KENYA TO COMPENSATE UGANDAN TRADERS OVER POLL VIOLENCE LOSSES OF GOODS ON TRANSIT.
By Leo Odera Omolo.
The Kenyan government is willing to compensate Ugandan businessmen in accordance to the value of their merchandise destroyed during the post violence.
The government has asked Uganda to submit the monetary value of the cargo lost in transit during the dark days of January, February when Kenya was stripped with post election chaos.
A senior government official in Kampala was last week quoted extensively the influential weekly, the EAST AFRICAN as saying that Nairobi had sent diplomatic notice through its high commission in Kampala on April 4 indicating that it was “going to pay all those who lost their goods.”
The weekly quoted Mr. Patrick Guma, a spokesman for Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Ministry as saying “We are aware of the message from the government of Kenya. We have a lot of interest, but for now it is still sensitive and therefore I can not comment further on the subject”.
The embattled Rift Valley railway; the joint concessionaire managing the Kenya- Uganda railway, also reported huge losses as a result of the post election violence. Bob Louw, the head of operations at RVR-Kenya had estimated an average lose of Ksh. 15 million (USD 231,000) per day during the violence.
Section of the railway line between Western Kenya and neighbouring Uganda was damaged, interrupting the flow of goods. The RVR official claimed total loss of business stood at about Kshs. 375 million (USD 5.8 million) by the end of January.
Although it is anticipated that RVR can offset its losses from its insurance policy the firms CEO Roy Puffet was quoted as saying “we have heard about the compensation, but we are still making a study to compute the losses.”
The RVR CEO said there have been extensive correspondences between his firm and the two neighbouring governments.
More than a dozen Ugandan traders lost merchandise and vehicle during the violence that erupted in Kenya at the end of last year and early this year between supporters of the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki, the two main presidential candidates in the race.
Kenya offers the land locked Uganda its only divert route to the sea but weeks of violence disrupted trade and saw vehicles as well as tracks on the Kenya- Uganda railway line vandalized by the gangs of political goons.
A lot of the violence occurred in the Western Kenyan towns of Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, and Kericho and at the border port towns of Busia and Malaba, both opposition stronghold and transit points for trade between the two countries.
After President Yoweri Museveni hastily congratulated President Mwai Kibaki on his highly suspicious and disputed re-election, angry opposition supporters who were still marching in the streets protesting against the election results started attacking goods vehicles and traders going to Uganda.
The opposition followers had also read a malice attitude on the part of President Museveni when he hurriedly visited Kenya on a failed mission to save the mediation effort started. Several fuel trucks were set ablaze and burnt to ashes and the trade blockade resulted in a severe shortage of fuel sent mump prices soaring in Uganda.
Officials from the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA| lobby group said they have already identified six of their colleagues with claims worth over USD 835,958, but they were informal. The claims would eventually be submitted to Uganda’s solicitor General for approval.
“We have learnt tat although no figure has been discussed in terms of compensation; Kampala has already set in motion by starting verifying claims by Ugandan traders who say they lost goods and other property worth millions of dollars.
It has been however, disclosed that Kenya has been receiving individual claims through its diplomatic mission in Kampala, but has since assured the Ugandan Government to coordinate the process so that the claims can be settled through one lump-sum payment.
End.
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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LEADERS TACKLED ENERGY PROBLEMS IN AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA
By Leo Odera Omolo.
KEY players in Africa’s electricity sector recently converged together in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi under the auspices of the Union of Producers of Electricity Power in Africa (UPDEA).
The conference whose theme was “Realization of Access to Electricity for All People” came against the background of a crippling energy crisis in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the World Bank, manufactures in Africa report an average of Two months of power outrages per year. As a result, firms lose five to six percent of sales-with losses as high as 20 percent in the informal sectors.
The World Bank blamed a combination of poor planning and inadequate finance as well as insolvent power utilities for the crisis in the sector.
Africa’s meager contribution of two per cent to the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been blamed on limited access to electricity. Only 10 percent of the continent’s population has access to electricity.
According to the International Energy Agency, over half a billion Africans will be without electricity by 2030 unless a colossal amount of USD 60 Billion Investment is made in Energy.
This is forcing the continent’s leadership to accept donor-led restructuring programmes, including privatization and rural electrification.
The Nairobi meeting made a strong argument for good governance and accountability in national power Institutions.
Even as many countries in the African Continent have experienced rapid economic growth in the country, the electric power infrastructure to support and sustain this growth has not been put in place.
At the conference, African countries were urged to form regional partnership to facilitate transfer of skills and information of power supply.
The Nairobi meeting was a follow up to the 2005 UPDEA conference held in Accra, Ghana where member countries agreed to harmonizer master plan and exchange experience.
ENDS
leooderaomol@yahoo.com
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Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 06:02:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
subj; KENYA TO COMPENSATE UGANDAN TRADERS; LEADERS TACKLED ENERGY PROBLEMS