic with the Supreme Court shall be taken through a vote of both Chambers of Parliament meeting in joint session, by a two-thirds majority vote of members of each
Chamber;

11° declaring vacant of office of the President of the Republic in case of the President’s death, resignation or conviction and sentence for high treason or grave and deliberate violation of the Constitution ;

12° on matters relating to the organisation of the judiciary, the Supreme Court may propose to the Government a bill of any nature amending existing law in public interest;

13° to provide authentic interpretation of custom which is unwritten and in respect of which the written law is silent.

The organic law shall determine the organization and functioning of the Supreme Court.

Article 146

The Supreme Court is headed by a President, assisted by a Vice-President and twelve other judges.

They shall all be career judges.

Where necessary, an organic law may increase or reduce the number of Judges of the Supreme Court.

Article 147

The President and Vice-President of the Supreme Court are elected by the Senate for a single term of eight years by simple majority vote of members from two candidates in respect of each post proposed by the President of the Republic after consultation with the Cabinet and the Supreme Council of the Judiciary.

They are appointed by a Presidential order within eight days of the vote of the Senate.

They shall be holders of at least a Bachelor of Laws degree and have working experience of fifteen years in the legal profession and proven ability of management at high-levels of institutions. Holders of doctoral degrees in law shall have at least seven years of experience in the legal profession.

They may be removed from office on account of undignified behaviour, incompetence or serious professional misconduct upon the petition of three fifths of either the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate and a two-thirds majority vote of each Chamber.

Article 148

The President of the Republic, after consultation with the Cabinet and the Superior Council of the Judiciary, shall submit to the Senate a list of candidates for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court. The list shall have two candidates per post in respect of which there is an election. The candidates shall be elected by an absolute majority vote of the members of the Senate.

B. The High Court of the Republic

Article 149

There is hereby establish the High Court of the Republic whose territorial jurisdiction is the whole country.

It has jurisdiction to try in the first instance certain serious offences committed in Rwanda as well as some offences committed outside Rwanda as specified by the law.

It hears in the first instance cases relating to the violation of Articles 52, 53 and 54 of the Constitution committed by political organizations.

It also has jurisdiction to hear in the first instance certain cases involving administrative law, political organizations, elections and such other cases as an organic law may determine.

It also hears, as a court of last instance, appeals against decisions of lower courts as determined by law.

It shall have specialized chambers which sit in different parts of the country as determined by law.

An organic law shall determine the organization, jurisdiction and functioning of the High Court of the Republic.

C. The Provincial Court and the Court of the City of Kigali

Article 150

There is hereby established a Provincial Court in each Province of the country and a Court of the City of Kigali.

An organic law shall determine the organization, jurisdiction and functioning of Provincial Courts and the Court of the City of Kigali.

D. The District, Municipality and Town Court

Article 151

There is hereby established a District, Town and Municipality Court respectively in each District, Town and Municipality in the country.

An organic law shall determine the organization, jurisdiction and functioning of these courts.

Sub-section 2 : Specialized Courts

A. Gacaca Courts and the National Service for the follow-up of their activities

Article 152

There is hereby established Gacaca Courts responsible for the trial and judgment of cases against persons accused of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity which were committed between October 1st 1990 and December 31st 1994 with the exception of cases jurisdiction in respect of which is vested in other courts.

An organic law shall determine the organization, jurisdiction and functioning of Gacaca Courts.

A law shall establish a National Service charged with the follow-up, supervision and coordination of activities of the Gacaca Courts. This body shall enjoy administrative and financial autonomy. This law shall also determine its duties, organization and functioning.

B. Military Courts

Article 153

Military courts comprise of the Military Tribunal and the Military High Court.

An organic law determines the organization, jurisdiction and functioning of Military courts.

1. The Military Tribunal

Article 154

Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 155 paragraph one, the Military Court tries in the first instance all offences committed by military personnel irrespective of their rank.

2. The Military High Court

Article 155

The Military High Court shall try in the first instance, all offences which constitute a threat to national security and murder committed by soldiers irrespective of rank.

The Military High Court is an appellate court in respect of decisions rendered by the Military Tribunal.

The Supreme Court shall hear appeals against decisions of the Military High Court in accordance with the provisions of the law.

Sub-section 3 : Oath of office of judges

Article 156

The President, Vice President and Judges of the Supreme Court shall take the oath of office before the President of the Republic in the presence of the members of Parliament.

Other Judges shall take oath before authorities indicated by the law that governs them.

Section 3 : The Superior Council of the Judiciary

Article 157

There is hereby established a Supreme Council of the Judiciary which has the following functions :

1 ° to examine and, either on its own initiative, or upon request by another organ, to give advice on matters relating to the functioning of the justice system;

2° to take decisions relating to the appointment, promotion or removal from office of judges and management of the career in general and discipline of judges with the exception of judges of the military courts and President and Vice-President of the Supreme Court;

3° to advise on all proposals relating to the establishment of a new court or bill governing the status of judges and other judicial personnel for whom it is responsible.

The President of the Supreme Court signs the orders of appointment, promotion and removal from office of judges and personnel of the Supreme Court.

Article 158

The Supreme Council of the Judiciary is composed of :

1° the President of the Supreme Court, who is the chairperson;

2° the Vice-President of the Supreme Court;

3° a judge of the Supreme Court elected by his or her peers;

4° the President of the High Court of the Republic;

5° one Judge from each Provincial Court and the City of Kigali court elected by his or her peers;

6° one Judge of a District, Municipality or Town Court elected by his or her peers from the territorial jurisdiction of each Provincial Court and the Kigali City Court;

7° two deans of the Faculties of Law of recognized universities elected by their peers;

8° the President of the National Commission of Human Rights;

9° the Ombudsman.

An organic law shall determine the organisation, powers and functioning of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary.

Section 4 : The Mediators

Article 159

There is hereby established in each Sector a “Mediation Committee” responsible for mediating between parties to certain disputes involving matters determined by law prior to the filing of a case with the court of first instance.

The Mediation Committee shall comprise of twelve residents of the Sector who are persons of integrity and are acknowledged for their mediating skills.

They shall be elected by the Executive Committee and Councils of Sectors from among persons who are not members of decentralized local government or judicial organs for a term of two years which may be extended. Parties to a dispute shall choose three of the mediators to whom they shall submit their case for mediation.

The Mediators shall record minutes of the terms of the proposed settlement of the case referred to them. Such minutes bear the signature of both the mediators and seal of the institution of mediators. The parties to the dispute are provided with a copy of the minutes.

Any party to the dispute who is dissatisfied with the settlement may refer the matter to the Courts of law. Such matter shall not be admissible by the court of first instance without prior production of the minutes of the settlement proposal of the mediators.

An organic law shall determine the organization, powers and functioning of Mediation Committee.

TITLE V

PUBLIC PROSECUTION

CHAPTER ONE : PARQUET GENERAL OF THE REPUBLIC

Article 160

There is hereby established a National Prosecution Service known as the Parquet Général of the Republic responsible inter alia, for the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed in Rwanda.

The prosecution service shall enjoy administrative and financial autonomy.

Article 161

The prosecution service shall comprise the office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic and an office at the level of the Province and the City of Kigali.

The Office of the Prosecutor General shall comprise the Prosecutor General, the Deputy Prosecutor General and Prosecutors with jurisdiction over the whole country.

The prosecution service in each Province and City of Kigali shall comprise of the Provincial Prosecutor and the Prosecutor of Kigali City as well as other prosecutors who assist them.

The Prosecutor General of the Republic shall direct and coordinate the activities of the prosecution service. With the assistance of the prosecutors in his or her office, he or she shall be responsible for prosecutions before the Supreme Court and the High Court of the Republic in accordance with provisions of the law.

He or she shall be represented in each province and the City of Kigali by a Provincial or the City of Kigali Prosecutor who assisted by other prosecutors under them, shall be responsible for prosecutions before the Provincial and the City of Kigali courts.

The Prosecutor General of the Republic may give written instructions to any Prosecutor. However, he or she has no power to give instructions to a Prosecutor at the Province and City of Kigali levels to refrain from prosecuting any person and to defer the matter to himself or herself.

Article 162

The prosecution service shall be under the authority of the Minister having Justice in his or her functions.

In matters relating to the prosecution of offences, the Minister having Justice in his or her functions shall determine general policy and may, in public interest, issue written instructions to the Prosecutor General to undertake or refrain from investigations and prosecution of an offence.

