-
-
12:42
»
Kim Media
ATLANTA is proud to host H.E. Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, Vice President & Minister for Home Affairs on Sunday, May 20th 2012. Ambassdor Elkanah Odembo and the Embassy have once again requested the Kenya Diaspora Advisory Council of Georgia (KDAC-GA) to facilitate a Townhall meeting on Sunday, May 20th 2012 at 4.00 PM at the Double Tree Hotel in Marietta, GA. Address: 2055 South Place Park NW, Atlanta GA 30339Time: 4PM We are fast becoming a strong hub in the DIASPORA and this is certainly registering & resonating with the Embassy and the Kenyan Government back home. So, we ask YOU to come out in large numbers again and LET YOUR VOICES BE HEARD. Here's what we promise; To keep TIME & give YOU more time for Q & A.
Marketing & Communication TEAM770 256 2280 / 404 395 6906 JIVUNIE KUWA MKENYA
-
-
3:45
»
Kim Media
Dozens of Somali journalists met Thursday in somber silence to celebrate World Press Freedom Day, a meeting that came only hours after the killing of the fifth Somali journalist this year.
Two armed men shadowed Somali radio journalist Farhan Abdulle after he left his station late Wednesday, then shot him dead.
His death is the latest in a string of what appear to be targeted killings of reporters in Somalia, where journalists must watch their backs for attacks from militants and criminals and fight through judicial inaction and even outright hostility from the government.
The U.S. in a statement on Thursday said that too many deaths of journalists are going unpunished in Somalia, while media and rights groups condemned the Somali information minister for harassing reporters.
Journalist Abdullahi Ahmed recalled staring at his phone in fear recently when an unregistered number kept calling him. Many Somali journalists reported similar problems.
"They call you and threaten you," said Ahmed, a TV reporter. "You have to sometimes abandon answering unknown calls. A call you think is from an ordinary caller can turn out to be a threatening call. It's a stressful situation."
The day after Abdulle's killing in the northern town of Galkayo, dozens of worried journalists met in Mogadishu to commemorate World Press Freedom Day.
"We are meeting at a difficult time, and also few hours after the killing of one of our friends," said Abdirashid Abdulle Abikar, a leader of the journalists' union. "Our friends are leaving the country and many are still committed to continue their work despite the risks."
African Union troops have pushed al-Shabab militants out of the capital, which is now safer than in recent years. Despite the general safety, journalists have become a common target.
Journalist Muhyadin Hassan said he escaped an assassination attempt after gunmen opened fire on him, slightly wounding him. The attack led him to abandon his job and his family.
"You can't stay where those tried to kill you are still threatening you," said Hassan, who fled to neighboring Kenya. "It's not a good idea, nor a logical decision, just to wait to lose your life."
Amnesty International noted that Abdulle is the second journalist killed in Galkayo in the last six months. The group said that Abdulle's death is a "shocking reminder of the price that Somali journalists continue to pay for working in such a dangerous environment, and of the impunity that those responsible for killing journalists continue to enjoy in Somalia."
Amnesty said the Somali government has failed to bring anyone to justice for the killings of at least 28 journalists since 2007.
The U.S. special representative to Somalia, James Swan, noted that journalists in Somalia in particular must work while battling government efforts to censor information and while knowing that militants or other criminals may target them for what they report.
Swan said credible accusations are frequently levied against Somalia's central government and authorities in the northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland.
"When governments use fear to suppress criticism they weaken their standing with their own constitutions and the international community," Swan wrote.
In Somalia, terrorists and criminals also target members of the media, he said. Swan said too many attacks on and killings of journalists go unpunished and said the U.S. is committed to working with "responsible" Somali authorities to bring an end to the culture of impunity.
"When journalists are threatened, attacked, jailed, or disappeared, other journalists self-censor," Swam wrote. "They stop reporting stories. They tone down stories. They omit details. Sources stop helping them. Their editors hesitate to print stories. Fear replaces truth. All of our societies suffer."
Reporters Without Borders on Thursday condemned "the furious pace" of physical attacks on news providers. The group said 21 journalists and six Internet or citizen journalists have been killed globally in 2012, "many of them in war zones such as Somalia and Syria."
The killings work out to one death of a news provider every five days, it said. Only Syria topped Somalia, with six killings so far this year.
"The first quarter of 2012 has clearly shown that the world's predators of the freedom to inform, led by Syria's Bashar Al-Assad and Somalia's Islamist militias, are capable of behaving like outright butchers," the group said.
The group named six new opponents of freedom of information: Boko Haram, an Islamist group in Nigeria; Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces; the information minister in Somalia's transitional federal government, for harassing and intimidating journalists; Vasif Talibov of Azerbaijan's region of Nakhchivan; Pakistan's intelligence agencies; and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un.
Also Thursday, Zimbabwe's prime minister called World Press Freedom Day a "hollow day" in the southern African nation because of continued media repression by the president's party.
Morgan Tsvangirai said press freedom in the nation remains curbed by President Robert Mugabe and loyalists in charge of the dominant state media and information ministry. Independent media groups have reported a rise in intimidation of independent journalists ahead of elections. Tsvangirai said officials holding back media reforms were working at the behest of Mugabe.
The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day in 1993.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement Thursday that recent political change in the Arab world has shown that new and old media platforms and can help transform societies through greater transparency and accountability. The two called freedom of expression one of the world's "most precious rights."
"It underpins every other freedom and provides a foundation for human dignity," the two said.
___
Straziuso contributed from Nairobi, Kenya.
-
-
11:55
»
Kim Media
I recently had the privilege to participate in a meeting organized by members of the Kenyan Diaspora to discuss ways in which they can participate effectively in Kenya’s political and economic agenda. The meeting held at Boston University reminded me once more of this very important asset that we have but to which we mostly pay lip service.
This meeting that brought together Kenyans living in the entire North American region was candid, intellectual and very educative. How I wished that many of my colleagues in parliament and government could have been in attendance. There was a lot to learn. The issues raised in these meetings have been elusive to us for many years. The message given this time around is that the government needs to listen and listen carefully.
I know that the most touted reason for paying attention to the Diaspora is the economic one. The Central Bank has for instance documented that remittance from North America increased by 18.2 percent from US$ 44.02 million in January 2012 to US$ 52.02 million in February 2012 and that over the same period, remittance inflows from Europe increased by 20 percent from US$ 24.39 million to US$ 29.27 million.
I have heard many anecdotes of misuse of the hard-earned money that the Diaspora sends to relatives for investment projects. Research shows that the benefits of remittances to economic development would be limited without deliberate policy measures that channel them to development priorities. I am pleased that the Central Bank of Kenya has set up the infrastructure bond to tap into savings from the Diaspora. It is the first time that we have developed a formal tool to attract Diaspora investment that would obviously boost our currency reserves and address the State budget deficit. I challenge the various investment companies to offer financial packages and information to the Diaspora so that the remittances are put to good use.
But there are many more reasons beyond the remittance that I believe we need to do more to court the Kenyan Diaspora.
At the Boston meeting, like many other Diaspora events that I have attended in the last four years, I interacted with highly intellectual and successful Kenyans who love their country passionately. The skills they have horned in their adopted homelands are vital for any country’s economy. I was reminded of India and how its citizens dominating Silicon Valley have invigorated technological advancements in their motherland. Studies by the Asian Development Bank show that Indians living abroad started 19 of 20 software companies set up in India. Technology transfer is absolutely important for economic development.
There is merit in also considering the positive contribution of the Diaspora to Tourism and Trade. Kenyans living abroad are our best Ambassadors. They can encourage friends, co-workers and families to visit the country. The global networks they have can be beneficial to our trade and tourism.
We also cannot under-estimate the role of the Diaspora in political change. We remember the contribution of the various Diaspora organizations in the 1990s in pushing for political reform and multi-party politics. Leaders who had escaped the repressive single party system in Kenya nurtured some of our prominent civil society organizations.
It is therefore imperative that as we prepare for elections, we do more to ensure that this important segment of our society has a voice in defining our political destiny. Kenyans abroad have over the years fought hard for dual citizenship and the right to have Overseas Voting enshrined in the Constitution. The decision to have the Diaspora participate in the Presidential vote is a first step in the right direction. But more needs to be done to ensure that they are not disenfranchised. The IEBC must listen to the concerns of the Kenyans abroad in designating polling centers in all regions with critical numbers of Kenyans. Limiting polling to only Embassies and High Commissions especially in vast regions such as North America and Europe is unreasonable. The Commission must also ensure that the process is free and fair by appointing independent persons to oversee the process as well as allow independent observers through out the polling and tallying process.
While we relish the almost billion-dollar contribution to the GDP, it is equally crucial that we take measures to address the welfare of Kenyans living abroad. The Kenyans abroad have already established several associations to address their welfare needs. For instance, during my stay in Boston, I attended the launch of the Kenya Worcester welfare Association. This association is a forum where Kenyans living around the Boston and the New England area can come together to look for means of tackling the challenges facing the Kenyan community in this area. I also had a chance to attend a church service conducted by a Kenyan preacher. I was surprised by how much influence the Kenyan church wields in the diaspora. The church has become the anchor for stability in this far land where many Kenyans now reside.
It is time to consider a dedicated institution that deals with Diaspora Affairs and link up with these several Diaspora organizations. One may argue that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its diplomatic missions are already doing this. It is a fair argument, especially as we continue to practice economic diplomacy. However, the Diaspora’s contribution is multifaceted and we are not doing enough. It spans sectors such as technology, finance, culture, tourism, education, health etc. Many governments with a large Diaspora have dedicated ministries dealing with its citizens. This will not only ensure that Diaspora views are incorporated in policy making but also ensure representation in all the key sectors.
Hon. Richard Momoima Onyonka is the Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and MP for Kitutu Chache. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the Government of Kenya.
-
2:52
»
Kim Media
There is a storm blowing in theIndian Ocean. It is nearing theKenyanCoast. The feeling is that it will be a massive storm ... political storm that is. The predictors of doom have already begun to speak. The naysayers are also in the pulpit. And the common man is bracing for the worst, though keeping a straight and courageous face.
It started with the firing of Najiv Balala, the dominant force who helped Raila Odinga sweep Coast Provincevotes in the last election. This new coastal storm began to show its angry front when the President announced the names of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the Attorney General (AG), and the Director of Public Finance. During the storm when the Prime Minister (PM) refused to accept the names, claiming that his office was not consulted, Balala was seen with all the President’s men in front of the KICC, while the PM was holding a press conference in his office. Of course one can go even further and say that the storm began earlier when Ruto was sacked. Or even when the list of the Ocampo Six was originally announced. But though during that time there were showers, the real rain started coming down in the Coast.
This is the story. Whether we believe it or not, Raila Odinga cannot win the presidency without the Coast, the Rift Valley, and the Eastern block. In fact the Kisii led by Samuel Ongeri do not stand with him, and now the Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi is climbing the fence on the way out of ODM. If he does that, and Wamalua has already been rewarded by PNU and given the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs, Raila Odinga will be left with Nyanza and the Luo community only. Since ourIndependence, the underlying crisis in the Republic has been a war between The Odinga Family and The Jomo Kenyatta Family with the other tribal families joining the victor. There are those who will scream that I am a tribal propagator, but they are those who live in denial that the Kenyan political landscape has always been tribal.
That storm is not even as great as the hurricane that politicians, especially Raila Odinga, is fearing. When the term of this 10th Parliament is over in January, Odinga will no longer be an officer of the state. No security, no privilege! Yet Mwai Kibaki will still be the President until the next President is sworn in. This is the hurricane behind the new Indian Ocean storm! Therefore, now the ODM is looking for a way to make sure their man has state security. “Make a claim that some people are threatening to assassinate him.” What timing! The sad thing is that Sam Ongeri is claimed to be involved. Ha! How convenient. You see Ongeri is the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Destroy his Visa and the outside money is cut as the US Embassy and its cousins bar him from traveling?
What is the future; what should we expect? Well I wait for Mudavadi to make his stand away from ODM, then we will know. He will be backed by all! You see Luhyas are very nice, peaceful people who are friends of the Kikuyus and have no historical war with the Kisii. And of course Balala is the friend of Mudavadi.
-
-
3:31
»
Kim Media
Prime Minister of Kenya Hon. Raila Odinga will be in Atlanta on April 26th, 2012.All are invited to attend.
Where: Double Tree Hotel on Windy Hill
Address: 2055 South Place Park NW, Atlanta GA 30339
Time: 6:30PM
Volunteers arrive at 5:30PM.Hosted by Kenya Diaspora Advisory Council of GA Learn more at www.kdacga.org
-
-
6:54
»
Kim Media
NAIROBI: A row between Kenya and Somalia over their maritime border may deter multinational oil companies from exploring for oil and gas offshore east Africa, and a Somali official warned that the argument could escalate.
The two coastal nations disagree over the location of their boundary line in the Indian Ocean. At stake are their legal claims to sell rights for exploration and collect revenue from any discovery.
Kenya recently identified eight new offshore exploration blocks available for licensing, and all but one of them are located in the contested area.
“The issue between Somalia and Kenya is not a dispute; it is a territorial argument that came after oil and gas companies became interested in the region,” Abdullahi Haji, Somalia’s minister of foreign affairs, told Reuters in Mogadishu.
“If the argument continues unsolved, it will change into a dispute that may result at least in souring the deep relation between our two countries and (cause a) war at last,” he said.
East Africa has become a hot spot for oil and gas exploration, spurred by new finds in waters off countries including Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. In the Horn of Africa, Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland and Somaliland regions have also licensed exploration blocks.
Kenya announced its first oil discovery in March by British oil firm Tullow Plc, which was on land.
The row between Kenya and Somalia threatens to upend some exploration rights that Kenya has granted to oil and gas companies, which have already started exploring in the area.
French firm Total and Texas-based Anadarko and the only two companies so far holding licenses from Kenya to blocks in the disputed area. They have no immediate plans to drill there. Both companies declined to comment on the border issue.
UN INTERVENTION?
Martin Heya, Kenya’s petroleum commissioner, said he was confident the United Nations, which could be requested to help delineate the border, would agree with his country’s view, and he expected companies to continue their exploration activities.
“Do you stop working just because the boundaries have not been determined? No,” he told Reuters.
Consultants involved in border demarcation said the two countries won’t have a legitimate boundary until they sign a treaty that delimits the border, but that is unlikely to happen until Somalia has a stable government.
Heya says the maritime border between the two countries should run horizontally east from the point at which the two countries touch on land. The practice in east Africa has been for boundaries to run along the line of latitude, Heya said.
“For the time being, this is where we believe the border should be,” he said, referring to the horizontal east-west maritime border.
Somali officials say the onshore border continues into the ocean diagonally southeast and that a horizontal border would be unfair.
If the Somalia-Kenya border was continuous from land into the ocean, making it lie diagonally from the northwest to the southeast, Kenya would be left with a small triangle in the Indian Ocean over which it could claim mineral rights.
Kenya has had stable diplomatic relations with its war-torn neighbor, but the east African economic powerhouse sent troops into Somalia last October in pursuit of Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab rebels, accusing the militants of cross-border attacks on its territory.
UNSTABLE SOMALIA
Joshua Brien, a legal adviser with the Commonwealth Secretariat, who has consulted with Kenya on maritime border matters, said the two countries won’t have a legitimate boundary until they write and sign a treaty.
The absence of a stable government in Somalia could hinder this process, he said.
Somalia’s government has been battling an insurgency by Al-Qaeda-linked rebels for years and barely controls the capital, even with the help of an African peace-keeping force executing a UN mandate to prop up its Western-backed government. It is unlikely it would have the ability to wage a war on Kenya.
Brien also said the two countries’ border disagreement is not unique. Throughout the world there are unresolved maritime boundaries.
“It is not uncommon for maritime boundary issues to become heated, especially where petroleum exploration and development is concerned,” he said.
“In the case of Somalia, the matter is exacerbated by the governance and offshore security situation in that country, both of which are well known.”
Kenya is pushing on with oil and gas exploration, but petroleum commissioner Heya acknowledged the border dispute could cause problems in the future.
Heya said companies will be unable to drill in their respective blocks until the boundary is settled, because it will be unclear where to direct revenue from a resource discovery.
“Where the revenue goes is not apparent,” Heya said.
-
6:51
»
Kim Media
Armed men pulled two passengers off a bus on the Kenyan coast earlier this month. The body of one man was found two days later with his eyes gorged out, nose chopped off and genitals missing, and a human rights group says Kenyan police executed the man - a terror suspect.
Al-Amin Kimathi of the Muslim Human Rights Forum says the killing of Samir Hashim Khan and the disappearance of Mohammed Kassim-Bekhit, who is blind, is a common strategy employed by Kenyan police when they cannot build a case against suspects.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe dismissed the allegation that police killed Khan as "nonsense." He said police are investigating and those behind the killing will face justice, even if they are found to be police officers.
"Whoever has information should give it ... but not sit there and point fingers making outrageous allegations," Kiraithe said Friday.
Kimathi pointed to the 2007 killings and forced disappearances of at least 500 youth associated with a gang called the Mungiki. The gang, which ran extortion rackets out of Nairobi slums, was known for beheading its victims. Several local and international human rights groups including a government-funded human rights group blamed the killings and abductions on the police.
The police denied responsibility and claimed a leadership struggle in the Mungiki gang led to the deaths. None of those murders has ever been solved.
Kimathi said the bus Khan and Kassim-Bekhit were traveling in was boxed in by cars near a supermarket chain in the coastal town of Mombasa on March 10. Heavily armed men exited the cars and dragged the two men from the bus, according to Kimathi.
Kimathi said police denied holding the two when relatives and friends inquired if they had arrested them. Truck drivers later found Khan's mutilated body dumped in a national park near a highway.
The Kenya-based Muslim Youth Center - which has pledged allegiance to the powerful al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab - said in an Internet posting on Thursday that Kenyan Muslims should rise up in response to the death. It said the death signaled that Kenya has embraced counter-terrorism techniques that would "take its terror war to the doorstep of every Muslim" in Kenya, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
Al-Shabab militants have vowed to carry out a large scale attack in Nairobi in retaliation for Kenya sending troops into Somalia. The Kenyan government blames al-Shabab militants for several kidnappings on Kenyan soil, including those of four Europeans. The attacks greatly harmed the coastal tourism industry.
Al-Shabab militants bombed crowds watching the World Cup final in Uganda in 2010, killing 76 people.
Kenya police are under pressure to prevent an al-Shabab attack. Already several grenade attacks that police blamed on al-Shabab have been carried out inside Kenya.
Kenya's police force, however, is constrained from carrying out its work because of poor pay, which has led to corruption, and because of a lack of facilities. Few police here have cars, for instance, and those who do are given little fuel.
Britain earlier this month donated six cars to the anti-terror police unit. The German government donated nearly a dozen vehicles to the unit last month.
Khan and Kassim-Bekhit had been earlier arrested by police, said Kimathi.
Khan was arrested and charged in a Mombasa court in May 2010 for possession of a firearm without a license. Last year he was charged with being a member of al-Shabab, Kimathi says.
Kassim-Bekhit was arrested earlier this month as he left the main mosque in the city by people suspected to be police who told him to stop his advocacy initiatives, according to Kimathi.
"His abductors said they were members of the Mungiki gang but from the way they were talking he could tell that they were police officers. The problem is that he cannot identify them, where he was taken, or the car he was being driven in," Kimathi said.
Kimathi said the government's counterterrorism campaign was failing because of human rights abuses and the profiling of Muslim youth. He said incidents like Khan's murder will likely remain unresolved and will stir up negative feelings among the Muslim community and draw moderate youth to extremism.
Kimathi, who was detained in Uganda for one year for alleged involvement in the 2010 Kampala bombings, said he believes Kassim-Bekhit could be alive.
Kimathi was arrested in Uganda where he had gone to attend the case of seven Kenyans who had been illegally deported to Uganda to face terrorism charges for the bombing. Ugandan authorities jailed Kimathi and charged him with terrorism, murder and attempted murder. A Ugandan judge later dropped charges.
International rights groups said Kimathi, who had in 2007 exposed the extraordinary rendition of terror suspects to secret jails in Ethiopia where they were being interrogated by Western security agents including the CIA, was detained because he was exposing human rights abuses by the Kenyan and Ugandan governments.
-
-
11:23
»
Kim Media
New York, April 13, 2012--Kenyan authorities must investigate threats made against two journalists who covered a police raid on a supermarket, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. One of the journalists was also threatened in relation to another story he published.
On April 5, Osinde Obare, a reporter for the private daily The Standard, and David Musindi, a journalist for Radio Citizen, ran stories on a police raid on a market in the western Kenyan town of Kitale, the journalists told CPJ. The market had allegedly been selling fake maize seeds, according to news reports.
Obare's article cited members of the public saying that the market owner, Mahindra Khetia, was protected by the police and therefore avoided arrest, local journalists told CPJ. The day the stories ran, Luca Ogara, the police chief in Kitale, called Obare, asking him why he wrote a negative story on the supermarket and the police, Obare told CPJ. The official also told Obare there would be repercussions, the journalist said. Ogara told CPJ that he did not threaten Obare, but said that he had asked him for his sources.
On April 8, Obare received an anonymous call warning him to "never set foot in Kitale," he told CPJ. He had temporarily left the town to attend a workshop in Nairobi, but had returned to Kitale this week, he said.
Musindi told CPJ he had been threatened by Khetia while covering the raid on April 4. When Musindi attempted to interview Khetia, the supermarket owner "snubbed him and threatened to ensure the journalist was removed from Kitale" if he aired the story, a report released today by The Standard said. Musindi was able to record the threat, which he gave to The Standard, the journalist told CPJ. The story was broadcast on Radio Citizen on April 5, Musindi said.
Messages left at the supermarket for Khetia were not returned.
Both journalists told CPJ that unidentified men had been following them since they covered the story, which had forced them to hide in an undisclosed location. They said they had filed complaints with the police.
Obare told CPJ he had also been threatened in relation to another story he had published. The journalist ran a story in The Standard last month alleging that District Commissioner Nyamongo Nyabero had stolen relief food meant for hunger victims in Pokot South District in western Kenya, and had resold it in a market. On April 5, Nyabero allegedly threatened Obare over the phone, saying he would "make sure you die while seated," the journalist said. Obare reported the threat to Kitale police station, he said. Nyabero was arraigned in court on Tuesday and charged with theft, news reports said. Repeated calls by CPJ to Nyabero were not returned.
"Journalists in western Kenya are repeatedly targeted by local officials for their corruption coverage," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Kenyan authorities must end this practice, and they should start by immediately investigating these threats against Osinde Obare and David Musindi."
In January 2009, assailants brutally murdered Weekly Citizen journalist Francis Nyaruri shortly after his coverage of a police housing scandal in western Kenya.CPJ
-
9:51
»
Kim Media
Kenya’s prime minister and the leading candidate in a hotly contested presidential race, Raila Odinga, is to speak at a luncheon of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta on Thursday, April 26.
Mr. Odinga assumed his position as prime minister in 2008 following the presidential election of 2007 in a national unity coalition government. The 2007 election erupted in violence resulting in more than 2,000 deaths and many displaced people.
The presidential election, which already has drawn a dozen candidates, is scheduled for March 2013 and is to mark the first simultaneous presidential and parliamentary election under the new constitution. Uhuru Kenyatta, founding President Jomo Kenyatta's son, also is a candidate.
Kenya’s ambassador to the U.S., Elkanah Odembo, told GlobalAtlanta in a telephone interview from Boston that Mr. Odinga has scheduled a short visit to the U.S. primarily to give a commencement address atFlorida A&M University in Tallahasee, Fla.
Mr. Odinga has visited Florida A&M in recent years and signed a cooperation agreement to develop joint training and research projects in engineering and the health sciences.
Mr. Odembo is to accompany Mr. Odinga on his visit and in addition to the luncheon speech he anticipates that a town hall meeting is to be held with the local Kenyan community.
He said that Mr. Odinga’s visit is taking place during “a special time” in Kenya. The election will mark a “new order” in his country, he added, because of the election to an upper house based on newly drawn counties and new chapters in the constitution, including those on integrity and leadership.
Besides the extensive political activity going on there, Kenya has been in the headlines because of the recent discovery of oil in its remote and isolated Turkana region in the northwest.
The Turkana region has experienced severe drought and the local tribes have suffered acutely even though they are used to the parched conditions.
The development of oil fields in the area would have a profound effect economically with the result of being either a curse by encouraging corruption and profiteering or a blessing by stimulating the region’s economy.
Mr. Odembo called the discovery in March by the British firm Tullow Oil Plc a “positive” that fits into a larger development project connecting the Kenya coast with Juba, the capital of South Sudan, andAddis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.
He added that the prime minister “knows the dangers when the opportunities are not well applied.”
Kenya and its neighbors have become hot spots for oil and gas exploration spurred on by new finds. South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, is an oil producer, while commercial oil deposits also have been found in Uganda, and natural gas deposits in Tanzania andMozambique.
According to Mr. Odembo, the pipeline project is the largest infrastructure project currently taking place in sub-Saharan Africa. He estimates that it will take 15 years to complete and cost some $20 billion.
The project involves highways, railways, pipelines and the creation of a port on the island of Lamu off Kenya’s coast in the Indian Ocean, which in turn is prompting the development on the island of an airport and a refinery.
Meanwhile, Kenya is actively planning to develop wind farms in Turkana as well as on the coast.General Electric Co. has announced that it is expanding the responsibilities of its Nairobi office in Kenya’s capital from East Africa to West, Central and parts of southern Africa as the region’s need for power generation expands.
GE CEO and president, Jeffrey Immelt, visited Kenya in January to announce the development of a 150-megawatt wind farm in Ngong, 12 miles to the southeast of Nairobi.
Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd. is to start building a 300-megawatt wind farm in the Turkana region, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.
To register for the luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead hotel, go here. To learn more about the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, go here.
-
-
6:52
»
Kim Media
analysis
'If someone goes round saying they hate you, do you invite that person to be best man or best maid at your wedding and expect them to bless and support you as you set out on your journey into the future?'
The removal of Mvita MP Najib Balala from a position where he was representing a party he didn't believe in was hardly surprising, was it?
Why would a party leader who has spent decades fighting for multi-party democracy suddenly change his spots to support someone who very clearly has neither concept of the party as the matrix of our political establishment, nor belief in the particular political party to which he belongs?
If parties are to have any meaning - and let us pray that the lives and efforts of all those who have lived and suffered and died for multi-partyism were not in vain - then that meaning lies in parties' ideologies and policies and manifestos, and in their members' loyalty to those ideals and to a common strategy for achieving them. Where else in the world would you be able to go round maligning and denouncing the party you belong to, and its leader, and then expect still to be part of it - and not only part of it but representing it in the Cabinet? How do you represent what you don't agree with?
If someone goes round saying they hate you, do you invite that person to be best man or best maid at your wedding and expect them to bless and support you as you set out on your journey into the future?
Balala in response to his sacking was like a broken record. He had nothing new to say, merely parroting hackneyed, non-specific, improbable, propagandist drivel against Raila Odinga. Contrary to his claims, Balala's sacking had nothing to do with internal dissent. The clue here is in the word 'internal'. Let Balala tell us which internal discussions he had with the ODM party leader and on which points of principle. Let him tell us the arguments put forward by each side and the areas where they disagreed.
It's all humbug. Balala has never had such a discussion in his life. His dissent has not been internal but very much external, and very calculatedly so. He has associated with the enemies of his party, denounced the party leader on non-existent grounds, incited other party members to leave ODM, even offered to fix them up with some alternative shenzi briefcase arrangement, and finally announced that he would be forming another party to take him to the presidency. (And that's democracy for you. At least, it's democracy as far as Balala and most other political leaders seem to understand it. You declare yourself 'nominated' without the benefit of any constitutional nomination exercise and then muster your supporters to intimidate the unconverted. That's progress. Oh. No. Wait a minute. It's not progress. It's exactly what Kanu did from the 1960s to the 1990s.)
Let's get real here. These shenanigans have been allowed to go on for too long. It is long overdue that people like Balala - people with nothing but contempt for political reform and political responsibility and progress - are being called to account. Regrettably, we still lack credible national gatekeepers who are themselves committed to political accountability - because so far, we appear to have no rules that govern behaviour among political party members.
And most of the so-called younger generation of leaders don't understand party affiliation. What a disappointment they have proved, when older leaders, and even leaders of the past, are and were more enlightened. We see it most clearly with Uhuru Kenyatta, who last week responded enthusiastically to calls from his supporters that he just name his party, and they would support him, wherever and whatever. Such parties are not worthy of the name. They are merely conveniences. There is no question of commitment to a party philosophy - "Just give us a name so we use it to get to a position of power!"
Perhaps it is because this younger crop has never fought for anything in their lives - merely being in the right place at the right time to achieve elevation through clinging to someone else's coattails. This is certainly true of Balala, who has never struggled at the grassroots.
He became mayor of Mombasa in 1997 after being nominated a councillor, he clung to the Narc wave to get elected to parliament in 2002, and ditto to the ODM wave in 2007. It's called opportunism. Balala has never really fought for anything. Well, he's certainly going to get the opportunity during the coming elections.
It is equally true of Kenyatta, who couldn't make it to parliament in 1997 even in his father's old constituency, then got nominated to parliament by President Daniel arap Moi in 2001, then became Moi's project (and failed in his presidential bid) in 2002, finally got himself elected to parliament that year and has since evolved as the project of President Mwai Kibaki and others of his tribesmen.
William Ruto is no different. Ruto also has the outstanding distinction of never having seen a payslip in his entire life until he got to parliament. He made millions through YK92, spent the next five years doing land deals, won the Eldoret North seat under Moi's patronage in 1997, threw in his lot with losing presidential candidate Kenyatta in 2002, then hitched his wagon to Raila Odinga's star in 2007 when he saw that Odinga was unstoppable in Rift Valley Province, as elsewhere.
Ruto has spread the myth that he brought Rift Valley to Raila Odinga in 2007. In the ODM 2007 presidential nomination results, Ruto not only came third behind Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi, but he also got fewer votes from Rift Valley delegates than either of them. So much for that myth. It is nothing short of nonsense. Odinga got 2,656 votes. Mudavadi got 391. Ruto got a miserable 368, more than seven times fewer than Odinga.
Neither Mudavadi nor Ruto complained that it was a fix - because they knew darn well it wasn't. In the previous general election, 2002, Mudavadi had not even managed to keep his parliamentary seat. Both he and Ruto knew that, this time, they had got to where they were because of the name 'Raila Odinga'.
Rift Valley voters fall into many ethnic blocs, some of them loosely lumped together as 'Kalenjin' (a word and concept that did not exist until the 1950s). And the 'Kalenjin' are by no means a homogeneous body of people. They comprise the Elgeyo, the Endorois, Kipsigis, Marakwet, Nandi, Pokot, Sabaot, Terik, Tugen, Sengwer and Sebei. These communities do not speak with one voice. In fact, some hardly speak to each other. Some actively dislike one another and have frequently engaged in warfare.
Then there are the other substantial, non-'Kalenjin', communities represented in Rift Valley - Turkana, Samburu, Somali, Kisii, Luhya, Luo, Maasai, Kikuyu.
Many among these who voted for Odinga in 2007 certainly did not do so because of Ruto. On the contrary, they voted in large numbers for Odinga at the 2007 ODM presidential nomination as a deliberate choice against Ruto as a leader.
But to ensure that everyone felt comfortable after the exercise, and no one was left feeling marginalised, Odinga gathered all who had stood for presidential nomination - Mudavadi, Ruto, Balala, Joseph Nyagah and himself, five people - and called them the 'Pentagon'. He announced this in his victory speech.
None of the other four had much popular support but Odinga's approach has always been grounded in being inclusive and encouraging to his colleagues - and that meant also accommodating Kitui Central MP Charity Ngilu when she wanted to join in, making a Pentagon of six.
Ruto was no supporter of Odinga even then, but he knew he had no option - and it was the Rift Valley community that left him with no option. They had made it clear that Odinga was their candidate - just as, when the election came, the voters in a total of six of Kenya's eight provinces made clear that Odinga was their candidate. This was certainly not because they wanted William Ruto.
Indeed, Ruto has never been able to influence voters. He failed to influence them to vote for Kenyatta in 2002, and he failed again in the 'No' constitutional referendum campaign of 2010. His standing among voters in current opinion polls confirms this, hovering around a dismal eight per cent. In fact, apart from his time in YK92, when he had money to buy anyone, Ruto has never done well - except when he has been on the same side as Raila Odinga. Without Odinga, Ruto has always been a loser.
Many of those who didn't vote for Ruto on past occasions would never vote for him in future, either. His claim to be the undisputed Rift Valley leader is merely that - a claim. Because Ruto is loud, he is heard. His influence might extend to part of the North Rift but not much further. And repeating a lie does not, contrary to what Ruto would like to believe, make it true. If it were true, busloads of people would not have had to be ferried into Rift Valley towns for recent 'prayer' meetings. There is no way that his G7 partners are unaware of this fact.
People like Ruto will always be surrounded by a certain caucus, particularly a caucus of other self-interested leaders - but voters are another matter altogether. Ruto talks big but he can't deliver. His forte lies in untruths, snide remarks and propaganda. But depend on him for voters at your peril.
Ruto already has a major problem with the Kipsigis, who comprise about half the 'Kalenjin' bloc. People of the South Rift justifiably feel Ruto is contemptuous of them and that he is more than ready to try to interfere, in his usual dictatorial manner, with their democratic choices. Recently, Kipsigis emissaries sent out feelers indicating their support for ODM. And that will not be the end of such reactions within the often fractious 'Kalenjin' brotherhood.
Many other Rift Valley people have already protested that Ruto is wrongly claiming their support for his dictatorial leadership. And if they won't even vote for Ruto himself, why would they instead vote for anyone else Ruto told them to support? This should be a sobering thought for anyone imagining Ruto can ever be a kingmaker. He never has been. Far from his making Raila Odinga in 2007, Raila Odinga, on the contrary, made him. And that fact eats away at William Ruto - to the extent that he has had to manufacture dissent with Odinga, whom he then accuses of forcing him out. It is all too pathetically transparent.
Ruto's whining began when Odinga shortlisted - to represent ODM in the 2008 negotiations with PNU under former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's chairmanship - Sally Kosgei (who knew and had good rapport with Annan), Henry Kosgey (ODM's chairman) and Kipkalya Kones (pillar of the ODM 2007 campaign among the Kipsigis, which, as noted, is by far the most populous of the 'Kalenjin' communities).
Ruto stamped his foot and made a big fuss, saying HE should be the one. When he didn't get his way, he began to shout that the 'Kalenjins' had always been short-changed. (I don't know quite what he thinks happened for 24 years under Moi.) To quieten him down (like giving the naughty boy in class a job) Odinga decided to include him. The team that was finally named, initially supposed to be three people, was Kosgei, Mudavadi, James Orengo and ..... Ruto. That kept him busy for a while.
The next grouse came when Odinga distributed the 20 ministerial portfolios he was allowed under the National Accord, and Ruto petulantly complained that Rift Valley didn't get enough. Nairobi, Eastern Province, and North-Eastern Province each got one portfolio (regional development, co-operatives and arid lands respectively), while Coast Province got two (tourism and East African Community). Western Province got three (local government, planning and fisheries) and Nyanza got five (lands, medical services, public service, immigration and public works).
And which province got the lion's share? Yep, you've guessed it. Rift Valley, with seven portfolios (heritage, agriculture, roads, industrialisation, higher education, youth and sports). Ruto barely drew breath before going on to cause a lot of tension in ODM that eventually resulted in the party being forced to create two deputy leader posts to accommodate him. He got his way once again. But his moaning and complaining that Odinga short-changed Rift Valley has never ceased. Is it justified? I leave you with the facts and figures and you can decide for yourself.
Ruto's next bellyache in 2008 concerned Rift Valley youths who had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in post-election violence. He said that Odinga was now contentedly sitting in government and didn't care about those youths. Actually, youths had also been arrested in Nyanza, Western, Coast and Nairobi. But Ruto had no interest in them. Indeed, Ruto was not interested in the release of any youth anywhere. He was only interested in using the issue as a weapon against Odinga.
It was Odinga who raised the matter in the Cabinet. He said he was alarmed that many youths had been unduly held. The Cabinet directed the attorney-general to bring a list of those charged and those on remand, then directed that youths held without charge be released immediately. Far from Odinga being the cause of the youths' problems, it was his intervention that saved them. But don't expect that fact to prevent Ruto distorting it to suit his purpose.
The next issue Ruto decided to exploit was the evacuation and reforestation of the Mau Forest, which is nationally important as Kenya's main water tower. By 2009, when the Mau's deforestation had reached alarming proportions, the problem was already well known. The Ndung'u Commission report of June 2004 had detailed a mind-boggling litany of illegal allocations of land under the Moi and Jomo Kenyatta governments - all done through political patronage for personal gain.
The Ndung'u report said that all allocations of forest land that had been made contrary to the provisions of the Forests Act and the Government Lands Act should be cancelled. It said all the titles thus acquired should be revoked. It said the forests should be repossessed and restored to their original purpose.
And 2009 was not the first time there had been attempts to remove people from the Mau Forest. Moi had tried to remove them in 1997, using administration police. In 2005, Kibaki and the then internal security minister, John Michuki, sent in more administration police, together with GSU personnel. They burnt homes and beat people up mercilessly while forcefully evicting them.
But 2007 was an election year and the people were told they could return. Once again, it was political patronage for personal gain - and no one gave a damn about the devastating effect this might have on the country as a whole. Come 2009, and Odinga, acting on a unanimous (including Ruto) Cabinet decision, convened a conference to which all Mau Forest stakeholders were invited, including all the Mau area MPs and the ministers for land, environment, forestry, regional development, agriculture and water, along with civil society representatives and the media. The participants sat in the KICC amphitheatre and spent a day discussing how to rescue the Mau Forest.
Everyone had a chance to speak their mind, and the meeting resolved that a task force be set up to survey the Mau environment and report on the extent of the damage and the logistics needed to reverse the trend and regenerate the forest. The task force included local leaders nominated by their communities - Maasai, Ogiek, Kipsigis - as well as large-scale farmers from the area and the ministries of forests and agriculture. It was chaired by the University of Nairobi's Professor Fred Owino, a forestry specialist with more than 25 years' experience facilitating dialogue on national forest programmes and partnership negotiations across 16 African countries.
The task force was given six months to complete its work. Towards the end of this period, the PM was petitioned by a number of MPs who said they had not yet been interviewed. The PM extended the life of the task force by two months.
The task force report showed how the 500,000 hectares of the Mau Forest had over the years been invaded and encroached upon. The real damage had begun in 1992. (Surprise, surprise, it was an election year.) In 1997, there was a surge in excisions. (What do you know, another election year.) And guess when it happened next? Right on the money - 2002, another election year. Each time, people's votes had shamelessly been bought through land allocations in the Mau Forest, progressively destroying a lifeline vital to all Kenyans.
The Mau complex consists of several forested areas - including Mau East, Mau West, Mau South and Maasai Mau. Group ranches in Maasai Mau border the forest. These had gradually extended their boundaries and grown into the forest. Some of those claiming to live on group ranches were actually living on forest land. Other areas had been excised and the ground cleared but there was as yet no settlement, while yet others were heavily inhabited. Forestry minister Dr Noah Wekesa presented the task force report to the Cabinet. It recommended a five-phase restoration programme.
In Phase 1, the government would take back unsettled land and begin replanting trees.
Phase 2 dealt with Mau West, which still had forest but also settlement without titles. The report recommended that the settlers be asked to quit.
Phase 3 covered fully settled areas that needed to be repossessed, and the report recommended compensating these settlers with alternative land or cash in lieu.
Phase 4 covered the so-called group ranches, which were populated mainly by Kipsigis people. The report recommended a survey to determine the actual ranch boundaries. And then Phase 5 would deal with Mau East. The Cabinet unanimously (including Ruto) approved the report and all its recommendations. It was then tabled in parliament (with Ruto and all the Mau-local MPs present). It was approved by the House. The secretariat to spearhead implementation was gazetted and established. The Mau reclamation would be an operation headed by Wekesa and the forestry ministry. And because there were several other agencies involved, the Prime Minister's office would act in its usual role of co-ordinator.
Phase 1 of the recommended action was implemented, and then Wekesa (not Odinga) issued a gazette notice giving settlers time to quit the area referred to in Phase 2. Quite a number of them, who had no titles, began to move. It was at this point that the noise started. Not from the settlers. No. It was Ruto and pals who decided to take advantage of the situation to push their own political agenda. They went to the area and incited title-less settlers in Phase 2 not to leave until they had been paid compensation.
These were the same leaders who in Cabinet and parliament had approved the task force and unanimously endorsed its recommendations. Now they saw a way of irresponsibly messing up the process to advance Ruto's agenda against Odinga. Some business people, particularly Kikuyu business people, were encouraged to say their kiosks had been looted, and that this had forced them to run away to the camps where those previously displaced during the 2007-8 post-election violence were living.
Ruto and the other leaders behind the forest agitation encouraged these settlers to go to the camps and wait for land, along with the IDPs. They told them, 'You voted for Raila - this is how he is repaying you. This is how he is inflicting pain and suffering on our people.' The agitators ferried families to makeshift camps, called in the media, and blamed the "inhuman" exercise on Odinga. A compliant media went along with it, regrettably too lazy to research the facts, or too inept, or too partisan to point out this was a necessary and collective Cabinet decision to which Ruto was party and which was actually being implemented by Wekesa.
And driving all this was the same William Ruto from whose Eldoret North constituency and nearby Kuresoi tens of thousands of people had been displaced in the 2007-8 post-election violence. Ruto has never said a word in their defence, nor offered them so much as a blade of grass from his own extensive land holdings. On the contrary, he apparently decided to acquire for himself 100 acres of one unfortunate displaced person's land.
On that score, Ruto has recently offered the astonishing excuse that "no one was living there". The last time this excuse was used was about 100 years ago, when colonial settlers voiced precisely the same sentiment as they casually took over land wherever they felt like it and regardless of whose land it was. Who expected to hear of such a callous attitude in modern-day Kenya?
In 2010, seeking a solution to the problem of the Mau Phase 2 settlers, Odinga recommended that they be treated like other landless Kenyans, and that the ministry of lands provide them with some land for settlement. It was at this point that Ruto conspired with his friends in the Treasury to have the funds for that compassionate exercise withheld, so that he could continue to blame people's suffering on Odinga. It was not until early June 2011, nearly a year later, that the government finally released the money - shs. 1bn to buy land for those forced to quit the Mau Forest.
In the intervening period, Ruto had a field day demonising Odinga. But the net result of his dirty-tricks campaign was that the Mau Phase 2 evictees were heartlessly subjected to long and difficult months under canvas, as they waited for then finance minister Kenyatta to stop dragging his feet and release the money for their settlement.
If anyone was "inhuman" here, it was certainly not Odinga but, rather, someone who has no compunction whatsoever about using people for his own ends. Ruto was only interested in playing political games and dragging out the evictees' suffering to try and gain a political advantage over Odinga. He had no care for the pain of the evictees. And yet this is one of the matters that Ruto, with a straight and self-righteous face, refers to as his "differences in principle" with Odinga.
Then, of course, there is the ICC issue. "I am paying the price for having supported Raila in the last elections and eventually being turned into a sacrificial lamb," Ruto is quoted as saying. How touching. And how false.
In late 2008, after the Kriegler and Waki reports on the 2007 general election were submitted, ODM sat down as a party with its national executive council and parliamentary group to discuss the matter, eventually deciding to suggest that a local tribunal be established to try those suspected of being instrumental in post-election violence. The party issued a statement to this effect.
Ruto was not present at that meeting, being away in The Netherlands, allegedly negotiating a fertiliser deal. But as soon as he arrived at Nairobi airport, he told the press that he was opposed to the establishment of a local tribunal. He said such a tribunal would end up trying only the small fry, while letting the big fish go scot-free. Ruto then teamed up with Kenyatta to make a career out of opposing the tribunal idea, and the two of them 'lobbied' (to put it politely) hard among MPs to oppose the parliamentary motion that sought to establish a local tribunal independent of the judiciary.
In the meantime, Odinga, Kibaki and then justice minister Mutula Kilonzo tried their best to persuade their parliamentary colleagues to support a local tribunal.
When it came to the vote, Ruto, Kenyatta and their pals voted against the local tribunal and carried the day. They appeared to imagine that the matter of justice would thus be delayed (Ruto even stating at one point that it would take 99 years for the Hague cases to be heard) until they were in government themselves, whereupon they would presumably ensure non-compliance with the Hague and the matter would go the same way as so many other scandals in our history.
After parliament rejected the local tribunal, Annan arrived and categorically stated that The Hague was not a good idea. He said he would give parliamentarians another six months (beyond the original deadline of the end of 2008) to rethink. Failing a change of attitude, he would have no choice but to hand over to the ICC the sealed envelope of perpetrators' names given to him by Justice Philip Waki. Annan then held on to the envelope from January to June 2009. Kilonzo spearheaded a second attempt to have parliament agree to form a local tribunal. His efforts were shot down by Ruto and Kenyatta in Cabinet.
A third attempt was made in parliament by Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara. This was also shot down. At every stage of this process, Ruto and Kenyatta strongly opposed the local tribunal, while Odinga, Kibaki, Kilonzo, Imanyara and several others continued to support it. In the end, Ruto and Kenyatta succeeded in killing completely the idea of a local tribunal, and Annan was left with no option but reluctantly to hand over the sealed Waki envelope to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Even then, Ocampo himself volunteered that he did not have to prosecute - if only Kenyans could get their act together. Minister for internal security Professor George Saitoti led a team consisting of Kilonzo, the then attorney-general Amos Wako and lands minister and shadow attorney-general Orengo to the ICC, where they told Ocampo they needed more time. Ocampo gave them another four months.
But opposition led by Ruto and Kenyatta was still so strong that Saitoti's team could achieve nothing. Finally, Ocampo gave up, went to the pre-trial chamber and sought permission to begin his investigations. This was granted in March 2010. The ICC began its work. On December 15 that year, Ocampo named the six suspects he considered had the biggest responsibility for the crimes committed. And then, suddenly, out of the blue, it was Raila Odinga who was the author of the whole thing! He just wants us out of the way, said Ruto and Kenyatta, so that he can win the election.
What? You say he supported a local tribunal? Ah, forget about that! It's clear that he gave the names to Ocampo! (This didn't quite explain why Odinga would include his own party chairman on the list, but anyway, details, details.) He is the devil incarnate!
What? You say the Waki envelope went straight from Waki to Annan and then, still sealed, from Annan to Ocampo? Ah, forget about that too! Raila chose the names in that envelope!
Oh dear. I suppose this means that Waki, Annan, Ocampo, Trendafilova, maybe the UN, definitely the entire ICC, the British government, probably the entire European Union, not to forget Obama, of course - the whole lot must have been corrupted by Raila Odinga and are now in on the deal. Boy, is that man powerful or what!
Unfortunately for Ruto and co, they have discovered that reality eventually bites back, and evidently it bites even more fiercely than Michuki's rattled snake.
Kalenjin representation. Detained youth. Mau Forest. ICC. Ruto's perpetual whining and griping about Raila Odinga covers issues where it is patently obvious that Odinga played only statutory and above-board roles, while at the same time doing his best to accommodate all Ruto's demands.
Ruto's complaints are completely insubstantial and disappear like puffs of smoke when subjected to any kind of scrutiny. And yet these are the issues he refers to as his "disagreements in principle" with Raila Odinga. Ask Ruto to explain exactly what "principles" he is talking about, and you might wait a long time for an answer. We can talk about lack of principles when Ruto maligns the party that sponsored him to parliament, is hostile to his party leader, and goes all out to form an alternative party without having the guts or principle to resign from a party he "ditched long ago".
Traversing the country spouting dangerous, fabricated nonsense that pits Kenyan against Kenyan and can only do harm has nothing to do with "democratically expressing divergent views", as Ruto so disingenuously likes to put it. It has to do with a frighteningly cold and calculating disconnect from the reality of the threat of future mayhem in Kenya. That is what is being stoked. Already the authorities are sounding the alarm bells, as they made plain earlier this week.
Ruto has been like a dog with a bone over this matter of Raila Odinga. For the past four years, we've watched as he keeps burying it in the dirt and then digging it up and chewing on it again and then burying it again and then digging it up again. There's something ancient and primitive in a dog's DNA that makes it do this compulsively, over and over again. I don't know what to say about Ruto. There are plenty of haters out there who won't like this truth and will prefer to avoid the issues and clog the blogs with mindless hate-speech and obscenities. All I can say is, this country needs to make informed choices based on facts.
Perhaps some of these facts might also help so-called political commentators such as Mutahi Ngunyi, who responded to the Balala sacking by calling Odinga a "Machiavellian" who "cannibalises" people. What shallow, ill-informed tosh! Shame on you, Mutahi. All it takes is a little bit of research. But that, of course, depends on the will to do it and not being otherwise compromised, I suppose. If anyone doesn't want the facts, it's their prerogative to ignore them. But the truth remains constant. And at least this way, if the truth is laid bare and it still all goes wrong, no one will ever have any excuse for coming back to lament, "Why wasn't I told?"
The writer is a freelance journalist
-
6:47
»
Kim Media
As the exact date of the next polls remains a puzzle, the latest presidential candidate's survey conducted between 12th and 13th of March 2012 by Infotrak shows Prime Minister Raila Odinga remains the most preferred candidate with 42% of Kenyans willing to vote for him.
He is followed at a distance by Deputy Premier Uhuru Kenyatta at 22% with Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka coming third with 9%.
The analysis by Infrotrak also shows that some presidential hopefuls have lost ground with others having gained popularity since February 2012.
Among those who have gained popularity include Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Raphael Tuju.
Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth, Eugene Wamalwa and George Saitoti have maintained their popularity while William Ruto has lost popularity by 2%.
The report further shows that Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has the majority support across the country at 54% followed by Party of National Unity (PNU) 22% and Kalonzo's Wiper Democratic Party (WDM) at 7%.
ODM strong holds include Nyanza (84%) Western (79%) Coast Province (70%) and North Eastern regions (59%).
PNU is the most popular party in Central Kenya and Wipers stronghold is Eastern Province.
KANU stands at 5% and Karua's Narc-Kenya at 3%. Ruto's URP is yet to be digested amongst Kenyans as it was one of the least popular party in the country.
Releasing the results at the company officers in Nairobi, CEO Angela Ambitho observed that majority Kenyans would participate in the forthcoming elections irrespective of the poll date uncertainty with 91% of the respondents indicating they were ready to vote.
"A trend analysis of Infotrack Harris polls indicate that voting intentions among Kenyans has been increasing over time." said Ambitho.
A minimal 7% however would not participate for either lack of trust with politicians or lack of ID cards.
The survey which was conducted in all regions of Kenya also indicated that majority of those who intended to vote are mainly from the middle age of between 26 years to 45 years of age.
-
-
7:43
»
Kim Media
I have been a great supporter of Konza even when people started opposing the idea last year. There are times when even the local mainstream media could not touch it until when Ministry of Information lured them with adverts and paid assignment to promote the idea on Web, TV, Radio and Newspapers.
You must have realised this when Nation Media Group ran the Konza campaigns on their website and advertisers announcements on the Daily Nation and Business Daily newspaper. The honeymoon seems like is over as most of the very well informed ICT investors are shying away from the over 50,000-hectares Konza Technology city project.
Main reason being that the approach to build local tech capacity is wrong. Many of the would-be investors are asking why the Kenyan government need to initiate what is generally a real-estate project to build local ICT capacity. Why not use the already available schools to build the required local human resource which is currently lacking. It has nudged the likes of Safaricom and Huawei to equip the local graduates with practical skills necessary for an innovation ready society.
In the $15 Billion investment only 7 Kenyan companies have shown interest to invest in the technopoliswith only Safaricom and Seven Seas being the 2 Kenyan ICT companies which have shown the interest in the whole investment idea. The others are Seventh Day Adventist Church, Kenya’s Tea Board and the University of Nairobi.
Only 40% of the initial phase of the project has attracted local investors while this was a project which was suppose to be owned by Kenyans and Kenyan companies.
Sad indeed that Kenyan government cannot con even the “not so well informed” Kenyan ICT companies that they need to jump on the Konza idea.
First the whole concept of Konza does not sit well with any sane investor secondly, the project looks like a rushed idea which Dr Ndemo and Paul Kukubo might be pushing to entice others to join in what might be the biggest white elephant.
At a recent meetup, PS Ndemo loudly complained against the Ministry of Lands for not gazetting the 52,000-hectares of land as required by law. That means that any touch of the land for the proposed development might be met with lawsuits from interested stakeholders. Dr Ndemo seemed a very frustrated man with it looking like he alone is pushing for the Konza idea and not much support from key government agencies.
The local techies are also not feeling part of the idea since even the tendering for various input into the idea has locked out the Kenyan techies. Just recently there was an announcement that 22 companies were short-listed for the planning and management of the Ksh 10 billion first phase of the Konza City idea. The 22 shortlisted companies from Europe, Asia and USA are among others
BioRegional Development Group, Capita Symonds, Crowie Holdings, Feedback Infrastructure Services, GIBB Africa, IDOM, Jones Lang LaSalle MENA, Limitless LLC, Lloyd Masika, Mentor Management, and Millenium Development, PKF Kenya, Sasaki Associates, Seven Degrees North Ltd, Shapira & Hellerman Planners (Halufa Group), Voyants Solutions Private and WS Atkins International.
The company to be awarded this tender will provide complimentary master-plan development and support to Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KTDA), which is not yet operational but it in the process of being established by the government, according to PS Ndemo. The state corporation will oversee the planning, infrastructure development and land allocation on the site.
None of the above companies is Kenya or has Kenyan roots. It might be that Kenyans are locked out because someone is forming nondescript companies overseas to get to loot funds like it happened in Goldenberg and Anglo-Leasing. It is very easy for government bureaucrats to get away with corruption when they use non-existent foreign companies fronted by either themselves or their proxies. Looking at Konza City, this is what is happening.
PS Ndemo’s answer to the questions have been that there is not enough local capacity. That is a very shallow excuse considering that the foreign companies will just come to poach the local capacity which are considered mediocre.
The ground-breaking was suppose to happen in mid 2011 and there has not been a word from the PS on the same.
My opinion on Konza is that we shouldn’t struggle for it because we have the capacity but we are too disciplined to push the boundaries of innovation. We don’t have enough non-ethical hackers to crack open the existing technologies and modify them to do things differently. Silicon Valley came about because of the likes of Steve Jobs who refused to go with the army but joined those considered pirates. We don’t have enough go getters ready to take the plunge. Education is wanting but it has become just a punching bag.
With all these pointers, Konza is turning to be a fraudulent idea which might end up being a very boring white elephant. The failure of Konza will lead to many big investors give Kenya a wide berth as a key investment destination. Local ICT capacity will also get used to doing it the hard way without much input from the government. Local techies might end up being no more than spectators or cooks and watchmen in the whole arrangement.
-
7:32
»
Kim Media
Kenyan men may soon start taking family planning pills.
This follows an announcement by the Kenya Medical Research Institute Director (KEMRI) that the pill will soon be introduced in the Kenyan market.
KEMRI director Solomon Mpoke said the pill has been tested and proved effective.
However, Mpoke expressed concern that traditions, religion and acceptability might prove to be a challenge towards the male family method.
Speaking during the launch of ‘Tupange' programme in Nairobi, Mpoke said that the Kenyan population was on the rise and especially in urban towns with mushrooming informal settlements.
He added that the government needs to focus on increasing long term methods especially among the poor and to strengthen the private sector as a key source of family planning service provider to Kenyans.
He also said that there was need to harness the power of communication between spouses for social change to make family planning a social norm and promote quality and healthier lifestyles for all Kenyans.
-
-
5:49
»
Kim Media
We're delighted to announce the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2012! Our gathering takes place this year in Nairobi, Kenya on July 2-3, 2012, in partnership with Nairobi's iHub.
Visit the Summit web site for background information on the goals of the meeting - we'll be adding registration details very soon.
Over the next days and weeks we'll be fleshing out the program, adding speaker bios, a list of attendees and more — and do keep checking in at the site for blog posts and commentary from Summit participants and others, as well as to join in the conversation.
The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2012 has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Google, Hivos, MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute, Adessium Foundation, Knight Foundation and Yahoo!.
Current major sponsors include MacArthur Foundation, Google, Open Society Institute, Knight Foundation and Yahoo!
Written by Georgia Popplewell
-
5:46
»
Kim Media
WHERE does one begin? Am thinking the obvious place would be the recent court ruling by the venerate magistrate somewhere in Nakawa who let off a Turkish paedophile with little more than a slap on the wrist.
This same esteemed judge was so ‘moved’ by the perverts ‘honesty’ in admission of guilt that she saw it fit to give a lenient sentence.
The fact that he has, of course, committed the same crime in two other regional states notwithstanding.
I wonder if this fabled law scholar would pass a similar ‘lenient’ sentence if the abused children were her own.
Continuing with legal vagaries and who does and does not deserve leniency, Kooky who killed his wife some years back, walked to his freedom amidst applause and ululations from his fellow inmates.
Why he deserved this leniency over a slew of other criminals with much more minor offences is a question that will linger in this layman’s brain for a while to come.
Is it just me or has everyone noticed the drop in bank interest rates? Bravo to our fiscal planners.
I believe credit should be given where it is due. Also, the dollar rate has gained a lot of sanity and continues to slide down to its more natural position.
Food inflation is down and many who had instituted some tight austerity measures in their homes are beginning to ease up.
Across our eastern border, his Excellency Mwai Kibaki could not conceal his excitement as he announced to the world how fairly substantial quantities of oil had been discovered, by none other than Tullow oil Plc, in the northern rift valley region of Turkana (Ngamia-1 well).
Further exploration of the next couple of months will determine whether the amounts are indeed commercially viable or if the Kenyan government’s euphoria is a tad premature.
That said, it would of course be great for the region if Turkana moved on to commercial production. This would spell good things for the East African Community. And who knows, with sober management and some luck, East Africa could emerge as the next emirates.
Still with oil, on our northern border, simmering tensions exploded into small scale war as Sudanese fighter jets pummeled southern Sudan army positions in the Kodofan region.
For the past couple of months, southern Sudan has blocked crude oil which flows from the south upwards to refineries in northern Sudan.
The contention is over transit charges which are levied by the north on southern Sudan. The southern government believes these charges are too high.
The north on the other hand, seems unwilling to relax the levies and this is the cause of the stale mate which now is tottering on armed conflict. Southern Sudan is a member of the East African Community and Uganda’s biggest trading partner.
The south, however, has been exploring the possibility of piping its oil through Kenya and then on to the Kenyan coastal town of Lamu. A war there would impact badly for Ugandan and regional traders.
Let’s hope that a peaceful resolution can be reached.
Further up north, or is it West Africa, a US trained Captain Amadou Sanogo shot his way to power in what can only be described as a gross miscalculation of gargantuan proportions.
Not only did he and his group dispose a legitimately elected government led by President Amadou Toumani Toure, they also managed to alienate the whole of the international community who have condemned the coup in the strongest of terms.
Even the West African economic block (ECOWAS) was not amused and has swiftly removed Mali from its member’s rooster. With the benefit of hindsight, am sure Captain Sanogo and his Tuareg rebels are wishing they could un-coup their coup.
I wish you a good lent and a great Easter.
Source: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/630044-the-week-full-of-bizarre-news.html
-
-
6:57
»
Kim Media
In a sterling performance Allan Kiprono set a new course record thismorning, finishing the race in 45:15. Lani Kiplagat and John Korir camein 2nd and 3rd with times of 46:28 and 47:33 respectively.Julliah Tinega who is defending her title, romped to the finish linein 54:02 leaving her competitors far behind to win the womens event.Kenya’s Ambassador to the U.S, Amb. Elkanah Odembo accompanied bymembers of staff, and friends of Kenya was on hand to cheer andreceive the victoriousathletes at the finish line amid a sea of Kenyan flags and trademarkululations.
-
-
8:18
»
Kim Media
The Kenyan taxpayer has lost between Sh2.1 billion and Sh2.7 billion in the last seven years following the Central Bank of Kenya's (CBK) decision to place short term printing orders to meet the country's currency requirements.
Although, the six stop-gap orders which started in 2003 were necessary to ensure the country had adequate supply of currency, it cost more than it would have had the government not cancelled a three year contract won by De La Rue in 2006.
Tabulating figures from the CBK, Bura Member of Parliament (MP) Abdi Nuh discovered this anomaly, which was also confirmed by CBK Governor Njuguna Ndung'u.
"The (order) of 450 million bank notes that you made in June 2009, you would have made a saving of Sh685.9 million. Of the 483 million notes made in July 2010, you would have made a saving of Sh818.94 million," argued Nuh.
The calculations were made from data presented by the Central Bank which showed that it cost an average of £28.62 to print 1,000 pieces from the short term quantities.
Had the 2006 contract been allowed to run however, it would have cost £20.84 to print Sh50 notes; £21.03 to print the Sh100 notes; £14.15, £12.47, £12.45 to print the Sh200, Sh500 and Sh1,000 notes respectively.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigating the multi-billion shillings scandal, Ndung'u explained that after the revocation of the agreement, they reverted to the higher rates that the government used to pay in 2002.
"It is true that the prices of the 2006 international tender were less expensive than the 2002 prices we have relied on," the governor admitted but was quick to add that the 2002 rates reflected the cost of printing in Kenya while the former would have been the money paid had the firm produced the notes in Malta where it would have benefited from economies of scale.
However, he did acknowledge that the Central Bank might still be forced to make more orders since it currently does not have enough supplies to last until 2013.
The government has operated without a money printing contract for the last 10 years after the Kibaki administration came into power to allow for competitive international bidding.
However, the committee felt that soon after, the government went back to the 'old' ways to allow politically connected people to continue profiteering from the system.
This is because in 2007, an international tender won by De La Rue was also terminated on the pretext that it was not wise to print money during an election year.
Attempts by the governor to argue that he assumed office in March 2007, which was before the contract was terminated and the short term orders were initiated did not stop the MPs from demanding to know why he has not made any effort to stop the arrangement which was costing the country more.
The committee observed that the governor was not as proactive as his predecessor Jacinta Mwatela, who was in an acting capacity but questioned the currency procurement process which she noted, was uncompetitive. Her opposition to this deal cost her, her job.
Negotiations with De La Rue for another money printing contract have dragged on for years and the government has been reluctant to find alternatives fearing that the British firm will close down its Ruaraka-based factory.
The committee however said the government cannot continue to safeguard the 260 jobs at the currency minting firm at the expense of protecting public funds.
The MPs also noted that should the government opted for other sources of currency printing, the factory would still continue to operate since it is used to print currencies for other countries.
Whether the government will sign into another deal with De La Rue or opt to source for the services from other quarters will only be a matter of time. However, it is clear that the government needs a longer term money printing deal since the short term orders are not cost effective.
-
-
0:52
»
Kim Media
KCB COCKTAIL RECEPTION, FRIDAY 30TH MARCH, 2012
A team from the Kenya Commercial Bank led by the Chief Executive Dr Martin Oduor-Otieno will be in the United States from 27th to 31st March, 2012 to attend an Investor Road show. During their visit, the KCB team will organise a cocktail reception for Kenyans resident in the US in Washington DC on Friday 30th March, 2012.
During the reception, the team would like to showcase:
KCB products
Avenues to support and encourage Diaspora investment in Kenya
Date: Friday, 30th March, 2012
Time: 1800hrs to 2000hrs
Venue: Palomar Hotel
You are all invited.
-
0:48
»
Kim Media
Zawadi Africa Education Fund celebrated 'Ten Years of Empowering Young African Women Leaders' with a pledge for Pan African expansion at a reception held in Washington DC. The Zawadi Foundation was designed to provide scholarships to academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds from Kenya to pursue university education primarily in the USA and to date has to date awarded over US$12 million since inception. It has now branched out to include students from Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. Dr. Susan Mboya-Kidero, President and Founder Zawadi Africa Education Fund said," We have expanded the program to become truly global and hope to expand to more African countries in the hope of empowering more young women leaders with quality education.The Zawadi Africa Education Fund is based on the John F. Kennedy/ Tom Mboya airlifts of Kenyan students to study in the US on full scholarships that ran from 1959-1961. During this time, the program empowered a total of 1000 students that included Africa's First Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai and Barack Obama Snr, father of current US President Barack Obama.Former US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Rannenberger said," the program is a fitting continuation of the Kennedy/Mboya airlifts and provides a perfect opportunity to further US-Africa relations." Kenya's Ambassador to the United States Elkanah Odembo pledged to recruit more influential mentors for the program and went on to introduce Ms. Aminatah N'gum from The Gambia, a newly elected judge to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals based in Arusha, Tanzania.
