BY JEFF OTIENO

The battle lines over the control of the moribund Miwani sugar Company has gone a notch higher with two local MPs Fred Outa of Nyando constituency and his Muhoroni counter part Prof Ayiecho Olweny exchanging unprintable words in full glare of the public.

It all started when the Nyando legislator Fred Outa went to the once giant miller with some three foreign investors said to be harbouring interests to revive the company without consulting the area MP Prof Olweny.

Working on a tip off the enraged Prof with some of his youths on toe rushed and started exchanging bitterly with Outa within the precincts of the plant during the tour to the disbelief of the foreigners.

“We will not allow you to mess up the sugar sector the way you’ve messed up with West Kano Rice Farmers”, Olweny told defiant Outa.

“Who are you to stop me from coming to Miwani I will come several times”, Outa told Olweny.

Sources close to the Nyando legislator confided to this writer that Outa’s impromptu visit to the plant was sanctioned from some powerful quarters in Nairobi said to be harbouring interests though they don’t want to be in the open nowander he wasn’t moved by Ayiechos out bursts.

Some stakeholders in the sugar sector led by the Director of Kenya Sugar Board Nicholas Oricho have however thrown their weight behind CROSLEY LTD which won the tender during 2008 auction.

“One of the associates of CROSLEY is a sugar expert with unrivalled track record nowander we are backing him to revive Miwani for the sake of our people”, Oricho told this journalist.

CROSLEY LTD paid an impressive bid worth Kshs. 752 Million and again they want to splash 30% to the locals as their stake, a move which has been applauded by most natives.

A powerful Nyanza politician is said to be behind the frustrations to revive Miwani Sugar which has been under receivership for ages because he is alleged to be nursing massive interests but he doesn’t have the capacity.

END

By Dickens Wasonga

As schools re-opened  countrywide last week, parents  with children in public primary schools within Kisumu municipality now want the government  to rescue them  from the hands of   rogue head teachers who have turned the schools into private academies to aid them mint cash.

When the government introduced the  free and compulsory primary education in 2003, many parents were hopeful that the  days of illegal levies would be a thing of the past but as things stand now, school managers appears to have only become more innovative than before.

A number of primary school heads within Kisumu municipality have since  come up with a system which ensures they  continue collecting money from the unsuspecting parents.

The schemes of the heads is aided by the fact that many parents   are  too desperate only too willing to enroll their children into the schools.

Independent investigations revealed that  the  current trick adopted by the unscrupulous  head teachers is to form school management committees whose composition is made up of a few rich and influential parents who in turn dictate terms to their fellow parents who may not be  financially stable.

To conceal their under hand schemes and  hood wink the district education board that nothing sinister is a foot, the rich  parents collude with the head teachers to sneak in or introduce several levies purported to have been  proposed and approved by the entire parents population while in reality that is not the case.

What the influential parents do is to literally force the levies down the throats of the not so well off colleagues and the trend now has resulted into two categories of public primary schools in the city- public schools for the poor and another for the rich while denying children from poor families the chance to learn.

Our investigations found out that many parents who are not able to meet the exorbitant costs have been forced to withdraw their children from these schools to  look for alternative ones elsewhere.

The spot check by this newspaper showed that the levies among them  the so called parental obligation fee ranges between sh 8500  to 11,000 per year and is charged in almost all the  public primary schools within the municipality.

A head teacher of one such schools retorted arrogantly during an interview that the cost of learning had gone up and as such  parents must be willing to pay more.Those who are not ready to pay should transfer their children  back to the rural schools where such levies were minimal.

“The cost of education has become very expensive and parents must be ready to pay. whoever is opposed to this must find alternative elsewhere and not in my school,” said the head teacher.

Parental obligation fees  for example,  which the head teachers purports  to have been approved by the parents from their respective schools and the district education board  ranges between sh 2000 to 2500  which does not include school uniform.

The schools also require parents who want new  admission for their children to pay a non refundable application fee of  sh 3000 per child.

A parent who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity said last week he  was forced to transfer all his three children from one of the notorious school to nearby school where the charges were  slightly affordable.

“These extortion like levies  is the order of the day  in all the schools here, only the rates are different but  now I feel a bit relieved.A  part from the sh 150 that I pay per year as parental obligation in the current school, am only worried about the transport cost for my children to and from school” he said.

Although  it was apparent from the  investigations that many pupils from poor  family backgrounds especially those living in  Kisumu’s sprawling slums like Nyalenda, Obunga, Manyatta, Bandani and others have obviously been denied the opportunity to go to school, little is being done by the authorities to reverse the trend.

