By API Reporter, Kisumu-Kenya.

A Kisumu  based  journalist Erasto Agwanda Saye has vowed to sue a non governmental Organisation OSIENALA seeking kshs 50,000,000 after a court in Kisumu  stopped the  organization and its management from attaching his properties  in a defamation suit.

This was after the plaintiff, OSIENALA , failed to prove to court  that the defendant was the real person who published the allegedly defaming article in a blog.

Lawyer Raymond Olendo of Ragot and Otieno Advocates appearing for the journalist said, the name used in the story, Agwanda Jakorando, does not belong to his client, Erasto Agwanda Saye; hence the properties of the client cannot be attached to pay for damages in the suit which was ruled earlier last year against Agwanda Jakorando.

Kisumu resident magistrate Tom Obutu who made the ruling said there is no substantial connection that the defendant Agwanda Jakorando was the same person with Erastus Agwanda who the plaintiff wanted to pay the damages.

“The two can not be connected and the NGO should look for the defendant Agwanda Jakorando who they sued to pay for the damages” Obutu said in his ruling.

The NGO had gone to court to appeal for further damages against the defendant.

However, Erasto Agwanda Saye enlisted as the objector denied that he was not the same person to the one who had published the article.

OSIENALA an environmental organization through its Director Obiero Ong’ang’a had gone to court to seek help in payment of Damages in 2009 case where they were awarded shs.500, 000 saying it was difficult for them to get the damages.

“Erasto Agwanda Saye and Agwanda Jakorando cannot be connected to be the same person” Obutu added further in his ruling .

Last year January, Kisumu resident magistrate Charles Oluoch ruled that the defendant, in this case, Agwanda Jakorando pays a fine of shs.500, 000 for general damages for to the environmental organization.

“I thank the almighty God, I have been traumatized for the last two years and my family could not just comprehend what was happening, suing him is the best thing and I get him compensate me for what I have undergone, my lawyers are working on it’ Agwanda said

Ends

“I am deeply saddened by the loss of life during the protests in Egypt,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Mr Støre urges the Egyptian authorities to refrain from the use of violence and to permit peaceful protests and respect basic political and economic rights.

The protests in Cairo and a number of other Egyptian cities during the past few days are the largest seen in the country in recent times. Several people have been killed, many have been injured, and large numbers of people have reportedly been detained in connection with the protests.

The protesters are calling for greater political freedom and the abolition of the emergency laws that have been in force since President Mubarak came to power in 1981.

“The freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly are basic human rights, and they are prerequisites for democratic development. The massive protests can be seen as a reaction to the tight restrictions that are imposed on the expression of political views in Egypt,” said the Foreign Minister.

By Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Duty Press Officer:

Kamal, President Mubarak’s son escapes from Egypt due to the protests that has lasted for over 6 days now.

Kamal owns a house in the UK and has decided to move to the UK secretly fearing being caught up in the turmoil that might see his father executed if he does not leave the country on time before the demonstrators win their campaign. It is believed that President Mubarak has been grooming his son Kamal to take over from him but this is now not going to be possible. People in Egypt say they are tired by the ruler who has been a dictator for over 30 years. Mubarak took over from Anwar Sadat who was assassinated by some junior military personnel over 30 years ago.

The president will be save if he chooses to do as his Tunisian counterpart who fled the country recently due to demonstrations that toppled him.

The Middle Eastern countries are now on fire. Tunisia fell, Egypt will fall and many other countries in the region will follow because they will copy what their sisters and brothers did in Tunisia and now Egypt.

The USA have called for a shift of power but peacefully, asking the Egyptian security forces not to respond violently.

By Chief Editor Korir, African Press International.

KENYA-SOMALIA: From a life of fear to a life in limbo

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Somali refugees await registration in Dadaab. On average, about 5,000 Somalis seek asylum in Dadaab per month, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR

NAIROBI, 24 January 2011 (IRIN) – Fleeing Somalia may mean an end to dodging bullets and living in fear, but for many Somalis who manage to cross the border into Kenya, it is also the start of a long and difficult journey as a refugee.

