Roseleen Nzioka

Embattled director of the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission Justice Aaron Ringera finally bowed to public pressure and resigned.

Mr Ringera announced his decision to his staff before addressing a Press conference that was transmitted live on national television.

He announced that he and his deputy Mrs Fatuma Sichale had tendered their resignation letters to President Mwai Kibaki. The other deputy Dr Smokin Wanjala, quit two weeks ago.

Assistant director in charge of Investigations and Asset Recovery Dr John Mutonyi shall head Kacc in an acting capacity.

Justice Aaron Ringera

The move comes hot on the heels of sustained pressure from the KACC advisory board, civil society and Kenyans for him and his deputies to step down following their controversial re-appointment by President Kibaki.

MPs accused President Kibaki of disregarding the law in appointing Mr Ringera without consultation with the KACC advisory board and Parliament and threatened to cut off KACC funding unless the appointments were rescinded.

At the press conference held at Integrity Centre in Nairobi, Ringera turned spiritual, quoting Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for everything,” and that it was time for him to exit.

Ringera said he was leaving KACC with his head held high: “We have discharged our mandate with integrity, courage�.and have conducted ourselves with utmost professionalism.”

Ringera said he and his team had managed to forward for prosecution over 500 corruption cases which they had so far investigated, including ministers, MPs and Permanent Secretaries.

He enumerated various proposals for the way forward for KACC to successfully eradicate corruption, strongly advocating for a review of the legal framework within which KACC operates. Key among the proposals is for KACC to have powers to prosecute the cases it investigates.

source.standard.ke

By Cyrus Ombati

Police in Nairobi arrested a top Eritrean diplomat in connection with terror activities.

Anti-Terror police officers yesterday nabbed the First Secretary at the Eritrean Embassy Tewaled Holde Nagesh along the city streets after they realised he had sneaked back to the country.

Mr Nagesh was arrested and deported last October after police declared him a threat to national security.

Yesterday, anti-terror police said Nagesh forged travelling documents and sneaked back to the country through the Ethiopian border.

Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe said Nagesh is expected to be deported any time and that he was expected to appear in court.

“Preliminary findings show he used fake documents to return to Kenya. He was arrested this morning and will be deported anytime,” said Mr Kiraithe.

Security threat

Kiraithe termed Nagesh a threat to national security and the relationship between Kenya and Eritrea.

Said Kiraithe: “If he was deported last October how did he find his way back to the embassy in Nairobi?”

Police were looking for some officials at the embassy for grilling.

Meanwhile, police shot dead a suspected follower of Mungiki sect yesterday in a confrontation in Nairobi�s Dandora Estate.

Police said the deceased was in the company of five others who had been demanding money from matatu operators when the incident occurred at about 3pm.

Matatu operators alerted the police, complaining that they were harassed.

Buru Buru Deputy OCPD Karisa Mwaringa said they are looking for other suspects who escaped on foot. He added that they recovered a pistol from the suspect.

source.standard.ke

Kampala (Uganda)� – After two decades of war during which thousands of children were used as child soldiers and many women raped, northern Uganda�s recovery plan is to be spent on building roads rather than helping the country�s most vulnerable. Civil society and women parliamentarians are not happy with the government and donors, as there are no concrete measures to meet gender-related concerns over the recovery plan for Northern Uganda.

The over 600 million dollar Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) � 70 percent of which was sponsored by donors and the remainder by the Ugandan government � was designed to stabilise and bridge the economic disparities between Northern Uganda and the rest of the country.

Most of the money, to be spent over three years, is to be used to construct feeder roads and infrastructure destroyed during the war.

And while roads were needed, the needs of the women also needed to be met, said Oyam District Member of Parliament, Amongi Beatrice Lagada. “The women took on so many burdens during the war. So unless we recognise those gender roles we shall not restore the gender perspectives which were there before,” she said.

An estimated 30,000 to 66,000 children were abducted during the 20 years of conflict. About 90 percent of the LRA ranks were populated by children forced to terrorise civilians by cutting off hands and lips, among other atrocities.