-
-
10:03
»
Kim Media
The Ambassador and the Kenya Diaspora Advisory Council (KDAC)- Georgia Chapter announces an official visit of the Prime Minister of Kenya, Hon. Raila Odinga to Atlanta onThursday, April 26th, 2012.. He will be holding a Townhall Meeting at the Doubletree Hotel, off Windy Hill Rd. 2055 South Park Place, Atlanta, GA 30339 - 770 272 9441. With the New Constitution and the upcoming elections there’s a higher expectation of us as Kenyans in the Diaspora and it sure is our National duty and as the anthem says “Let all with one accord, In common bond unite to Build our Nation together”. So, Atlanta, we call on you to come out in big numbers and give the Diaspora a voice in the Kenya Government. The meeting will begin promptly at 6:30 PM and we have made provisions for questions as well as a controlled photo session. Parking is FREE, however, security will be tight and latecomers may miss out. Please keep time. Help spread the word in Atlanta and in neighboring states.
-
-
8:45
»
Kim Media
Many women of her age are still single, but life for Jessica Loy Imalakang has not been easy. Godfrey Ojore writes about her fate
Living in Awojakitoi, Abarilela sub-county, in Amuria district, Imalakang is not legally married. Although she is unable to remember the first year of pregnancy, she vividly recalls giving birth when she was a P.3 pupil after meeting Patrick Mateka, who promised to marry her. “I dropped out of school after conceiving. I then lived with Mateka,” Imalakang says.
Mateka is a Kenyan from Kitale of western Kenya, who met Imalakang in Amuria, where he was living as a refugee. Hopes of formalising their relationship hit a snag after seven years of co-habiting.
Her second pregnancy was a set of twins. “We moved to Kenya where I gave birth to six other children. But things did not go well when my husband got a Sebei woman,” Imalakang narrates.
The dark days
She says Mateka subjected her to serious beating, leaving her without food for the children, yet she was a housewife.
“I resorted to being a housemaid to raise money for my children. I would not have bothered him leaving me for another woman, but what made the situation worse was the beating,” Imalakang narrates.
Near death experience
One day, Mateka returned home and beat her to near death along with the children. He later dug a grave to bury them.
“I was saved by neighbours who rushed to my rescue with a gun. They threatened to kill him if he chopped me since he was holding a panga.”
Police were called in and Mateka was apprehended, but on their way to the police station, Imalakang says, Mateka escaped.
She was taken for treatment to a hospital while her children took shelter at the police station.
Return to Uganda
When she recovered, she was asked to return to her father’s home in Amuria since none of Mateka’s relatives were willing to take care of her and the seven children.
Imalakang’s older children
“Kenyan police assisted me a lot. I came by bus up to Mbale then connected to Soroti and finally to my father’s home,” she says.
On her arrival, she learnt that her father had died while she was still in Kenya. Her two brothers and mother were not welcoming. “My brother’s wife left on my arrival. To save my brother’s marriage, I moved to the sub-county headquarters.”
Pastor's wife helps
On her way there, she met the wife of Pastor Francis Ebwana of Christ the Disciple Church, who invited her to stay at her home.
“I returned in 2006, and since then, I have been residing in the pastor’s home. He has two homes, one in Katakwi and Amuria,” she says.
According to Imalakang, the pastor is a relative to her husband. He sympathised with her.
At the pastor’s home, Imalakang met another man who made her pregnant. She gave birth to triplets — one boy and two girls. Now she has 10 children.
“That man also abandoned me in the hospital. Since then, I have not heard of his whereabouts. Raising these children alone is not easy,” she says, tears rolling down her face.
The triplets are two years old now, but Imalakang is undergoing difficult task of treating and feeding the 10 children.
It is a hard-knock life
According to her, the pastor has accepted to give her the house, but it is her task to find food.
“At harvest time, he gives me some little food after I help him. With this load of children, I have no money to rent a garden that goes at sh200,000. I survive by the mercy of God,” she says.
During my visit to her home, I found her preparing millet porridge for children for lunch.
Four are in primary school, but with no hopes of joining secondary school, even with Universal Secondary Education.
Imalakang sleeps on a mat with all her children. She has a saucepan and three cups, so the children have to eat porridge in turns.
“I don’t have means of helping this lady. I hope a good samaritan can come to her rescue,” says Max Ebalu, the LC3 of Abarilela sub-county.
He explains that the woman is living a life more pathetic than refugees who live on the hopes of NGOs bringing them some relief items.
“I blame parents for accepting to marry off their daughters at an early age. If she was not allowed to get married to that man, probably she could have got a better one,” Ebalu laments.
Imalakang’s dream is to have a piece of land where she can settle with her children.
In the mean time, she has to fend for the family, and does not know if she will get enough.Her neighbour, Nora Alupo, says Imalakang runs to her each time a child is ill or they do not have food.
“Today she went to her mother to pick a pan to replace the one that one of her younger children dropped into the latrine,” Alupo says.
On men and marriage, she says: “I don’t want any man again in my life. The children I have are many. How can I dare to add more?”
-
-
3:33
»
Kim Media
Raul Rodriguez and Alberto Ledesma live parallel lives. Both proudly claim UC Berkeley as their alma mater. Both have worked hard academically. And both have published personal essays about the stigma of being an undocumented student. But that’s where their lives diverge. Ledesma was fortunate enough to gain amnesty via the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), federal legislation that granted amnesty to immigrants who entered the U.S. before 1986. Rodriguez, on the other hand, remains undocumented because legislation like IRCA no longer exists.
“At any point, I felt that I could be deported,” recalls Ledesma. But his anxiety dissipated after the passage of IRCA in 1986. “I went from being a B- student to being an A+ student because once that stress (of being deported) is removed [and] you have that sense of freedom, almost like you get high from it, it makes you a different person.” Born in the northeastern part of Jalisco state in Mexico, Ledesma moved to the U.S. when he was six-years-old. His father had already come to the U.S. alone, ahead of the rest of the family, as a participant in the temporary-worker Bracero program. Eventually, Ledesma and the rest of his family decided to join the father in the U.S. for what was supposed to be an extended summer visit, but they would end up remaining for good. For Ledesma, now a legal resident in the U.S., the undocumented immigrant experience was a chapter in his American experience. For Rodriguez, however, the stigma of being undocumented remains. Rodriguez is a senior attending UC Berkeley and like so many other undocumented immigrants, he too has deep roots in the U.S. Like Ledesma, he too arrived in the U.S. at the age of six, after relocating with his parents from Lima, Peru. In the ensuing years, Rodriguez became so ingrained in American life that he didn't become aware of his undocumented status until attempting to obtain a driver's license at the age of 17. Outwardly, he reflects the American culture as much as any other student who is born here: He attends school, has friends, and participates in the community. Yet, there is a stress that Rodriguez must struggle with every time he reveals that he is undocumented. Belonging to a culture that does not entirely accept him, Rodriguez now finds himself unable to fulfill the dreams he once held so close. Ledesma explains how “acculturative stress” plagues students such as Rodriguez, who live their entire lives believing they are American only to discover their status later in life. Because there is a shame often attached to being undocumented, says Ledesma, parents sometimes choose to hide their children’s true legal status from them. Ledesma, now an artist and writer, expresses that peculiar sense of alienation through a series of drawings and comic-book style panels in a work-in-progress that he has titled Diary of a Dreamer. The book is made up of semi-autobiographical illustrations, personal essays, and short stories that focus on the lives of undocumented Mexican immigrants struggling to survive urban and college life without getting deported. In one panel, Ledesma compares himself to Cantinflas, the famous comic actor from the golden age of Mexican cinema, who often portrayed impoverished campesinos and peasants: “Even now, years after amnesty, I get all tongue-tied when anyone asks me about my immigrant past. I become that undocumented immigrant Cantinflas, twisting words and phrases until nothing I say makes sense. The problem is, I don’t know where my Cantinflas and where the true me begins.” Rodriguez says he shares that same feeling of being constantly distressed. If he were granted amnesty, he says he would take every opportunity that presented itself, the simplest of all being travel. Before discovering he was undocumented, Rodriguez had plans to move to New York City and Paris, but all of those plans disappeared upon hearing the truth about his legal status. “Being undocumented means re-shifting your life and not doing what you love,” he notes. Today, Rodriguez lives a life that he can only describe as “going through the motions.” He is not alone. A study conducted by the Immigration Policy Center in 2008 showed that 25 percent of all people in the U.S. are either an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. The same study concluded that 40 percent of all immigrants currently in the U.S. came to this country before 1990, which suggests that they've since established deep roots in this country. Many are like Ledesma and Rodriguez, having grown up in the U.S. yet never fully embraced as Americans. Many like Rodriguez are holding out hope for some sort of legislation, like the Dream Act, which if passed into law would open a pathway to citizenship for undocumented students who either enroll in college or join the armed forces. The Dream Act, however, could come with caveats. Applicants would need to prove that they entered the country when they were under the age of 16, that they have lived continuously in the U.S. for at least five years, and that they obtained a diploma from a U.S. high school or earned their GED, according to whitehouse.gov. Students with a criminal record would also be barred from receiving any benefits offered under the Dream Act. Since being granted amnesty under IRCA, Ledesma has obtained a PhD in Ethnic Studies, works at UC Berkeley’s Student Learning Center and contributes essays to various media outlets on issues of immigration. He’s hoping to soon publish his book. For Rodriguez, the American Dream has proved more elusive. He hopes the eventual passage of the Dream Act will lift the weight of being undocumented off his shoulders, like IRCA did for Ledesma. “Even just driving, it sucks you know, it definitely sucks. I dream and fantasize about all the things I would accomplish if I just had the chance,” Rodriguez explains. “If I just had the opportunity.” Ruby Perez studies journalism at San Francisco State University. Her piece is part of a special ‘Stories From the Diaspora’ series profiling the lives of immigrants across California.
-
3:30
»
Kim Media
Slum dwellers from across Africa have urged their governments to stop forced evictions and work towards providing them with adequate shelter and basic services.
"Better housing is not a favour our governments should extend to us, but a right that we deserve to be given like everybody else," said Alhassan Ibn Abdallah, a resident of Old Fadama, the largest informal settlement in Ghana's capital Accra.
Abdallah was speaking at a meeting organized by Amnesty International (AI) in Nairobi, on the sidelines of a ministerial conference on housing and urban development.
"We urge our governments to stop the practice of forced evections, whether carried out by government itself or by private developers. You cannot have development by creating more homeless people," he said.
In Old Fadama, AI estimates that 55,000-79,000 people live without security of tenure and under constant threat of forced eviction, while in Nigeria, at least 20,000 people may be rendered homeless should the government implement its plan to demolish waterfront settlements in Port Harcourt.
Activists from Chad, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt and Zimbabwe have been, since 20 of March, taking part in a week of action dubbed "People Live Here", aimed at highlighting the plight of residents of informal settlements or slums and the need to provide essential services like health, water, education and security to them.
George Amaka from Nigeria said forced evictions normally disrupt the social networks and economic activities of those living in slums, saying the lack of security of tenure creates anxiety among many slum residents.
"We have to look for new schools for our children; we have to start creating new businesses, normally with no capital with which to do it. Every social safety net that slum people rely on to survive is disrupted. We are not criminals but people working hard to earn a living and provide for our families," Amaka told IRIN.
Corruption
Another activist from Kenya, Minicah Otieno, who coordinated the Rapid Response Team which mobilizes slum dwellers in Nairobi to stand up against forced evictions, told IRIN that slum upgrading programmes in Africa, normally meant to provide affordable housing to the poor, are affected by corruption.
"In Kenya, we have slum upgrading programmes that are meant to provide affordable and dignified housing to slum dwellers, but because of corruption, people do not benefit and instead, government officials allocate these houses to themselves and their cronies", she said.
"It is because of corruption that land grabbers evict people from their settlements and the government assists them to do it," she added.
Justus Nyang'aya, AI director in Kenya, said while evictions are at times necessary, they need to be carried out within the confines of both local laws and international statues on evictions, to which, he says, many African countries are voluntary signatories.
"People must be consulted, provided with alternative settlement before eviction and must be told exactly what the land they live on will be used for," he added.
Speaking to IRIN on the sidelines of the conference, Kenya's minster for housing, Soita Shitanda, admitted more work needs to be done: "We have to look afresh on our urban planning and accommodate this growing population, because poor planning also impedes provision of services."
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
-
3:21
»
Kim Media
Four rare white rhinoceroses have died in recent weeks at an Australian zoo after displaying mysterious neurological problems such as stumbling, officials said Wednesday.
The Taronga Western Plains Zoo near the New South Wales state city of Dubbo said in a statement that it had begun a veterinary investigation to pinpoint the cause of the deaths and is working with rhino specialists in Africa and North America.
The four rhinos — Izizi, Aluka, Intombi and her daughter Amira — began showing signs of neurological problems two weeks ago, an unnamed zoo official told Australian Associated Press.
The first rhino died soon after the symptoms became apparent and the fourth died over the weekend, the official said.
Three other rhinos survived, zoo spokesman Mark Williams said. Williams declined to answer further questions.
The zoo's general manager, Matt Fuller, said bacterial infections, snake venom, toxins and many types of viruses have been ruled out as possible causes.
Fuller said in a statement that no other species at the zoo had been affected by the illness and the surviving rhinos, which have been placed in quarantine, are healthy.
"The rhino keepers and veterinary staff know and care for every individual in the herd, so this has been a huge shock, and we're all very sad and supporting each other through this difficult time," Fuller said.
Fuller said results of a microscopic examination of tissue from the rhino carcasses may be available next week, but he added that it could take several weeks to get results from virology cultures.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, white rhinos are classified as near endangered with an estimated 20,000 in the wild in Africa. The zoo's rhinos are from the southern white subspecies found in South Africa and Kenya.
Intombi and Aluka were brought to the zoo from the Kruger National Park in South Africa in 2003. Amira and Izizi were born in captivity.
Their ages ranged from around 7 to 16 years.
Fuller was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
Copyright 2012 USA TODAY
-
-
3:47
»
Kim Media
Kenya Monday invited India to participate in one of the largest infrastructure development projects in Africa-- the Lamu Port and Lamu Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET)."We invite Indian participation in this project. We want Indian participation in each and every aspect of this project. With excellent infrastructure development capacities shown by Indian companies they can compete in the project," Trade Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere said.Addressing the eighth India-Africa Project Partnership Summit here, he elaborated upon the scale and size of the project."There will be a railway line, a resort, a port, an oil pipeline and highway construction. India has a proven capability in developing of these infrastructure."According to Mwakwere, several countries have already entered the project and India would loose out if it did not move in soon."India should not be far behind, it has a presence in Africa for the last 900 years and it should maintain its leadership position. But other athletes (countries) are already there."Mwakwere also empathised the need for India to set up manufacturing facility in Kenya and said attractive sops will be provided to the Indian firms."We want value addition. The African market is opening up and there is demand but we also want employment, technology, transportation and training. We look towards India for this."
-
3:32
»
Kim Media
The truth about partnering is that the more educated you are, which increases your likelihood of success, the more likely you also are to have a spouse. Don't believe the hype. There are many men in the dating marketplace who see themselves as a will-be Barack Obama, and they are looking for a could-be Michelle Obama type who can alternately support and even lead as they go through this thing called life.But women aren't often told this, and as such, there's a big fear that our professional accomplishments will come at the expense of having a partner. Last week I spoke to a ladies-only room in Washington, D.C., at the National Black Law Students Association. My fellow panelists and I addressed issues ranging from getting ahead in a career and maintaining a healthy work-life balance to, of course, finding a mate.The students breezed through the first two topics, passively scribbling notes on their BlackBerrys and iPads, but it was the subject of dating and mating that got the high-powered room's full attention and took up most of the program. You could practically see the thought bubbles above every young woman's head, wondering about the myth too many other women have heard, and even bought into, about men being intimidated by a successful woman.Smart men -- the only kind you want as a partner -- know the advantage of having a power player by their side. After the panel, I struck up a conversation with a man in the lobby, also a lawyer, who was newly married and happily bragging about his wife's professional successes. He told me he had been the breadwinner in their relationship until she opened up a catering company that was currently making more money than he was earning. Thinking back to the panel I'd just finished, I asked, "Are you bothered by that?"He didn't let me down. After he looked at me blankly, trying to determine if I was serious, he exclaimed in a thick Southern accent, "Hell, no! When she's winning, I'm winning!" I've encountered many, many men who think like he does.Of course, not all men are this enlightened yet. (And not all successful women know what it takes to be a desirable partner. We'll get to that further down.) There are those who are genuinely insecure with their place in the world and can't stand to see anyone, much less their women, doing better than they are. But they will never tell you that. You can spot them quickly, though. They tend to cling wholeheartedly to the idea of tradition, are often overwhelmingly sexist and are masters at minimizing your accomplishments.Their core problem isn't with a woman's success or anyone else's; it's with them. Don't bother trying to change him, accommodate him and play small to make him feel big. As soon as you identify this type of man properly, call it a wrap and don't look back.I find that some successful women assume that any man who isn't interested in them must be the type of man I just described. "He's intimidated by my success!" has become a go-to scapegoat to make women feel better about themselves while they lick the wounds of rejection. It's also a way for women to avoid taking stock of how they played a role in the untimely demise of a relationship. Sometimes he's just not, or is no longer, interested, and it has nothing to do with your success and everything to do with you being clueless about how to make a relationship work. Sometimes a guy stops calling or offers up a "you're too busy" as an excuse to stop dating or end a relationship because the successful woman he was seeking acted as if her salary or degrees were stand-ins for things that actually matter to him, such as attentiveness, spending time together and support.The complaints I've heard from secure men about successful women are rarely about a woman's actual job but about her inability to spend quality time; to turn off the critical, demanding "work mode" persona; and to know how to make a man feel that he's needed or appreciated. Some guys might bail because they're intimidated by your success, but more lose interest because they don't like coming in second to a woman's job and being treated less like her man and more like the help.Demetria L. Lucas is a contributing editor to The Root, and the author of A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life.
-
-
6:48
»
Kim Media
It is hard to escape the images of “Konza City” in Kenya. Advertisements promoting the future high-tech hub, or “technopolis,” appear daily in the country's newspapers and show regularly on the state television network.The ambitious plan is the work of Dr. Bitange Ndemo, the permanent secretary of Kenya's Ministry of Information. A scale-model in the corner of his office shows off the grand scheme. Konza City will have its own international financial district, office buildings for technology companies and innovation labs, as well as manufacturing plants, artificial rivers and eventually homes, schools, churches and mosques.The Kenyan government bought a 2,000-hectare plot of land for the project about 60 kilometers from the capital, and is now seeking to hire a master developer to find investors and arrange the construction. The project will come together in two phases and will take about 20 years to complete. Inspired by his visit to Silicon Valley in the United States, the home of the U.S. high-tech industry, Ndemo says the project aims to attract international investors who either cannot find space in overcrowded downtown Nairobi, or who cannot find buildings that meet their standards. Underscoring the urgency of his point, on the day he spoke to VOA, a blackout had hit downtown Nairobi and the building housing the Ministry of Information was running on a back-up generator.“It doesn't take much to understand this project if you have lived here longer, because working in the city center here is such a mess,” he says.Silicon Valley in Kenya?Promoting the information technology (IT) industry is one of Kenya's key development goals in the coming years - part of an ambitious agenda known as Vision 2030.“We said, 'why don't we do a Silicon Valley here,' which has all the facilities such that when you get to work you know you would have power, you would have water, you would have electricity,” says Ndemo. “Konza City will be the first smart, green city in Africa.”Kenya's IT industry has been on a major upswing in the past few years, driven largely by advances in mobile phone technology. The World Bank says mobile phone subscriptions in Kenya rose by more than 25 percent between June 2010 and December of last year, while Internet users increased by 60 percent. Kenya is also the birthplace of the world's first mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa.As in the original Silicon Valley, much of Kenya's homegrown innovation is taking place inside small tech communities and social groups. The most well-known is called iHub, a meeting space, coffee shop and workshop in Nairobi where software developers, engineers and other creative minds come together to brainstorm new ideas.In a sense, Konza City is an attempt to capture the creative community spirit on a larger scale and to include some light manufacturing capacity as well. Erik Hersman, the founder of iHub, is cautiously optimistic about the plans.“I think it is viable, but its not just about building it and they will come. It's providing all the other incentives that are needed to make it a really attractive location,” he says. The other challenge, Hersman says, will be keeping it “tech focused.” He says that when developers get in there “they're going to start selling space to whoever will pay them.”Konza City is expected to cost about $10 billion, which will be funded mostly through public-private partnerships, with the Kenyan government footing up to $1 billion of the bill for new infrastructure. Who Will Come?Some major technology companies have announced plans to expand their businesses in Kenya. The U.S.-based computer company IBM announced plans this month to establish an innovation hub in Nairobi to increase its exposure in Africa. In February, Finland's Nokia said it too would fund a research center to support local developers. Ndemo says companies like these have expressed interest in Konza, but it is a little too early to say who, if anyone, has actually committed.The general manager for Microsoft in East and Southern Africa, Louis Onyango Otieno, has been on the job for 15 of Microsoft's 16 years in Nairobi. He fully supports the idea of Konza City, but says Microsoft has not decided whether it will buy in. “We haven't got to a point where we're sitting back and saying 'Are we doing that or not?' We're pretty much doing what we've been doing and if that's where it goes, that's where it goes,” he says.Otieno has no doubt that innovation will continue to thrive in East Africa, Konza or no Konza, and says attracting investors is like collecting iron with a magnet.“If that facility, or that initiative is designed to enhance the goals of a private investor, it's a no-brainer, they will go,” he says.Konza is not the first attempt at a planned city in Kenya. A $5 billion residential project called Tatu City was supposed to break ground last year. But the deal has been held up in court by a lawsuit between developers and shareholders.Konza City was supposed to break ground in April of this year, but it will also be delayed as the government continues to look for a master developer. It will be at least a year before the first buildings go up.
-
-
20:38
»
Kim Media
Kenyan police suspects Diana Sifuna Boyfriend Was a Crime of Passion
-
-
4:44
»
Kim Media
News from Nairobi indicates that comedian Eric Omondi and his brother Fred Omondi have managed to persuade Kenyan Prime Minister-Raila Odinga to record a song with them.
The collabo titled Kanyaga, a swahili word meaning step, is set for release next month. With Kenya going into the election period and Raila a top contender for the country’s biggest office,he might have picked a leaf from President Museveni’s song ‘You want another rap‘ that garnered him a support from the youths.
Meanwhile, more news from Kenya indicates that American RnB sensation Joe Thomas will be in Kibaki’s land come next month in a single concert.
The show is being organized by Capital FM Nairobi and sponsored by Tusker Lager, who took Shaggy, Eve and Cabo Snoop to Nairobi last year. Entry fee is Kshs3,000 (around Shs87,000).
-
-
5:30
»
Kim Media
The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing its plan for a biometric data system to track when immigrants leave the United States and will present it to Congress within "weeks," a top department official told a House Homeland Security subcommittee Tuesday.
An exit system to track who is leaving the country and when has been sought since before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. DHS officials, including Secretary Janet Napolitano, have agreed with the need for such a program but have previously said it would be too costly.
John Cohen, the department's deputy counter terrorism coordinator, did not discuss the cost in his testimony about the problem of immigrants who overstay visas. He said the department's report to Congress will explain how DHS plans to better determine who has overstayed their visa.
The criminal case against Amine El Khalifi, 29, of Alexandria, Va., accused in an alleged bomb plot against the U.S. Capitol, has renewed the debate about how the U.S. government -- a decade after the terror attacks of 2001 -- routinely fails to track millions of foreign visitors who remain in the country longer than they are allowed. El Khalifi was arrested in a parking lot, wearing what he thought was an explosive-laden suicide vest. He had been living illegally in the United States for 12 years.
The Obama administration doesn't consider deporting people whose only offense is overstaying a visa a priority. It has focused immigration enforcement efforts on people who have committed serious crimes or are considered a threat to public or national security.
Cohen said improvements in how data from immigrants is collected and stored has made it easier for law enforcement to identify visa overstays and determine if they pose a threat to national security or public safety.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., who led Tuesday's hearing, said El Khalifi "follows a long line of terrorists, including several of the 9/11 hijackers, who overstayed their visa and went on to conduct terror attacks." His tourist visa expired the same year he arrived from his native Morocco as a teenager in 1999.
She said 36 people who overstayed visas have been convicted of terrorism related charges since 2001.
"We have to recognize that we do have this problem," Miller said. "The truth is, in the 40 percentile of all the illegal (immigrants) are in this country on expired visas. They came in right through the front door."
El Khalifi, who is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, never came to the attention of federal law enforcement agencies even after a series of minor run-ins with police in northern Virginia from 2002 to 2006, including disobeying a traffic sign and speeding. Programs that could have identified him if he had been jailed by local authorities, including the Security Communities program that shares fingerprints from local jails with the FBI, were not in place at the time.
The Moroccan national didn't face a felony charge -- possession of marijuana with intent to distribute -- until last September, about nine months after he became the target of the FBI probe related to the alleged plot to destroy the Capitol. He has waived his right to a preliminary hearing.
El Khalifi, unemployed when he was arrested last month, is one of an estimated millions of illegal immigrants who came to the United States with a government-issued visa and never left. He never applied to become a U.S. citizen.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for deporting illegal immigrants, has routinely combed through visa records to try to identify people who have overstayed their welcome and deport those considered threats to the community or national security.
Cohen said Tuesday that more than 37,000 people who overstayed visas were deported from 2009 to 2011
Last year, ICE reviewed a backlog of about 1.6 million suspected overstay cases involving people who had come to the U.S. since 2004. The Homeland Security Department said the review concluded that about half of those people have either left the country or applied to change their immigration status. Of the remaining half, the cases of about 2,700 people were given further review. ICE officials have not said how many of those people were deemed a national security threat or were otherwise considered priority for deportation.
For the more than 797,000 others whose cases were not reviewed further, DHS officials said their overstay status was noted in electronic files in case any of them commit crimes in the future or otherwise become a priority to be deported.
Visa overstays have long been a concern of lawmakers and law enforcement. Some estimates suggest that as many as half of the country's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants have overstayed visas.
But finding illegal immigrants who, like El Khalifi, came to the United States before biometric data was collected and records were computerized around 2004 -- and who overstayed visas but haven't committed a crime -- can be difficult, if not impossible.
"It's very difficult to find those individuals, and those individuals aren't priorities until they commit a crime," said Julie Myers Wood, who was head of ICE from 2006 to 2008.
James Ziglar, who was head of the old Immigration and Naturalization Service from 2001 until it was folded into DHS in 2002, said immigration authorities made efforts to locate immigrants thought to be a threat to national security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But simply having overstayed a visa wouldn't have made illegal immigrants like El Khalifi a priority.
"We were certainly focused on trying to find bad people and connecting the dots with the Department of State and their visa records," Ziglar said. "I doubt very seriously he (El Khalifi) would have come up on the radar. He might have if you kept drilling down further and further just because of where he was from. But he would not have been, I think, an earlier target, just because there were more suspicious types."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/06/dhs-to-congress-biometric-immigrant-exit-tracking-system-coming-within-weeks/?cmpid=cmty_fb_Gigya_DHS_to_Congress%3A_Biometric_immigrant_exit_tracking_system_coming_within_'weeks'#ixzz1oSbHObuM
-
-
4:51
»
Kim Media
ATLANTA -- Georgia state senators passed an anti-immigrant bill SB 548 on Monday, by a vote of 34 to 19, that would close the doors of all of the state's public universities to undocumented students. The bill now heads to the Georgia House of Representatives. The future of the legislation remains uncertain: Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and House Speaker David Ralston have both said this is not the time to pass more anti-immigrant laws in the state. Undocumented students in Georgia already do not receive taxpayer-supported in-state tuition; they pay out-of-state tuition, which is about three times more expensive. If the bill becomes law, Georgia would join Alabama and South Carolina in banning undocumented students from public colleges.
Last year, Georgia was one of five states that passed a tough immigration state law modeled after Arizona's SB 1070. Georgia's HB 87, signed into law by Gov. Deal, is now being reviewed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. That court announced last week that it will delay its decision until after a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Arizona's SB 1070.
-
-
8:24
»
Kim Media
Question: I’ve heard the price of the Green Card Lottery interview has gone down. Is this true?
Answer: I am happy to report the price is greatly reduced. In fact, this is one of several recent modifications to the Green Card lottery, officially known as the Diversity Visa (DV) program.
The fees, education requirements, and scheduling for the program have all changed this year. This is of great importance to Kenyans, who have one of the highest rates of participation in the world.
Fee Changes
The US government has cut the fee for the DV program nearly in half. Applicants previously paid $819 per person, which could really add up with a large family. After a careful review of the program, the US has lowered the price to $440.
This amount is calibrated to cover the cost of processing, security checks, interviews and printing. The US collects no profit from program fees. One thing to keep in mind is that the money you pay is for the interview, not the visa, and so we provide no refunds to those who are denied.
According to US visa law, applicants for the DV must have a high school education. While we previously accepted a D plain KCSE average, a C plain average is actually commensurate with an American high school diploma. From now on, an applicant must have a C plain average to be issued a green card through the DV program.
This not only matches US visa law, but is also best for Kenyan emigrants. Currently, 37 percent of those with less than a high school education are unemployed in the United States. We want Kenyan-Americans to thrive in their new country, and education is the key to success.
Scheduling Changes
Last year, we did 28 percent of all DV interviews during the month of September. In order to accomplish this, we put most of our other interviews on hold. This meant long wait times for tourists, students, and other travelers needing interviews. In fairness to them, we will no longer be scheduling mass numbers of DV appointments in August and September.
DV applicants often book and then cancel appointments as many as five times, certain that they can always reschedule. Please note that this will no longer be possible. Once you have booked a DV appointment, please be sure to attend it as there is no guarantee of a second chance.
As always, the US Consular Section stands ready to serve the Kenyan public. We look forward to assisting you the next time you travel to America.
“Ask the Consul” is a monthly column. Do you have a question for the Consul? Use this email address to submit your questions for next month’s “Ask the Consul:” AskConsulNairobi@state.gov
-
8:17
»
Kim Media
Last week Moses Kuria wrote a piece titled ‘Who Will Replace Michuki, Karume.’ He spoke of how intriguing it is to listen to some of the narratives coming from Central Kenya; a region that I also agree is in a state of a shock following the death of these two wazees. Moses took the position that the region feels rudderless and confused. He concluded with the view that the most fitting tribute that Central Kenya can pay to Michuki and Karume is to focus seriously on developing a new progressive, intellectually competent and broad minded leadership.
Moses Kuria and I very rarely agree on anything that relates to the political direction of the Kikuyu community; however on this one I completely agree with his sentiments. The deaths of Michuki and Karume have exposed the (very soft) underbelly of the Central Kenya political leadership. Our strength as a political region is based on a leadership capacity that is threatened by natural attrition; with no effective transition processes for the next generation.
During Hon Karume’s funeral the retired President Moi got caught up in this discussion and, I’m sure based on best intentions, offered his advice on what the Kikuyu community and Central Kenya region should do. He advised the region to unite under Uhuru Kenyatta. The former president most probably took his cue from the late Michuki, whose funeral he had attended a few days earlier and who had publicly stated, on more than one occasion, his personal preference that Uhuru should take over as Kikuyu leader after Kibaki.
As for Moi’s advice. As a retired Head of State Moi understands clearly what an international judicial process means. He has also been quoted advising Kenyans to take matters pertaining to the ICC seriously, because they are bound to have a tremendous effect on the careers of anyone adversely affected by it. It is therefore ironical that despite all this he would advise Kikuyus to unite behind an individual who has been indicted by the same court for the greatest crimes in the world, especially when the court has ruled that there is substantial evidence to commit Uhuru Kenyatta to a full trial.
However let us even look outside the ICC indictments; Is Uhuru Kenyatta the leadership the Kikuyu community deserves, at a time such as this? Are his politics good for where the Kenya of this generation, needs to go?
I agree with those who speak about Uhuru Kenyatta’s leadership capacity. In my opinion Uhuru is one of a very small handful of politicians in Kenya today with the capacity, pedigree and platform to take Kenya forward to the next economic and socio-political level. As the son of Kenya’s founding President and one of Kenya’s wealthiest individuals, he even has a name identified with the formation of the Kenyan nation-state. Uhuru is a national brand that is recognized all over, locally and internationally. He can literally walk into any kiosk in any part of Kenya, and be recognized.
Uhuru Kenyatta’s social and educational background, as well as economic activities and formative political life, are also defined outside his Kikuyu identity. He is a wealthy businessman with investments in every part of Kenya, (one of the companies he is associated with even sponsors Gor Mahia!). This is a guy whose money can be defined as ‘international’ based on reports that he has investments in Europe and America.
Uhuru’s political debut in national politics was his outstanding performance as presidential contender against Kibaki, at the relatively young age of 42, in 2002. This is also when he made the impressive statement conceding defeat for the sake of unity in Kenya. In his entire campaign towards that 2002 general election he sold himself as a Kenyan leader, and in return he received support across the entire country to become number 2.
Uhuru Kenyatta is the epitome of what being ‘Kenyan’ is or should be, in this generation. He belongs to our generation; a generation that has not lived under the tribal identities; that has gone to school, done business, socialized and disagreed, within and across ethnic identities. He is a real part of the ‘i’ generation; (iPhone; iPad; etc).
Unfortunately, despite the opportunity he has had to comfortably build a successful political career as a Kenyan; Uhuru has decided to practice the politics of the older generation. Whereas he could easily use his immense capacity and brand as a young Kenyan (despite being 52) to unite Kenyans and rally them to national causes, he has chosen to use these resources to support a socio-political strategy that if successful, would ultimately divide the entire country into ethnic bastions.
This is why I believe Uhuru is not the leader I am looking for, whether as a Mugikuyu, or as a Kenyan; not unless he changes his entire political brand. Kenya really cannot afford another generation of divisive tribal politics. ‘Hiyo ni siasa mzee’ & we need Siasa Mpya.
-
-
6:59
»
Kim Media
WASHINGTON – When 50 Cent announced that part of the proceeds from his new energy drink would be used to help fight hunger in Africa, some questioned whether his motives were genuine.
But the rapper says he’s making a difference, and since a visit to the continent in early February, he’s a changed man.
“It enlightened me in different ways,” 50 Cent said. “To actually see people under the circumstances that I saw was a totally different experience. I don’t think you can prepare yourself for that, no matter how many times you’ve seen the images.”
The rapper-turned-humanitarian has a goal to provide 1 billion meals to hungry children over the next five years. Every purchase of Street King, an energy drink he launched last fall, will provide a meal for a person in need. So far, the rapper says he’s provided more than 3.5 million meals.
50 Cent said he was touched by the children he visited in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. He said the children were oblivious to their living situation, and showed the same optimistic energy you would see from American kids.
“They have one meal a day, the same meal every day,” he said. “There’s nothing there – within their eyes and the way that they interacted with each other – that would indicate that they feel deprived in any way. ... It made you want to pick them up and take them home with you, but you can’t.”
The trip led him to return to the studio to record new material.
“I’ve put portions of my experience there in the actual songs, but it’s so small that they’ll have to listen to get it,” he said. “I wanted to keep the record, creatively, in a space where when people listen to it, they just enjoy it before they can really understand what it was I’m saying; there’s things on it that have double meanings.”
-
5:57
»
Kim Media
THE ICC has taken keen interest in a Kenyan court case in which William Ruto is accused of improperly acquiring 100 acres of land that belonged to an IDP until the post-election violence. The case will be back in court on Monday.
Investigators believe the land case could be relevant to its prosecution of Ruto for crimes against humanity under the Rome statute. "The prosecution case against Ruto is for murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population and persecution," Florence Olara, spokesperson for the ICC's Chief Prosecutor, said. She neither confirmed nor denied the ICC's interest in the land.
ICC overall spokesman Fadi Abdallah declined to comment insisting that it fell within the "interest of the prosecution" and therefore only the prosecution could respond. IDP Adrian Muteshi went to court in 2010 accusing the MP of grabbing his 100 acre piece of land in Turbo, Uasin Gishu district. He has told the High Court that he was forced to abandon the land after chaos broke out in 2007 and found it occupied by Ruto when he went back.
Muteshi acquired a title deed for the land in 1989. In 1992 he also left the land following ethnic clashes but went back to farm on it until 2007. In early February, the lawyer of Eldoret North MP William Ruto said he wanted to surrender the 100 acres of land back to Muteshi. Lawyer Katwa Kigen told the High Court on Wednesday that Ruto wanted a settlement because the Ministry of Lands had decided that the title deed was not properly processed.
He added that the MP would then pursue Dorothy Yator who sold him the property. The hearing of the case was deferred on Wednesday to allow the lawyers representing Mr Muteshi and the MP discuss the terms of settlement. Lady Justice Rose Ougo gave the parties until March 5 to discuss and come up with a settlement. Under the Rome statute, the crime of forceful transfer of persons should include forceful transfer of "one or more persons" to another location by expulsion or other coercive acts. Such persons must have been lawfully in the area.
In the document used at the confirmation of charges hearing last October, the prosecution accused Ruto of forcible transfer of population in locations including Turbo town, the greater Eldoret area (Huruma, Kiambaa, Kimumu, Langas, and Yamumbi), Kapsabet town and Nandi Hills town in the Uasin Gishu and Nandi districts.
Olara also referred the Star to the prosecution's application for summons filed on December 15th, 2010 and on whose basis Ruto alongside journalist Joshua Sang, deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and former head of civil service Francis Muthaura are being charged at the ICC. "This is not the first time that the MP has been accused of grabbing, or fraudulently obtaining land in the country. In April 2011, the Courts let him off the hook because of a failure by the Prosecution to call the key witnesses in the Kenya Pipeline land saga," the International Centre for Policy and Conflict said in a statement posted on its website this week.
The ICPC said it intended to write to the DPP asking him to charge Ruto over the matter. "It looks like the chaos were meant to forcefully drive out people from their lands. Otherwise, why did he have to wait for the rightful owner to be driven out before acquiring it? If he meant to legally acquire it, he ought to have carried out a search at the Ministry of Lands to determine the rightful owner," ICPC says. ICPC boss Ndung'u Wainaina said that Ruto's admission also contravenes chapter six of constitution on leadership and integrity "which is unacceptable for a person who has intentions of leading a country."
http://allafrica.com/stories/201203030207.html
-
-
4:37
»
Kim Media
A retired semi-professional footballer who claims his faith ruined his chances of playing for Manchester United is suing the Baptist Church for £10 million.
In a case reminiscent of the 2001 Billy Connolly film The Man Who Sued God, Arquimedes Nganga accused religious leaders of deceiving him "into following false beliefs".
Mr Nganga, 46, from Forest Hill, said he could have earned £20,000 a week, despite never making more than £200 a month in his home country Portugal's Third Division. He quit the sport aged 25 when he converted to the Baptist faith.
He said: "I could definitely have had a long career in the Premiership. I see many players playing today who I am not inferior to - and perhaps even better than. Most midfielders are either defensive or attacking but I was both. I had something new."
After converting in 1989, Mr Nganga spent 19 years as a "fervent evangelist", devoting his life to the Bible and abstaining from sex. Now he is suing the leaders of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, who, he says, "conspired to defraud me of my finances, time and my life".
In papers filed in the High Court, he accuses the church of destroying his social life, causing him "psychological harm" and defrauding him of money through compulsory donations.
The writ blames church leaders for physical assaults Mr Nganga suffered at the hands of people he was trying to convert. It states: "They got upset and reacted violently after being told that they were sinners. I was slapped and punched, and kicked in my left knee, breaking its cartilage."
The church said today that it would vigorously contest the claim. As well as suing the British arm, Mr Nganga has begun a legal battle with the US-based Baptist World Alliance and has written a book, The Millenary Fraud.
-
2:54
»
Kim Media
THE Swiss government has frozen three bank accounts associated with Anglo Leasing suspect Deepak Kamani and opened money laundering charges against him and two Britons.
“The Swiss government has delivered on the requests regarding the money trail of Anglo Leasing suspects as requested by the Kenya government. The Swiss authorities believe that it was a case of money laundering. They also believe that the suspects infringed on the laws of Switzerland. The accounts that have been frozen belong to three individuals. The individuals are among those who set up the financial structure,” said Swiss ambassador Jacques Pitteloud in Nairobi yesterday. The two Britons were not named.
An unconfirmed report says that Kamani-associated companies may have had US$160 million (Sh13.6 billion) in accounts in Geneva with HSBC, Schroders, UBS and Pictet. In 2009 US national Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months for helping clients hide their money in a multibillion dollar international tax fraud over Swiss private banking. Bradley was intimately connected with the Kamani brothers – Deepak and Rashmi – who controlled 13 of the Anglo Leasing companies whose accounts Bradley managed when he worked for UBS.
Bradley’s private residential address was listed as the office of Midlands Finance and Securities Ltd which received 36 irrevocable and negotiable promissory notes worth euros 49.6 million for a sham loan that Kenya never received as part of the Anglo Leasing scam. Bradley also signed one of the 18 Anglo Leasing contracts on behalf of Info Talent to computerise the police force at a cost of $59.7 million (Sh5.1 billion). Two years ago, the Swiss government complained that a “conflict of competence” had arisen when then Attorney General Amos Wako invalidated a request for assistance made by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate those responsible. The KACC was also expected to recover assets acquired through Anglo Leasing.
The Swiss government was unable to act on the KACC request until now when new Attorney General Githu Muigai renewed the request for assistance last month. Yesterday, Pitteloud, flanked by his deputy Siri Walt, declared that the days when Switzerland was used as a money laundering haven were over. He said that Switzerland has co-operated with Kenya and will continue to do so. He said it was now up to the Kenya government to prosecute those involved. “The office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has completed the execution of eight requests for assistance in connection with the Anglo Leasing affair,” said Pitteloud.
He said his government would itself soon be making similar requests for assistance to the Kenya government. “The findings made so far from the comprehensive analyses have made further investigations essential. In the coming months, the Swiss Attorney General will be making his own request for assistance to various states with the aim of establishing whether money laundering has been committed or not,” said Pitteloud.
Last year, Treasury directed AG Amos Wako and then Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission director PLO Lumumba to recover Sh3.83 billion from Anglo Leasing suspect Deepak Kamani. Wako was also asked to trace and recover assets acquired through Anglo Leasing. The directive followed a Cabinet meeting that terminated four contracts awarded to companies associated with the Kamanis. The contracts were for security vehicles to be supplied by Leyland Exports/Silverspoon Establishment; the construction of a forensic laboratory by Forensic Laboratories Ltd; tamper-proof passports for the Immigration Department by Anglo Leasing and Finance Ltd; and the E-cop police computerisation project financed by Infotalent.
-
2:47
»
Kim Media
he Presbyterian Church of the Mountain, Main Street, Delaware Water Gap will host a display and sale of contemporary artwork by young Kenyan artists, "Scenes from Kisumu," 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the church.
All proceeds will benefit the Alice Visionary Project, a nonprofit organization based in the United States that provides support through education, water quality, health care and poverty alleviation to those affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Kenya.
Church of the Mountain hosts a Mission Team that supports the Alice Visionary Project both by traveling to Kenya, providing education and health care, and by facilitating the sale of Kenyan jewelry and artwork.
All proceeds from Saturday's sale will directly benefit the Alice Visionary project.
Admission is free. For information, call 570-421-3717.
-
-
10:55
»
Kim Media
On Friday 23
rd February, Ambassador Elkanah Odembo visited Hon. Beth Mugo; the Minister for Public Health & Sanitation who has just completed the first phase of preventive treatment for breast cancer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Ambassador found the Minister looking well and in remarkably good spirits in the company of her husband Ambassador Nicholas Mugo.
Hon. Mugo shared with the Ambassador that she had held discussions with Senior Vice President of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania on a proposal where the University would support a cancer program in Kenya. The Minister also affirmed that the Cancer Prevention and Control Bill was up for debate in Parliament and hence the government was committed to prevention and control of cancers.
Ambassador Odembo in return briefed the Minister on discussions he has held with a number of US based Cancer Institutions like the MD Anderson Cancer Center & others, where Kenya would benefit in Cancer research, screening, control and prevention. The Ambassador also informed the minister that there were several Kenyans in the US who were Cancer researchers and Oncologists who were willing to work with the government for the betterment of cancer management in the country. The Ambassador further stated that it is critical and essential that the Government of Kenya establish an infrastructure that would facilitate the engagement of Kenyan Medics in the US. These Diaspora Medics have keen interest to support Kenya?s effort to improve and enhance health care and health services, especially the Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
Hon. Mugo supported the Ambassador?s views and reiterated that linkages are very important and she would liaise with her colleague in the Ministry of Medical Services; Hon. Anyang? Nyong?o to tap into the Diaspora?s expertise and capacity in order to enhance Kenya?s Health system?s ability to manage cancer through prevention, early detection and prompt affordable treatment.
This courtesy call took place a day after former cabinet Minister Hon. Njenga Karume passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer. Hon. Mugo and Hon. Nyong?o have both come out publicly that they have been diagnosed and treated for cancer. Minister Mugo was also optimistic that sharing her experience would help to enlighten Kenyans on the importance of recognizing possible warning signs of cancer and taking prompt action for early diagnosis and treatment.
The minister also said she would be returning to Kenya in a few days time, and Ambassador Odembo observed that Minister Mugo has actually continued to attend to some of her Ministry duties even while in the US.
Joy
KENYA EMBASSY WASHINGTON DC
-
4:37
»
Kim Media
Tea sales at the weekly Mombasa auction have fallen below last year's levels for the first seven weeks of the year with traders blaming slow shipment of cargo, heralding lower returns for growers in the short-term.
Market data showed that a kilogramme of tea has been sold at an average $2.64 compared to last year's $2.85, representing a 7.3 per cent drop.
"Buyers have not been active because of the risk of remaining stranded with cargo for too long at the port," Peter Kimanga of Global Teas and Commodities said.
The volume of crop offered for sale at the auction has also dropped due to dry weather conditions that affected production as well as recent incidents of frost attacks in some growing areas in Kenya.
Traders said the hitches in shipment of cargo through the port of Mombasa have affected demand from buyers.
The port of Mombasa is currently experiencing cargo congestion, which Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) attributed to lack of space following delays by importers and clearing agents to collect containers from the port and the various container freight stations in good time.
"Nobody is prepared to make large orders because of the fear of attracting other costs such as storage charges as you wait to get a passage through the port," Peter Lang'at, a dealer said.
"This has affected performance of the auction."
The port is important to the region because besides Kenya it also serves several neighbouring landlocked countries including Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, which rely on it for shipments of vital commodities and oil.
The congestion is likely to have a dent cause a dent on the earnings of Kenyan tea growers unless normalcy is restored.
Statistics from the auction indicated that Kenyan tea has been sold at an average $2.92 a kilo this year compared to $ 3.12 last year, a drop of 6.4 per cent.
"The signs at the start of the year are not good in terms of prices and something needs to be addressed to clear hitches such as congestion at the port that is affecting demand," Mr Kimanga said.
Kenya earned a record Sh109 billion from tea exports last year despite a drop in volumes, thanks to high prices and a weaker local currency against the dollar.
The country produced 377 million kilogrammes last year, down five per cent from 399 million kilogrammes in the previous period, when it had earned Sh97 billion from the crop.
Traders remained optimistic of a good performance this year if the congestion at the port of Mombasa is cleared. The KPA is currently undertaking measures to ease the congestion.
The authority said last Wednesday it planned to auction containers that have stayed for more than 100 days at the port after a special waiver on storage charges failed to entice their owners to remove them. KPA had in December announced it would waive storage charges on the over-stayed containers if their owners committed by next month, as part of efforts to clear congestion that is affecting the shipment of key items through the facility.
But with only two days to the deadline more than 200 containers of cargo remained uncollected stacked at the port amid growing protest by traders inconvenienced by congestion.
Besides efforts by KPA to ease congestion, Kenya Revenue Authority also plans to destroy 437 over-aged vehicles at the port starting next month.
-
4:26
»
Kim Media
A ship's anchor is to blame for Internet disruptions that could last days in six East African countries, according to a report.
The anchor hit fibre-optic cables off Kenya's coast in a restricted area while the ship was waiting to dock in Mombasa, the BBC reports.
The misplaced anchor is now causing a slowdown of high-speed Internet connections in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and in Juba, the capital of the Republic of South Sudan, according to the report.
Internet connections are expected to slow by 20 percent and it could be two weeks before the cables are repaired.
High-speed Internet is relatively new in East Africa. There are three major cable networks, the EASSY, TEAMS (The Eastern African Marine System)and SEACOM, that were implemented in 2009 and 2010.
Cables that are run TEAMS were affected, according to the BBC.
-
-
9:32
»
Kim Media
Duncan Ndegwa is a former head of the Kenyan Civil Service and Governor of the Central Bank. He published his autobiography Walking in Kenyatta Struggles in 2006.
It’s a tale of history of Kenya, struggle for independence, nation building versus devolution, disengaging Asians from commerce & Europeans from Government while Africanizing the civil service, reigning in unrealistic expectations of newly independent leaders etc. In it, some leaders like Odinga Oginga, Gikonyo Kiano, and Charles Njonjo don’t come out positively and there are a whole lost of personality stories that you won't believe.. There are more biographies and books - some thin on the money talk, and they will be reviewed in a slate condensed format in a continuing series.
Reigning in budgets & spending
- Ndegwa argues that the uncontrolled government spending was the disease that crippled Kenya in the 1980’s leading to paralysis in the early 1990’s (444). (Earlier), Kenyatta supported a balanced budget and gave strict instructions to permanent secretaries - if you over-spend, you will be the first to go (485)
- Britain gave Kenya a 60 million pound golden handshake at independence But 12M went to settlement schemes, 13M to pensions of expatriates, 10M to technical assistance, and the balance to the military (312)
-The coffee boom of the 1970’s enable the government to buy embassy properties in New York, Washington & London, and aircraft for East African Airways (494)
- Devaluation of the British pound in 1967 had an impact on all the East African whose currencies were pegged to the pound (478). The government also had to come up other measures forex such as discouraging luxury imports when the country reserves dwindled after the oil crisis (470)
- Some foreign companies were borrowing all their working capital in Kenya, while repatriating all their profits abroad (476)
- Ndegwa came up with a blueprint for the government in 1962 that he called the Kazi plan that emphasized labour intensive schemes (Page 240)
- He proposed that Kenya print her own currency and manufacture bullets (simple technological processes that would save foreign currency) but both projects were shot down by President Moi on advice of Njonjo (461)
Africans in Business: - The Crown Land Ordinance of 1915 deprived Africans of land ownership . in the 1960’s Africans were allowed to grow coffee under a (government) Swynnerton plan that also included issuance of free title deeds (232)
- Njenga Karume was one of the first Africans to be allowed to own a chequebook (472)
- Ndegwa chaired the commission that allowed civil servants to engage in private business and own property like any other citizen(497). He maintained that the greatest danger the civil service faced was pressure from politicians (500)
East African affairs: - Kenya sought military assistance from Uganda & Tanzania to send troops to Somalia which also refused to cease hostilities in cross-border matters (352)
- Britain offered Kenya as a second home for Jewish settlements, but people like Delamere kept Kenya from becoming a Jewish settlement ( 368)
- The Kenya Attorney General appeared determined to sabotage the East African community (401)
Eccentric Cabinet & Ministers: - Presidents should not be shown the central bank vaults - Kenyatta saw the CBK’s and shooed away his security men so they would not be tempted (460) while Uganda's Amin demanded that their vault money be put into circulation - over-riding the advice of his governor who paid with his life (471)
- Was Odinga really a Marxist? Up till the 1960’s he was a struggling capitalist trying to build a viable trading company (363)
- Mwai Kibaki & Munyua Waiyaki kept out of full cabinet positions until they moved away from Tom Mboya (376). Earlier, Kibaki & Mboya came up with a highly respected development blueprint for the country.
- The Finance Minister missed the opening ceremony of the Central Bank (282) and later denied that he had a drinking problem (43)
-
9:27
»
Kim Media
LONDON—World leaders ended a much-hyped international conference Thursday by vowing to help Somalia establish a democratic government after 20 years of lurching from one crisis to another.
Just how that will be accomplished in the highly complex country remained uncertain, but given the low profile here of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, it’s clear Canada will not be taking a leading role.
At a brief news conference with Canadian journalists after Thursday’s meetings, hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Baird said Canada would not appoint an ambassador to Somalia — as Britain did earlier this month — and will not follow Turkey’s lead in establishing an embassy in Mogadishu.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1135683--act-now-or-pay-the-price-somalia-meeting-told
“I’m just not convinced the security situation on the ground would allow us to send Canadian personnel into Mogadishu at this time,” Baird said.
Somalia coverage
But he did announce some security support for Somalia. A Ugandan police force that Canada and the Netherlands had promised to equip for a mission to Darfur, Sudan, in 2010, but which was never dispatched, will instead be deployed to Somalia.
The issue of military intervention in the troubled nation hung over the conference, and both Cameron and Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said they would support airstrikes to fight the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab waging a war in Somalia’s south.
But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said airstrikes “would not be a good idea, and we have absolutely no reason to believe that anyone, certainly not the United States, is considering that.”
Military agenda at Somalia conference
While the messages coming out of the conference weren’t consistent, the communique issued at the gathering’s conclusion — signed by the 55 high-level delegates — made clear the objectives that must be achieved to ensure stability for the world’s most notorious failed state.
It’s a daunting to-do list: Tackle terrorism, piracy, government corruption and the humanitarian crisis with one international voice, and let Somalia take the lead.
Cameron opened the conference with the warning that the world must act now or “pay the price” for Somalia’s battle with the Shabab, which has recruited members from Somali diasporas in the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere.
“This is not just the largest gathering of countries and organizations that have ever come together to discuss the issues in Somalia, it’s also the most influential,” Cameron said in his opening remarks.
“If the rest of us just sit back and look on, we will pay a price for doing so. So as an international community, it is in all our interests to try and help the Somali people address these problems.”
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this is “an opportunity we cannot afford to miss,” while Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki called the conference a “defining moment in the history of Somalia.”
But many leaders came here weighed down by the political baggage of past failed foreign policies — or accusations that they are fighting for their own regional interests.
Baird and Clinton were among the leaders who praised Wednesday’s vote by the UN Security Council to increase the number of African Union troops in Somalia to almost 18,000. The AU troops, known as AMISOM, have propped up Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and managed to expel the Shabab from Mogadishu.
But Somalia is traditionally hostile to foreign meddling and a small group of demonstrators waving Somali flags outside Lancaster House — the ornate central London venue where leaders gathered — represented those calling for an end to interventions by Ethiopian and Kenyan forces now fighting alongside AMISOM in the south.
“We’re demanding that the British government not intervene in Somalia because we have watched what has happened in Iraq and other countries,” said Duale Yusuf, a member of the Somali Youth Congress. “We created this problem ourselves and the only people who can solve this problem are the Somali people.”
Turkey appears to be one country that has escaped that criticism. Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s minister of Foreign Affairs, capitalized on this goodwill, noting his country’s humanitarian and diplomatic involvement in Somalia.
“We have to be present on the ground . . . this is psychologically important,” he said, urging other countries to join Turkey in establishing missions in Somalia — instead of diplomatic caretaking from Nairobi.
Along with Ankara, the UN’s Political Office for Somalia, UNPOS, also returned to the capital in January after a 17-year absence.
Another presence that was strongly felt at the conference was that of the Shabab. The group was mentioned in almost every address by delegates and was highlighted as the major obstacle to Somalia’s peace.
The media-savvy wing of the group issued its own statement about the conference Thursday — returning to familiar rhetoric that warned the London conference was a gathering of Christian “crusaders” intent on dividing Somalia.
“We now stand more defiant, more stronger and more determined in the face of this imperialistic campaign,” the news release stated.
While Somalia’s TFG leaders — backed by Qatar, Turkey and Scandinavian nations — have advocated negotiations with the Shabab, Clinton indicated that the U.S. would not support such talks.
The Shabab controls much of Somalia’s south, but the group is believed to be fractured along ideological lines, with some members supporting the recent merger with Al Qaeda and others focused on a nationalistic, not global, agenda.
-
9:16
»
Kim Media
On the 900-mile trek of mostly desert that stretches between Eritrea and Egypt, hunting for humans has become routine.
Eritrean refugees who have fled their homeland fall prey to Bedouin or Egyptian traffickers. The refugees are held for ransom. Those with relatives abroad who can pay for their release might survive. Those who do not are often killed. The United Nations confirms that some are harvested for their organs — their livers and kidneys sold on the black market — while others, the young and able, are sold off. One survivor told the U.N., “People catch us, sell us like goats.”
Slavery is alive and well in the 21st century. There are more people enslaved today than at any other time in history. The U.S. State Department says that estimates of those enslaved through human trafficking ranges from 4 million to 27 million.
Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal business in the world, according to the State Department. It ranks only second to drug trafficking in profitability, bringing in an estimated $32 billion annually. The majority of those trafficked are young adults between ages 18 and 24 — but children also make up a large part of it. Almost all have experienced either sexual exploitation or violence, often both, during their time being enslaved.
But the statistics can be disputed. The United Nations notes that “the lack of accurate statistics is due only in part to the hidden nature of the crime, and that the lack of systematic reporting is the real problem.” In other words, the number of those trafficked worldwide might be far greater than what is estimated.
What we do know is that traffickers practice the trade with relative impunity. In 2006 there were 5,808 trafficking prosecutions and 3,160 convictions worldwide, which would mean that one person is convicted for every 800 people trafficked.
Though most of those trafficked are exploited for their labor or are thrown into sexual servitude, the area that’s particularly grotesque is the organ trade. One human rights lawyer who did not want to give his name said cases involving the removal of human organs for transplantation are more miserable than those involving genocide.
“At one end someone is killed for their organs, which in some perhaps overly theoretical way is worse than murder,” he said. “In the latter, the victim’s death is at least a motive — the murderer seeks to kill a human being. In the former, the victim is merely a box containing an object, and the murder is merely the process of throwing out the box and wrapping.”
The international commodification of humans is becoming the new norm of our age. In Bangkok, Thailand, a “baby factory” was discovered last year in which more than a dozen Vietnamese women were impregnated (some were raped), and their babies were sold for adoption. Whether or not the babies — unregistered, non-existent in the eyes of the law — were truly adopted, raised to be slaves or farmed out for body parts is not known.
What is certain is that Vietnam, like many other impoverished countries with a growing population of young people, has become a major supply country, where vulnerable young women and girls are in high demand on the international market. In certain bars in Ho Chi Minh City, rural girls are routinely trucked in to parade at auction blocks. The girls are often naked except for a tag with a number on it, and in the audience are foreigners — South Koreans, Taiwanese and mainland Chinese are the main consumers — who call them down for inspection. They leave together under the pretense of marriage after the paperwork is done, but many end up in brothels or sweatshops instead.
Diep Vuong, executive director of Pacific Links Foundation, an organization that works to combat human trafficking by providing education to the poor in Vietnam, is pessimistic. Overpopulated and dwindling in resources, Vietnam is full of young, uneducated people.
“The only resource we have left in abundance are the humans themselves,” she noted wryly. “We’re moving toward the Jonathan Swift version of reality.”
While children of the poor are not being eaten as Swift sarcastically suggested, they are being abducted and enslaved. They work in the fields as slave laborers as in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa plantation where half a million children work and provide 40 percent of the world’s chocolate — something most of them have never tasted. Or they are abducted at ages as young as 5 in Uganda and forced to become soldiers. Or they work in the carpet and brick factories of South Asia, many shackled and branded by their masters. Those too weak to work are killed off and thrown into rivers.
Closer to home, border drug cartels have incorporated the lucrative human trade into their business, and in some parts of Mexico they have the tacit support of the local authorities. Mass graves were discovered last year full of migrants’ corpses. Their crime: They weren’t worth much alive.
The forces of globalization have only intensified the trade in humans. After the Cold War ended, borders became more porous. New forms of information technology have helped integrate the world market. Increasing economic disparity and demand for cheap labor have spurred unprecedented mass human migration. The poor and desperate fall prey to the lure of a better life.
Nongovernmental organization workers who battle trafficking often describe victims as being “tricked.”
In March 2004, eBay shut down sales when it discovered that three young Vietnamese women were being auctioned off, with a starting bid of $5,400. Their photos were displayed. The “items” were from Vietnam and would be “shipped to Taiwan only.”
“I was browsing on the Internet and this guy kept trying to chat with me,” one Vietnamese teenager rescued from a brothel in Phnom Penh recounted. “There’s a coffee shop in Cambodia. He said I could make money over there.”
They crossed the border from Vietnam to Cambodia, and she soon became enslaved. She was saved in a police raid, just as the traffickers were planning to move her again. The madam “was waiting for more girls to show up to ship us to Malaysia,” she said. Her fake passport had already been made.
The trafficking network is sophisticated and well organized, and if the lure of money and a better life elsewhere becomes the entrapment of the poor and vulnerable, the abundance of cheap labor coupled with an atmosphere of impunity becomes the seduction for others to become traffickers.
“A slave purchased for $10,000 could end up making her owner $160,000 in profits before she dies or runs away,” Siddharth Kara noted in a talk on sex trafficking at the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University. In fact, a child in Vietnam can be bought for as little as $400.
Slavery is not going away because the agony of human enslavement remains largely invisible in the public discourse. It is just as shocking that Eritrean refugees are hunted nightly by traffickers as it is that their story remains hidden in darkness.
NAM editor Andrew Lam is author of "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres," and "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora." His next book, "Birds of Paradise," is due out in 2013.
-
-
9:00
»
Kim Media
We regret announce the sudden passing of John Stephen Mutero Kanyotu, in Portland, ME on Friday, February 10th, 2012 of natural causes. He was son to the late James Kanyotu and Margaret Murigu (Nairobi). Brother to George Kanyotu (Dallas,TX), John Kariuki (Nairobi), the late Steve Njau, Christopher Ngata, Stephanie Gathoni, Willy Kihara, Japhat Kariuki and Rose Nyawira.
There will be a memorial service held in Dallas on Sunday 02/19/2012 starting 3pm at:
Upendo Baptist Church
916 N. Jupiter Rd
Garland, TX 75042
972.276.9704; 214.868.6007
The will also be two main fundraisers to be held as follows:
Dallas, TX on Saturday, February 18th, 2012 from 5p-9:30p at:
Nai Sports Grill Addison
15375 Addison Rd.
Addison, TX, 75001
Atlanta, GA on Sunday, February 19 from 2:00-11:30 pm at:
The home of Eddie Kahi
411 Darter Dr
Kennesaw Ga, 30144
----------------------------------
***A Memorial Fund account has been set up for those who cannot make it to the fund-raisers but would like to support the family on transport and funeral costs:
Bank Name: Wells Fargo Bank (Georgia)
Account Name: John Stephen Mutero Kanyotu Memorial Fund (Just ask for it by name)
Deposits can be made at any Wells Fargo nationwide.
For more information, please contact the following people:
Atlanta:
Eddie Kahi: 678.933.3548
Tony Mwaniki: 678.683.8883
Mike Mwariri: 678.886.6249
Wawa Joseph: 404.925.2556
Evans Obino: 678.886.2355
Edwin 'Eddu' Shadeya 404.396.5216
Nelson 'Mandela' Obul 404.322.5124
Bernice Mathai 678.777.2287
Ian Murigu 804.497.6471
Dallas:
Raymond Hamisi: 214.929.8965
George Kanyotu: 678.525.6947
Mike Muu: 214.649.5089
Daudi Mueke: 469.682.7112
His friends knew him as the life of any event; he seemed to live his life without reservation, and we who were privileged to know him were immediately infected by his verve and zest for life.We were blessed to have him in our lives.
May God rest his soul in eternal peace and continue to bless those left behind.
-
2:59
»
Kim Media
Roughly half of all girls in slums of Kenya have sex with older men in exchange for sanitary napkins. In response to these estimates, healthcare advocates are distributing napkins to girls as part of a nationwide campaign.
Health educator Lydiah Njoroge, a field officer for the Freedom for Girls Program, an initiative of HEART (Health Education Africa Resource Team), distributes towels to girls in Mathare, a collection of Nairobi ghettos where poverty is so severe that girls are unable to purchase even the most affordable brands.
"The least [expensive] in the market is 40 shillings ... a packet that has eight pieces in it," says Njoroge. "So, because this girl cannot afford 40 shillings -- their mother, their parents are poor, they have other things to provide food and shelter - sanitary towels are not a priority. So the girl just goes [and] has sex with an older man, most of the time not the same man -- they would have one this month, another one next month, so they are very, very at risk of having HIV."
In other words, for 40 shillings - about 50 cents - girls and young women repeatedly put their lives at risk.
Lack of education
According to Njoroge and fellow teachers in Mathare, about 50 percent of girls between 10 and 19 have had sex with older men to pay for a range of basic items. But sanitary napkins are a uniquely critical resource: Not only are they vital to a young woman's health, but, without them, schoolgirls are forced to stay home during menstrual cycles, missing up to five days of class each month.
"It depends on the immediate need," says Janet Nzioka, deputy head teacher of Mathare's St. James School, explaining that girls use any remaining funds for food and clothing. "You can get food maybe at home, but, you know, sanitary towels, some of that you have to buy, so they prefer buying."
