By Leo Odera Omolo

 Members of the National Parliaments  of the EAC Partner States and their counterparts  of the  East African Legislative Assembly ( EALA ) held their 4^th  annual Inter-Parliamentary  Relations  Seminar  in Kigali, Rwanda  on 1-3 October 2008. The Seminar was opened on 1 October 2008 by H.E. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda who is also the Chairperson of the EAC Summit.

 

The Seminar focused on enhancing the roles of the national and regional legislators in the EAC integration process. The main sessions of the Seminar were devoted to discussions on the ongoing negotiations on the EAC Common Market Protocol; and the EC-EAC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

 

Over 200 participants attended the Seminar, including all Members of the EALA ; 15 Members of Parliament each from the 5 EAC National Assemblies; East African Ministers, Senior Government and EAC officials; and 15 Members of the ECOWAS Parliament.

 

Opening session

 

H.E.  President Paul Kagame, the Speaker of the EALA , Hon Abdirahin Haithar Abdi, the Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Hon.  Monique Mukaruliza , the President of the Rwanda Senate, Hon Higiro Prosper, Leader of the delegation of the  ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Yormie Johnson, the Representatives and leaders of delegation of the  National Assemblies of the EAC Partner States, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi; and  the Deputy  Secretary General (Projects and Programmes)  of the EAC , Amb. Julius Onen    addressed the opening session.

 

Welcoming remarks

 

In his welcoming  remarks, the  Speaker of the EALA , Hon Abdirahin Haithar  Abdi said the Inter-Parliamentary  seminars provided a platform  for  collaborative  effort between  EALA   and  the National  Assemblies of the Partner States to address  the challenges of regional integration and mobilize  public opinion on critical  regional  issues. He said  the objective of the exercise is to expedite the integration  process, avoiding the pitfalls that caused  the collapse  of the former East African Community ( 1967 – 1977) by putting the people’s  priorities  at the centre of all  the strategic  plans and  developments.  The Speaker referred to the ongoing negotiations of the EAC Common Market Protocol and the EPA negotiations and said that the Parliaments should be constantly appraised of the progress and developments in such negotiations all the way through,  from the initial to the subsequent implementation stages of the important processes.

 

President Kagame calls for great dedication

 

In his Keynote Address to the Seminar, H.E.  President Kagame said regional integration should not be taken for granted. He challenged the Parliamentarians to champion the cause of the EAC vigorously, stating that “the success (of regional integration) needs constant nurturing and championing by all the players in the process. As Parliamentarians you have a vital role to play in determining what kind of Community our region wants. You are duty bound to inform and educate your respective constituencies about the common good the Community has for its people”.

 

Experts offer candid briefs on EAC Common Market and EPA negotiations

 

A Lead Consultant for the EAC Common Market Protocol negotiations, Mr. Dan Ameyo, tabled a candid and comprehensive brief on the “EAC Common Market Negotiations: Status and Prospects”. He said the EAC Common Market negotiations had proceeded very well through the three rounds of the negotiations that have been held in Kigali , Nairobi and Bujumbura . He said the 4^th round of the negotiations is scheduled for 5-15 October in Kampala .

 

Mr. Ameyo  said  the  establishment  of the EAC Common Market entailed  the development of a “single  market  through a  standardized system  of laws which  apply in all  Partner States guaranteeing  the free movement  of People,  Goods, Services  and Capital”. He said agreement  on the modalities  for guaranteeing  these freedoms as well as establishing  the rights  of residence  and establishment formed the thrust of  the ongoing  negotiations  which he described  as “sensitive  and far reaching”.

 

Mr. Ameyo said the operations  of the Common Market   presented prospects of  significant  deepening of  the East African regional integration, requiring, among others,  strengthening  of the EAC institutional machinery; removal  of all barriers  to internal  trade; revamping  regional  infrastructure; restructuring the funding  base of  the Community;  and, on the whole,  embracing  substantial and fundamental  change  in the way of doing  business in the region.