A study conducted by United Nations Children’s Fund in 2005 in one of the Pabo displaced-persons camp found that at least 60 percent of women there had suffered sexual or domestic violence.

Monica Amonding, coordinator of the Uganda Women Parliamentarians’ Association (UWOPA), says the PRDP has no budget to resettle single mothers, female-headed households, widows, formerly abducted girls, women with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

Amonding said many war-affected women, girls and boys had resorted to begging in streets in urban centres because they had not been assisted to cope with life after two decades of war.

The Women’s Task Force on a Gender-Responsive Peace, Recovery and Development Plan, and UWOPA say the war affected women and men differently, because of gender advantages or disadvantages.

They say women and girls have suffered from brutal levels of sexual and gender-based violence that increased their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. But the recovery programme lacks interventions to alleviate the plight of women.

Beatrice Anywar, a female MP from Kitgum district on the Uganda-Sudan border, said the PRDP should help child mothers to return to school, or gain skills for income generation.

“We have stressed that women and children have suffered most, whether those who remained at home or those who were abducted and were serving with (Joseph) Kony. A woman is now charged with more responsibilities than a man, but there is little on the table to show she will get a fair share of the money,” she said.

Joseph Kony, leader of Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group, was indicted by the International Criminal Court for the atrocities committed on civilians during the two decades of war in Northern Uganda.

Uganda�s Minister in Charge of Northern Uganda reconstruction, David Wakikona, told IPS the ministry was working toward including some of the women’s concerns in the next budget. He said people with disabilities, women, and other special interest groups had to present fundable projects through their groups.

“We shall definitely fund them, because we know that the women have suffered, so the women should not be worried,” he said.

But Amonding said the government should not operate like a donor.

“For us PRDP will be meaningless as long as it continues to focus on hardware issues like roads, bridges and so on. We want software issues like counselling services, maternal health and adolescent-friendly services for boys and girls. But these have not been reflected anywhere in the framework.”

Jane Alisemera, a female member of Parliament and UWOPA chairperson, told IPS: “Eighty percent of formerly displaced persons are women and children. The PRDP’s intended objectives will fail to deliver tangible results if gender gaps are not urgently addressed.”

The activists say the PRDP framework is not in line with accepted national, regional and international gender instruments such as Uganda’s gender policy, the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) or the Beijing Platform of Action. Uganda�s gender policy, like CEDAW, requires the state to take measures to eliminate discrimination against women.

Alisemera further noted that sex-disaggregated data had not been included in the framework for planned interventions. “The budget allocation has not been broken down by gender; this makes it nearly impossible to determine the projected spending on men and women, or boys and girls. So you cannot come out with gender-responsive tools to monitor and evaluate its impact,” she said.

The two years of peace in Northern Uganda have seen many formerly displaced people resettling in their villages, but it has not been easy for those with disabilities. This is one of the areas that the activists want the money channelled to if people with disabilities are to return home. For disabled people, moving from IDP camps means they will now have longer distances to travel for food, fetch water, access medical care and essential services.

Margaret Babadiri, a Member of Parliament from Kobko, is visually impaired. Climbing the Parliament of Uganda stairs with her white cane, she told IPS: “Well first of all I�m happy because the PRDP will benefit areas that have suffered from war for a very long time. But what I�m not happy with is the way it was developed. It did not involve everybody, or include people with a disability � women and so on. They think we are uniform. It is actually disability-blind and gender-blind.

“If I can take it close to home: during the insurgency a lot of havoc has been done, people were killed, many became disabled and the number of disabled persons in Northern Uganda is greater than any other region in Uganda.

“Because you step on a landmine, your leg is cut off, and the atrocities caused by Kony where the lips are cut off. So this PRDP should target people with disabilities, but we don’t see any specific programmes aimed at us,” she stressed.