Lack of sex education at home, she adds, is another significant part of the problem.
"Let me say that people are becoming wicked," Nzioka says. "When these men approach these girls, they give in. Why? Because the parents sometimes are far from them, they have no time to talk about sex education with them. So when any man approaches them and they are ready to offer money in exchange for sex, they just say yes."
Twelve-year-old Ivone, a student from the Mathare Community Development Education Center, is all too familiar with these exchanges.
"When I’m just walking on the way, they call you," she says. "But my friends, sometimes they go. Sometimes they don’t go. But me, I said no to sex, but some are poor and they want that, they tell those men to give them money, then they do sex."
A 14-year-old friend, she says, has had sex with men her father’s age for money to buy napkins.
"They did sex, then the men were not having money, they were just lying," says Ivone. "Then, after doing sex, they left her there."
Njoroge says resources in the slums are so scarce that it's often difficult for girls to find any kind of substitute materials.
"These other materials are not also available," she says. "They have three, four, five siblings after them. So you tear a blanket today - tomorrow, in a year, you don’t have any blanket to cover yourself with."
But without sanitary napkins in particular, she says, long-term life goals are compromised, which is why the distribution campaign helps to keep girls like Ivone in school longer.
"Last year, [after] the national examinations, the Grade Eight exams, I was excited to hear that girls in most schools that I had been to during the distribution had topped [passed], and are being called to good secondary schools," says Njoroge. "That girl, you know, she told me she has a dream of being a nurse, a teacher, and in the next 10 years she will be that."
All because something as basic as a sanitary napkin, a year's supply of which, according to Freedom for Girls, costs roughly $5 per girl.
-
-
14:28
»
Kim Media
Prostitutes in Zambia offering free sex after spectacular "David vs. Goliath" 1-0 semi final victory by Zambia over Ghana in ongoing Africa Cup of Nations Soccer Tournament... Viva Zambia...
Read story below...
PROSTITUTES in Lusakas Kanyama, John Laing, Chawama and Kalingalinga compounds last night offered themselves free of charge to every Jim and Jack as part of their celebration after Zambia beat Ghana 1-0.
A check by The Independent Post (TIP) at nightclubs such as Kanyamas Kanchembele and Chine Chikayeba found long queues of men waiting to have sex with a limited number of prostitutes.
A single prostitute served nearly 11 men and there were more than 200 men wanting to celebrate Zambias first qualification to the Africa Cup final since 1994 in style.
The situation was the same at John Laings Corogo night Club which is situated just opposite John Laing Basic School. But at Corogo, a man in his mid twenties was beaten up after he took long to attain orgasm when his turn to have sex with the prostitute came.
Yes, we beat him up because he took too long to ejaculate. We were too many of us on line and the guy kept on wasting time on top of the prostitute, said an eye-witness, identified only as James.
And in Chawama as well as Kalingalinga, TIP correspondents say only a handful of prostitutes were made to serve tens of Chipolopolo fans.
But another soccer fan who claims not have taken part in the mass servicing of prostitutes said the development was unfortunate. Mike Tembo suspected that many young people might have contracted the HIV virus and other STIs during the sexual celebration.
I think when Zambia plays the final, free condoms need to be provided so that we can protect our young men. Many of them had sex with the prostitutes without condoms, Tembo said.
Zambias win over Ghana sent the whole Zambia into wild celebration. Soccer fans celebrated the win in all manner of ways. Fortunately, no deaths were recorded at the time this story was published.
Coach Herve Renard said that he was happy that Zambia has told the world through the beating of the Black stars that Ghana are still toddlers.
Weve won and I am very happy. At least weve shown the world that Ghana are toddlers, Renard said.
He added that Zambia will now be aiming at beating Ivory Coast on February 12.
Ghana paid the penalty as Asamoah Gyan saw a penalty saved before Zambia scored with their only attack of the second half in a 1-0 win in their African Cup of Nations semi-final in a sodden Bata.
Zambia substitute Emmanuel Mayuka completed a smash-and-grab victory for the Chipolopolo boys as he tucked the ball beyond Ghana keeper Adam Kwarasey from 22 yards on 79 minutes to complete a miserable day for the 2010 World Cup quarter-finalists.
Zambia will return to the Gabon capital of Libreville for the final, 19 years after the fallen heroes were tragically wiped out when a plane crashed heading towards Dakar for a World Cup qualifier with Senegal in 1993.
Source of story:http://www.kenyanlist.com/kls-listing-show.php?id=79394
-
-
5:51
»
Kim Media
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Nobel Peace Prize officials were facing a formal inquiry over accusations they have drifted away from the prize's original selection criteria by choosing such winners as President Barack Obama, as the nomination deadline for the 2012 awards closed Wednesday.
The investigation comes after persistent complaints by a Norwegian peace researcher that the original purpose of the prize was to diminish the role of military power in international relations.
If the Stockholm County Administrative Board, which supervises foundations in Sweden's capital, finds that prize founder Alfred Nobel's will is not being honored, it has the authority to suspend award decisions going back three years - though that would be unlikely and unprecedented, said Mikael Wiman, a legal expert working for the county.
Obama won in 2009, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won in 2010, and last year the award was split between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.
For this year's award, Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina, jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Cuban rights activists Oswaldo Paya and Yoani Sanchez are among the candidates who have been publicly announced by those who nominated them.
The secretive prize committee doesn't discuss nominations - which have to be postmarked by Feb. 1 to be valid - but stresses that being nominated doesn't say anything about a candidate's chances.
Fredrik Heffermehl, a prominent researcher and critic of the selection process, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that "Nobel called it a prize for the champions of peace."
"And it's indisputable that he had in mind the peace movement, i.e. the active development of international law and institutions, a new global order where nations safely can drop national armaments," he said
Especially after World War II, the prize committee, which is appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, has widened the scope of the prize to include environmental, humanitarian and other efforts, he said.
For example, in 2007 the prize went to climate activist Al Gore and the U.N.'s panel on climate change, and in 2009 the committee cited Obama for "extraordinary efforts" to boost international diplomacy.
"Do you see Obama as a promoter of abolishing the military as a tool of international affairs?" Heffermehl asked rhetorically.
Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and inventor, gave only vague guidelines for the peace prize in his 1895 will, saying it should honor "work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
Nobel said the peace prize should be awarded by a Norwegian committee, and the other Nobel Prizes by committees in Sweden. The two Scandinavian nations were in a union at the time.
Geir Lundestad, the nonvoting secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, dismissed Heffermehl's claims.
"Fighting climate change is definitely closely related to fraternity between nations. It even concerns the survival of some states," he told AP.
Still, the County Administrative Board decided to sent a letter to the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation, which manages the prize assets, requesting a formal response to the allegations.
"We have no basis to suggest that they haven't managed it properly. But we want to investigate it," Wiman said.
"The prize committee must always adjust its rules to today's society," he said. "But peace work has to be at the core - it can't deviate too much from that," Wiman said.
The peace prize and the Nobel awards in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics are always handed out Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/02/01/2136202/nobel-peace-prize-jury-under-investigation.html#RSS=untracked#storylink=cpy
-
4:55
»
Kim Media
The shilling rose against the dollar on Friday due to subdued demand and tight market liquidity.
Commercial banks quoted the shilling at 83.90 after gaining from 84.20 at the opening of trade on Friday morning.
The shilling had lost to trade at 84.20 from 83.85 on Thursday evening after the energy sector and manufacturing took advantage of favourable rates to buy dollars.
Traders said that the shilling could gain if the tightening of market liquidity continues.
"There is no sufficient demand to weaken the shilling given the prevailing high interest rates," said Kennedy Butiko, the head of trading at Bank of Africa.
The Central Bank has kept of out of the market in the better part of this week after persistent interventions in the previous weeks.
The average interbank rates increased to 23 per cent from 22 per cent the previous weak.
The current congestion problems at the port of Mombasa is reportedly hampering tea exports delaying foreign exchange earnings that expected to provide support for the shilling.
The Central Bank is banking on a strong shilling to contain inflation and eventually provide room to lower interest rates.
The CBK left its base lending rates at 18 per cent after inflation figures dropped by a small margin from 18.72 per cent to 18.31 due to a slight reduction in oil prices.
The onset of a dry spell is also expected to add another dimension to inflation as vegetable and milk prices start to rise increasing food inflation.
High returns on government paper are also expected to attract dollars that could help to put the shilling on the gaining path.
-
4:49
»
Kim Media
At least 26 people are dead following a grisly road accident that occurred on Friday night on the busy Kisumu-Kakamega highway at the Mamboleo black spot.
The accident involving two Nissan matatus and a lorry ferrying sugar from a local factory only left one survivor, who was rushed to New Nyanza General hospital in critical condition but later succumbed to the injuries.
Witnesses say that the two matatus, heading to Kakamega, had stopped at a police road block for a routine inspection by traffic officers' when a lorry from the opposite direction lost control and rammed into them.
"The lorry driver flashed the head lights several times signaling that all was not well but the vehicles at the road block failed to give way and it rammed into them," said a witness.
The impact of the collision threw off the two matatus from the road killing all passengers on board.
Two motorcyclists who were on the queue for inspection also perished in the accident.
However the fate of the lorry driver, his turn boy together with the two traffic officers, who were manning the road block, could not be immediately established.
Nyanza provincial Deputy Police boss Larry Kieng, who led officers in the rescue mission, said the confirmed number of those who had perished was 25.
"So far 25 bodies had been taken to the New Nyanza provincial hospital mortuary and we fear other bodies are still within the vicinity. With darkness we might have left some bodies," he said.
The scene of the accident, in the outskirts of Kisumu city, was littered with body parts and valuables belonging to the passengers.
Bodies with missing heads, limbs and other body parts were scattered all over the place.
Kenya Red Cross Society officials, who rushed to the scene, had a hectic time pulling out the bodies from the wreckage as local residents barred police officers from accessing the scene.
Police were at some point forced to use teargas to drive away angry residents, who blamed them for the accident saying they used the road block to extort money from motorists.
The accident also caused a heavy traffic snarl up along the busy road.
The mangled vehicles were towed to Kondele police station as police launched investigations into the accident that left locals in shock.
Mamboleo area has been a black spot claiming several lives in the recent past with most notably the death of musician Owino Misiani six years ago who died at the same police road block.
-
-
8:01
»
Kim Media
Kenya’s military incursion into Somali in response to the Al-Shabab militants’ menace in Kenya was but an overdue foregone conclusion. It is an open secret that the Al-Shabab have tested Kenya’s patience and stretched her serenity too thin and it was only a matter of time before the conflict came to the fore. So when the opportunity arose, triggered by the senseless and shameful abduction of a wheelchair bound elderly French tourist woman, Kenya struck, the moment couldn’t have been opportune.
Kenya’s territorial integrity and her standing among nations was at stake, the abuses from her neighbors who returned brutality for kindness was becoming an unbearable national nuisance. Now that we are in it, does Kenya have the intestinal fortitude to see this thing through? Only time will tell but if the history of the conflict in the war ravaged lawless nation in East Africa is anything to go by, Kenya must be ready to hang in for the long haul and pursue this to its logical conclusion, vanquishing Al Shabab and restoring a functional government.
A tall order indeed but one worth the cost otherwise this war will boomerang on Kenya with much worse and severe consequences. For two decades now, Somali has been without a functional government and most outside attempts to restore order, including those of the United States, have failed miserably. Any semblance of governance in Somali has drawn more conflict among the fiercely divided clans whose fault line is between the Islamist militants and the Provisional government whose very existence Kenya helped broker. Now that Nairobi has waded into the fray, taking direct aim at Al-Shabab militias who are known to work with al Qaeda, the conflict clearly assumes new meaning.
No country or government worth its salt can just sit idly by and watch helplessly as its citizens are terrorized in the manner Al-Shabab has. On the other hand the The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) would be more than happy to see Kenyan troops wipe out the insurgents, but are they willing to cede control of some of their territory as Kenya pacifies the upheavals?
The coordination of the military action among the Kenyan troops and Somali soldiers as they join African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) are a testament to the unity of purpose, if only temporarily, between the two governments. The message is loud and clear, “Al Shabab, time is up.”
Kenya’s economy depends largely on tourism and Al Shabab’s attacks and kidnappings of tourists within her territories threaten her very existence. “Kenya is particularly now becoming more robust because the actions of the group are having a massive impact on the tourist industry,” Said Atta Asamoah from the Institute for Security Studies in Nairobi.
Atta added that Kenya depends a lot on tourism and cannot afford to be seen as a weak link that is not in control of its territorial integrity to the extent that tourists do not have the security they need to enjoy their presence in the country.
The question that remains is whether direct military action will help or hurt the general security situation. Whereas Al-Shabab is by no means an easy adversary as their success within Somalia shows, they are certainly believed to be weaker following the devastating blows inflicted on their umbrella terror group, Al-Qaida. The killing of Osama Bin Laden and some of his most trusted lieutenants around the world including Somali itself whether the master mind of the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania bombings was recently killed must certainly have weakened their resolve and capacity to withstand sustained onslaught from a disciplined military such as Kenya’s.
Kenya and her coalition partners now must demonstrate endurance to get the job done, at all costs. Nevertheless, some argue that Kenya might not be willing or able to do so especially after the statement by the Foreign affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka who in a nutshell told Al Shabab and the world that Kenya will negotiate with them the terms of surrender! That is a message that spells
weakness and lack of commitment and the Kenyan government would be wise to refrain from sideshows and focus on the job at hand.
As noted by a Kenyan blogger, Al-Shabab is not a formal organization that can be traced and tracked down swiftly. They can easily melt within the civilian population rendering it a vexatious exercise to neutralize them, not to mention they have no rules of engagement. “The risk is that the group begins to activate sleepers within Kenya and operate within Kenyan territory,” Asamoah said. “This is going to be a dangerous time.”
On the other hand Kenya Military has to follow the rules of engagement as any other military and their first concern is not to attack civilian population. But how do you tell who is Shabab and who is not. How do you pick the enemy out of the population? A similar problem faced by United States when they invaded Iraq.
Consequently, we are now beginning to pay a high price because of psychological war. Groups like Shabab thrive on instilling fear in the hearts of their opponents. And by proclaiming retaliatory resolve against our Country, they have effectively shaken our core workings, right from our socio-economic lives down to very own personal lives.
But along with that vigilance comes the threat of persecution or reprisals against ethnic Somalis in Kenya , says Patrick Smith, Africa specialist at the London-based newsletter Africa Confidential. “(Kenyan Somalis) will feel rather vulnerable because they will be associated with the Al-Shabab,” he said. “That could cause internal problems within Kenya .”
-
-
3:08
»
Kim Media
If you would have asked a Kenyan in the streets of Nairobi a year ago to imagine KDF deep inside Somali territory patrolling the cities, beaches, and seaboards of the coast of Somalia, they would have told you that you are stretching your imagination. There was just this perception that our boys in jungle fatigue were ‘career’ soldiers who were so accustomed to the barracks they were not up to the job of protecting our country from internal and external aggression. Why would the government allow the Oromo Liberation Front operate with impunity across our borders over and over again? Why would Uganda a friendly neighbor occupy Migingo Island which seats in Kenya and no questions asked? Why would Al Shabaab conduct cross-border raids kill and abduct our security forces and go scot free? Operation Linda Nchi has proved the skeptics wrong by not just pacifying the enemy but by also going further to cut the monetary supply that supports this terror group. This has surprised not just the Kenyan people who thought that this operation is long overdue but also the international community who consider our soldiers not battle ready. But how did we get here?
To understand this you need to understand how militia and terror groups marauding in Kenya and her neighbors came to being and operate and the best way is to explain how they operate. Some of the most common groups are Mungiki, Saboat Land Defense Forces (SLDF), and Mombasa Republican Council. They operate through the brainwashing of poor illiterate and unemployed youth by claiming historical injustice coupled with intimidation and fear for the skeptics. They later form parallel governments where they levy taxes and fees on anything and anyone. Take Mungiki for example, their claim is that the government has neglected the youth and those that fought for Independence and therefore the youth have to fend for themselves and their families. They therefore levy fees on matatus, businesses, and residents alike as ‘protection fee to cater for their families’. When the SLDF came into limelight in 2006, their justification was that they were fighting for the ancestral land taken away by the government. Consequently they formed a parallel government, kangaroo courts, and collected taxes on Mt Elgon residents. Recently the re-emergence of the Mombasa Republican Council which was established in 1999 has heightened its secession ambitions claiming that the Coast Province is not part of Kenya. And finally the Al Shabaab which means The Youth intends to establish an Islamic state in Somali governed by strict Sharia Law. They also believe that it is every Muslim’s duty to convert non Muslims, who are considered infidels, by any means possible. Consequently they discourage any lifestyle considered western like watching TV, flying kites, and no pants for women amongst other rules. They also have kangaroo courts which administer instant justice like amputation, caning and death by stoning or gunfire. To achieve its mission, the Al Shabaab has maintained pirates in the Indian Ocean to sustain their lifestyle and ideology. The piracy proceeds are then used to start businesses in Kenya and neighboring Yemen. In short the above mentioned groups thrive through intimidation and misinformation to achieve their objective.
Some political pundits are very skeptical of the two months old KDF incursion in Somalia and are sitting by the sidelines waiting for Kenya to fail. But here is why Kenya is succeeding where others have failed. First, Kenya has a sizeable Somali population and our defense forces and intelligence agencies have a better historical understanding of the Somali culture. Consequently it is easier to collect intelligence due to lack of language barrier and easier assimilation and melting into the Somali towns and villages. Kenya has also learned quickly that the quickest way to bring down these groups is to follow the money trail. That is why one of the Kenya government’s main objectives is to stifle the dragon by running their coffers dry. No one put it better than Assistant Minister for Internal Security Orwa Ojode who noted that Al Shabaab “is like a big animal with the tail in Somalia. We are still fighting the tail and the head is sitting here”. In short he meant that the piracy money acquired by the Al Shabaab is being used to fund businesses and acquire real estate in Eastleigh. The government has also accelerated the crackdown of illegal or unregistered Forex Bureaus most of which are ran by the Somali community. By trying to run the ‘gold mines’ dry the government hopes to incapacitate the operations capability of this dangerous group. The government seems to understand the phrase, ‘Follow me the money and I will tell you who you are’.
The KDF is also winning the battle of the hearts and minds by treating non combatants humanely. By ensuring minimum civilian casualties and providing food and other humanitarian services the Somalis are quickly telling on the Al Shabaab and their hideouts. This has broken the conspiracy theory being spread by these thugs that non Muslims want to annex their land and dominate them. Finally, allowing due process of law on those captured combatants is sending a message to the residents in the villages that our system of justice is different than that of the Al Shabaab, “You are innocent until proven guilty”. Due process also gives the our forces and government agencies a chance to obtain information and actionable intelligence which will be needed in the front line as well as ground zero which is the streets of major cities in Kenya. Ali H. Soufan in his book The Black Banner noted that the greatest failure of the Bush administration in the war on terror was to allow enhanced interrogation by the CIA. This led to faulty intelligence and when it came (it rarely did) was not useful for the parameters on the ground had changed. That explains why two years into the Obama administration war on terror after banning enhanced interrogation they have been able to eliminate more Al Qaeda leaders than the eight years of the Bush administration.
Perhaps a better and vital lesson Kenya has learned is to keep the Western countries’ boots off the ground which has ran the recruitment taps of the Al Shabaab dry.
Peter Mugo MA International Relations – Peace and Security Studies; Alliant International University San Diego, CA
-
-
13:57
»
Kim Media
AKPA in conjunction with Pan African Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a free hands-on business seminar to Kenyan Business Owners in Atlanta. The seminar will be held on January 28th, 2012 at the PACC headquarters.
The purpose of the business seminar is to help local business owners to find success through profitable connections with American opportunities as well as how to obtain Certification for your business which is required to get contracts in GA/ SBA registration requirements and minority business registration among many other topics. This is an 8hour working session and is open only to first 30 serious business folks who reserve a space. Register quickly by sending an email to akpa.org@gmail.com to reserve a seat.
Location and Time
The workshop will begin at 10am promptly and please bring a laptop, a notebook and pen.
2470 Windy Hill Road,
Suite 322B,
Marietta, GA. 30067
Agenda
*Overview of State Purchasing
*Team Georgia Marketplace
*eSource
*African Diaspora Market Place Grant of $50,000 to 30 prospective awardees
*Job Prospects for Project Managers and ICT Personnels
*How to write a Business plan
-
-
23:24
»
Kim Media
The US Embassy Consul says that US government does not notify lottery winners by email. Those who entered the 2011 Diversity Visa program have already received a paper letter informing them that they are eligible for an interview for a Diversity Visa.
ASK THE CONSUL
Question: I received an email about winning the United States Green Card lottery. When will I be informed of my interview date?
Answer: I am so glad that you asked this question. Winners of the Green Card lottery, known officially as the Diversity Visa lottery, are never sent email notifications, therefore the email you received is fake and you should do nothing more than delete it.
Recently, the US Embassy in Nairobi has received numerous inquiries about this and other “Green Card scams”. In most of these scams, Kenyans receive emails informing them that they have won the US Green Card lottery and that they should fill out forms and send money for a “processing fee,” usually directing payment to a Western Union account. Some of these emails look very realistic and sadly, many Kenyans have been fooled into paying hundreds of dollars to these fraudsters.
These phony emails have originated from email addresses such as:dv.states.gov@usa.com; us. states.gov@usa.com; and usagreencard2010@aol.com. The fraudsters work hard to make their email addresses and documents look convincing.
The US government does not notify lottery winners by email. Those who entered the 2011 Diversity Visa program have already received a paper letter informing them that they are eligible for an interview for a Diversity Visa. Entrants can also check if they have won at www.dvlottery.state.gov until June 30, 2011.
Those who entered the 2012 Diversity Visa program will not receive direct notification; they will be given a user name and password to check for themselves from May 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012 at www.dvlottery.state.gov. Also, it should be noted that emails originating from a U.S. government agency will end with the domain name “gov”. In other words, the last three letters of the email address should be “gov”. Emails with “.com” domain names do not come from the U.S. government.
Another important point to remember is that there is no charge to enter the Diversity Visa lottery. If you win the lottery and pursue a visa application, you will be asked to pay a fee at the US Embassy on the day of your interview. You should not pay anyone in advance. The American Embassy urges Kenyans to simply delete email messages claiming that you won the Green Card lottery and instructing you to send money.
I would also like to warn you about other Green Card scams. Each year millions of individuals submit lottery entries for a chance to win an interview for one of the 55,000 immigrant visas available to the Diversity Visa (DV) program.
Unfortunately, many of the entries are submitted by third parties trying to extort money from unsuspecting people and such cases are refused a visa by the embassy due to fraud. Sometimes the entries are made by facilitators who enter their own contact information and hold winning entries “hostage”, if you will, demanding fees or compelling a sham marriage in order to pay off this new “debt”. In other instances, entries are made by people with access to the personal information of individuals in large groups, such as students, and then the winning entry information is held pending payment.
If you are approached by someone trying to facilitate a diversity visa in exchange for money, please send an email describing the encounter to nairobifraud@state.gov.
I hope that this explanation prevents you and other Kenyans from falling victim to these ploys.
Source- http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/eblog/2012/01/27/beware-of-green-card-fraud-us-embassy-warns/
-
-
5:23
»
Kim Media
The decision by the ICC today with respect to the “Ocampo Six” brings us a step closer to a resolution of the Post-Election fiasco that was visited on us through no fault of our own. This necessary evil that seemed to balance the scales of justice and offer Kenyans much needed reprieve from the tyranny and excesses of the high and mighty in our midst but it is not the end all be all to this nightmare. To those in ODM gloating at the decision of the pre-trial chamber, I say hold your horses, your leader has just as unclean hands in this no less than the accused and Kenyans will have the final say, one way or the other. Ocampo’s excursion into Kenya was by invitation when our own derelict government miserably failed to prevent the massacre of innocent Kenyans in 2007/2008 and then abdicated its responsibility to bring justice to victims. There is no winner here folks, as long the scales of justice remain tilted in favor of some, this indelible blemish on our country will remain uncorrected. The bottom line is that we failed to manage our own affairs and allowed others to manage them for us, so let’s not whine now about what the ICC is doing to mitigate future human losses.
Be that as is may, let not your hearts be troubled as this process unfolds, the accused still enjoy the presumption of innocence which is a fundamental cornerstone of any justice system worth its salt, they are entitled to due process and unless and until proven guilty, we are all duty-bound to uphold the rule of law and yes that includes letting them pursue their rights and yes, that also includes contesting for president. So to justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo and the civil societies- put a lid on your preemptive calls to preclude these fellows from running for elective office, leave that to we the people to decide that at the ballot box; similarly, this caution extends to calling for their resignations, it is the president’s prerogative.
At this point it is imperative that we remember how we got here; very simple, a flawed election announcement where the aggrieved party, Raila Oginga Odinga, a manipulative pyromaniac refused to follow the proper channels to get his grievances addressed and instead opted to vent his frustrations on the streets by inciting and setting up gullible unemployed youths into violent acts with calls for mass action and the consequences of course were massacre of innocent Kenyans, displacement of hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens and destruction of Billions of shillings of property, the subject of the ICC action in Kenya, these are facts. Indeed Odinga is the single most beneficiary of the Post-Election Violence in Kenya, so those insinuating that he was somehow an innocent by-stander in all these are simply dishonest. It is not just by some sheer coincidence that he called for mass action, violence broke out, he was made prime minister and the violence magically dissipated! NO. I think it is an insult to our collective intelligence by those desperate to distance Odinga from the violence to continue propagating this falsehood; it was not mere correlation but direct causation, "cause and effect" if you will, Odinga was front and center of this mess, before, during and after. Even granting such a cockamamie idea as real, nothing excuses or reconciles the fact that Odinga’s position as Kenya’s Prime Minister is a direct derivative of Post-Election Violence crimes and the that for the last four years he has continued to enjoy and reap the benefits of such heinous crimes while playacting to the public gallery including the UN as a champion of justice is the height of dangerous and atrocious hypocrisy. You can’t have it both ways, either he is a beneficiary to the crimes which by default makes him vicariously liable or he is not, pick one. Raila Odinga is part and parcel of PEV, before during and after; from calling for “Mass Action”, thanking the suspects for their valor in the mayhem, defending their crimes as called their actions a “spontaneous reaction to the stolen elections” and that they were merely chasing after their “stolen cows”, calling for their release from remand jails for they did “nothing wrong” , to changing his tune and turning his back on them after he was made Prime Minister telling them to “carry their own crosses”, to literary writing the ICC and the UN calling for the prosecution of the “Ocampo Six”, his position on this has changed a thousand different times. So make no mistake about this folks, we cannot separate Odinga and his party ODM from the violence, even during the Ocampo Six testimony at The Hague, the suspects, particularly William Ruto of ODM’s supreme ruling organ at the time, the Pentagon, pointed fingers at Odinga.
Truth be told, there is no political leader or party in Kenya in whose name, brand and behest so many Kenyans have lost their lives, displaced and homes and lost livelihoods as Odinga and the Orange Democratic Movement. They are as unapologetic as they are arrogant and they believe they will away with it. Their pattern of conduct since the PEV reflects this notion, ODM has continually been entangled in violence, from mayoral elections in Nairobi and around the country, the recent stoning of Raphael Tuju in Kisumu, the beating of Magara in Kisii, the beating to death of the three ODM warring faction supporters in Rongo on December 11, 2011, the violent grassroots elections recently held by the party, etc- the list is long. Violence is how the party conducts its affairs, it is their Modus Operandi and because nobody, not the ICC, not even this government that Prime Minister Odinga is a co-principal, holds them accountable- they are practically invincible and the rest of us, regrettably, end up paying for their actions, when is enough enough? When will we stand up and demand that the people’s interests become a priority as they far supersede the interests of ODM and Odinga?
What makes ODM’s conduct and actions any different from homegrown terrorism no less than the Al Shabaab we are fighting in Somali? The only difference is that this is an organized criminal enterprise headed by a co-principal in government. The ODM party/brand has underwrote more deaths and destruction in the country than Mungiki, Sungu-Sungu, Chinkororo, Jeshi la Mzee, Al Shabaab and all other proscribed organized criminal enterprises in Kenya combined! We cannot and must not discount this fact, we cannot ignore or sweep the truth under the rug for political expediency, if we do, they will haunt us for they are certain to repeat again and we’ll have ourselves to blame. We have for years, to our own detriment, placed blind faith in leaders who err and betray us repeatedly, we protected them and defended them at the public square and in the process become unwitting enablers who emboldened to then pull off atrocities such as the post-election violence that still lingers today. We have to now stand up and call the shots in the direction this country takes.
The ICC process is only complimentary to our own justice system and if the Kenyan government, fails to act again as it is supposed to, this ruling will only fuel divisiveness and encourage further animosity between communities. Accordingly, I expect true pursuit of justice for the victims of violence, I expect Prime Minister Odinga to shoulder his fair burden for the post-election violence crimes, I expect the Commissioner of police Matthew Iteere to conclude and show results of full, thorough and unbiased investigations on this weighty matter and let the chips fall where they may, four years is plenty of time already, I expect the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko, in full view of the public, in an honest effort to bring to a close this sad chapter in our country’s history, to faithfully and truthfully uphold the rule of law and file appropriate criminal complaints in our courts and hold all those responsible for these crimes accountable, this is long overdue; I expect the revelation of the remaining 14 names in the Justice Philip Waki’s envelope and I also expect the civil society to stand up and be counted on the side of justice for the victims and not take sides with any politician or side of the political divide as they have been prone to. Folks, this is the only sure way, in my opinion, to send a clear message to Kenyans and to the world at large that it is indeed a new dawn in our country, that we are once again capable of handling our own affairs and that we are in fact fully in charge. We must demand full and complete accountability by everyone involved, not these half-baked Band-Aid window dressing measures which clearly make a complete mockery of justice. Ocampo, in my opinion, abused his prosecutorial discretion by cherry picking the six as the only ones most responsible and left out the most culpable parties including Raila Odinga himself, it certainly dovetails the general consensus that this whole process has been tainted by blatantly biased global politics which pits communities against each other as opposed to providing impartial resolution to conflicts. What is good for the goose is certainly good for the gender, let’s demand fairness, let’s promote justice. So if the government’s position is that the ICC is wrong, please show us a better alternative which will satisfy Kenyans and the international community. A good place to start is for Kenya’s own law enforcement and judicial institutions to do their jobs and hold everyone accountable for their role in this without fear, favor or prejudice. ICC or not, we must reclaim and restore our country’s sovereignty, time is now.
-
-
21:50
»
Kim Media
The International Criminal Court pre-trial chamber has confirmed charges against four of six Kenyan suspects for post-election violence crimes.
The judges confirmed the charges against Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and Journalist Joshua Sang.
The charges against Tindreret MP Henry Kosgey and Post Master General Hussein Ali were not confirmed.
The following are some transcripts from the court rulings:
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: The Chamber by majority decided to confirm charges against four of the six suspects. Judge Hans-Peter Kaul gave a dissenting opinion with the view that the crimes could be handled by the Kenyan law.
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: The Prosecutor established substantial grounds to believe crimes against humanity were committed. The Chamber also found that these crimes were committed were targeted to specific groups.
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: The Chamber by majority decided to confirm charges against four of the six suspects. Judge Hans-Peter Kaul gave a dissenting opinion with the view that the crimes could be handled by the Kenyan law.
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: We are not passing judgement on the suspects. We are only confirming whether the Prosecutor presented enough evidence to sustain the charges.
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: The court found Mr Ruto as a direct perpetrator of the crimes, while Mr Sang was an associate. The chamber was not satisfied by the evidence against Mr Kosgey.
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: The chamber found substantial ground to believe there was an attack against civilian residents in Nakuru and Naivasha, in particular those belonging to Lus, Luhya and Kalenjin tribes.
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: On the case against Mr Ruto and Mr Uhuru, the chamber was satisfied that they are criminally responsible for the alleged crimes as indirect perpetrators of the crimes. But the Chmaber does not believe that the Kenya Police was involved in the crimes. It is for this reason why we did not find the evidence against Mr Ali enough to sustain the charges.
JUDGE TRENDAFILOVA: As for Mr Kosgey and Mr Ali, I would like to tell them that the prosecutor may present a request to appeal against this ruling.
The court has adjourned.
The ruling delivered at the ICC at The Hague by Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova on Monday stated that they were satisfied by evidence by Louis Moreno Ocampo’s team against Ruto and Sang for crimes committed in Turbo, Nandi Hills, Kapsabet and Eldoret.
Judge Trendafilova stated the charges against Ruto and Sang were crimes against humanity, murder, deportation, forcible transfer and persecution that led to death of hundreds of civilians.
The court dropped the charges against Ali and Kosgey saying the evidence adduced in court was not enough to sustain the charges against them.
-
5:25
»
Kim Media
Kenyans on Sunday nervously awaited a decision by the International Criminal Court on whether the court will prosecute six influential Kenyans accused of helping to orchestrate violence that killed more than 1,000 people following disputed elections in 2007.
The upcoming decision dominated the front pages of Kenya's Sunday papers as citizens discussed a case that could lead to renewed violence and could also have repercussions far beyond its borders. Some say it could set a precedent for how the international community deals with electoral violence in countries whose judicial systems are unable to cope.
"What is going on in Kenya is an experiment in governance," said political analyst James Shikwati, who heads a think tank called the Inter Region Economic Network. "It's an experiment in building a government structure without using bullets and bombs."
The court is due to announce its decision on whether to prosecute the six on Monday. The suspects include two men planning to run for the presidency this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former Education Minister William Ruto.
It's unclear whether the case could block their ambitions, since government officials have issued conflicting statements on whether they will remain eligible to run.
"Let's wait until the ICC has ruled and then the government will ask the attorney general for direction," said government spokesman Alfred Mutua. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Mutua also said Kenya has not planned for any extra security personnel should there be demonstrations.
"Kenyans have moved beyond that kind of business now," he said.
The capital of Nairobi is already decorated with spray-painted statements in support of Kenyatta featuring a stencil picture of him pictured alongside a raised fist.
Kenyatta is the son of Kenya's first president, and the 50-year-old is also the country's richest citizen with a personal fortune of half a billion dollars. Ruto is a former ally of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, but the two had a falling out- partly over Ruto's insistence on making his own presidential bid this year.
Both Kenyatta and Ruto come from powerful ethnic groups. Kenyatta is Kikuyu, the ethnic group with the highest numbers and the one that has produced two of the country's three presidents. Ruto is a Kalenjin, the ethnic group that produced Kenya's longest-serving president, Daniel arap Moi, who recruited many of his fellow Kalenjin into the security services.
The four other suspects include former Minister of Industrialization Henry Kiprono Kosgey, broadcaster Joshua Sang, Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kirimi Muthaura and former police chief Mohammed Hussein Ali, now the head of the postal service.
More than 1,000 people were killed in postelection violence after police ejected observers from the center where votes were being tallied and the electoral body declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner.
Two recent opinion polls show that the majority of Kenyans back the ICC process. Most citizens have little faith in their own judiciary, widely perceived as corrupt and choking on a backlog of cases.
"It's good that this case is going to a judge. Maybe this year people at the top will think about that and we won't have the same problems," said taxi driver George Ongeri, reading through the papers with other drivers in front of a fruit stall. He said he didn't think there would be trouble in the capital, but that there might be unrest in the rural areas where the suspects had support.
-
-
1:20
»
Kim Media
Crammed into tiny cages, unable
to stand and deprived of food and water, these dogs endured terrible
suffering on a truck bound for a chain of restaurants.The
harrowing pictures show the cruel conditions in which 1,500 of the
animals were found when the truck was stopped at a toll gate by highway police and animal rescue volunteers in Chongqing, south-west China.The truck was stacked high with cages, each containing several dogs in pitiful condition.
The animals were moved to a nearby farm
by volunteers from the Chongqing Animal Protection Association who gave
them food, water and emergency treatment.Sadly some of the dogs were already dead and rescue workers were unable to save other who were dying.
Volunteer Xiao Lu said: 'When they
[the dogs] saw us they were groaning, but some were so exhausted and
dying that they didn't even have the strength to make a sound.'
He said: 'The dog peddler said his truck was only loaded with 700 dogs, but there are at least 1500.'
Dog continues to be a popular meal in the Far East, with many in China favouring the meat, particularly during the winter.
The incident comes just months after police in Thailand rescued more than 1,000 dogs that were being transported to Vietnam.
The dogs were being taken across the Mekong river
in Laos as prices for stray dogs and pets in rural Thai villages can reach as much
as $33 an animal.
11 COUNTRIES WHICH STILL EAT DOG MEAT
Eleven countries around the globe still eat dog meat. They are: China,
Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Polynesia, Taiwan,
Vietnam, the Arctic and Antarctic and two cantons in Switzerland. China:
Although the Chinese were the first to domesticate the dog and keep
them as pets, dog meat has been a source of food from at least the time
of Confucius, and possibly even before.
Indonesia:
Eating dog meat is usually associated with people from the Batak Toba
culture, who cook a traditional dish named saksang that is like a
dog-meat stew.
Mexico:
Dogs were historically bred for their meat by the Aztecs. These dogs
were called itzcuintlis, and were often pictured on pre-Columbian
Mexican pottery.
Philippines:
In the capital city of Manila,the law specifically prohibits the
killing and selling of dogs for food except in certain circumstances
including research and animal population control.
Polynesia: Dogs were historically eaten in Tahiti and other islands of Polynesia at the time of first European contact in 1769.
Taiwan:
Dog meat in Taiwan is particularly eaten in the winter months,
especially black dogs, which are believed to help retain body warmth.Korea:
Gaegogi literally means 'dog meat' in Korean. Gaegogi, however, is
often mistaken as the term for Korean soup made from dog meat,
bosintang. The distaste felt by dog lovers, particularly from the West,
has made this dish very controversial.
Switzerland:
According to a Swiss newspaper report in 1996, the Swiss rural cantons
of Appenzell and St. Gallen are known to have had a tradition of eating
dogs, curing dog meat into jerky and sausages, as well as using the lard
for medicinal purposes.
Vietnam:
Dog meat is eaten throughout Vietnam. To many Northerners, it is a
popular, if relatively expensive, dinnertime restaurant meal.
Arctic and Antarctic: Dogs have historically been an emergency food source for
various peoples in Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland.
Sled dogs are usually maintained for pulling sleds, but occasionally are
eaten when no other food is available.
VIDEO OF RESCUE HERE - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088309/Truck-dogs-crammed-tiny-cages-bound-Chinese-restaurants-rescued-animal-lovers.html#ixzz1jq2zzupw
-
-
4:23
»
Kim Media
To anyone who grew up in the Cold War, the rhetoric of the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential candidates is strangely familiar. The United States, they warn, is threatened by an alien ideology. What’s startling is that the bogeyman this time around is not resurgent and increasingly hostile Russia, but Western Europe – Washington’s closest and most steadfast ally since the end of World War Two.
According to Mitt Romney, currently the leading G.O.P. contender, “Barack Obama wants us to turn into a European-style welfare state,” a development that would “poison the very spirit of America.”
Newt Gingrich charges that Romney himself is guilty of “looking into European socialist ideas.” Not to be outdone, Rick Santorum fulminates that Western Europe is “being overrun from overseas... and they have no response. They have nothing to fight for. They have nothing to live for."
There’s no question that the European Union is struggling today, beset by many of the same economic problems as the United States (thanks in no small part to the shenanigans of U.S. financial firms). The EU faces a major debt crisis in its laggard Mediterranean states, and has yet to arrive at a workable solution.
Nonetheless, as a resident of Western Europe for more than two decades, I recognize almost nothing in the portrait painted by the men who hope to unseat Obama.
But let’s take their rhetoric seriously and compare the economic performance of the United States to that of a trio of emblematic European nations: Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. With a half-century record of extensive investments in social services and national infrastructure, they are among the principal architects of a system that supposedly leaves Western Europeans with nothing to live or fight for.
The Real Champs of the Capitalist League
In the economic realm, three measures dominate conventional assessments of success and failure: unemployment, foreign trade and sovereign debt, the ratio of government debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
On every count, the achievements of Western Europe leave the United States in the dust.
With some justification, President Obama has expressed pride at the gradual decline of American joblessness from more than 10 percent shortly after he took office to the most recent level of 8.5 percent. But this success pales considerably by comparison with the Netherlands’ 5.8 percent, Germany’s 6.3 percent and Sweden’s 6.7 percent.
Foreign trade is the bellwether of business acumen everywhere on our globalized planet, notably including China, where the vast majority of exports are produced by manufacturers as fervently dedicated to capitalism as New Gingrich and his ultra-free-marketer rival Ron Paul. But the world’s champion exporters over the last ten years are not the Chinese. They’re the Germans, who enjoy an annual trade surplus of nearly $200 billion.
In per capita terms, Germans sold $2,300 more of their products overseas than they bought for every one of the nation’s 82 million citizens. The per capita surplus figures for Sweden ($2,400) and the Netherlands ($2,800) are even higher.
The United States, by depressing contrast, has an annual trade deficit now approaching $600 billion, by far the most dismal on Earth, amounting to a $2,000 loss registered on the bottom line of every American. That number has risen every year since the Republican-governed 1980s, recovering somewhat under Democrat Bill Clinton and then skyrocketing at an unprecedented pace under George W. Bush.
As damning as these figures may be, it is in sovereign debt that the willful ignorance – or outright deceit – of the G.O.P. candidates is most glaring. As a result of endless tax cuts for the wealthy by their party’s predecessors in the White House, tied to endlessly rising expenditures on unfunded Republican-declared foreign wars, the United States has a sovereign debt ratio of 102, not far behind the 118 of universally derided Italy.
In Sweden, allegedly the most dissolute spendthrift in the Republicans’ European socialist welfare nightmare, sovereign debt stands at a paltry 39.7, which translates into the unavoidable conclusion that Swedish Social Democrats are more cautious spenders than all of America’s Republican administrations dating back to Richard M. Nixon. The Dutch come in at a very respectable 62.9, and the Germans at 83, astonishing for a nation that has been rebuilding its entire eastern infrastructure since the Berlin Wall collapsed.
Life is More Than a Cash Register
In the United States, $7,538 was spent per person on health care in 2008, the latest year for which accurate figures are available. The Dutch spent $4,063 that year, the Germans $3,737 and the Swedes $3,470 – an average of less than half the American level of spending, which has continued rising.
This gap cannot be explained away by differences in national wealth. The annual per capita GDP of Germany is $45,000, just a shade behind the United States at $48,000, which is in turn just shy of the Netherlands’ $51,000. Sweden is the leader by a country mile, at a staggering $62,000.
Results? At a fraction of the U.S. cost, adult life expectancy in all three of the European bogeyman nations is higher than in America. At the far end of the demographic curve, the differences are downright appalling. Infant mortality in the United States from 2005 to 2010 was a ghastly 6.81 deaths per 100,000 live births. In Sweden, the corresponding mortality rate is just 2.56, in Germany 3.71 and in Holland 4.42.
Health care standards in Europe are no theoretical matter for me. A doctor in Paris saved my life when I contracted cerebral malaria while on assignment in the southern Balkans. Another doctor in Milan saw me through a terrifying cancer scare a few years ago. Neither of them asked me to empty my wallet. It is taken for granted in Western Europe that high-quality medical attention should be available to everyone, and no politician – including those on the political far right – questions the premise. My Milanese physician co-authored the standard text on gastroenterology now in use in a dozen countries, and did double residencies in surgery and internal medicine at the University of Paris and at Stanford.
My friends in America worry constantly about the costs and limits of their health care. No one in Europe worries about these things.
There is something else worth mentioning on the subject of anxiety. Even after more than a decade of improvement, the homicide rate in the United States is at just under five murders yearly per 100,000 people. That’s almost six times the figure for both Holland (0.87) and Germany (0.84).
Where the American Dream Went
Egalitarianism, the idea that a level playing field of means and opportunities is a fundamental strength of democracy, has a long and honored legacy in the United States. By any objective standard, that legacy began to ebb in the Reagan years and has yet to recover.
The most authoritative measure of concentrated wealth – and poverty – is a complex formula known as the Gini coefficient, named for Corrado Gini, the Italian statistician who devised it. Put simply, the lower the Gini number, the more equitable a nation’s distribution of income.
As computed by none other than the Central Intelligence Agency, the Gini coefficients of Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden are all at 30 or under, among the world’s lowest. The United States, the CIA says, rates 45 on the Gini scale. That puts it roughly into the same league as Bulgaria, Cambodia, El Salvador, Iran, Madagascar and Rwanda.
The top 10 percent of Swedish incomes are 6.2 times greater than the lowest 20 percent. The top 10 percent of U.S. incomes are 15.9 times those of the lowest 20 percent. In short, the gap between rich and poor, between a level playing field and an unscalable mountain, is more than twice as large in the United States as it is in Sweden – whose privately-held industries manage to generate a significantly larger per capita GDP than their American counterparts. For the record, the gap is also twice as large in America between the top 20 percent and the lower 20 percent.
What this means for the American Dream, with its fantasies of poor boys who become millionaires through diligence and hard work, is documentable. A 2006 report commissioned by the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labor found that 42 percent of men raised by households in the lower fifth of U.S. incomes remain there as adults – almost double the number in Europe’s Nordic countries.
“Mobility in Europe,” the chance of climbing out of poverty and up to middle-income levels, “is actually greater than it is in America,” a U.S. presidential candidate lamented four months ago.
The speaker was not Barack Obama, the presumed agent of a foreign ideology. It was Rick Santorum, who later declared that Europeans have nothing to live for.
Image by http://www.shutterstock.com/i
-
3:46
»
Kim Media
A Kenyan lawmaker is suing the country’s prime minister, internal security minister, and others for the government’s failure to resettle thousands of people displaced by ethnic violence following elections almost five years ago.
Member of Parliament for Naivasha John Mututho said the government has turned its back on thousands of internally-displaced people living in miserable conditions.
“It has continued to tramp on the rights of the IDPs numbering 350,000," Mutuhos said. "It is obvious that the ministers from this government are not willing or are not able to resolve the problem before the next general elections. The IDPs are a creation of this government. The same process that created this government is the one that created these IDPs."
Mututho’s lawsuit names Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is head of the Orange Democratic Movement party, Minister of Internal Security George Saitoti, who is chairman of the Party of National Unity, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, and several ministers.
The Orange Democratic Movement and the Party of National Unity are the two parties that comprise Kenya’s coalition government.
Mututho, who is not a member of the ruling coalition, is calling on the government to re-settle and compensate the thousands of people who escaped the killings, lootings, and other violence in the months following the December 2007 elections and who are still living in camps, largely in tents with little food, water and sanitation.
“The only thing that we have in a just government is to have the court action to restore these IDPs’ rights and to bar these political parties from participating in the [upcoming] elections if they do not settle the IDPs,” Mututho said.
He noted that the government has taken some measures to re-settle people, but says most of the money for this purpose has been squandered.
Mututho also is calling on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission not to draw up electoral boundaries for the next elections until the IDPs have been settled, saying that such a large unsettled population could sway votes.
When contacted by VOA, government spokesman Alfred Mutua and officials from the Party of National Unity and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission would not comment on the case. Mutua said the government is discussing the plight of the IDPs.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission estimates that more than 663,000 Kenyans fled their homes in the days and months following the December 2007 elections.
Much of the fighting was ethnic based, where communities turned against one another following the disputed election results. Subsequent investigations by different organizations accuse politicians of whipping up ethnic sentiments for political gains. More than 1,000 people were killed.
Through the years, the Kenyan government has conducted a number of programs and offered funds for people to return to their original homes or start up new lives elsewhere. But there are still about 20 settlements where people are living in temporary shelters.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court is expected to announce next Monday whether it will proceed with the trials of six high-level suspects for their alleged roles in masterminding or financing the post-election violence.
Kenyans are set to go to the polls anytime this year or by March of next year. The exact date is still not set.
-
-
6:51
»
Kim Media
Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet has recently introduced a bill called the STEM Visa Act to reform the U.S visa system to drive economic growth, inspire entrepreneurship and especially make it easier for students with advanced degrees to stay and work in the United States.
According to the Senator, immigrant students who graduate U.S. universities or colleges in a science, technology engineering or mathematics (STEM) program would be eligible for U.S. temporary student visas, which would further help fill the increasing number of high-tech jobs in the States as well as in Colorado.
"We are facing a shortage of workers in high-tech jobs, and more and more of our STEM degrees go to foreign students who leave the United States to work," said Bennet. "It only makes sense to keep international talent in our economy and encourage American students to enter STEM fields. This plan addresses these problems through a comprehensive approach with an eye toward long-term workforce development, economic growth and job creation."
Currently, statistics show that there are 140,000 U.S. green cards a year granted to skilled workers and roughly 210,000 EB-3 visas for highly skilled workers are backlogged for Indians alone. As a result, Ralph Christie - chair and CEO of Merrick & Company in Aurora - expressed his agreement with the new bill: "Senator Bennet's proposal of a pathway to more visas can be one approach to providing additional engineering and scientific human resource talent in a time when it is needed for our country".
Bennet introduced this bill to help strengthen our economy and make long-term investments in the workforce. He showed his effort to respond to the brain drain caused by a broken immigration system. Specifically, the STEM Visa Act would:
- Create a new green card category for foreign students graduating American colleges and universities with advanced degrees in STEM.
- Establish a new fund through U.S. visa fees that will improve STEM education for American students.
- Permit eligible undocumented students enrolled full time in a STEM field of a U.S. institution of higher education to apply for U.S. temporary student visas.
- Cut red tape in the administration of visas to make it less costly and timelier for employers.
- Make commonsense reforms to H1-B visa and L visas to protect American workers by preventing wages from being undercut, requiring that employers hire American workers first, and prohibiting the displacement of American workers with foreign workers.
- Simplify the EB-5 visa program for foreign investors to attract additional investment and create additional jobs for Americans.
If you are interested in Visas to the USA, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to the United States of America.
Source-http://www.migrationexpert.com/visa/us_immigration_news/2011/dec/0/485/u.s._visas_for_immigrant
-
1:30
»
Kim Media
If there is one lesson that the Arab Spring has bequeathed the rest of the world and particularly Kenya is that no society is stable if it thrives on an organisation that is driven by class exclusion.
The case of Libya is even more perplexing. Though the standards of living were quite high and so were social amenities, the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi failed to integrate the populace into becoming stakeholders in the country’s development.
The law of the land was not facilitative enough to have them own property. There lacked institutions and means that would enable them to capture the value of things that they own or in their possessions. As a result, they could not acquire trust and credit thus they were not capitalised enough to do what they wanted to do. They had been mechanised to depend on tokens. They were therefore not interested in governance, they did not understand what it was all about or what it entailed. They indeed considered themselves poor because they were comparing themselves with those in power but also because they had been reduced to dependants who could not determine their own economic destiny.
They wanted to be free.
In 2002 and 2007 general elections, we sought to have integrity as the key driver of our governance. We had hoped that we shall bring to an end the era that loudly said that “being politician or a top bureaucrat in government meant that you would not only acquire overnight prosperity, but you would also be above the law. As we go to another election we are still struggling to bring this to see that our desire is captured in the people we shall be electing. I bet that it is every Kenyans’ hope that the implementation of the new constitution will get us close to this elusive mirage.
Many of those who will be seeking to get into various political offices will not do so because they are interested in people’s welfare, rather they will be seeking to join politics to achieve economic prosperity as witnessed in past years. It does not matter who they are – religious, scholars, human rights activists and other professionals – they will be diverted from their core values and principles of life and get engaged in the pursuit of personal lust through politics. They will not spare any efforts to propel themselves into their dreams. Their language will be politically correct; they will bootlick and even work fulltime to establish themselves as the leadership of personality cult worship. This is completely opposed to the popular expectation that political struggles should be motivated by a desire for human dignity, peace and justice.
Forty nine years after independence, it is sad that we do not pose for a moment as a nation to ask what happened to the core values and ideology of our several liberation struggles, though admittedly, the Bomas Constitutional Conference was a close attempt. We need to recall that the change from one administration to another, while offering space for the establishment of authentic leadership that serves the interest of the populace, did also present space for self-seekers to quickly seize the moment to assault public resources to meet their personal desires. We have only witnessed the latter and not the former in our entire history.
Our 1963/2003/2007 give us points of references. New governments came in and a park of neophytes yearning for economic/business/cultural elitism became the new political elites. Their lust for wealth uprooted the whole concept of the birth of a new State based on equity, the rule of law and equality and decided to perpetuate divisions through class, ethnicity and individualism to levels beyond what they had found.
Once in power, the political elite abandoned their followers and taking advantage of newly found democracy, introduced capitalistic democracy. Capitalistic democracy, is based in “a political, economic, and social system and ideology based on a tripartite arrangement of a market-based economy based predominantly on a democratic polity, economic incentives through free markets, fiscal responsibility and a liberal moral-cultural system which encourages pluralism. This economic system supports a capitalist free market economy subject to control by a democratic political system that is supported by the majority. It stands in contrast to authoritarian capitalism by limiting the influence of special interest groups, including corporate lobbyists, on politics”. This is according to Wikipedia, the Free encyclopaedia; Capitalist Democracy. This orientation opposes the notion of social collectivism, where the social institutions such as society, religion and family bring moral values to the corporate behaviour of the individuals composing the society.
It would therefore not be strange to hear “liberators” proclaiming that “it is our turn to eat”. The thinking of the political elite is far from the principles of democracy, where the power is transferred to certain individuals by the majority of the citizens with the right to vote through universal suffrage, to manage their affairs. Having participated in the “liberation” of the country bestows to you no prerogative to abuse public resources. After all no one forced you to join the “struggle for liberation”. Indeed, it was wrong for them to have joined the struggle if they would end up becoming modern time oppressors.
It is instructive to realise that the power relations between the political and economic elites, emanates from a self-defined among these groups that they are representative of the majority but without popular consensus. They believe that they own the authority to influence the rest of society using the power which is in their control. They also believe that because they have the political power, they can also control illegitimately, the economic or business power, using their authority over the public resources to reach their set goals. They excluded the rest of society in any decisions being made as they only monopolised intelligence and superior culture.
Wrights Mills a prominent American sociologist, proposes in his book The Power Elite of 1956 that: “this group (elites) had been generated through a process of rationalisation at work whereby all mechanisms of power became concentrated, funnelling overall control into the hands of a limited (oligarch group), somewhat corrupt group”. Indeed, this explains why clerks would overnight rise to levels of ministers, not because there were no skilled personnel but because they were politically well placed.
This reflection surely shows that our political elites have not been interested in the course of the majority in the nation rather theirs is all about private and individual economic affairs. To be more blatant, I need to say that they long stopped to serve the country and the citizens. They long stopped to listen to the cries of the poor and marginalized people, they have been about wealth accumulation wealth to sustain their own selfishness.
They are in tune with the assertions of Thomas Dye in his book Top-Down Policymaking, where he argues that, “US public policy does not result from the demand of the people”, but rather from the elite consensus”. As a result then even when the law is well enacted, it is inefficiently implemented because there “lacks” political will as such would be exposing political and economic elites. This absence or poor implementation of those legal instruments, then provides a smooth framework for both political and economic elites to influence the policy and decision making processes. I hope that this is not what influenced the court on the election date.
It is well known within this country that senior government official have in a record time established multi-million dollar business interests after assuming political positions, extending power and control to their children and other family members and thus establishing wealth dynasties which in their turn play part in elite control of the society. This is not to say that politicians should not have their private and personal enterprise affairs or get involved in business, far from it. The debate here is how politicians and senior government bureaucrats get there? What means they have utilise that enabled them in such short periods of time to accumulate such wealth? The debate goes beyond this to the whole question of the implementation of the legislation on wealth declaration and the handling of the anti corruption commission. What is it that makes politicians uncomfortable with it?
The whole issue am trying to bring to up is that of conflict of interest between political elites business interests. For how long shall we accommodate illegal dealings that steal away peoples credit and capital in the name of “lack of political will”? For how long shall we live with invasion, displacement and loss of private and communal property through under-table dealings by politicians?
I am worried if the Athi River and Syokimau land saga is not dealt with decisively, we shall see increased repeats of the same in many other places starting with the Konza ICT project, the coal discovery in Kitui/Mwingi, the Lamu port project and others which would definitely lead to charged resentment among the populace.
With a constitution that speaks to the mirage that Kenyans have been fighting for, I foresee such resentment boiling off the pot considering the expectations that finally, what stands between Kenyans and their elusive mirage is only the forth coming elections. A slight indication of a “business as usual” approach in 2013 could as well be the very straw that breaks the camel’s back, causing an “Arab Spring” for Kenya.
(Peter Gichira Solomon is a researcher at the All Africa Conference of Churches, Nairobi)
-
-
4:48
»
Kim Media
Editor’s Note: A recent New York Times op-ed by Dowell Myers argues that we need to shift from an “immigration policy,” focused on border enforcement, to an “immigrant policy” focused on the integration of those who are already here. The argument is based on reports that illegal immigration to the United States has dropped dramatically. Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications for the Migration Policy Institute, takes a closer look behind the numbers in the context of global migration trends.
Illegal immigration to the United States has plummeted, with inflows significantly dampened by continuing weaknesses in the labor market and beefed-up enforcement at the U.S. borders and within the interior.
Other factors are at play as well: Changing demographics in Mexico and El Salvador that are reducing migration pressures; the likelihood of more vibrant Mexican and Central American export markets (and hence job opportunities) as the Chinese yuan takes on more strength and makes goods from China more expensive; and increasingly attractive destinations for migrants elsewhere in the hemisphere, including Canada, Brazil, and Chile.
Illegal immigration is the migration flow most responsive to labor market changes, so it makes sense this has been the one most disrupted (in the United States and other major immigrant-receiving countries) as a result of the Great Recession. Who wants to undertake an expensive, risky, potentially dangerous trip if there is not the certainty of a job waiting at the other end? Particularly if the word is out that enforcement has heightened, not only at the borders but within the U.S. interior as a result of more robust federal enforcement as well as actions by a number of states.
Legal immigration flows to the United States have been far less affected by the global economic uncertainty. The most recent reports from the State Department and Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics show a continuing strong demand for immigrant visas. (Keep in mind that a significant share of green cards are actually given to people already living and working in the United States on non-immigrant visas, such as the H-1B visa.) A look at the latest grants of green cards, though, will show a slight uptick in green cards for new arrivals.
What has gone down slightly is adjustment of status for people already in the United States, and that most likely has more to do with adjudications and processing than it does with a reduced desire to come to the United States.
A look at the most recent non-immigrant admissions (H-1B, student visas, intracompany transfers, etc.) shows that most categories are up, which suggests there is not a lessening of interest in the United States as a work/life destination.
Internationally, estimates by the United Nations dating to 1990 have shown that about 3 percent of the world’s population, or 214 million people, is comprised of international migrants. While that figure has held largely steady as a share of the world’s population, what has changed in recent decades is the increasing concentration of that migrant population in wealthy countries. While the recession may have dampened some movement for a time, there are some interesting realignments that may be taking place. For example:
In Latin America, Brazil and Chile, for example, have been proving more attractive draws for regional migration as their economies have outperformed those of their neighbors.
In Asia, there will be more intra-Asian international migration, lessening the pool of highly skilled migrants currently inclined towards North America or Europe. Part of that is because of very different demographics in the region, with some populations, such as China’s, aging more rapidly than others.
In Europe, countries that were historically countries of emigration but that became countries of immigration in recent years (Ireland and Greece in particular) may be reverting to their pasts. There are many anecdotal stories of skilled Greeks striking out for Australia, the Irish fanning out across Europe and the United States, the Portuguese heading back to the Lusophone world that was once a part of their empire (particularly Angola). Data collection is lagging this reality, but the 2011 and 2012 data, when out, should tell this story more clearly.
Still, amid the discussion about a global race for international migrants, it is worth remembering that any full-fledged competition likely will be reserved for a very small number of the most highly skilled possessors of prized knowledge -- in IT, engineering, and science, for example -- and not for the vast majority of would-be migrants. That said, some governments (Canada, Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia, and Europe) have been more mindful in their policymaking in recent years, enabling them to go after the talent, at all skill levels, that complements their labor market needs. And there are demographic, educational, and economic realignments taking place that eventually may make the United States and other key migrant-receiving nations no longer the most prized destinations for countless would-be migrants around the globe.
-
-
22:23
»
Kim Media
Jonathan Perez felt the surprised stares as he ate his Chinese food. The East Los Angeles College student wore a t-shirt with the word "undocumented" emblazoned across his chest in large letters. It's what he is: Since Perez jumped the border at age three fleeing his native Colombia, he has been an undocumented immigrant.
Perez is part of a wave of young people who are choosing to come out about status as a vehicle to empowerment, similar to the way that the gay movement did a generation before. "If we're in the shadows, we're actually more vulnerable," Perez said. "It's easier for you to get deported because you don't have a support network that's organized."
Not everyone agrees with his approach. When he began sharing his status, he noticed a clear divide in the area where he grew up on the border of East Los Angeles and the neighboring more Asian and suburban San Gabriel Valley. In East LA, he says, the shirt got a lively reaction. In Alhambra, where the 24-year-old lived for a few months last year, he says, "people just looked and are shocked." At restaurants, he recalls, customers and employees alike would approach him and ask, "Aren't you afraid?"
Last spring, Perez joined Pasadena City College students Martha Vasquez and Isaac Barrera and several other activists dedicated to creating a new immigration advocacy movement in the San Gabriel Valley. Crucial to their mission is advocating for immigration reform in an area where status is often kept hushed. They want young people who live here and are rarely heard from, in particularly Asian students, to share their experiences as well. Nearly half of undocumented students paying tuition in the California system are Asian, according to a College Board study, but the stories told about them are by and large Latino. (A recent prominent exception is the Filipino reporter, Jose Antonio Vargas, who came out as an undocumented immigrant in a New York Times Magazine essay.)
"I was frustrated, both in Alhambra and other parts [of the San Gabriel Valley], because I didn't see any immigrant movements happening," Perez said. "It's different when you come to East L.A. and see everyone is organizing and I got used to that. Looking at communities in the San Gabriel Valley, it's not present."
Since then, the San Gabriel Valley Dream Team members have attented rallies, worked to forge alliances with ethnic organizations, and hosted civil disobedience actions as far away as Alabama. This week they have been the driving force in expanding the movement to an alliance of groups called the Immigrant Youth Coalition. And on January 21 they will run a seminar for high school students at Cal State-LA.
Despite the San Gabriel organization's growth, engaging their Asian peers has been a challenge.
Nearly a year in their group remains almost entirely Latino. It's not for lack of trying, organizers say. They have worked with national and campus Asian organizations, such as APALC, but found being undocumented still provokes a greater barrier of shame in those communities. Vasquez, who arrived from Mexico at three and whose first memories are in the United States, said that it has been a struggle with fellow students at PCC.
"I tell them we're all in this together and we need to come out," she said, but has been challenged. "It's very difficult for a lot of Asians to talk about their own stories. Or their families tend not to talk about it."
Perez said that he has spoken with dozens of Asian undocumented immigrants, but that they "don't want to talk about it or don't want to come out."
Challenges notwithstanding, organizers reported a change is already happening amongst San Gabriel Valley area youth. For Perez, this became clear to him after being arrested in Alabama last fall when he turned himself into Border Patrol in an attempt to prove that the Obama administration is deporting immigrants who are not criminals. He was sent to a detention center in Louisiana. Crucial to his release, he says, was that so many young people at Pasadena City College were out about their status — and advocating for him. "When I was that age, I wouldn't have done something like that," Perez said at a press conference after he returned. "That was a big thing for me to see."
Daniela Gerson is the editor of the Alhambra Source. Nathan Solis is a community contributor to Alhambra Source.
-
22:20
»
Kim Media
The Italian city of Florence prides itself on welcoming foreign migrants. But the killing of two Africans last month has raised new questions about racism in Italy.
With the economic crisis worsening, there are signs xenophobia could increase as Italians start to compete with immigrants for a slice of the shrinking economic pie.
On December 13th, a known right-wing extremist opened fire — in two separate marketplaces — leaving 2 Senegalese dead and seriously injuring 3 others.
The killer then shot himself.
That day, the San Lorenzo market was packed with people shopping for Florence's renowned leather goods.
Vendor Roberto Ciacci is still stunned by what happened
People are now blaming immigrants for the crisis. They say we take away jobs, housing, and even slots in nurseries because we have too many children.
- Assane Kebe, a representative of the Senegalese community in Florence
"I'm anguished", he says. "This city has a strong progressive, anti-fascist legacy. I can't believe this could happen here".
The killings were carried out by a member of Casa Pound — a rightwing grouping named after the American poet Ezra Pound, known for his fascist sympathies and anti-Semitism.
Casa Pound leaders distanced themselves from the killer. But Saverio di Giulio says his group rejects the concept of immigrants' assimilation.
"We uphold the notion of Italian-ness — that spiritual and mystical union of our people that existed during Fascism." says di Giulio. "We are opposed to domination by the international financial system that wants to erase national identities."
