Such a person should not be allowed to run a private school if his only interest is to make money and refusing to take responsibility when a young life is lost due to careless care by his school staff.

Police �witnessed� school director bribing journalist

By Karanja Njoroge

Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) officers laid a trap for the director of a school as he attempted to bribe a journalist, a Nakuru court heard on Tuesday.

Mr Wycliffe Sirengo, an officer with the anti-graft agency, said they witnessed proceedings at a hotel where Isaac Kamunya is alleged to have attempted to bribe The Standard journalist Alex Kiprotich.

He said KACC officers acted on the case following a report lodged by the Standard Group.

He was testifying in a case where Kamunya is charged with corruptly offering an unspecified amount of cash to Kiprotich on December 1 at The Standard Group bureau offices in Nakuru to stop him publishing a story on Linda Koech who died at the school on July 28, 2008. The accused faces more charges of corruptly offering Sh20,000 and Sh70,000 to the journalist.

Sirengo said, together with two other officers from KACC, he went to the hotel in Nakuru town where Kiprotich was meeting Kamunya and two others.

“I saw the suspect remove some money from his coat, which he gave to a man who had accompanied him,” he added.

The witness said the money was later returned to Kamunya who then handed it to the journalist under the table.

“After confirming that the money had changed hands we moved in and introduced ourselves as KACC officers,” he added.

source.standard.ke

Ruto declares Raila his �enemy number one�

By Leonard Korir

Higher Education Minister William Ruto launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Raila Odinga and declared him his “enemy number one”.

Ruto described Raila as a thankless person who turned against his supporters after the last General Election.

He said despite the support Raila got from the Kalenjin in the 2007 elections, the PM turned against them and even referred to the youth who fought for him as �criminals�.

Ruto, who was addressing a fundraising in Trans Mara East District, said he has parted ways with Raila.

“Instead of Raila fighting for the release of those arrested following post-election violence he has continued to humiliate the community,” said the minister.

Ruto was in the company of MPs Eugene Wamalwa (Saboti), Cyrus Jirongo (Lugari), Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu), Gideon Konchella (Kilgoris), Mithika Linturi (Igembe) and ODM Trans Mara chairman Samuel Tunai.

Divisive issues

On the Proposed Constitution, he said the land chapter was likely to divide the country if the document is passed at the referendum.

“Issues on land are emotive and need a lot of care therefore there is no need to pass the draft without addressing these issues,” he said

He said proposed National Land Commission would not adequately address local issues and that land matters should be left for locals to tackle.

Ruto said if the Proposed Constitution were adopted, ordinary Kenyans would be the losers.

He challenged President Kibaki and Raila to give room for amendment before going to the referendum.

source.standard.ke

Photo: Jimmy Kamude/IRIN

M

ost sex partners of MSM sex workers are men, but sex with local women is also common

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MOMBASA, 20 April 2010 (PlusNews) – At a nightclub in Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast, Tito Bakari* a local man, and Leonard Smithberger, a tourist, make out in a dark corner before the bouncer asks them to leave. Hand in hand they walk to another bar nearby, where they party through the night.

“My love from Germany has been here since Easter – the party has just begun,” Bakari told IRIN/PlusNews. Smithberger visits Kenya a few times every year and showers gifts and money on Bakari, who moves out of the house he shares with his wife and child and into his lover’s hotel.

Up to 60 percent of male sex workers in Mombasa also have female sexual partners, according to a recent study presented at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco.

“Although most sex partners of MSM-SW [men who have sex with men sex workers] are men, sex with local women is also common, usually transactional, and often unprotected,” the study noted.

“Little is known of the personal risk awareness and motivations for women seeking sex with MSM-SW; however, these issues risk being overlooked by interventions targeting risk reduction between MSM alone.”

Kenya’s latest AIDS Indicator Survey attributed 15.2 percent of new HIV infections to men who have sex with men, and they are widely thought to be a bridge for HIV transmission to the general population.

Low awareness

The government is conducting a survey that will inform its first HIV campaigns targeted at MSM, who have so far been left out of HIV prevention efforts, allowing them to gain a mistakenly low perception of their own risk.

“My wife knows that I am bisexual, but I provide her needs and equally satisfy her sexually. I even have two children with her, so she never complains,” said Ben Maina*, a male sex worker in Mombasa who doesn’t always use condoms with his clients, and never with his wife.

