By Karanja Njoroge and Vitalis Kimutai

It is not often that a girl is wooed through the mother, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the question happily and easily. In these tough times, so the question went, when the US is facing tough economic times that may have compelled her husband, former President Bill Clinton back to work, would she consider the substantial livestock offered by a Kenyan man for her only daughter’s hand in marriage?

Amused by the unexpected question from Mr Fareed Zakaria of CNN, who was moderating a public forum at the University of Nairobi yesterday, Clinton said, it would be up to Chelsea to decide, as she is “very independent”. But she would dutifully pass on the message to her daughter, she said.

Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor

The man who wishes to be Mrs Clinton’s son-in-law is Mr Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor, a former nominated councillor in Nakuru.

Chepkurgor had first written to then President Clinton offering 40 goats, and 20 cows in the year 2000, in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Yesterday, Chepkurgor said he was elated by the response, adding that he had been waiting for more than eight years for a response.

Well, the man has not been exactly waiting; he got married in 2006 after waiting in vain for Chelsea. But that does not mean the prospects are sealed; he can take a second wife.

“I express joy and happiness that, after a long time the Clinton family has responded,” Chepkurgor said, when The Standard caught up with him in Nakuru, yesterday.

Honest proposal

When the Clintons toured East Africa in 2000, Chepkurgor, then a fourth-year student at Moi University, made his intentions clear by expressing the desires of his heart.

During a public debate at the University of Nairobi yesterday, Mrs Clinton said her daughter is mature enough to decide on her own, but she would nonetheless pass the message to her. Her response sent the audience roaring with laughter.

Yesterday, Chepkurgor said he decided to move on, marrying his college mate, Grace, at Kabarak University Chapel on December 2, 2006. They have two children Sheilla Chebet three, and Rabboni Burgei one. But he says he still keeps tabs on Chelsea.

He said contrary to some people who viewed his proposal as taking a joke too far, he was honest and serious on the issue.

“When I made the proposal I was very serious and I still love her,” he added.

Chepkurgor, who was attending a seminar for census supervisors when the US Secretary of State made the comment, said the response surprised him. “Though I always hoped and I have been following Hillary’s tour, I did not expect the response yesterday,” he said, alluding to Clinton’s answer to Zakaria’s light-hearted question.

Ms Chelsea, daughter of US Secretary of State Hillary and former US President Bill Clinton. [PHOTO: Courtesy]

“When I came back my colleague informed me that Mrs Clinton had responded to my offer to marry her daughter,” he added.

Still wondering

Chepkurgor, a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology graduate, says he is ready to increase his offer of 40 goats and 20 cows if all goes well.

“In African traditions the groom makes the initial offer while the bride’s family can come up with a counter offer,” he says.

“I am still wondering why her mother did not bring her along,” Chepkurgor, now a businessman in Nakuru, said of Chelsea, 29.

He said recently that although he is happily married, he would explain his position to Chelsea if they met even later in life.

In 2002, Chepkurgor caused a stir while in college when he wrote and dispatched a letter to the Clintons at the White House, in Washington.

“I offered to pay 40 goats and 20 beef cattle as dowry to the former First family. In line with African tradition, I preferred dealing directly with the parents,” Chepkurgor said.

But the most interesting aspect of the letter was his referee. They included former President Moi, former MP and Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairperson Zipporah Kittony, Prof Margaret Kamar who is now an MP, and two of his former college mates, Mr John Tanui and Mr Joseph Siror.

“I picked on Moi because he was my President, chancellor, MP, and patron of my former high school, Kabarak,” Chepkurgor recalled.

Renewed attempts

Tanui, now working with Wauwei Technologies and Siror an employee of Kenya Revenue Authority — were his friends and college mates.

During President Clinton’s visit to Kenya on July 22, 2005, secret service agents were on the alert when The Standard exclusively broke the man’s intentions and renewed attempts to initiate contact with the former President.

The story ran on the same day Clinton arrived in Kenya and it attracted the attention of local and foreign press, which picked and circulated it worldwide.

source.standard.ke

By Standard Correspondent in New Jersey, USA

Former Justice Minister Martha Karua now says Prime Minister Raila Odinga has joined the dark side of history where former President Moi and President Kibaki belong.

Ms Karua, who has launched an offensive against the “status quo” after her exit from the Kibaki regime, now says the President and Prime Minister should share responsibility for Kenya’s past and present woes in equal measure.

Speaking in Jersey City, New Jersey at the weekend, the Gichugu MP said Kibaki and Raila were abetting corruption and it is difficult to know “who is a true friend of Kenya” adding “for sure the war on corruption is long abandoned and forgotten”.

Put to task by the Diaspora Kenyans on her role in the chaos that followed the infamous 2007 elections and as minister and hard-liner of the regime, Karua said she was above board with regard to the chaos and her role in the fight against corruption.

Voice of reason

Martha Karua former Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs

She said: “It is very clear who did what in the Government to short-change the war on corruption.

On my part, the record speaks for itself and I did advise the President accordingly. Whether that advice was taken is another issue altogether”.

