In Summary

The eloquence and confidence are hard to match as David Malingi, 16, presents the children’s agenda to politicians, ambassadors and presidents across the globe.

Activist, counsellor and mediator are just some of the titles he adorns in his Kaloleni home; he is also the president of the Children’s Parliament in Kenya.

Just last Friday, Malingi shared a table with Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo during the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at KICC in Nairobi.

“I was humbled to sit next to him. I used the chance to give my views on the judicial delays in children’s cases,” he told the Nation.

The Standard Six pupil at Ribe Methodist Academy in Coast Province says his dream is to live in a world where indifference to children does not exist, and their talents are nurtured.

Last month, Malingi travelled to Geneva, Switzerland, to mark the celebration since the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an experience he describes as “a golden opportunity to represent my peers”.

He presented a paper on children’s agenda to delegates and made a global call for all governments to give priority to programmes targeting children.

“I want to help children to speak against injustices that have for so long haunted them,” he said.

Malingi, who was born to an unemployed father and a mother who is a nursery school teacher, is also a member of the Area Advisory Council in his Kaloleni home, where he plays a role as an arbitrator in conflicts involving children.

“I failed to join primary school early enough due to lack of fees but I’m determined to be a child rights activist and ensure access to education to all children,” said the first born in a family of four.

In one case, he brought together two rival families in a rape case involving a 12-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man.

“I sought audience with the parents of both and called for calm in order to solve the conflict,” he said, adding that he was able to counsel the girl and refer her to a crisis centre where she was counselled further and taken to hospital.

“The man accused of rape also apologised though I referred the case to the Provincial Administration.” The two families are now in better terms.

“Why should defilement and sodomy cases be heard for up to one year later while the current law gives a provision of not less than 72 hours?”

During the celebrations, Mr Mutula termed the political succession debate as “selfish”, yet few politicians paid attention to the fact that the new draft had included the rights of the child in section 41 for the first time.

“The current debate on the constitution is politically inclined, leaving out the most vulnerable citizens, the children,” Mr Mutula said.

The minister was appalled by the delay in hearing cases involving children.

“Among the reforms are plans to introduce ICT to hasten the handling of cases in children’s courts,” said Mr Mutula.

Those working in the children’s departments countrywide would undergo refresher courses so they could deal with emerging issues affecting children more efficiently.

Malingi counsels peers regarding life skills and education in their lives. The greatest challenge, he says, is when children fail to take him seriously or adults ignore his interventions during crises.

As Kenyans discuss the draft constitution, the youngest and most vulnerable citizens of the country ask adults to have sober minds during the 30-day period.

In the Bill of Rights, Section 41, children are extensively discussed and said to hold a special place in society with the parents, family and the State put to task to protect and nurture them. According to government statistics, there are 19.2 million children out of the 36 million people in Kenya.

In Summary

Never mind that she still has a solid two years to go before she ends her talkshow, The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 9, 2011. The initial shock and disbelief has turned to who will inherit her seven million daily viewers.

Twenty five years after her show first went on air, you cannot question the power of Oprah Winfrey. She has the ratings, influence and money to show for it.

She was famously sued by Texas farmers in 1996 who claimed she had caused a decline in beef sales after she questioned the safety of meat on her show.

She was also the first celebrity to publicly endorse Senator Barack Obama for president, a nod many saw as the turning point that ultimately led him to become the most powerful man in the world.

According to New York Times, “Ms Winfrey’s departure could even affect the ratings for the network evening newscasts”.

So who will take over? Will it be Tyra Banks, Ellen DeGeneres, Dr Phil or Dr Oz or will there emerge some new force and take over? That’s the question.

The latter two shows are the closest to Winfrey’s in ratings and they are both her proteges. Degeneres seems to be the heir apparent with even Oprah appearing to be anointing her. She is even posing next to Winfrey on the latest cover of O, The Magazine.

Jerry Springer

“Ellen is probably in the best position to move into that role,” said daytime TV host Jerry Springer. “Guests won’t be afraid to go on Ellen. Any edge she might have is neutralised by her humour. She can be light, yet she’s obviously bright. If you’re looking to sell something, like a book or a political idea, you’re not going to get beaten up by going on her show.”

Winfrey “will always be the queen of daytime television,” Ms DeGeneres told her audience after taping her talk show last week — “and she also said she is leaving me all of her money,” she joked.