He or she may also, in cases of urgency and in public interest, issue written instructions to any prosecutor to investigate and prosecute or refrain from investigating and prosecuting an offence and inform the Prosecutor General of the Republic of such instructions.

Prosecutors shall be independent from parties to judicial proceedings and judges.

An organic law shall determine the organization, powers and functioning of the Prosecution service and shall also institute laws governing the status of prosecutors and other personnel of the prosecution service.

CHAPTER II : MILITARY PROSECUTION DEPARTMENT

Article 163

There is hereby established the Military Prosecution Department responsible for the prosecution of offences committed by persons subject to the jurisdiction of military courts. It investigates and prosecutes offences before military courts.

Article 164

The Military Prosecution Department is headed by the Military Prosecutor General assisted by the Deputy Military Prosecutor General.

An organic law determines the organization, powers and functioning of the military prosecution department.

CHAPTER III : THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE PROSECUTION

Article 165

There is hereby instituted the Supreme Council of the Prosecution Service.

The Supreme Council of the Prosecution comprises of the following members :

1° the Minister of Justice, who is the Chairperson as of right;

2° the Prosecutor General of the Republic;

3° the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic;

4° A National Prosecutor elected by his or her peers;

5° the Commissioner General of National Police;

6° the President of the National Commission of Human Rights;

7° the Military Prosecutor General and his or her deputy;

8° prosecutors from each province and City of Kigali elected by and representing their peers at the Provincial and the City of Kigali level;

9° two deans of the Faculties of Law of recognised universities elected by their peers;

10° the President of the Bar Association;

11° the Ombudsman.

An organic law shall determine the organization, powers and functioning of the Supreme Council of the Prosecution Service.

Article 166

The Prosecutor General of the Republic and the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic shall take the oath of office before the President of the Republic in the presence of the Members of Parliament.

Other prosecutors shall take oath before the authorities specified by the law.

TITLE VI :

THE DECENTRALISED AUTHORITIES.

CHAPTER ONE : GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 167

Public administration shall be decentralized in accordance with the provisions of the law. Decentralized organs shall fall under the Ministry having local government in its functions.

Districts, Municipalities, Towns and the City of Kigali are decentralized entities with legal status and administrative and financial autonomy and are the foundation of community development.

They shall be entitled to become members of national and international organisations which promote development through decentralisation.

A law determines the establishment, boundaries, functioning of and collaboration between these organs and various other organs which have a role in the administration and development of the country. A law shall also determine the manner in which the Government transfers powers property and other resources to decentralized entities.

CHAPTER II : THE NATIONAL DIALOGUE COUNCIL

Article 168

There is hereby established a “National Council of Dialogue”. It shall bring together the President of the Republic and 5 representatives of each District, Municipality and Town Council designated by their peers. It shall be chaired by the President of the Republic and be attended by members of the Cabinet and Parliament, the Prefets of provinces and the Mayor of the City of Kigali and such others as may be determined by the President of the Republic.

The Council shall meet at least once a year. It shall debate, among others, on issues relating to the state of the Nation, the state of local governments and national unity.

Resolutions of the Council are submitted to the concerned state institutions to enable them to improve their services to the population.

TITLE VII

NATIONAL DEFENCE AND SECURITY

Article 169

The State has the following security organs :

1° The National Police;

2° The National Security Service;

3° The Rwanda Defence Forces.

A law may determine other security organs.

CHAPTER ONE : THE NATIONAL POLICE

Article 170

The National Police exercises its authority over the entire national territory.

It must serve the people particularly on the basis of the following principles :

1° safeguarding the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the law ;

2° harmonious collaboration between the National Police and the community which it serves ;

3° the accountability of the National Police to the community ;

4° informing the population on how the Police is fulfilling its mission.

Article 171

The National Police has the following functions :

1° ensuring compliance with the law ;

2° maintenance of internal public order ;

3° ensuring security of person and property;

4° providing urgent humanitarian assistance in case of disasters, calamities and accidents;

5° ensuring respect for the law relating to air space, borders and waters;

6° combating terrorism ;

7° participating in international peace keeping missions, humanitarian assistance and training.

The law determines the organization, functioning and powers of the National Police.

CHAPTER II : THE NATIONAL SECURITY SERVICE

Article 172

There is hereby established a National Security Service. Its responsibilities shall include, inter alia :

1° organizing and supervising intelligence inside and outside the country;

2° analysing the impact of international affairs on national security;

3° dealing with all issues relating to immigration and emigration;

4° advising the Government on all issues concerning national security.

The law determines the organisation, functioning and powers of the National Security Service.

III : RWANDA DEFENCE FORCES

Article 173

National defence is the responsibility of a professional army known as the “Rwanda Defence Forces”. It has the following duties :

1° to defend the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the Republic;

2° to collaborate with other security organs in safeguarding public order and enforcement of the law;

3° to participate in humanitarian activities in case of disasters;

4° to contribute to the development of the country;

5° to participate in international peace keeping missions, humanitarian assistance and training.

A law determines the organization and powers of the Rwanda Defence Forces.

Article 174

The Chief of General Staff shall be responsible for the operations and general administration of the Rwanda Defence Forces.

Article 175

The Government of Rwanda can, demobilize some members of the armed forces if deemed necessary or reduce the size of Rwanda Defence Forces.

A law shall determine procedures for such actions.

TITLE VIII

SPECIAL COMMISSIONS AND ORGANS

CHAPTER ONE : GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 176

There are hereby established Commissions and specialized organs with responsibility of helping in resolving major issues facing the country.

An organic law may establish other Commissions and specialized organes.

CHAPTER II : THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 177

The National Commission for Human Rights shall be an independent national institution. Its responsibilities shall include the following :

1° educating and mobilizing the population on matters relating to human rights;

2° examining the violations of human rights committed on Rwandan territory by State organs, public officials using their duties as cover, by organizations and by individuals;

3° carrying out investigations of human rights abuses in Rwanda and filing complaints in respect thereof with the competent courts;

4° preparing and disseminating an annual and other reports as may be necessary on the situation of human rights in Rwanda;

The National Commission for Human Rights submits each year its program and activity report to the Parliament and provides copies thereof to such State organs as may be determined by a law.

A law shall determine matters relating to the organization and the functioning of the Commission.

CHAPTER III : THE NATIONAL UNITY AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

Article 178

The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission is an independent national institution. Its responsibilities include particularly the following :

1° preparing and coordinating the national programme for the promotion of national unity and reconciliation;

2° putting in place and developing ways and means to restore and consolidate unity and reconciliation among Rwandans;

3° educating and mobilizing the population on matters relating to national unity and reconciliation;

4° carrying out research, organizing debates, disseminating ideas and making publications relating to peace, national unity and reconciliation;

5° making proposals on measures that can eradicate divisions among Rwandans and to reinforce national unity and reconciliation;

6° denouncing and fighting against acts, writings and utterances which are intended to promote any kind of discrimination, intolerance or xenophobia;

7° making an annual report and such other reports as may be necessary on the situation of national unity and reconciliation.

The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission shall submit each year its program and activity report to the President of the Republic and the Senate and provide a copy thereof to such other State organs as may be determined by law.

An organic law shall determine the organization and functioning of the Commission.

CHAPTER IV : THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST GENOCIDE

Article 179

The National Commission For the Fight Against Genocide shall be in an independent national organ. Its responsibilities include the following :

1° to organize a permanent framework for the exchange of ideas on genocide, its consequences and the strategies for its prevention and eradication;

2° to initiate the creation of a national research and documentation centre on genocide;

3° to advocate for the cause of genocide survivors both within the country and abroad;

4° to plan and coordinate all activities aimed at commemoration of the 1994 genocide;

5° to liaise with other national and international institutions with a similar mission;

The National Commission For the Fight Against Genocide submits, each year, its program and activity report to the Parliament and provides copies thereof to other State organs determined by law.

The law shall determine the organization and functioning of the Commission.

CHAPTER V : THE NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION

Article 180

The National Electoral Commission is an independent commission responsible for the preparation and the organization of local, legislative, presidential and referendum or such other elections the responsibility for the organization of which the law may vest in the Commission.

It ensures that elections are free and fair.

The National Electoral Commission submits each year its program and activity report to the Parliament and submits copies thereof to such other State organs determined by law.