 

Dr Francis Mangeni, Consultant on African  Trade and International Trade Policy said  that  as the EAC countries  were engaged with  EU on the EPAs  negotiations,  and have  initialed a Framework  EPA Agreement,  the problem  was that  EU  had a global  market access  strategy  and the EAC  countries  had  neither  a strategy for Europe nor, for that  matter, a market access strategy for any other part of the world. He said  the EPA  was an EU  agenda, part of  the EU global strategy  that was least sensitive  to the  need to balance  the best  interests  of weak  partners  with Europe’s  immediate and long-term  interests  in a self-enlightened   manner.

 

Dr. Mangeni said under the ongoing negotiations  of EPAs, the EU negotiators  remained  tough and stubborn; almost replicas  of the colonial viceroy; the  EU  considering  itself in a position to  again mould  the developing  world  in its  own image, and  to negotiate itself into a permanent  preferential place that  assures its continued influence  in order  to  secure an edge over competitors for resources, services  and goods markets and geographical reach.  He said the EPA agenda and its contents were being imposed on the developing countries against the mounting opposition by various stakeholders, including the AU, UNECA, developing countries Parliamentarians, NGOs and other concerned groups which were being ignored.  He said the bureaucrats have stolen  the show, sidelined everybody and are  negotiating  the EPAs  without  involvement  or guidance  of the Parliaments with regard to  the negotiation positions.

 

Parliamentarians demand role in Common Market negotiations

 

Members of the EAC Partner States’ National Assemblies and their counterparts  of the East African Legislative Assembly contributed  to a long, heated debate which, on the whole,  supported the need  and urgency  to establish  a Common Market that  has broad  support and participation   of the East African people; and EPA  negotiations that are driven  by a clear and balanced appreciation of the concerns, positions and interests of  the EU and EAC  sides in the negotiations alike.

 

Hon Gervase Akhaabi, Member of EALA said the Common Market negotiations should involve the participation of the legislators and aim at the development of trust, confidence and cohesion among the East African people.

 

Hon Jessica Alupo, MP Uganda Parliament  said there was need to mount elaborate programme of sensitization and mobilization of the East African people on the ongoing Common Market negotiations.

 

Hon Valerie Nyirahabineza, Member of the EALA , said EALA should be briefed with every step made in the EPA and Common Market negotiations on the status of progress being made and the challenges experienced in the processes in order to make their inputs.

 

Hon Dr. Aman Kabourou, Member of the EALA , said the proposed restructure of the Community to support the Common Market should be handled with care. He warned against creating a top heavy EAC of politicians and bureaucrats, stating that it was more prudent to develop a structure and mechanism that strengthened the role of the ordinary people in the EAC integration process.

 

Hon Catherine Kimura, Member of EALA , said that, as the Common Market negotiations were underway, there was need to carry out an evaluation of the Customs Union and its achievements, operational challenges and relate these to the prospects of the Common Market . She said the Common Market should focus on the supply side and emphasize the need to boost the region’s productive base, to create a vibrant EAC market that encouraged development of industries, processing and manufacturing.

 

Hon. Musikari Kombo MP, Kenya Parliament said the executive arm of the EAC governments would not voluntarily yield space for the role of the legislators in the oversight function on the EPA and Common Market Protocol negotiations. He said the Parliamentarians  have to fight  for  the space to ensure that they get the information necessary  for them  to be effective  in influencing  the  progress of the   Common Market and other negotiations .

 

Hon Sarah Bonaya, Member of EALA   said  although  the present  situation whereby  the EALA was indirectly  elected through the National Assembly  was unsatisfactory, this should  not  be used to marginalize the Assembly’s  representative, legislative and oversight role as enshrined in the Treaty. A road map should be provided for the transition through the present indirectly elected EALA to the EALA that would be elected by universal suffrage.

 

Hon Zito Kabwe, MP Tanzania Parliament said the EALA Members had powers vested in them by the Treaty which they should exercise fully in holding the executive accountable in the conduct of EAC affairs. He advocated the transformation of the EAC Secretariat to a Commission with enhanced executive authority. He said that the Commissioners posts should not be established on the basis of country representation but on the basis of the identified areas of interaction and integration within the Community. He called for further pursuit of expansion of the EAC  to  bring in other neighbouring  countries into the Community in particular, the DRC which , he said , once it joined the Community would  maximize the benefits of East African integration with a large and powerful and large  regional  bloc,  extending  from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. 