Santos Okumu, representating the visually impaired in the Gulu District Disabled Persons’ Union, told IPS the women had suffered most from war-related disabilities, and women with disabilities were no longer supported by their spouses

“They are really suffering. When they got married they were walking, but now the landmine has blown off one leg. They look like a cock that has folded one leg, so the spouses don�t want them. These people are highly traumatised. They don’t only need psycho-social support, they need financial support if they are to gain a livelihood. But unfortunately many will miss out on the PRDP in its current form,” he said.

Irene Laker is a victim of a landmine planted by the Lord’s Resistance Army. She was about to get married, but now lives a single life after her leg was amputated.

“You know at the time I was hit by a mine, I was going to get married. But because of that disability, that person saw me in the hospital without a limb, then he disappointed me. That was the first challenge. And then the family members look at me as a burden. I was doing some small work at the district, but lost that job because of the disability.” Laker has remained unemployed, and is yet to marry.

Uganda’s Finance Minister, Syda Bumba who until recently was Gender Minster, said the concerns of the women were genuine and expected they could be addressed in the subsequent budgets. “I’m aware that we discussed those issues even when I was still at Gender (Ministry). And I (am) aware that discussion are still going on between the different actors and the Prime Minister’s office. So I believe those issues will be addressed by government,” she said.

Source.IPS

Dakar (Senegal) – Lawyers and rights activists are calling on the African Union’s human rights body to move its headquarters out of The Gambia after President Yahya Jammeh on national television threatened human rights defenders and said he would kill anyone collaborating with them.

�African leaders must stand up and draw a line and say this is unacceptable,” Chidi Odinkalu, legal adviser with the Africa Open Society Justice Initiative, told IRIN. “We cannot defend human rights internationally if our leaders are going around threatening people [with death].”

In a speech televised on 21 September President Jammeh said: �If you think you can collaborate with so-called human rights defenders and get away with it, you must be living in a dream world. I will kill you and nothing will come of it.�

He continued: �We are not going to condone people posing as human rights defenders to the detriment of our country. If you are affiliated with any human rights group, rest assured your security and personal safety will not be guaranteed by my government. We are ready to kill saboteurs.�

The Gambia hosts the African Commission on Human and People�s Rights, which hears cases brought by human rights defenders from across the continent.

�It is extraordinary,” Odinkalu told IRIN. “When presidents begin to threaten death and killing on people who defend human life and human rights it reflects a system with a total absence of accountability.�

�This is not the first, second or third time he has issued threats [but] there is a chilling dimension to this threat. It is indiscriminate and it is directed at the whole world…The human rights situation in Gambia…is intolerable.�

Lawyers from the Open Society Institute and the Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and People�s Rights have signed a petition to be sent to the African Union on 28 September, calling on the Commission to stop holding sessions in The Gambia until the matter is resolved, and for civil society organizations to refrain from attending any sessions.

�Such comments by a public official are simply contemptible, as well as in violation of the African Charter on Human and People�s Rights,” said a communiqu� accompanying the petition. “But Jammeh�s threat is even more cynical considering that the African Commission on Human and People�s Rights maintains its headquarters in the Gambian capital city, Banjul.”

The Commission, charged with promoting and protecting human rights throughout the continent, was established in 1986 by the African Charter on Human and People�s Rights and set up its headquarters in Banjul in 1989.

source.irinnews.

Nairobi (Kenya) � The recent killing in Somalia of a top US target shows that the Obama administration is fully committed to taking military action in support of the shaky Transitional Federal Government.

The September 14 helicopter attack that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who had long been hunted by the US for his alleged role in terror attacks in Kenya, signalled to militant Islamist groups that “we have a long reach and a long memory,” US counterterrorism expert Jack Cloonan told the Associated Press.

Nabhan, linked to the 1998 East African embassy bombings and the 2002 suicide attack on the Paradise Hotel near Mombasa, ranked alongside fellow Kenyan Fazul Abdullah Mohammed as the US’ most wanted foreign fighters in Somalia. The United States regards Fazul as the leader of Al Qaida’s East Africa cell.He is also said to be a principal figure behind both the attacks with which Nabhan was associated.

