By Juma Kwayera

When he left the country after a four-day assessment visit of the Grand Coalition Government, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Kenyans not to relent on the push for reforms.

However, the ‘quiet’ visit, which had initially raised expectations he would be shooting from the hip in meetings with the President and Prime Minister to hasten implementation of Agenda Four ahead of the 2012 polls, has angered critics.

That Annan did not point fingers has elicited angry reactions from a section of leaders who wanted the former UN chief to be forthright in his delivery to the principals, who are no longer acting like strange bedfellows.

The popular verdict is: Annan merely repeated the thinking of what majority of Kenyans had expressed. On the face of it, there was nothing new.

Public service appointments

But interviews with political actors, who interacted with Annan and who helped broker peace deal between Kibaki and Raila, painted a different picture.

A source who attended some of the meetings, intimated to The Standard on Sunday that Annan revisited the pesky question of ethnicity in public service appointments. He was forthright in demanding balance in senior military, police, ambassadorial, and provincial administration appointments. The Annan’s remonstration with the principals is contained in the diplomatically delivered message, but less flattering on state of the nation saying it suffers “a crisis in confidence in the political leadership” that needs urgent fixing.

Asked to confirm Annan’s tongue-lashing of Kibaki, which reportedly startled Raila, Coalition Advisor in Prime Minister’s Office Miguna Miguna declined to say more than, “the information you want from me is sensitive. I’m not going to say anything that will destroy this country”.

In private, Annan tackled Kibaki as hard as he did early last year, when he met the President who had controversially been sworn-in and had refused to heed calls for power sharing with Raila.

The Standard on Sunday has established while Annan appeared diplomatic in his disposition, his mien was calculated to be so lest the African Union — which has increasingly taken a hard-line stand in its opposition to International Crime Court (ICC) perceived to be targeting African governments — feels he is pushing a Western agenda.

AU has distanced itself from the ICC push for the prosecution of Sudanese President Omar Bashir and former Sierra Leonean dictator Charles Taylor.

Lawyer Harun Ndubi, who met Annan as civil society leader, says there is a general apprehension that pushing Kenya into a corner would elicit the wrath of AU, which spearheaded Serena peace talks.

Instructively, the visit came against the backdrop of the West, led by the US, UK and the European Union, moving to impose travel bans against leaders presumed to be anti-reforms.

Monitoring progress

Taking the cue, Western diplomats in Nairobi — save for the day they met Annan — unusually kept off the subject. Even US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, a critic of the Kibaki administration, elected to be out of town. Responding to inquiries about what had appeared a routine visit, a high-placed source at the US Embassy that preferred anonymity, disclosed the envoys had agreed to keep quiet.

“You are right, these guys were quiet for effect. They wanted the Government to realise Annan was still engaged in monitoring the peace process,” the source said.

“In private, Annan made no secret of his disenchantment with one side of the Government that is inert and another actively supporting reforms. He made it clear the piecemeal reforms are a product of pressure from ordinary Kenyans and the bold sections of the media,” Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Vice-Chairperson Hassan Omar, who met Annan informally, told The Standard on Sunday.

Members of civil society, church and human rights organisations spoke of a gradual change of tack that would ultimately nudge the recalcitrant governing elite into embracing reforms.

“He was eager to hear from all formations of opinion leaders. During those meetings, Annan made it clear the responsibility of driving reforms lies with Kenyans, who must bear pressure on it to act,” says Omar.

National Council of Churches of Kenya General-Secretary, Reverend Canon Peter Karanja, observes Annan’s verdict demonstrated international community’s frustration with Kenya. “It was a call to the youth to restore hope in governance institutions,” says Karanja, whose organisation early this year described Kibaki administration as moribund.

Apparently, it is not lost on development partners that the Kibaki administration is still intransigent and unwilling to cede any executive powers. From the day he arrived, the former UN boss’ word and action have been analysed for nuances, and possible action after Parliament mid-this year failed to enact legislation that would have facilitated the punishment of post-election violence perpetrators.

