On January 3, Nivah Odwori left her New Jersey home for a valuable cause — to help hundreds of Haitians recover from political unrest and a hurricane. She had called her mother in Samia to pass New Year greetings and inform her of the news that she was travelling to Haiti to continue with her calling — helping the poor.

She worked with UN Volunteers (UNV), offering humanitarian assistance to families in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and driving a programme on stabilising the country’s electoral system. That was to be the last time she ever talked to her family. Nivah became one of the more than 100,000 people who were killed when a massive earthquake struck Haiti.

UN volunteers

“We were informed of the sad news on Friday,” said family spokesman Magero Gumo. Nivah, a sister-in-law of Regional Development minister Fred Gumo, was among 206 volunteers who were serving with the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.

The group consisted of seven other Kenyans but information about their status has not been provided. UNV stated that 151 volunteers had been accounted for and “UNV is actively seeking confirmation of the others.”

Nivah was positively identified because of the job tag she was wearing at the time, said Mr Magero. In a statement, UNV said: “The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is deeply saddened by the death of UNV volunteer Ms Nivah Odwori, 36, of Kenya who died in the Haiti earthquake.”

At the time the Nation contacted the family, Mr Gumo was said to be in the US in an attempt to have the body flown home. But there are difficulties because the airport in Port-au-Prince is closed. “As we speak, the body is in Haiti but my father (minister Gumo) is overseeing the transfer to Miami from where it will be flown to Kenya,” said Mr Magero.

The family has been meeting in Nairobi to arrange the funeral. But as the Kenyan family waits for the arrival of the body, messages of condolences continue to pour in of a woman many described as “compassionate” and “social”.

Prior to her last appointment, she was a UNV volunteer District Electoral Adviser with the UN Mission in Nepal, and she also worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), including serving as an adviser to its delegation to the 61st session of the UN General Assembly in 2006.

UNV Executive Coordinator Flavia Pansieri said: “Nivah was a compassionate and talented individual who had chosen to apply her skills to the cause of peace and development, as a volunteer. She was highly motivated and enthusiastic and this is a great loss to the mission, her family and her friends.”

In Nairobi, the family told of a woman who loved to help people in need. “She loved to work with people in hardship areas,” said Magero. Before leaving Kenya for Canada in 1997, Nivah was a volunteer with the Kenya Red Cross Society in Nairobi. “This was a beautiful girl, and she’s gone,” said Mr Lee Mesham, whose family Nivah lived with for 10 years until last July — first as a nanny, then as part of the family.

Nivah obtained a Masters degree in diplomacy and international relations at Seton Hall University in the US, where she completed a thesis on conflict resolution challenges in Sudan and India. Back home, the Kenya Red Cross Society is intensifying its efforst to mobilise funds to assist the quake victims.

Somalia’s hardline al Shabaab rebels denied on Friday they had threatened to attack Kenya following a crackdown on Somalis in its capital Nairobi, and said a recording posted on the internet was a fake.

Renewed fears over the insurgents’ links with Yemen and al Qaeda, and an attack on the home of a Danish cartoonist by an axe-wielding Somali man with reported ties to al Shabaab, have focused attention on the militant group.

A recording posted online said the threat was composed by militants angered by Kenya’s decision to deport a Jamaican Islamic cleric and the deaths of protesters in Nairobi who took to the streets a week ago to demonstrate against the move.

But al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told Reuters by telephone the group had not posted the recording.

“We didn’t threaten Kenya. That story is a false one. We never posted that on the internet … Everything needs to be checked first by the media to make sure they know what they are writing about,” Rage said.

Al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda’s proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, have verbally threatened to attack Kenya in the past. But anger has been rising among the Somali community in recent days after Kenyan security forces detained hundreds of Somalis living in a Nairobi suburb.

Al Shabaab has also threatened to launch attacks inside Ethiopia — as well as Uganda and Burundi because they have peacekeeping troops in Somalia — but has yet to follow through.

Kenya was hit by al Qaeda-linked strikes in 1998 and 2002 and security alerts were issued warning of possible attacks by Somalis on upmarket shopping malls in the capital last year.

In the online recording, men chanted in Swahili: “God willing we will arrive in Nairobi, we will enter Nairobi, God willing we will enter … when we arrive we will hit, hit until we kill, weapons we have, praise be to God, they are enough.”

But Rage told Reuters that the rebel group, which is fighting Somalia’s Western-backed government and wants to impose its harsh version of sharia law across that country, had no idea who was responsible for uploading it to the internet.

And he said that al Shabaab’s reclusive leader Ahmed Abdi Godane — also known as Sheik Mukhtar Abdirahman Abu Zubeyr — had not spoken to the media in the last three months.

“So how did he threaten to Kenya?” the spokesman asked.