The daytime raid that reportedly killed five other foreign fighters, in addition to Nabhan, leaves no doubt that the United States will try to kill Fazul whenever a suitable opportunity arises. And Washington may feel growing urgency to act. Somali sources recently told The New York Times that Fazul is training a cell of suicide bombers in Mogadishu.

At the same time, the Obama administration appears determined to proceed cautiously in its military operations in Somalia.

“We’ve all learned how important it is to avoid civilian casualties,” a US official told Reuters following the helicopter strike which was carried out only after Nabhan had entered an unpopulated area.

The United States launched cruise missiles at targets in Somalia on at least five occasions during the Bush years, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Somali villagers. That collateral damage enraged many Somalis, and thus benefited the Islamist forces seeking to overthrow the US-supported transitional government.

Somalis generally welcomed the most recent operation, according to an unnamed activist in Somalia quoted by Reuters.

“On the one hand, people are relieved. It happened in an isolated place with very little damage or killing of innocents,” he said. “And no one is crying about the loss of individuals who are not Somali.”

Kenya, however, was critical of the American operation. Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula complained in an interview with Reuters last week that the US had carried out the mission “without information or cooperation or collaboration.”

“That lone ranger behaviour has often not succeeded in many places,” Mr Wetangula said.

The Al Shabaab insurgent force targeted in the US attack made good on a vow of retaliation. The Islamist group killed 21 members of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (Amisom) in a September 17 suicide bombing in Mogadishu carried out with stolen United Nations vehicles.

In addition to taking direct military action against Shabaab, the Obama administration is increasing weapons shipments and financial support to the TFG, as well as training Somali forces at sites in Djibouti and, possibly, in Kenya, too.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Nairobi recently after holding talks with TFG head Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed that she and President Obama “want to expand and extend our support” for the Somalia government. American officials subsequently indicated that this would involve a doubling of the 40 tonnes of weapons and ammunition that the United States has already supplied the TFG this year.The US is also giving the TFG cash to buy weapons.

Recently, for example, $1.2 million was handed over to Somali leaders in “a brown paper bag,” according to an account published on the website of Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine. The money had been flown to Mogadishu from Nairobi, the magazine said, citing letters sent to the United Nations Security Council by a top diplomat at the American UN mission in New York.

Alejandro Wolff, deputy permanent US representative to the United Nations, wrote the letter to request a Security Council exemption from the UN’s 17-year-long arms embargo on Somalia. The council subsequently agreed that the US arms shipments could proceed.

The United States is also the principal underwriter of Amisom, which currently consists of about 5,000 Ugandan and Burundian troops.
Amisom is seen as the main bulwark against the overthrow of the TFG by Al Shabaab, which is said to be linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qa’ida network. Washington has contributed about $135 million to Amisom since its deployment in 2007.

Ugandan forces, which account for most of the Amison troops, may soon go on the offensive in Somalia. There are plans for the Ugandans to invade Kismayo, a port town in southern Somalia controlled by a Al Shabaab-allied group, The New York Times reported last week.

The Obama administration also intends to increase the clandestine US presence in Somalia. In a story filed from Mogadishu, Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman indicated that the CIA plans to open a base in former officers quarters near the Amison-guarded airport in the Somali capital.

Somali sources told Mr Gettleman that three CIA agents visited the presidential palace in Mogadishu last month to discuss training of Sheik Sharif’s intelligence services. Obama administration officials are emboldened to deepen the US commitment to the TFG due to the virtual absence of domestic or international opposition to such a strategy.

No influential US politician spoke out against the recent military strike in Somalia, nor did the attack spark any diplomatic protests, according to Johnnie Carson, the State Department’s top Africa official.

Al Shabaab has very few defenders in North America and Europe, given its apparent ties to jihadis intent on striking civilian targets in the West. And Al Shabaab may also be losing support in Somalia.

Mr Gettelman reported that two recent Al Shabaab defectors say that financial backers outside Somalia are contributing less money to the group as Sheik Sharif’s government wins greater favour among Somalis. In addition, Mr Gettleman wrote, “Aid workers said Al Shabaab were taxing food in their territory, a very unpopular move when food prices are already high because of drought.”

