Photo: Cecilia Preite Martinez/IRIN

Young people in Dadaab (file photo)

NAIROBI, 28 April 2010 (IRIN) – They spent most of their lives in crowded refugee camps after their families fled violence in Somalia but now 22 men and six women have won scholarships to study in Canada.

“I have waited for this day since 2006 [when he graduated from high school in the Dadaab refugee camp, northern Kenya] and it is finally here. My prayers have been answered,” said Ahmed Farah Nageye.

Nageye, now 21, spent most of his life in Dadaab. “My family came here when I was two years old. I have never known another life,” he told IRIN.

His family fled the civil war in Somalia in 1992, when his father was killed in the southern port city of Kismayo.

Nageye said he had to struggle to finish high school in Dadaab. “There were days when I would go to school hungry.”

He thought of quitting to help his mother take care of the four children. “I wanted to get a job when I was 15 but my mother wouldn’t hear of it. She wouldn’t let me quit school.”

The scholarships are being given by the World University Services of Canada working with Windle Trust Kenya, an NGO that helps refugees from East and Horn of Africa access education and training.

Fifty candidates had to take a written and oral English exam. “Twenty-eight of us [and one Sudanese student] passed and were given the scholarships.”

Nageye wants to study medicine and go back to Somalia. “I know how doctors are needed in my country. I want to be able to help not only my mother and family but the Somali people.”

Hassan Daud, 28, finished high school in 2008 but could not secure a university place.

He had to find some work after finishing high school. “I had to do something so I started helping teach in a school in the camp.”

He said it was hard enough for a Somali to get into university but “it is even harder for a refugee. I am so glad and grateful we got this opportunity and I am sure we will take full advantage.”

Daud said he wanted to study political science and return to Somalia. “I want to replace these so-called politicians who destroyed our country.”

Daud’s mother, Barwaaqo Mohamud, told IRIN the family struggled to make sure he stayed in school “and our perseverance paid off. I am so proud of him.”

Ali Abdi, another student, said that despite having to wait for two years for a place, he never gave up. “My brother went to university and I wanted to follow in his footsteps.”

Abdi wants to study medicine. He spent 18 of his 20 years in the refugee camp and experienced the desperate need for doctors.

The group expects to find out which universities they will be attending in Canada in June and will begin in the autumn term, said Nageye.

ah/mw source.irinnews

FROM PRIMARY SCHOOL DROP OUT, MANDAZI SELLER TO A COUNCILLOR IN KISUMU MUNICIPALITY.

Feature story by Agwanda Jowi.

<The search for votes

When Councilor James Osir Nyamwaya started helping the people within Kogony Ward and adjacent areas to his ancestral Kogony village, little did he know that at one point they will urge him to be their civic representative at the Kisumu Municipality Town Hall  as a councilor and later head Youths and Women Affairs Committee.

The short, dark, soft speaking man says that there are things which have happened in his life so rapidly that he can only attribute  to the almighty God who he says he has never asked anything and has denied to step in with blessings.

While speaking with this writer at his Kogony home, Cllr Osir says that initially he just helped his people as he saw various problems which the orphans, widows and the less fortunate within his village faced.

“At  a certain point in life, I asked the almighty God how I could help my people with the little I had as the problems were many and diverse ranging from school fees, strengthening women groups as well as attending to their personal problem because I did not have the answer to all their problems” he added.

He further adds that the answer came in the form of his electorates requesting him to be their representative, a thing he never thought of as initially his major aim was to establish a non governmental organization to help his people but which looked a tall order due to his limited academic background.

“I did my Kenya Primary Certificate of Education and left school after that because my parents were too poor to educate me and I started baking mandazis which I still do hence my nickname “Ja Mandas”, he added.

Osir adds that when his people requested him to go for a civic seat, after a lot of soul-searching he decided to plunge into murky world of politics which he initially thought was bed of roses.

“I contested on the popular ODM party which my people told me to join and that’s what I did, when I started a thorough campaign ahead of the party’s nominations my opponents discovered that I was going to defeat them and then they ganged up against me and created chaos which resulted to the nominations not taking place” he laments saying he is a still member of the party and a strong follower of party leader Raila Oginga Odinga.

“Ja Mandas” as he is known laments that some few elements within ODM regional office after the chaotic elections which he believed he had won gave the certificate to one of his nine opponents called Eunice Otieno.

<Sweet victory

He says that his spirit was not dampened and he was willing to go and campaign for the lady on ODM party as that was also his party,”but seems my supporters had other things tucked up their sleeves, they came to me one morning and told me that they were going to elect me still on any other party” he says.