A law determines the organization and functioning of the commission.

CHAPTER VI : THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Article 181

The Public Service Commission shall be an independent public institution. Its responsibilities shall include the following:

1° the recruitment and appointment of public servants in Central Government and other public institutions;

2° the submission of names of candidates to the institutions concerned for employment, appointment and promotion of candidates who fulfil all the required conditions and have the most suitable qualifications for the job for which they have applied, taking into account the record of their conduct;

3° the establishment of an appropriate system of recruitment of candidates which is objective, impartial, transparent and equitable for all ;

4° carrying out research on the laws, regulations, human resource requirements, the terms of reference of posts and any other matters relating to the management and development of human resources and advise the Government accordingly;

5° submitting to the organs concerned proposals on appropriate disciplinary actions against employees in accordance with the law in force;

6° providing technical assistance to State organs and public enterprises governed by special statutes using the expertise which it has by virtue of its functions referred to in this article.

The management and personnel of the Commission are prohibited from seeking or accepting instructions from private persons or public officials from outside the Commission.

The Public Service Commission submits each year its program and activity report to the Parliament and Cabinet and provides copies thereof to other State organs determined by law.

The law shall determine the organization and functioning of the Commission.

CHAPTER VII : THE OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN

Article 182

The Office of the Ombudsman shall be an independent public institution.

Its responsibilities shall include the following:

1° acting as a link between the citizen and public and private institutions ;

2° preventing and fighting against injustice, corruption and other related offences in public and private administration;

3° receiving and examining, in the aforementioned context, complaints from ndividuals and independent associations against the acts of public officials or organs, and private institutions and to mobilise these officials and institutions in order to find solutions to such complaints if they are well founded.

The Office shall not involve itself in the investigation or adjudication relating to matters which are subjudice except that it may submit to the courts or the prosecution service the complaints which it has received, in which case those organs are required to respond to the office.

4° receiving the faithful declaration of assets of the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the President of the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet upon taking up and on leaving office.

The Office of Ombudsman shall submit each year its program and activity report to the President of the Republic and to Parliament and submit copies thereof to other State organs determined by law.

The law shall determine the organization and functioning of the Office.

CHAPTER VIII : THE OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR-GENERAL OF STATE FINANCES

Article 183

The Office of the Auditor General of State Finances is an independent national institution responsible for the audit of state finances.

It is vested with legal personality and has financial and administrative autonomy.

The office is headed by the Auditor General assisted by a Deputy Auditor General and other necessary personnel.

The responsibilities of the Office includes the following :

1° auditing objectively whether revenues and expenditures of the State as well as local government organs, public enterprises and parastatal organizations, privatised state enterprises, joint enterprises in which the State is participating and government project were in accordance with the laws and regulations in force and in conformity with the prescribed
justifications;

2° auditing the finances of the institutions referred to above and particularly verifying whether the expenditures were in conformity with the law and sound management and whether they were necessary;

3° carrying out all audits of accounts, management, portfolio and strategies which were applied in institutions mentioned above.

No person shall be permitted to interfere in the functioning of the Office or to give instructions to its personnel or to cause them to change their methods of work.

Article 184

Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 79 of this Constitution, the Auditor-General shall submit each year to each Chamber of Parliament, prior to the commencement of the session devoted to the examination of the budget of the following year, a complete report on the implementation of the State budget of the previous year. This report must indicate the manner in which the budget was utilized, unnecessary expenses which were incurred or expenses which were contrary to the law and whether there was misappropriation or general squandering of public funds.

A copy of the report shall be submitted to the President of the Republic, Cabinet, President of the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General of the Republic.

The Parliament may instruct the Office of the Auditor General to carry out a financial audit of any institution of the State or with regard to the use of funds provided by the State.

The institutions and public officials to which the report of the Auditor General is addressed are obliged to implement its recommendations by taking appropriate measures in respect of the irregularities and other shortcomings which were disclosed.

The law determines the organization and functioning of the Office of the Auditor General of State Finances.

CHAPTER IX : THE “GENDER” MONITORING OFFICE

Article 185

A Gender Monitoring Office is hereby established.

The Gender Monitoring Office shall be an independent public institution whose responsibilities include the following :

1° to monitor and supervise on a permanent basis compliance with gender indicators of the programme for ensuring gender equality and complementality in the context of the vision of sustainable development and to serve as a
reference point on matters relating to gender equality and non discrimination for equal opportunity and fairness;

2° to submit to various organs recommendations relating to the program for the promotion of gender equality and complementality for national development.

The gender Monitoring Office shall submit each year its program and activity report to the Cabinet and submits copies thereof to other State organs determined by law.

The law shall determine its functions, organization and operation.

CHAPTER X : CHANCELLERY FOR HEROS AND NATIONAL ORDERS

Article 186

There is hereby established a Chancellery for Heros and National Orders.

A law shall determine its functions, organization and operation.

TITLE IX

NATIONAL COUNCILS

CHAPTER ONE : NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN

Article 187

There is hereby established a National Council of Women.

The law shall determine its organization, functions, operation and its relations with other State organs.

CHAPTER II : THE NATIONAL YOUTH COUNCIL

Article 188

There is hereby established a National Youth Council.

A law shall determine its organization, functions, operation and its relations with other state organs.

TITLE X

INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS

Article 189

The President of the Republic negotiates international treaties and agreements and ratifies them. The Parliament is notified of such treaties and agreements following their conclusion.

However, peace treaties and treaties or agreements relating to commerce and international organizations and those which commit state finances, modify provisions of laws already adopted by Parliament or relate to the status of persons, can only be ratified after authorisation by Parliament.

It is not permitted to cede or exchange part of the territory of Rwanda or to join to Rwanda part of another country without the consent of the people by referendum.

The President of the Republic and Parliament shall be notified of all negotiations relating to treaties and international agreements which are not subject to ratification by the President of the Republic.

Article 190

Upon their publication in the official gazette, international treaties and agreements which have been conclusively adopted in accordance with the provisions of law shall be more binding than organic laws and ordinary laws except in the case of non compliance by one of parties.

Article 191

It is prohibited to make international agreements permitting foreign military bases on the national territory.

It is prohibited to make international agreements permitting the transit or dumping of toxic waste and other hazardous materials capable of endangering public health and the environment.

Article 192

In the event that the Supreme Court, upon request by the organs referred to in article 145 paragraph 4° of this Constitution, rules that an international treaty contains provisions which are inconsistent with the Constitution, the authorisation to ratify the treaty or agreement cannot be granted until the Constitution is amended.

TITLE XI

AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION

Article 193

The power to initiate amendment of the Constitution is vested concurrently in the President of the Republic upon the proposal of the Cabinet and each Chamber of Parliament upon a resolution passed by a two thirds majority vote
of its members.

The passage of a constitutional amendment requires a three quarters majority vote of the members of each chamber of Parliament.

However, if the constitutional amendment concerns the term of the President of the Republic or the system of democratic government based on political pluralism, or the constitutional regime established by this Constitution especially the republican form of the government or national sovereignty, the amendment must be passed by referendum, after adoption by each Chamber of Parliament.

No amendment to this article is permitted.

TITRE XII

FINAL AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

CHAPTER ONE : TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

Article 194

The referendum on the adoption and promulgation of this Constitution shall take place before July 19, 2003. The promulgation shall mark the end of the transition period.

Article 195

The institutions provided for by the Fundamental Law of the Transitional Period remain in force until the establishment of the corresponding institutions provided for in this Constitution. However, the President of the Republic shall dissolve the National Transitional Assembly at least one month prior to the holding of elections for members of the Chamber of
Deputies.

The Transitional National Assembly shall not amend this Constitution.

Article 196

Presidential and parliamentary elections must be held not later than six months after the referendum on this Constitution.

The elected President of the Republic shall be sworn in no later than one month after his or her election. His or her oath of office shall be administered by the President of the Supreme Court.

Article 197

Members of the Senate shall be sworn in not later than two months after the swearing in of the President of the Republic.

However, during the first term of the Senate, one half of Senators referred to in Article 82, 2° and 82, 3° shall be appointed at the very start of the term and the other half shall be appointed after one year for a term of office of eight years.

Members of the Chamber of Deputies shall be sworn in not later than fifteen (15) days after their election.

Article 198

The appointment of the Prime Minister shall be made not later than fifteen days following the swearing in of the members of the Chamber of Deputies.