George Omondi, the out going education officer  of Kisumu municipality  said he had received several complaints from parents but claims his hands are tied because such levies are normally approved by school management committees.

However the M.E.O was not able to explain why many of the committees  of schools under his docket were not holding elections regularly as required and continue to be in office to serve selfish interest of corrupt head teachers to the chagrin of the other parents.

ENDS.

BENGUELA

The scene of an accident on Waiyaki Way, Nairobi, where five employees of a firm laying fibre optic cables died after their van collided with a lorry. Two others were taken to the MP Shah and Kenyatta National hospitals in a critical condition. Photo/CHRIS OJOW

The driver of the blue Canter and four others died on the spot, one being the man who was desperately trying to give a Good Samaritan his wife’s phone number.

Photo: Suhair Karam/IRIN

Muhamed al-Kawayda (left), 11, and his brother Saber, 14, walk through a flooded street in al-Mughraqa, a town 6km southwest of Gaza City

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GAZA,  – Thousands of Gazans made homeless by Israel’s 23-day military assault on the Gaza Strip which ended just over a year ago, are still in tents and damaged buildings; cold weather and recent flash floods have exacerbated their plight, say aid workers and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Heavy rain and flooding on 25 January badly hit tented communities in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza; al-Mughraqa, a town 6km southwest of Gaza City; and Ezbet Abed-Rabbo, east of Jabalia town in northern Gaza, said Hamas officials.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) described conditions in al-Mughraqa as “shocking”. Most of the residents there have no land of their own and live in shelters or tents with their livestock, on which they depend for their livelihoods.

Residents said many of their animals were killed in the floods and people were surviving on food distributed by Hamas, the de facto ruling authority in Gaza since 2007.

In Beit Lahiya, rain brought misery to many local residents, according to Hamas officials.

“We don’t sleep at all when it rains like this in winter,” said Um Subhi Awaja, 33, who is pregnant and lives in a tent in Beit Lahiya with her husband and five children. “We stay up the whole night scooping water out and trying to dig a small ditch around the tent to prevent more water getting in, but it doesn’t help. My children are afraid and we don’t have enough blankets or clothes. It’s so cold we’re freezing.”

Um Subhi’s husband is unemployed, in debt, and has six children with a second wife who lives in another tent in Beit Lahiya.

“I’m not sure how we will cope… The children are always getting sick, coughing or getting a fever,” she said.

Photo: Suhair Karam/IRIN

Um Subhi Awaja, 33, sits with her children in her family tent in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Their house was destroyed during the Israeli offensive in Gaza in January 2009

Rent relief

According to an April 2009 UNRWA and UN Development Programme assessment of the damaged caused by the Israeli assault and subsequent fighting, some 4,036 houses in Gaza were totally destroyed or beyond repair, and 11,514 partially destroyed.

Those made homeless have squeezed in with relatives, rented apartments or made do in their damaged homes, aid workers said.

Ahmed Harb al-Kurd, Hamas social affairs minister, said on 27 January that Hamas has offered to pay rent of up to US$3,000 a year to any Gazans who lost their homes during the war. He told IRIN that this would be until “the government finds a solution to reconstruct their houses once Israel lifts its barbaric siege, and construction materials, such as cement, are allowed to cross to Gaza”.

Israel has not allowed cement and building materials into Gaza since June 2007, shortly after Hamas took over in the Strip, because it says they could be seized by Hamas to fortify their military structures.

The UN has repeatedly called for the lifting of the blockade on humanitarian grounds.

“We have seen nothing” of the $4.4 billion pledged to the Palestinian Authority by more than 80 states and organizations at a donor conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in March 2009, al-Kurd said. The money was meant for the Palestinian economy as a whole and Gaza in particular.

“Everything agreed at that conference was merely ink on paper,” he said.

“The humanitarian situation of Palestinians in Gaza is going to deteriorate if something doesn’t give,” Jamal Hamad, an UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, told IRIN on 27 January.

sk/ed/cb source.irinnews

By Dickens Wasonga, Kisumu-Kenya

While many Kisumu residents scorns them like a plaque, others just can not understand why it is taking unnecessarily too long for the authorities to stop this criminal gang from what now appears like a noble and a rewarding career.

If visiting the lake side city for the first time and you are the get- rich- quick type, be warned because this city has become a world of super con artists popularly known here as “wash wash”

Many criminals all over the world uses force to maim or simply kill their victims in order to get money. However,the “wash wash” of Kisumu do not employ such schemes.

Their only arsenal and the most dreaded at that, is the group’s amazing and unbelievable ability to convince and swindle thousands of unsuspecting city residents of their hard earned money in a record time.