“We have refugees who have been in Kenya since 1991,” said Salam Shahin, registration officer with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee complex, home to more than 300,000 people, mainly Somalis.

“On average, more than 5,000 mainly Somalis seek asylum in Dadaab per month but only about 8,000 are processed for resettlement [annually]; and only around 3,000 are actually resettled to third countries every year.”

Asylum-seekers have often experienced extreme hardships on the way to Dadaab. Sirad Tahilil, 65, has been in the camp for a year. She initially fled the southern coastal city of Kismayo after the Islamist Al-Shabab group killed her son-in-law. She travelled for days, avoiding Al-Shabab roadblocks, to reach the Kenyan border.

“I was with 30 other people, including eight members of my family, my very sick husband, and taking care of two grandchildren,” Tahilil told IRIN. “We arrived in Amume [town on the Kenya-Somalia border]; the police asked us where we were going. We told them we wanted to go the [refugee] camps but they refused to let us in until we paid them money.

“Each of us paid 1,000 [Kenya] shillings [US$12.50] and the truck owners paid them KSh20,000 [$250]. We had no choice; it was either pay them or get caught by those we were running from.

“After we arrived at the refugee camp in Hagardheer [one of Dadaab's three camps], we stayed with relatives for a few days until we were registered by UNHCR.”

The process begins with registering asylum-seekers, which is followed by an interview to determine refugee status.

“Refugees from south-central Somalia are granted refugee status on a prima facie basis on the grounds of the long-running conflict in the region; those from the more peaceful northern regions of Somaliland [self-declared republic in the northwest of Somalia] and Puntland [self-declared autonomous region in the northeast] must provide evidence of persecution under refugee law in order to be granted status,” said Shahin.

Verifying asylum-seekers’ identities and places of origin is hugely difficult. UNHCR does what it can, and asylum-seekers are required to sign a document attesting to the truth of their statements.

With basic necessities in limited supply, it is vital to ensure only legitimate claimants are able to receive food and other supplies. Dadaab is in Kenya’s arid northeast, where drought and extreme poverty mean thousands of Kenyan Somalis have also been known to attempt to claim refugee status.

“Any person claiming to be a refugee can register with UNHCR. The introduction of fingerprinting in 2007 prevented persons from holding more than one record,” Shahin said. “Together with the government, we have run all fingerprints through their database to ensure no Kenyans are registered; we also now hold verification exercises regularly.”

After registration, a ration card is given to each refugee, along with a proof of registration form and an ID card with the bearer’s name, photo, fingerprint, place of origin and other pertinent information. The ration card entitles the holder to non-food items such as tents, soap, jerry cans and mosquito nets, and to a bi-monthly supply of food, depending on family size.

“We get food and shelter but the food is never enough. The biggest problem is health,” Tahilil said. “Up to now, I have not had a doctor to see my husband. But at least I don’t have to worry about someone coming to my house and shooting me or a member of my family.”

Photo: Siegfried Modola/IRIN

The stream of Somalis fleeing to Kenya continues. UNHCR estimates it will take up to eight years to consider all Somalis living in Kenya since 1991 and 1992 for resettlement

An agonizing wait

In the meantime, Tahilil waits to be resettled, a process that can be excruciatingly long. Hodan Ali Hussein, now 30, has been in camps for more than 20 years.

“We took a boat from Kismayo to Mombasa [on Kenya's east coast]; I was around 10 years old,” Hussein said. “They took us to a refugee camp called Utanga near Mombasa. My mother and I stayed in that camp until 1997 when it was closed and we were sent to Dadaab.

“I know no other life than the one in the refugee camp… the worst thing is not knowing whether you will ever get out of the camp. There is no one you can ask.

“We finally went through a resettlement process,” she said. “I am hopeful that we will be resettled and my children will have a better childhood than I had.”

Several countries receive refugees from Dadaab: the US, Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and UK.

Resettlement lottery

Given that the number of annual arrivals vastly outstrips annual resettlements, UNHCR has to make some tough decisions when deciding who to put forward for consideration by resettlement country authorities.

