From: Judy Miriga
People,
You cannot fill the gap for “Free Business Enterprising on Free Trade” like personal private business partnership without incorporating Public Mandate…….Museveni and Kagame’s plan will fail in East Africa and the same will fail to bring True Democracy unless the People agree to the Plan…….In Which case, Kibaki’s underground plan with the so called Chinese will not succeed……..The Soviet Block plan to hijack Africa in the Scramble to Africa will surely fail very miserably……
It is about time Kibaki Cooperate with Kofi Annan with Mkapa and he will stay safe…….Kibaki and Uhuru will not escape the Land Law with the Financial Budget Policy enactment……The police and Devolution is a must………
Check it out………!!!!
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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Kenya’s Score Card
Published on Oct 11, 2012 by K24TV
Annan, Mkapa to give their assesment
The scheduled meeting between president Mwai Kibaki, former UN secretary general Koffi Annan and former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa is in doubt, as president Mwai Kibaki is said to have been chairing a cabinet meeting in the morning. The intended plan was to meet with the two principles on the first day of their meeting, with prime minister Raila Odinga already having met the pair. It is however not clear if their meeting with president Kibaki will take place. The duo who are on their last day of their four day visit to Kenya, will hold a press briefing where they will inform on their assessment so far on the country’s progress of implementing agenda four.
Annan worried at high rate of ethnic violence in Kenya
Published on Oct 11, 2012 by capitalfmkenya
No description available.
Annan:Kenya should demonstrate how a constitution can impact a nation positively
Published on Dec 3, 2012 by NTVKenya
http://www.ntv.co.ke
Koffi Annan, the chair of the Panel of Eminent Persons says Kenya has a chance to demonstrate how a constitution can impact a nation, particularly during the upcoming election. Annan, accompanied by former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, spoke at the Supreme Court, where they met the Chief Justice, Dr. Willy Mutunga. The two are visiting the country to monitor the electoral process.
Thank you Annan. Some ignorant kenyans wants to test the reaction of the international community if they chose thugs as president. Mine is a little prayer for them. The world has changed. Take them to the Hague now please..
Odorono blu 1 hour ago
Kenyans are being led by hand to the polls by foreigners just in case they trip over and knock out their front two teeth. lol
magellanmax 4 hours ago
ANNAN, MKAPA SATISFIED
Published on Oct 12, 2012 by gbskenyatv
The chair to the panel of eminent African personalities Kofi Annan HAS indicate that even if they are leaving the country confident that the next elections will be peaceful since Kenyans have learnt a lessons from the outcome of the disputed 2007 elections, politicians have to exercise a lot of caution with their utterances as the country approaches the forthcoming elections. Annan also indicated that it will be up to the courts to decide on the fate of two presidential candidates facing charges on crimes against humanity at the ICC but stated that a presidency by any of them could have serious implications on foreign relations.
Talk to Jazeera – Kofi Annan
Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 11, 2010
The former secretary-general of the United Nations in conversation with Teymoor Nabili about China-African relations, Middle East peace, eradication of poverty and the future of Kenya.
Globalization’s Glass House Must Remain Open
Uploaded by YaleUniversity on Jun 8, 2009
Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, speaks at Yale about creating an inclusive globalization.
Kofi Annan: Developing countries are paying for a crisis the
Uploaded by theindependent on Mar 13, 2009
In an interview with France 24 from Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania where African politicians are attempting to draft a common position on the global economic downturn in anticipation of the G20 meeting next month, Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan describes the international community’s frustration at the ramifications of the current financial crisis on the developing world.
Kofi Annan on the need for an “African Green Revolution”
Uploaded by salzburgseminar on Jun 24, 2008
Kofi Annan gives an exclusive interview to Salzburg Global Seminar Senior Vice President, Edward Mortimer. Kofi Annan has called for a “uniquely African Green Revolution” founded on “bold pro-poor policies” to address the food crisis facing Africa and the world. In this interview Mr. Annan answers specific questions about the current crisis.
Kofi Annan Speaks at Rome Conference on MDGs…Check from 15:40
Uploaded by mcampaign on Jun 28, 2007
http://www.millenniumcampaign.org
Former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, speaks at the “Running out of Time” conference for local authorities in Rome, discussing the Millennium Development Goals.
Annan, Mkapa visit to support voter education
Updated Monday, December 03 2012 at 00:00 GMT+3
By Roselyne Obala
NAIROBI; KENYA: Former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan arrived in the country on Sunday to support electoral preparedness by encouraging nationwide voter registration and education.
Dr Annan together and former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa, both members of Eminent African personalities will also make a follow up on issues raised in their last visit. The two will be in the country for four days amidst heightened political activities.
However, Annan’s last visit in October sparked off an outcry from a section of leaders allied to presidential aspirants, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William whom he cautioned Kenyans against electing.