 

Hon Lydia Wanyoto, Member of the EALA , stressed the need for the proposed EAC Common Market Protocol to incorporate provisions for, among others, the creation of a regional public service commission; competitive recruitment of EAC executive positions on merit, transparent and competitive basis; restructure and harmonization of relations between the organs and institutions of the Community; and harmonized framework for election of Members of the EALA .

 

Hon Beatrice Shelukindo, MP Tanzania Parliament said the EALA should demand briefings and consultations with respective governments and the EAC executives on the Common Market process before the scheduled conclusions of the Protocol in December 2008; for the EPA negotiations, before the scheduled signature of the Comprehensive EPA in July 2009 to make their inputs with regard to the EAC positions.

 

Hon Munyaka Kioko, MP, Kenya Parliament called for the  introduction of a common East African currency which he said should not be difficult to introduce as  the East African countries have  already in the past  had a common currency. He said the introduction of a common currency would facilitate faster and effective regional integration. He said the ongoing deepening of the East African integration process should benefit from the experience and lessons learnt from the former Community which, he said, had been vibrant.

 

Hon Joram Pajobo, MP Uganda Parliament said that under the Common Market , workers freedom of movement and rights should be harmonized within international ILO conventions and standards, including workers rights to organize, social security and disputes settlement.

 

Hon James Ndahiro, Member of EALA said with regard  to the EPA negotiations  that great care should be taken  to ensure  EAC did not  negotiate  itself  into deeper  dependence  and marginalization in the global economic society or  sucked  into crises like  the current financial crisis  experienced  in the US and Europe.

 

Hon Christine Bakobia, MP Uganda Parliament decried Europe’s insatiable appetite for Africa ’s resources. She said  Africa should  maintain a firm stand against farm subsidies which  Europe  was extending  to its  farmers yet  in Africa  the farmers were denied subsidies; and the continent was subjected to persistent famine and food crisis.

 

Hon Dr Michael Mayiga, MP Uganda Parliament dismissed the EPA negotiations as simply trade manipulations. He said EAC  should  develop own  international trade policy  and agenda,  emphasizing  intra-EAC  and intra-African trade and  negotiate from a position of strength realizing  that the West (Europe) needs  Africa  more than  Africa  needs Europe. 

 

Mr. Karim  Abdul, MP  Rwanda Parliament said the  objective  of the EALA   negotiations  should  be  fair  trade and business  with the rest of the world. He said EAC policy should emphasize value added production and export.

 

Conclusions and recommendations

 

At the conclusion of the Seminar, the Parliamentarians adopted far reaching resolutions and recommendations calling for consultations with and involvement of the EALA and the National Parliaments in oversight and promotion roles in the ongoing negotiations of the EAC Common Market Protocol and the EPAs negotiations. They resolved that the consultations with the Parliaments on the Common Market Protocol should be done by 15 December 2008.

 

In their resolutions the Parliamentarians required the EAC Secretariat to provide a detailed Status Report on the EAC integration progress (since the re-establishment of the Community in 2000) by 15 December 2008; and a Study on the performance of the EAC Customs Union (established in 2005) by 15 December 2008 which will be considered by the Parliamentarians in the context of making their inputs into the Common Market and the EPAs negotiations as well formulating EAC strategic plan.

 

The Parliamentarians declared that the EPAs Framework Agreement that has been initialed between EAC and EU last November was a raw deal, poorly negotiated and did not involve the Parliamentarians.  They resolved that EALA and the National Parliaments engage EPA negotiators – Ministers and technocrats – to register their respective concerns before the final signatures of the Comprehensive EPA Agreement. They said the concerns included the issues of a development chapter in the EPA, flexibility and exceptions in market access, periodic reviews, specific reviews, dispute settlements, proper approach to the Singapore issues and relevant institutions. The Parliamentarian required that their engagement with the EPA negotiators should be undertaken before June 2009.  