The Kenyan police crackdown followed a violent protest in Nairobi against the detention of Jamaican cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, who was jailed in Britain for urging his audiences to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners.

All five of Africa’s World Cup-bound teams have made it through to the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations but few with any aplomb. Cameroon were the last of the quintet to qualify for the last eight, sneaking through on Thursday by the margin of one goal only after a close-run finish in Group D.

Four of the five – Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria – lost their opening game at the tournament and were forced to come from behind to finish among the top two in their respective groups.

Have not been beaten

Cote d’Ivoire are the only one of the teams heading to the World Cup Finals in South Africa who have so far not been beaten at the tournament. But they have played just two matches in Angola because of the withdrawal of Togo before the tournament started, being held to a goalless draw by Burkina Faso before beating Ghana.

Algeria qualified for the last eight on the back of just a single goal, scored by defender Rafik Halliche when they beat Mali in their second Group A match. The North Africans started with a shock 3-0 loss to Malawi and qualified on the back of an unconvincing goalless draw with hosts Angola.

But Algeria, who will have England and the United States among their group opponents at the World Cup in June, insist they have overcome their stuttering start. “The conditions have been difficult but we’ve kept working. We’ve been improving match-by-match,” coach Rabah Saadane said after their qualification for the last eight.

Cameroon only made it by virtue of having scored one more goal than Gabon in a count-back after a three-way tie at the head of their group. “The players must be commended for doing what was necessary to qualify,” said coach Paul LeGuen after Cameroon twice came from behind on Thursday to draw 2-2 with Tunisia.

Ghana had to wait almost a week before they started their campaign, losing 3-1 to the Ivorians in Cabinda. They then lost captain Michael Essien with a knee injury before sneaking through 1-0 over Burkina Faso in their last Group B game.

Nigeria were thoroughly outplayed by Egypt in their opening game but still finished second after beating Benin and Mozambique. Egypt, seeking an unprecedented third successive Nations Cup title, have overshadowed the World Cup-bound teams and start the quarter-finals as favourites. to retain the title

Hosts Angola take on Ghana in the first quarter-final in Luanda tomorrow, followed by the meeting in Cabinda between the Ivorians and Algeria. On Monday, Egypt take on Cameroon in Benguela and Zambia play Nigeria in Lubango. The semi-finals will be played next Thursday with the final in Luanda on January 31.

source.nation.ke

With the devastating earthquake in Haiti, several friends have asked what the tragedy means for Africa.

In other words, will the world’s focus turn to this small Caribbean island at the expense of an entire continent? Will the problems of global warming, corruption, disease and so many other issues become back-burner items again?

The very quick answer is no; Africa is too important strategically. But don’t be surprised if the world focuses for several more months on what is surely the largest humanitarian crisis in recent memory in the Western Hemisphere.

And those efforts may, believe it or not, help Africa in the end.

Africans are familiar with the issues that torment Haiti — the victim of an overseas colonial power (France); ruthless slave traders, massive government corruption, violent gangs and an unforgiving geographical location.

The earth’s plates have been shifting in that section of the world for some time, giving rise to the Caribbean islands and also to the calamity that we’ve seen in the past few weeks. As I write, residents are fleeing the capital because they can’t protect themselves from roving bands of criminals.

In the US, we see daily images of families digging loved ones from the rubble and bodies piled high on street corners. Everywhere in Port au Prince, there is a corpse — in fact, as many as 50,000 are estimated dead.

One of US televangelists, Pat Robertson, made the statement that the earthquake was God’s revenge on Haiti. His reasoning is that some Haitians performed a voodoo ceremony before the successful revolution against the French, and that it was essentially a pact with the devil.

“They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the Third and whatever,’’ said Robertson on his television show. “And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said: ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story.

And so the devil said: ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

IN OTHER WORDS, THE HAITIANS HAD this coming to them. Robertson has a penchant for saying that unspeakable tragedies are God’s revenge.

He said that the 2001 terrorist attack on US targets was the result of God’s anger with America because of its stance on abortion, gays and feminism.

In other words, the tragedy was America’s fault.

Most Americans understand that Robertson’s logic is misguided. We’re in the middle of the football playoffs in the US, and our football league and others conducted a texting fund drive for the Red Cross. The flow of funds was phenomenal: some $22 million (Sh1.65 billion) poured in to help Haitians from texting alone.

Former Presidents Bush and Clinton, in bipartisan teamwork not seen since the tsunami in Asia, are helping to coordinate relief efforts.

In Summary

Nigeria’s cabinet will decide within 14 days whether President Umaru Yar’Adua is fit enough to govern Africa’s most populous nation after a two-month absence for medical treatment, the Attorney General said today.

The 58-year-old leader has not been seen publicly since leaving on November 23 to receive treatment for a heart ailment in Saudi Arabia. He has not transferred power to his deputy, triggering debate over the legality of government decisions.