The Cabinet shall be set up not later than fifteen days (15) following the swearing in of the Prime Minister.

Article 199

The President, Vice-President of the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General of the Republic and the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic shall be elected by the Senate not later than two months after it is formed.

CHAPTER II : FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 200

The Constitution is the supreme law of the State.

Any law which is contrary to this Constitution is null and void.

Article 201

Laws and regulations can only enter into force after they have been duly published in accordance with the procedures determined by the law.

Ignorance of a law which has been duly published is not a defence.

Unwritten customary law remains applicable as long as it has not been replaced by written laws, is not inconsistent with the Constitution, laws and regulations, and does not violate human rights, prejudice public order or offend public decency and morals.

Article 202

This Constitution abrogates and replaces the Fundamental Law of the Republic of Rwanda governing the transitional period as amended to date.

All legislation in force shall remain applicable as long as its provisions are not contrary to this Constitution.

Article 203

This Constitution, adopted by referendum of…………2003 comes into force on the date of its promulgation by the President of the Republic and is duly published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Rwanda.

Kigali, on ………….

The President of the Republic

KAGAME Paul

The Prime Minister

MAKUZA Bernard

Seen and sealed with the Seal of the Republic :

The Minister of Justice and Institutional Relations

MUCYO Jean de Dieu

KENYA: WHERE CORRUPTION AND HUBRIS ARE THE MANTRA, NATIONHOOD IS DEFEATED

2 Replies

Dear Sir/Madam,

There is an Igbo saying that states that a rock behind the sea does not hear rainfall even if it rains cats and dogs. This is because such a rock is always wet to notice the rain. Like this rock, some of our political leaders are absolutely drenched in corruption. No matter the torrential outpouring of complaints from the public about their corrupt engagements, such political leaders are tone deaf because their moral fibres have been numbed by the seemingly attractive and lucrative corruption.

In the wake of the successive scandals we have heard them unleash cryptic utterances in their defense. Their obliquities and intrigues have always left the public more confounded. Amid all these, serious bribery silently takes place. Many legislators across the political divide have been hired to form a protective ring round the architects of these calamitous scandals. In fact, with Parliament`s recess coming to an end in less than two weeks time, I have a hunch that some unforeseen forces are already on the prowl for legislators who will help kill the anticipated censure motion against honorable Ongeri.

As cynically chilling as it appears, yet it is not unexpected because where partisanship and ethnicity are the mantra, hubris defeats caution. Any keen observer would not fail to discern what this arrogance is all about. Politicians across the political divide are preoccupied with amassing huge finances in readiness for 2012. Many are using the incessant and discordant fiddling in the Grand Coalition Government as a smokescreen for them to pilfer from the public coffers. It is even said that an unnamed presidential aspirant touting about “generational change” has been heard brazenly bragging that he has already “amassed” over eight billion shillings just for 2012!

In such circumstances condemning corruption becomes terribly frightening and unpopular even among the few honest politicians. They would rather see their profiles in cowardice grow than for them to fight this insidious evil. But they have a valid reason for cowering. This is because; corrupt politicians and their political hirelings will besmirch and plot the downfall of anyone who stands in their corrupt way. Power politics and corruption have truly become the diplomatic names for the law of the jungle. I am therefore not surprised that some politicians mainly from PNU have already cheekily called for the resignation of the PM for his alleged failure in supervising and coordinating activities in the Grand Coalition Government.

But wait a minute; are these not the same politicians who have time and again formed impenetrable walls round those implicated in almost all the scandals in this country? It would be naïve of the public to expect politicians from a political party whose main plank of their political platform is to tear the PM into smithereens to support his course of action. It is ironical that in their populist formula they conveniently forget the President`s inaction in the fight against graft. It is time that they told the public why they are obsessed with directing the flak at the PM yet the President`s silence on corruption has been loud enough to be heard in all the four corners of this country!

They seem to conveniently forget that under the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008, the ultimate political responsibility rests with the two principals. They have the power to dismiss any errant public officials below them. The public therefore expects these politicians to unflinchingly support the two principals in the coalition government in the fight against graft.

TOME FRANCIS,

BUMULA.

http://twitter.com/tomefrancis

Kenya: Our Laws Not for the Poor, or Not So Rich!

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Our Laws Not for the Poor, or Not So Rich!
By: DR SHEM J. OCHUODHO

Friends,

Yesterday I turned up in court to answer charges with regard to KPC Matters as explained earlier. Below is a media statement I issued after being released on bail. I guess partly because media had enough stuff to fill their spaces, it was not used. I have taken the liberty to share it with ‘on-line media’.

In the course of attending to this matter, two very interesting things court my attention:-

1. Our Justice System Is Only For The Rich – Filthy Reach: if I wasn’t lucky to raise through friends and relatives the KSh 2 million Cash Bail, I wouldn’t have been released. Allow me to promptly thank those who were able to help one way or the other (including some on this list) – as well as those who even though were not able to help materially, considered it (the thought is what counts!), offered prayers and/or moral support. Up to the morning of court appearance, I was contemplating a further failure to appear in court – in the absence of raising the requisite bail amounts. The alternative would have been to be locked up until funds are found. Then I asked myself: how fair are some of our criminal laws? I appreciate that the material funds being talked about (been changing from 2b to 300m and now 800m) are high, but assuming that one is innocent until proven guilty as should be, why should such a hefty bail term be asked for? Especially for someone who has voluntarily traveled into the country/court even without receiving any official court summons? I would have thought the purpose of bail/bond etc was to ensure attendance, rather than ‘punishment’ . I hope these are some of the things our legal-inclined colleagues will be pushing for correcting in the current katiba reforms.

2. But the thing that astonished me the most is the rot in our system, and how deeply corruption has eaten into our social fabric. When I was being transferred to the cells at the high-court awaiting the processing of the bail orders, I was later informed by a friend that he hard to part with ‘something’ small to ensure that I was not handcuffed in the process! Secondly, while in the underground cells, I gathered that yet another good Samaritan friend had to part with KShs 500 for me to be allowed to read newspapers and get ‘VIP treatment’. Fortunately, from the word go I had cautioned the officers that when I was coming to the cells, I ensured that I didn’t carry any single coin with me. At one point, one of their seniors told me: ‘sasa sema, mambo ya new year’. Taking it that I didn’t know what he meant, my response: ‘ni nzuri’. He didn’t look amused, but we/I ignored it. Soon after another came and said: ‘Mheshimiwa, you know I should bundle you inside into the cell-rooms’. I jokingly said: actually am waiting for my ration of ‘mururu ya uji na maragwe (those who have been at one point or other incarcerated for whatever reason know what I mean)’. Hata huko ndani sina shida; hapa tulizoea siku za kale. Utanipeleka room ‘E’ or ‘F’? Akacheka akaachana na mimi. It is true, during University and Bunge times, these were common ‘homes’ given trumped up charges that were a normal feature.

When I later was to share with one of the 4 lawyer friends who offered to help in this matter, one retorted: the matter gets even worse when it is KACC. He went on to narrate that there was a client of his who 2 arresting officers told: ‘give us 300k if you want us to delay your arrest’. Leading me to the question: who is going to save us from graft if citizens have to be saved from bribing even KACC officials? Is this how lowly we have sunk as a people?

Below was my media release:-

——- begin statement —-

MEDIA STATEMENT BY DR SHEM J. OCHUODHO RE KPC MATTERS – 10TH FEBRUARY, 2010

Firstly, I want to thank God for protection. Ever since my wrongful removal from KPC, my life has been at constant danger, in some instances being trailed by strange characters. Given the hitherto unresolved, mysterious deaths of my two former colleagues at KPC – Josephat Amwayi (Procurement Manager) and Walter Otieno (IT Manager) – my concerns cannot be idle talk.

Secondly, while I wonder why it had to take the State 6 years to prosecute me, I am glad at last there is a unique opportunity for this matter to come out fully to the open so that the Kenyan public can decide for themselves whether or not there was any guilt. I took the State to Court for Judicial Review and Wrongful Dismissal 6 years ago. To date, the matter remains unheard. My family, particularly the children have consequently lived with trauma and stigma, wondering what it is their father did to warrant all this. Hopefully, truth and justice will prevail on this matter, as I look forward to a speedy disposition and conclusion.

