The KARA Weekly Newsletter Issue No. 182, August 2008

Issue No. 182: Editor’s highlights and snapshot for this week:

Welcome to your favourite, authoritative and consistent The KARA Weekly Newsletter. As always, we appreciate your valued feedback. After a successful launch of Kisumu Citywide Residents Association, KARA will this Friday be in the North Rift region, together with other stakeholders, to launch Eldoret Citywide Residents Association. Uasin Gishu District Commissioner Mr. Leonard Ngaluma, Eldoret Mayor Cllr. Sammy Ruto, area OCPD Mr. Bernard Muinde, among others, will grace the stakeholder discussions at Sirikwa Hotel. We appreciate your continued feedback on the August edition of Neighbourhood Kenya, KARA’s debut hard copy bi-monthly newsletter. We are glad you are reading. Editor

Coming soon – Maji na Usafi Voices! – a monthly e newsletter produced by the KARA secretariat on behalf of the Kenya Water and Sanitation civil society organizations Network (KEWASNET). Subscribe, at no cost to you, send your request to kewasnet@kara.or.ke today. You have issues and observations on water and sanitation? Send us a 200 – 500 words article. Maji na Usafi Voices! KEWASNET aims to promote governance and accountability by strengthening citizen voice and providing a mechanism for dialogue between citizens, civil society organisations, service providers, policy makers and donors in the sector. KEWASNET was formed to sustain dialogue initiated through the Citizen Report Card on water and sanitation services launched in May 2007. The network has a goal to improve sector adherence to good governance principles within the newly created water and sanitation sector institutions in Kenya. Currently its membership consists of 30 civil society organizations in different parts of the country and institutions of higher learning. KEWASNET manages a list serve, web site, regular learning forums and the e newsletter to facilitate learning and exchange.

Inside This Issue of The KARA Weekly Newsletter – at a Glance:

* Orengo: over-emphasis on ownership to blame for land woes
* Ujamaa Center: land has become a weapon of political power
* US body: the trouble with settling Kenya’s IDP’s
* Press release: stop playing politics with slaughter-houses
* Our viewpoint: link land issues with cohesion initiative

. and much more!

On a lighter note . Can someone remind Hon. Mugo of her role?

Call it conflict of interest or anything else . and the MP for Dagoretti a.k.a public health and sanitation minister Mrs. Beth Mugo is torn between her local and national assignment. Her constituency hosts several slaughter-houses, a number of which were last week closed down by environmental regulator, Nema on account of being unhygienic. But wait a minute – to the minister, she is well aware that without first being an MP she couldn’t have been a minister! That is why she must have gone out of her way to act as a typical MP (does Mau Forest ring a bell?) against her national assignment of ensuring public health and sanitation are maintained. With the fashionable (peaceful) demonstrations, who knows, soon the minister may find “her people” up in arms . have a light week ahead!

Your feedback counts: Government on “Neighbourhood Kenya”:

“Thank you very much for the first edition of KARA’s bimonthly newsletter “Neighbourhood Kenya”. Please accept my congratulations. It has come out very well. I suggest you need a page where you can ask readers to ask questions, comments and a range of other issues'”, Dr. Manu Chandaria, OBE, EBS and Chairman of Comcraft Group of Companies

“We appreciate KARA’s continued partnership and look forward to continued collaboration”, Dr. Muusya Mwinzi, Director General, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)

Orengo: over-emphasis on ownership to blame for land woes:

It is indeed a privilege for me to participate in this Bi-monthly Talk Series by the Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations as a chief guest speaker. This is particularly so because the subject matter of discussion which is “National Cohesion, Reconciliation and the Land Question” is a key concern of the Grand coalition Government and indeed it was a major agenda in the just concluded peace initiative talks that I personally participated in. full-story

Ujamaa Center: Land has become a weapon of political power:

It has become a preferred weapon of power and political influence and is often also used as a token of reward. This has greatly increased the inequalities created under colonialism and passed on by subsequent governments. Problems of availability, accessibility and use are thus on the increase. full-story

US body: the trouble with settling Kenya’s IDP’s

Government sources have offered conflicting views of initial progress. While some of them point to successes (citing the return of some 214,000 IDPs and the construction of 30 new police stations), others, like National Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya have admitted that the government lacks funds to erect the pledged homes or provide adequate compensation. Instead, the government plans to offer the paltry sum of 10,000 shillings to 4,000 households. full-story

KARA: stop playing politics on unhygienic slaughter-houses:

We fully endorse Nema’s bold and long overdue action. We demand that it is time some of leaders immediately stopped playing cheap politics with matters of life and death. full-story

Our viewpoint: Link land issues to national cohesion drive:

Shunting aside the land factor in resolving the unprecedented post-election violence, while making way for more visible yet lesser effective interventions such as resettlement, is to simply and surely, postpone the real problem. full-story

A new beginning.Taxpayers Citywide Residents Associations:

KARA, with support of The Ford Foundation, is set to form 8 inclusive and results-oriented citywide (taxpayers, service delivery and consumers) Residents Associations at all provincial headquartersand adjacent areas.Read_more

Key events calendar highlights for August 2008

21 Aug – KEPSA Land sector sub-committee meeting

22 Aug – Ministry of Information & Communication Meeting with Telecommunication Service Providers

22 Aug – Launch of the Eldoret Citywide Residents Association (ECRA) at Sirikwa Hotel

28 Aug – AWAK Forum – Investing in the stock exchange

The KARA Newsletter is proudly supported by http://www.accesskenya.com

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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:35:05 +0300
From: “The Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations \\(KARA\\)” newsletter@kara.or.ke
Subject: The KARA Weekly Newsletter Issue No. 182, August 2008

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