My wife knows that I am bisexual, but I provide her needs and equally satisfy her sexually…so she never complains

In 2007, another study in Mombasa found that the high prevalence of HIV in Kenyan MSM was probably due to unprotected receptive anal sex and low condom use.

Despite the risks and the lack of acceptance by society, Maina makes too much money to consider leaving the trade – in a country where half the population lives on less than US$1 per day, he can earn up to $365 per week. “The cash assists me in providing for my family,” he said.

Denial

Dr Mary Mwangombe, a researcher at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), in the coastal town of Kilifi, said HIV programming for men who have sex with men and their partners – both male and female – was difficult because of the illegal nature of homosexuality and the public’s intolerance of it.

“Most male commercial sex workers live and go about their business secretively to avoid being victimized, either by the council officials, the police or the public at large,” she told IRIN/PlusNews.

In February a “gay wedding” in the coastal town of Mtwapa was halted by the police and an angry mob, who also stormed KEMRI’s offices, claiming the organization was harbouring gay men.

Mwangombe said, “Doctors and counsellors have faced stiff challenges, not only on the misconceptions about HIV transmission and prevalence, but also in convincing other stakeholders and the general public that high-risk sexual behaviour such as this is a reality in Kenya.”

jk/kr/he source.irinnews

* Not their real names

Photo: Nazer Alimi/IRIN

Afghanistan is prone to droughts that can undermine food security in the areas affected (file photo)

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KABUL, 22 April 2010 (IRIN) – Below average rainfall has hit food production in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan where some rain-fed fields have dried out, officials and farmers said.

�I planted wheat on my land but it has failed due to lack of rain,� Hamidullah, the owner of eight hectares in Chaparhar District in the eastern province of Nangarhar, told IRIN.

Enayatullah, a farmer in Nangarhar�s Sor Rod District, said: �I spent 70,000 Afghanis [US$1,450] on wheat and onion seeds but my fields have dried out.�

Provincial agriculture officials said �drought� has been reported in 12 of the province�s 23 districts, mostly in areas where farmers are reliant on rain, rather than irrigation.

About 20,000 hectares of farmland is drought-affected, said Muhsil Khan, an agriculture official, adding that Sor Rod, Chaparhar, Rodat, Achin, Spinghar and Goshta were the worst hit.

Drought-affected farmers in Nangarhar said they needed food aid, and assistance to irrigate their land.

However, the drought-like conditions are not limited to Nangarhar.

�Despite periods of rain and snow during March and early April, precipitation deficits remain substantial across the northeast parts of the country,� Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), an affiliate of the US Agency for International Development, said in a 14 April report.

FEWS NET predicted a �mid-level drought� in northeastern areas.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) said it had sent assessment teams to the region and would present its analysis in May.

No severe implications

Photo: FEWS-Net

Afghanistan�s mid-term food security map

Rain-fed agriculture accounts for about 30 percent of Afghanistan�s annual cereal production (estimated at over six million tons in 2009).

�A lot of the rain-fed fields are in the south and west of the country while in the east vegetables are the main agricultural products,� Majid Qarar, MAIL�s spokesman, told IRIN, adding that a possible drought in the northeast would not have severe food security implications for the country.

Wheat is the main staple for most Afghans. MAIL officials anticipate a good harvest this year – mainly in the south, west and north.

But despite this, and a record harvest last year, over seven million people were food insecure and helped by the UN World Food Programme.

An April-June medium-term food security outlook map by FEWS NET shows that – apart from the southern province of Helmand – all the other 33 provinces will be moderately or highly food insecure.

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Written By:Margaret Kalekye/kna���,�Posted: Sat, Apr 24, 2010

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons

Prices of some cereals remian over 50 percent higher than the 2005 to 2009 average

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ADDIS ABABA, 23 April 2010 (PlusNews) – Grandmother Anchilalo Ejigu was distraught when her daughter died from an HIV-related illness two years ago, leaving behind two children under five; the family�s other relatives refused to take in the children, so at the age of 50, Anchilalo became a parent all over again.

“I was really struggling; my business selling beer was not doing well and I had to pay 300 birr [US $22] in rent every month and to find food for the children as well,” she told PlusNews in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia is starting to recover from the food price shocks of 2008, but the prices of cereals such as white maize remain 55 percent higher than the 2005-2009 average.

Rapid construction happening across the city stands in stark contrast to the extreme poverty evident among the large number of people living on the street and the crowds of beggars hanging around the city’s highways.