During the visit, Annan did not make dramatic announcements. But the people who interacted with him said his presence was intended to signal to the political elite that Kenya is still on the international radar for crimes that were committed after the 2007 polls.

source.standard.ke

By Kipchumba Some

The Grand Coalition Government was supposed to be a holding groundbefore rising to the presidency in 2012.

But analysts now argue Prime Minister Raila Odinga could be done in by the very Government he is shepherding with President Kibaki.

Raila is walking a tightrope trying to show that a coalition that is fast losing public confidence is actually working while reconciling with the fact that the reforms have almost stalled, to the detriment of his career.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga

Worse still, the options on how he can reinvent himself are limited and might end up isolating him further from the political summit.

Prof Kenneth Simala of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology says Raila has cast himself on a cliff. He has to defend an unpopular government, while trying to maintain his national popularity as the clock ticks towards 2012.

“I don’t think he can have them both. He will have to sacrifice one for the other. But as it is, he is losing on both ends. He is losing popularity and the reforms are not coming,” he said.

Dr Godwin Siundu, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, says Raila cannot afford to bolt out of the coalition.

“He has already given his adversaries enough mud to throw at him through some political miscalculations. The final nail on his career will be to confirm to people that he is a perpetual turncoat,” said Siundu.Power sharing deal

Former UN Secretary -General Kofi Annan, who brokered the power sharing deal, in his latest assessment of the coalition’s performance decried the slow pace of reforms in his latest assessment of the coalition’s performance. Surprisingly, the two principals gave themselves an impressive score of 90 per cent on reform agenda. While this was roundly criticised by the civil society, it was not lost on observers the spirited fight Raila put up for the coalition.

“He has either realised that he cannot fight and win over Kibaki and his lieutenants or it was just strategic,” said Prof Macharia Munene of United States International University.

He continued: “Whatever the reason for that, it portrayed a picture of a man who is now content with the establishment, who and cares little about changing the status quo.” However, an aide of Raila who did not want to be named discussing his superiors said the PM’s dilemma lies in the fact that the institutions he wants to be reformed are serving Kibaki and his party, PNU, very well.

“Evan Gicheru (Chief Justice) swore in Kibaki despite protests and Aaron Ringera (former Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission director) did not bust Anglo-Leasing cheats. Raila will have a difficult time, but I doubt he will ever be comfortable without reforms in those institutions,” he said.

Public opinion is that the two principals have not demonstrated adequate good will to undertake comprehensive reforms, making this Government no different from the others. Coalition failures

But since the President is retiring in 2012, Raila, who has already declared interest in the presidency, will take the flak for the coalition’s failures. And this is the baggage that may prove too heavy for his presidential dreams.

Munene, who teaches political science, contends it was a political blunder for Raila to have agreed to a coalition government in the first place.

“The coalition was a stop-gap measure to end the violence. It had no firm ideology to take this country forward reform wise. Unfortunately Raila jumped onto it without considering the long-term consequences to his ambitions,” he said. But things have not always been rosy between the principals.

For example, earlier in the year, the PM criticised the President for unilaterally making State appointments.

So bad was the falling out that many thought the PM and his party ODM, would bolt from the coalition and agitate call for fresh elections. But things have changed of late.

It is instructive to note that while Parliament and the civil society erupted in protest over Kibaki’s reappointment of Justice Aaron Ringera to head the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, Raila uncharacteristically kept off the matter.

Raila has moulded his political career as a revolutionary and firebrand. Some argue that he works best when he is out of government bashing it and not when he is part of it. These critics say the coalition has taken the fire out of him.

Simala reckons that Raila has limited options, but says it would be unwise to jump ship. He says this would be suicidal for the country and for Raila’s political career as well. Fragile state

“The country is still in a fragile state following the post-election violence. If he bolts out, chances are high that fresh violence might break out. If that happens blood will be on him and no one will forgive him.” Nominated MP Musa Sirma, an ally of Raila, says by bolting out of the coalition, the PM would have played into the hands of his detractors.