 

The Parliamentarians noted that  rapid  development in East Africa calls  for more South to South (developing countries)  co-operation which is more  advantageous  than that  with the West . They recommended  that EAC  evolves  a strategic  development co-operation strategy  with other  African  regional economic  communities as well as with the emerging  economies of China, India and Brazil. They said that the   East African Joint Trade Negotiation Bill recently passed by EALA would enhance the EAC negotiating capacity with the rest of the world. They recommended that all EAC Partner States assent to the Bill and implement it. ( Tanzania , Uganda , Rwanda and Burundi have assented to the Bill. Kenya has not yet assented to the Bill).

 

The Parliamentarians noted that there were few visible EAC projects to demonstrate as practical evidence of the deepening and widening regional integration and recommended that some “quick win” regional projects, particularly those in infrastructure development, are identified and promoted and funds mobilized to implement such projects in the short and medium term.   

 

The Parliamentarians also passed resolutions and made recommendations seeking to strengthen information and communications about the EAC and popular awareness and participation. They said Members of EALA and National Assemblies should be empowered, through a supplementary budget for FY 2008/2009, to engage in activities to supplement the EAC publicity and marketing effort to enhance popular awareness and participation in the regional integration process.

 

The Parliamentarians also passed resolutions and made recommendations to strengthen the oversight function of the EALA and greater accountability of the executive to the EALA on EAC matters as well as promote effective EAC inter-organ relations (Summit, Council, EALA , East African Court of Justice and the Secretariat) and promote a sustained strong political will at the forefront of the regional integration and development process. With regard to the issue of election of EALA through universal suffrage, the Parliamentarians noted that the Legal Committee of EALA has been assigned to make wider consultations on the issue with a view to arriving at harmonized guidelines. 

 

The Parliamentarians noted that the region was bearing a big brunt of the global digital divide and recommended that a programme of “One Laptop per Child” currently under implementation in Rwanda schools is adopted immediately as a regional programme within the EAC integration process and framework for ICT development.

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API

<Business Feature By Leo Odera Omolo

 THERE is a ray of hope among the small and large scale tea farmers in Kenya following President Mwai Kibaki’s directive at the weekend to the relevant Ministry to ensure that the farmers plight are urgently addressed.

 While officially opening this year’s Nairobi International ASK Show, .President Kibaki cautioned small scale tea farmers against uprooting their crops over poor returns and promised the farmers that their plight would be addressed.

The Head of State singled out tea farmers and expressed concerns over their reported plan to uproot their tea bushes crops in protest over how low pay and poor marketing has caused them a lot of frustrations.

President Kibaki’s directive came in the wake of adverse reports appearing in the local press to the effect that small scale tea growers in the Central and Western Kenya regions were uprooting their tea crops and replacing them with nappier grass for dairy animals. 

The disturbing reports says that small scale tea farmers in the regions mentioned above are uprooting the tea Bushes and replacing the crops with other crops they think could take them back to good old days.

 Central Kenya is regarded as one of the country’s richest regions, and owe its enviable status to tea an

coffee farming. But with the collapse of the coffee sector, and now tea following suit, one shudders to imagine

where the region is heading to.

 “ I am concerned that some farmers are contemplating reducing their tea bushes. My government will soon address all the grievances and shortfalls to ensure farmers reap maximum profits, .”said the President

 He went on, ,”I personally want to see farmers earning at least 50 per cent of the sale price of their produce”

 In recent years tea crop had taken over from coffee as the leading foreign exchange earner, but poor marketing and management coupled corruption and poor pay has caused crisis in tea farming in Western and Central regions.

 Tea farmers are reportedly uprooting the tea bushes and turning to more lucrative ventured such as dairy and horticultural farming for better income.

 Initial projection shows that tea output this year will decrease to 335 million from 369 kg last year due to dry weather in tea growing areas, according to the details and statistics of the trade index released by African Tea Brokers.