Nigerian Udo Enwereuzor files reports to the EU Monitoring Center for Racism and Xenophobia. The ideas of Casa Pound – he says — are gaining ground across the political spectrum. "That part that criticizes big business, banks", he says, "has more chances of making headway, attracting people on the left today because of the hardship."
Italians And Immigrants Feel The Pinch
Hardships that are beginning to affect Italians as well as foreign workers.
Women are reciting the Hail Mary at the start of lunchtime at a soup kitchen run by the Catholic charity, Caritas.
Most here are foreigners, but the number of Italians has grown 30 percent in the last year or so.
As more Italians become jobless and even homeless, Caritas officials say, tensions are growing.
Many Italians are seeking jobs in three areas long relegated only to foreigners – domestic help and care of the elderly, agriculture and construction.
Sociologist Emilio Santoro, who teaches at the University of Florence, says they find that the majority of immigrants are paid one third of what they should be getting by law, and work very long hours.
"This is the problem because they find a market which is based on dumping, social dumping, then they have to accept the same salary as the foreign people," Santoro says.
The new job competition risks turning into a war pitting poor against poor.
It comes after a decade of escalating anti-immigrant statements by officials, especially members of the Northern League.
One minister even suggested, "immigrants should be shot in the boats bringing them to Italian shores".
Assane Kebe, a representative of Florence's Senegalese community, says the crisis has made the climate even worse.
"People are now blaming immigrants for the crisis," he says. "They say we take away jobs, housing, and even slots in nurseries because we have too many children."
Immigrants now face an even worse prospect: Italian legislation – severely criticized by the EU – stipulates that foreigners without a job for six months must be expelled together with their entire family– even those who settled here decades ago.
Several hundred thousand legal immigrants now risk losing their papers.
But the new government of Prime Minister Mario Monti wants to give them a reprieve and give them a year to find a new job
However, the government faces strong opposition in parliament from the Northern League and its conservative allies.
-
4:27
»
Kim Media
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Republican Party is beefing up its minority outreach nationwide and preparing to put its rising Latino stars on the campaign trail amid concerns that toughimmigration rhetoric in the presidential primary is taking on an increasingly anti-Hispanic tone.
But immigrant-rights groups and some political watchers say the damage may be irreversible. They argue that the GOP has severely hampered itself as it looks to woo the critical Latino voting bloc that could decide who wins key states like New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida next fall.
Mitt Romney "is done," said DeeDee Blase, founder of Somos Republicans in Arizona. "He'll be lucky to get 8 percent of the Hispanic vote" after saying he would veto legislation that would create a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants and accepting the endorsement of anti-immigration activist Kris Kobach, architect of two of the strongest immigration crackdown laws in the country.
The GOP front-runner, Romney has referred to the legislation — called the DREAM Act — as a handout. The measure would allow some young illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to earn legal status if they went to college or joined the military. Challengers, including Texas Gov. Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, have also taken tough anti-immigration stances in the campaign.
Language from them has been so sharp that even New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, has warned the candidates to watch their tongues.
"What we have to do is this: We have to tone down the rhetoric, and we have to have a sincere, honest conversation with the voters," Martinez said Wednesday, shortly after the Republican National Committee announced that it had hired a director of Hispanic outreach and was expanding its Latino-focused efforts. She's among the popular Hispanic politicians Republicans will deploy to battleground states in the coming months.
There's a reason for the urgent tone coming from Republican leaders on this matter.
The government projects Hispanics will account for roughly 30 percent of the population by 2050, doubling in size and boosting their political power. Overall, Hispanics traditionally tilt Democrat, meaning the Republican Party is looking at a threat to their future power if they don't work to make inroads with this politically pivotal group now.
Democrats have strengthened their standing with Hispanics in the most recent presidential election years. While much was made during the Democratic primary of 2008 of President Barack Obama's perceived weakness among Hispanics, he won 67 percent of their vote in the general election to 31 percent for Republican John McCain. It was a huge jump from 2004 when Democratic nominee John Kerry won Hispanics by 53 percent to 44 percent for Bush, a Texan who focused heavily on Hispanics.
Some worry that this year's eventual GOP nominee won't fare much better than McCain four years ago — and may fare worse — if candidates don't soften the way they talk about immigration.
"It's an emotional issue, and I think if the candidate can realize that and talk about it, you can still be conservative on immigration and talk about it in a way that doesn't turn off Hispanics," said Jennifer Korn, executive director of the Hispanic Leadership Network. She agreed that "some of the rhetoric could be pared back a bit" but disagreed that presidential candidates are shutting out huge blocs of Latino voters.
The issue is about to push to the forefront as the race for the GOP presidential nomination moves to Florida after South Carolina votes Jan. 21.
Korn's group is sponsoring its third conference in February in Miami, one day before it sponsors a debate with CNN.
Newt Gingrich, who supports a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, is the only presidential candidate scheduled to speak at the event.
Mindful of the challenges, the Republican National Committee unveiled expanded efforts to woo Hispanics last week.
Party Chairman Reince Priebus said the national party had hired Bettina Inclan as director of Hispanic outreach and was implementing a "multifaceted approach to connect with the Hispanic community" that will include digital outreach, traditional voter identification and get-out-the-vote efforts. It is also putting teams on the ground in key states, he said, and will tap popular GOP Hispanics like Martinez, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Yet even as they announced boosted efforts, Priebus and Inclan downplayed the impact the immigration issue will have come November, emphasizing the unemployment rate among Hispanics is at 11 percent, almost two points higher than the national average.
"We need to address it," Inclan said. "We need to talk about it. But poll after poll shows the No. 1 issue for Latinos in this country is going to be how they are going to feed their family."
Democrats, meanwhile, are making the GOP's task harder. Obama's campaign is way ahead in its grassroots outreach to Hispanics thanks to the fact that he doesn't have a primary opponent. His re-election campaign has had teams long in place on the ground in states like Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada. And volunteers already are knocking on doors and conducting voter registration drives and weekly phone banks to shore up the Latino base.
But immigration is also a weak spot for Obama ahead of the November election. His campaign pledge to overhaul the immigration system remains unfulfilled — which he blames on lack of cooperation from Republicans in Congress — and he's been criticized for a record number of deportations last year — 400,000.
As Obama gears up for a re-election contest, his administration has modified some immigration regulations. The Department of Homeland Security announced in August would focus deportation efforts on criminal illegal immigrants. Earlier this month the Obama administration proposed new rules to cut down on the time Americans are separated from their illegal immigrant spouses and children waiting outside the country for a visa to enter the U.S. About 75 percent of the hardship applications to waive the wait were filed by Mexicans, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
___
Associated Press writer Russell Contreras in Albuquerque contributed to this report
___
Follow Jeri Clausing on Twitter at http://twitter.com/(hash)!/jericlausing
-
-
0:11
»
Kim Media
NAIROBI, Kenya — An increasingly vocal Islamist group says its leader has been appointed to represent an al-Qaida-linked Somali militia in Kenya, a development that underscores the dangers Kenya faces from Somalia’s insurgency.
The statement by the Kenya-based Muslim Youth Center came amid a flurry of warnings from embassies about planned terror attacks in Kenya. The Somali militant group al-Shabab has promised to attack Kenya for its decision to send troops to Somalia in October.
The Muslim Youth Center was named in a United Nations report last year for recruiting, fundraising, and running training and orientation events for al-Shabab. An official al-Shabab spokesman did not answer questions about whether the center now represents al-Shabab in Kenya, but a statement published on the center’s blog on Wednesday was unequivocal.
“There can be no doubt that Amiir Ahmad Iman Ali’s elevation to become the supreme Amiir of Kenya for al Shabaab is recognition from our Somali brothers who have fought tirelessly against the kuffar on the importance of the Kenyan mujahideen in Somalia,” the statement said. The word kuffar appears to be an alternative spelling of kafir, an Arabic word meaning “unbeliever.”
Ali was featured in combat fatigues giving a 50-minute lecture in a Jan. 6 video produced by al-Kataib, al-Shabab’s media foundation. He referred to wars in Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. It was the first time an al-Kataib video was dedicated solely to his message, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors communications from jihadi groups.
“If you are unable to reach the land of jihad ... then raise your sword against the enemy that is closest to you,” Ali said. “Jihad should be now be waged inside Kenya, which is legally a war zone.”
“You don’t have to get permission from your parents,” he added.
Al-Shabab threatened huge terror attacks in Kenya in October after Kenyan troops entered Somalia over concerns that insecurity from Somalia’s 21-year-old civil war was spilling over the border. The U.S. Embassy has put extra security measures into place and last week the British Embassy warned that a terror attack was being planned.
Ali, also known as Abdul Fatah of Kismayo, is a Kenyan who has been based in Somalia since 2009 and commands a force of 200 to 500 fighters, according to the July U.N. report. The report said that “he now intends to conduct large-scale attacks in Kenya, and possibly elsewhere in East Africa.”
Ali speaks fluent Swahili, English, Arabic and some Somali, according to a security official in Kenya. He has also studied Islamic teachings extensively and has two degrees. The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The official said that Ali wanted to be seen as Kenya’s answer to Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American cleric killed in Yemen last year by a U.S. missile strike.
A post on the group’s website purporting to be from Ali complained about impunity for Kenyan army officers who have killed Muslims, set up arbitrary police detentions and renditions — complaints also voiced by Kenyan and international human rights groups.
But Ali also warned in a statement rife with spelling errors: “The Muslim lands will once again rule with Shari’ah and your kufr democracy will be dumped in the seewage.”
Two other Kenyans in Somalia — nicknamed “Taxi Driver” and “General” have more battlefield experience that Ali, said the official, but could not match his religious education. They all maintained strong ties to four religious leaders in Kenya that are linked to al-Qaida, said the same official as above.
So far the Muslim Youth Center is the best-known of the Kenyan jihadi groups, said another analyst, but it remained one of several. The groups were not very coordinated and it was unclear the extent to which they were directed by al-Shabab. The analyst asked not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Since its troops entered Somalia, Kenya has suffered more than a dozen grenade attacks. Four explosive devices targeting police have been planted in a northern refugee camp housing Somalis, and gunmen have also shot residents in northern Kenya towns. Somali fighters also raided a Kenyan police camp earlier this week, killing six people and kidnapping at least four.
But so far, there have not been any attacks causing major casualties — a source of some annoyance to senior al-Shabab leaders. Last year, a senior al-Shabab official in Somalia urged sympathizers in Kenya to “stop throwing grenades at buses” and make a “huge blast”.
The center’s use of its blog, the release of the al-Kataib video and a Twitter feed to proclaim its allegiance to al-Shabab could mean it was preparing for a big attack, the analyst said.
But, he added, it might also mean it was being used to mask the activities of other, less visible groups.
___
Follow Katharine Houreld at http://twitter.com/khoureld
-
-
0:04
»
Kim Media
As proceedings against six high-profile Kenyan suspects at the International Criminal Court, ICC, approach a crucial stage, local activists say the investigation that resulted in charges could have gone further had it not been for intimidation and deliberate obstructionism.
They point out that rape charges are largely absent from the list of accusations approved by ICC judges, because investigators were prevented from getting free and unfettered access to victims and evidence.
Judges will decide later this month whether the prosecutor has enough evidence for the cases, divided into two groups of three suspects each, to proceed to trial at the ICC.
Fighting between supporters of Kenya’s Orange Democratic Movement, ODM, and the Party of National Unity, PNU, following a presidential election in December 2007 led to the death of more than 1,100 people and displaced over 600,000 others, and prompted the ICC to launch an investigation in March 2010 after the Kenyan state had failed to initiate prosecutions itself.
Three ODM figures – members of parliament William Ruto and Henry Kosgey and radio broadcaster Joshua Arap Sang – are charged with crimes against humanity for orchestrating post-election violence. They face charges including three counts of murder, persecution and forcible population transfer.
In the second case, three senior PNU officials also face charges in connection with the violence. Francis Muthaura, chairman of the national security advisory committee, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, and former police commissioner Mohammed Hussein Ali are accused of orchestrating the violence in order to hold onto power after the disputed election.
Threats to witnesses and to individuals cooperating with the ICC became widespread as soon as investigations began in 2010. The threats led some key prosecution witnesses to withdraw their testimony after they had been interviewed by the office of the prosecutor.
“Most of the first-line witnesses were threatened; they were intimidated,” a source close to the investigation told IWPR. “The team had to use witnesses who were not strong enough to give evidence, they had to collect the little evidence they could from others and even the intimidated witnesses.”
These threats against witnesses were sufficient to cause ICC judges, at the end of the confirmation of charges hearings in October 2011, to appeal to the Kenyan public not to interfere in the court’s process.
Sources close to the ICC’s investigations in Kenya have told IWPR that the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, and his team were inhibited by widespread intimidation and by the government’s failure to cooperate with their enquiries.
“Ocampo and his team met a hostile environment,” the source said. “The state agencies were not ready to give him the cooperation he needed; he could not get the minutes or reports he required from the government.”
Ndungu Wainaina, director of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict in Nairobi, agrees, saying the government openly frustrated investigations, and some security officers in possession of crucial information declined to give evidence, forcing the prosecutor to look elsewhere for evidence.
The Kenyan government refused to speak to IWPR about allegations of threats, intimidation, and failure to cooperate with ICC investigators.
Kenyan activists believe fears of intimidation limited the scale of the evidence the investigators could gather, and that this explains why some offences like rape were only partially dealt with and certain geographical locations were omitted.
IWPR approached the office of the prosecutor for its view on these matters, but declined to comment pending the judges’ ruling on charges, expected next week.
Some legal experts say the need to keep both investigators and witnesses safe is reflected in the application for charges that the prosecutor placed before judges, and in the list that judges approved in March 2011.
The prosecutor left the crime of rape off the charge-sheet in the case against Ruto, Kosgey and Sang, despite claims that it was committed on a wide scale by their supporters.
Judy Gitau, programme officer for the International Commission of Jurists, believes the prosecutor left out rape charges because of concerns about protecting witnesses.
“The prosecutorial strategy was to expose victims as little as possible. He was keen not to expose them to too many risks and probably that is why he left out rape charges in Case One,” said Gitau.
In November 2011, Sureta Chana, the legal representative of victims falling under the Ruto/Kosgey/Sang case, filed an application with ICC judges to hear the concerns of 126 of her clients who are unhappy at the prosecutor’s failure to charge the three with rape, looting, and destruction of property.
Chana accepts that much of the prosecutor’s evidence has to remain confidential at this stage, but said her clients told her that “they did not see ICC investigators on the ground who wanted to interview them”.
Rape is one of the most difficult crimes to prove at the ICC. Priscilla Nyokabi, head of Kenyan legal aid agency Kituo Cha Sheria, says that may explain why the prosecutor avoided bringing these charges.
“Sex offences are hard to investigate, so the prosecutor reasoned [what chance he had of] winning the charges he brings to the court – he settles on the charges that he could get more evidence at that point,” Nyokabi said.
She drew a comparison with the ICC trial of former Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, in which rape charges were also left out of the prosecutor’s original charge sheet.
In the second case, against Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali, judges approved the prosecutor’s application for charges for rape in the town of Nakuru, but turned down his request for rape charges with regard to Kibera and Naivasha.
In their March 8, 2011 decision, pre-trial judges ruled that the prosecutor “failed to provide evidence substantiating his allegation that rape was committed as part of the attack in Naivasha”, and that while police action in Kibera, a Nairobi slum, “resulted in deaths, injuries and rapes”, the prosecutor had not furnished evidence that linked the three PNU suspects to acts of rape.
See also ICC Prosecutor Urged to Seek Further Kenya Charges on the omission of other charges including murder in Kibera.
IWPR’s source says the prosecutor’s restricted ability to investigate deprived him of opportunities to bring stronger evidence in his application for charges.
“With the heat that was around, he could not have had freedom to conduct interviews in Kibera, Korogocho or Mlango Kubwa as he could have desired,” the source said.
The stigma surrounding sexual violence is one factor that makes it difficult to collect testimony.
“Rape is a problem in Kenya – women are shy and may not want to say what happened to them. They also do not speak clearly about rape ordeals,” Nyokabi said.
However, others argue that more evidence could nevertheless have been found in the Muthaura/Kenyatta/Ali case.
“It’s very difficult to investigate rape but it is not impossible.” Neela Goshal, a researcher for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said. “We have spoken to rape victims who have identified the perpetrators, they got [medically] tested, there is evidence rape took place, for instance in Kibera. Sure, they raped people within homes, and their neighbours are witnesses and they saw what was going on. The evidence is there to prosecute people for rape.”
Wainaina defends the work of prosecution investigators in the face of great hostility in some quarters.
“People expected to see him [Moreno-Ocampo] on the ground collecting statements. They have to understand there were officers on the ground who did a lot of investigations amid all these threats,” he said.
-
-
1:21
»
Kim Media
Travel insurers take different stances on what policies do and don't cover in the event of a terrorist attack.
Holidaymakers planning trips to Kenya should check that their travel insurance covers claims resulting from terrorism following a Foreign and Commonwealth Office warning of potential terrorist attacks in Nairobi.
The FCO said it believes terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks in the capital. In a post on its website it said: "Attacks could be indiscriminate and target Kenyan institutions as well as places where expatriates and foreign travellers gather, such as hotels, shopping centres and beaches. We strongly advise British nationals to exercise extra vigilance and caution in public places and at public events."
Graeme Trudgill of the British Insurance Brokers' Association said insurers removed cover for terrorism from their policies following the attacks in New York in September 2001, but about two-thirds have now reinstated basic medical expenses incurred for injuries sustained as a result of terrorism, while some offer additional cover for baggage and other expenses.
He said: "If you have already bought a policy, check with the insurer to make sure it includes cover for terrorism. Otherwise, ask an insurancebroker to find a policy that provides the cover you require."
An Aviva spokeswoman said all its policies include cover for terrorism: "If terrorism is the cause of any claim covered by your policy, you are insured for it. In other words, if an act of terrorism caused you to be injured on holiday, medical assistance, treatment and repatriation would be covered under your policy's standard terms and conditions.
"Likewise, if you or the person you were going to travel with were injured due to terrorism and you needed to cancel your trip, we would pay for unused travel and accommodation costs you had paid if you weren't able to get a refund, for example from your holiday operator."
However, she added: "Travellers should be aware that standard cover does not include cancellation or abandonment claims due to acts of terrorism unless the insured is directly involved. So if you cancelled a planned trip following an act of terrorism because you were worried about further attacks, this would not be covered."
MoreThan, meanwhile, excludes terrorism from its travel policy cover, but will meet medical and repatriation costs for policyholders who are injured.
Disinclination to travel
Insurers are also taking different stances on how they treat the warning "against all but essential travel" to coastal areas within 150km of the Somali border due to threat of kidnapping, and to areas within 60km inland from that coastal strip and the Garissa District because of continuing instability in these areas.
No insurer will pay out if you decide you do not want to travel to an area or country following such advice, which is known in the trade as "disinclination to travel".
However, tour operators should be willing to rearrange a customer's holiday to a different date or destination if they have been advised by the FCO not to visit a particular area, and it is worth asking if the insurer will transfer or refund any related policy. MoreThan, for example, will refund the policy in these circumstance.
Unusually, Aviva will cover those who chose to go to countries where the FCO has advised against travel, but says customers should be aware of the standard policy exclusions such as war and rebellions, and not put themselves in a dangerous situation by joining in protests or failing to adhere to local curfews.
In addition to buying travel insurance, Bob Atkinson ofTravelSupermarket advises anyone travelling to register their contact details and location with the FCO through its LOCATE service. This enables the FCO to make contact with you in the event of a major catastrophe, and to help friends and family get in touch.
Travellers have responded to the FCO's advice with concern. OnTripadvisor a poster called Princess001 said: "We leave on the 28th but we also have our wedding arranged in Tsavo!!!, we are just going to see how things go in the next 7 to 10 days and then take it from there. We are keeping an eye on the FCO website. hopefully people that are in Kenya can let us know what is happening on the ground."
Another called rutlandrob has decided to cancel his family's trip: "I know we will lose an enormous amount of money and we have talked this through all day, go, not go, go etc.. we have had to make the decision not to take the risk, our kids are due to fly separately after all. There are 2 other families going who have decided to go, so we feel doubly bad at letting the team down."
Doffcocker, a destination expert on the site, said that following Kenyan troops taking control of towns in Somalia used as bases by kidnappers, a terrorist reprisal is more likely.
"There were two grenade attacks on working class Kenyan areas in Nairobi, but the perpetrators were quickly caught. There have been a few attacks in the town of Garissa, towards the Somali border, by al-Shabaab sympathisers, but other than that there has been nothing," he said.
"The current situation is a bit puzzling as nothing seems to have changed. Here, there have been no public announcements of a change in status here by the Kenyan government, but presumably the FCO has sound reasons for the statements it has issued over the weekend. I think the situation now is that the geographic location is irrelevant: if al-Qaeda are assisting al-Shabaab then it is the nature of the target chosen for its impact that is important rather than its location."
-
1:13
»
Kim Media
The world's newest snake has menacing-looking yellow and black scales, dull green eyes and two spiky horns. And it's named after a 7-year-old girl.
Matilda's Horned Viper was discovered in a small patch of southwest Tanzania about two years ago and was introduced last month as the world's newest known snake species in an issue of Zootaxa.
Tim Davenport, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Tanzania, was on the three-person team that discovered the viper. Thanks to his daughter, the snake will always carry a family namesake.
"My daughter, who was 5 at the time, became fascinated by it and used to love spending time watching it and helping us look after it," Davenport told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We called it Matilda's Viper at that stage ... and then the name stuck."
Only three new vipers have been discovered across Africa the last three decades, making the find rare and important. The Wildlife Conservation Society is not revealing exactly where the snake lives so that trophy hunters can't hunt it.
Davenport said he is not sure how many live in the wild because snake counts are hard to do. Twelve live in captivity and a breeding plan is being carried out.
Davenport, a Briton who has lived in Tanzania for 12 years, said that while many people fear snakes, most are harmless and help keep rodent numbers down. Matilda's horned viper can grow to 2 feet (65 centimeters) or bigger, he said.
"This particular animal looks fierce and probably is venomous (though bush viper bites are not fatal)," Davenport told AP via an Internet chat. "However, it is actually very calm animal and not at all aggressive. I have handled one on a number of occasions."
The Wildlife Conservation Society runs the Bronx Zoo and the Central Park Zoo in New York, and Davenport said it would be a "great option" to showcase the new horned viper at one of those locations, but that nothing has yet been decided.
-
-
7:12
»
Kim Media
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has now formed a seven-member committee to investigate allegations of misconduct against Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza over her spat with security guard Rebecca Kerubo.
The committee to be chaired by Reverend Samuel Kobia is expected to make its recommendation to the JSC by Friday January 13.
In the meantime, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has appealed to members of the public who might have evidence of the New Year’s Eve incident at the Village Market to make presentations to the committee at the Supreme Court building.
“I appeal to all Kenyans who have any have relevant information on the matter to make available the same to the committee at the JSC secretariat Room 64, Supreme Court Building,” Mutunga said.
The CJ has also revealed that JSC has received two petitions from the members of the public seeking to compel Baraza to step aside over the incident.
Those who have filed the petitions include a Kenyan researcher Peter Gichira Solomon and political activist Okiya Omtatah who want Baraza to vacate office as she waits for the conclusion of the investigations.
Members of the JSC probe committee are Prof Christine Mango, Justice Isaac Lenaola, Florence Mwangangi, Titus Gateere, Ahmednasir Abdullahi, Isaac Lenaola and Emily Ominde.
The Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Gladys Boss Shollei will act as the secretary to the committee.
When unveiling the sub-committee, the Chief Justice assured of fair outcome of the probe.
“I wish to assure all Kenyans that the Commission will handle this matter with utmost fairness, independence and fidelity to the Constitution.”
Last Thursday when Mutunga summoned the JSC to discuss the matter he announced that no institution or person was above the law.
“Nobody or institution in Kenya is above the law. This is the creed that we strive to uphold at the Judiciary,” he warned.
The CJ also re-affirmed his pledge to ensure strict implementation and obedience of the new Constitution and singled out equality for all Kenyans.
Baraza is reported to have confronted the security guard who wanted to carry out a routine screen check on her on New Year’s Eve as she entered a chemist at the mall.
Kerubo claimed that Baraza told her she should “know people” but later went to her car and returned with a firearm which he pointed at her while threatening her.
Baraza has admitted there was a confrontation and said she regretted the incident but robustly denies pointing a firearm at the guard.
There have also been allegations that she has been sending emissaries to talk to Kerubo over the matter.
The matter has sparked public interest with some accusing Baraza of arrogance while others think the security guard overreacted.
Kerubo and Baraza are expected to appear before the committee for questioning.
-
7:07
»
Kim Media
"Kenya is seeking to develop a viable nuclear energy program within the next 15 years to meet its growing energy demands. A government commission formed last year is conducting a feasibility study and the University of Nairobi is setting up programs to train people for the nuclear program. Critics say they're concerned about plant worker safety and the risk of environmental contamination. Some 86 percent of Kenyans do not have access to electricity, relying on firewood and kerosene to meet their energy needs. Electricity is expensive(1$=KES 90), and the supply is limited."
-
6:46
»
Kim Media
The war in Somalia has led to close intelligence collaboration between Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda that is thought to have thwarted plans by the Al Shabaab militia to launch terror attacks in the region over Christmas and New Year holidays.
The first public indication of this increasingly tight-knit intelligence networking from countries with troops in Somalia came during the November 2011 extraordinary session of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad), held to discuss the Somalia crisis. It has emerged that there was a technical meeting on the sidelines to try hammer out a framework for joint operations.
Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Internal Security, Joshua Orwa Ojode, noted that there was a close collaboration among all the neighbouring states in monitoring Al Shabaab activities.
“Even though each state has its separate intelligence gathering network, we call each other often and exchange information on the activities of Al Shabaab. However, there is no joint regional intelligence entity to deal with the group,” he said.
With Kenya’s entry into the war, followed by Ethiopia’s return a month later, sources tell The EastAfrican that Nairobi has become a “beehive of intelligence co-ordination” for the war effort in Somalia.
Kenya and Uganda, for instance, had warned citizens of major reprisal attacks over Christmas and New Year celebrations, but the holidays passed without incident, barring a grenade attack at a Garissa nightclub on December 31.
Source, The east African
-
-
9:01
»
Kim Media
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 6 – Kenya continues to witness a vibrant telecommunication sector with the number of mobile subscribers as well as those with access to Internet services growing phenomenally.
According to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), the number of Internet users increased from 12.53 in July 2011 to 14.3 million users in September.
“Internet user reached 14.3 million, meaning that 36.3 percent of the country’s total population has access to the Internet,” the regulator said in its report on the sector’s performance between July and September 2011.
The total number of subscriptions during the period also rose by 27.5 percent to 5.42 million.
As a pointer to the increasing popularity of the mobile phone as a mode of accessing the Internet, the statistics show that 99 percent of total subscriptions were done through the handset.
“The period under review witnessed 75 percent of the total users accessing the service through their mobile handsets, leaving computer and other modes of access with only 25 percent,” the quarterly report documented.
5.3 million people subscribe for Internet services from their mobile devices, 12.4 million use terrestrial wireless while 774 subscribers access the net through satellite links.
Fixed fibre optic cables have 22,467 subscribers compared to 11,016 who use fixed DSL and 25 who subscribe to fixed cable modems.
With a 36.6 percent Internet penetration, which is above the world’s average of 26.6 percent, Internet usage is expected to increase significantly as operators continue to bring new offerings into the market.
At the same time, impressive growth was also noted in the mobile phone front with the subscription during the period increasing by 1.1 million to 26.4 million.
This represented a mobile penetration rate of 67.2 percent of the population.
The regulator attributed the growth to the aggressive strategies adopted by operators to acquire more customers in an increasingly competitive market.
“This was an increase of 4.8 per cent but compared to the same period of the previous year, a 20.2 per cent increase was recorded, representing 4.46 million new subscriptions registered between these two periods,” the quarterly report indicated.
And although its market share has declined by eight percent since the last quarter, Safaricom continued to be the dominant player with its share of the pie during the period standing at 67.7 percent (17.9 million subscribers) followed by Airtel Networks Kenya Limited at 15.7 percent (4.1 million).
Essar Telecom and Telkom Kenya Limited had 6.2 percent and 10.4 percent or 1.6 million and 2.7 million customers respectively.
The dominance was also registered in terms of the new subscribers that each operator attracted during the period under review.
“Safaricom Limited recorded the highest gain (in subscriptions) of 593,177 followed by Airtel Networks Kenya Limited with 557,567 new subscriptions. Essar Telecom Kenya and Orange Telkom recorded 46,742 and 16,686 new subscribers, respectively,” the report further documented.
The aggressive consumer promotional campaigns mounted by all the operators translated into increased calls made within the networks. However, a 24 percent decrease in the traffic across networks was registered.
“The decline could have been as a result of aggressive on-net promotions by operators consequently eroding off-net traffic considering the fact that majority of mobile subscribers have multiple SIM cards. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, an increase of 23.2 per cent was recorded,” the regulator explained.
A more than two-fold increase was also seen in terms of the Short Message Service (SMS) sent.
“During the quarter under review, there were 1.5 billion SMS sent compared to 641 million during the previous period. Remarkably, the on-net SMS sent contributed 93.9 per cent of the total SMS sent,” the CCK added.
In addition, as a consequence of the lower calling rates following the August 2010 move by the CCK to slash by half the interconnection rates to Sh2.21, there has been a 39.2 percent increase in the number of calls made from the mobile phone to fixed lines.
Traffic from fixed to mobile on the other hand continued to decline from 47.7 million minutes in the last quarter to 29.8 million minutes during the quarter under review.
With competition projected to intensify and operators expected to leverage on emerging technologies going forward, the CCK is optimistic that the sector will continue to grow impressively and contribute greatly towards the country’s economic development.
-
8:55
»
Kim Media
Controversial jazz player, Joseph Hellon is back in the music scene. This time on his own terms. Hellon who is famed for his saxophone mastery has come up with a weekly show, Jazz and Clad, where jazz enthusiasts can attend and enjoy the live performances. The debut show, was hosted at Secrets Lounge, View Park Towers on Monday. The theme for the clad was red and black.
Hellon gave a brief background of the genesis of Jazz and Clad event. “We love music. We gathered around and played music together with Odada (Okello former Mr Kenya), whom we fought with a lot last year. We had a couple of meals together and reminisced about the Starry Jazz events that were hosted in my living room monthly in Runda. It has been two years now,” Hellon said. “We came up with the idea of Jazz and Clad.
An event where jazz enthusiasts can enjoy sophisticated music and also be involved by participating in the dress themes,” he said, adding, “These shows will build up to an international East African jazz festival that will serve a platter of Jazz melodies to a sophisticated society wearing something nice to listen to nice music. It is our object and ethos to do this.” Jazz and clad will be happening every Monday at Secrets Lounge from 6pm. Gate charges are Sh500.
-
8:14
»
Kim Media
We have met many beautiful girls in our lives but we haven’t met many who are cute and hard working too… at least not like Joy Doreen Biira.
We’re sure most of you know by now that the news anchor, who made many men wish she hosted all shows on NBS TV, has left the Kamwokya -based station.
The story is that she has moved to Nairobi, Kenya and she has joined one of Kenya and has joined one of Kenya’s leading television networks, KTN.
Just to make sure her fans know her whereabouts, Doreen posted on her facebook wall:
“Dear Friends and family; as of January1, 2012, I will be based in Nairobi, and working with KTN Kenya as an anchor/reporter under standard Group. Lots of love and regards.”
Joy Doreen Biira was born on September 5, 1986 to John & Beatrice Baluku in Kasese (Rwenzururu Kingdom) Uganda. She grew up in a Christian family in Kasese, western Uganda and went to single sexed schools for high school.
In September 2005, Joy joined Makerere University to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. As an evening program student, in her first year, worked as a part-timer for the day hours with a Branding[disambiguation needed] company (Branding Uganda Ltd) where she, at 19, dealt with operations and at the same time poached through the Mass Communication classes at University. It was there that she picked the interest in Media Arts.
After her second year at Faculty of Information Technology at Makerere University, Biira took a dead semester into her final year to gain experience in the media industry. She was trained as a researcher for in-depth stories & general journalistic skills by experts in media consultancy giving her competitive advantage with the professionally trained journalists. She started as an unpaid volunteer/ intern but and finally as a full-time paid employee.
In early 2008, Joy Doreen Biira was employed as a week day Morning Show co-host at NBS Television with Shawn Kimuli, broadcasting at the network’s headquarters in the capital Kampala, Uganda.
The Morning Breeze on NBS TV, is a live broadcast of current news, Newspaper reviews, Interviews, Features and Live Entertainment just to mention a few. The show on commencement was the pioneering breakfast show on Ugandan TV air.
Interactive and all people talk Show that addresses growing business power matters, health, sport and culture as well as relevant current affairs in a systematic and professional way with live-in calls. The show is viewed by half of the population across the country.
The “Morning Breeze on NBS TV” is currently the number one breakfast show in Uganda. The show runs from 7am-10am Monday to Friday. Through on job training, Joy is now top news anchor for prime time news and also reports on political, business & entertainment stories across the country, where she conducted one-on-one interviews with different personalities (top politicians, business moguls, entertainment stars etc.).
On September 1, 2008, Joy was called by Capital Radio, the leading English radio station in Uganda, to audition for a radio show & with just the first round of the trials; she was instantly taken on as Radio co-host of the weekend breakfast show on which she first aired on September 6, 2008. She also solely presents Capital Radio’s Sunday Drive a music variety show that’s informative with interviews, news & core general arts entertainment. Both shows on Capital radio today have grown to be the most listened to shows during the weekend with lots of fans glued to them.
In 2009, Joy resumed classes to complete her Information Technology degree course & currently awaits graduation this December 2010 from Makerere University. She has also embarked on a three year Journalism course that she completes in 2012.
-
-
0:57
»
Kim Media
Congestion at the Mombasa port is hurting tea exports leading to loss of key markets, the East African Tea Trade Association chairman Peter Kimanga said yesterday.
Kimanga said at the moment a lot of tea cargo is held up at the port because the ships cannot offload or load. He said this has made it difficult for exporters to purchase more tea from farmers since the traders are not paid before the tea is shipped.
KImanga said some ships at the port have been waiting for more than 10 days and as a result most tea which was bought in December has not been exported. “When tea is loaded into the ship is when we are paid. If we are not paid, we are not able to purchase more tea and this has affected us greatly,” he said.
The chairman noted that it is very expensive to manage ships a fact which might make ship owners to avoid the Kenyan port. ” If they know that one port is slow, their ships do not stop at the port leading to abandonment of Kenyan tea at our port,”he said. Kimanga cautioned that if the Kenyan tea will not be exported in time, potential tea markets might prefer doing businesses with other tea producing countries.
He also said that tea farmers will also suffer unless the problem is addressed. He said quick ways of handling and clearing cargo at the bought need to be used to decongest the port and that tea exports should be given preferential treatment to avoid excessive scrutiny of containers which is slowing down the process. Kimanga also urged the government to fast track construction of the Lamu port to help decongest Mombasa port.
The KPA public relations officer, Haji Masemo, said there is always congestion at the port during holidays because most people abandon their cargo during the festive season. He said that they have issued notices to clients to pick their cargo. “In January, there is a lot of cargo at the port. It is not the mistake of the management. But, as the port, we are working hard to improve service delivery,” he said.
-
0:47
»
Kim Media
Instead of throwing money at more enforcement, the laws need changing.
Immigration has loomed larger as an issue in the Republican presidential debates than it does in the minds of most voters. Driven by a minority of activists in their party, the candidates have been drawn into an unhealthy competition to see who can sound the harshest in cracking down on low-skilled illegal immigrants from Latin America.
So far the biggest loser in the competition is the Republican party.
The party is losing out because the rhetoric brings us no closer to actually solving the problem, while driving away voters crucial to the party’s long-term success.
In recent debates, the candidates have argued over who will build the longest and most secure fence along our border with Mexico. Mitt Romney wants it to cover all 2,000 miles, no matter what the terrain or the cost. Michele Bachmann wants to double down by making the fence two-tiered. Before he suspended his campaign, Herman Cain called for the fence to be lethally electrified. Any candidate who expresses any sympathy for immigrants or their children is quickly denounced as favoring “amnesty.”
Conservatives should be friendly to immigration, and the first to seek expanded opportunities for legal immigration. Immigration has been integral to America’s free and open economy. Immigrants embody the American spirit. They are self-starters seeking opportunity to support themselves and their families in the private sector.
Current immigration is driven largely by demand and supply. Immigrants come when there are jobs available that not enough Americans are able and willing to fill. That’s why immigration rates, legal and illegal, tend to fall when the economy is struggling, and to pick up as the economy grows. Immigrants stimulate job creation for natives by promoting investment, creating new products and services, and increasing demand for housing and other goods. Immigration keeps America demographically healthy while other, less open Western nations struggle with declining workforces.
Study after study confirms that immigrants help to boost the productivity and incomes of native-born Americans. A 2009 Cato Institute study by Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer calculated that legalizing low-skilled immigration would boost the collective income of U.S. households by $180 billion per year. A new American Enterprise Institute study by Madeline Zavodny finds that an increase in visas for both high-skilled and less-skilled foreign-born workers actually creates a net increase in jobs for native-born workers.
Contrary to fears stoked by talk radio, immigrants do not fuel an increase in crime. In fact, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than their native counterparts. They are too busy working and don’t want to jeopardize their residency in the United States by getting into trouble with law enforcement. That helps to explain why crime rates have been dropping for two decades in Arizona and across the country even as immigration rates have been rising.
If legal immigration were expanded, the kind of workers now sneaking across the border illegally would instead enter legally through established ports of entry. We know from the Bracero program in the 1950s that an increase in guest-worker visas led to a sharp drop in illegal traffic across the border. With far fewer workers entering illegally, the Border Patrol and local law-enforcement officers could concentrate their resources on apprehending real criminals.
Immigrants come to America to work, not to live off the welfare state. Their labor-force participation rates exceed those of native-born Americans. U.S. law bars immigrants from collecting welfare for at least five years after they arrive.
Critics of immigration routinely exaggerate the cost of emergency-room care and public education for immigrants and their families. The cost of government services used by illegal immigrants is a small fraction of what government spends on middle-class entitlement programs, corporate welfare, and farm subsidies. If conservatives are worried about social spending on immigrants, their aim should be to wall off the welfare state, not our country.
Immigrants do not undermine American culture, they enrich it. Immigrants come because they appreciate the freedom and economic opportunity that has traditionally defined our country. Like waves of immigrants in the past, today’s Hispanic and Asian immigrants are learning English, and their children and grandchildren are overwhelmingly fluent.
-
-
2:11
»
Kim Media
Riding on a motorbike on Dec. 30 in Nairobi, Kenya, Reynolds Otiato saw a woman being mugged by two men along Uhuru highway.
Otiato stopped his bike, removed his mobile phone from his pocket and photographed the crime just before the muggers run away.
After consoling the woman and advising her to report to the police, Otiato rode to the city center and posted the photos on his Facebook and Twitter pages, describing the place where the crime had taken place.
Soon, tens of his friends reacted to the photos with wrath asking the police to eliminate crime. "The highway is a crime spot especially around Bunyala roundabout. Criminals rob pedestrians and disappear into the graveyard. We need a police post around that area," wrote one of his Facebook friends last week.
Otiato is among Kenyans who are using their mobile phones and the social media to expose social ills in the society.
The multifunctional mobile phones allow them to take photos and post them on the internet in real-time, thus stirring debate on various happenings in the society.
Kenya has registered a significant rise in the number of mobile phone and internet users. Statistics from Communication Commission of Kenya show that there are over 22 million mobile phone users.
The rise in the number of mobile phone and internet subscribers in the East African nation, which stand at over 7 million, has similarly seen demand for multi-functional handsets increase rapidly.
Most of the mobile phones currently sold in Kenya have cameras and 3G internet features, which people use to access social media.
The two communication tools, mobile phones and social media platforms have therefore put power in the hands of ordinary Kenyans.
"It is interesting that you can see something happening in your neighborhood, snap it and share it with the rest of the world in real-time," said Otiato told Xinhua on Tuesday in an interview in Nairobi.
He recounted that while riding that morning, his mind was fixed on reaching his destination.
"I had an appointment in town with a client, who I was rushing to meet. But seeing that woman being robbed made me feel that the world and city authorities should know how crime was rampant in Nairobi," he said.
Otiato recalled that the photo generated a lot of debate on social media catching the attention of authorities.
"I was amazed how powerful the debate turned out with people sharing their experiences in the hands of criminals. I discovered through a post on Facebook that the woman was not the first person to be robbed that early morning, two other people had fallen prey to the muggers, but the photos enlivened the debate," he said.
The computer technician said that mobile phones, especially smart phones, can help change the Kenyan society.
"Smartphones are quick and allow easy integration of various features, for instance, sharing of photos with friends on social media," said Otiato, who owns an IDEOS Android mobile phone.
He noted that the phones take quality photos, which make them appropriate when snapping images to share with friends.
In the past one-year, the penetration of smart phones has increased in Kenya, with the cheapest, IDEOS, going for 95 U.S. dollar.
According to the manufacturers, China's Huawei, IDEOS is the best selling smart phone in the East African nation. Since its launch about a year ago, Huawei has sold over 200,000 pieces in Kenya.
"In Kenya, we can use our mobile phones to fight social ills like crime, environmental degradation and lawlessness in the public transport sector. These are ills that are pervasive in the Kenyan society and we do not have to wait for the media to expose them because unlike the people, the media's reach is limited," he noted.
Mobile phones, according to Otiato, can be used to fight social ills in two ways.
"First by taking photos and sharing them with people on social media and by calling and alerting the police or any other relevant authorities," he noted.
Gilbert Osoro, a civil servant in Nairobi said that with mobile phones, Kenyans can share incredible amount of information that can change the society in real-time.
"Mobile phones and social media put power in the hands of the people. Something happening in a certain place can be highlighted and debated as fast as possible. With social media, we longer need to wait for civil society organizations to fight for our rights," he noted.
Kenya's government in its Vision 2030 blue-print identifies communication technology as one of the ways of fighting crime and other vices in the East African nation.
"The mobile phone in Kenya has gone beyond its original purpose of making phone calls and text messages. It now serves as a bank, a computer, a radio, a television set, a tool to fight crime among other things. In a nutshell, it has penetrated every aspect of our lives," noted Kenya's Information and Communication Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo recently.
-
-
5:16
»
Kim Media
Here are some few interesting lines I think we should start our discussion with:
At first we started out real cool,
Taking me places I ain’t never been
But now you’re getting comfortable
Ain’t doing those things that you did no more
You’re slowly making me pay for things
Your money should be handling
Can you pay my bills,
Can you pay my telephone bills,
Can you pay my automo’bills
Then maybe we can chill
I don’t think you do
So you and me are through
By now you should have guessed where the words came from; the famous ‘bills’ song by Destiny’s Child. Good, now we can really begin. After an informal survey done by someone I know from somewhere, he came to a conclusion that women nowadays are the soul providers, taking care of everyone plus themselves. It is a society where roles are reversed and men are no longer the main breadwinners. Blame that on the ever-increasing costs of our economy. But is that really a cause to take on someone else’s ‘financial baggage’ or is it used as a flimsy excuse to feed off other people?
Ladies, are you in a situation where you are the one taking care of the bills while the man waits patiently at home? I’m not talking about the ‘sugar-mummy’ type of arrangements but rather a stable relationship where the man is not in a financial position to provide. How do you feel about it? Are you okay with it, or just putting up with the situation all in the name of love and ‘endurance?’ lets critically think about the types of ‘male financial instabilities’.
The ‘Leech’- now if you are in this type of relationship I suggest you read this carefully. According to my dictionary, a leech is ‘a person who extorts profit from or sponges on others’, ‘a person who habituallyexploits or relies on’. See any familiar pattern? I have put them in bold for you.
On the contrary, there is nothing bad in relying on someone for support. But there are men out there who only want to benefit financially from a woman, knowing full well that they can be provided with anything they want. This is a man who will call you in the middle of the day to ask you what you will buy them for dinner, pay his rent, assist his mother with ‘unga’ money, a man who expects you to pay for their drinks and buy him his essentials, all in the name of love. They will rarely show any progress of independence because they are either too lazy to look for a job or they are in the perfect comfort zone.
If you are a smart woman, you will know that these kinds of relationships never work. I am not saying that a woman should not assist financially or from time to time cater for the small bills. My point is simply “do not accept to take less than what you deserve in the name of love and patience.” Even God’s prophets had to do his work and at the same time afford their upkeep. They never burdened their spiritual brothers and sisters with bills. Look at apostle Peter who made tents to earn him some little cash.
Back to the basics; do not under any circumstances make excuses for a man who cannot provide for you. What happens when the children come and bills need to be taken care of, especially in this era of the financial crunch? You need a helper and provider at your side, a worthy ‘team mate’. Right now you might be single and enjoying the freedom of heavy responsibilities, but once you agree to take on the burden of providing for a full grown man, that is, in marriage, I have only one sentence for you –may the gods of the mountains be with you.
The unopened ‘Gift Box’- Ladies, we all love the ‘gift box’. Wrapped and in an attractive package, all we want to do is handle with care and cherish. A ‘gift box’ is a man who has got full of potential, full of life and has a promising future. One problem though- he is as broke as Jewish mouse in a Chinese temple. But he tries his best to make it up to you any time he gets that little cash and you appreciate him for that immensely.
I call him ‘unopened’ because he has not reached his full potential and it’s a 50-50 chance that he will.
And just like a wrapped gift, you do not know whether what’s inside will make you happy or disappoint you all together. This is a guy that has the entire ‘boyfriend qualities’; he’s loving, caring, understanding, good in the sack- name them! But he can neither maintain you nor himself and you end up doing all the work. He doesn’t make you cater for the whole 100% but you’ll find yourself doing at least 70%. You don’t really mind because at that point he makes you happy and you love it.
But there’s a loophole in this kind of relationship, so watch out. First, he might not attain financial independence sooner than you might like or prefer and this might cause a strain in the relationship. When you get yourself in this kind of ‘mess’ make sure you are psychologically prepared for any kind of challenges that will come along the way. It’s always never about you giving him a financial boost, but also acting as a support for him in the rough days to come. Such men usually require a lot of ‘pushing around’ and encouragement to reach their full potential, a gentle nudge in the right direction.
So are you ready to step up and do that? Or are you in it just for the short ride of excitement, which I will not lie to you, ends as soon as it begins. If you are in this kind of relationship, you are in it for the long haul and your main motivator should be faith and trust that the person will discover their full potential at some point and become this great individual you have always dreamt about. This is the ‘joyous’ part in eventually unwrapping the gift box and finding the most beautiful gift ever.
The second loophole is that he might not be the person you perceived him to be. His ambitions and dreams of the future were just meant to lure you into a sense of security. This is bad because you will have given him so much of your precious time and resources, hoping that he will eventually turn into a prince charming. Once you realize this, it is better to make a solid decision of leaving or continuing with the relationship. No use getting stuck in the middle hoping things will miraculously change overnight. It’s either he has potential or not, and its either you accept him as he is or not. Unfortunately, this is the part you unwrap the lovely gift box to find an empty space of nothingness smiling right back you. What do you do? I leave that for you dear readers.
For more from the author, check out: http://gnet.blog.com/ or follow @thedragnet on twitter
-
2:24
»
Kim Media
No surprise here because GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said he doesn’t support in-state tuition last September, but now he’s finally said as president he would veto the DREAM Act if the bill ever passed congress.
“For those who come here illegally, the idea of giving them in-state tuition credits or other special benefits, I find to be contrary to the idea of a nation of laws,” Romney told supporters at a campaign stop in Le Mars, Iowa.
He does however believe in one path to permanent residency. (Note that he says “permanent residency” and not a path to citizenship.)
Romney said he would support granting children of undocumented immigrants some form of residency in exchange for military service. “I’m delighted with the idea that people who come to this country and wish to serve in the military can be given a path to permanent residency—those who serve in our military and fulfill those requirements, I respect and acknowledge that path,” Romney went on to say.
A Pew Hispanic Center poll released last week showed Romney losing Latino voters to President Obama by a 3:1 margin, far worse than John McCain did in 2008.
Watch Romney at a September 2011 debate addressing in-state tuition.
-
1:44
»
Kim Media
Rights activists say international indictments in cases arising from post-election violence in Kenya in 2007-08 must be expanded to cover killings and other abuses committed by police in a Nairobi neighbourhood and the city of Kisumu.
Judges at the International Criminal Court, ICC, removed the two elements when they considered the prosecutor’s application for charges in March, saying there was insufficient evidence to pin them to the individuals accused.
Lawyers say the failure to charge three of the six suspects with the shootings means the victims of violence in Kibera and Kisumu feel left out of the justice process.
Kibera, a slum area of Nairobi, and Kisumu in western Kenya experienced some of the most brutal attacks in the violence that followed a December 2007 presidential election. The Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence, set up in February 2008 to investigate the violence, found that overall, the police killed 405 of a total of 1,100 people who died during the violence, and injured a further 557. The vast majority of killings by police are thought to have occurred in Kibera and Kisumu.
When he formulated charges against six senior figures accused of responsibility for the violence, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused a group of three of them, who fall into one of the two cases he brought, of being behind the Kibera and Kisumu attacks.
The three are Francis Muthaura, chairman of the national security advisory committee, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, and Hussein Ali, Kenya’s former police commissioner. All were senior members of the Party of National Unity, PNU, and are accused of orchestrating the violence to hold onto power in the aftermath of the disputed election. The other case brought by Moreno-Ocampo involves leading figures from the PNU’s opponent, the Orange Democratic Movement, ODM,
When ICC judges issued their ruling on Moreno-Ocampo’s application for charges on March 8, they found insufficient evidence had been presented to link the three PNU suspects to events in Kibera and Kisumu.
The judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Kenyan police shot and killed more than 60 people in Kisumu, and that police killed and raped civilians in Kibera. However, they took the view that the prosecutor had failed to demonstrate that crimes in Kibera and Kisumu were part of a wider state policy, so that they would fall within the court’s jurisdiction.
“The material presented by the prosecutor does not provide reasonable grounds to believe that the events which took place in Kisumu and/or in Kibera can be attributed to Muthaura, Kenyatta and/or Ali under any mode of liability,” the judges said in their ruling.
The judges’ ruling provoked outrage among victims and raised questions about the scope of the justice process, given the omission of two key focal points of the violence.
“[Nairobi] experienced a lot of violence and Kibera was the epicentre of it,” Priscilla Nyokabi, executive director of the legal aid centre Kituo Cha Sheria in Nairobi, said. “It will be so bad if Kibera is not made to feel a sense of justice.”
According to Godfrey Musila, an expert on international law based in Nairobi, “Ideally, charges brought by the prosecutor should reflect patterns of the violence. It undermines the court when the perception around is that the epicentres of the violations are out of the scope of the cases.”
Rights activists and legal experts are urging the ICC prosecutor to renew his request for judges to include Kibera and Kisumu in the charges against Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali.
Moreno-Ocampo told IWPR in early December that he was gathering additional evidence on crimes committed in Kibera and Kisumu, but that he would not decide whether to ask for these charges to be added to the case until ICC judges had assessed his evidence of other crimes.
"We have evidence regarding Kibera and Kisumu, and we continue to collect more. The [office of the prosecutor] will decide on requesting that charges be added to the current cases after the decision on confirmation of charges,” he said.
The judges’ decision on whether to confirm charges of crimes against humanity in the two Kenyan cases is expected by mid-January.
Some legal experts are uncertain whether Moreno-Ocampo will be able to find evidence showing that Kenyatta, Ali and Muthaura were responsible for the shootings. This is crucial if he is to make a second attempt to bring additional charges.
In order for actions to qualify as crimes against humanity, and thus to prosecute them at the ICC, there must be reasonable evidence that they formed part of a widespread or systematic attack pursuant to a state or organisational policy.
Musila said the prosecutor failed to establish such a policy existed for what happened in Kibera and Kisumu, because his application for charges described responsibility in terms of a network of individuals, as opposed to a state policy.
At the time of the violence, Kenyatta was not a member of the government. There was therefore no clear hierarchy that the prosecutor could cite as an argument that attacks stemmed from a state policy. He has said there was no such policy, and instead submitted that the attacks were triggered by a “network that furthered an organisational policy”.
Musila hopes that if and when the prosecutor asks judges to approve the Kibera and Kisumu charges, he will use this second submission to frame the attacks as a state policy, given that the two other suspects were serving in government at the time.
“The prosecutor’s approach is where he failed. He created [the legal characterisation of] an organisation outside the state and had to go the extra mile of linking police to this group. It would have been easier to pursue the state policy approach, as Muthaura and Ali were state officials,” Musila said.
During confirmation of charges hearings at the ICC in September, the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch released a report noting that the judges’ decision to strike out the charges in March “shows the difficulty of linking individual acts of excessive force to policy and attributing responsibility”.
The omission of charges relating to Kisumu and Kibera leaves substantial groups of victims out of the ICC process. As things stand, people from the two places will not get justice for atrocities committed there. Nor will they be eligible for compensation should the ICC suspects eventually be found guilty of the charges brought against them.
In cases brought before the ICC, victims are able to make submissions to judges throughout the proceedings, and have legal representation. However, the role of victims at the investigatory stage is limited. And once a case is opened, only victims who are registered in that case can make representations to the judges.
Observers say that because events in Kibera and Kisumu are not part of the cases before the ICC, victims in those places have effectively been silenced.
“That is where the system [of victim participation] is not working well,” said David Donat Cattin of the non-government group Parliamentarians for Global Action.
Donat Cattin said that in theory, victims from other parts of Kenya who have been admitted as participants in the two cases could petition ICC judges to review the prosecutor’s investigations in Kibera and Kisumu.
However, as Elizabeth Evenson, a senior counsel with Human Rights Watch, points out, judges might regard such a petition as beyond the scope of the victims concerned, since they personally were not affected by violence in Kibera or Kisumu.
Another avenue open to victims is to provide information directly to the office of the prosecutor. According to Nick Kaufman, who represents victims in the Darfur case before the ICC, those in Kibera and Kisumu have little option but to “keep petitioning” the prosecutor and supply him with evidence that persuades him to attempt to revive the Kisumu and Kibera charges.
Kaufman stressed that “as hard as it may be for the victims”, it is for the prosecutor to decide which charges to bring and whether he has enough evidence to back them up.
If the prosecutor does not find sufficient evidence to resubmit a request for crimes committed in Kibera and Kisumu to be added to the charge sheet in the Muthauru/Kenyatta/Ali case, rights groups say the Kenyan authorities should look into these abuses themselves.
While six senior figures face charges at the ICC, the Kenyan is being urged to set up its own national tribunal to try other, lower-level figures accused of playing a role in the post-election violence.
Nyokabi of Kituo Cha Sheria sees this as an opportunity to fill in the gaps.
“The prosecutor has other charges to work on, and it could be that he does not have enough capacity to concentrate on what has been rejected. Moreover, other charges may still be dropped as we move on, and so it is the duty of the state to pick up from where he fails,” Nyokabi said.
Nzau Musau is a reporter in Nairobi.
Continue reading at NowPublic.com: ICC Prosecutor Urged to Seek Further Kenya Charges | NowPublic News Coverage http://www.nowpublic.com/world/icc-prosecutor-urged-seek-further-kenya-charges#ixzz1iPkQoQyF
-
0:56
»
Kim Media
In Nairobi 60% of the population live in slums, but the city is also a regional hub for IT development. Photograph: Noor Khamis/Reuters
"Karibu Kenya, hakuna matata," – Welcome to Kenya, there are no problems.
So goes the traditional greeting for visitors to east Africa's top tourist destination.
But Kenyan wags have come up with a new version: "Karibu Kenya, hakuna matata, hakuna maji, hakuna stima, hakuna gas" – Welcome to Kenya, no problems, no water, no electricity, no gas.
This sarcastic take on the well-known slogan reveals the frustration felt by many in a country that is flexing its military muscles on the regional stage, but failing to deliver on promises at home ahead of critical elections in 2012.
Kenyans will go to the polls, most likely in December, to choose a new president and parliament. The last election in 2007 brought the country to the brink of civil war amid accusations of fraud. Around 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Few analysts are willing to take a punt on whether the 2012 polls will be disrupted by the same toxic mix of ethnicity, politics and greed. Kenya is still struggling with these old demons, but also facing new pressures.
Recent military incursion into Somalia has compounded a sense of uncertainty and insecurity.
Heavy rains have displaced thousands, ruined crops, caused power blackouts and turned Nairobi into a gridlocked quagmire. There was a shortage of water in some places and for weeks, in an unrelated scarcity, cooking gas was unavailable.
The rains and floods, coming as drought continued to bite in the north, laid bare the weaknesses of east Africa's biggest economy, which has long been at the mercy of endemic corruption and government lassitude.
"The economy has been blinking amber all year," said Aly-Khan Satchu, an independent Nairobi-based analyst. "The current account deficit has crossed 10%, putting us on a par with Greece and Swaziland."
The World Bank has revised down growth estimates, and the Kenyan shilling sank to a record low against the dollar in October, pushing food and fuel prices higher. The central bank hiked rates repeatedly as inflation climbed to nearly 20% in November. The currency has strengthened since, but for many the damage has already been done.
Satchu says there are two economies in Kenya – the old one that exists to serves the interests of a ruling elite, and a new economy based on IT and mobile technology. Overall, Kenya has shown resilience, bouncing back from the post-election crisis thanks mainly to tourism, a thriving ICT sector and the mobile money revolution.
Nairobi embodies this dual-track reality. The city where 60% of the population live in slums is also a regional hub for IT development and entrepreneurship.
Politically too, the picture is not uniformly bleak. Last year, a newconstitution was ratified in a peaceful vote seen as an important first step towards eradicating the dangers of poll-related violence. But the old demons persist.
"We must continue to work towards national unity rather than balkanise our nation along ethnic lines," said the prime minister, Raila Odinga, who is the frontrunner to win the presidency.
J Peter Pham, director of the Africa Programme at the Atlantic Council in Washington, says Kenya needs strong political leadership to overcome its many hurdles this year, but that this has been in "critically low supply".
The first test will come later this month when the international criminal court rules on whether six political figures, including deputy prime minister and presidential hopeful Uhuru Kenyatta, should stand trial for their alleged roles in the post-election violence.
Former UN chief Kofi Annan, who helped mediate the 2008 peace deal, said in December that Kenyans had moved on from the past and wanted no more violence, impunity or corruption. The question is do their leaders want the same.
"I think some of the politicians are behind the curve," Annan said.
-
-
1:38
»
Kim Media
12/27/11 Age: 6 days
12:05 PM
0 comments
Pastor Duke Taber
Every year we go through the tradition of evaluating the past year and making decisions for our upcoming year. This year I would like to encourage you to think outside the box concerning your Christian New Year’s resolutions.
Instead of the stereotypical Christian New Years resolutions like reading the Bible in a year or winning more souls, which are both admirable goals, I am going to try to stir your thinking and stir your hearts to take on some goals that will build your relationship with Jesus rather than just engage in another religious activity. So hear are 5 recommendations for Christian New Year’s resolutions.
5 awesome Christian New Year’s Resolutions:
Christian New Year’s Resolution #1 – Read the red and Pray for the power.
Instead of getting involved in another read the Bible through in a year program how about changing tactics? The reason we read our Bibles is not to gain knowledge. Knowledge alone is not enough and in all honesty, even in Christians, knowledge puffs up. If our intent is to get to know the Savior of our souls better and to grow in a deeper knowledge of the love of Christ towards us, then how about thinking outside the box and this year you make it a goal to read all the words printed in red in a red letter edition Bible? The red letters are the words of Jesus Himself. This can be done easily in 1 month’s time so you can do it 12 times in 1 year. If you read something 12 times do you think you will remember what is said? I do! Along with reading the red, pray that God will enable you by the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out what is written in the red. You can find a Red Letter Bible Here.
Christian New Year’s Resolution #2 – Skip a meal a week and give the money you save to the poor.
We all hear of people making New year’s resolutions to lose weight or eat healthier. Well how about making that goal something that actually has spiritual significance. In Isaiah, the prophet talks about a fast that God has ordained. He tells us to not only go without eating but to give the food we would have eaten to the poor. How about when you decide to eat less, you take that money that you save and give it to your local food bank or a charitable missions organization? Take one meal, maybe breakfast or lunch, and skip it. Take the $5.00 that you save once a week and give it away. The $20.00 a month that you give may just feed a family for a month in a 3rd world country or provide a meal for a family of 4 at your local food bank. I recommend either Compassion International or World Vision.
Christian New Year’s Resolution #3 – Let God be in control of your appointment book.
Many Christians make New years resolutions to win more people to Jesus. To be more faithful in evangelizing their friends and families. They may start off good and actually speak up, but as the business of the year starts, this goal becomes forgotten in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Instead of making a goal of evangelizing, how about making the goal of starting every morning with the simple prayer for God to make you sensitive to His divine appointments throughout the day? Instead of limiting your goal to just evangelism that “you make an effort about”, make your goal to be more sensitive to “Divine appointments that God is making an effort about”? On your way to work or while taking your morning shower, just ask the Lord to keep you aware of His appointments for the day. I think you will find this not only a lot more workable but will see much more fruit in the long run including leading somebody to Jesus.
Christian New Year’s Resolution #4 – Make biblical prosperity your goal.
Many people at New Year’s make resolutions to get a new job, make more money, buy a house or car, ect. They focus their attention on the world’s view of prosperity. I would like to challenge you to make biblical prosperity your goal. It is not the same thing even though many preachers have bastardized the gospel to try to make it the same. Biblical prosperity centers in on the health and wholeness of your spirit and soul. Make this year a year that you center in on how healthy you are spiritually and emotionally. Instead of getting into more debt where that brings anxiety to your heart, work on getting out of debt. Instead of taking on a second job just so you can have more toys, work on becoming content with what you have so you can spend more time with your children. Instead of taking a job that makes you work nights just so you can get a promotion, how about thinking outside the box and get your promotion at home by being the greatest spouse, parent, neighbor you can be? Make biblical prosperity your Christian New year’s resolution.
Christian New Year’s Resolution #5 – Random words of kindness and mercy.
In the book of James, the author writes that good water and bitter water should not come out of the same well. He is talking about the words we speak. This year how about making a resolution that you are going to say random words of kindness and mercy to 1 person every day. That you will bless or compliment someone just because you can. Whether it be your spouse, your child, your neighbor, or the stranger standing in front of you in the grocery store, you are going to find one person every day that you can bless with words of kindness and mercy. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 19 “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, My Rock and my Redeemer. What better Christian New Year’s resolution can be made than a goal of doing something that will be pleasing to our God?
Now that is something to think about!
-
1:17
»
Kim Media
New Year is a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. Did your New Year resolutions make our top ten list?
1.
Spend More Time with Family & Friends
Recent polls conducted by General Nutrition Centers, Quicken, and others shows that more than 50% of Americans vow to appreciate loved ones and spend more time with family and friends this year. Make plans to meet up with friends for an evening of comaraderie at a
favorite Pittsburgh restaurant or take the family to one of these
popular Pittsburgh places for family fun. Work shouldn't always come first!
More:
Home & Family in Pittsburgh
2.
Fit in Fitness
The evidence is in for fitness. Regular exercise has been associated with more health benefits than anything else known to man. Studies show that it reduces the risk of some cancers, increases longevity, helps achieve and maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure, and even improves arthritis. In short, exercise keeps you healthy and makes you look and feel better. Why not make this the time to start getting in shape for one of these popular
Pittsburgh Area Charity Walks, Runs or Rides?
More:
Getting Fit in Pittsburgh
3.
Tame the Bulge
Over 66 percent of adult Americans are considered overweight or obese
by recent studies, so it is not surprising to find that weight loss is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions. Setting reasonable goals and staying focused are the two most important factors in sticking with a weight loss program, and the key to success for those millions of Americans who made a New Year's commitment to shed extra pounds.
More:
Weight Loss Help in Pittsburgh
4.
Quit Smoking
If you have resolved to make this the year that you stamp out your smoking habit, over-the-counter availability of nicotine replacement therapy now provides easier access to proven quit-smoking aids. Even if you've tried to quit before and failed, don't let it get you down. On average, smokers try about four times before they quit for good. Start enjoying the rest of your smoke-free life! Even Allegheny County is trying to go smoke-free, and it's taken them a few tries as well. Locally, there are a variety of free support services, hotlines and smoking cessation classes to help you kick the smoking habit.
More:
Quit Smoking Classes & Support Groups in the Greater Pittsburgh area
5.
Enjoy Life More
Given the hectic, stressful lifestyles of millions of Americans, it is no wonder that "enjoying life more" has become a popular resolution in recent years. It's an important step to a happier and healthier you! Consider one of
Pittsburgh's holistic healing centers for products designed to bring balance to your body, mind and soul. Or just get out and try something new! Take up a new
hobby or try your hand at
skiing. Go to a
theater performance, or head to the
local spa. Pittsburgh offers a wealth of artistic and recreational activities to meet just about anyone's wishes.
