East Africa: Building peace in the pursuit for Justice is colossal

Building peace in the pursuit for justice, is proportionately equal to climbing the world’s highest mountain; Everest. However, in the building blocks for a better tomorrow underlie a shared responsibility for everyone, and the ultimate; endless pursuit for peace and justice in the days to come. Despite the very fact that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain to climb, together as East Africa Peace Initiators, it will be possible reach to the top, and hang the flag of peace and justice that has eluded many for decades.

The disputed Kenya presidential election in 2007 that left over 1333 dead is still fresh in many Kenyans’ minds. The 2007 chaos is just a tip of the iceberg an indicator which conform the underlying tensions that have been assumed for far too long. Therefore, the root causes of these tensions among the communities in Kenya, remains a deep-rooted vendetta that needs to be unraveled. As Kenyans, peace and justice must be pursued together as one mission and vision. Hence, how can Kenyans converge their views on reconciliation, cohesion and reconstruction closer to the realization of a peace and justice world?

In 1964, the former South Africa (SA) president, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison at Robben Island after publicly denouncing Apartheid government. Robben Island (RI) by then was a place for imprisonment, isolation and banishment. However, today, RI is the world’s heritage site and museum in memory of the pursuit for peace, justice, democracy and freedom. Apartheid by then was a social and political segregation of the majority and indigenous non-white population by white minority government officials in SA. With Apartheid government, the non-whites; Africans were denied their deserved-equal governmental representation.

What are the lessons learnt from the by then Apartheid government in SA? More so, how about the 1994 Rwanda genocide? Before the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Rwanda used to be touted as ‘a tropical Switzerland in the heart of Africa’. I mean, what precisely triggered the genocide in Rwanda? President Paul Kagame, who is currently the president, said that ‘People can be changed’. Have the ordinary Kenyans been helped to change after the 2007 chaos or are they really ready to change? How about the ongoing fighting in Somalia? Yet it’s a one language and one religion country. Could there be a misery that an ordinary person doesn’t know about the onus chaos in Somalia?

All in all, the process of healing from the trauma of the past injustices isn’t a panacea. Therefore, settling deep-rooted conflicts requires a deeper and innovative approach. Peace and justice encapsulates new communication skills, new mutual relationship based on trust and a common vision for a better future in Kenya and East Africa at large in the days ahead. I strongly believe that, if all the communities can learn from the past and forge ahead and try building bridges of dialogue, recognizing their shared humanity and work mutually together to overcome injustices , then peace won’t only be a pipe dream; but an attainable reality. One question that one may not fail to ask is that, what are the new and effective mechanisms on conflicts dynamics that the East African Block need to emulate?

For years after years, communal conflicts in Kenya are like a growing cancer. To mention a few, the prevalent fights between Samburu, Turkana, Pokot, Somali, Rendille, Gabra and Borana are one search chronicle example that has gone unresolved for decades. Could this mean that the old ways of resolving conflicts aren’t working? I personally argue that, Change needs to be embraced in tackling these issues. With the promulgation of the new constitution, I think Kenyans need to realize that time has come, and building peace in the pursuit for justice is an obligation for all, and can’t anymore be buried into the sand. Despite that this call isn’t a cure-all-paradigm, but search and ululation for peace and justice remains a history in the making. Could this mean that the ongoing Kenya squabbles on Hague and Impunity issue as a result of the disputed presidential election in 2007; is a history in the making?

The author of the article is Lesiamito Malino John, from Oslo, Norway. This author is a postgraduate student in Information Systems and Computing, and can be reached on Lesiamito@gmail.com

SWAZILAND: Government suspends pensions

Photo: James Hall/IRIN

Elderly suffer from the country’s financial crisis

MBABANE, 22 March 2011 (IRIN) – Swaziland’s government, feeling the pinch of a growing financial crisis, has suspended this quarter’s pensions for the elderly and redirected the money to pay the school fees of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC).

“[Government] will utilize the funds allocated for the elderly grants, since they have R46 million (US$6.5 million) in that account currently, with a view that it shall be reimbursed timeously,” said a finance ministry report to parliament explaining how the R38 million ($5.4 million) bill for OVC school fees would be met.

The remaining $1.15 million in the account was not enough to cover the quarterly pension payout due in March and it was therefore suspended.

Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku told the Swazi senate earlier in March that a supplementary budget could ensure grants for the elderly might be available by the end of the month.

About 5 percent of Swaziland’s approximately one million people are 60 years old or older and eligible for pensions. Roughly two-thirds of Swazis live below the poverty line.

The pension stipends are indispensable for many of the elderly, as there is no alternative form of social security and private sector pensions are rare. The grants were increased two years ago from $21 per quarter to $85 and are paid four times a year.

But a loaf of bread costs about $1, so most people subsist on maize-meal, supplemented by wild spinach, edible herbs, emasi (sour milk) and occasionally meat.

“You cannot live on such money [as government provides] but it can help you survive,” said Gogo Khumalo, a 70-year-old widower in rural Mliba, 100km east of the capital, Mbabane.

Like many Swazi grandmothers, she is the primary caregiver of five grandchildren aged between 5 and 19 years, whose mother left the homestead to seek employment in town after her husband, Khumalo’s son-in-law, died a few years ago.

Swaziland has the world’s highest HIV prevalence rate – 26.1 percent – and one in four Swazis between the ages of 15 and 49 are living with the virus.

“They tell us on the radio on the day to come [and get our pensions], and the neighbours tell me because the radio my son gave me, the battery is dead,” she said. This month the government radio service told grantees not to fetch their pensions.

Protests

Mbabane recently saw the largest anti-government protests in years, sparked by the construction of “vanity projects” like a new $1 billion international airport, built at the expense of social services.

Taking from the elderly to meet the needs of OVC is stealing from Peter to pay Paul

Teachers, nurses and students made up the bulk of the 5,000 to 7,000 protesters, and the link between using the grants of the elderly – who often provide care, food and shelter for children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic – to pay for their school fees instead, was not lost on them.

“We need to set priorities. Taking from the elderly to meet the needs of OVC is stealing from Peter to pay Paul,” Solomon Thwala, a primary school teacher, told IRIN. “There are sources of funding other than putting the elderly in jeopardy.”

jh/go/he

source http://www.irinnews.org

KENYA-SOMALIA: Hungry for learning in Dadaab camps

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Across the three Dadaab camps, there are 19 primary schools, funded by the UN Refugee Agency (file photo)

DADAAB, 22 March 2011 (IRIN) – In one of the largest and oldest refugee settlements in the world, education is a luxury denied most of the 90,739 children who live there.

Set up at the outset of Somalia’s civil war in 1991 to accommodate 90,000 refugees, three camps near the northeastern Kenyan town of Dadaab – Hagadera, Ifo and Dagahaley – are now home to more than three times that number, and persistent conflict in Somalia, from where 95 percent of the refugees originate, means the population grows daily.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the primary school attendance rate is 43 percent while in secondary schools the rate is just 12 percent. Across the three camps, there are 19 primary schools, funded by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). In addition there are 11 private, fee-paying primary and six secondary schools.

In 2010, some 2,500 refugee children sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. Of these, barely a fifth won a place at secondary school. National statistics for Kenya are considerably higher, at 82 percent and 49 percent for primary and secondary attendance respectively. The picture is far worse in Somalia itself, where primary school enrolment is 20 percent, with fewer than 10 percent going on to secondary school, according to UNICEF.

In Dadaab, money is the main problem. Despite being classified as a fundamental human right and recognized as providing much-needed psychological, physical and cognitive protection in emergency situations, education is the most underfunded sector in humanitarian aid. According to a recent report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), only 2 percent of total humanitarian assistance is spent on education.

In 2010, UNHCR received only 20 percent of the US$30 million required to educate refugee children. Worldwide, according to UNICEF, approximately 75 million children are not enrolled in primary school. Half of them live in countries affected by conflict.

“The international community is failing Somali refugees by not prioritizing access to education,” Elizabeth Campbell of Refugees International (RI), an advocacy group, told IRIN. “The main reasons are lack of funding and lack of trained teachers. Even if there were more funding, there is a capacity problem that will be more challenging to address.

“Also, the Kenyan authorities have made it difficult to expand educational opportunities in Dadaab by not providing additional land required to build new structures.”

According to a 2010 report by UNICEF assessing education in Dadaab’s refugee camps, primary schools are stretched far beyond the standards for quality education, with each class accommodating 80 pupils instead of the stipulated 45. The schools also “have few Kenyan qualified teachers with nine trained and 800 untrained teachers in primary, 50 untrained and 35 trained teachers in secondary school”.