In the very words of a past victim of these con men, the “wash wash” do not go physical but ensures the victims go down with the unbearable pain of loosing the savings of a life time.

In other words while the victim is left wailing , the gang go smiling all the way to the bank.

Police records and information available from the local law courts shows the group have in the past pulled several successful operations within and outside the Lake side City.

Those who fell into their hands lost thousands of shillings but surprisingly several others continues to do so meaning many are yet to learn from the past incidences.

The notable examples includes among others, an incident late last year where a senior Manager with Equity Bank Kisumu Branch allegedly lost his job after he was cheated of over Ksh. 1 million by the tricksters.

The senior banker allegedly withdrew the funds from the bank’s operation kitty and handed it over to wash wash gangs who had promised to double it for him but soon vanished into thin air leaving the poor man with a bundle of fake notes.

A week later a similar fate befell yet another manager with National Bank of Kenya the same branch and the matter is still under police investigations.

Earlier, a chief officer attached to Kisumu county council lost over a million shillings in a similar ordeal.

The chief officer reportedly withdrew the funds from the local authority transfer fund after meeting with the con men the previous day where he was promised the money would be doubled.

He would later be surcharged and interdicted by the ministry of local government for abuse of office.

These swindlers do not discriminate when it comes to pulling up a job.

Everyone is at the risk of becoming a victim of the hawk-eyed criminal group who continue to comb every corner of Kenya’s third largest City as though what they do is a legally registered business.

From the ordinary street hawker trying to  eke out a living selling small stuff to the big time trader.From that prominent lawyer to your powerful politician, that famous personality in the co-operate world to the dreaded top cops,no one is safe.

Wash wash is a very organized group though. Police officers who have been probing the group’s illegal activities say they are complete with a wing that collects intelligence and use coded words to communicate.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officers who has been involved in the investigations of say just like in the forces ,only members subscribing to wash wash understands the language.

One of them said to conceal their identity, members of the group are referred to as “Babu” while those who have been identified for swindling are known as “Mugo”

They also disclosed wash wash operates within a network whose composition is understood to include even police officers whose mandate is to secure the release of any member arrested and ensure they do not appear in court.

Should a member be arraigned in court, the group turns to a chain of lawyers who stand by to take up their cases. Coming in handy also as a fall back includes corrupt court officials who are only too willing to ‘help’.

And how do people lose money to this group? one may ask.

Its so simple. They just identify a potential victim- a person with good money,preferably a businessman or woman. they do plan well before executing their schemes . patiently and carefully.Says the police

Detectives say where men are targeted, beautiful women are used as baits. the lady’s role includes among others carrying out investigations to establish beyond doubt if the targeted “clients” have the kind of money that would see the group swing into action.

Such clients, mainly politicians, wealthy business people and top notch individuals in the cooperate world have their movements closely monitored by the spying ladies even up to a week before the deal can be sealed, investigators said.

“The baits only pounce once its clear to the gang that the would-be victim is loaded with cash.normally these deals are pulled out in the secure and secluded environment of high class Hotels frequented by those targeted” He added.

The gang have a make- believe myth that helps to lure clients but has now left several Kisumu people poorer and thoroughly embarrassed to share their ordeals even with close friends or relatives.

Wash wash has largely succeeded in creating an impression among its unsuspecting clients that they posses the rare ability and method to double the hard earned money, not through savings but through “magic washing”.

Funny as it might sound you better believe it because hundreds of people down the lakeside city continue to fall victims of these tricksters and only come to realize that they have been ‘washed’ when its too late for action.

Their social life style reveals a group which is fabulously rich and ready to spend.They for instance spend big money to bail out colleagues and cover-up their covert deals.

Strangely though, they also have their secret admirers especially women in the town who fall for their ill gotten wealth and drive with them in their posh cars.

Observers and law enforcement officers admits that it might take a while to fight the crime fully, noting that run-away corruption within the police department coupled with ignorance from members of the public are the major set backs so far identified.

In the past, Senior Police Officers in Nyanza Province have been accused of sharing the spoils from the illegal business to protect its architects some of whom are well known in the town even by name both by members of the public and the police.

Many cases involving the syndicate are said to be investigated poorly by the police and often thrown out due to lack of evidence.

Observers notes offenders are only charged with obtaining money through false pretense, a charge whose sentence is not deterrent enough to stop these criminals from the act and needs to be reviewed under the Criminal Procedure Code in the Laws of the Country.

For now the residents of Kisumu and the entire country will have to do with a bit of wisdom and be aware that nobody else apart from the government has the mandate and the ability to print and mint money thus stopping these crooks from reaping where they never sowed.