It is very interesting that the accusations against me have continued to change over time. Initially at the time of suspension, I was accused of ‘not getting approvals’ for the actions we did. When we produced the approvals, the story changed: that we got initial, but not final approvals. When we produced the last and final approvals before actioning, the story has since changed once more to the charge we are now facing: that our lender did not pay the creditors, even when there is documentary evidence to the contrary. Moreover, initially the claim was reportedly for a KShs 2 billion, then KShs 300 million, and now KShs 800 million! Surely, if I had these kinds of money why would I be roaming around the world to eke a living?

I am on record to have said that I was bundled out of KPC for political and business interests; events over time have vindicated me on this, and expect even more serious malpractices to come out to light in the future.

There are people interested to run down KPC and sell it at throw-away prices like they did with Kenya Railways, and others. The rot in the energy sector – not just petroleum sub-sector – shall only worsen as long as the PS remains in office. How come the appropriate bodies have not taken up offers by the outgoing Chair, James Kenane, to shed more light into what ails the sector?

I have been an easy target for the State to use when they want to mislead the world that they are fighting graft. Perhaps not having a god-father and not coming from the right clan, am the easy ‘fall guy’. It happened at the time of our sacking, and even now: there were serious impropriety cases that it had to divert attention from. Even today, numerous such cases abound, and once more I have to be the punching bag. Fortunately, I have a real God for My Father – so I remain unshaken!

Finally, I want to reiterate that as shall emerge during the hearings, the management and business decisions we made were the most prudent under the circumstances. It has to be remembered that as a consequence, we were able to turn around in record time this previously hugely loss-making corporation into a jewel, raking into massive profits during my tenure.

It is my hope and prayer that during this trial, I too would be enlightened on what wrong we did leading to my dismissal and subsequent trial because even with the charges read, I still don’t know.

DR SHEM J. OCHUODHO

—- end of statement —

Thanks to all for the solidarity, and warm rgrds,
Shem

Press Statement by Truth Be Told Network on Behalf of Families of victims and survivors of Wagalla Masacre

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Press Statement by Truth Be Told Network on
Behalf of Families of victims and survivors of Wagalla Masacre
25 Years of Wagalla Massacre

It is exactly 25 years since the Wagalla Massacre occurred. Wagalla Massacre was a crime of genocidal proportions in which the Kenya security forces killed more than three thousand members of a small Somali clan in Wajir District. Wagalla Massacre was preceded by the Burning of Garissa and the killings in Malka Marri in Garissa and Mandera respectively.

This anniversary is being marked all over the world with processions in front of Kenyan High Commission in Canada, processions in Wajir and media events all over the world. The families of victims and survivors of the Wagalla Massacre are gathering in various localities marking this day.

The victims and survivors of Wagalla Massacre have been seeking justice from the Kenyan authorities for twenty five years now and no one has responded to their cries. There have been public petitions with more than 10,000 signatures presented to the Attorney General on two occasions in 2003 and 2004 and informal requests have been made through various channels which have failed to attract the attention of the Kenyan Authorities to accord justice to the victims. A court case has been instituted by the survivors of Wagalla Massacre in 2004 and which has only been heard three times in seven years despite the modest nature of the prayers sought from the court.

The families of victims and survivors of Wagalla Massacre once again appeal to the Kenya government to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry to carry out an inquest into events surrounding the Wagalla Massacre, unearth the truth and provide reparations to the people affected. The families of victims and survivors of Wagalla Massacre believe that despite the fresh appeals at this point, all legal and political avenues for settlement have now been effectively exhausted to resolve the Wagalla Massacre in Kenya. We have therefore instructed our lawyers to file the case at the African Commission on Human and People’s rights (ACHPR). We believe the ACHPR will provide a better forum for the victims of Wagalla Massacre to present their case and get a chance to be heard. Other avenues are also being discussed at this point and will be communicated once a decision is reached.

The families of survivors and victims of Wagalla Massacre believe that the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) lacks both credibility and capacity to take on the Wagalla Massacre. The TJRC as constituted and chaired by Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat suffers from lack of credibility because there is conclusive evidence that the chair attended a security meeting at Wajir District Commissioner’s Office on 8th February 1984 along with highly placed civil servants and military commanders. This was a day before the military operation that led to the death of more than 3000 people began. The TJRC also suffers capacity problem because they will not have the mandate to handle issues of genocide which Wagalla Massacre and other killings in Northern Kenya falls under. We therefore call upon the TJRC to disqualify itself from dealing with issues of genocide in Northern Kenya in the last 46 years.

Signed:
Salah Abdi Sheikh
Truth Be Told Network (TBT)
On behalf of the Families of victims and survivors of Wagalla Massacre

Copied to:
Hon. Mohamed Ibrahim Elmi MP
Hon. Gitobu Imanyara MP

Uganda beefs up security on the disputed Migingo Island

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FRESH ROW HAS ERUPTED BETWEEN KENYA AND UGANDA OVER KAMPALA’S REINFORCEMENT OF MORE SECURITY PATROL PERSONNEL ON MIGINGO ISLAND IN LAKE VICTORIA

News Analysis By Leo OIdera Omolo.

Fresh diplomatic row is in the offing, following claims that Uganda has brought aboard on the disputed Migingo Island 17 more new marine police officers, to reinforce the contingent which has been there for the last twenty months.
Thre Ugandans are said to be demanding payment of Kshs 500 per day from each Kenyan fishing boat operating on the island. The money is said to be a levy payment for security patrolling, to meet the fuel cost and other overhead expenses incurred by the Ugandan authorities.

Preliminary research revealed that Kenyan fishermen have about 200 or slightly more fishing boats stationed on the disputed island. If all are made to pay Kshs 500 per day, the Uganda revenue authority would mint close to Kshs 120,000 per day in revenue collection from this island, which Kenyan fishermen believe and view as part and parcel of Kenya.
The disputed island is said to be rich in fish, especially the economically important Nile perch.

Statistics made available to us show that Kenyan fishermen are landing between 10 and 12 tons of Nile perch on the island on a daily basis, which when translated into cash money, according to the current high prices of fish, is amounting to over Kshs One million per day.

The bulk of the catches are transported overland to the mainland fish processing plants in Kisumu, Migori, Homa-Bay, Nairobi and Mombasa,and for eventual exports of fishing fillets to European Union countries, Middle East, Japan, Israel and the US.

Ugandan fish merchants are also making purchases and transporting their catches to Kampala for the processing plants, sparking cutthroat business competition for the Lake Victoria resources by the two countries.

The Ugandan marine police based on Migingo Island have told Kenya fishermen that they either pay for the levy charged or they will be forcefully evicted from the disputed fishing island.

This harsh directive issued by Ugandan marine police prompted a group of fishermen to travel to Nyatike District Commissioner’s Office early this week where they sought to know whether Migingo Island is in Kenya territorial waters or in a foreign country. The fishermen said they were tired with the consistent harassment and extortion by the Ugandan security personnel.

Dispute over the ownership of the one acre rocky island was the subject of intensive diplomatic thaw between the two countries, and even at one time posed a serious threat to the existence of the much touted East African Community {EAC}.

However, the tension was calmed down when the two countries agreed to establish a joint survey work, by teams of experts from the two sister states of the EAC. The survey work was to look into century old records of the British colonialists. But somewhere in the midway, the Uganda’s team of surveyors abruptly walked out of the work, saying it needed to consult Kampala before resuming its work.

The joint survey was to cost a colossal amount of Kshs 240 million. Each country had agreed to contribute half of the required amount. The Kenyan team continued with its work and completed its side, but the report is yet to be made public. The two teams of surveyors are supposed to compared their notes and agree in principles. But the issue seems to be lingering for too long, before the much awaited landmark decision is made public.

Historically, Ugandan authorities have so far annexed eight islands inside Lake Victoria, which were previously part of Kenya. In early 1970s Field Marshall Idi Amin Dada seized Sigulu Island, the largest and most important of all the islands, with a population of close to 10,000, mainly of Banyala [Luhyia origin} and others from Suba region, particularly from the twin islands of Rusinga and Mfangano, and Luo residents, mainly from locations like Sakwa Bondo, Uyoma and Yimbo locations.

Sigulu is rich with fertile and productive land, indigenous trees, some of them as old as over 100 years, which carpentry artisans used as timber for the construction of durable fishing boats, particularly “MvuleTree’ that soaks in water like rubber.

