By Korir, Chief editor API

The Kenya media reports that Miguna Miguna, the former aide to Prime minister Raila Odinga has been asked by ODM Members of Parliament to shut up, and leave the PM alone, accusing him of trying to embarrass the PM after he lost his job.

Miguna has gone to court to seek redress. He wants his job back, but after publicly accusing the PM at the weekend, it is not likely that he will return. The only thing that he is trying to do is to cash on the situation making large sums of money by asking the courts to pay him compensation for what he terms wrongful dismissal.

According to the Daily Nation, Miguna is quoted saying he is angered by the fact that Raila has not apologised for his wrongful interdiction.

Miguna has told the media that he had forsaken his own family in order to give more time to Raila, a claim that ODM MPs Jakoyo Midiwo, Pesa and John Mbadi say not correct. Instead, the MPs are saying Miguna’s interdiction was long overdue because he started to intimidate the PM’s officers and playing politics forgetting he was a civil servant who was serving in the office at pleasure of the Prime minister

He has said that Raila’s “non-action” to apologise is not honourable characterising him as a man not ready to correct his mistakes, thus, he should not continue to pretend to be a symbol of change for Kenya.

After accusing his former boss this way, there is little chance that they will ever work together again. Miguna has closed the door for ever without knowing. One cannot force himself on the PM as his aide. Saying that he has sacrificed his career in order to serve the PM is utter rubbish. He enjoyed the job too much and forgot he was just and aide, not an elected official.

EGYPT: Missing out on vital medicines

Photo: Amr Emam/IRIN

Pharmacists face difficulty in finding locally-made drugs

CAIRO,  – Until a few months ago Rifaat Mahmud, a day labourer from Giza near the Egyptian capital Cairo, could afford to buy drugs for his 13-year-old daughter who has aortic stenosis, a condition which causes reduced blood flow between the left ventricle and the aorta.

“The medicine is nowhere to be found. Pharmacists tell me the drug companies stopped producing my daughter’s medicine,” Mahmud told IRIN.

The economic crisis in post-revolution Egypt, and deteriorating security conditions, seem to be affecting the nation’s ability to produce or access medicines required by millions of patients. Pharmaceutical companies are unable to import the necessary quantities of medicines or the raw materials from which they are manufactured, say observers.

Egypt used to have 120 pharmaceutical companies importing medicines, but 80 of these have closed in the past few months, and other factories are expected to follow suit, according to Makram Mahana, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Industry Section of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI).

“Revolution-induced economic and security deterioration caused a 50 percent drop in national medicine production at least,” he said, adding that a fall in the value of the Egyptian pound combined with a rise in international raw material prices was making life difficult for importers.

Khalid Al Ruby, an independent drug expert, said the government needs to rescue the pharmaceutical industry to alleviate the suffering of eight million people with diabetes and four million with blood pressure problems, as well as those on medication for heart problems and cancer.

Leading medical experts at the 5th conference of the Egyptian Cardiology Society in Cairo on 1 August, said more than 250,000 people faced the threat of paralysis or premature death because cerebrovascular accident drugs were nowhere to be found. People with diabetes were finding it almost impossible to get insulin, and if they could get hold of it, it was very expensive.

Mahmud is helpless when his daughter gets chest pains or faints. On a monthly income of 500 Egyptian pounds (US$84), he depended on the state-run Heart Institute in Giza to give him his daughter’s medicine for free. Now that the Institute is unable to provide the drugs, he has had to turn to private pharmacies. “Now, I have to pay almost a third of my income to buy the necessary drugs every month.”

Prices set by government

The prices of locally produced drugs are set by the government, something that could be contributing to the current drug shortages, experts say. If the government gave manufacturers more freedom to set medicine prices, they might be able to offset some of their losses and remain in business.

“Drug pricing by the government causes many problems for manufacturers,” said Al Ruby. “When the prices of raw materials rise on international markets, our local pharmaceutical companies cannot raise the prices of the drugs they produce. Some companies went bankrupt because of this.”

Egyptian pharmaceutical companies import US$673 million worth of raw materials a year, according to FEI officials.

The government has promised to reconsider medicine prices. But for the roughly 20 percent of the population living in poverty medicines at any price are going to be too expensive.

The government blames the unavailability of some locally manufactured drugs on speculators and middlemen who have been hoarding certain drugs to force people to buy the more expensive imported varieties – from which they get a cut.

“These drugs are so expensive for a large number of patients,” said Magdy Ameen, a member of the Health Ministry’s Medicine Pricing Committee. “They are causing untold suffering for patients.”

ae/cb source www.irinnews.org

EGYPT: Activists use social media to help slum-dwellers

Photo: Amr Emam/IRIN

New roads could mean better health access

CAIRO, 12 August 2011 (IRIN) – A few months ago Mahmoud Salem, aged 30, used to sit at his laptop and join various online forums in a bid to help the effort to overthrow former President Hosni Mubarak.