ENDS:

Photo: Mohammed Amin Jibril/IRIN

A car burns during a past demonstration in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland. A series of bombing incidents have been reported in Las-anod, an area disputed by Somaliland and Puntland (file photo)

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HAIRGEISA,  – The latest bomb explosion in Somalia’s self-declared independent republic of Somaliland raises concerns over the lack of government presence in the Las-anod area, says an analyst.

Among those injured in the blast, which killed one person and injured five on 28 January, was the governor of Sool region, Askar Farah Hussein, who was admitted to a hospital in the town of Las-anod.

Commenting on the bombings that have hit the region since October 2009, Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin told reporters: “I have heard the opposition accusing the government of being behind the bombs; this is unfortunate, the government is investigating, but we need to know that the enemy wants [to stage] more attacks against Somaliland…”

The latest incident brings to five the bombings since October 2009 in Las-anod, capital of a region in contention between Somaliland and Puntland. Las-anod is part of Sool and Sanag region, to which the governments of Somaliland and Puntland both lay claim.

According to EJ Hogendoorn, the International Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa Project Director, the Somaliland government is strong enough to get the situation under control in Las-anod “but the problem is that there is minimal government presence in the area”.

“The area remains largely unadministered by both Puntland and Somaliland,” Hogendoorn said, adding that the region is inhabited mainly by the Dhulbahante clan, which has family ties to the ruling Harti clan in Puntland.

“The Sool and Sanag region is disputed by both Puntland and Somaliland for several reasons; the Dhulbahante are unhappy with both Puntland and Somaliland, and Islamist radicals have taken advantage of this to try to cause instability in the area,” Hogendoorn said. “Moreover, it is likely that there are significant oil deposits in Sool and Sanag, so both governments lay claim to the region.”

Fomenting instability

Hogendoorn said it appeared the violence was inspired by Islamist elements among the Dhulbahante that are sympathetic to Al-Shabab, the main Islamist group that has been waging war against the government in Somalia.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

“The interest of these Islamist elements is to foment instability. What is clear is that they have links with Al-Shabab in south and central Somalia,” he said. “There is a similar dynamic going in Puntland, where the Islamist radicals have also targeted government officials in the past.”

However, Hogendoorn said analysts did not have any evidence that the bombings in Las-anod were orchestrated by Al-Shabab.

“There are a lot of Islamist groups in the whole of Somalia; it is difficult to speculate whether or not Al-Shabab is behind the latest incidents,” he said. “The best course of action would be for the Somaliland government to improve security in and around its installations in Las-anod and to have more presence on the ground.”

Police Commissioner Mohamed Saqadhi Dubad told IRIN that 23 arrests had been made in relation to the incidents and that investigations were ongoing to establish those behind the attacks.

“We consider the suspects [to be] coming from our enemy who don’t like our stability; of course they are external enemies,” Dubad said, declining to give any names.

On 26 January 2010, Dubad said, reports were made to police that a suspect package had been seen in Las-anod. The police collected the package but it turned out to be a remote-controlled bomb and it went off, killing two soldiers, Dubad said.

On 14 January, unknown armed men shot dead the Las-anod police commissioner minutes after he left a mosque.

Mohamed Abdi Dhimbil, the deputy governor of Sool, said: “A few days ago, unknown people threw hand grenades at a police station in the south, injuring three policemen.”

In late October 2009, an army commander and another official were killed following a bomb explosion.

Dubad said: “Most of the incidents involved remote-controlled bombs, but more than 23 suspects, including officials from Somaliland, have been arrested and they will be on trial soon.

“We captured some explosive material in Hargeisa after a woman in the area notified us that a man had placed what looked like explosive elements on the road near Hawadle Mosque,” Dubad said. “One man was arrested over the incident.”

The bombings have caused fear and alarm among the public.

“Nowadays Somaliland security is fragile because you can see everywhere there are incidents taking place; for this reason we consider the government could be losing control of national security and we are worried,” said Mohamed Farah Qabile, a member of the Lower House of Parliament from the Kulmiye opposition party.

Mohamed Hashi Elmi, a former minister of commerce, said the government should explain to people who was responsible for the explosions.

Photo: Jamal Abdi/IRIN

Somaliland President Dahir Riyalle Kahin

Security priority

On 17 January, Vice-President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin announced that national security would be given “the highest priority” in 2010.

Police commissioner Dubad said security for international aid staff would also be improved to facilitate access to many parts of Somaliland.

“We are improving security measures for international staff of aid organizations … because our enemy is targeting international aid workers as well as other foreign citizens who are helping our people in sectors such as education and health,” Dubad said.