The Kenyan residents of Sigulu have since the early 1970s became naturalized Ugandan citizen, and have their representatives in Ugandan Parliament as well as in other local authorities in Samia Bugwe and Bugiri districts of Eastern Uganda. The Kenyan government, then led by the founding President, the late Jomo Kenyatta, did not lodge any diplomatic protest, and the matter went quietly like that. The seizure of Sigulu has since divided many Banyala people into two countries, with some of the kin remaining at Port Victoria on the Kenyan mainland, while half of their families became Ugandan citizen against their wishes.

The former Budalangi MP and long serving cabinet Minister, Hon James Osogo was the only lone voice that protested against the annexation of Sigulu Island by the Ugandan authorities, but he received no backing and support from his fellow Luhyias and other Kenyan MPs during those days of KANU regime.

Kenyan fishermen claim to have lost million of shillings to the Uganda officers, who have been patrolling the controversial fishing island ever since 2004. They have lost fishing gears like outboard engines, fishing nets, boats and catches. The petty kiosks and small shops traders claim to have lost goods, either confiscated or consumed by Ugandan security men without paying any cent to the traders.

Last year a Ugandan policeman shot and seriously wounded a Kenyan fisherman, who was involved in a fight with a fellow Ugandan fishermen, and the Kenyan survived as he was rushed for treatment on the mainland at a hospital in Muhuru Bay.
If Kenyan fishermen are forced out of Migingo Island, some of the fish processing plants in Kenya will closed down with the loss of hundreds of jobs, and money in foreign exchange earnings. The country is minting close to Kshs 8 billion mainly from export of fish in foreign exchange earnings.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

JUDGES RENDER RULING OVER MIWANI SUGAR COMPANY ACQUISITION

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JUDGES RENDER RULING OVER MIWANI SUGAR COMPANY ACQUISITION

BY JEFF OTIENO

Appellate Judges Justice R.S.C. Omollo, Emanuel E. O. O’kubasu and J.G. Nyamu have made a crucial ruling in Kisumu over the controversial sale of the Moribund Miwani Sugar Company.

In a civil suit number 261 of 2008 pitting applicants Miwani Sugar Company (1989) Ltd, which is in receivership, versus Negandra Sexana 1st respondent, and CROSSLEY HOLDINGS LTD as the other respondent, the appellate judges ruled in favour of the defendants.

The applicants were seeking orders to strike out an application by defendants on the grounds that the record of appeal, and the appeal itself, had been filed out of time, and without leave of court. Second technicality was that the record of appeal didn’t contain all the notes of superior court.

In his application, David Otieno for the receivers, urged the court in his affidavit, citing sequence of events leading to the filing of the application, as enough justification for the whole thing to be struck out.

In his part, Pheroz Nowrojee for defendants, submitted that there was no delay in filling the appeal, but added that even if there was a delay, sections 3A and 3B of the appellate Jurisdiction Act would save the situation.

“In view of the foregoing, we are satisfied that the appeal which is sought to be struck out was not filed out of time”, the judges ruled.

“Mr. David Otieno urged us to consider this application under the old rules but even if we do so, as earlier demonstrated, it lacks merit”, they said.

“As for the costs of application, we are of the view that these shall be in the appeal during full hearing”, they concluded.

The battle in court is a culmination of a protest, where the receiver and some stakeholders have been harboring a feeling that the auction of the once giant miller was unprocedurally done.

In the said auction, CROSSLEY HOLDINGS LTD, which is associated with the wealthy Asian family in Kisumu, with vast experience in sugar industry, was said to be the highest bidder, but the other quarters were reading mischief in the whole process, and thus the protracted legal battle to date.

END

THE BALANCE OF TERROR

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THE BALANCE OF TERROR

BY NAIWU OSAHON

The world is a very violent place thanks to its dominating selfish culture. A culture that believes it can verbalize virtue to clothe evil and hatred or marry love with its opposite number, capitalism. A culture that thrives on perpetually attempting to play God to the detriment of others.

Life was not always like this. A spiritual (African) culture launched mankind into the merry-ways of modern civilization before it was abruptly aborted two thousand years ago by White culture’s excessive greed, selfishness, racism, blind arrogance and a shortsighted religion.

The dominating culture substituted spirituality with materialism, and enslaved and colonized the native people of the Old World. They rapidly annexed, stole, and confiscated huge tracks of precious indigenous estates around the world, to increase their holdings from about 6% to 65%, or nearly 40m sq. miles of the earth’s land mass by the mid 20th century.

From the Americas to Canada to Australia to New Zealand, natives were massacred, their food poisoned, their homes and farms destroyed, to give way to Christopher Columbus’ siblings who ‘discovered’ the ‘virgin’ estates. They laid claim to Southern Africa too because of its land, favourable weather and gold. Gold is still the issue there now. Mosquitoes helped to dislodge them eventually from the rest of Africa but not before they had put neo-colonialism in place. Whites maimed, tortured and brutalized Africans. They truncated aborigine/native populations around the world to 1.6 billion, a two-fold growth rate, while theirs jumped twelve folds to a billion by the middle of the twentieth century.

The elite culture exploited the labour and resources of their slaves to herald their industrial revolution, which in the last five hundred years, set them up as the economic and political giants of the world. Today, with Capitalism, Christianity, Democracy, and Human Rights, as their war cries, they have turned the entire human race into wimps of their decadent culture, and unleashed AIDS and hunger on the hapless original natives of the old world. Of course, civilization galloped in limps and bounds but at a price. The masters control everything including our God-given raw materials and we have nothing. Every time we raise our heads to try to pick crumbs from under their tables, they crush us with unmitigated vengeance with their jackboots, so how can the world know peace?

They have caused two world wars in quick succession already, because they are not prepared to consider the equitable share of the world’s commonwealth with the rest of mankind. They set up the UN to try to temper greed among themselves not envisaging that their erstwhile slaves would mature enough one-day to begin to demand their rights at UN deliberations. To checkmate the unsavory trend, they devised undemocratic institutions like the Security Council, IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and the WHO. And despite these institutions, America, leading the NATO pack, continues to behave like a spoilt child, walking out on UN caucuses to avoid taking responsibilities, and setting out on her own to police the world and impose her hegemony.

Despite the marginalization of the Soviet Union, America and her NATO family continue to build and stockpile formidable military arsenal obviously against the rest of us. A few years ago, they came up with the secret strategy called COLOMBIA PLAN. It incorporates support for germ warfare, economic strangulation, AIDS infestations and genetically modified GM crops, as weapons of elimination, not of the Soviet Union who has since joined their G7, but against the economically disadvantaged world.

Lenin once described capitalism as horror without end. One does not have to be a socialist or communist to agree. Capitalism without spirituality is a sin against a basic law of nature by largely trying to reap where it has not sowed. Whoever sows a wind must expect to reap a whirlwind surely. When we strike against our adversaries, they call it ‘terrorism.’ Their atrocities against us have steeled us against them, but because they employ superior military arsenal and win all the time, they call their efforts ‘peace’ or claim that they are protecting ‘civilization.’ The peace of the graveyard. Tacitus, the Roman historian once said: “…when they have created a wilderness they call it peace.”

Trotsky predicted before the Second World War that America would win the war and establish world hegemony but with dynamite built into its foundation. America has not only won the war, the Soviet Union disintegrated seventeen years ago, encouraging Bush’s father to describe current American hegemony, as the ‘New World Order.’ What George Bush Sr. meant in effect is that multinational companies like the Dow Union Carbide, Exxon, AT&T, Du Pont, Shell, Mobil, Microsoft, and ITT, now determine the fate of the world. Big business corporations now fix state Presidents and economic policies, leaving a trail of misery, hunger, diseases, oppression, war and chaos, along their tracks. From the Congo to Angola to Liberia to Palestine, the story is the same, land or raw minerals are the prizes at stake.

Palestine on the West Bank and Gaza, suffer bomb attacks daily from Israeli imperialism. Their homes are being demolished and kids killed in the streets in broad daylight, but Bush Jr., as the President of America, did not see Israeli action as an “attack on civilization.” Rather, Bush Jr. continued to give unflinching support to Israel without a heart for the Arabs. I am not holding brief for the Arabs. I am not a Muslim. I think the Arabs are the most vicious racists in the world. From Libya to Mauritius to Mauritania to the Sudan, Africans are catching hell in the hands of their Arab settler usurpers of their land. Arab racism is without conscience.