Now, and after Mubarak is gone, Salem is back at his laptop, but this time as an activist of a different sort.

“I was always preoccupied with the political dimension of the Egyptian revolution. Now, however, I am focused on the humanitarian side.” Salem told IRIN.

Along with 19 other prominent bloggers in Egypt, Salem is trying to exploit social media for what he sees as positive change, and on 26 July the group launched what is believed to be Egypt’s first Twitter fundraising campaign to help slum-dwellers.

Tweetback’s first goal was to raise the equivalent of US$336,700 to improve living conditions in one of Cairo’s worst slums, Ezbet Khairallah, and managed to raise $218,855 in 10 days, proving that social media can play a positive role to alleviate poverty.

“When I visited this slum for the first time in my life, I talked to people about the importance of political participation, but I soon realized that the residents of this slum needed something else,” said Salem.

There are hundreds of slums in Egypt, including 420 “unsafe” ones, according to the National Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, the government’s research arm.

Photo: Ben Hubbard/IRIN

There are hundreds of slums in Egypt

Ezbet Khairalah (also known as Istable Antar) in southern Cairo is one of the largest of these slums (about 12sqkm), with a population of about 650,000, according to local NGO Peace and Plenty.

When Rania Helmy, a 32-year-old public relations specialist and a Tweetback partner, visited the slum more than six years ago, she had to wear boots. “The streets were always full of sewage and dirt,” Helmy said, adding: “I met people who had sold body organs, and saw extremely cramped and unsanitary living conditions.”

In 2009 the government tried to relocate dozens of families from the slum to safer housing on the outskirts of the capital, but when the families got there they discovered that their new homes were in the desert and that they would not have any means of earning a living.

Better roads

The Tweetback initiative is not aiming to relocate slum-dwellers, but has the limited objective of improving the road network there.

Peace and Plenty, which is partnering Tweetback, knows that the money raised will not go far, but NGO chair Niven Elibrashy is focused: “Roads are lifelines and by improving them, the life of the whole slum can be changed.”

A few years ago, when Elibrashy visited the then health minister and asked him to establish a clinic in the slum, the minster wondered how doctors would get there. The lack of paved roads also prevented access for ambulances and fire services, and parents were discouraged from sending their children to school because the streets were not safe; people found it difficult to get to work, according to Elibrashy.

“This means that if we make the necessary roads, we will improve education and health, and reduce poverty,” Elibrashy said.

“Everybody is starting to feel the importance of social media in effecting change,” Hemly said. “We need to mobilize people to develop this country. People living in the slums actually need a lot.”

ae/cb source www.irinnews.org

By Karabo Keepile, karabo@siyenza.za.com Siyenza Management, On behalf of the China Africa Business Forum

Driven by Chinese demand for raw materials and Africa’s determination to pursue development, China-Africa trade has officially entered a stage of comprehensive engagement, despite critical and sceptical points of view from the West.

China’s interest in Africa dramatically challenges traditional trade and links African countries have with their former colonies. For instance, China’s resource-backed development loans which are being granted by the country’s Export-Import Bank, offers resource-rich African countries a renewed opportunity to develop infrastructure and economic standing at a mutually beneficial price.

With the majority of African countries members of the Forum on China-Africa
Co-operation (FOCAC), which provides a multilateral platform for dialogue and both sides clear on what they want, China-Africa trade has no reason to slow down.

In 2010, China-Africa trade exceeded USD 100 billion and predictions indicate that it will continue to grow exponentially. As an indication, in the second quarter of 2010, exports from China were approximately USD 13bn, while Angola (USD 12.5bn), South Africa (USD 6bn), and Sudan (USD 3.5bn) were China’s three largest African importers. South Africa’s Standard Bank forecasts that Chinese investment in Africa is likely to reach USD 50 billion by 2015, an increase of 70% compared to the figures of 2009.

As Chinese investors continue to close significant deals, primarily in the extractive sector, several direct investments into Africa are also being made.  These include the handing over of the 100 kilometre long section of
road between Gazza and Inhambane in Mozambique; the agreement to build a
solar product manufacturing plant in South Africa and the Uganda-China deal
to build and manage a 36 kilometre toll road from Entebbe’s International
Airport to the capital city, Kampala.

In August 2010, China’s Ministry of Commerce launched the China-Africa
Research Centre, a think tank set on strengthening trade relations between
the two regions. The Centre intends to analyse economic issues relating to
African nations and develop frameworks for China-Africa policy development.

The new China-Africa engagement essentially offers additional room for
manoeuvre and is a indication of China’s undertaking to support Africa’s
development while promoting friendship and peaceful coexistence.

More issues concerning China-Africa engagements will be discussed at the
China Africa Business Forum to be held at Gallagher Convention Centre,
Johannesburg on October 20 this year.  

This one day Business Forum will bring together key business leaders,
industry specialists, project managers and others to explore the exciting
current dynamic of the China-Africa relationship.

ENDS