“Somali households are chosen from the group of earliest arrivals – from the years 1991 and 1992 – using a computerized programme,” Daniele Tessandori, UNHCR resettlement officer in Dadaab, said. “The programme chooses households on a random basis, ensuring that all blocks in each camp are given equal attention in the selection process.”

UNHCR estimates it will take up to eight years to consider all Somalis living in Kenya since 1991 and 1992 for resettlement. Not everyone will be lucky: individual refugees with acute protection issues are fast-tracked, regardless of nationality and date of arrival.

The camps are rife with rumours about the resettlement process, so UNHCR and the NGO, FilmAid, are developing a film to inform the refugees about the process and what they can realistically expect.

For Tahilil, who arrived a year ago, the prospect of resettlement remains remote. “I don’t know whether I will get resettlement or not, but I am not optimistic because I found out that there are people who have been in the camps for over 20 years,” she said.

Meanwhile, the stream of Somalis fleeing to Kenya continues unabated. According to UNHCR, there have been no new plot allocations for refugees since 2008; some newcomers stay with relatives, while more than 20,000 have spontaneously settled on the outskirts of the camps.

“There is tension with the host community as a result of the spontaneous settlements. Many of the refugees are living in flood-prone areas [and] congestion is increasing all the time,” said Bettina Schulte, UNHCR external relations officer for Dadaab.

ah-kr/mw

source http://www.irinnews.org

DISASTERS: Better understanding of disaster impact on lives needed

Photo: Ingmar Zahorsky/Flickr

Floods caused havoc in most instances in Asia

JOHANNESBURG, 25 January 2011 (IRIN) – In 2010, five of the most devastating disasters, measured in loss of lives, goods and infrastructure, occurred in Asia. Investing in disaster planning could go a long way to keeping the number of casualties down, experts said.

“Disasters in Asia are largely due to floods and, in the second instance, storms. I think there is an awareness building up for flood management, as agricultural crops are frequently destroyed, as well as infrastructure, but not enough,” said Debarati Guha-Sapir, director of the Belgium-based Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).

Poor evidence of the impact of a natural disaster on human lives and livelihoods at micro-level on was a major reason why governments were not proactive about disaster risk reduction, said Guha-Sapir. For instance, there was a lack of understanding of the short-term and long-term impacts of a flood on a village.

A recent study by CRED in Orissa, a flood-prone province in India, showed that children in flood-affected villages suffered significantly higher levels of chronic malnutrition compared to similar equally poor children in villages that had escaped flooding.

The international aid community, with their focus on the short-term response to disasters, was partly to blame, Guha-Sapir said.

She suggested that in instances where countries were unable to strengthen the response at a local level, international and national aid agencies should try to empower communities to better cope with disaster.

“It’s critical for local governments, city leaders and their partners to incorporate climate change adaptation in urban planning,” Margareta Wahlström, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Disaster Reduction, said in a statement.

“What we call ‘disaster risk reduction’ – and what some are calling ‘risk mitigation’ or ‘risk management’ – is a strategic and technical tool for helping national and local governments to fulfil their responsibilities to citizens.” It was “no longer optional”, she noted.

Earthquakes, floods, a heat-wave and cold-wave were among the 373 natural disasters recorded in 2010. Together, they killed over 296,800 people, affected nearly 208 million others, and cost almost US$110 billion, said CRED.

Natural hazards in China and Pakistan accounted for more than US$27 billion worth of damage and nearly 8,500 fatalities.

Earthquakes in China killed 2,968 people in April 2010, and 1,691 people died in floods between May and August. A further 1,765 were killed by mudslides, landslides or rock falls, triggered by heavy rains and flooding in August.

In Pakistan nearly 2,000 people died in floodwater that covered one-fifth of the land after torrential rains pelted the northwest, swelling the Indus and its tributaries from July to August in 2010.

An earthquake in Haiti killed over 222,500 people in January, and a heat wave in the Russian summer caused around 56,000 fatalities, making 2010 the deadliest year in at least two decades.