More:
Things to Do in Pittsburgh
6.
Quit Drinking
While many people use the New Year as an incentive to finally stop drinking, most are not equipped to make such a drastic lifestyle change all at once. Many heavy drinkers fail to quit cold turkey but do much better when they taper gradually, or even learn to moderate their drinking. If you have decided that you want to stop drinking, there is a world of help and support available. Pittsburgh Alcoholics Anonymous offers meetings throughout the greater Pittsburgh area. There is also a Pittsburgh group for Parents of Teenage Alcohol and Drug Abusers. There are also a number of treatment-based programs, as well as support groups for families of alcoholics.
More:
Alcohol Recovery & Support in Pittsburgh
7.
Get Out of Debt
Was money a big source of stress in your life last year? Join the millions of Americans who have resolved to spend this year getting a handle on their finances. It's a promise that will repay itself many times over in the year ahead.
More:
Find a Financial Planner in Pittsburgh
8.
Learn Something New
Have you vowed to make this year the year to learn something new? Perhaps you are considering a career change, want to learn a new language, or just how to fix your computer? Whether you take a course or read a book, you'll find education to be one of the easiest, most motivating New Year's resolutions to keep. The Community College of Allegheny County offers a wide variety of "lifelong learning" courses, and local YMCA's offer great recreational training for beginners of all ages. Most local colleges and universities offer distance and adult education programs. Or if the arts are more your thing, places such as the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts offer adult studio classes.
Lifelong Learning in Pittsburgh
9.
Help Others
A popular, non-selfish New Year's resolution, volunteerism can take many forms. Whether you choose to spend time helping out at your
local library, mentoring a child, or building a house, there are many nonprofit volunteer organizations that could really use your help. The Pittsburgh Cares organization makes it easy by connecting volunteers with projects to fit practically any schedule. Or if your time is really in short supply, maybe you can at least find it in you to
donate the furniture, clothing and other household items that you no longer need, rather than leaving them out by the curb to fill up our landfills.
More:
Volunteer Opportunities in Pittsburgh
10.
Get Organized
On just about every New Year resolution top ten list, organization can be a very reasonable goal. Whether you want your home organized enough that you can invite someone over on a whim, or your office organized enough that you can find the stapler when you need it, these tips and resources should get you started on the way to a more organized life. Pittsburgh has quite a few
professional organizers who can help you reduce the clutter in your life and find peace in your home. Professional Pittsburgh organizer
Patty Kreamer even offers a a six-month
But I Might Need it Somday! ecourse.
More:
Pittsburgh Home Improvement & Renovations
-
-
9:01
»
Kim Media
The score was 1-0 at the time of the dismissal, with Wigan - 18th in the Barclays Premier League - going on to lose the match 5-0 as Dimitar Berbatov scored a hat-trick.
Sammon will now be available for Wigan's crucial match at Stoke City on Saturday 31st December, which has come as a boost to their manager Roberto Martinez.
Wigan Athletic striker Conor Sammon has won his appeal against the red card he received at Manchester United on Boxing Day.
The 25-year-old was shown a straight red card by referee Phil Dowd after a clash with United's Michael Carrick on the halfway line during the first half.
"We thank the panel for their decision, which is the correct one," said Martinez. "We now need to draw a line under the matter and move on. I am delighted to have Conor available for the next three matches.
"It would have been really unfair for him to share the frustrating feeling that he had on Monday for another three matches after doing nothing wrong."
Sammon joined Wigan for £600,000 from Scottish side Kilmarnock in January and has made 13 Barclays Premier League appearances this season.
-
-
5:00
»
Kim Media
Brazil
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Brazil couldn't find enough migrants. Seeking to fuel the Sao Paulo coffee boom, authorities actively recruited impoverished Europeans and later Japanese citizens.
Today migrating to Brazil is no longer so easy. Aside from marrying a Brazilian or having a Brazilian child – as did the great train robber Ronnie Biggs – several options exist for those hoping to relocate to South America's largest nation.
Work visas are routinely issued to directors and high-level employees from foreign companies operating in Brazil. Over 50s, who can prove a monthly income of over $2,000, are issued with retirement visas.
Another possibility is an "investment visa", granted by the work ministry to foreigners who commit to investing at least $50,000 in an existing Brazilian company or a start-up that will create at least 10 Brazilian jobs in five years.
A number of European immigrants work in Brazil illegally, renewing 90-day tourist visas by leaving the country and returning. During a 2009 amnesty on illegal immigration around 2,400 Europeans legalised their status with the federal police.
Argentina
Unlike Brazil, Argentina has an open-doors policy, with immigrants from Europe particularly welcome. No specific skills or country quotas are in place. All an applicant needs is a letter from an employer or potential employer and a certificate of good conduct from the police of their country of origin.
It is also possible to look for a job once in Argentina on a tourist visa. Europeans can travel to Argentina without a visa and are automatically given a free 90-day tourist visa upon arrival. After finding a job immigrants can go to the migrations department with a letter from their employer and a certificate of good conduct from their country of origin. Application requirements are fairly straightforward but the same cannot be said for Argentina's often nightmarish bureaucracy. It can take several months until a visa is actually issued.
Australia
Migration to Australia is also not as easy as it once was. In the year to June 2011 there were 113,850 places for skilled migrants to Australia. The skilled occupation list determines which professions or trades can apply for unsponsored migration.
As well as occupation, applicants are assessed on the basis of their age, qualifications, English language ability and employability. Australian employers can also sponsor potential migrants to fill vacancies in their businesses.
Several government initiatives encourage migration to regional and low population growth areas of the country. A business skills visa allows business owners, senior executives or investors to apply for a temporary visa, and later for residency if requirements are satisfied.
Canada
Canada's immigration programme was comprehensively revised in 2002, and now lists three main objectives of its immigration policy: reuniting families, contributing to economic development and protecting refugees.
Family class migration allows foreign nationals to migrate to Canada under the sponsorship of close relatives (typically spouses and partners, parents, children or grandchildren) already permanently (and legally) residing in Canada.
Options for economic migrants include applying from outside Canada on the basis of having skills and experience matching a number of specific "in-demand" categories identified by the Canadian government, or applying from within Canada for individuals with sufficient (typically two years) relevant Canadian work experience – for example through a temporary employment visa granted by a Canadian employer.
Other avenues exist for business immigrants who intend to set up a business in Canada, or can invest a set sum (currently C$800,000, or £500,000) with the Canadian government for a period of five years, have a minimum net worth of C$1.6 million and can demonstrate they have business experience.
-
-
2:53
»
Kim Media
Seated in his cybercafe in Nairobi, Kenya, Bernard Njiru welcomes a customer and sets up a computer so she can access the Internet.
After working on the computer for some time, the young woman turns to Njiru and asks almost in a resigned voice: "How does one get a tax registration number? I have tried here for several minutes but things seem not to be working out."
Njiru walks to her computer and soon the lady smiles as she sees the printer churning out the Personal Identification Number (PIN) certificate.
Her happiness is understandable. She could have spent several days getting the number, but, thanks to the Internet, she can access online services and the process only takes about seven minutes.
The woman is among millions of Kenyans who are getting used to accessing official documents online as the government decentralizes its services via the Internet.
Some government departments have partnered cybercafe owners, turning them into quasi-public servants as they assist Kenyans in accessing online services.
"It is one of the most efficient, affordable and fastest ways one can access essential government services. The Internet has reduced traveling costs for many Kenyans, who access the services at their doorsteps through cybercafes or in the comfort of their houses," Njiru said.
The trader noted that more and more Kenyans are getting used to accessing online services as it saves a lot of time and resources.
The owner of Super World Cybercafe in Komarock, a middle-income residential area in the capital, said the number of people seeking government services through the Internet had increased.
"Most of those coming here want to apply for tax registration numbers while others want to print the document, which is necessary for tax compliance," the owner said.
Other government services sought include filing tax returns, applying for public service jobs and downloading higher education loan forms.
A report released in mid-December by Google on how Kenyans searched for information on the Internet showed Kenya Revenue Authority PIN application topped the list of search queries.
Analysts said the findings underlined the importance of decentralizing government services and urged other state departments to give people access to their services via the Internet.
While offering online government services has helped Kenyans access key documents faster, the move has also presented business opportunities to hundreds of cybercafe owners, who are facing a threat from Internet-enabled phones.
Antony Mogare, an attendant at Switch Cybercafe in Nairobi's central business district, said online government services had helped the business widen its revenue sources.
"We used to make minimal profits from people who mainly came to check their email accounts. Those seeking government services end up printing the documents, thus enabling us to make some more money," he said.
According to Mogare, one can make as much as 24 U.S. dollars a day from people seeking government services, especially those applying for tax certificates.
"It is one way of the government helping small-scale businesses to grow. If all state departments take their services online, people will throng to cybercafes in search of the services and this will help improve business and in turn the economy," he said. Enditem
-
2:47
»
Kim Media
Two major oil firms are set to enter Kenya’s exploration scene, adding excitement to the long search for petroleum which has intensified since the beginning of the year.
Ministry of Energy officials said French oil giant Total and Brazil’s Petrobras will be among the first beneficiaries of the next round of prospecting licence awards early next year. “We are creating new blocks for big oil firms with the financial muscle and technical capability to prospect,” said Martin Heya, the Commissioner of Petroleum.
Mr Heya said award of a prospecting licence to Total will follow fresh gazettement of seven new blocks early next year. The move marks a significant shift in the potential that global oil prospectors see in Kenya.
“We are working with the Survey of Kenya to speed up the process of re-allocating blocks that have been relinquished by previous prospectors,” he said.
Kenya has no proven oil reserves, but has become an international hotspot for exploration after the recent discoveries of gas in Tanzania and Mozambique and oil in neighbouring Uganda.
Signs that Kenya had appeared in the radar of major oil firms initially emerged in February when the UK listed firm Tullow closed a farm-out deal with Centric Energy for a 50 per cent stake in the latter’s Block 10BA in north-western Kenya.
Tullow Kenya BV paid a record Sh807.7 million for the deal that pushed to five the number of its exploration blocks in northern Kenya.
Under the revenue-sharing agreement signed as part of the deal, the UK firm also agreed to finance 80 per cent of future expenditure to a limit of Sh2.5 billion ($30 million).
Tullow, which is preparing to start seismic tests and drilling for oil in the first week of January, also closed a farm-out deal with Africa Oil early this year that gave it a 50 per cent operatorship stake in blocks 10BB and 10A.
The general manager of Tullow Oil Kenya, Martin Mbogo, said most drilling equipment had already been delivered to block 10BB in Lockchar, Turkana. Viability of the wells will be known within 70 days, according to estimates by the UK based firm.
“We are testing the equipment. Drilling should start on January 4 or latest within the first quarter of 2012,” said Mr Mbogo. Tullow is also preparing to sink two wells in Blocks 10DD and 10A in the Lake Turkana Basin, raising expectations of a repeat performance of its massive oil find in Uganda three years ago.
The UK firm has discovered more than two billion barrels of oil in the Albertine Basin of Uganda but political bickering in Kampala has nearly stalled preparations for mining.
In yet another multi-million shilling deal, Origin Energy announced in February that it had sold a 50 per cent interest in a Kenyan exploration block to Apache Corporation of the US, effectively making it the operator of the offshore licence.
And in September, Total partnered with US majors Anadarko and Apache to buy out small independents with proprietary rights, further raising hopes for an oil find.
Smaller players such as Cove, Origin Oil, Pancontinental and Lion Energy, who have dominated Kenya’s prospecting scene for years, have been quietly exiting in recognition of the change in the balance of power in favour of big players.
Industry consultant Mwendia Nyaga said a reorganisation of the licensing process is necessary to increase the interest of big oil in frontier markets such as Kenya.
“Most blocks with data have been taken up mainly by smaller firms in the prospection business but the new blocks have no data,” he said adding that small firms are needed to provide that information and promote the acreage.
In the latest deal announced last week, Canada’s Africa Oil said it was concluding the acquisition of Lion Energy’s shares at an estimated cost of Sh3.45 billion, subject to approval by shareholders and the governments of Kenya and Somaliland where the two companies have interests.
In Kenya, Lion Energy is a joint venture partner of Africa Oil – a company with interests in key oil exploration blocs in North Western Kenya.
Lion Energy estimates the current value of its cash, accounts receivables, and investments in marketable securities at about Sh2.5 billion.”Good quality existing seismic data show robust leads and prospects throughout Africa Oil’s project areas,” Keith Hill, the company’s managing director, said in a statement to regulators.
Mr Hill’s optimism confirms the growing belief among top Ministry of Energy officials that big oil firm’s perception of Kenya changed with recent gas and oil discoveries in Mozambique and Tanzania.
The two countries are known to have a similar rock type as Kenya’s.
Evidence of that increasing interest has also come from the recent acquisition by Ophir, an Australian company, of Dominion’s interests in Kenya.
The deal was preceded by another involving US giant Apache’s takeover of Origin Energy’s interest in the country.
Exploration activity
Though Total is not new to Kenya’s oil prospecting scene having acquired 40 per cent of Anadarko’s five blocks in Lamu Basin in September, the planned award of additional blocks to the French firm would be significant in marking the entry for the first time of big oil firm into the local prospection scene.
Ministry of Energy officials said award of new blocs to Total will take place during the new round of licensing expected upon completion of ongoing demarcation.
Total has also recently signed a farm-in deal with Anadarko and Cove for five offshore blocks in the Kenyan coast highlighting the increasing interest of large-cap oil in the region.
The award of 28 out Kenya’s 38 exploration blocks has also created a market for farm-in deals between smaller players and bigger players such as Apache and Anadarko.
Tullow’s work in North Western Kenya begins only a few months after two other oil prospectors, BG Group and UK-listed firm Dominion Petroleum were licensed to prospect in the Lamu Basin.
“The kind of exploration activity that is taking place today has never been seen at any other time in the history of oil search in Kenya,” said Mr Heya.
Citi Group, an American bank with a presence in Kenya, said it expects more activity in the exploration sub-sector in coming months.
“We have seen an acceleration in activity with multiple seismic programmes being acquired, more intensive drilling campaigns planned over the next 12 months and continued deal activity,” the bank said in a recent report.
“We see continued interest from the larger players to gain access to the region with a number of smaller players establishing interesting acreage positions,” the report said.
-
2:45
»
Kim Media
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has been busy spinning bizarre theories about how the media will have to try to make voters uncomfortable with Mitt Romney's faith in order to help President Obama because Evangelical Christian voters would have no qualms about voting for a Mormon.
The only problem with Land's conspiracy theory is that it is constantly being undermined by others, like the new president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Brad Atkins, who says that Christians would have a much easier time voting for a thrice-married serial adulterer like Newt Gingrich before ever voting for a Mormon like Romney:
The Rev. Brad Atkins, tabbed in November to lead the group for the coming year, told Patch on Friday that while Gingrich's infidelities may represent a major obstacle for some Christian voters, it isn't an issue that necessarily excludes the former speaker from consideration. Rather, it's an issue that calls for prayerful consideration of Gingrich's numerous public confessions to his wrongdoings.
The issue presented by Romney's faith may be more deeply rooted to South Carolinians.
"In South Carolina, Romney's Mormonism will be more of a cause of concern than Gingrich's infidelity," said Atkins, the pastor at Powdersville First Baptist Church in the Upstate.
"Conservatives can process and pray their way through the issue of forgiveness toward a Christian that has had infidelity in their life, but will struggle to understand how anyone could be a Mormon and call themselves 'Christian.'"
-
2:39
»
Kim Media
Inspired by the recently released film "Pariah," Salon teamed up with New America Media to run a series of coming out stories by minority and immigrant LGBT youth. One new story will be published each day throughout the week. This is the second installment:
I never told my parents or my family I was gay, never felt I had to “come out” to them.
I knew by the way my parents raised me that they knew there was a possibility that their daughter, who was always mistaken as a little boy, could be queer. By the way they let me out of the house, unlike my older sisters. By never worrying that I might come home pregnant. By never asking me who I'm dating. By my mother never saying anything when women said her little son was handsome. It was clear, but never spoken.
In Samoa, where my family is from, masculinity can go hand in hand with being a woman. Men on the island are raised to cook and clean, activities that Americans would consider feminine. Samoans always had two-spirit people in our culture, meaning people who were in touch with both masculine and feminine spirits. In Samoa they use the terms "fafa'afine" (like a woman) and "fafa'atama" (like a man).
I am the first generation born in America. My parents immigrated from Western Samoa and are the only siblings in their family who live in the United States. This means that unlike most Samoan families I’ve met, we don't have a huge family to support each other. It also meant that my parents needed to find a community here. Like most families, they found that community in the church, and the church they chose was the Mormon Church.
One day when I was five years old, someone handed me a youth pamphlet. On the cover were young white people with big smiles, dressed in white. I started flipping through it and reading the passages. There were two things I learned that moment that changed my life. One, I now had language, a word for what I always thought I was; and two, that I would not enter the kingdom of God.
For a child who grew up poor in America with immigrant parents, this pretty much translated to me that my life would be even harder. It also meant that there was no reason for me to be good anymore.
After that, I became one of those kids of the neighborhood who was always up to no good. At seven, I started jacking cars, and at 10, I started robbing units in our complex. At 11, I got caught for my first felony, a burglary of a home. I soon found myself in high school with illegal hustles. I ended up in jail two weeks before I got my high school diploma.
In jail, during my booking, the officer asked me what my sexual orientation was. Even though it’s illegal for them to ask, I answered anyway—with a lie. I told him I was straight, and then sat in the holding cell thinking about what the officer had taken from me. How could I be so brave to put my life at risk from all the bad choices I've made and not be brave enough to be honest with myself? Moments like that made me think about myself, and in jail I could do a lot of that. Thinking, talking, writing and reading.
Reading a Mormon pamphlet in church had changed my life for the worse. But there were things I read in jail that changed my life in a positive way. The quote I always hold with me comes from Pat Parker's “Movement in Black,” which I picked up for the first time in a jail cell:
"If I could take all my parts with me when I go somewhere, and not have to say to one of them, ‘No, you stay home tonight, you won’t be welcome,’ because I’m going to an all-white party where I can be gay, but not Black. Or I’m going to a Black poetry reading, and half the poets are anti-homosexual, or thousands of situations where something of what I am cannot come with me. The day all the different parts of me can come along, we would have what I would call a revolution."
I knew when people made me feel bad for being brown, for being poor, for having parents who didn't speak English, that life was going to be hard. Queerness was just another struggle.
Coming out was always like coming home to myself, and at 26, I'm grateful to finally feel at home and I applaud those are still fighting to find their way home.
Jean Melesaine is the Associate Editor and a community organizer for Silicon Valley De-Bug, a media, community organizing, and entrepreneurial collective based out of San Jose, California. She also is an artist/organizer with One Love Oceania, a Queer Pacific Islander Art/Activist Collective.
-
-
5:19
»
Kim Media
Kenya is 48 -years-old as a republic, and has had three regime changes to-date. After each change members of the public sector from communities perceived to be friendly to the regime leaving power have been adversely affected, or so it is believed.
Narratives exist of incidences where individuals serving in a former regime have been humiliated by even junior officers and/or unceremoniously bundled out of office. On the other hand communities friendly to the incoming government are perceived to be on the path to prosperity.
Unfortunately with these narratives the facts do not count. It does not matter what exactly happened: once a perception seeps into the public domain that a certain community is no longer in favor the stage is set for additional narratives to start circulating.
The narratives start from the 1963 political transition that affected Kenyan Asians and is perceived to have benefitted the Kikuyu. After 1978 the Kikuyu were out and the Kalenjin were in, or so it was perceived. After 2002 the Kalenjin were out and after the failed MOU, the Kikuyu were perceived to be back, again.
This reality has led to a situation where general elections have not been about political competition between individuals but overt and/or covert battles between tribes. On one side the message is we must get ‘our’ own into power: on the other side we are told we must keep ‘our’ own in.
This dynamic has been at every level of Kenya’s political competition with slight amendments at regional and/or local level so that in addition to tribal affiliations social classes, gender, age-groups, and/or families/clans is also a factor. Whatever the level the ideology is the same: KANU called it ‘Siasa Mbaya, Maisha Mbaya’, under NARC it became ‘it’s our turn to eat’.
The results are inter-ethnic tension, lack of a national identity as we view other tribes as our rivals for public office, and election-related violence around every general election. Incidentally the situation is not exclusive to Kenya: the Rwanda Genocide, the inter-religious violence in Nigeria and Ivory Coast and the inter-ethnic violence in Congo and other parts of West Africa are driven by the same. It has been called the African political curse.
In August 2010 Kenya made a gigantic stride away from this ideology with the enactment of the new Constitution. (I think after the 2007-08 PEV we all realized an eye for an eye makes everybody blind). The new Constitution fundamentally changes this element of our politics.
In Chapter 2 the Constitution explains that all state organs, state officers, public officers and all persons are bound by the national values and principles of governance whenever applying, interpreting or enacting the constitution or any law, or implementing public policy decisions. The national values and principles of governance include patriotism, national unity, sharing and devolution of power, the rule of law, democracy and participation of the people. They also include human dignity, equity, human rights, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalized. Our national values and principles also include good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability, as well as sustainable development.
In Chapter 15 the Constitution explains how public officers will be appointed, operate, and be removed. It specifically states that appointments shall take into account the national values mentioned in Chapter 2, as well as reflect the regional and ethnic diversity of the people of Kenya.
However the wine could be new but the wineskins are still the old ones. Our politicians are still spreading the old narratives under the excuse of the need for regional balancing. In the process certain communities are learning that they will suffer if status quo is interrupted, with explicit examples of what is already happening. On the other hand other communities are being shown how they will benefit when status quo is broken.
I completely agree that there are glaring regional imbalances in various government and public offices. What I do not agree with is that ‘positive discrimination’ is the way to go especially with the past we are coming from. This means we must come up with a way of achieving regional balance without adding onto the narratives of isolation and/or exclusion.
Maybe we should start with an all-inclusive audit of the entire public service as far as qualifications are concerned, and the transparent removal of all unqualified individuals. This might free a substantial number of public offices without anyone saying they have been discriminated against on a tribal basis. We could then re-distribute all the remaining qualified staff across the public sector as qualifications allow, which could create some regional balance (and give us a much needed professional public sector!)
Whatever the case whatever we do must be different from what has happened in the past.
We need to pre-empt the possibility of another ‘41 versus 1’ narrative taking root and/or confront calls for a community to unite and protect status quo. We all want change and it will be achieved by a new thinking. This is what we call ‘Siasa Mpya’ and you can sign up by writing to info@siasampya.com
-
5:15
»
Kim Media
The Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) appeals to workers, matatu operators and other Kenyans of goodwill not to participate in the strike called by Cotu leadership from Monday.
No country in the world has ever cut the high inflation and consumer injustices through industrial strikes. Neither does paralysing public transport ease the consumer burden. On the contrary, the planned Cotu strike runs the risk of eroding the few economic gains the country has made.
Again, Cotu has had no known record of fighting for consumers other than for salary increments of its affiliate union members. On April 19, 2011 for instance, Cotu distanced itself from the Cofek peaceful demonstrations which were aimed at compelling government to cushion consumers against high fuel and food prices. We can’t stop to wonder loudly what has since changed since April.
Cofek has a petition no. 88 of 2011 in the high court against the Ministers of Finance, Energy, ERC and NOCK on high fuel and food prices. We have enormous trust and confidence in the Judiaciary to offer Kenyan consumers a reprieve.
Rather than resort to counter-productive industrial strikes, Cotu should have joined Cofek in demanding for better regulation of various sectors especially the energy and finance. The reason we have been asking in vain for the Finance Minister to name the Competition Authority Board to rein in on regulators conspiring with the industry to defeat consumer protection issues.
Cotu would have added more value if it took on cartels possibly aided by its members. The consumer challenge is about corruption epitomized by cartels and which thrive because of a failed regulatory framework especially within the finance, energy and agricultural sector.
Cofek will continue to employ diverse lawful strategies to advocate for the consumers without seeking to strangulate the weakened economy in the manner Cotu has approached the issue.
Coming at a time the country’s economy has had a severe beating from industrial strikes, Kenyan workers must indeed ignore the Cotu call and carry on their lives as usual especially during this festive season.
(Stephen Mutoro is the Secretary General, Cofek)
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/eblog/2011/12/18/strike-is-not-the-solution-for-kenya/
-
-
10:49
»
Kim Media
When Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made a historic speech in Geneva on Dec. 8 calling for recognition of gay rights and support for those who brave hostility to defend gay rights, she might have been speaking of the Rev. MacDonald Semberka who was in the audience listening.
On the evening of Sept. 11, 2011, Sembereka, a Malawian Episcopalian, found his house reduced to unrecognizable rubble by a petrol bomb. A month later, he borrowed money for airfare so he could attend a conference at Union Theological Seminary, a Manhattan institution with a long history of social activism. He arrived wearing a clerical collar and a smile that belied the horror of seeing his home and nearly everything his family owned destroyed. At the two-day conference in New York, he would meet and strategize with other Christian leaders in the fight against Africa’s perilous and increasingly prevalent brand of homophobia.
-
10:46
»
Kim Media
Construction and engineering company Punj Lloyd Thursday said it has bagged a road project worth $54 million (Rs.285 crore) in Kenya.
'Highways segment is going to be the group's core business of growth in the ensuing years. Our knowledge coupled with the expertise to deliver complex projects on time will complement Kenya's ambitious plans to spur infrastructure growth,' said S.S Raju, chief executive, infrastructure, Punj Lloyd.
The project entails the construction of 62 km road, north of Nairobi. It will be completed in 30 months, the company said in a statement.
According to Rao, the company will continue to bid with an aim to create a portfolio of infrastructure development projects in Africa.
Punj Lloyd entered the African market in 2006.
The company has entered into an joint venture agreement with a local firm, Intex Constructions, for executing the road project.
-
-
6:09
»
Kim Media
It is with deep sympathy that we inform you that Grace Wanjiku Kariuki of Marietta, Georgia has lost her husband in Kenya.
Mr. James Kariuki passed early Sunday morning in Kenya following a short illness due to a mild stroke.
A memorial service will be held this Wednesday, December 21 from 6-9PM at KACC Sanctuary located at 771 Elberta Dr. Marietta, GA. 30066.
The Funeral service is scheduled for Friday in Kenya.Please uplift her in prayers and extend support to her to assist cover the hospital bills and funeral expenses.
A bank account has been established for those who would prefer to deposit their financial support
Account name: Grace Kariuki
Bank name: Bank of America
Routing #: 061000052
Account #: 003283796607
More info.
Grace Kariuki: 404-838-3711
Joseph Waweru: 678-437-5653
Catherine Njogu: 678-651-4282
Elizabeth Ndungu: 678-887-0749
Judy Ntore: 678-670-9794
-
6:02
»
Kim Media
Orange Money has expanded its footprint with the opening of more mobile money transfer outlets in all Nakumatt Supermarket branches countrywide.
This is as a result of a partnership between Telkom Kenya and Pep Intermedius, a financial intermediary with exclusive access to all Nakumatt stores.
During the signing of the partnership, the Chief Executive Officer, Mickael Ghossein, said that the decision to partner with Pep Intermedius was informed by the need of making the versatile mobile money solution more accessible to customers.
“Orange Money remains the most versatile mobile money solution in the market and we recognise the need to increase accessibility of this e-commerce platform at more convenient locations. By partnering with Pep Intermedius, we shall offer our services in the more than 30 Nakumatt outlets across the country,” he said; adding that these were bound to grow based on Nakumatt’s rapid expansion plan that saw it launch another shopping outlet in Nakuru this week.
Welcoming Orange Money into Nakumatt, the retail giant’s Chief Executive Officer Atul Shah said that partnership was consistent with their desire to make the retail store a one-stop shopping centre.
“We are aware that Orange Money recently launched a VISA Debit card to be used with our already robust Point of Sale terminals to ensure that the shopping experience for our customers is enhanced. We are happy today that they can come to our premises for Orange Money services,” said Shah.
Natalie Houben, the Managing Director of Pep Intermedius was upbeat about the signing, citing the unique proposition that will be realised between Telkom Kenya and Pep.
“Orange Money is a dynamic service that is growing more so at a time when e-commerce is gaining currency in the Kenyan market. This coupled with the experience and efficient business model that we employ at Pep will see Orange Money services made accessible to more customers,” she said.
The deal with Pep Intermedius will also see Telkom Kenya cut down on operational costs significantly, while benefitting from the wide network chain provided by financial intermediary.
PEP Intermedius Ltd (PEP) has been in the market for the last 7 years with a focus on the expansion of the mobile money market in the country
-
5:55
»
Kim Media
Would-be participants in HIV research often refuse to volunteer out of fear of being labeled as HIV-positive and subsequently stigmatized by their communities, according to a recent study conducted in Kenya.
Conducted by the USA’s Research Triangle Institute International and published by the US National Library of Medicine in November, the study involved over 130 participants – including current and former study participants, community leaders and study staff – at two research centers in Nairobi.
“Volunteers are often assumed by family and community members to be HIV positive because of their participation in vaccine research… HIV-related stigma is perceived as pervasive and damaging in the communities where volunteers live, thus they fear consequent stigma if people believe them to be HIV positive,” the authors say in the study abstract. “Potential volunteers fear being tested for HIV, a prerequisite for participation, because of possible disclosure of HIV status in communities with high perceived HIV-related stigma.”
According to Walter Jaoko, lead researcher at the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative, misinformation about HIV clinical research is one of the biggest impediments to people’s participation in research, which is a crucial part of finding ways to combat the virus.
“People will tell you they will get infected with HIV if they participate in the study or some other people will tell them the same,” he told IRIN/PlusNews. “This is mainly misinformation and it is a big problem getting people to willingly participate in clinical studies – not just for HIV but for many other diseases.”
Protus Momanyi, a 33-year-old Nairobi resident, said the main impediment to his participation in HIV research was the requirement for an HIV test. “I have never been tested for HIV and I fear going for it for my own reasons,” he said.
The study authors concluded that there was a need for “integration of stigma-reduction programming into education and outreach activities for volunteers and the communities in which they live”.
-
-
0:43
»
Kim Media
Politicians and aspirants for political posts have always used fund-drives and harambees to entice voters and to influence their manner of voting. This has, to a great extent, compromised the quality of leadership that is eventually elected. The Elections Act has tried to address this issue, however its implementation may be challenging for the Commission.
Section 26(1) of the Elections Act, 2011 bars any person who directly or indirectly participates in any manner in any or public fundraising or harambee within eight months preceding a general election or during an election period. If it is established that a person contravened this provision, the person shall be disqualified from contesting in the election held during that election year or election period.
The time period envisaged under section 26(1) of the Act is within eight months preceding a general election or during an election period in any other election. Working with 14th August 2012 as the date for the next general election, any person who from, 15th December 2011 directly or indirectly participates in fundraising activity other than his own or his party’s for an election under the Act shall be disqualified from contesting in such election. For purposes of any other election other than the general election, the period referred to is from the time the Commission publishes the notice for a presidential, parliamentary or county election under sections 14, 16, 17 and 19 of the Act and the Gazettement of the results of such election.
To effectively monitor and enforce this provision, the Commission will set up a Committee to start monitoring this aspect. Essentially all eligible voters are potential candidates and the task of monitoring over 12 million persons poses a great challenge to the Commission.
Since the Commission is required by Clause 15 of the Electoral Code of Conduct under the Elections Act, 2011 to establish an Electoral Code of Conduct Enforcement Committee for purposes of enforcing the provisions of the Code, the Commission is considering expanding the responsibilities of the Committee to monitor and enforce compliance of candidates and political parties with the provisions of the electoral laws. The Clause requires that the Committee be composed of five (5) members of the Commission. The chairperson of the Committee shall be a member of the Commission appointed by the Chairperson with qualifications of a High Court Judge. The Committee may have a member of staff as the secretary of the Committee. This Committee may develop rules of conduct for their operations.
Participation of public officers in elections
Section 43(5) of the Elections Act requires that any public officer who intends to contest an election to resign from public office at least seven months before the date of election. This however does not apply to-
(a) the President;
(b) the Prime Minister;
(c) the Deputy President;
(d) a member of Parliament;
(e) a county governor;
(f) a deputy county governor;
(g) a member of a county assembly.
If elections are to be held on 14th August 2012, such officers should therefore resign by January 14th 2012.
Violence
Article 91(2) of the Constitution provides that no political party should engage in or encourage violence by, or intimidation of, its members, supporters, opponents or any other person. A political party seeking registration under section 7 of the Political Parties Act, 2011 has to undertake to be bound by the Code of Conduct provided in the First Schedule of the Act. Clause 7 of the Code provides that a political party shall not engage in or encourage violence by its members or supporters. The Commission and the office of the Registrar of Parties condemn violence, which occurred in Rongo, Homabay County.
(Ahmed Isaack Hassan is the Chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission)
-
0:39
»
Kim Media
Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo risks having his property attached over a Sh60 million debt owed to a businessman. Jirongo also risks being arrested if he fails to show up in court on February 2 to be cross-examined on how he plans to repay the debt. He was expected in court on December 15 and when he did not turn up presiding judge Kanyi Kimondo gave him one last chance after which he would be forced to issue a warrant for his arrest. “Rules are clearly tightening on your client. He is very lucky to have escaped the warrant of arrest this time,” the judge had told his lawyer.
The lawyer representing businessman Shamsudin Nurani had been pressurising the court to issue an arrest warrant. The dispute goes back 16 years when a company associated with Jirongo Cypper Enterprises (now in receivership) borrowed money from Nurani, now deceased. A judgment was entered against him and another company associated with Jirongo (Dale Investments) was used to secure the loan of Sh45 million.
-
-
0:18
»
Kim Media
Campaigners seeking justice for the perpetrators of Kenya's 2007-08 post-election violence have raised serious concerns about the way the national police force has investigated cases, amid allegations of government interference.
The Kenyan police say they are actively investigating 400 out of 6,000 reported cases stemming from the violence.
At least 1,100 people died and 3,500 were injured after a presidential election in December 2007 as violence erupted between supporters of the Party of National Unity, PNU, and the Orange Democratic Movement, ODM, which are now in a coalition government.
Rights groups say that the police investigations lack credibility and that the parties allegedly behind the chaos have colluded to circumvent justice.
"Our investigations have revealed that a huge number of youths who were being held in police cells for various crimes related to the violence were released unconditionally after a deal was struck between the PNU and ODM," Neela Ghoshal, a researcher with the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, told IWPR.
The allegations have been strongly denied by government spokesman Alfred Mutua, who says no such agreement ever existed.
"Anyone who was set free at that time was released by the courts. When a crime is committed, you cannot decide its outcome using politics,” he said.
But government chief whip Johnstone Muthama acknowledges that such a deal was made, although he accepts this was ill- advised.
"It was wrong for those who were arrested to have been released without following the due process of the law," he said.
Six prominent public figures, including the deputy prime minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, and former education minister, William Ruto, have been charged with orchestrating the violence by the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague.
The international community has called on Kenya to prosecute middle- and lower-level figures accused of involvement in the violence, and try them at a special tribunal in Kenya as they will not be brought before the ICC.
Legal experts are calling for investigations to be halted until much-needed reforms of the police force are carried through. Kenya's new constitution, voted into law in August 2010, provides for such reforms.
"No one has got any confidence that [this police force] can carry out credible investigations or prosecute anyone [for post-election violence]. We have to wait for police reforms," Paul Muite, a human rights lawyer and former legislator, said.
Kenya's director of public prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko, says that even as police pursue the 400 ongoing investigations, 550 more have already reached court. However, he concedes that some of these cases have been thrown out.
"Of the 550 cases taken to court, 258 have been concluded and the accused persons found guilty and sentenced. However, 87 suspects were acquitted due to lack of evidence while a further 138 cases were withdrawn," Tobiko said.
Rights groups have raised concerns as to whether the cases are being investigated properly and fairly.
"There are serious problems with police investigations," Ghoshal said. "Victims, magistrates and state counsels have all expressed dissatisfaction at police investigations of these cases. We have had instances where police have failed to carry out identification parades, police files have gone missing or were lost, and the list [of irregularities] is just endless."
In a report released on November 9, Human Rights Watch questions whether the cases cited by the department of public prosecutions are in fact related to the 2007-08 violence.
"After visiting most of the law courts where these cases were heard, we believe that only ten cases that the [director of public prosecutions] claims are before courts are actually related to the violence," Ghoshal said. "But at least two murder cases in Nakuru and Kericho towns that were related to the violence resulted in convictions."
The report also underlines that no member of the Kenyan police has been brought to justice for the violence, despite an estimated 962 police shootings and dozens of rapes in the aftermath of the 2007 election.
It is unclear why information about ongoing and completed cases is not readily available.
Florence Jaoko, chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said attempts by organisations like hers to receive updates on the investigations have proved futile.
"These investigations are not genuine, as it has taken over four years for them to begin," she said. "At the local level, we have never had information on such cases. It is important for the state to give that information to the public, if at all they are investigating them."
Soon after the violence, Jaoko’s commission released a report called “On the Brink of the Precipice” accusing several high-ranking former and serving politicians of being behind the violence.
Jaoko says these individuals are among those who should be prosecuted in Kenya, if the authorities are "really serious [about] fighting impunity".
Some argue that the police cases are merely a publicity stunt aimed at persuading the ICC to hand back the six suspects to be tried in Kenya.
"There is no evidence that these cases are genuine," said Ghoshal. "They are but a show in front of the International Criminal Court to try and convince them that the Kenyan authorities are doing something about the violence."
Earlier this year, Kenya sought to convince the ICC that it was prosecuting cases of post-election violence itself, and that there was no need for the court put the six suspects on trial. Judges in The Hague rejected the appeal.
In August, two of the six suspects facing charges at the ICC recorded statements with Kenya’s criminal investigations department, which said it was conducting parallel investigations to those at the international court.
Former cabinet ministers Henry Kosgey and William Ruto recorded statements just weeks before appearing at the ICC for confirmation-of-charges hearings in September.
The Kenyan police reject claims that their efforts are not genuine, though they admits that the investigations have taken longer than anticipated. They say they will not back down from investigating the cases, most of which involve alleged lower-level perpetrators of violence.
"These [investigations] must of necessity be a slow process, but with persistent and professional handling I know we shall get there. We can't sit back and let people who killed others and danced before the cameras walk away. They have to be prosecuted," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said.
The chairman of the National Task Force on Police Reforms, retired judge Philip Ransley, supports investigations wider than those at the ICC. But he says the police force as it is currently constituted is unable to carry out these investigations.
"I expected police reforms to be well under way by now, but obviously they are going to take some time to complete. The criminal investigations department would have been better suited to investigate these cases, but until the reforms are under way, they cannot do very much," Justice Ransley said.
The task force he heads was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki in May 2009, following recommendations by a national commission of inquiry into the violence, chaired by Justice Philip Waki.
Tobiko, the director of public prosecutions, rejects claims that ongoing cases are just meant to impress the ICC, and says they will go on irrespective of the outcome of confirmation-of-charges hearings in The Hague.
In September 2011, Kenya's attorney general Githu Muigai led a high-ranking mission to The Hague to ask ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to share the evidence he had on lower-level perpetrators. The request was quickly dismissed by Moreno-Ocampo.
Muite says the trip was a clear indication that the police had not conducted any investigations or gathered evidence to prosecute cases.
"The police should stop making these statements, as they are insulting to the intelligence of the Kenyan [people]," Muite said.
On December 5, former justice minister and member of parliament Martha Karua told the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Conference, chaired by former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, that no such investigations were ongoing, despite reports to the contrary from the police.
"Almost four years down the line, victims of the 2007 post-election violence are still crying [out] for justice and police are yet to start investigations or prosecute anyone," Karua said.
The Kenyan parliament has twice tried and failed to set up a local tribunal, with most members voting to have the cases taken to the ICC.
Despite repeated calls from rights groups and the international community, Tobiko says that Kenya does not require a special tribunal to prosecute middle- and lower-level suspects.
Kenya has now adopted the legal principles of the ICC's founding treaty, the Rome Statue, into its domestic code, allowing it in theory to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in its own courts..
"With the reforms going on in the judiciary, I am quite confident that some of the cases can be tried in the local courts without much problem, especially considering that Kenya has enacted the International Crimes Act," Tobiko said.
But Human Rights Watch says the fact that some of the cases "amount to crimes against humanity" makes it impossible for the local courts to deal with them.
"Some of the crimes were planned in one area and then committed in another area. The local courts do not have the capacity to deal with these complexities, despite the ongoing reforms in the judiciary," Ghoshal said.
Pointing to the international support that has been provided to other justice mechanisms implemented in Kenya, such as the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, Ghoshal said, "The local tribunal should have international input for them to be credible. At the moment, Kenyan institutions don't have the capacity to prosecute these cases, and they need international help."
Continue reading at NowPublic.com: Kenyan Police Criticised Over Election Violence Cases | NowPublic News Coverage http://www.nowpublic.com/world/kenyan-police-criticised-over-election-violence-cases#ixzz1gze77FIx
-
-
4:21
»
Kim Media
The presidential race in Kenya’s 2012 elections is about to get a new entrant who many expect to be a game changer in politics dominated by oligarchy and corporatocracy. Who exactly is Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi? Is he the ultimate game changer in a country where money talks and Kenyans continue to get poorer?
Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi is an environmentalist by profession and a permanent secretary in the ministry of education. Raised from a less privileged background in Trans Mara district, the aspirant defied the then prevalent culture of his community “anything but education” but instead went to school and today holds a doctorate degree from Canada. He lectured at Moi University for many years before becoming a permanent secretary in the ministry of Environment. He was instrumental in implementing the clean up of the Nairobi River among other stringent and important environmental programs/laws enacted that are reshaping Kenya’s landscape and lifestyle. He also served in the ministry of Health and is a Christian family man.
As a no nonsense administrator and a straight talker, Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi has a big agenda and vision for Kenya. He is offering a new beginning. In his words to Kenyans in Atlanta in December, Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi sees a new cloud forming on the horizon for Kenyans come 2012 should they elect him to the biggest office in the land. He touts a clean and industrious public service record, achievements and a vision that Kenyans are going to find dear to their current state of economy, political and social aspects. His vision encompasses a Kenya where food shortages will be a thing of the past, political divide will end, security and economic endowment will be attained by all Kenyans and not just a few. Despite achieving a new constitution in 2010, Kenyans are yet to get presidential contenders that does not have prior administrations’ baggage or somewhat tied to corrupt deals that have run Kenya to poverty sending millions to foreign capitals in search of better livelihood. It’s time for “a new hope, a new start” that will usher in a leader whose making is not from privileged family backgrounds or corrupt culture. As voters get to know this new aspirant, many in Diaspora and Kenya are already warming to this new wind of change in the hope that new wine has finally found a new wineskin in the new
political and constitutional dispensation sweeping our beloved nation Kenya.
Promising to declare his candidacy and unveil his vision soon, Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi noted that
“corruption is a culture that must get the serious attention it deserves from the highest office in the land” and he is best placed to tackle it by eliminating the “serpent and its nest”. On poverty, the Permanent Secretary confessed witnessing abject poverty in many parts of Kenya where he has travelled and decried its rising levels that could threaten Kenya’s development agenda including vision 2030 and stability. He assured Kenyans that he is the most qualified person to fight poverty in Kenya having been raised from real poverty. Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi advised Kenyans to join the fight against poverty since it is a critical national task that needs immediate address.
Should the man whose community (Maasai) is largely synonymous with Kenya’s cultural definition get the support from the large population of struggling citizens, the puzzle for Kenya’s quagmire of finding a suitable candidate with a clean record will have been answered and many ragtag coalitions rendered null and a waste of Kenya voters’ remaining faith and hope. Compared to the current presidential candidates who include Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Kalonzo Musyoka, William Ruto, Peter Kenneth and others, it is worth to note to the reader that
Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi is the only one who has not shared ugali with Moi and KANU in the State House. He represents the common folk! He is one of us.
Indeed Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi represents the new wineskin akin to Barack Obama in the 2008 United States presidential elections when masses were tired and disappointed by policies of the republican President George W. Bush. The Diaspora is standing with their hopes raised high and tall ready to support a candidate whose past in not tainted with corruption or belongs to the family of oligarchs. The message to many current aspirants is plain simple,
“retire and give chance to new crop of leadership”. The Diaspora is out of bounds for same old tired money seekers who are not even bothered to fight for Diaspora to vote in the 2012 elections. In the meantime, we watch and wait for news from Hague regarding the Ocampo Six whose ruling on charges of crimes against humanity is expected to heavily impact the 2012 presidential elections in Kenya. Stay tuned, the game just started.
Email: mugendipress@gmail.com. Disclaimer: The views expressed herein, though supported by millions of people, are the writer’s own. Distribute as you desire and interpret as you like. Just don’t tell ODIEM, KANUSHA or PNUKWA PAKAWA.
Fannuel M. Murianki. "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" - Seneca
-
3:01
»
Kim Media
Kenyan troops marched into this decaying Somali fishing village two months ago, but the al-Qaida-linked militants they came to hunt are nowhere to be seen.
The Kenyan military says it's getting ready to push forward with its offensive against the al-Shabab insurgents, who are blamed for attacks on Kenyan soil including tourist kidnappings.
For now, though, the soldiers spend their days among ramshackle huts and along the sandy shoreline without cover or body armor.
"The more they delay, the more time al-Shabab has to prepare. They have already been making strong propaganda to make people afraid," Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said. "The confidence of people that al-Shabab will be defeated is dying down."
The town of Bur Garbo is only 60 miles away from Kismayo, the insurgency's main stronghold. Residents report that al-Shabab militants already are digging trenches and tunnels around another strategically located town in the area.
But the militants in Bur Garbo have retreated to heavily wooded banks across a creek, where they occasionally exchange potshots across the river with the Kenyan soldiers.
"We haven't really seen much of the enemy," said the soldier in charge of the village, Maj. Solomon Wandege. "But we know they are there and we are on our guard."
Around him, mud and stick houses lean drunkenly over footpaths overgrown with weeds. On the beach, bleached fishing boats bake in the sun -- the Kenyans have forbidden them to go out too far "for security reasons." Near the green patch cleared as a helicopter landing, soldiers have thrown camouflage mesh over artillery guns. So far, there's been no one to shoot them at.
In January, Somalia's civil war will enter its 21st year. The Kenyans are just the latest in a long line of forces to arrive in Bur Garbo. They have Humvees, helicopters, and ration packs with sweet canned pineapple, Weetabix and powdered milk for tea. But there are no Kenyan civilians along to reach out to Somali civilians. Nation-building, the Kenyans insist, is not on the cards.
As any Somali will tell you, it's easy to take ground in Somalia. It's holding it that's hard. Just ask the Americans. Their involvement, and that of a subsequent U.N. mission, ended in 1994 after Somali fighters shot down two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters, killing 18 American servicemen. A generation later, nothing has changed.
"We have never seen a government here," said 19-year-old Khadija Ali Ibrahim, folding her arms across her long black robes.
She'd like someone to set one up, she said, because she thinks it could help people. Right now the town is loosely governed by elders, but they don't have the power or resources to make any improvements. Ibrahim has never been further from her home in her life than Kismayo -- where the Kenyans say they now are heading.
"We are here to defeat al-Shabab. We are committed," said Kenyan Maj. Seif Rashid, who carries two magazines of ammunition velcroed across his chest. "So far we've had a degree of acceptance because we've brought an element of security. But unless people's lives improve, they will eventually turn against us."
The Kenyans have been counting on international aid groups to prop up their counterinsurgency campaign -- the phrase "hearts and minds" crops up repeatedly in conversations with the soldiers.
But the humanitarians say they target the weakest, not the most strategically important, and that they're not interested in following the Kenyan army around.
The Kenyans may find it hard to explain these distinctions to the Somalis, especially since they shut down the town's two main revenue sources -- fishing and the charcoal trade -- because they didn't want strange boats coming close to shore.
"We want the rest of the world to assist us. There is insecurity here. There is no food," said Mohamed Farah Ali, the bearded commander of the local Somali forces in town.
The Kenyans describe the Somali fighters as government soldiers, but they're really closer to a clan militia. The weak U.N.-backed government only holds onto the capital with the help of nearly 10,000 African Union peacekeepers. Government forces in the capital are paid for by Italy and the U.S. Somali government influence in Bur Garbo is nil. The Somalis here say they are paid by the Kenyans.
They have rifles from the Kenyans too, and uniforms, they say, motioning to the olive green trousers they wear above the plastic flip flops. Since the Kenyans are paying them -- for now -- they don't have to prey on the civilian population. Or so the families say, as the soldiers lean in to listen to the journalists' questions.
But if the Kenyans leave, or there's a problem with payments, or not enough to eat, then the Somali fighters may start to extract the type of taxes that eventually made al-Shabab so unpopular here.
And the militia, or its heirs, will be waiting somewhere, ready to re-emerge. For now, they are just across the river.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/17/kenya-marches-into-somalia-but-cant-see-enemy/#ixzz1goeeO9oO
-
-
6:18
»
Kim Media
A member of Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission says he will not resign from the commission for criticizing President Mwai Kibaki’s government.
Hassan Omar Hassan reportedly wrote a newspaper article last month in which he criticized President Kibaki’s rule as an “unacceptable institutionalization of ethnicity”.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said this week that Hassan should resign because his comments violate the Kenyan constitution.
But Hassan says his criticism is supported by empirical evidence.
“My assertions are empirical; they are supported by a report of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission which shows a much skewed hiring in the public service, and therefore it only lends credence to one thing, that the practice of ethnicity in Kenya might be real,” he said.
Hassan quotes the same National Cohesion and Integration Commission report as saying that 52 percent of the staff at state house, the official residence of the president, was from President Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group.
“I think the president cannot turn a blind eye to this fact. And then when we look at the key sectors of government -- be it finance, be it energy, be it internal security or security generally, you see literally the entire leadership comes from President Kibaki’s community,” Hassan said.
Government spokesman Mutua reportedly said Hassan’s criticism promoted tribal differences similar to those witnessed before and during Kenya’s 2007 election in which 1,500 people died.
Hassan dismissed Mutua’s assertion that his criticism violated Kenya’s constitution. He said he believes it was more therapeutic to discuss the issues in the open rather than for Kenyans to hide their feelings.
He said only the Kenyan Constitutional Court can say if someone has violated the constitution or not.
“I do not give any credibility to what he (Mutua) says. I think it’s not his place to say how to interpret the constitution. If they have a real feeling about the constitution being violated, the Constitutional Court should make that determination and interpretation,” Hassan said.
He brushed aside criticism that as a member of a government-backed commission, it would be hypocritical for him to criticize the government.
“I’m paid by the people’s taxes; I am a public officer. I’m not ideally an employee of the government. These are independent institutions, and like every other Kenyan we also can hold independent positions and opinions about issues that we feel more passionate about,” he said.
Hassan said if the Kibaki government has any issue with his criticism of the president, it should go to the courts.
-
6:02
»
Kim Media
We had tried for weeks to get access to Kenya's incursion into lawless Somalia. The go finally came from the Kenyan military in a text message late one Saturday night. We're told to be at the Nairobi's military airbase before dawn.
"Bring our own flak jackets," we were told.
In October, the Kenya defense forces surprised many by sweeping into Somalia to take on Al Shabaab, an Islamic militant group bent on overthrowing the weak transitional government.
At first, the "spin" by generals and politicians was that it was a swift reaction to punish Al Shabaab for its suspected involvement in a series of kidnappings.
But peering through the window of a rattling Mi-8 transport chopper, it is clear that what soldiers and security analysts have been telling us is true. The combat base on the Kenyan side of the border is well established -- an area of cleared ground dotted with orderly rows of tents and military hardware -- including artillery pieces. It's obvious the soldiers here have have been preparing for some time.
This is no rescue posse thrown together. Kenya aims to obliterate Al Shabaab.
"The reason for this campaign is to liberate the locals here from the rule of the Al Shabaab," Major Seif Said Rashid tells me, several magazines of ammo in his front pockets. "My troops are committed and they are out ready to sacrifice so that they are able to achieve the objective that has brought us here."
The major says his biggest military challenge is that Al Shabaab's weakness is its strength. Militarily they couldn't match Kenya's firepower. But their small and mobile forces know the territory and terror.
"The war here is a blend of both conventional and asymmetrical," he says, "and that poses some peculiar challenges."
Not that the thrust of this front is being spearheaded by truly conventional forces. We are traveling with the 20th Parachute battalion -- an elite and sometimes-controversial group -- within the Kenyan army.
With them are Somali militia and forces of the transitional government. Their uniforms are a bit more tatty -- but their firepower no less impressive.
We drive into Somalia in Hummers and Armored Personnel Carriers-no passport control necessary. A maxim in Somalia, though, is that armies come and go. Skill and training often has little to do with it.
The American military came and went in the 1990s (remember the film "Black Hawk Down"), U.N. peacekeeping forces made a hasty exit, Ethiopian ground forces took the capital and then left it, and Ugandan and Burundian soldiers have been fighting tooth and nail for Mogadishu for years.
The Kenyan and Somali commanders on the front are very aware of their predicament. Winning the hearts and minds of the population will be a crucial step.
But at the southern front line near Bur Gabo, a village perched right on the Indian Ocean, the elders say that it's gotten worse since the war came to their village. The charcoal trade has been suspended and fishing is discouraged by the military. There is little to put food on the table, they say.
It would seem that speed is important, and Somali commanders say they hope to strike across the line "within a week."
At the very front of the front line, a Kenyan paratrooper sits atop a Somali Technical (an SUV with a anti-aircraft gun bolted to the back). He peers across the river that marks the border between their territory and Al-Shabaab's. The soldiers say they are ready to go.
-
-
1:47
»
Kim Media
Although immigrants have not had a very strong presence in the Occupy movement, one man -- Francisco "Pancho" Ramos Stierle – captivated the attention of Latino media across the country.
The 36-year-old was arrested last month as part of the Occupy Oakland protest and faced possible deportation as a result of his immigration status.
Ramos has since been set free, and will appear before an immigration judge at a future date.
A reporter for El Mensajero saw the activist protesting near the Port of Oakland on Monday. “That to me says that of course he’s risking deportation, but he is standing for the movement,” María Mejía, editor of Spanish-language newspaper El Mensajero in San Francisco, told NAM.
Even though the three-month-old Occupy movement in the United States began on Wall Street as a protest by the so-called “99 percent” against the greed and corruption of the “1 percent,” many in the ethnic communities view the diffused and amorphous protests as something that has already begun to hurt blue collar workers and the economy, according to reports in the ethnic media.
For example, each day there are delays and disruptions in operations at the Port of Oakland, the region loses approximately $8.5 million in lost wages and state taxes, as well as in business revenue related to imports and exports, according to Robert Bernardo, a spokesman for the Port of Oakland.
Valerie Lapin, spokeswoman for the Oakland-based Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, told India-West, a San Leandro, Calif.-based weekly newspaper for the South Asian diaspora in the United States, “Truck drivers are definitely part of the 99 percent. They are such a clear example of those who are being exploited.”
Indian-Americans, most of them from Punjab, make up roughly one-third of all truck owners and drivers in California. Nearly all of them are in business for themselves, which means they get no health insurance, have to pay for truck fuel, maintenance and registration, making no more than $25,000 a year.
Several Indian American owners of trucking companies who operate out of the Oakland ports expressed their displeasure over the two-day protest, according to India-West.
“I didn’t cross the picket line because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Rajiv Jain, owner of Bridgeport Transporting and Warehousing, told the paper.
“My drivers were intimidated by the protestors. We don’t support them at all,” asserted Jain, noting that at a similar occurrence in November, protestors threw rocks at the trucks, shattering windshields that had to be replaced by the drivers who own their trucks.
Jain estimates he and his drivers lost $45,000 on Dec. 12, the first day of the protests.
Dong Kim, publisher of Hyundai News, an Oakland-based Korean language weekly, said he sympathizes with the protestors’ cause, and while it has helped to shine a spotlight on the greed of the one percent, he is opposed to “their most recent actions, including the port shutdown” as it has paralyzed the city.
Henrik Rehbinder, editorial page editor of La Opinión in Los Angeles, which has written several editorials on Occupy L.A., echoed Kim’s view: “We support the intentions (behind the movement); we don’t necessarily agree with the methods,” he said.
The paper has been critical of the violence used by both the protestors and police.
In order for the movement to be successful, Rehbinder said, it needs to tailor the message, focus on economic inequality, and develop clearer leadership. “We think the purpose of the whole thing, is eventually to occupy the ballot box.”
Chinatown businesses in Oakland worried, according to the World Journal, one of the largest Chinese language newspapers in the United States, that the shutdown would delay the unloading of their goods and affect their sales in the days before the Lunar New Year that arrives January 23 next year.
Oakland Chinatown Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council president Carl Chan said the shutdown of the Oakland Port has diverted cargo ships to ports in Los Angeles and other ports. That’s forcing many businesses to have to pay for transferring the cargo to the Bay Area. Small business owners belonging to the 99 percent are financially hurt.
Still, some ethnic media say the Occupy movement has captured the imagination of readers, and brought the issues of class, the wealth gap and poverty to the forefront of public debate.
Giao Pham, managing editor of Nguoi Viet based in Westminster, Calif., said his Vietnamese daily continues to track the Occupy movement, because there’s interest in the community.
“People recognize that the movement is getting bigger and they discuss the meaning of the movement,” he said. “The Vietnamese community here in the U.S., we’re new and not rich. People discuss the one percent and the 99 percent, which they belong to.”
In an editorial, Ngo Nhan Dung, who chairs the newspaper’s editorial board, offers an Occupy movement 101, and explains how the movement should be perceived.
Ngo says that the movement was initiated by young people, demanding a fairer society, and should not be perceived as a movement to overthrow the government or to get rid of capitalism, according to the newspaper’s managing editor Pham. The op-ed argues we should not blame financial brokers or investors for the gap in income. It is, instead, the tax law that should be changed in order to narrow the gap, according to Pham.
Fatima Bakhit, publisher of Al Enteshar Al Arabi in Los Angeles agreed with Ngo’s sentiments about reforms to the tax code.
“The middle class and lower class communities are hurting and they have every right to make sure their voices are heard,” she said. “ Low-income earners and people who earn 1 million dollars a year should not be taxed the same. It is not right to have so few people with so much wealth, while there are so many who do not have enough to eat.”
Blogger Linda Evans, who will be joining the Occupy movement in Washington, D.C. this weekend, writes for MomsRising.org.
“I haven’t felt this energized since the civil rights movement and women’s march in the 1960s,” she said.
The unemployment rate in Washington, D.C. is 11 percent, significantly higher than the national average, she notes.
“I know how hard it is to find work here as I am currently looking for work. My two sons recently found jobs after two years of looking for work. Cutting off the unemployed from unemployment insurance will mean more overdue bills, more foreclosed homes and a loss of dignity for our residents.”
Evans, who is African American, argues that, “What is happening today goes beyond issues of race and gender. We, and by that I mean all Americans, have helped build this country,” she writes. “Now our humanity is under attack as we face the worst recession in recent history and a host of problems associated with it: joblessness, home foreclosures, poverty and a lack of dignity.”
Sunita Sorabji, Viji Sundaram, Elena Shore, Aruna Lee, Summer Chiang, Vivan Po, Peter Schurmann, Suzanne Manneh, Ngoc Nguyen and Zaineb Mohammed contributed to this report.
-
1:35
»
Kim Media
Most American voters believe illegal immigrants should be given a chance to apply for citizenship -- if they meet certain requirements.
In addition, just over half of voters like a plan -- floated by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich -- to allow local boards to decide the fate of some illegal immigrants living in the United States.
A new Fox News national poll asked voters what government policy should be toward illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. The results were released Friday.
Click here for full poll results.
Sixty-six percent think there should be a path to citizenship, but only if the individual meets requirements such as paying back taxes and learning English. Nineteen percent of voters believe all illegal immigrants should be deported, and another 13 percent take the middle ground of a guest-worker program that would allow immigrants to remain in the U.S. for a limited time.
To varying degrees, majorities of Republicans (57 percent) independents (68 percent) and Democrats (73 percent) believe the government should allow a path to citizenship.
Republicans (26 percent) are about twice as likely as Democrats (14 percent) and independents (12 percent) to back deporting all illegal immigrants.
Republican presidential candidate Gingrich has suggested letting local boards determine whether illegal immigrants can stay in the U.S. Those boards would consider how long the person has lived in the U.S., whether they have a job and pay taxes, and whether they have a family here or other ties to the community.
By a 51-44 percent margin more voters favor than oppose local boards making the decision. Over half of Democrats (56 percent) and Republicans (51 percent) favor such a plan. A 52-percent majority of independents opposes it.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 911 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from December 5 to December 7. For the total sample, it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/09/fox-news-poll-voters-back-plan-to-citizenship-for-illegal-immigrants/?cmpid=cmty_fb_Gigya_Fox_News_Poll%3A_Voters_Back_Path_to_Citizenship_for_Illegal_Immigrants#ixzz1gccLU7ng
-
1:29
»
Kim Media
A growing number of United States citizens have been detained under Obama administration programs intended to detect illegal immigrants who are arrested by local police officers.
In a spate of recent cases across the country, American citizens have been confined in local jails after federalimmigration agents, acting on flawed information from Department of Homeland Security databases, instructed the police to hold them for investigation and possible deportation.
Americans said their vehement protests that they were citizens went unheard by local police officers and jailers for days, with no communication with federal immigration agents to clarify the situation. Any case where an American is held, even briefly, for immigration investigation is a potential wrongful arrest because immigration agents lack legal authority to detain citizens.
“I told every officer I was in front of that I’m an American citizen, and they didn’t believe me,” said Antonio Montejano, who was arrested on a shoplifting charge last month and found himself held on an immigration order for two nights in a police station in Santa Monica, Calif., and two more nights in a teeming Los Angeles county jail cell, on suspicion that he was an illegal immigrant. Mr. Montejano was born in Los Angeles.
This year the immigration agency has been rapidly extending its leading deportation program, known as Secure Communities, with a goal of covering the whole country by 2013. Under that program, fingerprints of every person booked at local jails are checked against Department of Homeland Security immigration databases. If the check results in a match, federal immigration agents can issue detainers, asking local law enforcement authorities to hold a suspect for up to 48 hours.
Detentions of citizens are part of the widening impact on Americans, as well as on immigrants, of President Obama’s enforcement strategies, which have led to more than 1.1 million deportations since the beginning of his term, the highest numbers in six decades.
John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency gave “immediate and close attention” to anyone who claimed to be a citizen.
“We don’t have the power to detain citizens,” Mr. Morton said in an interview on Tuesday. “We obviously take any allegation that someone is a citizen very seriously.”
Later this month, Mr. Morton said, the immigration agency will publish new forms for its detainers. The forms, in several languages, will require the police to notify suspects who are being held on federal immigration authority, he said. They will also provide a hot line where detainees can call the immigration agency directly.
Exact numbers of Americans erroneously held by immigration authorities are hard to come by, since they are not systematically recorded. In one study, 82 people who were held for deportation from 2006 to 2008 at two immigration detention centers in Arizona, for periods as long as a year, were freed after immigration judges determined that they were American citizens.
“Because of the scale of enforcement, the numbers of people who are interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are just enormous right now,” said Jacqueline Stevens, the study’s author and a political science professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Ms. Stevens has concluded that “a low but persistent” percentage of the nearly 400,000 people held for deportation each year are citizens.
One was Mr. Montejano, when a holiday shopping outing on Nov. 5 to a Los Angeles mall with his four children ended badly. After his young daughter begged for a $10 bottle of cologne, Mr. Montejano said, he inadvertently dropped it into a bag of things he had already bought. As he left the store, he was arrested.
With no prior criminal record, Mr. Montejano, 40, expected to post bond quickly at the Santa Monica police station on the misdemeanor charge and go home. He had his driver’s license and other legal identification, but because of an immigration detainer he was denied bail and held even after a criminal court judge canceled his fine and ordered the police to let him go.
Mr. Montejano was freed on Nov. 9 after American Civil Liberties Union lawyers sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement his United States passport and birth certificate.
“Just because I made one mistake,” Mr. Montejano said, “I don’t think they should have done all those things to me.”
He said he thought the police did not believe he was an American because of his appearance. “I look Mexican 100 percent,” he said.
Mr. Montejano had triggered a positive match in the Homeland Security Department databases, A.C.L.U. lawyers discovered, because immigration officials had failed once before to recognize his citizenship, mistakenly deporting him to Mexico in 1996. His records were not corrected.
An American college student, Romy Campos, was also trapped in a California jail last month for four days on an immigration detainer. After her Nov. 12 arrest in Torrance on a minor misdemeanor charge, Ms. Campos, 19, was denied bail and transferred to a Los Angeles County jail. A public defender assigned to her in state court said there was nothing he could do to lift a federal detainer.