It is very difficult to manage a high school on a zero budget

Community initiatives

Three secondary schools have been set up by refugees themselves, but they only very partially bridge the gap in educational needs and they suffer from their own resource constraints.

“It is very difficult to manage a high school on a zero budget. We ask the students to pay some money for the teachers and maintenance,” Mohamed Kasim, chairman and founder of the community-run secondary schools, told IRIN.

Another obstacle to quality education comes from a lack of materials such as laboratory apparatus and basic equipment for practical classes like science subjects. “I have never attended a laboratory class for the past three years. I am very worried about how I will handle the practical examination during the KCSE [Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education],” said Aweys, a form-four student.

The headmaster of Towfiq Community Secondary School in Ifo camp, Hassan A. Saney, said that despite the hardships, he is optimistic about his students sitting his school’s first upcoming national examination. “We are expecting to receive some laboratory equipment by mid-March and hopefully we will have done something before we sit for the final examination,” he said.

The community initiative attracted support from NGOs Windle Trust Kenya (WTK) and CARE in the form of donations toward stationery and reference books. UNHCR also brought in qualified national teachers to the community schools.

WTK said a funding crisis meant money for schooling had to go to refugee teachers serving the schools and end-of-term examination papers. In addition, each student is required to pay KSh3,300, or $38 to be fully registered for 2011 admission, which many cannot afford. “We ourselves are forced to pay this money but in reality, we cannot afford it. We have to sell the little food we are given by WFP [World Food Programme] which is not even enough,” said Farhio, a form-four student from Towfiq Community Secondary School.

Schoolteachers insist that non-payment of fees should not be a hindrance. “We never allow qualified students to leave the school because they can’t afford to pay the money but a contribution from the community is paramount for a better society,” said Abdullahi, a teacher in Dagahaley community secondary school.

Photo: Reliefweb

Dadaab

A grim future

Except in the unlikely event of resettlement to a third country, even those who manage to complete secondary education in Dadaab have few opportunities for employment within the camps. But as RI’s Campbell says: “I don’t think that should be a reason to deny any child access to education. Some of the refugee graduates filter into urban areas or move elsewhere in the region and are able to start businesses and gain access to income and self-sufficiency.”

Refugee teachers are paid about $70 a month. While many refugees work for aid agencies in various capacities, they tend to receive meagre “incentive payments” rather than proper salaries, purportedly because of Kenya’s restrictive labour laws.

Lack of opportunity is a concern: “These idle youths turn to drugs and then indulge in criminal activities which in turn lead to insecurity problems. If something is not done I am afraid that these youth might even join the militia groups fighting back in their homes of origin,” said Liban Rashid, a youth spokesperson from Ifo camp.

In 2009, Human Rights Watch reported that Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government was also recruiting in the Dadaab camps and claimed that despite their denials, the Kenyan government was involved in the process.

mh/zm/am/mw

source http://www.irinnews.org

By Joseph Eigu Onyango

19/3/2011.

Fifty community self-help groups in Kaberamaido district, Eastern Uganda have received developmental skills training to fight against abject poverty.

The community in this district has undergone through challenges caused by civil wars in Teso sub region for over two decades.

In 2003 the region was also affected by the LRA incursion which forced many people into Internally Displaced People’s camps.

Stromme Microfinance East Africa, a whole sale lending microfinance organization operating in East Africa working through other local non governmental organizations such as SOCADIDO with similar values and vision on poverty reduction donated 77.2 million shillings for the formation of the groups and purchasing of the tool kits.

According to the project officer, Tom Edul, 3000 people have been trained on savings and credit management in Anyara and Otuboi sub counties in Kaberamaido district since last year and they are now benefiting from the project.

The beneficiaries were taught enterprise selection, record keeping and awareness creation in HIV/AIDs so that they can be able to manage their groups vigorously;  Edul said.

He said more funding of 50 groups has been earmarked for this year’s activities to ensure that the poor communities can expand their economic base to enable them improve on their living standards.

With prolonged drought predicted country-wide, the office of the Prime Minister recently urged the public to store food and water
to avoid hunger.

So far rains have started falling, making the communities to become busy in their gardens in Teso sub region.

End.