“Many of his opponents in 2012 would love to see him fail, and this is one of the reasons for the in-fighting within ODM. If he makes the mistake of abandoning the coalition, he might never recover,” he said.

Another issue that works against Raila is that ODM is no longer the solid, united party it was in the run-up to the 2007 polls.

“If Raila decides to jump from the coalition ship, he is not sure whether other regional blocs in ODM, which have been critical of his leadership, will follow him. Some in the party would be too willing to replace him,” said Munene.

Dr Charles Otieno, of the Institute for Policy and Polity, says Raila should capitalise on the situation in the coalition instead of abandoning it.

Raila has been trying to make overtures to the Central Province in the hope that the region will shore up his candidacy in 2012. But his efforts these have not amounted to much.

“The game is not yet lost for Raila altogether. He must realise that the coalition is a treacherous field in which he has to play his cards close to his chest,” he said.

Otieno says it is highly unlikely Raila will abandon the coalition to remain relevant in 2012.

“Look at what has happened to those who have left Government ostensibly to gain public support, haven’t they disappeared in to oblivion? I think Raila is too smart not to go that route.”

source.standard.ke

KENYA: New condom testing machine to boost public confidence

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

The government says it will test more condoms than ever before

NAIROBI,  – The Kenyan government has acquired a new condom testing machine that it says will guarantee all condoms entering the country are of high quality; the move is intended to restore public confidence following the recent banning of a brand of imported condoms deemed defective by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).

“Following the recent events where certain condom products were found to be leaking, the testing machine will ensure that we only allow condoms that pass the test into the market to be used by members of the public,” said Nicholas Muraguri, director of the national AIDS and sexually transmitted infection control programme (NASCOP) at the Ministry of Public Health.

The new machine – purchased from Australia with the support of the UN Population Fund for US$80,000 – can test up to 1,000 condoms a day and, unlike the KEBS testing system, which only uses the “freedom from holes” test, it will also check elasticity, pressure, durability and size.

According to the government, this year KEBS has tested about 2,000 condoms; NASCOP hopes to test significantly more using the new machine; at least 160 million condoms are distributed in the country annually by the government.

“The government will strengthen condom testing procedures; the Kenya Bureau of Standards has been instructed to ensure this happens,” Muraguri said.

He noted there was also a need to educate the public on the correct use of condoms as improper use could also hamper their effectiveness.

“Other than just the quality of the condom itself, the way people use it also determines how safe it will be – we have even realized that there are those who use petroleum-based lubricants with condoms instead of water-based lubricants, which is very dangerous,” he said.

Muraguri said the government had made every effort to remove the Hot brand of condoms from the market and surveillance was still under way to ensure none remained.

ko/kr/mw source.irinnews.org

Photo: M. Sayagues/PlusNews

The row could hamper HIV treatment

NAIROBI,  – A row between NGOs involved in the fight against HIV in Kenya could result in the country losing out on money from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

A group of NGOs under the umbrella group, the Kenya Consortium to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is accusing one of the Fund’s principal recipients in Kenya, CARE International, of being too slow to release money it was allocated.

“We are concerned that while the Global Fund has done its part by disbursing US$4,735,494 to CARE International Kenya in March this year, the pace of implementation has become an issue of great concern,” the consortium said in a letter to the National AIDS Control Council (NACC).

“We believe that if this is not addressed quickly, it could negatively impact on future rounds and even our ability to source funding for HIV and AIDS elsewhere,” it added.

The consortium says that unless the money is utilized and accounted for by November, the Fund is unlikely to release the next allocation for HIV programmes.

However, CARE International’s country director, Stephen Vaughan, says his organization has been releasing funds to groups that have accounted for previous allocations.