She added: “My conscience would not allow me to continue as a voice of reason against corruption. Quitting was the best option and so I did. I have no regrets and would have only stayed if I had the whip, which only Kibaki and Raila have.”

She continued: “That is why I’m asking all Kenyans of good will to grant me that whip by electing me president in 2012. We cannot continue like this… we must walk the talk and I am ready.”

Time was right

The former minister alleged corruption had hit a record high since formation of the Grand Coalition Government, “surpassing those recorded in Kenya’s earlier years since Independence”.

Asked whether her resignation was way too late and that she joined the choir of denial at the time when then anti-graft czar John Githongo released dossier on the Anglo-Leasing scandal, Karua dismissed Githongo claims as “less convincing to me as a person and I would, therefore, not have reacted or acted upon them”.

She added: “Concerning my resignation, time was right and I could take it no more”.

But Kenya American Community Association Vice-President John Okech Ragwar took the former minister to task on her past positions on matters including granting dual citizenship to Kenyans, maintaining Karua “is not the kind of voice that most Kenyans hungry for change would want to speak on their behalf”.

Changed position

The MP later explained her position on dual citizenship had since changed and that “now I clearly believe it is time we gave this group of Kenyans the ease to hold citizenship back home and contribute to our country’s development without being gagged”.

source.standard.ke

Photo: Charles Akena/IRIN

Avoiding breastfeeding is one way to lower the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission (file photo). Many health facilities in Burkina Faso lack services to prevent this mode of transmission

OUAGADOUGOU,  – Health authorities estimate that just 10 percent of HIV-infected children in Burkina Faso are taking life-saving drugs while thousands of at-risk children are undiagnosed because their families refuse to have them tested.

The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS estimated that as of 2006 10,000 children were infected with HIV in Burkina Faso, with 4,600 needing antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

Only 46 percent of HIV patients in Burkina Faso who required treatment as of June 2009 – 23,000 people – are taking ARV drugs, according to the government’s national HIV and sexually transmitted diseases council.

“We know the numbers [requiring treatment] are higher because of children who are born to HIV-positive mothers,” said the council’s director of health services, Joseph André Bidiga. “We do not offer prevention of mother-to-child transmission [PMTCT] services in all our health centres.” He said 10 percent of the country’s health facilities do not offer this service.

Multiple studies have shown that ARV treatment combined with abstaining from breastfeeding can cut the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission to less than 5 percent. But in 2007 only 33 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women worldwide took ARVs, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO estimates that more than 400,000 children worldwide were newly infected in 2007, mostly through their mothers.

Fleeing HIV tests

The HIV council’s Bidiga told IRIN parental refusal to test children masks child HIV infections. By law children under 18 require parental permission for HIV tests in Burkina Faso.

Some parents cannot fathom their babies could be infected, said paediatrician Alice Zoungrana with Charles de Gaulle paediatrics hospital in the capital Ouagadougou. “We are in 2009 and it is sad, but many families…still think [HIV] is a purely sexual disease that does not affect children,” the doctor told IRIN.

She added that while 75 percent of families grant permission for their children to be tested at the hospital, authorization is given only reluctantly. “It takes time because [families] refuse and accept to test only when their children fall ill a second time. It is during the second hospitalization that they accept.”

We are in 2009 and it is sad, but many families…still think [HIV] is a purely sexual disease that does not affect children

It is not uncommon to see parents leaving the hospital with their children in the middle of the night to avoid the test, Zoungrana told IRIN. “These adults have not been tested themselves and do not want to know their children’s status.”

A nurse who works east of Ouagadougou and is infected with HIV told IRIN: “I had my suspicions when my son had swelling on his body and was constantly sick, but I never imagined he could have had AIDS.”

She said both she and her eight-year-old son now take ARVs.

National HIV council health director Bidiga told IRIN adults are the gatekeepers to HIV testing. “We target adults for [HIV] awareness and outreach, but we are not reaching the numbers we would like. For adults who are not tested, their children are worse off because it is the adults who bring the children in for testing.”

Message blocked

Paediatrician Zoungrana said messages about HIV are not getting through. “We have to revisit messages we are sending out to the population so they accept that HIV infections are possible in both adults and infants.”

Women are less resistant than men to having their children tested, said Jacques Sanogo, director of the NGO “Espoir” – hope in French – in Burkina Faso’s second-largest city Bobo-Dioulasso. “Often mothers test their children without letting their families know.”

A 45-year-old widow, infected with HIV by her late husband, told IRIN she was able to get tested only after his death in 2001. “Both he and his family refused that I and my children get tested after I accidentally discovered his ARVs in the house.” In 2002 she learned she was infected with HIV while her three children were not.

To overcome reticence about HIV tests, community health workers visit families to talk about preventing mother-to-child transmission and the importance of HIV testing, NGO director Sanogo told IRIN.

Paediatrician Zoungrana said the confidentiality of house visits by trusted community members boosts acceptance of the message. “These community approaches work best because they are closest to the population and messages get across better.”

An estimated 2.7 percent of Burkina Faso’s population – 150,000 people – were infected with HIV as of 2006, according to the government.

bo/pt/np source.www.irinnews.org