 In most parts of tea growing zones in the country, small scale are animatedly uprooting tea bushes, the same way they did with coffee tree a few years ago when its return dwindled.. The farmers are saying tea crops is no longer a profitable venture.

 But only one day after President Kibaki directed that the problem bedeviling the cash crop be resolved, the  country.s Minister for Agriculture William Ruto move much faster to resuscitate the ailing tea industry. He gave the Tea Board of Kenya the total control over industry from the farm to the tea cup on the table.

 Ruto, who together with the Prime Minister Raila Odinga had accompanied the President t o the Show ground t the Jamhuri Park, Nairobi immediately put in place a number of far-reaching reforms, which the farmers says are likely to change the fortune of the once vibrant tea sector.

 Among these is the reduction of the number of local or zonal directors of the KTDA managing tea factories from seven to five in a bid to ease the farmers burden. In the past farmers blamed factory boards which rakes up with huge expenses that eat into their earnings

 Minister Ruto also said he was looking at the possibilities of reducing the role of brokers in the sale of tea in the international market.

 Ruto said the government has given the Tea Board of Kenya, which is the industry regulator, the sweeping powers in its quest to revive the once vibrant but now troubled tea industry.

 The problem is rapidly approaching a crisis level, as the farmers are not ready to heed the government plea for patience as it completes reforms n the agricultural sector.

 In the late 1980s, the tea crop was a high-income earner for Kenya farmer both small and large plantations, most of which are still owned and managed by foreign multinational companies.

 With the tea industry now in a crisis, small scale farmers in rural areas are reportedly unable to cope with the rising cost of production that has seen many lose their lifetime investment.

 Farmers misgivings are a result of pilling frustration following a stead decline in earnings to the point, the venture is no longer viable.

 And the plight of many farmers reflects the fate of thousands of small-scale tea growers silently going through tough time.

 A small scale tea farmer who delivered his crops to a nearby green leaves tea crushing factory run and managed by the  Kenta Tea Development Agency {KTDA} earn Kshs 10/.50 cents per a kilo.The farm pay 7/- to the labour, he is deducted 2/- for fertilizer and cess money and a further and 1/- is further charged

His bank to process the payment. This means  his final earning is a paltry 50 cents per kg of green tea leaves delivered to the factory, and this little amount of money is what is expected to take care of the poor farmer and his entire family needs.

 When the tea farming in Kenya was doing well, the farmer used to take home a big pay cheque package in the form of a bonus from respective tea factories.

 Most of Kenyan tea farmers used to rely on this bonus payment to educate their children and take care of other family commitments.

 .Many farmers are reportedly turning to dairy farming, which they says has better fortunes compared to the ailing tea farming.

The tea sector is fighting hard to survive, as the odds of harsh economic times continue to pile up against it

 With rising production costs, weakening of US dollar, a surplus of tea at the international market and dwindling earnings, the future of tea farming in Kenya is now looked bleak.

 Small scale farmers, who are mostly affected are reportedly disillusioned. One farmer in the Central Province district of Nyeri{President Kibaki’s home turf} was recently seen uprooting tea bushes by the side of the main road, and getting ready to replace them with nappier grass their favorable new venture.

 Most of the farmers planted tea due to high incomes it used to fetch, and they left and they left no room for diversification in food crops and livestock farming.

 Those reported to be uprooting their tea bushes blame the KTDA for litany of woes including dispressed earnings.

 On its part the KTDA, which is a government parastatal blames politics, world market and the global trends, which have pushed up exchange rates of hard currency and costs.

 The uprooting of tea bushes in Central ad Western Kenya regions have reached a crisis level, forcing the dynamic Agriculture Minister Ruto to personally intervene.

 The Minister has visited the affected regions twice in a matter of weeks to plead with the farmers to abandon plans to uproot their tea bushes fearing that their action could influence other regions, particularly Western Kenya where tea is grown in abundance.

 As a result of the piling pressure against the tea sub-sector one MP from the Central region recently raised the matter in Kenya’s parliament.