He added that police would provide security for aid workers undertaking missions in various parts of the country, “even in their homes”.

maj/js/mw source.irinnews

Photo: Peter Martell/IRIN

Without government or community protection, Juba’s young girls are vulnerable to abuse

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JUBA,  – In a large market in Juba, the regional capital of Southern Sudan, young women spend long afternoons lounging on beds in sweltering iron sheet rooms, waiting for men.

One girl, no more than 17, wearing a tight tee-shirt with the words “I love beer” emblazoned on it, points us in the direction of a different set of rooms, with the really young girls.

IRIN has come to the market with Cathy Groenendijk, director of a small local NGO, Confident Children Out of Conflict (CCC), which for the past two-and-a-half years has run a drop-in centre for children from desperately poor homes in Juba. Today, she is searching for 14-year-old Alice*, one of her protégés who recently rang her to say she had found accommodation in an area known to house mainly sex workers.

“I can’t be angry with her, I know where her family lives – right on the street; I can’t judge her for wanting something better for herself, and her body is all she has to bargain with,” she said.

Alice’s new home is a compound comprising several iron sheet rooms, all occupied by child sex workers, one of whom is heavily pregnant but has never been to an antenatal clinic. Alice insists she is just renting a room and is not having sex for money, but when Groenendijk nevertheless advises her to always use a condom and offers to take her for a contraceptive injection, she readily agrees.

“Of course there is shame, she wouldn’t admit to me that she is a sex worker because she thinks she has let me down, but as much as it pains me to have to talk to a 14-year-old girl about condoms, the alternative – pregnancy or HIV – is worse,” Groenendijk added.

Many of the older sex workers in the market said they consistently used condoms and sent away clients who refused to use them, but for child sex workers, who earn significantly less, purchasing condoms can be difficult.

We are soon shooed away by the men who run the compound, but not before Alice tells us that the room she rents belongs to a police officer; another sex worker tells us hers belongs to an immigration official.

Some of these girls – even as young as seven – know so much about sex; either they live in one-room shacks with their parents so they see it, or they are abused by local men and boys

CCC is one of a small number of NGOs dealing with the growing problem of street children in Juba; a 2009 survey by the French NGO, Children of the World – Human Rights (EMDH), found at least 1,200 children spending their days in the city’s markets.

Children come with their families or escape to Juba, a booming commercial hub, to seek employment – shining shoes, collecting water bottles or washing cars to make a living. Some are able to return home at night, but for many, the city’s streets, shop verandas and local fields are home.

High risks

“The opportunities are not as many as people imagine, and when families reach Juba, many parents drink to numb the problems they are facing, letting children run wild,” said Anita Queirazza, programme manager for EMDH, which is working with street children in Juba.

Lack of structure or protection within the family makes girls vulnerable to sexual abuse, something Groenendijk deals with regularly at her drop-in centre.

“Some of these girls – even as young as seven – know so much about sex; either they live in one-room shacks with their parents so they see it, or they are abused by local men and boys,” she said.

According to Sylvia Pasti, chief of child protection for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Southern Sudan office, girls on the street risk violence, including sexual violence, and trafficking for domestic work or sexual abuse, and have no access to healthcare, both generally and following rape.

Dragudi Buwa, head of office for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Southern Sudan, agreed: “There are many young girls in town – both Sudanese and from other countries – looking for work that is not readily available. Rape is very common in the city’s markets.”

Slow progress in protection

UNFPA has trained special police units in four police stations in Juba to deal with cases of gender-based violence, and has also trained health workers to deal with cases of sex abuse, but the region’s limited infrastructure means very few ever make it to court or hospital. The only place in Juba – a city of more than 300,000 residents – equipped to deal with sexual violence is the teaching hospital.

More on sexual violence:

Too scared to tell – sexual violence in Darfur

OVC may be at greater risk of sexual abuse

Lesbians and HIV – low risk is not no risk

so

The Ministry of Social Welfare, with limited numbers of social workers and the smallest budget of all the government departments, is ill-equipped to deal with either the survivors or their attackers.

“There is a policy on children without primary care-givers, but it has not yet been approved, and the child act of 2008 lays out all the rights of children but has not really been implemented,” said UNICEF’s Pasti.

UNICEF has trained 78 social workers to support the ministry, but they have no office.

“In an ideal world, we would have child protection units in every division in Juba so that child abuse is immediately reported and dealt with,” Groenendijk said. “We would have child play areas so the kids wouldn’t have to play in the local graveyards. But we are still a long way away from that vision.”

kr/mw source.irinnews
* Not her real name