Annan’s message noted that electing people facing charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) would have implications on Kenya’s foreign relations.
Annan returns to Kenya just weeks after his last visit, when he failed to meet President Kibaki.
Annan’s statement did not seem to go down well with the leaders.
According to a Media statement, the two were expected to arrive yesterday and leave on Tuesday.
The objective of their visit is to follow up on issues raised during their October visit, particularly on voter education and registration.
The two are scheduled to meet with Government, independent and constitutional commissions and other stakeholder groups, including the business leaders, civil society, religious leaders, and the media.
Trouble simmering in Tana over ‘annexed land’
The village of Tarasaa in the Tana Delta, where a row is simmering over the allocation of tens of hectares to Canadian firm Bedford Biofuels. Photo/LABAN WALLOGA NATION MEDIA GROUP
By SARA-CHRISTINE GEMSON sgemson@ke.nationmedia.com and SARA MOJTEHEDZADEH smojtehedzadeh@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Monday, December 3 2012 at 02:00
In Summary
As the dust settles on one of the Tana Delta’s worst chapters, a new storm is gathering over what local residents call alienation of their resources.
A Canadian firm is particularly on the spot over a huge piece of land it says it is using as a nursery for a massive jatropha project, but the local leadership says those tens of hectares, and many more on the radar of the Canadians, had better be under their ploughs and hoes
The shifting scenery of the Tana Delta is the first hint of the region’s fragility: green plains punctuated with silvery cashew nut trees melt into areas where only the scrappiest of shrubs emerge from the arid ground.
This area was in the news recently for the wrong reasons after the Orma and the Pokomo reached for each other’s throats over land and other resources, but it is still attracting the attention of investors.
One of those investors is Bedford Biofuels, a Canadian firm which is quickly discovering that the challenges of investing in the volatile delta can be daunting.
The Canadian firm is seeking to produce biofuel by setting up a large-scale plantation of the jatropha plant in the region, explaining that the delta is an ideal place to demonstrate the viability of the plant for biofuel production.
However, it is struggling to overcome a series of roadblocks to its project, including local opposition, environmental concerns, government regulations, and regional instability.
“You wouldn’t believe what we’re up against. The challenges are next to impossible to overcome. It’s one thing after another,” Mr David McClure, CEO of Bedford Biofuels, explained in a phone interview from Canada.
When Bedford arrived in the region in 2008, it firmly believed that it could contribute to the economic development of the region and, in 2009, following public information campaigns and community meetings, signed 45-year leases with six group ranches for 120,000 hectares of land, with plans to plant jatropha on half of the leased property.
But progress has been slow: The biofuel company obtained a licence from the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) in 2010 which restricted it to an initial 10,000-hectare pilot project to evaluate the social and environmental impact of the plantation.
So far, Bedford Biofuels has planted just 19 hectares — a nursery of eight varieties of jatropha — to test which variety might be best suited to the region.
The initiative has also been hampered by regional instability, which came to a head in September when more than 100 people were killed in violent clashes between Pokomo farmers and Orma pastoralists in the delta.
Mr Joel Ruhu, Bedford’s vice-president for human resources, admits that the violence has been a major concern for the company.
“If there are conflicts in the area of operation, you can’t do anything. You literally can’t do anything. So instability causes a lot of delay in us moving forward with the project,” he told DN2 during an interview in Malindi recently.
And, while the clashes were not on land leased by Bedford Biofuels, activists are still worried that the project could upset the region’s delicate environmental and social balance
For centuries, Tana’s occupants have kept the place in harmony with nature.
“When waters ebb, farmers plant rice. The Pokomo have planted rice for centuries. During the floods, pastoralists drive out herds… that’s the traditional way of using the land, keeps the ecosystem functioning,” explains Ms Serah Munguti, communications and advocacy manager at Nature Kenya.
But environmentalists like Ms Munguti say the arrival of foreign companies like Bedford Biofuels, who come to the delta armed with ambitious plans for large-scale, intensive farming, might disrupt the system.
That, according to Ms Munguti, promises to heighten tribal tensions.
“The conflict comes because everybody wants the water. The Tana Delta as it is today is a recipe for disaster,” argues Munguti. “There is already conflict over limited resources. Then you look at all the projects that have been proposed and you can imagine what we are setting ourselves up for.”
Tana residents say Bedford’s presence has not yet been a catalyst for conflict — but its arrival has raised questions about land ownership for the first time between neighbours, fostering a sense of anxiety and insecurity.
Local farmer John Kazungu Katana, who settled in the area over 30 years ago, says leaders from the neighbouring Pokomo village have told him he may have to move off their land.
“They have been giving some stress on the land, that people must move, that they gave the land to other people, so they gave us a few challenges that made us worried,” he explains.