The Dr Oz Show, which had its premiere in September, has averaged 3.5 million viewers in daytime, only 250,000 fewer than Dr Phil two weeks ago, CBS extended its station deals for Dr Phil through 2014 in 20 of the country’s top 25 markets.

Contracts for Dr Oz and Dr Phil forbid them from being shown at the same hour as Winfrey’s — but those restrictions end when her talk show ends.

On Friday, Winfrey said she will end her popular TV show because it “feels right in her bones”, and urged viewers not to believe rumours of why she’s quitting.

“This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye. Twenty five years feels right in my bones, and it feels right in my spirit. It’s the perfect number, the exact right time,” Winfrey said at her Chicago studio.

Harpo said the launch date for OWN, or the Oprah Winfrey Network, which will be seen in more than 70 million homes, was now set for January 2011.

During her long career atop the television talk show heap, Winfrey’s fluctuating weight and personal relationships have become tabloid fodder, and commentators have wondered whether she was tiring of the grind — only to see her slim down and revive her show’s popularity.

“Over the next couple of days you may hear a lot of speculation about why I’m making this decision now, and that will mostly be conjecture,” she said.

Winfrey choked up once and wiped away a tear as she thanked viewers for having “graciously invited me into your living rooms, your kitchens and into your lives”.

PARIS, Monday (Reuters) – A Sudanese woman who was punished for breaching decency laws by wearing trousers has defied a travel ban by coming to France to publicise her new book.

Lubna Hussein was arrested in July and convicted of indecency charges in a case that made headlines worldwide. She was ordered to pay a fine or face a month in jail, but was spared an initial penalty of 40 whip lashes.

“I was banned from leaving Sudan by air, by land or by sea and I succeeded in getting out … so I am sure this book will surface in Sudan,” she told Reuters in an interview.

Her book, “Forty lashes for a pair of trousers”, has come out in French and will be translated into English, Arabic, Swahili and other languages.

It details Hussein’s arrest in July with 12 other women for wearing “indecent” clothing, a pair of green slacks.

It also describes her struggle to find a job as a female journalist and upbringing in Sudan before aspects of sharia law were incorporated into the penal code in 1983.

“This law and practice deform the image of Islam. No one has been able to find a text in the Koran which justifies flogging a woman for the way she is dressed,” said Hussein, wearing mauve trousers and jacket.

Thousands of women have been convicted of offences similar to Hussein’s and sentenced to beatings in recent years under Sudan’s Islamic decency regulations.

Hussein’s supporters say she is the first to defy such treatment.

Many activists complain Sudan’s decency regulations are vague and give individual police officers undue latitude to determine what is acceptable clothing for women.

Hussein, a former reporter who was working for the United Nations at the time of her arrest, said she resigned from her job to give up any legal immunity so she could continue with the case, prove her innocence and challenge the decency law.

“Thousands of women have gone to prison and been taken to court for the way they are dressed … and have had no way of defending themselves,” Hussein said.

The authorities changed her punishment from 40 lashes to a $200 fine, which Hussein refused to pay, preferring to go to jail instead as a means of challenging the law’s legitimacy.

She was freed in September after the country’s journalists’ union said it had paid the fine on her behalf.

She said she planned to pursue her campaign through the courts and would ultimately go to the African Court of Justice if necessary.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Barack Obama honoured a group of women on Monday who have confronted Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and said they had defied a dictator.

“They often don’t get far before being confronted by President Mugabe’s riot police,” Obama said at a ceremony for Magodonga Mahlangu and the organization she helps lead — WOZA, which stands for Women of Zimbabwe Arise.

“By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors’ power with their own power — that they can sap a dictator’s strength with their own,” he said, presenting the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

The United States wants Mugabe to halt political arrests and media censorship and to honour a power-sharing agreement signed in September 2008 with his political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe is a pariah in the West, blamed by critics for plunging his southern African country into poverty through his authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement. He has led Zimbabwe since the country’s independence from Britain in 1980.

Mugabe has often blamed Western foes for ruining his country via sanctions, which he says are in retaliation for the seizing of white-owned farms on behalf of landless blacks. Critics say the policy is used as a tool to intimidate political opponents and to give land to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party loyalists.