 Ephrahim Maina the MP for Mathira had sought to know what the Kenya government planned to do to arrest the crisis should the tea farmers abandon the crop..

 High cost of input, labour wages, low returns, The Mp told the hushed house, were forcing farmers out of their fields.

 Two years ago, tea farmers in Kenya earned Kshs 47 billion from tea sales, but this has dropped drastically to a paltry Kshs 3 billion last year. And this year things appear to be even more worse, given the all time high cost of fertilizer, transport and labour.

 

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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API

FORMER President Thabo Mbeki, his arch-rival Jacob Zuma and the National Prosecuting Authority will fight one final mighty battle in the Constitutional Court over the Judge Chris Nicholson judgment.
Mbeki has already submitted an affidavit contesting the judgement and today the NPA did the same.
Two judges – Hillary Squires and Chris Nicholson – have already given judgements that led to the unseating of the country’s two top politicians. Squires famous judgement in the Schabir Shaik case sealed the fate of Zuma, who was fired by Mbeki. Then Nicholson’s “inference” that Mbeki interfered in the Zuma prosecution led to the ANC firing Mbeki.
What will happen in the current Constitutional Court case?
Mbeki will argue that Nicholson’s inference was wrong and that he did not interfere with the prosecution of Zuma. If this is upheld, it will mean that the grounds on which he was fired from the presidency were spurious. On the other hand, if the court finds that he did, it will damage Mbeki’s legacy and seal his isolation from the ANC’s new elite.
The NPA will want the court to find that it did not err by failing to offer Zuma an opportunity to make representations prior to his prosecution. If the court upholds this, the case against Zuma will be very much back on track and Zuma’s supporters are likely to mount an all-out assault on the judiciary as their man heads for the dock. If it finds for Zuma, that will signal the end of efforts to prosecute him and pave the way for him to take the presidency after the 2009 election.
Is it appropriate that so many hefty political decisions are finding their way into the courts?
The answer must be yes. The constitution must be the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong in a constitutional state and so it is fitting that it should preside over such weighty matters.
The code of the people must rule supreme.

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API/Source.thetimes.sapa

Charges against Zuma’s co-accused – the South African subsidiaries of French arms manufacturing giant Thales International – were today provisionally withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority.

• NPA spokesman Tlali Tlali confirmed that the charges had been provisionally withdrawn.

The two Thint companies – Thint Holding (Southern Africa) Pty Ltd and Thint (Pty) Ltd – each faced one count of racketeering, two of corruption and one of money-laundering in the case in which it was accused of paying Zuma a bribe in return for protection from probes into alleged irregularities in a multi-million rand arms deal.

The withdrawal of the charges follows the setting aside of charges against Zuma by Pietermaritzburg High Court judge Chris Nicholson last month because Zuma had not been given a chance to make representations to the NPA when it decided to press charges against him for a second time.

The NPA last week filed an application for leave to appeal against the Nicholson ruling.

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API/Source.sapa.thetimes

According to veteran peace activist Fredrik S. Heffermehl neither Al Gore nor Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should have received the Nobel Peace Prize. He thinks that most of the awards have been contrary to the Alfred Nobel’s testament. Gore and Pachauri on the right, pictured with the Secretary of the Nobel Committee, Geir Lundestad on the left.Veteran peace activist Fredrik S. Heffermehl, thinks that most of the Nobel Peace Prizes that have been given conflict with Alfred Nobel’s will and testament.

 

Fredrik S Heffermehl wants the Peace Prize Committee to stick more strictly to Nobel’s wishes. PHOTO: JON MYHRE

Heffermehl, who is the honorary president of the Norwegian Peace Council and Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau, criticises the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in a book published this week.

Al Gore and the Panel on Climate Change, Muhammad Yunus, Wangari Maathai, Shirin Ebadi, Mohamed El-Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA are among the many awards which Heffermehl think conflict with Nobel’s wishes.

“Disarmament and anti-militarism was what Nobel wanted to promote,” says Heffermehl to Aftenposten’s English Desk.