“We cannot release funds to those who have not accounted for funds already given to them,” Vaughan said at a press conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 6 October. “Let them provide clear accounts on how they spent the money already given out to them.”

We cannot release funds to those who have not accounted for funds already given to them

He noted that of 58 civil society groups that receive funding from the Global Fund through CARE International, only 26 had met the Fund’s accounting criteria.

AIDS activists are concerned that access to treatment could be affected if the row continues and the Global Fund does not release the next allotment of money in November.

“This is unfortunate, because the information we have is that the ARVs in stock at the moment will not last long,” said James Kamau, coordinator of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement. “It is sad because it is the ordinary people who suffer in such circumstances.”

The NACC has convened a meeting on 9 October to try to resolve the situation.

The Global Fund is one of Kenya’s main supporters in the fight against HIV, having provided more than $87 million for prevention, treatment and activities related to improving the quality of life of people living with HIV.

ko/kr/mw source.irinnews.org

Photo: Mujahid Safodien/PlusNews

Men seek out HIV testing and treatment in far fewer numbers than women

JOHANNESBURG,  – In the context of sub-Saharan Africa’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, women have often been characterized as the victims and men as the perpetrators incapable of sticking to one partner or taking responsibility for their sexual health.

But what if men were victims of the social norms that define masculinity as much as women? And what if they were willing to change, and persuade other men to do the same?

Speakers at the MenEngage Africa Symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week have been debating ways to help men achieve this and to become part of the solution to the continent’s twin epidemics of gender-based violence and HIV.

“When we talk about a feminized epidemic, we make the mistake of leaving men out of interventions,” commented Mandla Ndlovu, programme officer of the recently launched “Brothers for Life” campaign.

The initiative by Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa (JHHESA), USAID and the Sonke Gender Justice Network aims to spark a movement of “good” men to encourage their peers to take more responsibility for their health and that of their partners.

One presentation indicated that there may be more good men out there than we think. In a recent study on multiple partners in four locations across South Africa, 74 percent of men reported having had only one sexual partner in the past year.

“While the prevalence of men having multiple partners is quite high, it’s not as normative as has been suggested,” said Sarah Laurence of Health & Development Africa (HDA), a health consultancy that conducted the research on behalf of JHHESA.

Although men are less affected by HIV than women in high-prevalence countries like South Africa, they are far from invulnerable: 24 percent of South African men aged 25 to 49 are living with the virus.

Because men are far less likely than women to seek out HIV testing, treatment and support, they experience worse outcomes from HIV and other chronic illnesses, according to Dr Francois Venter, director of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.

Venter urged delegates not simply to blame men for their poor health-seeking behaviour, but to consider some of the reasons for it. Some presenters focused on the fact that men were socialized to consider illness a sign of weakness, and tended to perceive an HIV-positive diagnosis as a humiliating blow to the ideal of masculine strength, but Venter suggested that South African public healthcare facilities were also to blame for not responding to men’s specific needs, and not prioritizing interventions such as male circumcision, which could reduce their HIV risk. “How can we expect men to change their behaviours if we’re failing them on a public health level?” he asked.

The “One Man Can” campaign by Sonke Gender Justice – launched in late 2006 with the goal of supporting men and boys to become advocates for gender equality and active participants in HIV/AIDS responses – has already demonstrated that men are capable of changing their behaviour and attitudes.

Dr Chris Colvin presented an evaluation of the campaign’s impact, based on interviews with 265 participating men, which found that 75 percent had increased their use of condoms, 23 percent had gone for voluntary counselling and HIV testing, and 83 percent of those who had witnessed gender-based violence had reported it.

ks/he source.irinnews.org

Photo: Dominic Chavez/WHO

People living with HIV are particularly susceptible to drug-resistant TB

UMSINGA,  – Three years ago, the Church of Scotland Hospital at Tugela Ferry, in the rural Umsinga area of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province, was the focus of international media attention as the epicentre of a deadly outbreak of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).