“Can’t they see in my file or something that I’m a citizen?” Ms. Campos said she asked him. “He said: ‘I’m sorry, but this is state court. I can’t do anything about it.’ ”
After four days, Ms. Campos was released, soon after Jennie Pasquarella, an A.C.L.U. lawyer, provided her Florida birth certificate to the immigration agency.
Ms. Campos said the experience was shocking. “I felt misused completely, I felt nonimportant, I just felt violated by my own country,” she said.
Ms. Campos, a citizen of both the United States and Spain, later learned that she had a Department of Homeland Security record because she had once entered the United States on her Spanish passport.
United States citizens can also be tagged in a Secure Communities fingerprint check because of flukes in the department’s databases. Unlike the federal criminal databases administered by the F.B.I., Homeland Security records include all immigration transactions, not just violations. An immigrant who has always maintained legal status, including those who naturalized to become American citizens, can still trigger a fingerprint match.
According to Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer in Alaska, under the nation’s complex citizenship laws, many foreign-born people become Americans automatically, through American parents or adoption. Often their citizenship is not recorded in Homeland Security databases, Ms. Stock said.
Other cases of possibly illegal detentions of citizens have been recently reported in Allentown, Pa., Indianapolis and Chicago.
ICE agents generally cancel detainers immediately when they determine that the suspect is a citizen. In no recent cases was an American placed in deportation.
But Ms. Stevens cautioned: “It’s sort of like the canary in the mine. If those who have the full due process rights of U.S. citizens are being detained, it tells us a lot about potentially unlawful people who do not have those protections.”
-
-
6:37
»
Kim Media
KEN has received information from the ICC office here in United States that the much awaited meeting with ICC team has been postponed. Below is the email as we received it:-
To the Kenyan Diaspora in the US
Dear all,
Thank you very much for your interest in the 16 December 2011 event on Peace and Justice in Kenya in 2012: How Kenyans in the Diaspora Can Contribute. The response to this event has been overwhelming. In order to fully accommodate interest in this event, the meeting is being rescheduled; we aim to have the event in January 2012.
We regret any inconvenience caused. We will let you know when details become available about a new date for this event.
Kind regards,
Karen Mosoti
Head, ICC Liaison Office,
United Nations,
New York
-
-
10:57
»
Kim Media
The number of immigrant women entrenpreneurs has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, according to a new Immigration Policy Center report, Our American Immigrant Entrepreneurs: The Women.
In the year 2000, some 575,750 foreign-born women who immigrated as adults were self-employed in their own business, according to census data. In 2010, that number nearly doubled to 980,575, or 40 percent of all immigrant business owners in the United States.
The new report, based on a book, looks at the accomplishments and struggles, including gender bias, that these women faced along the way to becoming successful business owners.
The report, written by Susan Pearce, Elizabeth Clifford and Reena Tandon, was adapted from thebook, "Immigration and Women: Understanding the American Experience."
-
4:56
»
Kim Media
Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
December 11, 2011
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to send congratulations to the people of Kenya as you celebrate your 48th year of independence this December 12.
Our two countries share a strong commitment to Kenya’s future. Together we are working to strengthen democracy, encourage greater stability, and promote prosperity in Kenya and throughout the region. The United States commends the very significant progress Kenya has made in implementing its new constitution and stands in partnership with the government and people of Kenya as you prepare for the 2012 national elections.
Jamhuri Day is a time for all Kenyans to reflect on your country's many blessings and accomplishments, as well as the challenges that lie ahead. As you celebrate with family, friends and loved ones on this joyous occasion, know that the people of the United States stand with you. Best wishes for a year of peace and prosperity.
Source: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/12/178575.htm
-
-
6:51
»
Kim Media
The circumstances surrounding Alabama’s immigration law HB 56 don’t just affect the human rights of immigrants, as we’ve written in various editorials; they also put the state in an economic situation that could sink it even further into poverty. Alabama already ranks among the poorest states in the nation.
As Britton Bonner, chair of the South Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce, said, “The law needs to help businesses do business, and to the extent that it doesn’t help businesses do business, it’s not good. At this point, I’m not sure that it’s helping any.”
According to recent U.S. Census data, one in four children in Alabama is living in poverty. In 2010, 27.4 percent of Alabama children under 18 lived in poverty. The percentage in 2007 was 23.4 percent. The situation hasn’t improved; on the contrary, things are getting worse for the state’s poor. The 2010 figure is high even for a state that has been poor historically.
The economic situation has forced new families below the poverty line. It leaves us to ask: How many more families will enter these sad statistics as a result of HB 56? 2011 hasn’t been a good year for many, and it has been even worse for Hispanic businesses that have had to do without their labor force as a result of a decline in revenue due to a substantial drop in sales.
You don’t have to be an expert in economics to know that the loss resulting from HB 56 – in both Hispanic businesses and the American businesses that work with Latinos -- will cause a shortage in income tax revenue and – contrary to its intended purpose -- an increase in unemployment. This isn’t because there aren’t Americans who want these jobs, but because there are no longer businesses to hire them. Many businesses have had to close down because of a drop in customers, or the owners are now doing the work that employees once did.
While Alabama struggles to get out of its low economic ranking, laws like HB 56 are further sinking the state’s economy and presenting a grim picture for all who live here. Families who have not traditionally been poor are now joining this group.
Alabama’s immigration law has already started to affect foreign companies. The recent arrest of a senior executive for Mercedes Benz and, more recently, the ticketing of a Toyota employee, are clear examples of the difference of the state climate before and after HB 56.
Another case took place in October at the Gulf Shore National Shrimp Festival, where several Canadian suppliers who had worked in past years without a problem, could not participate this year as a result of HB 56. Under the new law, they weren’t able to be issued licenses because they weren’t citizens or permanent residents of the state.
Some companies, like the Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, which had announced the construction of a $100 million plant in Tomasville that would have employed more than 500 workers, are putting their expansion plans on hold because of the new law. The message of Alabama’s new immigration law is to discourage foreign companies from investing in the state.
Let's see what one of the nation's leading consulants has to say. Mark Sweeney, senior principal of the firm McCallum Sweeney, advises world-famous companies on where to invest, listing among his clients Boeing, Caterpillar, Navistar, Mercedes Benz, Michelin and Shell. Companies call his firm when they are looking for a place to build a U.S. manufacturing plant, and his job is to help them identify locations to invest their capital. His firm is one of the world's most well-known site selection consultants.
Sweeney said that Alabama had every right to address the problem of immigration, but also said the law still has to be raised as an issue of concern for his customers, and "it is something that we will take into account" on future projects. The law is considered "the toughest in the nation" when it comes to illegal immigration. But since HB 56 took effect in September, it has had a series of unintended consequences. Among the most harmful of these, according to Sweeney, is the damage the law has done to the image of Alabama. "There is nothing good about it," he said.
Sweeney said companies decide where to locate plants based on a variety of factors, including labor costs, land availability, transportation, utilities and rates. But so-called "soft" elements also come into play, such as quality of life, business climate, schools and atmosphere. "Everything matters," he said. "It could come into play when you’re trying to make a final decision or it could eliminate a location from the beginning, because a manager says he does not want to put it on the list.”
The harsh reality of Alabama, Sweeney said, is that the law could cause businesses to reject the state without ever giving it a first look. "The fear is, that you may be losing prospects you don’t even know," he said. "I'm sure that will be a problem."
You don’t need to be a great economist to understand the damage that a hasty decision by a few people has inflicted on many. Legislators, perhaps for lack of time, did not do a thorough analysis of the implications that a law like HB 56 could have. There is still room to correct errors, but we must also recognize that the damage has already been done and it will take time to recover the image of what once was our "Alabama the Beautiful."
Jairo Vargas is editor of Latino News in Trussville, Ala.
Read more from the Alabama News Network.
-
-
9:48
»
Kim Media
This policeman won’t be home for Christmas.
This brave cop, won’t kiss his baby goodnight, no more.
This cop, even in death, vowed not to let his gun fall into the wrong hands…he died clutching it.
He died protecting you and me.
The policeman was shot dead by gangsters in Mombasa’s Bondeni area.
And as we all get ready to celebrate and make merry this festive season, remember the people who are out there in the streets…making the streets safer for you and me.
Let’s remember the men and women in uniform, who leave their families and risk their lives protecting us.
This December, Mombasa411 challenges you our dear reader: When you come across a cop, be it on the highway, around the corner mtaani kwenu, ama anywhere in town….do this – take off your heart, pigia yeye makofi, and tell him/her how much his/her presence means to you.
And why not, you can even buy him a Kilo of Nyama Choma apelekee watoto.
That’s the spirit.
Mombasa411 salutes our police.
Merry Christmas to the Men and Women wearing the crown.
Source: Mombasa411
-
3:54
»
Kim Media
In October, the Department of State asked the National Visa Center (NVC) at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire to report the totals of applicants on the waiting list in the various numerically-limited
immigrant categories. Applications for adjustment of status under INA 245 which are pending at
CIS Offices are not included in the tabulation of the immigrant waiting list data which is being
provided at this time. As such, the following figures ONLY reflect petitions which the
Department of State has received, and do not include the significant number of applications held
with the CIS Offices.
The following figures have been compiled from the NVC report submitted to the Department on
November 1, 2011, and show the number of immigrant visa applicants on the waiting list in the
various preferences and subcategories subject to numerical limit. All figures reflect persons
registered under each respective numerical limitation, i.e., the totals represent not only principal
applicants or petition beneficiaries, but their spouses and children entitled to derivative status
under INA 203(d) as well. Family-sponsored Preferences
Category FY 2011 FY 2012 (and % of change)
FAMILY FIRST 271,018 295,168 + 24,150 (+ 8.9%)
FAMILY SECOND TOTAL 913,611 839,755 -73,856 (- 8.1%)
2A-Spouses/Children: 361,038 322,636 - 38,402 (-10.6%)
2B- Adult Sons/Daughters: 552,573 517,119 - 35,454 (- 6.4%)
FAMILY THIRD 853,083 846,520 -6,563 (- 0.8%)
FAMILY FOURTH 2,515,062 2,519,623 +4,561 (+ 0.2%)
TOTAL 4,552,774 4,501,066 -51,708 (- 1.1%)
Employment-based Preferences
From 2011 Totals
Category FY 2011 FY 2012 (and % of change)
EMPLOYMENT FIRST 2,961 2,118 -843 (- 28.5%)
EMPLOYMENT SECOND 6,738 6,888 +150 (+ 2.2%)
EMPLOYMENT THIRD TOTAL 119,183 112,023 -7,160 (- 6.0%)
Skilled Workers: 102,395 97,060 -5,335 (- 5.2%)
Other Workers: 16,788 14,963 -1,825 (- 10.9%)
EMPLOYMENT FOURTH TOTAL 554 498 -56 (- 10.1%)
EMPLOYMENT FIFTH TOTAL 1,183 1,806 +623 (+52.7%)
TOTAL 130,619 123,333 -7,286 (- 5.6%)
GRAND TOTAL 4,683,393 4,624,399 -58,994 (- 1.3%)
Immigrant Waiting List By Country
Immigrant visa issuances during fiscal year 2012 are limited by the terms of INA 201 to no more
than 226,000 in the family-sponsored preferences and approximately 144,000 in the
employment-based preferences. (Visas for "Immediate Relatives" - i.e., spouses, unmarried
children under the age of 21 years, and parents - of U.S. citizens are not subject to numerical
limitation, however.)
It should by no means be assumed that once an applicant is registered, the case is then
continually included in the waiting list totals unless and until a visa is issued. The consular
procedures mandate a regular culling of visa cases to remove from the count those unlikely to see
further action, so that totals are not unreasonably inflated. If, for example, a consular post
receives no response within one year from an applicant to whom the visa application instruction
letter (i.e., the consular "Packet 3" letter) is sent when the movement of the visa availability cutoff date indicates a visa may become available within a reasonable time frame, the case is
considered "inactive" under the consular procedures and is no longer included in waiting list
totals.
The fourteen countries with the highest number of waiting list registrants in FY 2012 are listed
below; together these represent 79.5% of the total. This list includes all countries with at least
60,000 persons on the waiting list. The per-country limit in INA 202 sets an annual maximum on
the amount of preference visas which may be issued to applicants from any one country; the
2012 per-country limit will be approximately 25,900.
Country Applicants
Mexico 1,374,294
Philippines 503,266
India 343,401
Vietnam 281,439
China-mainland born 248,494
Dominican Republic 171,217
Bangladesh 161,769
Pakistan 118,985
Haiti 112,450
Cuba 85,908
El Salvador 83,221
Jamaica 66,016
Korea, South 64,020
Colombia 61,430
All Others 948,489
Worldwide Total 4,624,399
Cases are being added to the waiting list in this category not only by the approval of new FIRST
preference petitions, but also through automatic conversion of pending 2B cases into FIRST
preference upon the naturalization of the petitioner.
Given the 517,119 Family 2B waiting list and the several years' interval between 2B petition
filing and visa issuance, it is likely that increasing numbers of petitioners will be naturalized and
the petitions converted to Family FIRST preference long before 2B visas become available. The
prospect is for increasing oversubscription in the FIRST preference, with slower advances in the
worldwide cut-off date the consequence. Only two countries, Mexico and the Philippines, have
FIRST preference cut-off dates which are earlier than the worldwide date.Family SECOND Preference:
The total Family SECOND preference waiting list figure is 839,755. Of these, 322,636 (38.4%)
are spouses and children of permanent residents of the United States (the 2A class), and 517,119
(61.6%) are adult unmarried sons/daughters of permanent residents (the 2B class). The Family
SECOND preference represents 18.7% of the total Family preference waiting list. It will receive
114,200 visa numbers for FY 2012, just over half of the 226,000 family preference total; 77% of
SECOND preference numbers are provided to 2A applicants, while the remaining 23% go to the
2B class.
2A: About 88,000 visa numbers are expected to be available during FY 2012. The top five
countries with the highest 2A waiting list totals are:
Mexico 138,628 43.0%
Dominican Republic 30,963 9.6%
Cuba 16,084 5.0%
Haiti 15,804 4.9%
Philippines 14,598 4.5%
All Others 106,559 33.0%
Total 322,636 100%
Upon naturalization of the petitioner, a pending 2A case is converted automatically into the
"Immediate Relative" visa category, which is not subject to numerical limit and therefore
has no visa waiting period. As a result, the amount of cases being processed in the
"Immediate Relative" category may increase and partially offset new F2A filings.2B: Visa numbers for this class of adult sons and daughters will be approximately 26,250 during
FY 2012. The waiting list far exceeds the annual limit. The top ten countries with the highest 2B
Mexico 212,621 41.1%
Dominican Republic 57,385 11.1%
Philippines 52,823 10.2%
Haiti 25,851 5.0%
El Salvador 17,370 3.4%
China-mainland born 17,170 3.3%
Cuba 14,035 2.7%
Vietnam 9,442 1.8%
Jamaica 8,223 1.6%
Guatemala 7,610 1.5%
All Others 94,589 18.3%
Total 517,119 100%
As noted above, some of the 2B cases are applicants converted from the 2A class upon their
turning 21.
Family THIRD Preference:
The annual visa limit is 23,400. Two oversubscribed countries (Mexico and Philippines) have
sufficiently heavy demand in this preference to require a cut-off date substantially earlier than
the worldwide date. The top ten countries with the highest F3 waiting list totals are:
Mexico 180,982 21.4%
Philippines 156,107 18.4%
Vietnam 77,653 9.2%
India 66,569 7.9%
China-mainland born 33,049 3.9%
Cuba 21,239 2.5%
Pakistan 16,896 2.0%
Poland 16,021 1.9%
Dominican Republic 15,204 1.8%
Jamaica 15,072 1.8%
All Others 247,728 29.2%
Total 846,520 100%
Family FOURTH Preference:
Applicants registered in the Family FOURTH preference total 2,519,623. Annual visa issuances
are limited to 65,000. The waiting period for the Family FOURTH preference is longer than any
other category because the demand severely exceeds the number of available visas. The countries
listed below have the largest number of FOURTH preference applicants:
Mexico 746,815 29.6%
India 237,445 9.4%
Philippines 205,342 8.2%
Vietnam 179,648 7.1%
China-mainland born 175,417 7.0%
Bangladesh 149,526 5.9%
Pakistan 92,458 3.7%
Dominican Republic 47,356 1.9%
Haiti 43,441 1.7%
South Korea 38,385 1.5%
All Others 603,790 24.0%
Total 2,519,623 100%
The steadily growing waiting period in this preference is now more than eleven years for
countries of most favorable visa availability and even longer for some oversubscribed countries.EMPLOYMENT-
BASED PREFERENCES
It is important to note that over eighty-five percent of all Employment preference immigrants are
currently being processed as adjustment of status cases at CIS offices. Cases pending with CIS
are not counted in the consular waiting list tally which is presented below. Therefore, in several
Employment categories the waiting list totals being provided below understate real immigrant
demand. The Employment waiting list counts not only prospective workers, but also their
spouses and children entitled under the law to derivative preference status.
Employment FIRST Preference:
China-mainland born 268 12.7%
Canada 232 11.0%
Great Britain & Northern Ireland 222 10.5%
India 164 7.7%
Venezuela 107 5.0%
Korea, South 106 5.0%
Japan 80 3.8%
Mexico 57 2.7%
Philippines 57 2.7%
France 52 2.4%
All Others 773 36.5%
Worldwide Total 2,118 100%
Visa availability is "current" for all countries.
Employment SECOND Preference:
India 3,705 53.8%
China-mainland born 1,053 15.3%
Korea, South 379 5.5%
Philippines 292 4.2%
Canada 161 2.3%
All Others 1,298 18.9%
Worldwide Total 6,888 100%
This category is "current" at present for all but two countries.
Employment THIRD Preference:
Philippines 42,872 44.2%
India 21,119 21.8%
China-mainland born 6,191 6.4%
Korea, South 2,955 3.0%
Mexico 2,271 2.3%
All Others 21,652 22.3%
Worldwide Total 97,060 100%
Employment Third “Other Workers”:
Top Countries are: Employment Third
China-mainland born 4,718
Korea, South 3,051 20.4%
Mexico 2,277 15.2%
Philippines 1,615 10.8%
India 605 4.1%
All Others 2,697 18.0%
Worldwide Total 14,963 100%
With visa demand well in excess of the Employment Third Preference annual limits, a significant
wait for a visa must be expected to continue for the indefinite future. Employment FOURTH Preference:
Top countries are:
India 107 21.5%
Korea, South 32 6.5%
Philippines 27 5.4%
Nigeria 26 5.2%
Colombia 25 5.0%
Israel 21 4.2%
All Others 260 52.2%
Worldwide Total 498 100%
Visa availability is "current" for all countries.
Employment FIFTH Preference:
Top countries are:
China-mainland born 1,157 64.1%
Korea, South 182 10.1%
Venezuela 58 3.2%
Iran 49 2.7%
China-Taiwan born 43 2.4%
India 31 1.7%
All Others 286 15.8%
Worldwide Total 1,806 100%
Visa availability is "current" for all countries. Family
Immigrant Waiting List By Country
The seven countries with the highest number of Family-sponsored waiting list registrants are
listed below; together these represent 66.5% of the total. This list includes all countries with at
least 150,000 persons on the waiting list. (The per-country limit in INA 202 sets an annual
maximum on the amount of Family preference visas which may be issued to applicants from any
one country; the FY 2012 per-country limit will be 15,820.)
Mexico 1,369,592
Philippines 458,399
India 317,670
Vietnam 281,221
China-mainland born 235,106
Dominican Republic 171,138
Bangladesh 161,567
All Others 1,506,373
Worldwide Total 4,501,066
Family Immigrant Waiting List By Region
A breakdown of the NVC waiting list by region is:
Region Total
Africa 122,725
Asia 1,915,772
Europe 160,899
N. America* 2,034,395
Oceania 12,046
S. America 255,229
Family Total 4,501,066
*North America includes Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Employment
Immigrant Waiting List
By Country
The five countries with the highest number of Employment-based waiting list registrants are
listed below; together these represent 77.3% of the total. This list includes all countries with at
least 4,500 persons on the waiting list. (The per-country limit in INA 202 sets an annual
maximum on the amount of Employment preference visas which may be issued to applicants
from any one country; the FY 2012 per-country limit will be approximately 10,080.)
Employment Preferences
Country Total
Philippines 44,867
India 25,731
China-mainland born 13,388
Korea, South 6,705
Mexico 4,702
All Others 27,940
Worldwide Total 123,333
Employment Immigrant Waiting List By Region
A breakdown of the NVC waiting list by region is:
Region Total
Africa 2,813
Asia 100,432
Europe 6,441
N. America* 9,007
Oceania 305
S. America 4,335
Family Total 123,333
*North America includes Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
-
2:31
»
Kim Media
On November 22, 2011, the Department of Justice and several other agencies filed suit against Utah's new immigration-related law, after similar recent lawsuits against Arizona, Alabama, and South Carolina's laws.
In a complaint filed in the District of Utah, the Department argued that several provisions of Utah's H.B. 497, enacted on March 15, 2011, are preempted by federal law. The Department said its lawsuit comes after several months of "constructive discussions" with Utah state officials and that, notwithstanding the lawsuit, Department officials "expect this important dialogue to continue."
The complaint states that H.B. 497 violates the U.S. Constitution because it attempts to establish state-specific immigration policy. According to a related statement released by the Department, Utah's law "creates and mandates immigration enforcement measures that interfere with the immigration priorities and practices of the federal government in a way which is not cooperative with the primary federal role in this area." Among other things, the Department argues that the law's mandates on law enforcement "could lead to harassment and detention of foreign visitors and legal immigrants who are in the process of having their immigration status reviewed in federal proceedings and whom the federal government has permitted to stay in this country while such proceedings are pending."
"A patchwork of immigration laws is not the answer and will only create further problems in our immigration system," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "The federal government is the chief enforcer of immigration laws and while we appreciate cooperation from states, which remains important, it is clearly unconstitutional for a state to set its own immigration policy. We will continue to monitor and coordinate with our federal partners as we remain concerned about the potential impact of these state laws."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said legislation such as Utah's new law "diverts critical law enforcement resources from the most serious threats to public safety and undermines the vital trust between local jurisdictions and the communities they serve. The Department will continue to enforce federal immigration laws in Utah in smart, effective ways that focus our resources on criminal aliens, recent border crossers, repeat and egregious immigration law violators and employers who knowingly hire illegal labor."
The Department recently notified Utah state officials of its position that Utah's "Immigrant Guest Worker" statutes, H.B. 116 and H.B. 469, are preempted by federal law. Given that the provisions do not take effect until 2013, and "in light of the constructive conversations the department continues to have with Utah officials about these provisions pursuant to the Justice Department's long-standing policy of exploring resolution short of litigation before filing suit against a state," the Department said it is not challenging these provisions now. If Utah fails to comply with federal law in this area, however, "the department will not hesitate to take the legal action necessary to vindicate the important federal interests in this matter before these laws go into effect."
The suit was filed on behalf of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and State, which share responsibilities in administering federal immigration law. The federal government will soon request a preliminary injunction to enjoin enforcement of certain provisions of H.B. 497. Utah's Republican state Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, who sponsored H.B. 497, said he was disappointed, but Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff acknowledged that the focus only on an enforcement measure rather than also including the guest worker provisions in the suit demonstrated the Department's willingness to continue dialogue. "We're now adversaries in the courtroom but we're going to continue to discuss this with them," he said.
Mexico's Foreign Relations Department released a statement welcoming the news of the suit. "The HB 497 law criminalizes migration and opens the door to possible improper application of the law by local authorities. If it takes effect, it could affect the human and civil rights of Mexicans who visit or live in that state," the statement said.
The Justice Department previously challenged Arizona's S.B. 1070, Alabama's H.B. 56, and South Carolina's Act No. 69 on federal preemption grounds. The agency said it continues to review immigration-related laws that were passed in Indiana and Georgia. Courts have upheld some provisions but enjoined others and have temporarily restrained enforcement of Utah's law pending a hearing scheduled for December 2, 2011.
The Department's statement is available HERE.
-
2:23
»
Kim Media
Rappers have already gone from wearing genre-standard baggy pants to skinny jeans, so why shouldn't they take it a step further and rock flower-print tights?
That's what a 19-year-old Dallas MC, born Daryll Duane Phillips II, is doing. Having pioneered the "XY Movement" -- a trend he hopes will have dudes dressing like ladies -- the rising rapper, who goes by the name D Phill Good or DPhill Spanglishman, is turning heads with a gender-bending wardrobe of leggings and red lipstick.
Despite his fey fashion choices, D Phill insists he's not gay. In fact, he's got a girlfriend and she's down with his glammed-out look.
"The only obstacles are in your mind," DPhill said in a recent interview with Dallas' CW 33. "I had to break down those barriers in my mind, to where I was confident enough to do it."
While he admits that he was nervous the first time he left the house in his girly gear -- a brave move for someone looking to make a name in the notoriously macho world of hip-hop -- he said he's not concerned with asserting his manliness.
"I believe I'm 40-percent female, basically because of my emotions," he said. "I'm a very emotional person."
"Everybody has a soft side,' he added. "I embrace both sides."
Watch this video. It might shed some light on what he is on about.
-
2:17
»
Kim Media
Virgin Atlantic billionaire Richard Branson sat in a car for two hours on Thursday, snarled in Nairobi's maddening traffic while trying to reach a conference where business leaders discussed the barriers to commercial success in Africa.
The continent's roadways _ not surprisingly _ were near the top of the complaints from participants in the daylong event. One investor noted that in order to ship her goods from West Africa to East Africa her products had to transit through Europe.
Africa appears poised on the edge of a business boom. The continent's middle class is growing, a half dozen countries are seeing growth rates at 6.5 percent and above, and African leaders predict high returns for international investors. Botswana's growth rate is near 12 percent, while Nigeria's and Rwanda's are both at 7 percent. Kenya is at 4 percent, all according to Trading Economics.
But hurdles remain, including corruption by politicians and other government workers, access to reliable high-speed Internet, unreliable electricity and the continent's poor highway infrastructure.
Branson said the leaders of African countries must be above corruption, or it will ricochet down to the police and customs agents. His airline, Virgin Atlantic, is losing money on its London-Nairobi route _ perhaps in part because of travel warnings concerning Kenya's fight with Somali militants _ but Branson remains optimistic about the continent's future.
"Africa is growing much faster than Europe or America, and if African countries are led well there's no reason why Africa can't be as great and powerful as the Far East," he said. "You could have a business revolution where you could see growth of 7 to 8 percent in Africa if the countries are run well."
Tony Elumela, the chairman of Heirs Holding Ltd., a private investment firm, told the crowd at the downtown Nairobi conference that Africa's infrastructure remains a problem, but that global investors will ignore Africa at their own peril.
"All they think of is war in Africa, corruption in Africa," he said. But later, Elumela added: "I think the global crisis is creating a new opportunity, that when there is prosperity we ask, 'Why do we have to go beyond the shores of my country?' But when things are not so good maybe we think, 'Beyond my country where else can I go?'"
An American social entrepreneur at the conference, Andreas Zeller, advises small and medium businesses and helps them gain access to capital as part of his work with Open Capital. He said he sees a growing number of private-public partnerships in Kenya today, helping get businesses off the ground, but that they still need basic infrastructure, like roads.
"Someone getting their goods to market are taking the roads and the roads are crappy," Zeller said. He agreed with the view from others that the U.S. hasn't been proactive enough in Africa.
China is pouring millions of dollars into road projects and developing the energy sector across Africa. But the oil that is being developed in Uganda, for instance, has to go to port in Mombasa, and that Kenyan coastal city needs more investment.
Elumela argued that African leaders need to come together and define continental priorities to advance, like a continental road network and electrical grid. China, he said, can help with both.
James Mwengi is the chief executive of Equity Bank in Kenya and chairs the country's Vision 2030, a growth plan that is already building new highways and overpasses in the Kenyan capital. He acknowledged Kenya's infrastructure problem, saying the country's leaders didn't develop roads the last two decades. He said Kenya is now tackling the problem, including building a new airport train route.
"We hope by September Richard Branson will not come with a car from the airport to Nairobi," Mwengi said. "He will come by a commuter train that will take him only 15 minutes, not two hours. The good thing is that four stations are under construction."
-
-
3:51
»
Kim Media
The reeling housing market has come to this: To shore it up, two Senators are preparing to introduce a bipartisan bill that would give residence visas to foreigners who spend at least $500,000 to buy houses in the U.S.
The provision is part of a larger package of immigration measures, co-authored by Sens. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah), designed to spur more foreign investment in the U.S.
Foreigners have accounted for a growing share of home purchases in South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other hard-hit markets. Chinese and Canadian buyers, among others, are taking advantage not only of big declines in U.S. home prices and reduced competition from Americans but also of favorable foreign exchange rates.
To fuel this demand, the proposed measure would offer visas to any foreigner making a cash investment of at least $500,000 on residential real-estate—a single-family house, condo or townhouse. Applicants can spend the entire amount on one house or spend as little as $250,000 on a residence and invest the rest in other residential real estate, which can be rented out.
The measure would complement existing visa programs that allow foreigners to enter the U.S. if they invest in new businesses that create jobs. Backers believe the initiative would help soak up an excess supply of inventory when many would-be American home buyers are holding back because they're concerned about their jobs or because they would have to take a big loss to sell their current house.
"This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel," Sen. Schumer said in an interview.
International buyers accounted for around $82 billion in U.S. residential real-estate sales for the year ending in March, up from $66 billion during the previous year period, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Foreign buyers accounted for at least 5.5% of all home sales in Miami and 4.3% of Phoenix home sales during the month of July, according to MDA DataQuick.
Foreigners immigrating to the U.S. with the new visa wouldn't be able to work here unless they obtained a regular work visa through the normal process. They'd be allowed to bring a spouse and any children under the age of 18 but they wouldn't be able to stay in the country legally on the new visa once they sold their properties.
The provision would create visas that are separate from current programs so as to not displace anyone waiting for other visas. There would be no cap on the home-buyer visa program.
Over the past year, Canadians accounted for one quarter of foreign home buyers, and buyers from China, Mexico, Great Britain, and India accounted for another quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors. For buyers from some countries, restrictive immigration rules are "a deterrent to purchase here, for sure," says Sally Daley, a real-estate agent in Vero Beach, Fla. She estimates that around one-third of her sales this year have gone to foreigners, an all-time high.
"Without them, we would be stagnant," says Ms. Daley. "They're hiring contractors, buying furniture, and they're also helping the market correct by getting inventory whittled down."
In March, Harry Morrison, a Canadian from Lakefield, Ontario, bought a four-bedroom vacation home in a gated community in Vero Beach. "House prices were going down, and the exchange rate was quite favorable," said Mr. Morrison, who first bought a home there from Ms. Daley four years ago.
While a special visa would allow Canadian buyers like Mr. Morrison to spend more time in the U.S., he said he isn't sure "what other benefit a visa would give me."
The idea has some high-profile supporters, including Warren Buffett, who this summer floated the idea of encouraging more "rich immigrants" to buy homes. "If you wanted to change your immigration policy so that you let 500,000 families in but they have to have a significant net worth and everything, you'd solve things very quickly," Mr. Buffett said in an August interview with PBS's Charlie Rose.
The measure could also help turn around buyer psychology, said mortgage-bond pioneer Lewis Ranieri. He said the program represented "triage" for a housing market that needs more fixes, even modest ones.
But other industry executives greeted the proposal with skepticism. Foreign buyers "don't need an incentive" to buy homes, said Richard Smith, chief executive of Realogy Corp., which owns the Coldwell Banker and Century 21 real-estate brands. "We have a lot of Americans who are willing to buy. We just have to fix the economy."
The measure may have a more targeted effect in exclusive markets like San Marino, Calif., that have become popular with foreigners. Easier immigration rules could be "tremendous" because of the difficulty many Chinese buyers have in obtaining visas, says Maggie Navarro, a local real-estate agent.
Ms. Navarro recently sold a home for $1.67 million, around 8% above the asking price, to a Chinese national who works in the mining industry. She says nearly every listing she's put on the market in San Marino "has had at least one full price cash offer from a buyer from mainland China."
Corrections & Amplifications
Harry Morrison bought a four-bedroom vacation home in Vero Beach in March. He first bought a home there four years ago from Sally Daley, a local real-estate agent. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Ms. Daley sold the four-bedroom home to Mr. Morrison in March.
Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com
-
1:34
»
Kim Media
Makerere University has granted an honorary Doctorate Degree of Law (LL.B) to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.
He becomes the sixth African head of state to get the honor. The decision to honor Kibaki, 80, with the highest academic accolade was announced in a closed meeting at Senate building last week on Wednesday.
The meeting, attended by both the Senate and University Council members and chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof Venansius Baryamureeba resolved to award Kibaki following his accomplishments in the political and social circles.
"The grounds advanced for recommending him (Kibaki) for the award of Honorary Doctor of Laws were based on his distinguished contribution to Public Service - nationally, regionally and internationally- especially in the areas of academic excellence, public service, social and economic reforms," read part of the minutes from the meeting.
Kibaki was nominated in February by the chairman of the university's Convocation Association and committee member of the University Council, Bruce Balaba Kabasa. However, in an earlier meeting by the university's Honorary Awards Committee, Baryamureeba noted that plans to reward the Kenyan president were long pending.
"When I took office on 1st November 2009, I found the proposal to award an Honorary of the Doctor of Laws to H.E, Hon. Mwai Kibaki," Baryamureeba was quoted saying.
Kabasa submitted Kibaki's curriculum vitae for verification in accordance to the provisions of the University's Statute and Guidelines for Honorary Awards and Article 47 of the 2001 Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act.
"Every such proposal shall be accompanied by a detailed CV, a statement setting forth the award recommended and the detailed grounds on which the recommendation is based. No recommendation will be received without these details," reads parts of the statute.
Kibaki's nomination was subsequently endorsed by the Academic Boards of colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) and Business and Managenment Sciences (COBAMS). The Awards Committee, Senate and the University Council also later agreed to give him the doctorate.
Usually, honorary degrees are awarded at graduation ceremonies which means Kibaki may get the honor during the mid January 2012 graduations. However, an inside source from the university said that his case may be different.
"We are talking about the Kenyan President. He (Kibaki) may get his very soon," the source said.
"He is coming to the university around December 3 and is likely to leave with his degree."
Idi Amin (Uganda), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Mashood Abiola (Nigeria), Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania) and most recently Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) have all been previously awarded honorary degrees by Makerere University.
Kibaki, like Museveni, Nyerere and Mkapa is an alumnus of Makerere University. He graduated from the institution in 1955 with a First Class Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics, History and Political Science and taught at the institution in 1958.
Honorary Degree
An honorary degree, also known as degree honoris causa- Latin for 'the sake of honor' is an academic degree for which a university (or any other degree-awarding institution) awards without following the conventional procedures for attainment such as admission, residence, study and passing the exams.
The degree is strictly a Doctorate but on rare occasions, it may be a Masters. Quite often, the degree is awarded to someone with prior connection with the institution in question. However, in some cases, there may be no prior attachments.
Usually the degree is conferred as a way of honoring the beneficiary's distinguished contributions to a specific field, or to society in general. The university often derives benefits by association with the person in question.
It is not unusual for a person to receive many honorary degrees. For example, according to the late Julius Nyerere's official website, he received 23 honorary academic awards, 13 of which were doctorates.
Controversy
Honorary degrees, especially those given to politicians or people with no prior relevant academic qualifications, have been known to steer a lot of controversy from students, academicians and the general public.
With political figures and rich personalities, it is usually seen as a move to vulture for favours and financial support. A lot of criticism may also arise if a recipient with no prior academic qualification insists on being called 'Doctor' as the honorific may mislead the general public about their qualifications.
Some of the prominent honorary degrees that sparked controversy were those awarded to: George W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Barack Obama and Dr Henry Morgentaler - the controversial Canadian pro-abortion activist. As a result, some of the world's prominent universities do not award honorary degrees.
Kibaki's fact file
Born November 15 1931 in Nyeri district Graduated at Makerere University in 1955 with a 1st Class Degree in Economics, History and Political Science Graduated at London School of Economics in 1955 with a distinction in Public Finance Assistant Lecturer of Economics at Makerere University (1958-1960) Executive officer, KANU party (1960) MP and minister in Kenyan Parliament (1963-81) VP (1982-1988) President (2002-todate)
He is known to be a keen golfer
-
1:27
»
Kim Media
British billionaire Richard Branson says he plans to open a luxury camp in a new reserve next to Kenya's famed Masai Mara game park next year.
The Masai Mara is famed for the waves of wildebeest that migrate from Tanzania's Serengeti National Park north into the Mara once a year. Branson called the migration one of the top "wonders" in the world.
On the sidelines of a business conference in Nairobi on Thursday, Branson said his project "will help protect the migration routes by creating some reserves just around the Masai (Mara)."
Branson, who is to travel to the Masai Mara region Thursday and Friday, said he hoped the 15-tent luxury camp would be open in the next four to six months.
Branson has run a game reserve in South Africa for the last 20 years. He already helps fund the aid group Free the Children, which works in the Masai Mara region.
-
-
4:09
»
Kim Media
Amid an intensifying campaign by supporters of six senior public figures facing charges at the International Criminal Court, ICC, the Kenyan government is being accused of frustrating the court’s outreach efforts inside the country.
Meanwhile, questions have been raised about the success of the ICC outreach programme, and about whether its intervention in Kenya has been sufficiently robust.
Local and international rights groups say that while the ICC started its outreach programme in Kenya at a fairly early stage, the delay in establishing a permanent local office left a gap that has been exploited by politicians allied to some of the suspects.
There is also concern that the ICC outreach unit is not receiving the political support it needs to help correct gross misconceptions about the court’s work among communities affected by the post-election violence of 2007-08.
At least 1,100 people died and 3,500 were injured during two months of violent unrest that followed a disputed presidential election in December 2007.
The court has charged six prominent figures, including deputy prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former education minister William Ruto, with crimes against humanity for their alleged role in planning the attacks. Two cases have been filed by the prosecutor, with three suspects in each.
The deputy head of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, Hassan Omar Hassan, says a section of the Kenyan government has been deliberately blocking the ICC’s attempts to give the public accurate information about matters relating to the two cases.
“We raised concerns about [outreach activities] from the outset, after we realised that political actors involved in the two cases were misinforming the public on the impact and consequences of the initial appearances and confirmation of charges stages [of court proceedings],” Hassan said.
The court’s outreach activities started in Kenya in December 2009 after the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, requested authorisation to launch an investigation into the 2007-08 violence. The outreach office was not set up until August this year, following a visit to Kenya by the ICC’s registrar, Silvana Arbia.
The International Centre for Policy and Conflict, ICPC, a Kenyan non-government organisation working on transitional justice and conflict resolution, says the ICC’s failure to establish an outreach office as soon as the investigation started meant local organisations were forced to step in, more often than not without adequate resources.
“Many NGO’s have received threats after being seen to be working closely with the ICC,” the ICPC’s executive director Ndungu Wainaina said.
Experts say that outreach activities alone are not the ultimate solution to the mass of misinformation and politicisation surrounding cases before the ICC, but they can help to counter the problem.
“We cannot say that outreach will automatically cure the politicisation, but it can make it harder to do that because if your everyday person on the ground already has information about the ICC process – that it is an independent judicial process – then it will be hard for people who want to spin it as a biased process to make their argument,” Elizabeth Evenson, senior counsel at the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said.
Both of the Kenyan cases at the ICC involve high profile politicians, as well as the country’s former police commissioner. The ICC’s outreach coordinator in Kenya, Maria Mabinty Kamara, says these high-profile cases have attracted great interest in the court’s workings, but at times also misinformation.
A failed attempt by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to lobby other African countries to support a deferral of the Kenyan cases is seen by some as a clear example of how the government is trying to undermine the ICC’s mandate.
President Mwai Kibaki has also been seen as taking sides by writing to ICC judges in a bid to exonerate one of the suspects, civil service chief Francis Muthaura, during the recent confirmation of charges hearings.
“This is a clear example of how the government does not in any way support the ICC,” Wainaina said.
Kenya’s justice minister Mutula Kilonzo admits the government is walking a tightrope – it is aware of the propaganda put out about the ICC cases, but is reluctant to engage in civic education for fear of being misunderstood, or accused of bias towards either victims or suspects.
“My mandate is to the victims and to the suspects,” he said. By engaging in civic education it might be construed to mean I am supporting one side [over the other] which is [far] from the truth,” Kilonzo said.
He strenuously rejected charges that the current coalition government, formed after the clashes ended in 2008, is itself hampering ICC outreach efforts.
“Those making such allegations are busybodies who don’t understand what the government has done in terms of cooperating with the ICC. We have agreed to all requests by the ICC registrar, including granting visas for their staff and facilitating the setting up of an office here in the country,” he said, noting that a special cabinet subcommittee had been set up to liaise with the court.
Amason Jeffa Kingi, another cabinet minister and a member of the ICC liaison subcommittee, disagreed. He said there were people in the cabinet who were obstructing the ICC process with a campaign to smear the court.
“While the position of the coalition government is that we will cooperate fully with the ICC, as demanded of us by the Rome Statute [the founding treaty], it is however unfortunate that some senior individuals in government issue statements that [call] into question the mandate of the ICC,” Kingi said.
Justice Minister Kilonzo acknowledges that there are deep-seated differences between the coalition partners regarding support for the ICC. After the suspects were named by the court, some officials publicly called on President Kibaki to withdraw Kenya from the Rome Statute. Kilonzo says such statements have sent out contradictory messages to the public as to whether the government fully supports the ICC.
In terms of outreach on the ground, some parts of Kenya that bore the brunt of the violence are barely aware of the court, despite outreach activities that began more than a year ago.
At the Mawingu Camp where more than 1,000 displaced families are still living three years after the violence, people say they have not seen any of the court’s officers in the area.
“We have been waiting to see these officials and talk to them, but none have been here so far. Politicians come here and demonise the ICC, and we have so many questions but no answers are forthcoming from Ocampo and his team,” Rose Wanjiku, chairperson of the Mawingu Camp, said.
The outreach office says it faces financial challenges and cannot do everything expected of it all at once. “Most of the funds we had were directed to media initiatives, but it is not as much as we would have liked,” Kamara said.
Nevertheless, she says, the outreach office has been able to engage with some local NGOs, media and leaders of affected communities to promote a better understanding of the court process.
The ICC office has yet to start the next phase of outreach activities, which will be aimed at explaining what the outcome of the confirmation of charges hearings means, correcting misconceptions, and addressing the expectations of victims and the wider Kenyan public.
“The Kenyan case is one of the earliest interventions in terms of outreach initiatives,” Kamara said. “Unlike other situations where it took a lot of time before the [ICC’s] outreach programme was initiated, for Kenya we have been closely working in line with the judicial process. Right from the outset when the prosecutor launched investigations, we closely followed what the media was reporting, and we realised the level of inaccuracies that needed to be addressed.”
The ICPC says the ICC office will have to engage with the public much more effectively if its outreach activities are to have any impact amid the challenges that face the court.
“In Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo there has been a robust and open engagement of the victims. But in Kenya the situation has been completely different. One reason why there is so much misinformation is because the outreach unit [of the ICC] has not been very proactive in providing information to the general public,” Wainaina said.
Human Rights Watch has praised the ICC for setting up an outreach office in Kenya at a relatively early stage compared with other countries where the court has charged suspects. It believes the challenge now is to ensure that the office builds on some of the lessons learnt from earlier efforts elsewhere.
“We acknowledge that there are of course security challenges, but the team must now start having face-to-face meetings in places that were most affected by the violence,” Evenson said. “The Kenyan team can learn from the Democratic Republic of Congo where the ICC has initiated listening clubs among womenfolk. These clubs have had a huge impact in informing and stimulating debate among the public.”
Other international human rights groups such as the Open Society Justice Initiative believe that the ICC outreach team in Kenya does not need to look far for lessons on how to carry out a successful programme.
“Sierra Leone was a huge success. It successfully engaged Sierra Leoneans about the work of the court generally, and the trial process,” said Alpha Sessay, of the Open Society Justice Network. “The Sierra Leone model can successfully be adopted by the Kenyan outreach team as it is largely acknowledged as a blueprint for how such courts can work with the community.”
Kamara says the outreach office is expecting more funds soon to conduct what she calls a “massive mass outreach campaign” to prepare the ground for the verdict of the confirmation of charges hearings.
“One of our greatest challenges will be to manage the huge expectations of the public regarding this phase of the Kenyan case. We will have to clarify what the court can do at this stage, and what it cannot do,” she said.
-
-
1:05
»
Kim Media
After January 1st 2012 any Registered Nurse (RN) or Licensed Practicing Nurse (LPN) in Georgia who wants to renew their license will have to go through vigorous verification process which will include proof of legal residency in the United States.
The law to be implemented states that; “(Amendments to O.C.G.A. 50-36-1) Effective January 1, 2012, after December 31, 2011, Georgia law will require all applicants for licensure, and all those applying for renewal of an existing license, to submit secure and verifiable documentation with their application”.
According to Jane Musyoka a Kenyan RN in Atlanta who brought this issue to our attention so that we can sensitize the community, the implementation could put immigrant nurses’ jobs at risk. Jane added that “If there were any complications in the renewal process then this would delay the license and hence cause loss of jobs or income”
Every nurse in Georgia is required to renew their license every couple of years and cannot hold a job unless their licenses is current. The verification process if it is to emulate the ‘E-verify’ then it could be married by errors seen in the federal verification program that has affected even those who are born here.
The nursing board’s website recommends that nurses to consider filing their renewal application on or before December 31, 2011 as this will expedite their renewal and avoid being caught in the web of the new policy.
“If you know you have problems, it is better you renew your license before the beginning of the year or start to think of relocation plan” Nancy Wangeci an RN working in Clayton County Georgia told KEN on the phone.
Georgia has tightened their immigration policies, passing very restrictive laws to curb illegal immigrants. This comes at the heels of the neighboring state Alabama passing laws that have been considered anti-immigrant hence creating a mass exit of the Latino community. The civil society has raised the alarm that the law is being used to bully the immigrants or anyone who does not look Caucasian.
By Wilson Wanguhu
-
-
6:59
»
Kim Media
Asante Sana from AKPA Members and Friends. We cannot express our appreciation enough for the great turnout for AKPA 2011 Dinner and Dance held on Saturday December 3rd at the Atrium in Atlanta. Attendee's were treated to an amazing venue with artwork from our very own Ms. Sarah Odingo who's art enhanced a great historical site - the Atrium. Take a few minutes and read about the Atrium's history, it will help you understand the masterpieces you saw on the walls
http://atriumonauburn.com/about.html. It is important we learn to keep our history and showcase it.
AKPA Members and Friends came in expecting to award ONE $1000 Dr. Njeri Karangu Thuo Scholarship to deserving Kenyan student in Georgia. AKPA Golfers raised $474.40 while the rest of the $1000 came from our event sponsers and membership fees. However, thanks to Ivory Chevrolet of Union City (owned and operated by David Karangu) TWO more $1000 scholarships were awarded. It was indeed a great surprise and joy for all present to see each student walk away with sure financial support from AKPA members and friends. Congratulations to our 2011 winners; Peninah Nyokabi (awarded by AKPA) and to Daniel Kithuka and Easter Warui ( award courtesy of Ivory Chevrolet)
The audience picked Daniel Kithuka as the Networking King of the Dinner/ Dance. The objective was to let AKPA Dinner/Dance attendee's judge how effective each finalist was able to meet and get themselves known. Daniel took home an extra $200 for his efforts.
Thank you Dr. Reverend Wamutitu, Senior Pastor at Bethesda Empowerment Center for taking the time to come out and bless the evening with word of prayer. AKPA appreciates your time and does not take it for granted.
Nyce Keiyora, youth AKPA member treated us to some great Poetry that captivated the audience with the taste kenyan humor and a look at the Kenyan American.
Mercy Myra, dressed in an incredible outfit that reflected our african heritage ( you had to be there to see it) belted out some great tunes and had the audience clinging onto her every word and note. A truly gifted performer.
Awards were given to selected Kenyans who in their daily lives are incredible hero's and are an inspiration to all. AKPA 2011 Honoree's were Mrs. Jane Njoroge(Mama Furaha) parent to an autistic child, Uhuru. Ms.Eva Wambui, a cancer survisor who gives with an open heart and to Mr. Kimani Wanguhu of Kenyan Empowerment newspaper for being formidable community liaison.
Special tribute to Mr. Olu Tony Imoukhuede for his speech on "Leveraging our Network to attain wealth" our our key note speaker for the evening. Tony is the President of the Pan African American Chamber of Commerce and will provide a free class as a service to help us take advantage opportunities in this economy. The class is scheduled in Jan 28 2011 Venue and details to be announced.The time is now.... if you have not already done so, please sign up for the free 8hr learning session. Topics to be covered include "certifications required to get contracts in GA, the importance of SBA membership and minority registration among many other topics".
Fannuel Mugendi, AKPA Development Chair challenged participants to step up and participate in building our community. In his "Seize the moment" speech, Fannuel challenged Kenyan businesses and professionals to support AKPA and help continue build the organization with what our founders (many of whom were in attendance) intended 10 years ago.
DJ Vinn rocked the House and had every attendee vying for a dance spot on a packed floor.
AKPA thanks all the vendors and volunteers who worked tirelessly to ensure our attendee's had a great time.
Dec 3rd, 2011 Dinner Menu
Appetizers
By Beatrice Mangure
Tantalizing Mahamri and Samosa Bites
Main Course
By Elizabeth Ajwang
Starter Broccoli Salad
Lip Smacking Coastal Chicken Biryani
served on a bed Coconut Rice
Or
Kenyan Favorite Beef Stew with Chapati
All served with a Stir Fry Vegetable Mix
Dessert
By Beatrice Karobia
Scrumptious Chocolate Raspberry Cake
Citrus Celebration 10th Anniversary AKPA Cake
Karibu!!
www.akpa-atlanta.com
Our Volunteers: Francis Nyota, Sehrish Bhatti, , Cynthia Nishimwe, Cedric Ngendanganya, Erika Fletcher, Rachel Kibet, Zoha Junaid and Chidum Uzochukwu
AKPA Members and Friends say :
"Your are a hummingbird and you did make a difference, your time and effort is not taken for granted, for without you the event would not have been as successfull"
Scholarship finalists for 2011 were:
Easter Warui B.S Psychology/Applied Statistics and Data Analysis minor antic. 2011 Kennesaw State University - Kennesaw, GA
Daniel Kithuka B.S in Mechatronics -(Computer Science/ Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering) 2012Southern Polytechnic University
Peninah Nyokabi B.S of Business Administration (Accounting & Finance)- 2013 Georgia State University -Atlanta, GA
Again ASANTE SANA!!
On behalf of AKPA Members,
Chair: Mary Bowers Vice Chair: Irene Miru
Treasurer: Donald Okech , Secretary: Rosemary Mburu
Development Chair: Fannuel Mugendi, Investment Chair: Julian Thairo, Networking Chair: Bernard Thiong'o Education Chair: Kiki Mutunga
akpa.org@gmail.com www.akpa-atlanta.org
All funds for our events go toward AKPA Scholarship Fund and member activities.
-
-
23:49
»
Kim Media
Sex addiction is on the rise, say experts, with more than nine million Americans suffering from the disorder.
And, where sex addicts were once more-or-less limited to 40- to 50-year-old men, the demographics are changing too, with more and more young people and women seeking help.
According to Newsweek, researchers say that a decade ago, there were fewer than 100 sex therapists practising. Today, there are around 1,500 sex therapists, all focusing on compulsive behaviour.
And where there were only five or six of treatment centres for rehabilitating addicts, there are now dozens.
Driven by the same compulsions as alcoholic or drug addicts, sex addicts chase an emotional high, depending on sex, often in more and more extreme forms, to stave off a low.
Los Angeles' Sexual Recovery Institute's Robert Weiss told Newsweek that the disorder 'is all about chasing that emotional high: losing yourself in image after image, prostitute after prostitute, affair after affair.
'They end up losing relationships, getting diseases, and losing jobs.'
In total, nine million, or three to five per cent of the U.S. population, meets the criteria for addiction, says the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health.
Tami VerHelst, vice president of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals, told the magazine that 'Where it used to be 40- to 50-year-old men seeking treatment, now there are more females, adolescents, and senior citizens,' sex addicts are now old, young, male and female.
She has seen 'grandfathers getting caught with porn on their computers by grandkids, and grandkids sexting at 12.'
In fact, Steven Luff, co-author of Pure Eyes: A Man’s Guide to Sexual Integrity, went so far as telling the magazine that sex addiction is 'a national epidemic.'
The reasons, say Newsweek, are largely focused on the liberation of porn - which is thought to lead to seeking real sex - afforded by the internet.
Internet Filter Software Review has calculated that in the U.S., 40 million people a day log on to 4.2 million pornographic websites.
Other technologies, too, are making casual, quick sex, often sought by addicts, easier.
Whether it is the highly controversial but hugely successful Ashley Madison, which links those looking for extra-marital affairs to willing partners, or even Grindr, which uses smart phones and GPS to quickly link members of the gay community in the same geographical area, the potential for fast - and free - sex is richer than ever.
While technology may address accessibility, it is not clear how it is linked to Mr Weiss's belief that that sex addiction boils down to simply 'being wanted.'
Mr Luff, who is also the leader of X3LA sexual-addiction recovery groups in Hollywood, agrees: 'Sex is the perfect match for that. "I matter right now. In this moment, I am loved,"' he said.
The 'epidemic' is hitting popular culture, says the magazine, with the TV series Bad Sex and 'full-frontal debasement' of movie Shame coming to cinemas in December.
The messy public debacles of Tiger Woods and Dominique Strauss-Kahn have also driven the disorder further into the spotlight - though Bad Sex's Chris Donaghue, a sex therapist, is quick to note that philandering does not equal addiction.
But while figures creep up, there seems to be little offered in the way of solutions.
It is hoped that by raising awareness of the problem, more sufferers of the disease will come forward for treatment
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2067806/Its-national-epidemic-Why-Americans-diagnosed-sex-addicts-record-numbers.html#ixzz1ffiGWUrH
-
23:30
»
Kim Media
The latest wave of interest rate hikes has dealt individuals servicing mortgages a severe blow, with the monthly repayment rising to the highest levels in over 10 years despite some stability in home prices this year. This is the situation as the Monetary Policy Committee meets at Central Bank of Kenya, which could raise the signal lending rates as the regulatory body strives to tackle the runaway inflation and stabilise the local currency. Prices of mortgage products, as well as other loans, have since the MPC’s meeting last month climbed to about 25 per cent. For borrowers, the rate hike means raising their monthly repayments by more than half if they are to repay the home loan within original tenure for a home loan with ten years to its expiry, for instance. An even worse alternative, and sadly the more tenable for the ordinary borrower, would be extending the repayment period by as much as the original term, highlighting how the volatility in interest rates may be ravaging lives.
Borrowers who took home loans in the last five years when the lending rates dropped below 15 per cent may be bearing the heaviest repayment burden while any rate hike in today’s MPC meeting could worsen the already dire situation. Caroline Kariuki, the managing director at ‘The Mortgage Company’, a mortgage brokerage firm terms the current situation as difficult for borrowers but points out that there are options that they could pursue like refinancing the outstanding amounts with different providers. “The latest rate hike means that borrowers may have to pay significantly higher to service their home loans yet their incomes have not been adjusted,” said Ms Kariuki. “Since it is highly unlikely that one would continue servicing their loans with the same ease, borrowers should consider refinancing their mortgages, perhaps with lenders offering fixed rates,” she added. Ann Gichangi, the chief executive at Regnum Financial Planners, concurs that the rate rise is certain to affect the ability of people currently servicing home loans because mortgage as a means of financing home acquisition is mostly for people who cannot pay cash.
“Most mortgage borrowers are already strained in servicing their home loans and their incomes may not allow for much flexibility,” says Ms Gichangi, a personal financial consultant. It may be time for the borrowers to consolidate their debts by selling other assets with less value and reducing the outstanding mortgage loans as much as possible, she added. “A buyer may also consider selling the home as a last option before they find that the loan’s amount exceeds the value of the property, people now have to be realistic,” Ms Gichangi said. A home buyer who bought an average home in Nairobi worth Sh7 million in 2006, has been paying about Sh92,000 a month, on the home loan then priced at 15 per cent. With the latest rate hike, the monthly repayment would shoot to Sh138,600, a steep increase that incomes of most buyers may not support, according to Ms Kariuki, who previously headed the mortgage division at KCB.
-
-
6:51
»
Kim Media
Join us for AKPA 2011 Dinner and Dance as we celebrate a wonderful year of community action and award the 9th Dr. Njeri Karangu Thuo Scholarship to a deserving Kenyan student in Georgia.
Where: Atrium Auburn Ave, 236 Auburn Ave Atlanta, GA 30303.
When: Dec 3rd. 2011 7PM-1AM
Dress Code: Dress to impress.. no jeans/ tee-shirts/sneakers.
All are welcome: To purchase your ticket select this link:http://akpa.eventbrite.com Be prompt.
AKPA Scholarship finalists for 2011 are:
Easter Warui
B.S Psychology/Applied Statistics and Data Analysis minor antic. 2011
Kennesaw State University - Kennesaw, GA
Daniel Kithuka
Bachelor in Mechatronics -(Computer Science/ Mechanical
Engineering and Electrical Engineering) 2012
Southern Polytechnic University
Peninah Nyokabi
Bachelor of Business Administration (Accounting & Finance)- 2013
Georgia State University - Atlanta, GA
Join us and vote for your finalist...........
All funds for our events go toward AKPA Scholarship Fund and member activities.
AKPA 2011 Dinner & Dance
AKPA's mission is to promote the well being, advancement and wealth of its members in both Atlanta and Kenya through the mobilization of resources and talents available locally, nationally, and internationally. In line with our mission statement we would like to invite you to ….Come join us and enjoy a highlight event as we promote a host of Africans in what they do best...
What to expect...
Appetizer by Beatrice Mangure and a team of students she is helping mentor; A coastal flavored meal by Elizabeth Ajwang who plans to open her very own restaurant with African tastes assisted by Beatrice Karobia a scrumptious desert maker.
Decorations by Penny Macharia skilled artisan.
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Olu Tony Imoukhuede - President, Pan African American Chamber of Commerce
" Leverage our Networks and Skills to attain a state of happiness "
Live Dinner Music from 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. by "Elias the Saxaphonist"
Live entertainment---- coming soon.
DJ SAM will close out the evening to tunes from across the world for all ages... Be there!!!!
Tickets on sale now!!! http://akpa.eventbrite.com/
Venue: The Atrium on Sweet Auburn
-
6:36
»
Kim Media
| The Sullivan Honors has grown in importance and prominence to become one of the highlights of theWashington, DC cultural year.
On Thursday, December 15, 2011, The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation will salute the 2011 Sullivan Honors Recipients in a star-studded, international affair with notable performers from the United States and across the African Continent.
The Honorees will accept the recognition of their peers and colleagues as they are celebrated through original performances and heart felt tributes. The event will take place in the beautiful and stately Ballroom at the Marriott-Wardman Park Hotel.
This year our Honors Celebration is scheduled to occur in Washington, DC during the excitement and festivities of the holiday season. The Sullivan Foundation has chosen to embrace the element of surprise and excitement in the program. Therefore, the 2011 Sullivan Honorees will be announced at a special press conference only days before the event.
PAST SULLIVAN HONOREES:
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
DR. CONDOLEEZZA RICE
SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON
MR. DAVID O'REILLY
DR. HENRY LOUIS GATES
MR. JOHN PRENDERGAST
MS. MIA FARROW
PRESIDENT PAUL KAGAME
PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF
GENERAL COLIN POWELL
DR. EDMUND DAUKORU
PRESIDENT JAKAYA KIKWETE
PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA
Former Ghanaian President and World Food Prize Recipient, John Kufour will attend the 2011 Sullivan Honors.
Confirmed Guests
Ambassador Andrew Young
(Chair of The Sullivan Foundation Board)
Former Ghanaian President John Kufuor (Sullivan Foundation Board Member)
President Abdoulaye Wade
(President of Senegal)
President Olusegun Obasanjo
(Former President of Nigeria)
Ambassador James Kimonyo
(Ambassador of Rwanda to the United States)
USAID Representatives
State Department Dignitaries
Dr. John Ping
(Chairperson, African Union)
Remaining Honorees will be announced in a special Press Conference just days before the event.
THE 2011 LEON H. SULLIVAN HONORS RECIPIENTS WILL BE CHOSEN AS A RESULT OF THEIR EXEMPLARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO IMPROVING THE LIVES OF AFRICA'S MOST VULNERABLE PEOPLE AS FOLLOWS:
Democracy and Development in Africa:
AFRICAN LEADERSHIP AWARD
The Sullivan Global Champion for Africa:
INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP AWARD
Exemplary Corporate Citizenship:
CORPORATE LEADERSHIP AWARD
Beacon for Africa:
AFRICAN ORGANIZATION LEADERSHIP AWARD
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO MAKE A RESERVATION FOR
THE 2011 SULLIVAN HONORS
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities are still available, please contact:
amathis@thesullivanfoundation.org
or
email: info@thesullivanfoundation.org
Thursday Dec 15:
6.30pm - 10.30pm
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
The Marriott Ballroom 2660 Woodley Rd., NW Washington, District of Columbia 20008 1-800-228-9290
TICKETS
Individual Tickets (General Seating) $195
VIP Ticket (VIP Reception and Preferred Seating) $250
VVIP Tickets (VIP Reception and seating with Honorees) $500
Table Reservation seats 8 at $1200
We are inviting the Miss Africa USA Family to participate in this historical event. Please make your reservations asap.
For More Information on Tickets Please contact Megan Arendt
marendt@thesullivanfoundation.org
202 776 0514 or 202 505 1461
For Media info please contact
anur@thesullivanfoundation.org
|
|
The Newly Crowned Miss Africa USA Ghyslaine Tchouaga from Cameroon will be making a special appearance at the 2011 Sullivan Honors with some of her fellow Pageant Delegates. This will be her first major appearance since being crowned. Queen Ghyslaine Tchouaga is working closely with the Sullivan Foundation to address the emergency situation in theHorn of Africa where she will lead a special campaign to feed the Hungry in Somaliaand help save lives.
Wishing you the Best during this Festive Season.
Lady Kate Njeuma and Team
Miss Africa USA Pageant
Empowering young women as Goodwill Ambassadors.
240 440 2166
|
|
-
4:32
»
Kim Media
Further to our earlier notice informing of Kenya’s political party officials visiting Washington D.C., this is to invite Kenyans to a reception for the officials at the Kenya Embassy in Washington D.C. on Tuesday December 6th 2011, from 5:30pm – 7pm.
The following political party officials will be in Washington D.C. for a study mission at National Democratic Institute (NDI). More details will follow soon:
|
|
|
1
|
Ms. Esther Waithera Chege
Member, National Executive Committee, NARC-KENYA
|
|
2
|
Mr. Wangah, Taabu Omia Daniel
Executive Director, NARC-KENYA
|
|
3
|
Hon. Prof. Philip Kaloki
Member of Parliament
ODM-KENYA
|
|
4
|
Mr. Robb Henry Biwott Barchok Kiprono
Executive Director, ODM-KENYA
|
|
5
|
Mr. Peter Kyondu Munyae
National Organizing Secretary, FORD-KENYA
|
|
6
|
Mr. Stephen Namsyule
Executive Director, FORD-KENYA
|
|
7
|
Hon. Munyao Joseph Konzolo
former Member of Parliament
Party Leader, Democratic Party
|
|
8
|
Mr. Gitau Laban Githuku
Executive Director, Democratic Party
|
|
9
|
Mr. Machariah Nyagah
Commissioner, Electoral Commission in Democratic Party
|
|
10
|
Hon. Wycliff Musalia Mudavadi
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of Local Government
Minister of Parliament
Deputy Party Leader, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
|
|
11
|
Hon. Peter Anyang Nyong’o
Minister of Medical Services
Member of Parliament
Secretary General, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
|
|
12
|
Ms. Janet Ong’era
Executive Director, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
|
|
13
|
Hon. Justin B. Muturi
former Member of Parliament
National Organizing Secretary, KANU
|
|
14
|
Mr. Joseph Mathai
Executive Director, KANU
|
|
15
|
Hon. Kiraitu Murungi
Minister of Energy
Member of Parliament
Secretary General, Party of National Unity
|
|
16
|
Mr. Stephen Niju
Legal Counsel, Party of National Unity (PNU)
|
|
17
|
Mr. Jasper Nyaboga
Executive Director, Party of National Unity (PNU)
|
|
18
|
Hon. Jeremiah Kioni
Member of Parliament
Whip, Party of National Unity (PNU)
|
|
19
|
Hon. Jakoyo Washington Midiwo
Member of Parliament
Whip, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
|
|
20
21
|
Ms. Kezzia Mbuga
Womens Leader, NARC-K
Hon. Ababu Namwamba
Member of Parliament
Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
Source: Kenya Embassy
|
|
|
|
-
-
22:49
»
Kim Media
The majority of Canadians are not lumberjacks or fur traders; most of us don't live in an igloo or eat blubber or own a dog sled; our country is the second largest land mass, the first nation of hockey - and many of us, especially in parts of Toronto's west end, are financially well off.