Judge Dan Abutu ordered the cabinet to pass a resolution on Yar’Adua’s fitness within two weeks after a former lawmaker brought a legal case against the government, saying his failure to transfer power was in breach of the constitution.

“We will abide by the judgement of the court. The Executive Council of the Federation will within 14 days, as directed, consider a resolution on the state of the president’s health,” Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa said.

Remain in office

The Senate, which was briefed on Thursday on Yar’Adua’s health in a closed-door session, is due to meet next Tuesday for an update and may also take a position on whether the president should remain in office.

The cabinet unanimously agreed in early December, less than 10 days after Yar’Adua left for Saudi Arabia, that there were no grounds to seek his resignation, rejecting calls for him to step down or prove his fitness to govern.

Some political analysts say ministers are reluctant to come out against Yar’Adua because they fear they would lose their jobs if Vice President Goodluck Jonathan were to take over.

But pressure for a resolution has mounted since December.

Nigeria has had to cope with clashes between Christian and Muslim gangs which killed hundreds of people in the central city of Jos this week as well as the risk of resurgent violence in the Niger Delta, the heartland of its mainstay oil industry.

More than 3,000 people marched to the state government headquarters in the commercial capital Lagos on Thursday, a rare public demonstration of political anger, demanding Yar’Adua give up his executive powers or return to Nigeria immediately.

It was the second major street protest following a similar demonstration in the capital Abuja.

Nigeria’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Aminchi, said a week ago Yar’Adua was expected to be discharged from hospital very soon after showing significant recovery but there has been no word on when he might return.

“I do not rule out (a transfer of power to Jonathan) but he should not be stampeded into doing that.”

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Yar’Adua’s direct predecessor and his main sponsor to the presidency, defended himself against accusations he had imposed an “invalid” on the nation, but was less than equivocal in his support for Yar’Adua.

“If you take up a job, elected, appointed or whatever, and then your health starts to fail you and you will not be able to deliver … to satisfy the people you are supposed to serve, then there is a path of honour and path of morality,” he said.

“If you don’t know that, you don’t know anything. I will stop on that note,” he told a briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

However, the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution called off its week-long negotiations before settling on the level of autonomy the regions will be granted. Unconfirmed reports gleaned from MPs attending the closed-door sessions said there was a brief standoff when it came to agreeing on the form.

While some ODM members reportedly insisted on regional or political autonomy (majimbo), their PNU counterparts insisted that resource-based devolution was the way to go. At that point, the MPs shelved debate until Monday morning, failing to meet their self-imposed deadline to conclude discussion on the draft constitution.

MPs are barred from discussing the proceedings of committee sessions and would be penalised for speaking on the record. The MPs revisited the chapter on representation, resolving to adopt the creation of an extra 80 constituencies, bringing the total proposed tally to 290.

Fifty-four special seats were also set aside for women while there will be 12 nominated MPs, taking the total to 356 MPs. The 26 MPs will return to Naivasha on Sunday afternoon to continue with the discussions – six days before they return the draft to the Committee of Experts.

The MPs are also said to have proposed a senate made up of three members from each of the 18 regions. The senate will meet only four times a year to discuss regional matters but it will not be involved in making laws. The committee’s chairman, Mr Abdikadir Mohammed, said the members had agreed on all the contentious issues and would release a full report of their deliberations on Wednesday.

In the devolution debate, the MPs are reported to have come up with 10 questions to guide them in coming up with principles on which to peg their decisions on devolved governments. First on the list, was the reason behind CoE’s move to drop one level of devolution in the revised draft, after the one month period within which Kenyans submitted their views.

In their first draft, the committee of experts had proposed the creation of three tiers of government – national, regional and counties. But in the revised draft, which is now before the PSC, they dropped the regional governments and reduced the counties from 74 to 47, citing concerns over cost of running the devolved structure.

The MPs will also look at what model of devolution should be adopted, considering the cost, national security and national cohesion implications of each of the two models. “We will also be looking at the impact of the two devolution models on the national fiscal and monetary control,” said one of the members.

Sources revealed that the MPs will review the future of the Constituency Development Fund in relation to introduction of counties and whether MPs would support devolution if it scrapped the fund. They are also to look at the relationship of the different levels of government under the two models.

In their debate, it was reported that they will also look at other countries that have devolved governments and how they have performed. In particular, they will look at South Africa, which has set up a commission to dismantle regional governments introduced in 1994. “It is also important that we look at the appropriate number of counties and regions under any of the two models in question,” one MP told the Saturday Nation.

Another question is how long the counties and regions should be allowed to exist in order to prove their viability under the two models. The PSC has been accused of dealing with non-contentious issues while the law indicates that they are to use the 21 days ending next Friday to deal with the contentious issues.