Anchilalo and her two grandchildren, both of whom have tested HIV-negative, survived potential destitution when a local community worker introduced her to the Hiwot HIV/AIDS Prevention Care and Support Organization (HAPSCO), which – through the UN World Food Programme’s (WFP) urban HIV/AIDS programme – started to provide her with food for the children monthly.

While the food support has been a life-saver, Anchilalo says more than anything, it has allowed her and the children to remain together.

Keeping families together

“I have such a strong bond with these children now, I can’t imagine life without them,” she said. “If there was no food support, I would have had to give them up to someone who could feed them, but now we can remain together as a family.”

Thousands of orphaned Ethiopian children live in orphanages, often taken there by family members unable to support them; thousands more spend their days and nights living wild on Addis Ababa’s crowded streets. Close to 40 percent of Ethiopia’s 77 million people live below the poverty line, and taking in an additional child is an expense few families can afford.

I have such a strong bond with these children now, I can’t imagine life without them

With an HIV prevalence rate of 7 percent – far higher than the national average of 2.3 percent – Addis Ababa is home to thousands of families affected by the loss of loved ones to HIV/AIDS.

A 2009 report by the NGO Save the Children noted that�children in institutions are at increased risk of abuse and neglect due to the poor standard of care found in many of these facilities; it recommends every effort be made to keep children in family-based care.

According to Judith Schuler, public information officer for WFP Ethiopia, food is often the draw to the urban feeding programme, but the benefits of the programme are far wider than just food.

“Food support enables families to remain together, it allows orphans to remain in school; it allows people once facing social exclusion to gain acceptance in society once again; it allows people living with HIV to continue taking their drugs,” she said.

WFP’s programme feeds three categories of beneficiaries: people living with HIV on life-prolonging antiretroviral medication; orphans and vulnerable children; and pregnant and lactating mothers undergoing prevention of mother-to-child transmission. The programme, which works through local NGOs, has more than 125,000 beneficiaries in 23 urban centres around the country.

Secondary benefits

Beyond providing food, HAPSCO also runs a community support system for its beneficiaries, teaching them how to prepare the food they are given and how to supplement it to get the best nutrition. Orphans also get school materials and have their progress in school followed-up.

The feeding programme is not permanent; people living with HIV are expected to �graduate� from the programme after nine months, as long as their body mass index exceeds (BMI) 18.5, or they achieve a healthy weight.

“At six months, if they have achieved a BMI of 18.5, we put them on half-rations and start to prepare them for income generating activities,” said Tsegazeab Bezabih, programme assistant at WFP Ethiopia. “We teach them different skills – petty trading, sheep rearing, metal or wood work and so on.”

Income generation

Tirunesh Tefera is raising two children alone after her husband died of an HIV-related illness; she and her eldest child, a 12-year-old boy, are both HIV-positive. While she still receives some food for the children, who are separately enrolled at HAPSCO as orphans, she has �graduated� and recently started a successful business with seed money from the NGO.

Photo: Keishamaza Rukikaire/IRIN

Mulumebet Adugna is doing everything she can to get off food support and start a successful business

“I sell tea, bread and meals for daily labourers in my neighbourhood. I have even employed a young woman to help me,” she said. “I can buy books for my son, who is doing very well in school and wants to be an engineer.”

Some are less successful the first time round. Mulumebet Adugna �graduated� from the programme about a year ago, but is back because her business failed and she fell ill, her weight and her CD4 count – a measure of immune strength – dropping to dangerously low levels.

“I was selling charcoal, but the authorities kept chasing us away from our spot, saying we were there illegally – I couldn’t make the business work; I also do embroidery, but one piece that takes three days to make sells for just 8 birr [60 US cents] and my rent is 120 birr [$9],” she said. “I got so stressed by it all; that’s why I fell sick again.”

According to Zenebech Asfaw, a social worker with HAPSCO, there is a need for more intensive training in business in order to register more success in the income generating activities.

“Some people want to go into food preparation, but sometimes people find out you are HIV-positive and they may not be willing to buy food from you. People need to be made to understand what can work and what can’t,” she said.

She said successful businesses served as an example to others in the programme, helping to prevent “dependency syndrome”.

“I really don’t want to continue getting food support,” Mulumebet said. “I will do everything I can to get healthy again and make my business profitable.”

kr/cb source.irinnews