Others are concerned about the impact Bedford’s plantation might have on their livelihoods and surroundings.
“We don’t know the effects of the jatropha project, but we have heard that it makes the land become dry and ineffective for pastoralism,” worries Mr Shukri, a Wardei and local teacher. “It is going to even affect the wild animals that we have in that area, and those animals are very important.”
As for those who agreed to the project following Bedford’s public information meetings, the senior chief of Ngao location, Mr Abraham Masouse, believes the company took advantage of their desperation.
“They are just using our poverty for their own gain,” he says. “If someone is suffering, will they turn down your proposal to get them milk and honey? They will accept it, and that’s what they did.”
But Bedford Biofuels insists that it legitimately gained the approval of local communities by meeting with the boards of the ranches as well as local residents to explain the project.
Mr Ruhu believes that those who are concerned about being displaced are ill-informed; most of the land is uninhabited and only two ranches have squatters, he claims.
“We went through 18 months and didn’t displace one person. We’re the champion of the people… the last thing we want to do is displace people,” adds CEO McClure
The Nema licence also imposes strict guidelines on the project, including the creation of wildlife corridors through which the pastoralists will be allowed to travel with their herds.
But Mr Richard Ndegwa, a principal agricultural officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, is not surprised to hear that there is public opposition despite the need for development in the area.
“When you get land from a local authority, inhabitants ask why are we giving land to a foreign company and yet we have people in the same region who are considered to be landless. It is very, very sensitive. Even if the company and local authorities discuss with local people, if they aren’t in agreement, local investment by a foreign company may not come off,” explains Mr Ndegwa
Bedford also insists its activities will not jeopardise Tana’s sensitive eco-system or inflame competition over resources.
“The recent clashes were not because of limited resources — water and pasture. Everybody is talking about water and pasture. But that is not true. The clashes were politically instigated,” asserts Mr Ruhu.
But the assistant director of agriculture, Mr Clement Muyesu, says the company can be certain of the impact the project might have, given its size.
“Ten thousand hectares is a lot of area by any standards,” remarks Mr Muyesu. “It’s a massive area, especially for a new corporation. It will raise a lot of eyebrows. In terms of expectations, you cannot just say you are just trying with 10,000 hectares… it’s just too much.”
The local community has high expectations, as set by Bedford’s initial promises.
As well as paying rent to ranchers and creating over 3,000 jobs once the project is fully operational, the company also pledges to invest in local infrastructure.
“We have a budget of $3.6 million (about Sh3 billion) for every 10,000 hectares to cater for the needs that the people themselves will come up with, be it a school, a health centre, or water. The projects will be started when the project takes off,” claims Mr Ruhu.
But whether those promises will be realised depends on the success of the project, which is far from assured.
While Nema gave Bedford a licence to proceed, and says that it is “satisfied with the activities of Bedford” and does not have any concerns about its initiative, the Ministry of Energy claims that it has not approved such a large-scale jatropha project.
Ms Faith Odongo, head of the biofuels section at the ministry, says the few jatropha projects undertaken in Kenya have demonstrated that the plant “is not a good candidate for biofuel production in Kenya”.
As a result of a feasibility study by Africa Harvest commissioned by the Ministry of Energy, which found that it would take a company at least 15 years to break even with a jatropha biofuel project, Ms Odongo says the Ministry of Energy has not encouraged any large-scale investment in the sector.
“It does not make sense to recommend such an investment to anybody,” she says.
Others claim that the science behind jatropha’s success is shaky.
Bedford’s website praises the jatropha plant as “a robust and relatively drought-resistant, sustainable biofuel feedstock” whose cultivation “can help build economies of underdeveloped countries”.
The plant has also been hailed in some research as a miracle crop that can even survive on barren land.
But Ms Munguti is sceptical. “They said jatropha would grow in deserts, then they found it can’t. It needs more soil fertility and more water than maize,” she claims.
dn2@ke.nationmedia.com
Collins Areba•2 days ago
Jatropha is always a wrong crop, tana delta is a fertile, irrigable region suitable for growing food crops, they claim that jatropha can grow in arid and marginalized areas (yes it will grow but good luck flowering), If the government and bedford are indeed genuine about developing arid land kenya for biofuel production, let them try it in the northern frontiers…
Pitchaya’s History Blog
March 7, 2011
History IA Analysis: What were the causes for and effects of the failure of the Madagascar Plan?
The Madagascar Plan was a Nazi project involving the deportation of 4 million Jews to Madagascar. While it had been proposed in 1938 (Benz, 66), the planning did not start until shortly after the German defeat of France in June 1940. Madagascar had been owned by the French and as a result of the Battle of France, was to be ceded to German control (Benz, 69). In a speech in February by Alfred Rosenberg, chief ideologue of the Nazi Party, it was a means of “solving the Jewish question by establishing a Jewish reserve on Madagascar” (Benz, 67). The Madagascar Plan was never completed and the file on the project was closed in February 1942 (Benz, 72.)