It was reported that 52 of the 53 patients initially diagnosed died within a month of contracting this strain of TB, which is resistant to both of the first-line antibiotics used to treat the disease, as well as two classes of second-line drugs. People living with HIV are particularly susceptible to TB and most of the XDR-TB patients at Tugela Ferry were co-infected with the virus.

The attention may have come as a blessing in disguise. Today the hospital is internationally recognized for its handling of TB cases, including multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and XDR strains. Some of its doctors have presented their insights on how best to deal with this spreading epidemic at international conferences.

After the crisis, international aid poured in from the Stop TB initiative run by the World Health Organization, Yale University, and various NGOs. South Africa’s Department of Health also began prioritizing the area.

The government sent more than 100 tracing and tracking teams of specialist doctors, nurses, pharmacists and community health workers to comb Umsinga and the surrounding areas, looking for new TB cases and patients who had defaulted on their treatment.

The epidemic of drug-resistant TB has been largely attributed to patients failing to complete their six-month course of first-line TB treatment, and a failure to follow up on defaulters.

Now, an individual who defaults on his medicine is considered not only to be endangering his own life, but also that of his whole community, as the drug-resistant strains of the airborne disease are easily spread.

A member of the tracking and tracing team, who gave his name only as Themba, told IRIN/PlusNews that before their arrival large numbers of people had defaulted on their TB treatment. “Now, all that is gone and almost every patient in the community is taking their drugs.”

The hospital gives Themba’s team lists of TB treatment defaulters to track down and bring in for monitoring in an isolation ward. Those with ordinary TB are treated in separate wards; those with MDR-TB are sent to the nearby Estcourt Hospital, which has a dedicated section for such cases. Patients with XDR-TB are sent to King George Hospital in the coastal city of Durban, where all cases in the province are treated.

The tracing teams also track down family members of patients diagnosed with MDR-TB or XDR-TB. When local resident Balungile Ngubane’s brother, Sipho, was found to be suffering from XDR-TB in 2007, she and her family were rounded up and taken to the local clinic, where they were kept in isolation for a week until the results of sputum tests showed they were free of the disease.

Unfortunately, her brother died a few months later. “I think they did the right thing,” she said. “We loved our brother, but he could have infected us all before he died.”

Thembitshe Mabaso, a local chief, commended the work done by health professionals and workers, who have trained local communities to identify people with TB symptoms and support them in completing their treatment.

“We call them when we see that there is a person who suffers from symptoms of deadly TB, and they come along and take that person to the hospital and conduct tests,” he told IRIN/PlusNews. “Most of the time we found that our suspicions were accurate, and then the whole family is screened to see whether they have been infected due to contact with that patient.”

At the peak of the epidemic in 2006, Umsinga was contributing more than two-thirds of the XDR-TB and MDR-TB cases in the province, but Dr Tony Moll, Principal Medical Officer at the Church of Scotland Hospital, is credited with leading the efforts to turn the tide against the deadly new TB strains.

Since then, 488 cases of XDR-TB and 356 cases of MDR-TB have been diagnosed. “The TB prevalence rate is still very high in the area,” Moll told IRIN/PlusNews. “We get about 150 new TB cases every month.”

Dr Lindiwe Mvusi, head of the national health department’s TB unit, said the Church of Scotland Hospital and the district as a whole had been very successful in identifying potential TB cases, diagnosing patients, and quickly putting them on treatment. The hospital achieved a TB cure rate of 83 percent in 2008, compared to the national cure rate of about 60 percent.

“They have handled it well; they have managed to have a high cure rate and prevented people who have these strains from spreading [them] to other members of the community,” she said. Other health facilities in the region would “have to use the same principle, so that we can win this war”.

In 2008 South Africa recorded 576 new cases of XDR-TB, 6,219 new cases of MDR-TB, and 388,802 cases of ordinary TB. “The numbers are still rising,” Mvusi said, “but as we implement new measures, we hope that by 2015 these figures would start to come down.”

cnm/ks/he source.irinnews.org

Light or water? That’s a choice Southern Africa could face in a few years if current plans to build more large dams on the Zambezi proceed.