He adds that they picked for him Reformed Party of Kenya on which he trounced his ODM opponent by 1,350 votes to her 350 votes, a feat he could not believe and attributes it to the almighty God as ODM ‘s wave had strongly gripped the country.

Among the developments he has so far brought to his voters are; construction of houses for fifty widows in his constituency and upgrading of Okore Ogonda  and Kirembe primary schools  and payment of school fees of thirty students from his own pocket and day to day help he avails to his voters, on top of that he has also drilled a bore hole for his voters who now enjoy free and clean water.

He says that despite the Kisumu Airport just being two hundred meters from their home, he never thought that at a certain point he will board an airplane from there.

“Reaching only standard eight the furthest I thought I could go was Kisumu to buy wheat flour for my mandazis, today I am constantly flying, courtesy of my position and my advice is this; one should not loose hope in life, he should think on what he can do for his people and above all trust in the Almighty God.

The Civic man at work serving his people>

He tells the youth to embrace education and work real hard despite their education limitations adding that he will  enroll next year for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education as he says that’s a likely requirement should the proposed draft be passed.

“God has made me reach where I am, despite my academic background, at times I use to regret that he never gave me school fees but this days I see it as his ways of elevating me and telling people that his ways are not our ways” he finally says as I leave him but adds that he is going to make a stab again as a civic leader come 2012 on any party Raila Odinga fronts, and that will be for the sake of finishing all the development projects he has help to start.

ENDS

By Agwanda Jowi, Kisumu-Kenya

Sacked and suspended workers witthin Kisumu Citry Council have been told not to panick as they will get justice as there fate is being determined and called upon to exercise patience,says Councillort Robert Otuge.

Speaking in regard to a row that  has erupted between union officials and civic leaders of  the Kisumu Municipal council over the fate of workers who were sacked more than four years ago for allegedly heckling the Local Government Minister Musikari Kombo, Cllr Otuge added that a committee has been constitutedbut is yet  to sit because the council is waiting  for the consent of the council’s union to set a date for the committee meeting.   “There is nothing to be hidden in regard to the issue, i was tasked as the Chair of joint-staff committee to look into the matter of the dismissal of sixty two workers who were alleged to have been irregurlarly employed and the six who are said to have insulted the former Minister Kombo” Otuge added.

He made it clear to this writer that when acouncil is reconstituted after Mayoral electionsall the committeessit to reconstitute  any commiitttees  .   “One thing is for sure ,the union need to talk with the staff committere for the first meeting for the constitution of the sub committee  yet the union keeps saying that they are awaiting word from their head office, so why am i being accused that i never brought the mattter to rest?” he wondered,

Pressed further to admit if the curent crop of councillors wants employ their supporters in their stead , Cllr.Otuge said the talk is ongoing but dismissed it as “normal Kisumu runours”

Kowever the local Government Workers Kisumu Branch Secretary Rashid Ondu has blamed the civic wing for refusing to reinstate the workers despite a council resolution to that effect. Speaking  in Kisumu Ondu said that some civic leaders were opposed to the reinstatement of the over ten workers due to vested interest. He said some of the civic men want to employ their supporters and relatives ion the chances that were left by those who were sacked. Ondu said a resolution had been passed that the workers should be reinstated since they were unprocceduraly sacked. He said even Kombo at the time said he was well received by the workers at the time of the said incident.

Investigations  have revealed that some of the workers who were politically connected have been reinstated. A civic leader Omondi Odinga of Millimani ward when contacted blamed some of his colleagues for the impasse. He was also of the view that some of the civic leaders want to employ their kin. Odinga said it had been resolved that the sacked workers would be reinstated. He blamed a top civic leader for the whole problem.

The workers who were sacked met their predicaments when Prisca Auma Misachi was the mayor

ENDS

By Dickens Wasonga.

As the clock ticks fast towards the national referendum on the country’s proposed constitution, leaders from various groupings  especially in Nyanza province have adopted very strange strategies to boost the YES camp.

Only  a week ago Kenyans were baffled by a story from Migori district which appeared in a section of the local print media attributed to a church minister who declared he would hence forth deny members of his church holy communion unless they register as voters ahead of the referendum to be held sometime in July this year.

The clergy, according to the media reports had asked all the members of his church to carry their voters card and produce the same before  being considered for the holy communion.

That statement alone made the man of cloth an instant public figure with several media houses, both print and electronic sending their crew to conduct interviews at his rural home,including the BBC.