They started the African slavery holocaust and are still at it even now. Their religion supports the exploitation of man by man. They say the sense to cheat is like any other gift from God. All that one needs to do for receiving the blessing is give alms to the poor after. The Arabs have commandeered all of Northern Africa, condemning the indigenous Africans to the life of servitude, destroying their languages, history, customs and traditions, and denying them knowledge of their scintillating past as former leaders of the Arabs and the rest of mankind. No, I am not a mouthpiece of the Arabs; I just want justice and fairplay to prevail in the world that’s all. I want the cycle of violence to stop. The earth needs a breather from wars and mayhem. Mankind cannot afford another world war.

I have heard the call of war drums from several quarters. NATO says it is ready to join in the fray. They have turned Iraq into a desert already so what would they be bombing next in Iraq? Russia too wants the opportunity to finish off what they and the British left behind in Afghanistan from previous wars. A dust track outpost of the poorest people on earth. They have no electricity, no water, no homes, nothing but poverty and prayers. Don’t they have the right to be angry too and to hope? May be this is the time to put them out of their suffering permanently. Wipe them off the face of the earth once and for all. But we have been taken through that road several times before and it has not stopped the cycle of violence in the world.

President Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada in 1983 after a truck bomb exploded at a US Marine Corps base in Lebanon. US aircraft bombed Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya after the 1986 discotheque explosion in Germany. Hundreds of civilians including children were killed in the mid night surprise attack. Gaddaffi, whose tent-home was bombed, escaped death by the whiskers.
The US and Britain blocked the UN Security Council resolution condemning Iraq’s aggression against Iran in 1980. In exchange for technical information on Soviet weapons in 1986, the CIA gave Iraq satellite pictures of Iranian troop movements. In July 1988, Reagan blocked US congress sanction against Iraq for gassing 3,000 Kurds and armed Iraq against its neighbours while steeling Israel at the same time to defy UN resolutions 242 and 338.

When Saddam Hussein, goaded by the Americans foolishly burgeoned, America ordered allied troops to bomb and butcher defeated and fleeing Saddam soldiers and move 100 miles into Iraq’s territory to try to force a civil war. That strategy failed so Bush Sr. destroyed Iraq’s major economic facilities and cut off water and electricity supplies to the civilian population. Then his contractors invaded Iraq like a swarm of locusts to make fortunes from cash strapped Iraq, cleaning up the oil smeared beaches of Bush’s one noonday madness. If there was order in their methods it would not be so bad. One minute they are on your side, the next minute they are blitzing your home. It has been one endless mayhem since they took control of the world from their African ancestors.

On Christmas eve in 1989, at mid night, Bush Sr., while pretending to be fighting a drug war, invaded Panama killing over 2,000 civilians, and kidnapping their President, a former CIA protégé. Over one million children, not to talk of adults, died from the US continued blockade and bombardment of Iraq. Cuba’s blockade has dragged for years and was designed to destroy Cuban economy and encourage the population to revolt against their government. Do these acts portray the US as a just and democratic society imbued with the milk of human kindness, which they call human rights? Since all atrocities and aggression by the US are directed at the non-White people of the world, it is difficult to see them as honest arbiters or brokers in world affairs. The Pentagon, in August 1998, destroyed the Al Shifa Pharmaceutical factory in Sudan without evidence that it was linked with the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that same year. The factory was Sudan’s leading pharmaceutical factory, and thousands of innocent Africans lost their lives as a result of the bombing.

Nostradamus (1503 – 1566) was quoted in a 1654 CE publication as predicting as follows: “In the City of God there will be a great thunder, two brothers torn apart by chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb. The Third big war will begin when the big city is burning. On the 11th day of the 9th month that…two metal birds would crash into two tall Statues…..in the new city…..and the world will end soon after.”
On the 11th day of September 2001, the worst terrorist attack in US history, sent two planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York at 18 minutes interval, toppling the twin storey towers. The first crash happened at about 8.45 am. Simultaneously the terrorists crashed another plane into the Pentagon, the defence headquarters of the most powerful nation on earth. The terrorists were apparently heading another hijacked plane for the White House when it crashed in Western Pennsylvania, due to skirmish in the plane with the plane’s Black pilot who thwarted the hijacker’s efforts. A car bomb exploded outside the State Department, although this was promptly denied by security forces that came out to patrol the White House with automatic weapons. Military jets took to the skies of the two cities, and FAA grounded civilian aircrafts nation wide, for the first time in US history.

The death toll from the atrocities is said to be over three thousand of innocent souls of various nationalities of the world. The sophistication and audacity of the attack took the world by storm. It is obvious that some well-trained pilots were among the terrorists. The logistics of the operation is mind bugging. Months, if not years, must have been employed to put together the staggering planning and organization that hijacked four planes simultaneously inside America without alerting the security forces who pride themselves as the best in the world.

Alexander Cockburn, a reporter for a US newspaper, the Nation, described the attacks as “near miracles of logistic calculations, timing, execution and devastation of targets.” All the missiles the terrorists needed were full tanks of jet fuel, and the knowledge of how to fly the commercial planes. The devastation is already being compared with Pearl Habour. Of course, the pride of the US security forces was wounded, but that was not enough excuse to plunge the world into another catastrophic war. Whoever started this war, why could America not go in quietly and pick him up and try him in an open court of justice? That is what civilization is about, isn’t it? And if bin Laden is the culprit, why create a monster and punish the rest of us for your blunder?

Leaders of the West should stop to think now and accept blame for the way they have impacted on the rest of the world in the last two thousand years, instead of spinning off into their usual orgy of state terrorism, massacring thousands of innocent people around the world. May be this is the time for a New World Order in earnest. A world devoid of hatred and racism. A world in which we are our brothers’ keepers. A world where the most powerful and powerless have nothing to fear from each other. But, of course, this is a very tall dream indeed. What moral right has the US, with her devastating stockpile of nuclear weapons, for instance, to try to prevent a threatened foe like North Korea, from preparing to defend herself? These are some of the contradictions the rest of the helpless world finds difficult to understand.

When Bush Jr. rigged his way into power, I told myself that the end time had come. The Bush family had unfinished business in the oil-rich Gulf peninsula, particularly in Iraq, where they had been denied lucrative oil contracts. The Bush family needed a seemingly credible excuse, which the 11th day of September 2001 terrorist attack in the US provided. The attack was generally believed to have been facilitated with the support of elements in the US and Israeli intelligence. Although many Israeli nationals worked in the twin towers, none of them went to work on the day of the attack. The entire project was too audacious and sophisticated to be true especially against the most powerful nation on earth.

The September 11 episode helped to divert public attention in the US from Bush Junior’s flawed presidential elections. Bush Jr. needed that to sell himself as a man of steel and the defender of America’s patriotic interests. The US economy was going down and unemployment soaring when Bush Jr. took out Afghanistan. A perfect scenario for annexing alien lands, resources and people, to open up new markets for the conquerors’ junk and decadence. The official excuse to the US Congress was to eliminate Osama bin Laden and yet Osama remained at large and as deadly as ever, whether physically or through cells. It is not possible to solve the problems of terrorism with counter terrorism, but who was going to be bold enough among the super powers to educate Bush Jr. on that.

Iraq had been under severe UN sanctions for ten years. They had not been allowed to sell their oil or raise funds in any other way to take care of even their basic national needs. A chunk of their land was cordoned off for international surveillance. Weeks before the mayhem, under US pressure, Iraq was forced to destroy much of her critical weapons, including missiles she could have used to defend herself against the US aggression. The US unleashed thousands of their most lethal bombs on airports, roads, hospitals, schools, civil institutions and facilities, to turn Baghdad into a wasteland, killing and maiming thousands of innocent citizens, including women and babies, in the guise of searching for the non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

By defying UN resolution 1441, America destroyed the credibility and relevance of the UN. This happened at a time an African was the Secretary General of the UN. China was as a result freed to take over Taiwan at will. North Korea could over run South Korea any time too and Russia could make mince meat of her satellite neighbours because might is right and the UN is no longer relevant. Consensus at the UN Security Council was the only guarantee of peace in the world. With that compromised, the respectable thing for Kofi Annan (the Secretary General of the UN) to do, was to give the US immediate ultimatum to stop hostilities and withdraw her forces from Iraq.