CRED also highlighted the anomalies in measuring losses because of the enormous economic differences.

“Haiti, which led the list with by far the highest numbers of deaths, fell to the fourth place in the rank of the economic damage list,” said Guha-Sapir. Chile, which was hit by an earthquake in February 2010 and had the seventh highest number of fatalities, climbed to the top of the list of countries suffering financial losses.

“This is a good example of the inadequacy of how we measure losses, as human lives are not included in this measure. Also, as property values in Chile are much higher than in Haiti and insurance penetration is higher, the losses are also higher.”

jk/he

source http://www.irinnews.org

COTE D’IVOIRE: Local UN staff easy targets in the crisis

Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN

Francois, a driver with a UN agency in Côte d’Ivoire

ABIDJAN, 24 January 2011 (IRIN) – While the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) faces a climate of orchestrated and growing hostility, local UN employees, even those working with agencies completely separate from UNOCI, are living in fear.

All local UN staff deemed non-essential have been instructed to stay at home until further notice, and not report to work, while many international staff within ONUCI now live permanently in their offices, sleeping on camp beds.

For Francois*, a driver with a separate UN agency, the current crisis is a cause of extreme stress, not least because it resurrects traumatic memories of his abduction by rebel forces almost a decade ago, a kidnapping from which he was lucky to escape with his life.

“This crisis is having a severe impact on local UN staff. We face all kinds of problems, especially related to our security. We feel targeted by those who support [Laurent] Gbagbo,” François told IRIN. Gbagbo has refused to relinquish power despite the international community confirming his political rival Alassane Ouattara as elected president, a decision which enraged Gbagbo loyalists.

“I live in a district dominated by Gbagbo supporters. It is very difficult when you are a UN employee. It’s not that we are attacked, but there has been a lot of mistrust since the election.

The word is that as soon as the situation degenerates, we will be the first to be targeted. We have had indirect threats

“The word is that as soon as the situation degenerates, we will be the first to be targeted. We have had indirect threats.” In districts of Abidjan where Gbagbo enjoys strong support, there is often a strong presence of Jeunes Patriotes, a vocal, highly politicized youth movement, whose leader, Charles Blé Goudé, has been among the UN’s most virulent critics.

“There are the Jeunes Patriotes here, who know me and who know that I work for the UN,” François told IRIN. “When the UN came out in support of Ouattara, I decided not to go out at night any more. We were told by our employer not to go to work, to limit our trips outside our home, and to be wary of entering into arguments.

“Now I don’t tell people I work for the UN. If I do, I take care to stress I do not work for UNOCI.” François said circumstances made it necessary to conceal his work identity. “When you hear such hostility to the UN in public places, it is frightening. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow.

“I know colleagues who have been verbally attacked and even threatened with death. One, who was on mission in Guiglo [Moyen-Cavally Region, western Côte d’Ivoire], was warned by a girlfriend to leave, because she had heard rumours of plans to attack UN personnel.”

François said the deteriorating political climate and the growing crescendo of propaganda meant growing stress for him and his family. “On television there are no words of peace. Just talk of imminent attacks and ‘we will defend ourselves’. It makes me frightened to the core. I don’t sleep well anymore. But I have to hide my fear from my seven children [aged 3-22].

“I find it very hard not being able to work. It has actually made me ill. I am used to working, and sitting around for two months is very hard for me.

“I lived through the war. I was even taken hostage by rebels for two months in 2002 in the west of the country, where I fell into an ambush. There were 23 of us. Only seven came out alive. People were killed in front of us.

“With all I have seen in the past, I don’t want it to be repeated. But we are seeing it again.

“It’s not that we are finding bodies in the street every day, but no there is no sense of security.

“I don’t have much hope for peace. All you hear is talk of war. We had hope before the elections but since then, and with the failure of mediation efforts, I am fearful for the future.

“Local staff are not very well treated here. Since the start of the crisis, if a local staff member gets into trouble, no-one is available to go and help them…. I am not aware of any counselling services available to local staff in the agency I work with.”

*Not his real name

am/cs/cb

source http://www.irinnews.org