"We come from a pretty affluent part of the city. There's a fair amount of wealthy homes, but what's really special is there's a great amount of goodwill," said Jeff Douglas, a broadcaster and actor, perhaps best known for his role as "Joe Canadian" in a Molson Canadian's 2000 ad campaign.
Douglas, a Bloor West Village-area resident, is a member of the Runnymede United Church congregation that for a number of years has been a supporter of Village of Love Canada. It's the Canadian arm of its sister charity Village of Love Kenya initiated by Kenyan couple Andrew and Leonora Obara. The two founded Kijiji Cha Upendo - Swahili for Village of Love - a co-operative of Kenyan families bound and determined to care for the thousands of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, who are living in the slums of Kibera.
Andrew and Leonora have been in Toronto since Nov. 1 appearing at several speaking engagements throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Their visit will culminate with World AIDS Day, Sunday, Dec. 4. They will be at St. John's Anglican Church, 288 Humberside Ave., from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. that day for a luncheon and video presentation.
Already parents to five biological children, Leonora, a social worker, first laid eyes on a little girl named Patricia in 2002. The four year old was starving and had parasites and sores all over her legs and feet, which made walking difficult. Leonora, along with her husband, took Patricia to Nairobi for specialized treatment and she soon began to regain her health. The couple adopted Patricia soon after and the "beautiful, well-behaved and intelligent" teen, according to her mother, is about to begin high school. Two years later, Leonora would visit Toronto to speak at a social workers' conference where she connected with fellow social worker Robyn Salter, a Runnymede Church congregant. Since that first meeting, the church has been helping Village of Love through its Mission and Services Fund, said Douglas, providing ongoing fiscal support.
"This story illustrates just how small the world is," said Douglas.
Since the charity's inception, the Obaras have adopted four children. The co-operative is comprised of 15 families caring for 50 AIDS orphans.
"The families of the co-operation are registered with the Kenyan government and are monitored and supported by community workers to safeguard the well being of the children," said Douglas. "It's the best of both worlds - the families are regulated, but full of love."
If you would like more information or would like to help, visit www.villageoflovecanada.org
-
22:45
»
Kim Media
An investigation is under way after a soldier was shot dead on a training exercise in Kenya with his unit, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
James Wilkinson from Bury, Greater Manchester, died on 26 November.
The matter is being investigated as a training accident, which took place on a firing range. Wilkinson, 21, married his wife Sarah in July and she is expecting their first child in February.
He had been in the army for 12 months and was stationed in Germany. A MoD spokesman said: "With regret we can confirm Fusilier James Wilkinson, who was serving with the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, has died following an incident in Kenya on 26 November." Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult and sad time.
"The matter is being investigated by the Royal Military Police Special Investigation Branch and the Land Accident Investigation team and it would not be appropriate to comment further while inquiries are ongoing.
Wilkinson's widow is still waiting to be told the full details surrounding her husband's death. She had moved to Celle, Germany, three weeks ago to set up a new home in married quarters with her husband at his army base.
-
22:41
»
Kim Media
Kenya's foreign minister travelled on Thursday to Sudan for talks to defuse a diplomatic row touched off by a court ruling ordering the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for suspected genocide if he set foot in Kenya again. Sudan ordered Kenya's ambassador to leave Khartoum and pulled its own envoy out of Nairobi after a Kenyan judge told the Nairobi government to detain Bashir if possible and hand him over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to comply with an ICC genocide warrant.
Since Monday's ruling, Kenya has tried to ease the spat with Sudan by saying it would appeal against the court's decision. Khartoum has also voiced openness to a diplomatic resolution and has yet to enforce the Kenyan ambassador's expulsion.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula was to meet Bashir in Khartoum later on Thursday to try and resolve the stand-off, according to Patrick Wamoto, a senior ministry official.
“Our hope is the minister will make progress in resolving this issue. Our ultimate aim is to have diplomatic relations restored even before the appeal case goes through,” Wamoto told Reuters.
He said the appeal process could take a year or more but the diplomatic relations could be fully restored quickly if Wetangula succeeded in reassuring Bashir that the government was not involved in the court ruling.
“(It) took us by surprise. We are not at war with Sudan. We have not quarrelled. From where we sit, the question of immunity for a serving head of state is uncontested. This will be the gist of the appeal,” he said.
Kenya was heavily criticised by the ICC and foreign governments for failing to arrest Bashir when he attended a ceremony to enact a new Kenyan constitution in August last year.
Nairobi was adhering to a stance taken by the African Union, which had told its members not to enforce the Bashir warrant because the ICC seemed to be singling out African leaders.
The AU says another reason for its opposition to the ICC indictment of Bashir is the negative impact this would have on Sudan's peace process in its troubled Darfur region.
As an ICC member state, Kenya is legally obliged to cooperate with the court and its arrest warrants. Monday's court ruling put the government in an awkward position because it is also committed to the regional position of not arresting Bashir.
In Khartoum, Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman El-Obeid Morawah said Kenya's ambassador was still in Khartoum and Sudan's ambassador still in Nairobi. Khartoum would make its final decision about the expulsion after the meeting between the Kenyan foreign minister and Bashir, he said.
“We slowed down our process until (then). Our final decision will be taken after this meeting.”
Nairobi and Khartoum have solid business ties - Kenya imports sugar from Sudan, which buys tea from Kenya.
But most at stake if Nairobi were to let the court order stand it is their important political relationship in the east Africa regional bloc IGAD. Kenya also provided considerable help in mediating an end to north-south civil war in Sudan. - Reuters
-
6:35
»
Kim Media
"As support for legal gay marriage has grown, along with the body of research that shows same-sex parents to be just as committed, so, too, has the acceptance of gay parenthood," says Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, in NYC. There's a growing number of same-sex parents in America today: between 1.5 million and 5 million, according to rough U.S. Census estimates, up from 300,000 to 500,000 in 1976. Children with same-sex parents should be prepared for questions from strangers and classmates. Some people may question the validity of their family. For example, "Why don't you have amommy?" may be answered with "Because I have two daddies." It helps that the definition of family is growing, and all families are different. CNN says, "There was a time when gay parents and single adoptive mothers were unheard of, but the new norm is that almost anything works well as long as there's a dedicated adult and plenty of love."
[via CNN.com]
-
6:32
»
Kim Media
Identity is something most people take for granted, with tales of family history, vocations and belief systems typically passed from one generation to the next as naturally as heirlooms and old photographs.
But for Sag Harbor filmmaker Kenny Mann, the issue of identity is a bit more complicated.
Mann grew up in Kenya, the daughter of European Jewish immigrants who left home and family in the late 1930s to escape Hitler’s advances. In their newly adopted country on an unknown continent, Mann’s parents were neither particularly religious nor candid about what they had left behind. Instead, they forged a new life in Africa in an era of growing independence and forward thinking ideals formed just as the British colonial system was nearing its end.
“We were Jewish but very secular,” explains Mann. “More than anything my parents were socialists. That fits well in to the African paradigm. They arrived and looked like they belonged there.”
While the freedom of growing up in Africa was exhilarating, for Mann, it was also confusing and questions about her murky past have haunted her for years.
“We don’t have relatives — not the usual aunts and uncles and cousins — and I grew up in a vacuum,” says Mann. “My parents didn’t want to talk because they suffered and there was still anti-Semitism when they arrived in Kenya.”
The issue of identity is one that Mann tackles head on in “Beautiful Tree, Severed Root,” her new documentary-in-progress. Mann has edited 40 minutes of what will ultimately be an hour and a half feature and on Sunday, she offers a sneak preview of the film at Bay Street Theatre as a fundraising event to raise money for the film’s completion.
Through the use of photographs, archival footage, personal correspondence and recorded conversations made prior to her parents’ deaths, Mann has pieced together a narrative of her family’s past. Though the subject matter of the film extremely personal, Mann feels the message it offers about identity will be appreciated by a wider audience in these days of displacement and mobility.
“The film is really a tapestry of sound and image,” she explains. “It’s structured in five chapters, like a book. There’s a beginning, a middle and an end, but it moves through time in different ways.”
“I struggled for a long time to decide what the story was,” adds Mann. “To have it be just a memoir is not meaningful. The struggle has been to give the film a more universal umbrella, especially today when people are displaced for political and environmental reasons. How do we deal with that? Is personal identity important any more? Do we need it or is digital communication breaking down personal, political and national identity?”
Mann explains that her own family’s story began with her parents’ arrival in Africa just prior to the start of World War II. Mann’s mother, Erica, grew up in Bucharest, Romania while her father, Igor, came from Przemsyl, a small town in Poland.
“When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, my father walked barefoot out of the country with a stream of refugees,” explains Mann.
Igor arrived in Bucharest where he met Erica and the two fell in love.
“He was 32, she was 22,” notes Mann who adds that her father, a veterinarian, opened a clinic in Bucharest with plans to settle there.
“At the time they thought Bucharest would be safe,” says Mann. “He had many clients who brought their dogs and cats to him. One was an ambassador who warned him they had to get out.”
After securing false documents, the couple managed to flee Romania by crossing the Danube in a small fishing boat.
“A Jewish friend had given my mother a small suitcase with silver cutlery to get it out of the country,” says Mann. “The fisherwoman would not row them over to the other side of the river until my mom explained the use of every utensil in the case.”
Mann’s parents became part of a trail of European refugees heading toward Istanbul and on to Israel, where they lived in a refugee camp for a year until they could find a permanent home. Because he was educated, Mann’s father was an asset to the British colonies and he first secured a position in a remote part of Rhodesia. He then managed to find work in Kenya, and eventually became a meat inspector in Nairobi.
“Our house was in the center of town when I was growing up, and it was like a salon, very intellectual,” says Mann.
And although they had been largely accepted in their new country, Mann recalls that her parents did not exactly blend in seamlessly with either the British colonials (who were still anti-Semitic) or native Kenyans (who were only invited to socialize with her parents if they were educated).
Kenyan independence, which came when Mann was 17, compounded her feelings of isolation. Though Mann’s family supported it, life changed drastically when independence arrived and all of Mann’s friends left for England, South Africa or Australia leaving her with more questions about where she fit in.
That, ultimately, is what “Beautiful Tree, Severed Roots” is all about.
“The film addresses the eternal question – how do you find yourself?” says Mann. “It’s about identity. Being white in black country, Eastern European in a British colony, Jewish but not Jewish.”
“I realized that even though there’s a huge vacuum in my life, I enjoy a huge freedom,” she adds. “I can be whoever I want to be.”
The fundraiser for “Beautiful Tree, Severed Roots” is Sunday, December 4, 2011 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor. Doors open at 1:15 p.m. Mann has invited Maasai dancers from the Association of Maasai Abroad based in Washington, D.C. to perform and take part in a conversation on identity after the film. A reception follows in the lobby. Tickets are $20 at the door. For more information, call (646) 479-5884.
Top: Kenny Mann (center, in overalls), with her sister, brother, and Maasai neighbors.
-
-
2:09
»
Kim Media
One of the perks of living in a developing country on an international salary is that you have staff at home. What would be unaffordable back home is within reach. It takes time to get used to the invasion of privacy, but you end up living a comfortable, if public, life. Few things go beyond the notice of the full-time, live-in nannies and housekeepers. The trade-off is worth it. Houses are spotless, gardens are large and tended, children are happy. The Rolls Royce standard, my dad said.
Hiring people informally is not without its responsibilities. While the concept of a living wage has yet to reach Kenya, expatriates from Europe cannot say we haven't heard of it. What does it mean in the Kenyan context? How far are you prepared to take it? How many lives can you become responsible for? Most people with jobs are depended on by a brood of children, adoptees, siblings, parents and grandchildren.
What is living in a city where poverty is absolute? Is residing in a tin-roofed shack with no running water and electricity living? Is being forced to defecate in a plastic bag living? Is spending over 50% of your income on food living? Most of the hired help flocks from filthy slums to work in our posh houses.
Those who live with us, in the staff quarters in the garden, keep their families up-country, or in the same slums. Jobs in expat homes are sought after, providing free accommodation, a better income than many, and often school fees and other perks. Paying double and triple what many (wealthy) Kenyans might offer, you might begin to feel pretty good. Yet the difficult questions don't go away. Should people be content with the material basics? A tin roof, dark evenings, shared latrines, "clinics" full of counterfeit drugs and the "free" education that has 60 tattered kids per ramshackle classroom.
With time you can't ignore the brutal truths. Your long-serving, lovelyayah (nanny) couldn't afford decent schools. Her husband died of a preventable disease. Her children grew up without her and have no expectations. Her nephew's polio meant he missed out on school. Had you understood earlier, would you have done something? For the first couple of years here, I didn't even know what questions to ask. Now I feel ashamed, but how could I have known? This level of inequality is another world.
-
2:05
»
Kim Media
MAKADARA MP Mike Mbuvi Sonko’s house in Mombasa was raided yesterday morning by a gang of men who sexually molested a house girl after terrorizing the family and escaping with valuables worth more than Sh200,000. The attack occured at 3am at the family house in Mtopanga. The MP’s sister, Ms Mwajuma Hamisi and other family members were in the house at the time.
The house girl aged 21 years was raped by one of the men, as his other accomplices ransacked the house in search of money and other valuables. Following the incident, two administration police officers were deployed to guard the house as one of the security measures that have been put in place.
Kisauni OCPD Julius Wanjohi said nobody was injured during the incident, but a friend to Mwajuma, who was sleeping with the maid in one of the rooms, had her hands tied with a cloth as the gang whipped her with the blunt side of a panga. The gang which is believed to be of eight men, scaled a perimeter fence of the three bedroomed house and broke the front door before gaining entry.
Said Wanjohi: “We are trying to pursue very crucial leads that will lead to the arrest of the suspects, and soon we shall get hold of them.” Mwajuma said at the time of the incident, she was in the house with five other people including her husband, brother, his wife plus the maid and a friend. “We heard someone screaming and when my husband went to check, a group of five men entered our bedroom and commanded us to continue sleeping, they demanded for money after taking all our phones but we told them we had none,” she said.
Wanjohi said the men were armed with crude weapons and stole gold jewellery, mobile phones, two DVDs, but their efforts to carry a 5 CD changer flopped after they realized they could not move it from the wall unit. “The men took Sh6,000 which was in the house and locked us from outside, after terrorizing us for an hour,” said Mwajuma. Senior police officers visited the scene to establish how the gang managed to get into the secured house.
Meanwhile, a KK security guard was brutally murdered by unknown assailants after he reported on duty at Bamburi area, near the Bamburi Beach Hotel. Wanjohi said the officer reported to work on Sunday morning but when his reliever came, he was nowhere to be seen. “His badly mutilated body was recovered near a forest in Bamburi and he was half naked, it seems the attackers had sodomised him shortly before killing him,” he said.
The police also did not recover a radio call that was in his possession, and ruled out possibilities that it may have been passersby. Said Wanjohi: “This seems to be a well planned and executed arrangement since the officer’s duty was to keep away illegal loggers and those without permits, from felling the trees.”
AllAfrica – All the Time
-
-
11:39
»
Kim Media
There is something wrong with the water in Nigeria. Day by day, stories from the country are ranging from bizarre to enormities of wicked.
Over the weekend, LEADERSHIP reported that two pastors were allegedly lured to patronize prostitutes at a popular brothel at Cable Point, Asaba, the Delta State capital, when they went there to preach to the ladies of easy virtue.
LEADERSHIP learnt that the pastors from a very popular church along Ibusa Road in the state had visited the area to convert and win over the sex workers to their church, but they were themselves seduced by the prostitutes who had sex with them and later burnt their Bibles and clothes.
Sources said the men of God (their names withheld) had resolved in one of their meetings to win many converts, especially the prostitutes who stay in brothels, in order for them to grow their church’s membership.
Cable Point is a notorious stop-over for hoodlums and has the largest number of brothels and casinos in the south-south region.
An eyewitness said that preachers had gained audience with the harlots but after a period of time they were disoriented by the sudden display of breasts and other revealing body parts which reportedly hypnotized the preachers. Their hosts then took them into their rooms where they were said to have performed ‘quickies.’
LEADERSHIP also learnt that fight broke out when the evangelists regained their composure and insisted on not paying the sex workers’ bills, arguing that that was not their original mission. During the scuffle, the ladies reportedly burnt the pastors’ Bibles and clothes.
SOURCE: ALLVOICES.COM
Prostitutes Rape Pastors In Delta, Nigeria
-
4:41
»
Kim Media
MONTREAL - Belinda Bowes, who works at Concordia University's Simone de Beauvoir Institute, returned recently from Kenya and a visit to orphaned baby elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant rehabilitation centre near Nairobi. It was her first trip outside North America, she wrote to Applause, and she scrimped and saved for months to make it.
"The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust rescues orphaned baby elephants," she wrote. "Most are orphaned because of poaching of their mothers for the ivory ... Many of these babies are experiencing posttraumatic stress syndrome. A lot of them are fearful of humans. But the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust turns them around. They rear these babies and, with the help of wild elephants, return them to the wild. It is a truly beautiful story."
Bowes is passionate about the cause of these orphaned babies: her son fostered her first elephant for her last Christmas - anyone can foster a baby for $50 U.S. a year - and she has since fostered 13 more elephants, she wrote.
Before her trip, colleagues and friends donated blankets and sunscreen for the elephants.
"The sunscreen is for the babies' ears, as the mother usually acts as a cover for the babies. As the mothers are dead, the babies need extra help against the strong African sun. As for the blankets, the babies are usually kept warm by their mothers at night. As their mothers have been poached or killed, the babies are again in need of outside help.
"This is a story that really needs to get out there. Poaching of elephants and rhinos is at an all-time high in Africa. It is disastrous. What I have done is minuscule when the whole picture is taken into account," she wrote.
To learn more, go to sheldrickwildlifetrust.org.
AMI-Québec, an organization that helps families cope with the often-devastating impact of mental illness, is holding an open house and a book launch Tuesday for its new cookbook, Food for Every Mood. The cookbook, an initiative of the organization's fundraising committee, is the result of the efforts of volunteers who worked on the project for nearly two years.
Many people contributed recipes, which are clear, easy to follow and interesting, featuring such dishes as fire-roasted salsa and Swiss chard and butternut squash soup, quinoa and black bean salad and miso-crusted cod. A section called Sweet Endings is devoted to desserts, from rocky road brownies to easy biscotti.
The book launch is at the offices of AMI-Québec, 6875 Décarie Blvd., Suite 300, between 3 and 7 p.m. The book costs $40 and proceeds will help support AMI programs.
The event will feature complimentary gift wrapping of books purchased, wine and cheese, a sampling of selected desserts from the cookbook, and an opportunity to learn more about the organization's services and programs.
The book is available at the following locations, in addition to the AMI offices: Ritsi, 4863 Sherbrooke St. W.; Lindaz, 2360 Lucerne Rd., Suite 6; Les Nettoyeurs Astra, 5802 Côte St. Luc Rd.; Annie Young Cosmetiques, 6775 Décarie Blvd.; Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors gift shop, 5700 Westbury Ave. Visit amiquebec.org to learn more about the organization.
Montreal native Jordan Blackhurst ran more than 60 kilometres across the island of Montreal on Nov. 12 to raise money for the Canadian Diabetes Association. He raised more than $4,500 - more than six times his original goal of $750. "The support kept pouring in," he said.
His sister, Samantha, learned in 2004 that she has Type 1 diabetes.
"This year, I dedicated my 32nd birthday to my sister," Blackhurst said. "I remember the difficulties she faced when she was first diagnosed, having to make some major life changes."
The run took him just over 7½ hours; along the way, he was met with support and enthusiasm from family and friends. His father, Barry, and his best friend, David Curleigh, bicycled alongside him.
"I didn't know what to expect when I set up this challenge," said Blackhurst, who planned the route himself.
"Now that I know the kind of support I can get, I'm planning on doing the run again next year - with the goal of getting more people involved and raising more money. I want to do whatever I can to help push the search for a cure."
NOVA West Island raised $10,000 at its Evening of Fine Dining and Conversation, held Oct. 18 at Joe and Debbie Reda's Il Mezzogiorno Restaurant in Kirkland and attended by 90 people. The funds raised will be used for Nova West Island programs, which include inhome palliative care and bereavement counselling, footcare clinics and adult day centres for the frail elderly. There is no charge for any programs.
NOVA West Island is a notfor-profit, volunteer-driven community-based healthcare charity providing care to vulnerable individuals. To learn more about its services, call 514-695-8335 or visit novawi.org.
The Douglas Mental Health University Institute has announced the creation of the Standard Life Centre for Breakthroughs in Teen Depression and Suicide Prevention. Standard Life will invest $1 million in the centre, to be directed by child psychiatrist Johanne Renaud, and its mission will be to improve the access of youth to mental health services and to evaluate the efficacy of different treatments for depression and prevention methods, for depression and suicide among young Canadians.
The centre also will distribute educational materials to anyone who can use them and offer training workshops to health-care providers, community organizations and other partners. Suicide is second only to road accidents as a leading cause of mortality among Canadian teens. Depression, a leading cause of youth suicide, affects about 17 per cent of adolescents.
Judy Martin, president of the board of the Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2011 from the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The Batshaw Centres provide services to children and families in situations of sexual and physical abuse, neglect, serious behaviour problems and delinquency.
A panel of jurors, including Sen. David Angus, chairman of the board of the Mc-Gill University Hospital Centre, Andrew Carter of CJAD and Jean-Pierre Desrosiers, a partner at the law firm Fasken Martineau, recognized Martin for her long-term involvement at Batshaw Centres and for her outstanding support to several other organizations.
applause@ montrealgazette.com
-
1:42
»
Kim Media
Elkanah Odembo, Kenya's ambassador to the United States, is scheduled to participate in a briefing on Somalia to be held in Atlanta Nov. 29.
Mr. Odembo's East African nation borders war-torn Somalia, which is being wracked by a drought and famine made worse by the inability of aid agencies to enter areas controlled by Islamist rebel forces.
Kenya is the site of many refugee camps, including the Dadaab camp where Atlanta-based CARE International works extensively. CARE is hosting the briefing, which is being organized by the young leaders of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta to address the humanitarian crisis in the horn of Africa.
Mr. Odembo visited Atlanta last October to talk about Kenya's new constitution and how it is bringing about a political renaissance in the country.
To register for the briefing, click here.
More on the famine: African Famine Spurs Groups to Action
-
-
0:13
»
Kim Media
Ambassador Elkanah Odembo, the Kenyan Ambassador to the United States, speaks during the launch of Bread for the World Institute's 2012 Hunger Report at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Monday, November 21, 2011.
Seated around him are (left to right): Alan Bjerga, journalist with Bloomberg News; Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World; Dr. Mariana Chilton, associate professor at the Drexel University School of Public Health; and Ken Cook, president and co-founder of the Environmental Working Group.
Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl
-
-
23:41
»
Kim Media
Hundreds of thousands of Kenyans living abroad may be locked out from voting in the 2012 general elections due to the slow implementation of provisions dealing with dual citizenship, a leading Kenyan US based lawyer has said.
Immigration lawyer, Regina Njogu of Washington, DC who has been working closely with the Task Force on Citizenship and Related Provisions now fears if the Task Force does not take “unprecedented” steps to process Kenyans who qualify for dual citizenship immediately, at least 1.5 millions of them may miss out in the historic elections.
Those that will be affected are the ones that lost their Kenyan citizenship when they acquired the citizenship of other countries. Under the new Kenyan constitution, these Kenyans can only regain their Kenyan citizenship by applying to regain it.
Section 14(5) of the constitution and Part III article 10 of the enabling provisions in the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2011 require that those Kenyans that lost their citizenship must apply to regain it and therefore become dual citizens. In this regard, the Task Force on Citizenship and Related provisions, which falls under the ministry of immigration, is tasked with setting the procedures and fees for the application process.
“Because of the way things are going now, especially the slow pace with which the Task Force is moving, it is not known whether the application process will be set early enough to allow all those Kenyans that want to regain their Kenyan citizenship to regain it in time to register to vote”. She said.
Sounding the alarm, Ms Njogu says that continued delay would cause logistical problems since the adjudicating body ‘The Cabinet Secretary’ - a kind of committee charged with the responsibility of processing applications- will be swamped with applications that they will have to adjudicate within a short period. “Given that those applying to regain citizenship are based abroad and the applications will be adjudicated in Kenya, that will obviously contribute to delays in receiving and sending back approvals”. She said
Most of those Kenyans that will be affected are based in the US, Canada and Western Europe, regions where large populations of Kenyans have emigrated to and settled, even acquiring citizenships of their host countries.
This revelation comes at a time when the electoral commission (IELB) team led by its chairman Ahmed Hassan is set visit the US between December, 4-14, 2012 to educate Kenyans on elections law and process. The next step will be voter registration of those eligible to vote across the Diaspora. At the time of voter registration, those that will not have applied to regain their lost Kenyan citizenship or those whose applications will not have been approved will not be able to register as voters.
It is expected that voter registration will begin in the Diaspora in the next few months. “The question therefore becomes whether by that time, those that need to apply to regain their lost Kenyan citizenship in order to be eligible to vote will have done so”. Regina asked. She said time was running out and the sooner the Task Force on Citizenship and Related Provisions sets out the application process the better to avoid last minute rush to apply, thus overwhelming the adjudicating body which may compromise the quality of review of the applications that will have been submitted among other logistical problems.
Kenyans living in the US that the Standard interviewed were indeed leery of the possibility that some of them might be locked out from voting due to the slow pace at which the Task Force seems to be moving. “ If anybody including the government of Kenya tries to disenfranchise me, I’ll sue them in the High Court, the UN and even the ICC. We have fought for these rights so hard for long for anybody to joke around with them”. Said Khalid Rajab of Darby, Pennsylvania.
Regina says she has severally raised this issue with the Task Force on Citizenship and Immigration Provisions, but the Task force has not responded to her. “Its when they suddenly went quite that I realized something was not right. The issue is too weighty to assume they know what they are doing”. She said.
With an estimated population of 3.1 millions most of who are eligible voters, the Diaspora has become a new battlefront for presidential elections. Prosperous, populous and informed, the Diaspora is expected to compete with the majestic Great Rift Valley as key swing regions in 2012 ‘battle royale’.
-
8:37
»
Kim Media
Members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will be in the United States to learn and share views on the issue of Diaspora registration and voting.
They will meet with the International Foundation of Elections Systems (IFES), representatives of embassies of countries whose Diaspora in the U.S. votes, Maryland State Board of Elections, Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
In addition, they will meet with Kenyans in the Diaspora in the following areas: Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Raleigh and Boston.
Draft Program:
|
DATE
|
TIME
|
EVENT
|
|
Sunday
12/4
|
|
Arrival
|
|
Monday 12/5
|
Morning
Afternoon
|
Courtesy call on State Dept, Bureau of African Affairs
Meeting with International Foundation of Elections Systems(IFES)
Meetings with representatives of embassies of countries whose Diaspora in the U.S. votes e.g.
South Africa
South Sudan
Ukraine
Bahrain
Cape Verde
|
|
Tuesday
12/6
|
|
Meeting with the Maryland State Board of Elections (Ross Goldstein)
|
|
Wednesday
12/7
|
2.00 pm
|
Meeting with USAID officials
Meeting with Chair and other officials of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
|
|
Thursday
12/8
|
Morning
Afternoon
|
Travel to Los Angeles, CA
Meeting with California election officials
|
|
Friday
12/9
|
Morning
Evening
|
Meeting with California election officials cont’d
Meeting with Kenyans in Los Angeles area
|
|
Saturday
12/10
|
|
Travel to Dallas, TX
Meet with Kenyans in Dallas, TX
|
|
Sunday
12/11
|
|
Travel to Atlanta, GA
Meet with Kenyan in Atlanta, GA
|
|
Monday 12/12
|
|
Travel to Raleigh, North Carolina
Meet with Kenyans in Raleigh, North Carolina
|
|
Tuesday 12/13
|
|
Travel to Boston
Meeting with Kenyans in Boston/New England area
|
|
Wednesday
12/14
|
|
Travel to Washington DC
Meet with Kenyans in Washington DC
|
|
Thursday
12/15
|
|
Departure
|
Source: KenyaEmbassy.com
-
6:53
»
Kim Media
Several Chinese restaurants in and around Maine were raided last week, reports the Sing Tao Daily, with four of them shut down and the owners indicted on charges of employing a largely undocumented work force and money laundering.
Citing the Bangor Daily News, the Sing Tao noted the establishments were under the ownership of Zhang Operations, itself under the ownership of Massachusetts residents Zi Qian Zhang and his wife Ai Hui Lu. The pair allegedly hired a largely Asian and Latino workforce of undocumented immigrants, paying them between $7-10 per hour, with many working up to 70 hours a week on average.
Other charges included tax violations, falsified income records and failing to document employee payrolls, the Sing Tao reported.
A federal investigation targeting Zhang Operations was launched in 2006 after local law enforcement made an unannounced visit to the Lu residence following repeated complaints from neighbors. Inside were some 18 undocumented immigrants living in the basement, in conditions the report described as “crowded and dirty.”
Three arrests were made in a second search of the property by federal authorities in 2007.
-
3:36
»
Kim Media
Since HB 56 went into effect, Alabama has become increasingly unsafe for immigrants and their families. The Women's Refugee Commission has prepared this list of tips for parents in Alabama to inform them of their rights should they face possible separation from their children.
Please note that this information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The situation in Alabama is changing rapidly and it is always advisable to seek the assistance of an attorney who can help answer any questions you may have. Please make decisions carefully and, if possible, ask someone with legal status to help you.
How to prepare for possible separation:
1) Have a plan. Decide who you want to care for your children in the event you are picked up by immigration and make sure that person is willing and able to take care of your children, possibly for weeks or months.
a) Make sure your chosen caregiver(s) know your preferences about schooling, medical care and whether or not you want your children to join you in your home country in the event you are deported.
b) Because care arrangements can fall through or a caregiver’s situation can change, it is a good idea to identify at least two people, living in two different households, who are willing to care for your children. If you select more than one caregiver make sure they know how to contact each other.
c) It is a good idea to select a caregiver who has legal status in the United States. If the child’s caregiver is picked up by immigration your child may be sent to a shelter or to live with a family that you do not know.
d) It may be a good idea to notify your children’s babysitter or school of your chosen caregiver(s) and make sure they know how to contact your chosen caregiver(s) in the event that you do not come to pick your children up. You do not have to explain that you are undocumented, but you should tell them that your chosen caregiver(s) is authorized to pick up and care for your children. As of today, the part of the law that requires schools to check immigration status is not being enforced. If you do not know whether this part of the law is being enforced, call the Southern Poverty Law Center hotline at 1-800-982-1620 for an update.
e) Make sure your child and your chosen caregiver(s) has information that will help them find you if you are detained. Write down your name and any other names you have used, your date of birth and place of birth. If you have an A# (immigration number) make sure they have this number. If you have family or a place you would go if you are deported, make sure they have this information too.
2) Talk your plan over with your children. Make sure your children know who they will live with if you are picked up by immigration and make sure they are comfortable with the person.
a) If your children are old enough, decide together where they will live in the event you are deported.
3) Memorize contact information for your chosen caregiver(s) and make sure your children do the same. If you are picked up by immigration, you may not be able to make a phone call or access your cell phone to look up this information.
a) Write names and information for how to contact your chosen caregiver(s) down for your children and put it in a place where they can find it, like in their backpack or lunchbox.
4) Collect your children’s important documents. If you are detained and deported, you will not have an opportunity to gather this information before you leave.
a) Apply for a passport for your children if they do not have one.
b) Know where your children’s passport, birth certificate and social security card are, especially if they are U.S. citizens. Make copies for your chosen caregiver(s) and tell them where they can find the originals.
c) Make copies of all school records, medical records and vaccination records for yourself and your chosen caregiver(s).
d) If you have difficulty applying for a passport for your children or are told you are not allowed to do so because you are not a U.S. citizen, call the Southern Poverty Law Center hotline at 1-800-982-1620.
5) Consider a power of attorney. If you are arrested, your chosen caregiver(s) will need to make decisions about your children. A power of attorney is an agreement between you and someone you trust that gives them your permission to make these decisions. A power of attorney will not impact your custody of your children and you can end the agreement at any time. But it will be difficult to give someone your power of attorney if you are detained, so if you want to enter in a power of attorney agreement you should do so now.
a) Only appoint a trusted adult. It is best if this person has legal status.
b) A power of attorney should be notarized. If this is not possible, an informal agreement may be helpful as long as it is signed by you and the person to whom you are giving your power of attorney.
c) If a social welfare agency, school, hospital or court refuses to recognize a power of attorney contact the Southern Poverty Law Center hotline at 1-800-982-1620.
What to do if you are detained:
1) Tell police and immigration officials that you have children and ask to be considered for discretion and release. You may need to ask repeatedly.
2) Contact your children’s caregiver(s) and tell them where you are being held.
3) Stay in touch with your children and their caregiver(s) if you are detained. Phone calls from detention may be very expensive but it is important that you stay in touch. Your family and your children’s caregiver should call the phone company and ask them to make sure they can receive collect calls from a prison.
4) If you expect you will be deported tell your deportation officer if you want to take your children with you. Immigration officials generally will not let your children travel with you, but if they know your wishes they may be willing to help.
5) Contact your consulate and ask them to help you take your children with you. Contact information for your consulate should be posted in the detention center. If you do not know how to find this information ask the guards or your deportation officer.
6) If your children are placed into the custody of the child welfare system or in foster care, your rights as a parent may be challenged. If you receive a letter from the Alabama Department of Human Resources or Alabama Child Protective Services it is VERY important that you communicate with that office IMMEDIATELY. Make sure you:
a) Tell them where you are being detained in ICE custody. If you are transferred, you must tell them because they will not know where you have been taken.
b) Tell them if you want to take your children with you if you are deported.
c) Stay in touch with your children’s caseworker and try your best to follow any steps they tell you to take.
d) If you receive a letter from a court, tell your deportation officer right away and ask to be taken to your court date or to participate by video.
e) Do as much of this in writing as possible and keep copies.
f) Maintain as much contact with your children as possible – through phone calls and letters – and keep copies of anything you send or receive (handwritten if necessary).
For more information, call the Southern Poverty Law Center hotline at 1-800-982-1620.
-
-
1:19
»
Kim Media
The shocking events that unfolded at Penn State last week are a stark reminder of the sludge that rises to the surface when a sexual abuse scandal is uncovered. Victims often fail to speak out — perhaps out of embarrassment, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of the sheer fact that no one will take them seriously.
Accused perpetrators hide their behavior. If discovered they deny, minimize and often blame the victim.
If an intermediary institution, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, the military or even a university, connects the abuser to the abused, many forms of misdirection emerge: silence, tunnel vision, cover-ups, lies, disingenuousness, a bad memory, changing the subject, plausible deniability and on and on.
At least the sordid details of the Penn State case were revealed and the institution finally moved to act.
What happens when sexual abuse is discovered and the institutional facilitators are identified and hardly anyone notices or cares — let alone does anything about it?
About three weeks before the Penn State scandal broke, two sources reported the prevalence of sexual abuse suffered by the undocumented, most of whom are Hispanic, confined to detention centers. An ACLU report counted nearly 200 formal complaints of sexual abuse between 2007 and 2010 lodged by immigrants housed in these facilities.
At the same time, PBS aired Frontline’s “Lost in Detention,” a film that documents the plight of some 350,000 immigrants detained each year. The cameras focused on the privately-run Willacy Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas.
One woman was detained for bouncing a $230 check a decade prior. When interviewed, she recounted in harrowing detail the unwanted groping and sexual battery she endured at the hands of a guard. Rather than subject herself to more degradation, she asked to be deported, leaving behind her four young children who are U.S. citizens.
In conducting a survey at Willacy, a mental health coordinator heard from an HIV-positive male detainee who stated that he was raped repeatedly by another male inmate. The guard simply looked away. A non-English-speaking female told her in wrenching terms about a guard who was “touching her in places that she didn’t want to be touched.”
The ACLU reported on the sexual abuse complaints raised by two Hispanic women detained at the privately-operated T. Don Hutto Center in Taylor, Texas.
One who fled a Central American country fearing political persecution was detained attempting to cross into the United States. An immigration official ruled she was eligible to seek political asylum. On her way to the airport, the driver, a Hutto guard, “started touching me all over. He pulled up my bra, fondled my breasts and put his hand down my pants. He was touching himself.”
The other is a woman who left South America to escape an extremely abusive husband. She was detained crossing the Rio Grande River. Again an immigration officer decided she could seek asylum. On the way to the airport, the same driver “lifted my shirt and began touching my breasts and grabbing between my legs.”
Sexual abuse in detention centers is certainly more pervasive than that reported by the ACLU. Detainees live in isolation and are very vulnerable. They are understandably reluctant to turn in those who guard them, and unlike the Penn State situation where police authorities eventually intervened and blew the case wide open, they have preciously few intermediaries working on their behalf.
As at Penn State, federal officials knew at least something about the charges of sexual abuse in detention facilities. Indeed, the ACLU gained its information from the Department of Homeland Security after prying it out with a freedom of information request.
Once the Penn State allegations became public, howls of indignation filled the air. Not so in response to the detainee findings. Major broadcast and print media were eerily silent.
Key executive branch officials were less than forthcoming. When Cecilia Muñoz, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, was asked by Frontline about the reports of sexual abuse, she redirected the question to discuss recent attempts by Homeland Security to improve conditions in the detention facilities and the need “to fix a broken system.”
President Obama, speaking about Penn State through his press secretary, said, "If the allegations of what happened up there prove true, what happened is outrageous," He has said nothing about the sexual abuse charges in his administration’s U.S.-based detention centers.
Jim Lamare is an editor with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. Email him at jwlamare@gmail.com.
-
0:48
»
Kim Media
An Israeli long-range Heron drone which is being used in the Horn of Africa
At least 17 people have been killed after Israeli assassination drones launched aerial attacks in southern Somalia near the border with Kenya, Press TV reported.
Somali military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Press TV that the remote-controlled aerial vehicles fired several missiles at the town of Kuda along the coast from Kismayo, a strategically important port city on Somalia's Indian Ocean coast located some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, on Thursday morning.
They added that more than 60 others were also injured in the strikes.
Israel has reportedly deployed five unmanned aerial vehicles in a Kenyan military base near the border with neighboring Somalia, and has also passed a considerable amount of heavy weapons to Kenya. The Israeli regime has even sent thirteen trainers to Kenya to provide the Kenyan army with technical training or assistance related to Nairobi's military operations in war-torn Somalia.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga recently requested Tel Aviv's assistance in carrying out intensified offensives inside Somalia.
Israeli President Shimon Peres, in response to the request, has vowed to aid Kenya with whatever it needs in its fight against al-Shabab fighters.
Hundreds of families have been fleeing towns in southern Somalia in the wake of Kenyan military's aerial strikes.
Residents in Kismayo as well as in Buale, Jilib, and Afmadow towns have been leaving their homes over the past weeks for fear of their lives.
Last month, Kenya dispatched soldiers over its border into Somalia to pursue al-Shabab militants, which it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners on its territory. Al-Shabab has denied involvement.
Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has said his UN-backed transitional government was opposed to the military incursion, which is reportedly being contributed to by the US and France.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Kenyan soldier dies in landmine blast
Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:21PM GMT
presstv.ir
A Kenyan soldier has been killed and eleven others injured after their military truck struck a landmine in a town on the country's border with neighboring Somalia, Press TV reported.
Kenya's Military Spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir told Press TV that the attack took place in the town of Mandera, which is located 807 kilometers (502 miles) north of the capital Nairobi, on Thursday.
Chirchir said five seriously injured soldiers were airlifted to the nearby city of Garissa for treatment but one died of his injuries.
Locals said that Kenyan military forces arrested more than 170 people living nearby, and beat scores of civilians in the aftermath of the incident.
The landmine explosion in the northern Kenyan town of Mandera is the sixth in a series of roadside bombs and grenade attacks targeting Kenyan troops.
Last month, Kenya dispatched soldiers over its border into Somalia to pursue al-Shabab militants, which it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners on its territory. Al-Shabab has denied involvement.
Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has said his UN-backed transitional government was opposed to the military incursion, which is reportedly being contributed to by the US and France.
-
-
23:44
»
Kim Media
Kazibwe inside his greenhouse
I am practising greenhouse farming and I do not regret taking it up. With each passing day, I realise that this type of farming is the way to go for Ugandan farmers if they are to benefit from farming.
My experience shows that greenhouse farming is as easy as ABC. All one needs is putting a few right things in place.
I have three greenhouses of 15x8 metres wide in which I am growing tomatoes at my home in Nansana. I set them up as a ‘backyard farming’ project, but the proceeds far exceed those of most full-time large-scale commercial farmers.
I got inspired to get into green house farming when I visited Kenya a few years ago. I found out that many Kenyans in Naivasha and Nakuru were earning big from small, but intensively used spaces at the back of their houses. Most city dwellers in Kampala have got even larger space, which is unfortunately not utilised.
You can grow any vegetable in a green house, including tomatoes, which I have now, cabbages, eggplants, onions, sukuma wiki etc.
Advantages
Little space needed
You need as little space as the one in your backyard. I put two of the green houses in the compound of my fenced-off house. This space is normally left idle in many homes.
Controls pests, diseases
Greenhouse farming curbs most pests and diseases.
It is difficult for pests to invade greenhouses because scientifically, most pests move with either water or direct sunshine, but since the structure does not receive any of this directly, pests are kept at bay.
My own experience shows that although I planted the tomatoes 10 weeks ago, they have not been affected by disease.
High production rate
Your crops can yield 100 times more than those grown under open or ‘normal’ conditions. While tomatoes grown in the open yield 40 tomatoes, green house tomatoes can yield up to 200 tomatoes of an average 120g.
Yields anytime
Since crops grown in green houses depend on irrigated water, you can harvest the commodity at any time of the year. In other words, you can turn it into a full-time job.
Hygiene
Crops grown in green houses are much cleaner compared to those grown in the open that have scratches, hence lowering their market value.
Multiple harvest times
Tomatoes grown in greenhouses can be harvested three times longer. For instance, I will harvest tomatoes for the next 10 months.
Farm anywhere
You can farm anywhere because their growth does not depend on the surrounding environment.
What you need
Use local materials, especially for the basic role of holding the special polythene sheeting together.
I use eucalyptus poles to construct the main frame, on which I have covered the special polythene setting.
In simple terms, a 15x8 metre shelter costs not more than sh3m, including labour and an irrigation system.
However, the cost may increase to at least sh3.5m if you include the seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. On the other hand, a fabricated shelter costs at least sh6.5m. Also, look out for seeds specifically created for green houses.
It is cost-effective
People generally think greenhouse farming is too expensive. However, what actually seems expensive is the initial investment in buying the materials for the structure.
However, these expenses are easily offset by the high yields that a farmer makes from the investment.
For example, in 10 months, a farmer will averagely harvest 10 tonnes of tomatoes from a 15x8 piece of land. At the current price, a kilogram goes for sh2,000 in most super markets across the city, giving the farmer sh21.6m.
If the initial investment was sh3.5m including the drip irrigation system, with his yield, a farmer has recovered the investment in just one harvest and got abnormal profits. The materials that make the shelter have a lifespan of at least three years. For instance, by the time I examine my shelter, I will have made over sh63m. It sounds like a dream, but in countries were green house farming is heavily practised, it is a reality.
The writer is the director of Nsanja Agrochemicals Ltd.
0772443704
Send your questions to harvestingmoney@newvision.co.ug
-
0:34
»
Kim Media
MOGADISHU - Fighter jets killed three civilians Tuesday in strikes on rebel-held areas of southern Somalia as regional armies pushed forward against the Islamist Shebab insurgents, witnesses said.
"Two military jets bombed Yaqle village, which lies between El Wak and Dhamase, three civilians were killed and several others injured," said Moalim Abdulahi Mumin, an elder in El Wak, a town on the Kenya-Somalia border.
"The aircraft fired several bombs, and two of them hit near a shallow well where nomads were drawing water for their livestock.... Most of the casualties are civilians," Mumin told AFP by telephone.
Adan Ahmed, a local resident, said he heard several heavy explosions soon after seeing low flying military jets in the area.
"The explosions were very heavy, I heard about six explosions near Yaqle village, the military jets were flying over the area this morning for several minutes before firing the missiles," he said.
Sheikh Ibrahim Mohamed, regional commander of the extremist Shebab insurgents, confirmed the airstrikes.
"We are hearing the enemy military planes fired missiles at civilians, but I have no details at the moment," he said.
Kenya sent troops and tanks into southern Somalia last month after accusing the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents of attacks and kidnappings on its territory, and earlier this week said its fighter jets had hit militia bases.
Hardline Shebab insurgents control much of southern Somalia, but are also battling the Western-backed government in Mogadishu, while convoys of Ethiopian troops crossed into central and southern regions over the weekend.
Kenyan army spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir was not immediately available for comment, but messages posted to his Twitter account Tuesday boasted that Kenya was confident of defeating the extremist militia.
"Victory is on the horizon," the Chirchir message read. "The outfit (the Shebab) won't exist as a force. We will diminish its effectiveness and pass them to history."
At the weekend, Somali villagers reported seeing Ethiopian troops cross into the war-torn country. Addis Ababa has however denied that it deployed forces to the neighbouring state.
Ethiopia pulled out its soldiers from Somalia in 2009 after a three-year invasion that defeated an Islamist movement, but the group's military wing, the Shebab, regrouped to battle the troops and have waged a bloody war since.
Somalia's neighbours have recently renewed efforts to restore stability there after two decades of chaos, with Nairobi last week saying it was willing to deploy troops for the African Union force protecting the Somali government.
Ugandan and Burundian soldiers making up the 9,700-strong AU force have been battling the Shebab in the capital Mogadishu since deploying in 2007.
Ethiopia on Monday said the decision on whether it will send troops to Somalia will be taken Friday at a heads of state meeting in Addis Ababa of the regional body, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
© Copyright (c) AFP
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/strikes+kill+three+southern+Somalia/5749129/story.html#ixzz1eRseate5
-
0:26
»
Kim Media
A Somali government spokesman on Monday denied that Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia to help fight insurgents despite several witnesses reporting the movement of troops.
Abdirahman Omar Osman said Ethiopian troops would only be welcome if they had an international mandate or a bilateral agreement with the Somali government, but there is currently no such agreement.
“We believe that they are not in the country,” he said “We deny it.”
But residents of the Somali town of Guriel, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the border, said Ethiopians entered their town on Sunday in a convoy of vehicles.
The presence of Ethiopia is a delicate matter for the Somali government, which needs all the help it can get to defeat the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab militia.
The Ethiopians could open a third front, stretching the insurgency still further. But the government fears that the incursion by Ethiopia — a Christian-led nation — may hand the insurgents a propaganda victory. Many Somalis were angered by Ethiopia’s previous occupation of Somalia.
“We don’t want anyone that could give propaganda for Al-Shabab,” said Osman. “We don’t want any backlash.”
The government currently only holds the capital with the help of more than 9,000 African Union peacekeepers. Kenyan troops in the south are slowly pushing the insurgents north with the help of government-allied Somali militias but are considered less battle-hardened than the Ethiopian military, which occupied much of Somalia for two years.
Ethiopia, which shares a long and porous border with Somalia, entered Somalia in 2006 to chase the Islamic Courts Union from power. The Ethiopians were concerned that the Islamists wanted to expand into Ethiopian territory that is ethnically Somali and the US, a strong ally of Ethiopia, was concerned the Islamists were harboring terrorists.
The Ethiopian invasion turned into a two-year occupation during which civilians accused the Ethiopian forces of shelling residential neighborhoods and shooting uncontrollably when attacked. The current Somali president, President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, made his name as an insurgent leader fighting the Ethiopians before they withdrew.
The Ethiopians left in 2009 as part of a peace deal that saw Ahmed inaugurated.
Somalia has not had a functioning government for more than 20 years.
-
0:23
»
Kim Media
Eritrea has complained to the U.N. Security Council about Kenyan allegations that it sent weapons to Islamist rebels in Somalia, calling for an independent investigation to judge the dispute.
Foreign Minister Osman Saleh said in a letter to the Council that Eritrea was confident an investigation would find Nairobi's "defamatory" accusations to be baseless, and urged the United Nations to take action againstKenya in the dispute.
Nairobi has accused Eritrea of flying in weapons for al Shabaab, an insurgent group liked to al Qaeda which has been fighting the Western-backed Somali government since 2007, and which is now also battling Kenyan forces.
"If, as Eritrea confidently believes, the investigation determines that there is no basis whatsoever to the very serious and harmful accusations by the government of Kenya, Eritrea calls on the Security Council to take action that would redress the injustice suffered by the people and government of Eritrea," Saleh wrote in the letter, seen by Reuters.
"Defamation of a member state of the United Nations should not be indulged in with impunity and must not be tolerated, given its negative implications for regional peace and security," he said in the letter, dated November 16.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia, its anarchic neighbour, last month to rout the insurgents which it blames for kidnappings of Western aid workers and tourists on Kenyan soil, and frequent cross-border incursions.
Nairobi says it has credible information that consignments of arms were flown to the Somali town of Baidoa from Eritrea. Kenyan officials have said that Eritrean denials are not enough, and that it should go further and denounce al Shabaab.
Saleh's letter to Jose Filipe Cabral, the Security Council's rotating president for November, gave no details on who might conduct the investigation, nor did it say what action Eritrea wanted.
However, Eritrea's envoy to the African Union said the Kenyan allegations should be publicly dismissed as a first step.
"It is up to the U.N. Security Council to take whatever action it feels appropriate and necessary to rectify such baseless allegations and defamation of a member state," envoy Girma Asmerom told Reuters.
"However, as a starter, I strongly feel that the U.N. Security Council should urge the government of Kenya to publicly rescind its baseless accusation against Eritrea," he said.
"FRENZIED CAMPAIGN"
Kenyan officials have said the weapons consisted of shoulder-fired rockets, grenades and small arms munitions, and that they have been moved to areas in southern and central Somalia.
Slapped with an arms embargo, assets freeze and a travel ban for some of its officials in 2009, Eritrea faces another round of measures over charges it was aiding militants fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed Mogadishu government.
Asmara accuses Ethiopia of being behind the claims through a "frenzied campaign" to isolate and weaken its government. The neighbours fought a two-year war over disputed territory a decade ago but the frontier spat has yet to be resolved.
Scores of Ethiopian military vehicles carrying soldiers have
been spotted by residents in Somalia's frontier towns in what could be a joint attempt to flush out al Shabaab.
Ethiopian officials, however, say they have yet to decide on deploying troops, though they are committed to a regional initiative to stabilise the lawless Horn of Africa country.
-
-
22:49
»
Kim Media
Kenya is deciding whether to send thousands more troops into Somalia this time to join African Union forces that are propping up a transitional government in Mogadishu.
Kenya already has a few thousand troops in the lawless country, trying to pursue a militant Islamist group called al-Shabab. That month-old incursion caught the United States and others off guard and has raised alarms among aid groups.
"We surprised ourselves," says Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations, Macharia Kamau. "We have never in our history engaged in any kind of foreign adventure of a military sort. But I think what it is, is that matters did come to a head."
Tens of thousands of Somalis had been pouring into Kenya fleeing famine and instability at home. And the al-Shabab militia, which controls much of south-central Somalia, has carried out repeated terrorist attacks and kidnappings inside Kenya.
"When you are dealing with a violent group of murderous individuals, you have to come to a point where you make a decision: Do you continue to allow the slow bleed to happen, so that the country becomes completely anemic and unable to function, or do you, after 25 years of living next to a failed state, make a decision that you can no longer afford to tolerate the situation?"
Though critics see Kenya's military actions as misguided and uncoordinated, Kamau says Kenya is working with Somalia's transitional government to secure Kenya's borders and go after the al-Shabab militia. The ambassador came to Washington this week to seek U.S. help.
"We would love to have the United States engage, provide the logistics support, intelligence, maybe even in combat form," he says. "They don't need to put troops on the ground, no boots on the ground we can do that. But we are also looking for other countries Ethiopia, Djibouti to step up their game so that they are able to help us secure the peace in Somalia. This is about saving Somalia. It's not about just the pursuit of Kenya's objectives."
Pentagon officials say the U.S. is monitoring the Kenyan incursion, but not providing assistance. The State Department is advising caution, says Donald Yamamoto, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa.
"You don't know what the consequences are going to be," he says. "Look at the Ethiopian incursion into Somalia, look at our own personal history. It's fraught with a lot of problems and dangers. The Somalis just do not like foreigners in their area."
Yamamoto says Kenya's motivations were understandable, but the U.S. has tried to keep focused on beefing up the African Union forces, supporting a transitional government and reaching out to major clans.
"The overall issue and solution to the Somalia problem is going to have to be a regional, concerted approach, [an] international approach, but also ultimately the Somalis themselves will have to resolve this," Yamamoto says.
One British diplomat told NPR that countries ought to help Kenya come up with an exit strategy. There are fears that its incursion could make it harder for aid workers to reach famine victims.
The Africa director of the United Nations' refugee agency, George Okoth-Obbo, points to one ominous sign: The flow of refugees into Kenya has fallen drastically perhaps because Somalis are trapped by the fighting.
"When the military operation started on the 16th of October, up to that period we were having on average something like 1,000 new arrivals every day from Somalia," he says. "Sometimes there would be fewer; sometimes there would be a bit more. Since that time, we have not had any new arrivals. The numbers have gone down practically to zero."
Okoth-Obbo says Kenyans are doing more to provide security at a massive refugee camp but aid groups have had to scale back their work after a kidnapping there last month.
-
-
6:45
»
Kim Media
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) — Police did not have the right to stop a car being driven by President Barack Obama's uncle before his drunken-driving arrest, his lawyer said in court Thursday.
Attorney P. Scott Bratton said during a brief appearance in Framingham District Court that he plans next month to file a motion to suppress the traffic stop that led Onyango Obama's arrest in August.
"He wasn't committing any motor vehicle violations at the time. That's our position," Bratton said.
Obama, the 67-year-old half brother of the president's late father, has pleaded not guilty to charges of operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to yield the right of way.
Obama did not speak in court Thursday. A hearing on his lawyer's suppression request is scheduled for Jan. 12.
Obama was arrested in Framingham, about 20 miles west of Boston, after police said he rolled through a stop sign and nearly caused a cruiser to strike his SUV. Police said Obama, an illegal immigrant, failed several sobriety tests and blew a reading of 0.14 percent on a blood-alcohol breath test, above the state's legal driving limit of 0.08 percent.
After being booked at the police station, police said Obama was asked whether he wanted to make a telephone call to arrange for bail.
"I think I will call the White House," he stated, according to a police report.
Obama initially was held without bail on a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on allegations he violated an order to return to Kenya 20 years ago. He was subsequently released and ordered to regularly check in with immigration officials.
In the book "Dreams from My Father," the president writes about retracing his roots and his 1988 trip to Kenya. In that section, he refers to an Uncle Omar, who matches Obama's background and has the same date of birth.
The White House has said it expects the arrest of Onyango Obama to be handled like any other case.
Read more:
http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Obama-s-uncle-makes-court-appearance-in-Mass-2274032.php#ixzz1e608iNHv
-
-
6:11
»
Kim Media
These ten businessmen didn’t make the cut for our inaugural list of the 40 Richest Africans, but some of them may be strong contenders for future membership. Each of them is incredibly wealthy in their own right.
Naushad Merali
Nationality: Kenyan
Source: Sameer Group
The Asian-Kenyan tycoon is one of East Africa’s most venerable dealmakers. In 2000, along with French Media giant Vivendi, he launched Kencell, a Kenyan mobile phone service provider. In one of Kenya’s most fabled boardroom coups, in 2004 he convinced Vivendi to sell him its 60% stake in the company for $230 million. An hour later, he flipped it to Celtel for $250 million- earning a quick $20 million profit. He now owns a 5% stake in Bharti Airtel‘s Kenyan wireless phone operations but spends most of his time steering the affairs of the eponymous Sameer Group, a 15-company Kenyan conglomerate with activities in financial services, construction, agriculture, energy and power and information technology. Three of his companies are listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
Phuthuma Nhleko
Nationality: South African
Source: MTN, Worldwide Africa Investment Holdings
Earlier this year Nhleko stepped down as Group Chief Executive of MTN, Africa’s largest telecoms company. But he still serves as non-executive chairman of MTN International, and remains one of the company’s largest individual shareholders. (His 3.3 million shares were recently worth roughly $58 million.) He now devotes his time towards managing Worldwide African Investment Holdings (WAIH), a South African Investment firm he founded in 1994. WAIH owns substantial interests in mining, oil exploration and ICT. Currently sits on the board of BP and mining giant Anglo American.
Manu Chandaria
Nationality: Kenyan
Source: Comcraft Group
The Kenyan industrialist is the chairman of Comcraft group, a $2.5 billion industrial conglomerate his father founded over 80 years ago. The group produces steel, plastics, and aluminum products from its manufacturing facilities in 16 African countries and employs a workforce of over 40,000 people in 45 countries on five continents. The reputable philanthropist has given millions to education and health causes in Kenya. Recently, he funded the creation of the Chandaria Business Innovation and Incubation Center at Kenyatta University to provide seed funding and mentorship to student entrepreneurs at the institution. The shareholding of the Comcraft group is believed to be spread through dozens of family members, which is why Manu Chandaria did not make our list this year and is unlikely to do so in the future.
Tokyo Sexwale
Nationality: South African
Source: Mvelaphanda Group
South Africa’s Minister of Human Settlements is the founder and major shareholder of Mvelaphanda Group, a listed Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Investment firm with significant interests in blue chips like media giant Avusa, Absa Group, Group Five and Life Healthcare. In 2005 Sexwale hosted the South African version of the reality game show, The Apprentice.
Harold Pupkewitz
Nationality: Namibian
Source: Pupkewitz Holdings
The 96 year-old Namibian mogul parlayed a small family trading business into Pupkewitz Holdings, one of Namibia’s largest privately held conglomerates. Pupkewitz Motors, a subsidiary of the group is the largest dealer of Toyota, Nissan, Honda cars in the country. The group also has extensive interests in real estate and irrigation services. The group is also the largest distributor of Nokia, Samsung and Apple products in the country. A dedicated philanthropist, he solely funded the creation of the Harold Pupkewitz School of Business at the Polytechnic of Namibia.
Isabel Dos Santos
Nationality: Angolan
Source: Kento Holding
Isabel Dos Santos is the eldest daughter of Angola’s current president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos. She is a very successful businesswoman in her own right, and one of the continent’s wealthiest women (Forbes estimates her net worth is $170 million). At the age of 24, she rode on her father’s influence to secure lucrative state contracts from where she made her first millions. She loves to invest in Portugal. Today, her Maltese-registered investment vehicle, Kento Holding holds a 10% stake in Portuguese media giant Zon Multimedia. She acquired the stake last year for a reported 164 million Euros. She is also a shareholder in Portuguese banks Banco Espírito Santo and Banco Português de Investimento, and in electric utility company Energias de Portugal.
Said Salim Bakhresa
Nationality: Tanzanian
Source: Bakhresa Group
The extremely reclusive Tanzanian tycoon famously dropped out of school at the age of 14 to sell potato mix, then opened a small restaurant and then finally delved into grain milling. Today, his Bakhresa group employs over 2,000 people and is Tanzania’s largest conglomerate. The company’s interests include grain milling, confectionaries, frozen foods, beverages and packaging. The group’s Azam brand is the most popular manufacturer of chocolates and ice cream in the region. The $800 million (sales) group is also the largest producer of wheat flour in East Africa. Daily capacity: 2,100 metric tons. Company is managed by his sons.
Gilbert Chagoury
Nationality: Nigerian
Source: Chagoury Group
The Lebanese-Nigerian businessman cum diplomat was a close confidante and business associate to late Nigerian despot, Sani Abacha. He founded the Chagoury Group in 1971 which today is one of the country’s leading industrial conglomerates. The group’s activities include commercial real estate, flour milling, glass manufacturing and tourism. The group owns the landmark Eko Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos. Chagoury is embarking on his most ambitious project so far: Along with the Lagos state government, he is building Eko Atlantic, a new mini-city in Lagos which is being constructed on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. When completed, the new district is expected to accommodate some 400,000 residents.
Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez
Nationality: Nigerian
Source: Petro-Inett
The mysterious and intensely private Nigerian diplomat is a formerly served as the Central African Republic’s ambassador to the United Nations. A close friend to Angola’s president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Fernandez has extensive gold, diamond and oil mining interests in Angola and across Africa held through his company, Petro Inett. Divides his time between lavish homes in France, Scotland and the United States. In 2003, Fernandez’s wife reportedly sued him for close to $400 million in a record divorce fight. Very little was heard about the case afterwards. Last year, he put up one of his properties in New Rochelle for sale for $12 million.
Kase Lawal
Nationality: Nigerian
Source: Camac International Holding
Politician’s son left his native Ibadan-Nigeria to study chemical engineering and business in Texas way back in the 70s. He enjoyed brief stints at oil giants Halliburton and Shell, before branching out in 1986 to found CAMAC, a small commodities trading outfit. In the early 1990s he ventured into energy. Today his $1.5 billion (sales) Camac International is primarily involved in the exploration, production, and trading of crude oil for markets in Africa and Europe. It is one of the largest private companies in America.
Let me know your thoughts on this list. Email me at mnsehe(at)forbes.com. Follow me on Twitter @EmperorDIV
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/11/16/10-african-millionaires-to-watch/4/
-
-
4:22
»
Kim Media
Officials of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) are scheduled to meet Tuesday, to begin drawing constituencies ahead of next year’s general elections.
Commission chairman Ahmed Isaack Hassa, who together with his team was officially installed Monday, vowed to ensure that next year’s vote will be credible, free and fair.
Kenya’s new constitution gives the electoral body until February to create new constituencies, whose boundaries can later be challenged by the public.
“We will first embark on the completion of [drawing] the boundaries, which has been left pending. We are going to consult with the people and publish our report,” said Hassan. “We shall [also] start the voter registration exercise to enable more than 20 million Kenyans to be registered [so they can] take part in the general elections [next year].”
Kenya’s new constitution, Hassan said, allows citizens for the first time an opportunity to vote in the country’s embassies abroad. The previous constitution only allowed Kenyans abroad to “physically” vote in a local polling station when they return home.
Kenya’s 2007-2008 post-election violence left more than 1,300 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands. Observers said the poorly managed vote contributed to the violence.
Some analysts have expressed concern there could be another round of violence if next year’s polls fail to meet a threshold of free fair and credible vote. Hassan underscored the need to ensure future elections meet that standard.
He also said to ensure the public’s confidence in the electoral body, it is critical that officials of the IEBC demonstrate integrity and that the entire election process is trustworthy and acceptable by voters.
Hassan said Kenya’s upcoming polls will make use of information technology.
“We have introduced electronic voter registration, electronic transmission of results and we have actually modernized the way we conduct elections,” said Hassan. “That’s why when we had the referendum last year, there was no [problem]. Nobody had any petition [against it].”
The electoral body has conducted more than 12 parliamentary by-elections and 50 other local ones. Hassan vowed the electoral body will ensure future polls are credible.
“In fact we have seen a situation where losers are actually conceding defeat because of the transparency and accountability we have [implemented],” said Hassan. “I believe the IEBC will build on that progress and make sure the next general elections will be transparent free and fair.”
-
-
1:28
»
Kim Media
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's prime minister is seeking Israel's support in stopping reprisal terror attacks by an al-Qaida-linked militant group Kenyan troops are pursuing in Somalia.
A government statement Monday said Prime Minister Raila Odinga asked Israeli President Shimon Peres for assistance in building the capacity of the Kenyan police to deal with attacks by al-Shabab militants.
Israeli security forces are among the best in the world in dealing with terror threats, but al-Shabab could view Kenya's request as a provocation.
Kenya last month sent hundreds of troops into Somalia to pursue al-Shabab, whom it blames for attacks and kidnappings in Kenya. In response, al-Shabab has threatened to carry out terror attacks in Kenya's capital.
Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/11/14/3572843/kenya-pm-asks-israel-for-help.html#ixzz1dhKQZP3J
-
-
3:53
»
Kim Media
Kenya Diaspora Advisory Council of Georgia (KDAC) has launched a massive campaign to ensure that the Diaspora has a chance to vote in 2012 general elections.
As the election fever picks up in Kenya, the non partisan organization want to make sure that Diaspora is not left out and they also have their chance at the ballot box. According to the organization, Diaspora participation in the 2012 general elections is still murky and they have embarked on clarifications from the Kenya government on the process of putting in place a mechanism for logistics and registration of voters.
Through KDAC initiatives, Ambassador Elkana Odembo has spoken to Mr. Isaac Hassan who is the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on the logistics of Diaspora voting in 2012. In response, the commissioner sighted that it should be possible to have remote elections as it has been done before bySudanand other countries that have large Diaspora communities.