Somalis may be wearying of Al Shabaab’s vision and composition, as well. Thousands of foreigners have come to Somalia to fight in Al Shabaab’s ranks, according to sources cited by Mr Gettleman — as compared with the few hundred that US officials have said are operating in Somalia.

“Our commanders were trying to tell us that there’s no Somali national flag and no national borders,” one Al Shabaab defector, identified only as Mohamed, is quoted as saying in the Times story.

“They told us the jihad will never end. Once we finish in Somalia, we go to Kenya and then elsewhere.”

source.TheEastAfrican.ke by Kevin Kelly

Kampala (Uganda)� � Uganda Police Force have been listed as the most oppressors and torturers of journalists in the recent riots in Kampala, the Human Rights Network for Journalists (HRNJ-Uganda) has revealed.

According to a survey done by HRNJ last week, more than 20 journalists especially photojournalists were unlawfully arrested, tortured and attacked by police and rioters during the three-day riots in Kampala and several parts of Buganda region.

HRNJ findings indicate that Police committed 80 per cent of the offences registered during the riots.

“All cases recorded were acts of unlawful arrest and detention, torture, cruel inhuman and degrading treatment which undermined articles; 24 and 29(1)of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda and other regional and international treaties to which Uganda is a party,” Geoffrey Wokulira Ssebaggala, HRNJ-Uganda Programme Coordinator said.

The Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy public relations officer, Mr Henry Kalulu on Saturday said: “I have not received a copy of the survey and therefore I cannot comment.”

The riots which were sparked off by the government’s refusal to allow the Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi to visit Kayunga District left at least 24 people dead and hundreds injured.

This is the biggest number of journalists to have been subjected to unlawful arrest and detention, torture, cruel inhuman and degrading treatment just in an incident, according HRNJ – statistics.

“We are increasingly concerned about the on-going threatening atmosphere and condemn such acts which undermine the right to freedom of expression and the media as well as free flow of information which are very vital in any democratic system,” the report states.

The number of the victims is likely to go higher as some victims continue to withhold information, according to Mr Ssebaggala.

The survey revealed that Police and other security organs which were performing their duties at the behest of Police put reporters at gun point, assaulted, illegally arrested and detained them for reporting about tortured victims and people shot during the riots, according to HRNJ.

HRNJ-Uganda Board Chairperson Mr Robert Ssempala asked the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura to institute an inquiry into these “brazen attacks” on journalists and bring all culprits to book as soon as possible.

“We also call upon the IGP to commit himself to a process which will formulate minimum standards to be recognized by both the security organs and the media to safe guard journalists from continued attacks by security operatives,” Mr Ssempala said.

The attackers confiscated reporters’ belongings while others were forced to destroy photographs taken before they were released.

source.TheMonitor.UG

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

A Zambian sex worker

MPULUNGU, – A freeze in donor funding after allegations of Zambian government corruption is being keenly felt by those living with HIV in rural areas, which were receiving the lion’s share of financial HIV/AIDS support.

“We are suffering very much here; every month we have to come here [the health centre in Mpulungu town] to get drugs,” said Evans Sikazwe, who lives in Mpulungu district in Northern Province, about 1,100km north of the capital, Lusaka.

“Previously, health workers used to follow us [up] and bring us drugs in our area, but for the past two months we have been coming [to get them] on our own,” Sikazwe told IRIN. He has been HIV-positive for the past two years and now has to travel 70km every month to access life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.

About 200,000 Zambians nationwide are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) services at various government health facilities, but only urban clinics are mandated to administer ART in rural districts.

In the absence of donor funds, outreach programmes such as mobile voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and ART services have been discontinued. The Mpulungu clinic is the main referral centre for the district’s 82,000 inhabitants.

“It is very unfortunate, especially for people like me who are on ARVs and also TB [tuberculosis] treatment. Things are very difficult … this is like punishing us, and yet we need the support of everyone,” Sikazwe said.