Iraq had not violated any regulations of the UN at the time. If any thing, she was under UN sanctions and was co-operating with UN inspectors fully. Refusal by the US to respect the Secretary General’s ultimatum, issued on behalf of the marginalized UN authority, should have led to Annan’s resignation and the handing over of what was left of the UN’s worthless charter to the remaining UN veto powers of China, Russia and France opposed to the US adventure. This was the minimum Africa expected of Annan, for Africa’s honour, and the judgment of posterity. I said this much when I first posted this article to several Internet media and groups, and published it in the Nigerian press some nine years ago. The three veto powers should then have assumed the responsibility of stopping the US aggression in Iraq by force if necessary, and set about trying to put together a new world institution to promote global peace. The new institution should have borne a new name and sanctioned the US, for peace to be restored to the world.

NAIWU OSAHON Hon. Khu Mkuu (Leader) World Pan-African Movement); Ameer Spiritual (Spiritual Prince) of the African race; MSc. (Salford); Dip.M.S; G.I.P.M; Dip.I.A (Liv.); D. Inst. M; G. Inst. M; G.I.W.M; A.M.N.I.M. Poet, Author of the magnum opus: ‘The end of knowledge’. One of the world’s leading authors of children’s books; Awarded; key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Honourary Councilmanship, Memphis City Council; Honourary Citizenship, County of Shelby; Honourary Commissionership, County of Shelby, Tennessee; and a silver shield trophy by Morehouse College, USA, for activities to unite and uplift the African race.

Naiwu Osahon, renowned author, philosopher of science, mystique, leader of the world Pan-African Movement.

FARMERS DEFEND KIBOS SUGAR OVER CANE POACHING CLAIMS

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FARMERS DEFEND KIBOS SUGAR OVER CANE POACHING CLAIMS

BY JEFF OTIENO

Farmers drawn from cane growing zones of Muhoroni, Chemelil, Miwani and Nandi Hills have strongly defended the resilient sugar miller, Kibos sugar and Allied Industries, over claims that they are massively involved in cane poaching, which could be disastrous to other rival millers in the region.

Speaking to the press in Kisumu, the farmers took issue with the said millers, to intensify their managerial skills and rapport with the farmers, instead of resorting to hollow and endless blame games.

The farmers were reacting to press reports attributed to the said millers, which alleged that Kibos Sugar has of late embarked on abrasive scheme to encroach on the territories of other millers, in search for cane.

“This is a liberalized market, where we as farmers are free to exhibit willing, buyer willing seller doctrine”. Mr. James Moi, who is one of the representatives of a co-operative society in Chemase – Nandi, quipped to this writer.

“Our priority as Kenya sugar board is quality service, not mere talks, yet our farmers have suffered for ages at the hands of some of these none performing sugar outfits”, Nicholas Oricho, Kenya sugar board director thundered when asked to comment on the ragging row.

Oricho, whose area of jurisdiction is embroiled over the said controversy, further added that before they joined the fray, when they took over the mantle of leadership last year, some farmers had standing cane, which had over stayed in the farms for over 40 months, to the chagrin of the hapless farmers, who have domestic obligations to meet.

Kibos sugar, which is two years old since inception, installed a multimillion weigh bridge in Awasi a couple of months ago, a move which has been overwhelmingly applauded by farmers and local leaders.

Farmers from as far as the larger southern Nyanza (read Awendo zone) are even opting to bring their canes to the weigh bridge, and in a span of a week, their deliveries are impressively paid.

Asked by this writer to comment on poaching claims by his industry rivals, the Managing Director, Raju Chanan said theirs as a miller is to deliver to the farmer’s quality service, which the farmers have craved for ages.

“I think I’ve no time for cheap and parochial politics which cannot empower our people”, Raju told this journalist on the telephone.

A group of farmers from Nandi cane growing area early last week stunned the sugar fraternity, by going the full throttle of even backing the miller, by donating a huge chunk of land for free to pave way for another weigh bridge.

They further urged the resilient miller to consider putting a bid to take over the moribund Miwani Sugar, arguing that they have shown commitment and capability to run the outfit.

END

MUHORONI SUGAR FACTORY TO COMMISSION A SH 80M POWER PROJECT, PROMISES TO CLEAR OUT-STANDING FARMERS’ ARREARS

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MUHORONI SUGAR FACTORY TO COMMISSION A SH 80M POWER PROJECT, PROMISES TO CLEAR OUT-STANDING ARREARS.
By Dickens Wasonga.

The over 40,000 sugar cane farmers within the Muhoroni sugar belt now have a reason to smile, thanks to the just concluded three months maintenance at the Muhoroni sugar factory.

Although the farmers had to remain patient for three months to be paid for cane delivered to the factory from September last year, soon they will have the last laugh, as the company makes arrangements to the pay the outstanding arrears, now standing at ksh.160m.

According to the factory’s Agricultural manager, Mr. Joel Wangendo, efficiency at the sugar milling plant was at its lowest last year, and continued use of the machines only led to further losses.

”The mills extraction was 83 per cent before we stopped, but after the maintenance now we are doing 90 per cent”, said Wangendo.

Kenya sugar board, the industry’s regulator, gave a lease of life to the factory when it injected ksh.120m towards the maintenance work, which saw major rehabilitation of the mills, and steam production going up significantly, thereby improving efficiency at the plant.

The company’s general manager, Mr. Joshua Korir said the works which cost the firm over Kshs. 300m concentrated mainly in two critical areas, the mills and the boilers, which he described as the key areas in the factory’s running.

The firm had to source for additional funding from itself, and the well wishers, who included the suppliers.

” Work at boiler 1 and 2, which produces 25 tonnes of steam per hour, is now complete. We started off with boiler 4, which gives about 40 tonnes of steam per hour, and work is still ongoing at boiler 3, with a capacity to produce 40 tonnes of steam per hour, to run our turbines”, said Mr. Korir.

Before the repairs, the mills were misaligned and could not extract efficiently, according to the GM, who said after the maintenance the mills were re-set and new rollers fitted.

The works, according to the senior manager, also saw a re-done of both the mills foundation, and hydraulic systems.

With a more improved system, Muhoroni is now expected to use only 11 tonnes of sugarcane to produce one tone of sugar.

According to industry players, the ideal conversion rate should be 10 tonnes of cane to produce 1 tone of sugar, and profit making milling factory like Mumias is already operating within this margin. The ideal situation, however, is also determined by cane varieties, among other factors.

During the 2008-2009 financial year ,Muhoroni, under the Joint Receivers and Managers Engineer, Martin Owiti and Kipn’getich Bett, the Factory milled 429,000 tonnes of sugar, and paid over Ksh.1b to farmers and transporters.

The current high production costs is anticipated to go down tremendously, now that the mills and the boilers at the factory are efficiently running, which will also lead to increased profitability to the firm, whose management is still under receivership.

Farmers will also sigh with relief when the Ksh 80m KSB road grant the sugar company received towards the end of last year, to purchase road equipmen,t becomes fully operational sometime this year.

Currently, most roads within the Nyando sugar belt are in sorry states, and sometimes make cane deliveries a nightmare to both the farmers and transporters. However, the grant is expected to greatly enhance the capacity of the sugar factory to upgrade the road network within its zone.

According to Mr. Wang’endo, the company has already received a motor grader, and a compactor roller, which are already in use, and three -15 tonnes tipper lorries are expected anytime this week.

He said the company has also ordered for the supply of a Front-end-loader, a Back-hoe loader, Low loader and other equipments, which will soon be supplied.

”We expect that by the end of this month, 90 per cent of the equipment will have been deleivered”, h added.

Another key Milestone achieved is a power generation project, which has since been launched at the sugar milling company, which is targeting to boost its power production by 3 megawatts.

The TA[4] Turbo- Alternator project, fully funded by the plant, and projected to cost of Kshs. 80m, kicks off officially next month, and will see electricity bills at the company drop by up to 80 per cent.

Currently, Muhoroni spends between Ksh.8m to Kshs. 10m per month on electricity bills alone.

The Company has also embarked on an intensive cane harvesting at the factory’s 1400 hectors Nucleus estate, as a strategy to raise funds, to off-set the farmer’s arrears.

30 per cent of the arrears have been paid out as advances to farmers who had pressing issues like hospital bills and school fees, upon request.

”We have a few teething problems here and there, given we only resumed operations a few weeks ago, but the arrears will be cleared soon”, said the General Manager.