A new report reveals that Mozambique’s plans to build the US$2 billion Mphanda Nkuwa Dam on the Zambezi River will mostly serve South  Africa’s needs, while exporting social and environmental impacts in Mozambique, and ignoring climate-change warnings that show major hydrological problems ahead for Southern Africa. The Zambezi, Africa’s fourth largest river, is expected to be especially vulnerable to climate change. Millions of people depend upon it for their livelihoods.

In a new report being released in Johannesburg on October 11 and in Maputo on October 19, author Mark Hankins, a Nairobi-based renewable energy expert, describes how Mozambique could develop a domestic electricity supply system based on market-ready, clean-energy options that are low-cost, rapidly implementable, and well-suited to the geographical distribution of local demand. The plan focuses on distributed renewable energy and energy efficiency that would meet the energy needs of the far-flung  parts of the country that do not now have access to electricity.  Most of the technologies described in the report are also well-suited to meeting the growing need of urban areas already tied to the grid.Currently, 80% of Mozamibue’s population does not have access to electricity.

“It’s time we begin to address our own energy needs, and in ways that will protect our important natural treasures like the Zambezi River,” said Anabela Lemos, the director of the Maputo-based NGO Justica Ambiental (JA!). “Clean, decentralized energy for all should be the top priority, not damming the Zambezi to support energy-hogging industry and cities in South Africa.” JA! is the sponsor of the report. Mark Hankins said, “As long as the Mozambique’s power planners focus on the huge consumer next door, they will never adequately meet the needs of their own country, which remains largely off-grid and unconnected. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Hankins says that in Mozambique, “The average electricity per capita is 450kW hours per year per capita, but when you remove the energy consumed by the aluminum smelter at Mozal, it goes down to 50KW per capita – among the lowest use in the world. South African consumption is about 50 times higher.”

Hankins says there is also huge potential for cost-effective energy efficiency measures in South Africa that could greatly reduce the need or new big dams on the Southern African grid. “Right now, Mozambique is supporting wasteful electricity use south of its border. In fact, South Africa has the potential to quickly shave 3 to 5 times Mozambique’s entire consumption with energy efficiency measures. Demand-side management, primarily in South Africa, must be considered as an alternative to endless investment in megadams and coal fired power plants.”

He says another benefit is long-lasting employment for locals. “Green power creates more jobs than coal and hydro, and safer jobs.”

The report notes there is significant potential for green biomass with five large sugar farms that could contribute considerable bagasse from sugar cane waste to bio-mass fired electricity. Converting sugar waste into biofuel could put another 60MW on the grid that could extend electrification to rural areas.

The report details the nation’s potential for solar, wind, small-scale hydro, and biomass. It describes key energy efficiency measures that could help Mozambique reduce its energy load going forward. And it describes steps needed to help its energy sector develop these kinds of decentralized energy systems.

Hankins notes:  “Eskom is the fifth largest power company in the world and South Africa has been very successful in giving people access to electricity. Green energies tend to be more expensive, but they create jobs and don’t damage the environment. In Kenya electricity costs three times what it does in South Africa. Getting South Africans off cheap electricity is like getting Americans off cheap gasoline.”

“Cheap electricity is usually dirty electricity, but at some point you still have to pay for the costs of ruined river basins and polluted air and water,” says Lemos.

-end-

Biographical information on Mark Hankins:
Mr. Hankins is an energy consultant based in Nairobi. He specializes in rural electrification and renewable energy, and has worked in East and Southern Africa for more than 20 years. A leader in development and  execution of PV projects in Africa, he has worked with renewable projects for the private sector, UN, the World Bank, USAID, the GEF,  and others.  He is the author of the book “Solar Electric Systems for Africa.”

Source: International Rivers