But that now appears not to have been the last of such strange declarations so far made  by a cross section of leaders as the campaigns for and against the draft constitution hots up in the region that is largely expected to support the proposed constitution to the last man.

The head of the Holy Ghost Coptic church of Africa Rev.father John Pesa 1  sturned members of the press when he declared on Wednesday that any of his priests who would reject the draft or ask their congegation to vote against the document would be excommunicated from the church.

The controversial prelate had just declared his support for the proposed constitution and asked members of his church to follow suit or meet his wrath because to him, YES was the preffered position of his church and nobody should take a different stand.

And he immediately took the opportunity to lash out at his long time friend,former president Daniel Arap Moi who has been campaigning against the document.

Father Pesa said Moi risked losing the respect he earned over the years as a stateman by going against the wish of many Kenyans whom he said have waited for several years to get a new constitution and asked him to stop misleading the country.

And as we came to realise, the strange going-ons are not only unique to the church and its leadership.The same was now being adopted in other spheres of life too.

Within the same  Migori town, matatu operators and boda-boda cyclists who do not have the voting cards are beginning to  find it more difficult to get clients who demand to see the cards before being served.

According to the national chairman of the Kenya Correspondents Association[KCA] Mr. Oloo Janak, even shop shopkeepers and other small scale traders in the town now must produce to their customers a proof to show they have registered as  voters.”They must dangle the cards in order to sell”said Janak.

Janak who also cordinates the activities of the Migori clan,an NGO conducting civic education in the area said several people have since registered as a result of the strategy albeit grudgingly.

”This is how serious this issue has become to the people around here. I think even though the strategy may not be acceptable to all,it has indeed scaled up the registration process in this area.”said Janak

Interim Independent electoral Commission which is charged with the voter registration exercise is targetting to register some 10 million Kenyans and have so far registered close to 8 million people countrywide.

The commission which is chaired by Hassan Isaac Ahmed has also rolled out civic education thruogh out the country to scale up the voter registration exercise.

ENDS.

The man is Devani, Interpol insists

By Cyrus Ombati and David Ohito

“It is Yagnesh Devani in custody we have no doubt… the biometric results and CCTV and passports have proved it,” was the message from Interpol even as Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere and Mr Devani’s lawyer insist he is not the one.

A senior Interpol official who asked for anonymity said they had been on Devani’s trail before they alerted Kenyan authorities of his arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

“Maybe they know better why and how they found out he is not the one. But I can tell you we were on his trail,” said the official.

The suspect is still being held at a city police station as authorities wait for the results of his biometrics (identification by physical characteristics) from experts today.

Kenya Anti-Corruptoin Commission (KACC) officials grilled the suspect for several hours on Saturday in their offices at Integrity Centre.

Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere says the man they arrested on Friday was not Devani. He said the arrested “suspect” was Devani’s nephew with whom they share names.

But our sources said Devani had arrived at the Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates aboard a private plane before he headed for Kenya.

Devani had earlier in the week left London and flown to India where he chartered a plane to Sharjah. From Sharjah he boarded a Saudi Arabian airliner that was destined for JKIA.

Immigration officials who had also been supplied with Devani’s data, which is shared globally, said they believe the right man was arrested.

The officials added that Devani presented a Kenyan passport at the JKIA, which had similar details with the one he used when he left in 2007.

Showed positive

They said the businessman has up to seven passports but all have some of his details, an issue his lawyer denies.

“There are some biometrics that none can alter on one’s body. We checked in our system and it showed positive. The iris on his eye is identical and we have the airport CCTV,” said another official.

Devani was handed over to the police and Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission detectives who were waiting for him at JKIA after being tipped off by Interpol.

The sources said he presented his Kenyan passport at the airport but in panic went to the foreigners queue. He was the last person to be cleared. “It is a very sensitive case and he cannot escape unlawfully from police custody,” a senior Police officer said.

Devani is wanted over the Sh8 billion oil scandal that also roped in the names of many politicians in the country when it broke out last year.

Witnesses said the CID and KACC officials seemed to be aware he was landing before they detained him at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport briefly.

“They even went to the runway to wait for him knowing they had big catch. May be something changed somewhere,” said a witness.

His plane touched down at JKIA shortly before 1pm to a waiting troop of security officers who thoroughly scrutinised all the alighting passengers before they arrived at Devani.

Nairobi lawyer Katwa Kigen too denied the man was his client.

Kigen claimed he had been in touch with Devani who was equally surprised by the news that a look-alike had been arrested.

source.standard.ke