IfKenyagovernment is to follow this model, then the remote election centers would be set up in Diaspora major populated centers where voters would commute to cast their ballots. This would include large cities likeBoston,New York,WashingtonDC,Atlanta,Dallas,Houston,Seattle, Los Angles, Chicago etc.
KEN has learnt that plans are under way for Mr. Hassan and his team to travel to theUnited Statesto meet Kenyans on a fact finding mission as they lay out a plan of how to conduct the remote elections. According to KDAC chair David Karangu “Nothing is guaranteed. If Kenyans do not participate by having large turnouts when the chairman of the IEBC visits and engage the commissioner and his teams by letting them know their intentions, then we could miss out this time round”.
According to the Atlantabased organization, there are few key issues that must be addressed. Among them; the already Kenyans who hold citizenships of other countries, be re-instated quickly with their Kenyan citizenship in order to cast their ballot. Another key issue is in the constitution that leaves a loop hole which could sideline Diaspora in 2012 elections if not dealt with. The provision states that “The progressive registration of citizens residing outside Kenya, and the progressive realization of their right to vote…..”. The problem is that by stating the word ‘progressive’ it does not give a timeline of when this should be done, opening the window of shelving the idea till the next general election.
However many Kenyans in Diaspora are very concerned about the integrity of the elections and how rigging and voter fraud would be managed at a remote election held so far away from the motherland. Some of their concerns are that this would create a great opportunity for ‘cooking of the votes’ like what happened in 2007 and they wondered how this would be prevented. According to suggestions tabled by KDAC, one way of preventing that would be to involve international organizations with experience in monitoring elections like the Jimmy Carter foundation. They would help monitor the polls like they have done in the past for other immigrant communities to ensure free and fair elections.
This campaign comes at the backdrop of the ongoing debate in parliament and relevant bodies of moving the election polls to December from the constitutional mandated August to ensure ample time for logistics.
KDAC is planning to work with all Kenyan organizations based in the United States and Europe to inform and rally their communities behind this campaign in order to have their voices heard.
For more information visit their website http://www.kdacga.org/
-
-
23:35
»
Kim Media
Japanese trading firm Toyota Tsusho Corp said on Monday it and Hyundai Engineering Co of South Korea have received an order worth some 30 billion yen ($383 million) from Kenya Electricity Generating Co to triple geothermal power capacity in Olkaria, 100 km northwest of Nairobi.
They will build a new 140 megawatt plant and expand capacity of another plant to 185 MW from 45 MW in a full turnkey contract, using steam turbine generators from Toshiba Corp, a Toyota Tsusho spokesman said.
Geothermal capacity in the area will rise to a total of 395 MW from 115 MW by April 2014, when commercial operation is expected to start.
Currently, Kenya has power generating capacity of about 1,100 MW, with hydro power accounting for about 44 percent. But lack of water due to droughts has recently decreased operations, prompting moves for an alternative power source.
Kenya has potential to produce 7,000 MW from geothermal power and is targeting production of at least 5,000 MW from it by 2030.
-
-
23:43
»
Kim Media
Kenyan philanthropist Chris Mburu known for his role in the Grammy nominated documentary A Small Act will on November 10 be honoured at the GO GO Gala an annual Hollywood fundraiser.
Each year, GO Campaign presents an honoree with the Giving Opportunity Award at the Gala in recognition of their work for children throughout the developing world. This time round they will be honouring Chris at the gala event to be held at The London Hotel in West Hollywood.
Chris who is now a human rights lawyer and has worked with organisations like Amnesty International, Global Rights, and now the United Nations was the subject of a hit documentary. A Small Act tells of his chronicled search for his benefactor, Hilde Back, whose sponsorship allowed him to remain in school in Kenya.
Chris started a foundation in the name of his benefactor, continuing this chain of paying it forward in a remarkable way. The Hilde Back Education Fund (HBEF) is a Kenyan charitable organisation whose focus is the promotion of access to education as a fundamental human right.
The host for the show will be Hollywood actor Ewan McGregor. The event brings together celebrities, project partners from the field, social activists, supporters and top rate entertainment. Honorary gala committee members include Edward Norton, Lisa Kudrow, Djimon Hounsou among others.
-
-
1:41
»
Kim Media
The next president of the Republic of Kenya will be decided – not by 24 of the 47 counties as the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 provides – but by about three million voters residing outside its borders. This is a very significant point that those aspiring for the presidency of the republic ought to take note of. It’s significant because unlike in Kenya, getting a solid support of this major county won’t be easy for all the aspirants.
One fundamental flaw in the Constitution that nobody has mentioned before is its failure to recognise the Diaspora as the most powerful, influential and unique county; a county with the most sophisticated, ethnically diverse and informed voters. Ironically, it is also greatly divided into myriad ways, closely reflecting the divisions in the country.
Geographically, it traverses all of the four continents, with the highest population concentrations in North American and European cities. But there are also hundreds of thousands in Asia, Australia and New Zealand and the Indian sub-continent.
The Kenyan Diaspora probably has the highest number of university graduates per capita for any Kenyan county. Of the three or so million citizens, more than seventy per cent of them are adults. They trace their origins from all corners of the republic. In a word, the Kenyan Diaspora is as diverse as the country itself. It represents nearly all languages and cultures of Kenya.
Unfortunately, the fault lines and divisions that have kept Kenya fragmented and weak are also apparent in the Diaspora. Reviewing Kenyan blogosphere gets one the impression of an extremely conflicted community. Past attempts to unite the Kenyan Diaspora into one unit hasn’t been very successful, partly due to the huge geographic space, complexities of their respective backgrounds, and both historical and cultural diversities.
Despite their education, sophistication and many years living and working abroad, tribalism and ethnic chauvinism haven’t completely disappeared. In many respects, they have become more pronounced. Some of the worst xenophobic Kenyans are actually based abroad. They propagate their vile hatred through various internet cesspools. They hide under anonymous ‘handles.’
In the United States, for example, Kenyan immigrants settled in unique linguistic pockets. One finds unusual concentration of Kikuyu speakers in Boston; Luos in New York; Kisiis in New Jersey and Minnesota; et cetera. I understand that during soccer matches in certain US cities, it is easy to mistake the rambunctious cheers of Kenyans in their various colourful languages for the City or Nyayo stadiums.
But significant portions of the Kenyan Diaspora have also found unity in diversity. They have overcome ethnic and cultural differences and formed organizations that bring them together; not just during funerals and times of tragedy. They mark and celebrate national holidays and the success of Kenyan athletes, writers, artistes and scholars. In addition, they come together in religious and cultural settings, as well as in weddings and graduation ceremonies.
In North America, for instance, Kenyans routinely have barbecues and invite each other for all manner of reunions. These are not minor events; some of these events attract hundreds of families and are graced by high level political and business leaders. In fact, savvy North American politicians long discovered the immigrant communities as the most reliable place to hunt for votes. Immigrants tend to be single-issue voters. They prefer politicians with a ‘pro-immigration/refugee’ platform to those inclined on restricting them.
This is a hugely complex and diverse constituency; rich in voters but difficult to woo. It doesn’t just require political dexterity; it demands genuine understanding, deliberate and consistent wooing, backed up with solid results. It’s not a constituency one wins over through empty rhetoric and beautiful speeches alone. Nor would it be won over through empty promises.
The typical Kenyan voter has traditionally been swayed by songs, comedy and ethnic solidarity rather than serious policy discourse – with disastrous consequences. But not the Kenyan Diaspora. Although nearly a third would rally around ethnicity and other primordial cleavages – the overwhelming majority seems more attuned to concrete policy issues. The Diaspora has access to credit facilities. With attractive investment opportunities, they would invest heavily here. Others have acquired practical skills and vast experience in virtually all fields of learning. These need to be tapped for the benefit of our country.
Virtually all Diaspora voters have access to basic information through electronic media and the Internet. They also have more time to research and interrogate issues than the average resident of Kenya. Most also live in functioning democracies where politics is a real competitive sport. Unlike here, however, it is a properly managed sport, with competent referees with integrity; where rules apply equally to all competitors; and personal wealth or position in society gives one little sway, if at all. The Diaspora is a place where the origins of one’s personal fortune are placed under the microscope and campaign finance law prevents uncontrolled use of personal wealth for political purposes. The field may not be completely levelled; but it’s not totally uneven either.
Daniel arap Moi promoted the use and abuse of money in Kenyan politics. Since then, money has been the main instrument for the pursuit, exercise and control of power. Fortunately, many in the Diaspora understand money and its proper role in politics. Consequently, they may force presidential candidates to address real issues: high unemployment, education, health, inflation, infrastructural development, investment and equity.
They may also place a premium on trustworthiness. Critical in their assessment will be: whom do we trust to keep his or her word on investment, business and employment opportunities for the Diaspora? Whoever passes that credibility test will most likely be the next president of Kenya.
Source- http://www.the-star.co.ke/opinions/miguna-miguna/47213-diaspora-will-determine-president-in-2012-polls
-
-
7:08
»
Kim Media
 |
| Balala said the government has beefed up security in entry points and major installations around the country |
A group of top travel agents from the United States declared that Kenya was still one of the safest holiday destinations, said a statement from Kenya's ministry of tourism on Tuesday.
The statement said the travel agents who were in the country to assess the security situation in the country met Tourism Minister Najib Balala and assured him they were happy with government efforts to restore security at the Kenya borders.
Scott Wiseman, the president of Abercrombie and Kent in the United States, the world's foremost luxury travel company, who led the delegation said Kenya's tourism industry was on the right path to recovery following recent cases of insecurity that hit some parts of the country.
Wiseman said security now was more reassuring and assured tourists from the American market and the world over to feel safe while visiting or planning to visit Kenya.
Balala said the government has beefed up security in entry points and major installations around the country to ensure that the east African nation enjoys peace.
"Balala said the government was not ready to negotiate with criminal gangs and that the government was doing everything possible to ensure security of all its citizens and foreigners," the statement said.
The minister said tourism was an important pillar to the country's economy, contributing 10 percent to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an economy he said, the country would not allow criminal gangs to destroy.
The minister appealed to the African Union, the European Union and the international community to support Kenya's efforts to restore regional peace, saying that Somalia's problem had cost Kenya a lot in terms of lives and resources.
Remarks by the travel agents from America that Kenya is safe for holiday destinations have also been echoed by the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scotts Gration during his tour of Lamu with the minister a few weeks ago.
Gration told hoteliers and industry stakeholders in Lamu that the efforts the government had put in place to ensure security in Lamu and other border towns were a clear testimony that security was a priority to the government.
Just like Gration promised to plan his holiday in Lamu, so were the travel agents who were also convinced that Kenya has attractive tourist attraction sites that needed to be promoted.
The assurance comes amid threats from Somalia's insurgents who have vowed to revenge attacks on Kenya which sent its troops in Somalia mid last month to subdue the militia.
The Al-Shabaab terror groups have flagrantly violated the Kenya' s territorial integrity and national economy through escalated cross-border raids, which has forced the country to invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter to exercise its right to self- defense against continued external aggressions.
Kenya believed that the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab movement and its affiliates are behind abductions, including the recent kidnapping of two Medecins Sans Frontiers aid workers from Dadaab camp last month.
There has been also several Al-Shabaab attacks along the Kenya- Somalia border, besides the continued recruitment of Kenyan youth to the terror group's ranks.
|
-
-
23:46
»
Kim Media
 |
| The matter will be heard on the 11TH of next month. |
Pastor Thomas Wahome Njuguna of the helicopter ministries now wants the high court to order a DNA test conducted on his alleged three children.
In the suit the pastor is seeking to have the custody of the children on grounds that the wife Leah Kasyoka is not financially capable to cater for their needs. The matter will be heard on the 11TH of next month.
On 31st March this year pastor Thomas Wahome well known as pastor Helicopter filed a petition seeking court intervention.
Helicopter ministries pastor wanted the court to grant him orders to have the custody, care and control of his two children on grounds that his wife Leah has neglect them.
The pastor in his affidavit admits that he moved from the matrimonial home after their marriage being irreconcilable.
Leah says that the pastor has abandoned them and has married another wife even without a divorce.
She argues that the application to have a DNA test on their children is in bad faith arguing that she has been faithful to her husband.
And at the chief magistrate court, Abednego Oyiengo Omukuba was charged with abusing a seven year old girl alleged to be his daughter.
He is alleged to have committed the act on the 12th of January this year along Kirinyaga Road in Nairobi. He however pleaded not guilty and was released on a cash bail of 150,000 Shillings pending hearing on the 26th of January next year.
Finally the high court will on the 7th of next month rule on a case challenging the legality of special prosecutor Patrick Kiage.
Tinderet Mp Henry Kosgey moved to the court on grounds that Kiage appointment was not gazette as required by the law.
Kiage is prosecuting the case in which Kosgey is charged with abuse of office. The case was put on hold to await the ruling pending at the high court.
-
-
13:04
»
Kim Media
PERTH, Australia, Oct 29 – Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has supported Kenya’s decision to invoke Article 51 of the United Nations Charter to defend her economic and security interests threatened by Al-Shaabab insurgents.
President Kikwete said Kenya is justified in taking action against the Islamic militants who have blatantly violated her territorial integrity through escalated cross-border raids.
He pledged his country’s commitment to support efforts by Kenya, IGAD, EAC, AU and the international community to stabilize Somalia and the Horn of Africa region.
The Tanzanian leader, who is in Perth, Western Australia for the CHOGM 2011, was speaking when he paid a courtesy call on President Kibaki at his residence.
The meeting followed an earlier brief by President Kibaki to an executive session of the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government on Kenya’s military operation against Al-Shabaab to secure national security and economic interests.
During the session, President Kibaki maintained that Kenya was not at war with Somalia but is carrying out military action against the Islamic militia which is a non-state actor.
The Tanzanian leader, at the same time, joined other world leaders in calling for tougher action against piracy in the Indian Ocean, which continued to increase the costs of international trade and cause enormous harm to regional countries’ fishing and tourist industries.
Earlier, at a forum on Indian Ocean Piracy held on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, participants observed that piracy is now rife off the coast of Somalia and is spreading to other regions around Africa.
The leaders noted that pirates attacked a record number of ships worldwide in the first nine months of 2011, but are making off with fewer vessels due to better policing by international naval forces.
Leaders were of the view that the financiers of piracy must be targeted and pursued through surveillance, so that the true beneficiaries of the illegal trade may be brought to justice.
-
-
6:51
»
Kim Media
When the UN Security Council passes resolutions allowing intervention, third parties such as NATO can carry out the interventions without accountability to anyone [EPA]
As global powers become more interested in Africa, interventions in the continent will likely become more common.
"Kampala 'mute' as Gaddafi falls," is how the opposition paper summed up the mood of this capital the morning after. Whether they mourn or celebrate, an unmistakable sense of trauma marks the African response to the fall of Gaddafi.
Both in the longevity of his rule and in his style of governance, Gaddafi may have been extreme. But he was not exceptional. The longer they stay in power, the more African presidents seek to personalise power. Their success erodes the institutional basis of the state. The Carribean thinker C L R James once remarked on the contrast between Nyerere and Nkrumah, analysing why the former survived until he resigned but the latter did not: "Dr Julius Nyerere in theory and practice laid the basis of an African state, which Nkrumah failed to do."
The African strongmen are going the way of Nkrumah, and in extreme cases Gaddafi, not Nyerere. The societies they lead are marked by growing internal divisions. In this, too, they are reminiscent of Libya under Gaddafi more than Egypt under Mubarak or Tunisia under Ben Ali.
Whereas the fall of Mubarak and Ben Ali directed our attention to internal social forces, the fall of Gaddafi has brought a new equation to the forefront: the connection between internal opposition and external governments. Even if those who cheer focus on the former and those who mourn are preoccupied with the latter, none can deny that the change in Tripoli would have been unlikely without a confluence of external intervention and internal revolt.
More interventions to come
The conditions making for external intervention in Africa are growing, not diminishing. The continent is today the site of a growing contention between dominant global powers and new challengers. The Chinese role on the continent has grown dramatically. Whether in Sudan and Zimbawe, or in Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria, that role is primarily economic, focused on two main activities: building infrastructure and extracting raw materials. For its part, the Indian state is content to support Indian mega-corporations; it has yet to develop a coherent state strategy. But the Indian focus too is mainly economic.
The contrast with Western powers, particularly the US and France, could not be sharper. The cutting edge of Western intervention is military. France's search for opportunities for military intervention, at first in Tunisia, then Cote d'Ivoire, and then Libya, has been above board and the subject of much discussion. Of greater significance is the growth of Africom, the institutional arm of US military intervention on the African continent.
This is the backdrop against which African strongmen and their respective oppositions today make their choices. Unlike in the Cold War, Africa's strongmen are weary of choosing sides in the new contention for Africa. Exemplified by President Museveni of Uganda, they seek to gain from multiple partnerships, welcoming the Chinese and the Indians on the economic plane, while at the same time seeking a strategic military presence with the US as it wages its War on Terror on the African continent.
In contrast, African oppositions tend to look mainly to the West for support, both financial and military. It is no secret that in just about every African country, the opposition is drooling at the prospect of Western intervention in the aftermath of the fall of Gaddafi.
Those with a historical bent may want to think of a time over a century ago, in the decade that followed the Berlin conference, when outside powers sliced up the continent. Our predicament today may give us a more realistic appreciation of the real choices faced and made by the generations that went before us. Could it have been that those who then welcomed external intervention did so because they saw it as the only way of getting rid of domestic oppression?
In the past decade, Western powers have created a political and legal infrastructure for intervention in otherwise independent countries. Key to that infrastructure are two institutions, the United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court. Both work politically, that is, selectively. To that extent, neither works in the interest of creating a rule of law.
The Security Council identifies states guilty of committing "crimes against humanity" and sanctions intervention as part of a "responsibility to protect" civilians. Third parties, other states armed to the teeth, are then free to carry out the intervention without accountability to anyone, including the Security Council. The ICC, in tow with the Security Council, targets the leaders of the state in question for criminal investigation and prosecution.
Africans have been complicit in this, even if unintentionally. Sometimes, it is as if we have been a few steps behind in a game of chess. An African Secretary General tabled the proposal that has come to be called R2P, Responsibility to Protect. Without the vote of Nigeria and South Africa, the resolution authorising intervention in Libya would not have passed in the Security Council.
Dark days are ahead. More and more African societies are deeply divided internally. Africans need to reflect on the fall of Gaddafi and, before him, that of Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire. Will these events usher in an era of external interventions, each welcomed internally as a mechanism to ensure a change of political leadership in one country after another?
One thing should be clear: those interested in keeping external intervention at bay need to concentrate their attention and energies on internal reform.
Mahmood Mamdani is professor and director of Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, New York. He is the author most recently of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War and the Roots of Terror, and Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror.
-
-
21:29
»
Kim Media
Leaders of the Al-Shabab militant group in Somalia have reportedly contacted the Kenyan government to negotiate as Kenyan military forces pursue them deeper into Somalia.
An official in the Kenyan government said that the militant leaders had expressed a desire “to talk”, although he did not elaborate on the nature of the talks.
The development comes amid Kenya’s largest foreign military deployment in its history.
The East African nation has several hundred soldiers on the ground in Somalia, along with armoured vehicles, artillery units and attack helicopters.
Kenyan jets on Monday struck several Al-Shabaab training sites, while Kenyan soldiers are advancing on a major al-Shabab stronghold in the south of the country.
Somalia’s president has praised Kenya’s invasion, after initially criticising the Kenyan government for violating the sovereignty of Somalia.
Somalia lacks a functional national government and the interim government’s authority is limited to the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu.
Somali militants control the rest of the country and the Somali government is only able to hold onto Mogadishu because of the 8000-man African Union peace keeping force.
The Kenyan government has indicated its invasion of Somali is aimed at driving the extremist militant group out of the southern regions of Somalia so that the two nations’ porous border can be better secured.
Kenya blames al-Shabab for the recent kidnappings of foreigners on the Kenyan side of the border, as well as a spate of terrorist attacks within the country, a development that has the potential to derail Kenya’s lucrative tourism industry.
The port city of Kismayo, described by the United Nations as a key stronghold and source of cash for al-Shabab, is the main target for Kenyan forces.
If they secure control of the city they’ll deal a severe blow to the militant organisation, depriving it of around half its annual income.
The United Nations estimates the group collects up to US $50 million a year from businesses in Kismayo.
The al-Shabab militant group, which grew out of the chaos of the Somali civil war, has had control of vast swathes of the country since 2005.
The group has made it near-impossible for humanitarian groups to help those affected by the devastating famine currently gripping the Horn of Africa.
-
-
7:47
»
Kim Media
Somalia's president says his government opposes Kenya's military incursion to chase down al-Shabab militants.
Speaking to reporters in Mogadishu, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said only African Union troops can legally operate in Somalia. The president said Somali government troops do need support from Kenya's military, but he added, "not more than that."
Sharif cautioned Kenya against doing anything that will harm the two countries' relationship.
Separately, the French embassy in Kenya has refuted media reports that France carried out attacks in the Somali city of Kismayo.
On Sunday, a Kenyan army spokesman, Emmanuel Chirchir, indicated foreign forces had joined Kenya's pursuit of al-Shabab, and said a French naval ship bombed the southern Somali town of Kuday, near the al-Shabab stronghold of Kismayo.
The embassy said Monday there are no French warships in the area.
Warplanes have carried out airstrikes in Kismayo in recent days, but it is not clear who was responsible for the attacks.
The Kenyan army spokesman said the airstrikes were done by allies. But no nations, including the United States, have confirmed involvement in the Somali operation.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia this month to hunt down al-Shabab fighters, who it blames for a string of foreign kidnappings on Kenyan soil. Al-Shabab has said it had no role in the kidnappings.
The militant group, which is fighting to topple the Somali government, has threatened to retaliate against Kenya.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
-
-
4:29
»
Kim Media
Becoming a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) of the United States is often a long and difficult process for foreign nationals. Obtaining LPR status leads to a multitude of benefits, including the freedom to live and work anywhere in the U.S., as well as qualify for social welfare programs and government financial aid for higher education. It is also one step closer to becoming eligible for U.S. citizenship. Permanent residence may be obtained through a U.S. citizen or LPR family member, employment, investment, asylum or refugee status, and the diversity lottery. Regardless of how the person became an LPR, he must have the intent to reside permanently in the United States and take precautionary steps to prevent the unintentional abandonment of his LPR status.
The question of abandonment depends on the person’s intent rather than the length of time he spent abroad. Nonetheless, the longer one spends outside the U.S., the harder it becomes to show that he intended to return to the U.S. and live here permanently.
Absences of More Than Six Months
Most permanent residents are aware that they could lose their status and be ordered removed from the United States if they commit certain crimes. But many are unaware that they could lose their status by simply being absent from the United States for an extended period, particularly for more than six months or 180 days. They often learn about the abandonment issue only when it is too late to take preventive steps. For example, they might depart for their home country to care for an ill, elderly relative and not think twice about maintaining their residence. Upon their return to the U.S., following a long absence overseas, the U.S. customs officer may refuse to admit them as an LPR because they have being gone for so long and cannot show strong ties to the U.S.
Even though they have never committed a crime and were never placed in removal proceedings, permanent residents have to “apply for admission” at the U.S. port of entry upon their return from overseas. An absence of more than six months raises a presumption that the person abandoned his LPR status. The U.S. customs officer may require the person to prove he has not abandoned his LPR status by showing fixed ties to this country (for example, filing of income tax returns, family members in the U.S., property ownership, bank accounts, and business affiliations.)
Absences of One Year or More
Permanent residents who are absent from the United States for one year or more often find it the hardest to being re-admitted. Besides the issue of abandonment, the green card is not enough to gain re-entry to the U.S because it becomes technically invalid following an absence of one year or more. The returning resident must have a re-entry permit and apply for the permit before he leaves the United States. Otherwise, he may be considered to have abandoned his LPR status when he seeks admission. A re-entry permit helps to show that he did not intend to abandon LPR status, and allows him to apply for admission to the U.S. after traveling abroad for up to two years without having to obtain a returning resident visa.
Consequences of Unintentional Abandonment
If the person does not convince the customs officer that he maintained his status, he may be detained in the custody of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) or released conditionally, placed in removal proceedings, and referred to the Immigration Court to decide whether he is admissible to the United States and whether he abandoned his status. If the Immigration Court finds that he abandoned his status, and he wants to stay in the U.S., he will need to file an application for defense against removal or re-file an application for permanent residence, assuming he is eligible.
In other cases, the customs officer may simply confiscate the LPR’s green card at the port of entry, deny him entry, and force him to return to his home country or last country of departure. The customs officer may also give the person a Form I-407, Abandonment of Permanent Residence Status, to sign (sometimes in exchange for being admitted to the United States as a temporary visitor).
Steps To Preventing Unintentional Abandonment of LPR Status
Proving that the LPR maintained his status after he lived outside the United States for most of the year is a very challenging task. The person not only runs the risk of losing his LPR status but also of being forced to depart the United States. Abandonment of LPR status will also affect immigrant petitions for beneficiaries that the LPR might have pending before USCIS. For example, if it is decided that an LPR abandoned his status while his immigrant relative petition for a son or daughter is still pending with USCIS, that petition becomes invalid and the son or daughter will not be granted permanent residence.
There are steps that permanent residents should take to maintain their status instead of being deemed to abandon their status. They include the following:
1. Avoid Prolonged Absences from the United States and Taking Residence in Another Country.
LPR status is granted to foreign nationals who intend to make the U.S. their permanent home. Prolonged absences from the U.S. for any reason other than a temporary purpose could result in the loss of this status. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has set legal precedents regarding the abandonment of LPR status. The BIA defined “permanent” to mean “a relationship of continuing or lasting nature, as distinguished from temporary.” The BIA defined “residence” to mean “the place of general abode, the place of general abode of a person means his principle, actual dwelling place in fact, without regard to intent.” Finally, the BIA stated that a person returning to the U.S. as an LPR must be returning “to an unrelinquished lawful permanent residence in the United States after a temporary absence abroad.”
In one BIA case, Matter of Kane, a citizen of Jamaica lived in her native country for 11 months and came back the the U.S. for one month each year in an effort to maintain her LPR status. The BIA found that her actual place of residence was Jamaica, and she was no longer entitled to LPR status in the U.S. As this case illustrates, many LPRs mistakenly believe that they only need to return to the U.S. at least once per year in order to maintain their LPR status.
2. Continue to Maintain Ties to The U.S.
Family connections, business ties, membership in organizations, ownership of property, employment and tax filings in the U.S. help to show that the person intends to live permanently in the U.S. and did not abandon his LPR status despite a prolonged absence. The person must also show that the purpose of the trip abroad was temporary and fixed and that he intended to the return to the U.S. as an actual home or place of employment. Family ties, property ownership and business affiliations in the foreign country, on the other hand, raise red flags. Failing to file tax returns or filing as a nonresident in the U.S. are also negative factors.
3. Refrain from Signing a Form I-407
A signed Form I-407 serves as evidence that the person affirmatively abandoned his residence. A person who no longer wishes to keep his LPR status can always sign a Form I-407 and submit it with his green card to the appropriate U.S. Embassy or U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). But when the person does not wish to abandon his status, he should refrain from submitting a signed I-407, even if he is pressured to do so at the U.S. port of entry. This would make it much harder to prove that he maintained or intended to maintain his status. When the person can be the beneficiary of an immediate relative petition, however, he may choose to sign the I-407 and be waived in as a visitor rather than a returning resident. Then, when he is more able to reside in the United States, a new immigrant petition can be filed for him.
4. Apply for a Re-Entry Permit
A re-entry permit does not automatically preserve LPR status or guarantee re-entry into the U.S. following a prolonged absence. Nonetheless, a re-entry permit helps to show that the LPR intended to return to the U.S. The re-entry permit also serves as a valid entry document after absences of more than one year.
Conclusion
When the person presents a colorable claim to returning resident status, the U.S. government has the burden to show by clear and convincing evidence that he abandoned his LPR status and is thus removable from the U.S. If the government meets this burden, the person then has to prove otherwise.
While it is important to know the benefits of LPR status, it is more critical to understand how to maintain it. Because each case is unique, all permanent residents should consult with an experienced immigration attorney before leaving the U.S. for an extended period, regardless of the purpose of the trip. Getting sound legal advice and taking precautionary steps could mean the difference between preserving LPR status and losing this coveted status, which many struggle to obtain.
Author: Igbanugo Partners Int’l Law Firm
http://www.igbanugolaw.com/
Originally posted at: http://www.mshale.com/article/Immigration/Immigration/Unintentional_Aban…
Original Author: Igbanugo Partners
URL:
http://www.mshale.com/article/Immigration/Immigration/Unintentional_Abandonment_…
-
-
23:46
»
Kim Media
The embattled Nigerian Ambassador to Kenya and the Seychelles, Dr. Chijioke Wilcox Wigwe, who was recalled by President Goodluck Jonathan in May after reports emerged that he almost beat his wife to death, has gone back to his post, reports said early today.
The reports said the ambassador has been sent back to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital by President Jonathan who acted against the wishes of his advisers and Kenyan authorities.
The advisers argued that allowing the ambassador to go back to work will set a negative precedent about wife beating.
The ambassador’s wife, Tess Iyi Wigwe, petitioned the Kenyan police in May urging them to promptly arrest the diplomat before he beats her to death.
In a letter she sent to Mr. Mathew Iteere, the Commissioner of Police, the distraught wife accused her husband of battering her and causing her serious bodily harm which has sent her to hospital many times, often between life and death.
The ambassador denied all the allegations. He was recalled to Nigeria after the incident.
—Simon Ateba
Source: http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/10/19/jonathan-sends-wife-beating-ambassador-back-to-kenya/
-
6:48
»
Kim Media
 |
| President Mwai Kibaki congratulates the newly appointed Israel ambaasador to Kenya, H.E Gil Haskel. |
President Mwai Kibaki at State House, Nairobi Wednesday received credentials from eleven newly posted envoys in the country.
The envoys are from Finland, Benin, Tunisia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Sri Lanka, Iran, Israel, Netherlands and the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
During the ceremony President Kibaki urged the diplomats to feel free to tour various parts of the country to sample the hospitality of Kenyan people as well to visit world renowned historical and tourist attraction sites.
The Head of State noted that his government was committed to the improvement of infrastructure in all parts of the country and assured them of reliable road network and security in the country.
He also assured them of government support to facilitate their success while in their tour of duty in the country.
Presenting her papers H.E. Mrs Anna Brita Sofie of Finland said her country will continue to support Kenya's efforts in resolving various regional conflicts.
She particularly lauded President Kibaki's commitment to ensuring sustainable solutions to recurring droughts in the horn of Africa citing the recent regional Conference on drought in the horn of Africa region.
The envoy said that Finland shared Kenya's concern and commitment to end the Somali conflict, the general insecurity and resultant humanitarian crisis within the horn of Africa.
Mrs Brita Sofie expressed concern that Kenya was bearing the brunt of the crisis by hosting many Somali refugees who are afflicted by the current drought and insecurity in the horn of Africa.
The ambassador noted that Kenya and Finland enjoyed a long history of cooperation in various fields of common interest.
She further said that her country was keen to partner with Kenya in the successful implementation of the new constitution as well as building capacity in critical social sectors such as rural development, provision of clean water and promotion of good governance.
On his part the Benin Ambassador to Kenya H.E. Mr. Ferdinand Montoncho thanked President Kibaki for his leadership in the East African Community region.
The Tunisian Ambassador H.E. Mr. Mokhtar Chaouachi appreciated President Kibaki's leadership adding that his example was being recognized across the African continent.
Other diplomats who presented their papers during the brief ceremony included H.E. Mr. Burt Ouvry of Belgium, H.E. Mr. Wahidur Rahman of Bangladesh, H.E. Mr T. Raveethiran of Sri Lanka, H.E. Mr. Malek Hossein Givzad of Iran and H.E. Mr Gil Haskel of Israel.
Others included Ambassadors Reintjes Theodorus Antonius of the Kingdom of Netherlands and Marek Libricky of Czech Republic.
In attendance were Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi, State House Comptroller Dr Nelson Githinji and other senior government officials.
|
-
-
7:16
»
Kim Media
Kenyan tanks, artillery and hundreds of fighters are moving through militant territory in Somalia, residents said Monday.
Fighter jets and helicopters have been flying overhead since Kenyan forces moved en masse into Somalia on Sunday. The invasion came one day after Kenyan defense officials said the country has the right to defend itself against al-Shabab militants after a string of kidnappings inside Kenya. Four Europeans have been abducted and one killed.
Witnesses in the Somali town of Dhobley on Monday said an estimated 40 Kenyan military vehicles entered the town on Sunday. Ali Abdullahi, a resident in Dhobley, said the army vehicles were towing what he described as "big guns."
No large-scale fighting has yet broken out, the residents said.
Late Sunday evening, a military helicopter crashed and caught fire inside Kenya from an apparent mechanical malfunction, a diplomat and a resident said. No civilian casualties were reported but the status of the pilots on board was not immediately known.
Kenya's government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, said Kenyan troops "are pursuing al-Shabab across the border." He did not give any other details.
In response, al-Shabab, Somalia's most dangerous militant group, tried to raise the alarm in areas it controls. Residents in the town of Qoqani who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals said militants were going into homes and forcibly recruiting new fighters.
"Are you ready to live under Christians?" one al-Shabab official shouted on a militant radio station. "Get out of your homes and defend your dignity and religion. Today is the day to defend against the enemy."
A Somali government spokesman, Abdirahman Omar Osman, said his government welcomes logistical support from "our Kenyan brothers," but said Somalia did not need Kenyan troops.
"Our forces are ready to combat al-Shabab and they are doing so effectively. They are ready at the borders, so sending troops is not needed," Osman said.
The helicopter crashed in Liboi, a town about 10 miles (20 kilometers) from the Kenya-Somalia border. The Liboi resident asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. The diplomat's employer does not allow him to be identified.
Mutua and Kenya's military spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kenyan troops have frequently crossed the border into Somalia, but Sunday's push appears to be a bigger and more concerted effort. Minister of Internal Security George Saitoti told a news conference on Saturday that Kenyan forces would pursue al-Shabab into Somalia.
"For the first time our country is threatened with the most serious level of terrorism," he said.
The public declaration to attack al-Shabab came two days after armed militants kidnapped two Spanish aid workers with the group Doctors Without Borders from the Dadaab refugee camp, a sprawling expanse of temporary homes where almost 500,000 Somalis live. The population of Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, has swelled by tens of thousands in recent months because of Somalia's famine.
On Oct. 1, Somali gunmen took a wheelchair-bound Frenchwoman from her home near the resort town of Lamu. Somalis also abducted a British woman from a Kenyan coastal resort in September. Her husband was killed in the attack.
Kenya's push north into Somalia will open another front that Somali militants must contend with. African Union forces from Uganda and Burundi have expanded their control of Mogadishu in recent months and have almost completely forced al-Shabab out of the capital.
Jason Straziuso contributed and Houreld reported from Nairobi, Kenya.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/16/3210596/kenyan-troops-move-into-somalia.html#ixzz1b4zvxsvz
-
-
22:38
»
Kim Media
NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 16 – Kenyan military has begun assembling troops at the border points in readiness for deployment to Somalia to pursue Al Shabaab attackers who are responsible for the kidnapping of four women of British, Spanish and French nationals.
An official at the military headquarters in Nairobi told Capital News that the forces will start entering Somalia in the coming days to flush out Al Shabaab militants who have wedged a war against Kenya.
“Our forces are assembling at the border points where they are getting briefs and other relevant instructions as they prepare to enter Somalia,” said the officer whom we cannot name because he fears being reprimanded for discussing security arrangements.
“They have been instructed to get ready for the assignment which will mainly include pushing the Al Shabaab rebels far away inside Somalia from the common border,” the source said.
Capital News has reliably established that truckloads of military forces from various battalions in the country have already left for Moyale, Kiunga, Mandera and Garissa.
Internal Security Minister Prof George Saitoti and his Defence Counterpart Yusuf Haji on Saturday announced that the government had invoked Article 51 of the UN Chapter that pronounces self defence as an inherent right and which is also in keeping with the Kenyan Constitution to defend its citizens.
“It is worth noting that the concept of self defence in international law goes hand in hand with prohibition of aggression,” Prof Saitoti said in reference to the recent kidnappings of four women.
“This cannot be left to continue at all and it means we are now going to pursue the enemy who are the Al Shabaab to wherever they will be even in their country. We are ready to take any necessary measure to protect our territorial integrity,” Prof Saitoti said at a press conference called to update Kenyans on the progress made so far in the search and rescue of two Spaniards kidnapped from Dadaab.
The two women who have since been identified as Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut worked for aid agency Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) and were being driven back to their base at the Ifo II extension camp when the gunmen struck and seized them, and later shot their driver, a Kenyan who was dumped in the forest as they sped off with the two women.
The driver has since been airlifted to the Nairobi Hospital where he is receiving treatment for neck injuries sustained in the attack.
The two security Ministers announced on Saturday that the government would no longer tolerate actions by Somali militant group Al Shabaab which they said amounts to an indication that the group intends “to undermine Kenya’s territorial integrity and national economy.”
“In light of this, the Kenyan government has decided to take robust measures to protect and preserve the integrity of the country and national economy and security. These measures will involve invoking Article 51 of the UN Chapter that pronounces self defence as an inherent right and which is also in keeping with the Kenyan Constitution,” their joint statement said.
“If you are attacked by an enemy you are allowed to pursue that enemy until where you get him. We will force them far away from our border,” Haji said.
Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia told Capital News separately that “it is the Al Shabaab who have declared war against us, we have subsequently done the same.”
Prof Saitoti said in the scheduled offensive into Somalia, the government hopes to rescue the Spaniards and two other women—a Briton and French—who were seized from Lamu in the past three weeks.
“”The latest is that the militants are still being pursued and they have not been traced. We have mobilised adequate security forces who still pursuing them and we hope to get those kidnapped back,” Prof Saitoti said.
The Defence Minister on his part said: “It seems like they abandoned the vehicle and they are walking in the forest back to their country because it is quite far from where they left the vehicle. Everything possible is being done to ensure those kidnapped are found.”
The latest kidnapping incidents have dealt a blow to the country’s key tourism sector which is among sectors that accounts for large foreign exchange.
-
3:20
»
Kim Media
Kenyans have expressed outrage over the continued increase of fuel prices announced by Energy Regulatory Commission's (ERC) on Friday.
Those who spoke to Kenya Broadcasting Corporation said the depreciating of the Kenyan shilling which is now exchanging at 106 against the American Dollar has made life more difficult for them.
They said prices of almost all basic commodities have sky-rocketed making it difficult for them to afford.
On Friday, ERC raised the prices of petrol by 2.75 shillings, diesel by 2.77 shillings while that of kerosene went up by 1.66 shillings per liter.
ERC Director General Eng Kaburu Mwirichia said in a statement that the increase had been occasioned by the increase in the price of crude and the weakening of the shilling.
Motorists in Mandera will pay more with Petrol retailing at 133.02 shillings, Diesel at 123.46 shillings while kerosene at 102.47 shillings.
Mombasa residents will by less with petrol going for 117.22 shillings, diesel 107.6p shillings and kerosene at 87.14 shillings.
In Nairobi, super petrol went by 2.75 shillings per litre to 120.50 shillings, diesel went up by 2.77 shillings to retail at 110.94 shillings per litre.
Kerosene also went up by 1.66 shillings to 89.95 shillings a litre.
-
-
8:15
»
Kim Media
-
22:44
»
Kim Media
Over 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons yesterday vowed that they will boycott general election set for next year. The IDPS who were uprooted from their farms in 1992 in Lugari,Trans-Nzoia and Uasin Gishu said they do not see the need of voting. Led by their chairman Eliud Mlinga and their co-ordinator John Musyami, the IDPs claim the general election will only remind them of the painful wounds that have taken long to heal. "We are going to dispose our voting cards the same way the leaders we voted for 20 years back abandoned us," said the angry IDPs.
They accused the leaders of being insensitive to their plight and only remember them during elections when they come to solicit for votes. The IDPIs complain they have suffered enough and no one seems to care over their plight. Charles Andulu, an IDP from Trans-Nzoia said he still nurses wounds on his leg after he was shot by a bullet and arrow by his attackers.
Andulu said it was only by sheer luck that he survived the incident. ''All my fourteen children took off upto date I have seen none of them. I don't know wherther they are alive or dead," said Andulu. Another victim Harrison Wakoli said he was forced to flee his farm in Kaptaba, Uasin Gishu county following the clashes. He said he servicing the loan he used to buy the land has become difficult.
-
11:23
»
Kim Media
|
 |
| GECAS and Kenya Airways have a relationship that dates back to the year 2000 when KQ signed the first agreement with GECAS for 3 Boeing 767-300ERs |
Kenya Airways fleet modernisation and expansion programme Wednesday received a boost when the airline signed an agreement with General Electric Capital Aviation Services, GECAS the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of General Electric, for the delivery of two Boeing 777-300 Extended Range (ER) aircrafts.
The two aircrafts are expected to be join Kenya Airways fleet in October 2013 and May 2014 respectively with the aircrafts scheduled to operate long haul routes including Amsterdam, Bangkok, Guangzhou and Dubai in order to maximise both passenger and cargo traffic.
"With the increased passenger and cargo capacity that the Boeing 777-300ER offers, we are pleased with this development as it will see Kenya Airways significantly increase tonnage and passenger capacity while enhancing our premium service offering to Europe and the Far East," noted Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director Dr. Titus Naikuni.
"This also speaks to Kenya Airways' efforts of flying a more efficient and environmentally friendly fleet," he further added. The Boeing 777-300ER provides increased passenger and cargo capability at lower seat-mile cost for long range markets.
"The B777-300ER aircraft will be operated by the same crew that fly the B777-200ER aircraft in our current fleet but we envisage that sufficient additional crew will be recruited and/or trained by the time the first aircraft arrive," said Dr. Naikuni
Today marks yet another milestone in our business relationship with Kenya Airways as they sign up for a 12 year Operating Lease for 2 new Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircrafts.
GECAS and Kenya Airways have a relationship that dates back to the year 2000 when KQ signed the first agreement with GECAS for 3 Boeing 767-300ERs and we value the good business relationship that continues to grow from strength to strength," said GE President and CEO for Africa, Jay Ireland.
He elaborated that "GE is focused on creating partnerships and providing a wide range of solutions that will support Kenya and the rest of Africa's infrastructure transformation and industrial growth".
Kenya Airways will configure its 777-300ER's with approximately 400 seats which is an extra passenger capacity of about 78 passengers over the 777-200ER. In addition, the aircraft will offer higher volumetric cargo capacity of over 12 tonnes.
The Boeing 777 family is the world's most successful twin-engine, long-haul airplane. With a current operational fleet of four B777-200ER aircrafts, the addition of the B777-300ER's will see the airlines 777 fleet grow to seven by the end 2014.
The 777-300ER extends the 777 family's span of capabilities, bringing twin-engine efficiency and reliability to the long-range markets. The B777-300ER aircraft has approximately 300 nautical miles more range than the B777-200ER.
This makes the aircraft ideal for maturing or matured heavy passenger traffic routes, a thriving belly cargo business and routes which have restrictions on frequency.
In April this year, Kenya Airways and Boeing Commercial Airplanes reached an agreement on the order for nine Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircrafts with the first one expected to be delivered by the fourth quarter of 2013.
|
-
-
23:04
»
Kim Media
A lot of Kenyans feel a kinship with Germany because of the love for beer that also runs deep in many a Kenyans’ veins. However, a not-so-new partnership is bearing truckloads of fruits, begging the question – where has all this talent been hiding?
October is dedicated to beer around the world thanks to Germany, and all sorts of beer flavours are chugged, hugged and celebrated, even in Kenya.
Thanks to Goethe Institute, not only is the German language celebrated, but also the art, culture and music from our motherland, Kenya.
The kind of art, culture and music that is poor in cash but rich in creative genius.
One of the spawns of this unofficial partnership kicked off in 2009, BLNRB (Berlin-Nairobi).
#CREATIVE1
“The idea was as simple as it was complex at the same time. Berlin and Nairobi musicians would record and perform together on a long term basis. Two studios were established in a townhouse in Nairobi, where all BLNRB artists worked, performed and lived together. After concerts in Nairobi and Berlin, the long awaited CD is out!” That’s the official description of BLNRB.
Animation Director Bobb Muchiri is responsible for creating a music-mentary (showing music’s effect on a population) called Kichwateli. Using Studio Ang, he crafted a work of art that was shot in Kibera and the Nairobi CBD, and released last week. It features Just A Band, Maasai Mbili and Modeselektor.
#CREATIVE2
Still using Just A Band, photographer Philippa Ndisi who is half-Kenyan, half-German (the irony) released her video Room For Me. It features a series of accelerated photographs and includes a celebrity by the name John Sibi Okumu.
Within the same project there are several other examples of sterling creativity. For lovers of art and music who are craving more professionalism and a level of individuality (i.e. everyone), this is worth a watch.
Considering the amount of support upcoming musicians get from foreign owned companies, diplomatic missions, and projects overseas, one can only wonder where the Kenyan muscle is.
Instead of handing out cash to our ‘next generation’ of leaders to secure your welfare in the future, those with deep pockets should consider a more sublime message – music.
“We want to replace the stereotype of a war-torn, hungry and poverty stricken Africa with a realistic picture: that of dynamic and highly creative urban cultures which in their own way adapt to international developments and propagate themselves – and give back to the international scene,” says Goethe-Institute Nairobi.
The project is organized and trusteed by Goethe-Institute Nairobi and the Teichmann brothers, a Berlin DJ- and musician duo. The House of World Cultures is a project partner.
Other participants are Modeselektor, Berlin-based multinational trio Jahcoozi and MC Sasha Perera from London, Robot Koch from Berlin and Oren Gerlitz from Tel Aviv.
From Kenya we have Ukoo Flani, Abbas, Kimya, Lon’Jon, Just a Band and Lydia Mwango among others.
As part of the project this year, 11 different film and music directors were approached and commissioned to come up with videos for these amazing collaborations. And once Hawa Essuman, Boomba Video, Rich Pictures, Circle & Square, Cultural Video Foundation, DYMK, Sam Hopkins, Just A Band, Dream Awake Pro, Studio Ang and Philippa (Ndisi) Herrmann are done, their work will be presented together.
The music CD will be in stores soon, but at the moment it is available at the Goethe-Institute Nairobi. The tunes are good for playing in the background when cooking, reading or dreaming up your future.
Posted by LAURA WALUBENGO (Capital FM)
-
-
22:29
»
Kim Media
NAIROBI Oct 6 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling continued to edge up against the dollar on Thursday, after the central bank shocked the market with a 4 percentage point rise in its lending rate the previous day to combat rampant inflation and stabilise the exchange rate.
At 0622 GMT, commercial banks posted the shilling at 100.70/101.30 against the dollar, slightly up from Wednesday's close of 101.00/101.50. The currency rose by around a shilling per dollar on Wednesday after the rate shock.
"I expect a rally maybe towards the 100 level," said a senior trader with a leading commercial bank.
Policymakers raised the Central Bank Rate by 400 basis points at a rate-setting meeting on Wednesday to 11 percent, just three weeks after they raised it by 75 basis points.
The shilling has borne the brunt of higher oil and food prices in international markets this year, tumbling to several record lows against the dollar since March.
The situation was compounded by a row between markets and central bank over how to deal with the challenge, as well as by the effects of the debt crisis in the euro zone.
Traders said even though the increase was a positive move, attention needed to shift towards addressing a widening balance of payments gap, to stave off further weakening of the shilling.
-
8:19
»
Kim Media
Neville Isdell, Coca-Cola Co.'s former chairman and chief executive, is no stranger to Africa. He moved to Zambia at 10 years old, went to college in South Africa and learned the ropes of the Coke business working for bottlers in both countries.
He even keeps a residence in Cape Town, where he played rugby at the local university and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology.
So it's little wonder that the Northern Ireland native is building the economic future of Africa even in retirement.
Along with former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, Mr. Isdell chairs the Investment Climate Facility for Africa, which aims to remove barriers to business. The group is working in about 30 countries to address issues such as contract enforcement, infrastructure and other hindrances to business.
Africa's problems are widespread, but so are its opportunities, Mr. Isdell told GlobalAtlanta in a wide-ranging filmed interview.
"(Africa)'s not the story of tomorrow, but it's the story maybe of the day after tomorrow, and I think it's happening," he said.
Growth, both for Coca-Cola and other firms, is sizzling in many sub-Saharan African countries. Over the last 10 years, the six of the 10 fastest growing economies were from the region, though many of those same countries are among the toughest places to do business.
With the return of educated members of the diaspora and the rise of middle-class consumers, Mr. Isdell sees "a new Africa emerging" with a strong appetite for political and economic reforms.
"It's going to be staccato. You're going to have some [countries] that fall off the bus, you're going to have some that get on the bus. It's just the nature of it, and of course, you'll read about the failures, but there are lots of successes taking place," he said.
Many Atlanta groups are involved in initiatives that seek to position the city as the U.S. gateway to investment on the continent.
On Sept. 26, the Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma visited Atlanta to pitch his country's improved business environment to local business and government leaders.
He suggested to investors pursuing growth in the more popular BRIC and Asian countries that "Africa is the next investment destination" and that his West African country should be their first step into the continent.
Nigeria's minister for trade and investment is to visit Atlanta Nov. 20-22.
Coca-Cola's volume in sub-Saharan Africa grew 6 percent in the second quarter 2011, according to a July 19 earnings release.
-
-
23:18
»
Kim Media
Foreigners owning huge tracts of land, whose lease is about to expire, are likely to lose their prized assets as the government starts to enforce the law on land ownership.
The move will affect multinationals and individuals with tea, sisal and coffee estates in some of the most arable lands in the country on 99-year leases.
Lands Minister James Orengo said they were working on a law that would allow the government to review the expiring leases, especially those held for speculative purposes.
“There are some leases of 99 years, which are expiring, and some more are to expire. We will interrogate them afresh, and if we find that they have been held for speculation purposes, we will not renew them,” he said on phone from his Ugenya constituency.
Article 65 of the Constitution states that a person who is not a citizen or a company with at least one shareholder who is not a citizen may only hold land for a 99-year lease tenure at most.
The Sixth Schedule of the Transitional Clauses says: “On the effective date (promulgation of the new Constitution), any freehold interest in land in Kenya held by a person who is not a citizen shall revert to the Republic of Kenya to be held on behalf of the people of Kenya, and the State shall grant to the person a ninety-nine year lease at a peppercorn rent.”
Pay for the lease
Peppercorn rent is the lowest or minimal fee a person will be required to pay for the lease.
The Constitution also requires that any other leases, which are beyond 99 years, be reduced to the former.
However, foreigners who would have successfully applied for dual citizenship, as allowed under the new Constitution, will be spared.
Mr Orengo said the changes were meant to ensure efficient land use and correct anomalies that saw foreigners being awarded thousands of hectares of land as Kenyans were reduced to squatters.
Between 1900 and the 1940s, most Kenyans living in Rift Valley and parts of Central Province Highlands were kicked out of their fertile land, which was given to white farmers on leases of 999 years by the colonialists.
The locals were settled in what was called reserves — which have bred the present squatter problem in Kenya.
After independence in 1963, the government through the Million Acre Scheme begun to resettle Africans in the former White highlands at the same time reducing most of the leases to 99 years.
On Monday, Lands Commissioner Zablon Mabea said the affected parcels include tea and coffee estates in Nandi, Uasin Gishu, Kiambu, Naivasha and Nakuru counties. Others are in Nyandarua and Thika.
This means that some of the tea and coffee companies listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange could be affected by the move.
Mr Mabea said the ministry was compiling a list of land on 999-year leases.
“We aim to complete the exercise in a month,” he said.
Mr Orengo warned that some foreigners had started to subdivide their large tracts of land for sale to beat the new law.
“Over the years, some of them have seen what the law says and have subdivided their land wanting to sell it. They should know that we are not keen on such moves and will not allow them,” he said.
The minister said the public will have a chance to contribute to the law in order to address the perennial disputes over the scarce resource.
“We want issues of land debated publicly so that we can find the solution to it,” he said.
Source: [www.nation.co.ke]
-
-
19:36
»
Kim Media
Kenyans players plying their trade in leagues around Europe impressed over the weekend ahead of the final African Cup of Nations qualifier against Uganda Cranes.
France:
Kenyan’s skipper Dennis Oliech side Auxerre drew 1-1 all with St. Etienne and the striker who had scored a fantastic hatrick the previous weekend against Sochaux played the entire match.
Spain:
Midfielder MacDonald Mariga started his fifth straight game as his side Real Sociedad lost 1-2 to Athletico Bilbao. The result saw his team drop to 11th on the log with seven points.
Scotland:
Mariga’s younger brother Victor Mugubi Wanyama made his full league debut for the Hoops in the 2-0 loss to Hearts.
Mugubi who played the entire match faced his Ugandan opponent in the upcoming African cup of Nations qualifier David Obua who came off the bench for Hearts in the last seven minutes.
Czech Republic:
Kenyan winger Patrick Oboya scored the third goal for his side Siad Most as they beat visiting Sparta Praha in the second tier Druha Liga.
This was Oboya’s fourth goal of the season.
Norway:
Kenyan duo of keeper Arnold Origi and midfielder John ‘Mo’ Muiruri were in the thick of things as FK Moss got an important 3-2 away win over Lavanger FK in Norway’s division two.
Romania:
Midfielder Jamal Mohamed was benched as his side Targu Mures drew 3-3 with Pandurii Targu in an entertaining match played in the Romanian Liga 1 on Friday.
Belgium:
Germinal Beerschot’s midfielder Johana Omollo sat out his team’s 1-1 draw with FC Brugge in the Belgian Jupiler league on Sunday evening.
Sweden:
Patrick Osiako who has so far played 17 matches and scored one goal for Mjalby was out of action as his side won 1-0 away to IFK Gotenberg.
Albania:
FK Tirana took the lead of the league after round four matches where they beat KS Flamurtani 2-0 at home.
Defender James Situma played the whole match but striker Moses Arita was given some days off to sort out passport issues back in Kenya.
Denmark:
2010 Kenyan Premier League best player George ‘Blackberry’ Odhiambo again failed to get some playing time as Randers drew 0-0 with Esberg on Sunday evening.
-
-
4:56
»
Kim Media
Ten heavily armed Somali militants driving their boat under the cover of darkness have kidnapped a Frenchwoman on a resort island in northern Kenya.
The government blamed the attack on Somali militants from al-Shabab, and Kenyan navy and police chased the suspected boat at sea.
"Security forces swung into immediate action and pursued the abductors as they sped northwards in a high-speed boat towards" Ras Komboni, the town in Somalia the government said the militants originated, according to a government statement.
"In the ensuing shoot-out between the abductors and the Kenyan navy, several of the abductors were injured but managed to enter" Ras Komboni, the statement said.
At one point during the chase two Kenyan boats had the suspected pirate boat surrounded, with four men and the kidnapped woman on board, said tourism minister Najib Balala. A plane overhead was also monitoring the situation, he said.
"We are just concerned about the safety of the lady," said Mr Balala, who identified her as Marie Dedieu. French officials said in a statement that she is in her 60s, but the Kenyan government called her "elderly" and one official said she was in her 70s.
Ambrose Munyasia, a top police official on the coast, said he had information that the French government would join the chase. He said he was optimistic the woman would be rescued soon.
But by early evening in Kenya there was no news of a successful rescue. In a message to Kenyans, the government said that "adequate security measures" had been put into place.
The French foreign ministry said in a statement that French officials are "working with the Kenyan authorities, who have mobilised significant air and sea resources in order to free our compatriot."
Officials had earlier indicated Somali pirates had pulled off the attack, before the government later blamed al-Shabab. If pirates are involved, it would be the second such attack near the popular tourist town of Lamu in a month. In early September, pirates shot dead British man David Tebbutt and kidnapped his wife, Judith, from a resort near Lamu.
-
-
7:19
»
Kim Media
Photo: Reuters
Kenyan woman prepares ribbons ahead of World Aids Day at Beacon of Hope center in Nairobi, Dec. 2010 (file photo).
In an effort to combat the spread of HIV, Kenya’s National Aids Control Council and STI Control Program (NASCOP) may soon turn to mandatory testing.
Around 1.5 million Kenyans are estimated to be living with HIV, or about 6.3 percent of the adult population. Prevalence of the disease in Kenya is such that only sub-Saharan neighbors South Africa and Nigeria have more HIV-positive citizens.
While analysts say the country has achieved some measure of success in reducing infection rates over the past decade, they estimate that only around 60 percent of Kenyans have been tested for HIV. NASCOP is hoping to have over 80 percent of the population tested by 2013, and is considering new methods to achieve that goal.
Earlier this week, Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that the country could adopt new hospital procedures which mandate HIV testing for adults seeking treatments for illnesses such as malaria. The same procedures would require testing for children seeking any medical treatment.
A host of ethics questions
Mandatory testing for HIV is generally viewed by rights organizations as a violation of privacy and an open invitation for discrimination. Martin Wood, a spokesperson for British HIV organization Avert, says the push for mandatory testing in Kenya is admirable but misguided and could end up hurting more patients than it helps.
"If they’re in a situation where it’s compulsory that they are going to have an HIV test when seeking medical treatment," he says, "people may actually not go seeking that treatment because they’re scared of disclosure of their HIV status."
The problem of social stigma, he explains, could raise public alarm about the proposed testing plans.
Kenya previously attempted to increase HIV testing through its Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) program. VCT centers were opened throughout the country to provide Kenyans with safe locations for testing, but experts -- including NASCOP Director Dr. Peter Cherutich -- say the risk of being viewed as promiscuous prevented many women from accessing services.
While education levels within the country have increased in recent years, positive HIV status could threaten a person’s social standing or employment if their status is made public. And according to Asunta Wagura -- the executive director of the Kenya Network of Women with AIDS (KENWA) -- many communities in Kenya still regard positive-status with fear and misunderstanding.
"Right now it is not as bad as it used to be," says Wagura. "Things have improved, but still when a person is found to be HIV positive they’re still [exposed to] pockets of stigma and discrimination. I’m wondering now when a person goes for malaria and [is] tested for HIV, whether we have the capacity to handle that. Many cases may resort to suicide."
Wagura says that if the program should take shape, post-test counseling for those who do test positive should also be made available. His organization has called on government officials to provide more access to treatment services for Kenyans living with HIV and AIDS in the past.
Legal hurdles remain
But fears of mandatory testing in Kenya are premature, as Kenyan law currently bans such practices.
According to Dr. Andrew Suleh, National Chairman of the Kenya Medical Association, Kenya’s HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act (HAPCA) would have to be amended to allow mandatory testing.
"If somebody has malaria, why would you refuse treatment because you have not tested for HIV?" he says. "It doesn’t make sense."
Suleh says Kenya's primary goal should be early testing of citizens. Instead of waiting for someone to voluntarily test themselves once they feel sick, he says, NASCOP can do more to stop the spread of HIV by catching new infections early.
One interim solution, he says, would be to strongly encourage HIV testing when offering routine treatments for illnesses such as Malaria while allowing patients to opt out.
Because any new approaches would have to be aligned with Kenyan law, however, the nation's battle with HIV will continue to be waged strictly on a voluntary basis.
-
-
20:12
»
Kim Media
The Kenyan Shilling has overtaken its Ugandan counterpart as the world's worst performing currency, according to data from Bloomberg, a US-based news agency.
The Kenyan unit yesterday sold for Ksh104.20 (Shs3,021) against the dollar compared to Shs2,845 quoted for the Uganda currency.
East Africa's money markets have been battered by rising inflation, the turbulence in the euro-zone and the price volatility in the global oil sector. Uganda's inflation standing at 21.4 per cent is the highest in the region compared to Kenya's 16.7 per cent, Tanzania's 16 per cent and Rwanda's 9.79 per cent.
East Africa has since the beginning of this year trodden a tough economic path worsened by an acute food shortage, a horrid drought escalating fuel prices and a volatile foreign exchange market.
The effect of fuel prices
Fuel, a key driver of commodity and service prices, has since the beginning of this year continued moving northwards with a litre of petrol going for Shs3,900 in Uganda, Shs 3,332.97 for |Kenya, Shs 3,875.4 for Tanzania
According to Bloomberg, the Kenya Shilling registered heavy depreciation against the green back falling from 15 per cent in June to 21 per cent in September.
In a move to correct the volatility in the currency market the country's central bank has restricted liquidity to commercial banks in order to curb currency speculation. The bank has also reversed several rate decisions this year, undermining monetary policy.
The turbulence in the money market has resulted into an increase of interbank interest rates from just 2 per cent nine months ago to 28 per cent.
However, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenya Finance Minister is expected to invoke a law that enables him to impose a cabinet-determined monetary policy direction on the central bank to help stabilise the shilling.
O
-
-
21:11
»
Kim Media
By David Njagi
MACHAKOS, Kenya (AlertNet) – Philip Makau appears to have won his battle against drought. Now he has one more enemy to take on.
For a decade, the 62-year-old farmer from the village of Kasinga, 30 minutes’ drive from the town of Machakos in southeastern Kenya, struggled to grow enough crops to support his ailing wife and his four sons.
But recently Makau has been growing varieties of maize that can thrive despite the increasingly limited rainfall in this region of the country, which receives little more than 90 cm (35 inches) of rain annually. The dry conditions, experts believe, are related to climatic shifts that have brought prolonged drought to parts of Kenya.
A four-year-old collaboration between a Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Katumani centre in Machakos and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has helped hundreds of farmers like Makau adopt drought-resistant varieties of maize, giving them an unprecedented level of food security.
“For the first time, my three-quarters of an acre (0.3 hectare) farm produced five bags of maize,” Makau said. “Before that I could not manage even a half bag.” A bag contains 90 kg (200 lbs) of grain.
Now he is confronting his second enemy – the large grain borer, and other insects that eat his improving harvest once it is put in silos and stored.
Villagers quip that the voracious borer is so dangerous that once it is done with the stored grain it may well go for the farmer as well.
Traditional maize storage containers, woven from twigs and plastered with cow dung, are no match for the larger grain borer, which literally mills the grain to powder, according to Makau.
“Within three months there is nothing left in the store,” said Makau. Even reusing plastic drums as maize containers gives no protection.
“The pest is so tough that it even eats plastic,” he said.
METAL SILOS
In response, CIMMYT researchers began introducing farmers to metal grain silos in 2008. Tadele Tefera, who leads the organization’s project on post-harvest adaptation technology, said that silos can almost completely eliminate losses of harvested grain.
The grain borer can’t penetrate the silo’s metal walls, and because the silo is airtight, it kills pests that may slip in along with the grain, Tefera said. The technology already has been adopted successfully in El Salvador and Guatemala, and is now being taken up in Kenya and Malawi in Africa.
In the region around Philip Makau’s home, 400 metal silos have now been erected. The largest can hold 30 bags of maize. Makau’s silo holds up to five bags.
Since silos can be used for up to 20 or 30 years with minimal maintenance costs, a growing number of farmers want to use them, Tefera said.
But cost is an issue. Even the smaller silo at Makau’s home costs 13,000 Kenyan shillings (about $130), making such technology unaffordable for many farmers. Researchers hope to find ways to bring down the cost.
Meanwhile, they are working on another way to solve the problem – developing seed varieties that are resistant to post-harvest pests.
“In the next one or two years we plan to have varieties in the hands of farmers that are able to withstand the storage pests,” said Charles Kariuki, director of the KARI Katumani centre.
However, Kariuki said that the institution is struggling to find the resources needed to meet the rising demand for new farm technologies.
According to Wilson Songa, Kenya’s secretary for agriculture, the government has allocated 74 million shillings ($740,000) to KARI this year for research and innovation, which represents just 1.3 percent of the national budget for developing rural agriculture.
Lloyd Le Page, chief executive officer of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, said the challenges facing Makau are not unique to Kenya.
“Farmers in all arable lands of the world need to optimise production not only for their own food security but also as a tremendous option to generate additional income,” he said.
David Njagi is an environmental writer based in Nairobi.
-
0:16
»
Kim Media
What Prof. Wangari Maathai State Funeral Means
President Kibaki has directed a State funeral be held in honor of the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai.
Protocol for state funeral requires that a platoon- traditionally constituted by 36 soldiers in ceremonial uniform and regalia- accompanies the casket as it is drawn during burial. The head of state can also declare a day or days of mourning.
The casket that will be bearing the remains of Prof. Wangari Maathai will be draped in the Kenyan flag, and most likely placed on a stately carriage and escorted by a military platoon like the Late Vice-President Michael Wamalwa burial.
For the late Prof. Wangari we should expect a little more based on that she was an international public figure. The world will be watching so Kenya has to put its best foot forward.
The Head of State in this case has also declared two days of national mourning on Thursday and Friday during which flags will be flown at half-mast. No dates have been set yet for the ceremony.