The crisis in the health sector financial management, the issue of single sourcing of procurement of mobile hospitals, issues surrounding road sector investments and a general lack of progress in financial management reform in government are the most notable issues

Corruption

In May 2009 several donors, including two of Zambia’s main donors, the governments of the Netherlands and Sweden, announced the suspension of aid after it was confirmed that senior government officials had embezzled about US$5 million of donor funds from the health ministry. Donors provide 55 percent of Zambia’s health budget for the prevention and treatment of malaria, TB and HIV, as well as training medical staff.

A tough stance on corruption had endeared the late President Levy Mwanawasa’s administration to the donor community, but since his death in August 2008, that of his successor, President Rupiah Banda, has been deemed soft on corruption.

In the wake of the aid suspension, Zambia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and its Auditor-General investigated the corruption claims and a number of high-profile officials subsequently appeared in court. However, donors insist that Zambia needs to meet certain benchmarks in good governance and public financial management before further funding is released.

“The crisis in the health sector financial management, the issue of single sourcing of procurement of mobile hospitals, issues surrounding road sector investments and a general lack of progress in financial management reform in government are the most notable issues,” the Dutch Ambassador to Zambia, Harry Molennar, told a local newspaper, The Times of Zambia.

“The recent developments in Zambia regarding high-profile corruption cases, and the international response to it, serve as a case in point to illustrate the need for both strong political leadership in the fight against corruption, and the resolve of that same leadership to let justice have its independent and transparent way,” he said.

Obert Mubyana, the district HIV and TB programmes officer in Mpulungu, told IRIN that in “The past three or four months [since donor aid was suspended], the situation has been very bad. We are not able to travel … [and] have a lot of patients that we need to monitor.” A lack of funds has also meant that patients in outlying areas who need to start taking ARVs are not doing so.

“The whole grant … per month … [from] donors and government is about 120 million kwacha [about US$27,000], but after the withdrawal [of donor funding] we have been receiving as [little] as 40 million kwacha [about US$9,000]. This is not enough because … [we have] to carry out mobile VCT, mobile ART, we need fuel, we need allowances, so we have had to suspend a lot of programmes,” Mubyana said.

Trading hub

Mpulungu, Zambia’s only port on Lake Tanganyika and a regional trading hub, attracts people from neighbouring Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is a high-risk area for HIV infection.

The town has thousands of sex workers, some of whom often travel the country’s highways. “We come here this month; we go to Kapiri Mposhi [town on the main road about 150k north of Lusaka] next time. We go to Chirundu [on the Zimbabwean border] also, even Nakonde [on the border with Tanzania],” a teenage sex worker told IRIN. She charges about US$1.25 for her services.

HIV Prevalence is around 12.6 percent � the national average is 14 percent � but unofficial statistics from local health facilities estimate the rate could be as high as 50 percent. At Mpulungu clinic, 2,308 people have been tested for HIV since 2006, of whom 1,199 were found positive and 1,189 are receiving treatment.

“Of course, most of these people only come here when things are really critical, after they have failed with their … [traditional healers], so there could be some margin of error,” Flexon Mauluka, a data entry clerk at the clinic, told IRIN.

nm/go/hesource.irinnews.org

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

A man sets a car on fire during a demonstration after the disputed 2007 elections in Kenya (file photo)

NAIROBI,� – Stakeholders in Somaliland need to reach a consensus on the role the media can play before, during and after elections to avoid election violence, a report says.

The report, entitled The Role of the Media in the Upcoming Somaliland Elections: Lessons from Kenya, discusses potential scenarios and interventions in the run-up to Somaliland’s elections and compares them with the post-election violence experienced in Kenya in 2008.

It is published by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford, Center for Global Communication Studies at University of Pennsylvania and Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, London.

Both countries have polarized electorates with significant political and economic grievances, political parties accused of manipulating the system, weak institutions and politically influential media. “The challenge… is how the media can be harnessed for nation-building rather than partisan politics and violence,” the report notes.

Somaliland’s elections were planned for 27 September, but were postponed after violence broke out. The term of the current government ends on 29 October.

aw/mw source.irinnews.org