He says that Norway was a leading country in these fields when the Prizes were instituted. That was why the Peace Prize was to be awarded by a Norwegian committee, while the other Nobel Prizes are a Swedish responsibility.

In his book Nobels vilje (Nobel’s Will), analyses all the 118 Peace Prizes which have been awarded from 1901 until 2007. Up to 1940 some 85 percent of the prizes were in accordance with Nobel’s wishes. Since the Second World War a mere 45 percent make the grade. Only one of the prizes given during the last seven years fit Nobel’s criteria.

“Nobel didn’t start a peace prize but a prize for promoting peace in particular areas and ways. Nobel wanted the Prize to be given for promoting peaceful coexistence by reducing militarism and by building a framework of international law through peace congresses,” says Heffermehl.

The Nobel Committee’s Secretary, Geir Lundestad says to daily newspaper Aftenposten that he does not want to enter into a debate with Heffermehl, who has said that he will be taking political and legal action against the Committee.

Heffermehl rejects this.

“I have no idea what Lundestad is thinking of. I have no plans about taking action, legal or political, against the Committee. This is not an attack, but an exhortation to look at a number of questions,” says Heffermehl to news bureau NTB.

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API/Source.aftenposteneng

Ugandan singer injured in Tanzania

Uganda\’s celebrated musician Joseph Mayanja aka Jose Chameleone, famed for his Kiswahili songs understood throughout East Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is admitted in a Kampala hospital following a limb injury at the northern Tanzania town of Arusha on Saturday.

According to his promoters and local media, Chameleone was flown to Kampala with injured limbs after falling off the third floor of Impala Hotel in Arusha.

The singer had reportedly traveled with his younger brother Emma Mayanja, also a singer, to Tanzania to perform at a music show.

Chameleone told his local fans and the media from his hospital bed on Sunday that he could hardly remember the events that led to his falling from the hotel room.

\”I remember going to my bed that night and slept. But the next time I opened my eyes, I was on the floor surrounded by several people. I cried because I was feeling a lot of pain and I could neither stand up nor turn my body,\” he said.

Sources said that the hoarse-voiced singer is believed to have sleepwalked through the window of his hotel room.

The hotel management rushed him to AICA Hospital in Arusha where he was first admitted before he called his wife, Daniella Atim, who later organized for the singer to be flown to Kampala in a private chartered plane.

According to hospital sources, Chameleone broke both his ankle joints and would undergo another scan.

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API/Source.apa

French Prime Minister François Fillon will visit Egypt during the second half of December for talks with President Hosni Mubarak and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and a number of senior officials on the promotion of bilateral relations between Egypt and France in various fields especially economic, trade and investment.

Egyptian diplomatic sources said on Sunday that the French Prime Minister will discuss activating the agreement between Egypt and France during the first meeting of the committee on activating the initiative of the Union for the Mediterranean, which is being jointly chaired by Egypt and France.

The sources added that the visit will witness movements and consultations for the establishment of joint ventures to reflect the Union’s initiative for the Mediterranean, adding that there will be held on the sidelines of the visit a meeting of the Egyptian, French Presidential Business Council, to consider doubling the volume of French investments in Egypt.

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API/Source.apa

Liberian President Ellen Johnon Sirleaf has lauded Germany for its active role in the rebuilding of war-ravaged Liberia.

Speaking at a program marking the 19th anniversary of the reunion of Germany at the weekend, the Liberian leader recalled that after the civil war, Germany was the first European country to reopen its embassy in Monrovia.

“Liberians have benefited immensely from German assistance in the areas of education, health, road maintenance, sanitation and water and sewerage systems, among others,” the Liberian leader added.

Also speaking at the program, the German ambassador accredited to Liberia, Madam Lindemann Merkel challenged President Sirleaf to remain resolute and focused in her quest to rebuild Liberia.

She urged President Sirleaf not to be distracted in any way, as her government strives to move the country forward, and admonished Liberians to work with their government as it strives to regain the country’s lost image within the comity of nations.

The German envoy reiterated her country’s commitment to support Liberian’s reconstruction drive.

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API/Source.apa