The Battle of Britain was a direct cause for the failure of the plan. The defeat of France in mid-1940 left “Britain alone and apparently helpless” (Shirer, 758). The earlier German victories in Europe led the Nazis to believe that “the British would see reason and be forced to the peace table” (Tucker, 1132); that Hitler was beginning to “believe in his own myth” (Evans). On November 15 1939, (Tucker, 1132) Raeder told the Naval War Staff to study “the possibility of invading England, a possibility arising if certain conditions [were] fulfilled by the further course of the war” (Shirer, 758). Operation Sea Lion was a planned amphibious invasion of Britain, with which Hitler hoped to “secure space on ships […] for the purpose of solving the Jewish problem” (Benz, 72). After a successful invasion, Germany could then use Britain’s large navy in transporting the Jews to Madagascar. However, air superiority over Britain was a necessary condition for this invasion, and Germany’s defeat in The Battle of Britain resulted in the failure of Operation Sea Lion. The Nazis’ objective in the Battle of Britain’s was to “[drive] the British Air Force from the skies and [achieve] the one condition on which the launching of the invasion depended” (Shirer, 774). After several consecutive weeks of bombing London, German bombing squadrons were intercepted by the British Air Force on September 15, suffering insurmountable losses. The failure to gain air superiority meant that German military forces were unable to cross the English Channel and initiate Operation Sea Lion. Hitler now had no means of executing the Plan.
The Madagascar Plan had been formulated based upon Hitler’s “myth” (Evans) – his overconfidence about the outcomes of the war. It was only pursued “for some weeks in earnest” (Benz, 68), immediately after France’s defeat. As a result of the unsatisfactory outcome of the Battle of Britain, carrying out the Madagascar Plan was implausible. Operation Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely on the 27th of September, 1940. There is no archival evidence of alternative routes, sea lanes or other methods planned by the Germans of transporting Jews to Madagascar.
The Madagascar Plan was never believed to have been concrete and there is no archival evidence on whether the Germans would have executed it had Operation Sea Lion not failed. Hitler was constantly moving the Plan’s deadline – in 1940, he had Jews sent to camps in France, saying they would soon be deported to Madagascar. In mid-1941, he had pushed the execution of the Plan after “the completion of the Eastern Campaign”(Friedlander, 203), showing he was not serious about following through.
The failure of the Madagascar Plan was inconsequential. Benz separates the solutions to the Nazis’ “Jewish Question” into two parts. The initial solution was largely about emigration, whereas the final solution was extermination. While the Plan’s failure could be twisted to represent the failure of the initial solution, it was most likely propaganda, intended to mask the cruelty of Nazism and the campaign against the Jews. Furthermore, Benz also states that “The Madagascar plan was in no way a philanthropic project” (Benz, 67) – there had already been “fantasies of extermination “(Benz, 68) within the initial solutions of deportation. The Nazis believed that places like Madagascar, Guyana and Alaska were territories “of an insular nature” (Benz, 71), and would eventually “decimate” (Benz, 68) the Jewish numbers. Although there were two parts to the solution, both contained underlying motives of extermination. Therefore, the failure of the plan would have little or no effect on the mass extermination of the Jews after 1941.
The failure of the Madagascar Plan did not contribute to the final solution. There are quotations supporting the claim that the Nazis had not intended to execute the Plan regardless of the turnout of Operation Sea Lion. If they had not been serious in the beginning, its failure could not have contributed to the decision to carry out the killings. The Wannsee Conference was held in January 1942, to “co-ordinate the administrative details”(Evans) of setting up extermination camps around Europe. They had “the principle or even the sole purpose of killing Europe’s Jews” (Evans). Existing camps were equipped with “additional extermination facilities” (Tucker, 1678). However, plans of extermination had already been in place since 1939. Friedlander believes that Hitler was “using “Madagascar” as a standard of the end goal of his policy: The expulsion of the Jews from Europe” (Friedlander, 203). This is part of an ongoing debate between intentionalist and functionalist historians and forms part of the larger question: whether Hitler had planned the Holocaust or not. Intentionalist historians argue that Hitler already planned for mass extermination of the Jews, and that the Holocaust was not a consequence but an idea (Layton, 91). The failure of the plan did not contribute to the final solution. Rather than leading to the mass exterminations, it was a façade.
Section E – Conclusion
The failure of the Madagascar Plan was due to the failure of The Battle of Britain, which made the plan logistically unfeasible. Without a large navy at his disposal, Hitler could not carry it out. However, it was also speculative and even had Operation Sea Lion succeeded, there is no evidence stating the Plan would have been executed. Therefore, its failure was inconsequential and played no role in the Holocaust.