The British lost control of Kenya in 1963 when Kenya got self-rule with Jomo Kenyatta as the first Prime Minister. In 1964, the country became a Republic with Kenyatta as the first President.

Since then, the country has had Daniel Moi as president, a man who ruled for 24 years, and now President Mwai Kibaki who is supposed to retire at the end of this year.

The country has achieved many good things on the way, and now the new constitution that was promulgated on August 2010 which has led to things getting better for the people who now have a great say in the affairs that affect them on a daily basis.

API congratulates the Kenyan people on this important occasion.

End

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Former LTTE fighters receive masonry training

BATTICALOA,  – Three years after Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war ended, thousands of former fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) face an uphill battle in re-establishing themselves, despite government efforts to rehabilitate them.

“I’m struggling a lot economically. I don’t regret the loss of the LTTE, but I wish there was a better support system for us,” said 34-year-old Raja from Batticaloa District in eastern Sri Lanka. He was in the separatist movement from 2005 to 2008 and recently completed the government programme. “I suffered a lot of during those three years. All I want now is a brighter future,” he told IRIN.

After the war, former fighters were required to complete a six-stage rehabilitation programme that could last up to two years if they wished to receive general amnesty, otherwise they would face terrorism charges.

More than 10,000 former LTTE fighters, many of whom were forcibly conscripted by the rebels, have been rehabilitated since the war ended on 18 May 2009, with only 300 still in detention, according to Sri Lankan government figures.

Under the programme, the former LTTE cadres received vocational and life skills training, as well as psychosocial support, while a mentorship programme offered former combatants talks on conflict resolution and emotional resilience.

“We used artists, [educators] and business entrepreneurs who are keen to share their story of success from different fields to work with former cadres,” said Mal Hettiarachchi, a clinical psychologist and volunteer consultant to the Ministry of Rehabilitation.

Maran*, 36, from Kilinochchi District, a former LTTE cadre who joined the movement when he was 21 years old and is now a musician in the northern town of Vavuniya, said the programme had “changed” his life. “I learned about the other side of things. The hatred is long gone from my mind. What really helped me were different interactions with people outside my ethnicity during the programme.”

Echoing this optimism, Malathi*, 24, also from Kilinochchi, said after completing the rehabilitation programme she now hoped to support national rebuilding. “Of course, I am never going to think of taking up arms again.” She joined the LTTE after leaving school when she was 17 years old to avenge the death of her elder brother, also a Tamil Tiger.

But others are less sure. “Transforming minds and healing them is an important part of the equation to heal 30-year-old scars,” Victor Karunairajan, a Tamil community leader from the northern district of Jaffna, told IRIN, but “all steps” need to be taken to address the grievances of those affected by the war.

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

For many men and women, the war has left many unhealed scars

Some community activists say the government’s rehabilitation programme is not enough to achieve lasting results in these men and women, with many citing the need for livelihood support as critical for those who have completed the programme and are now back in their places of origin.

“There needs to be more economic opportunities for… [people] returning after rehabilitation,” said Sumathi*, 24, who feels that economic hardship is undermining her reintegration. After finishing the programme she returned to Vavuniya, where she is employed as a seasonal farm worker.

However, there are challenges besides the lack of jobs that could undermine the long-term reintegration of former LTTE fighters and are beyond the scope of the government’s rehabilitation efforts.

The conditions that gave rise to the separatist movement in the first place, including feelings of social inequality and oppression experienced by Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil population, prevail to this day and need to be addressed, say local experts.

“The failure of reconciliation is seen in the continued militarization of the north and east, to which the rehabilitated LTTE cadre will be returning. In addition to excessive military control over civilian life, there is also the problem of the military doing civilian jobs, such as engaging in construction and restaurant activities,” said Jehan Perera, director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.

“The returning LTTE cadres will be going back into a militarized environment, which is not conducive to a new vision of life and its opportunities.”

The absence of a political settlement that has the support of the major Tamil political parties also creates an atmosphere of resentment and a sense of deprivation in the larger Tamil community regarding the denial of their rights, which is also not conducive to reconciliation, Perera noted.

He pointed out that “Demilitarization and a political settlement are necessary for reintegration of the LTTE cadre into normal life to be successful in the longer term.”

*Not their real names

contributor/ds/he
source www.irinnews.org

Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN

A Tuareg woman draws water in the Gaoudel village in Ayorou District in Niger’s Tillaberi region

JOHANNESBURG,  – Right now, people in Niger, Mali and Nigeria could be sipping 50,000-year-old water from a two-aquifer system buried below their feet. But some of it may be contaminated.

A combination of soaring temperatures, declining rainfall and a booming population is putting a squeeze on the amount of surface water available for people living in one of the hottest parts of the world, so more and more boreholes are being drilled to tap the precious groundwater beneath the three countries. 

But few realize that the water in the Iullemeden Aquifer System, which they see as their salvation, is connected to the surface water and under just as much pressure.

“Countries and people do not realize that groundwater and the surface water are all interconnected, and that there is a precarious balance between the two and we have to look at both in relation to each other,” said Abdel Kader Dodo, the manager of a project by Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), a regional intergovernmental body, to help Niger, Mali and Nigeria share the Iullemeden water carefully.

The Niger River and its tributary, the Rima, feed as well as draw water from Iullemeden, which comprises two major aquifers – the Intercalary Continental (IC) at the bottom, and the Terminal Continental (TC) at the top. Part of the TC is recharged by surface water, while the deep waters of the IC are not easily recharged, and are also being threatened by pollution caused by extensive mining in the region.

The OSS discovered that the Niger River receives 125 million cubic metres of water from the aquifer system every year, while the Rima provides it with 20 million cubic metres of water annually, and draws 12 million cubic metres from it.

The amount of water drawn from the Iullemeden has more than doubled over three decades, from 50 million cubic metres in 1970 to 180 million cubic metres in 2004, while the population that depends on water from the aquifer has shot up from six million in 1970 to 15 million in 2000. This might double by 2025, says the research team at OSS. The number of boreholes and wells drawing water has increased from a few hundred points in the 1940s to more than 17,000 in 2007.

Digging deep

Dodo of the OSS said the impression that the aquifer is under-exploited is not accurate. The government of Niger has said that just 20 percent of the country’s renewable water resources are being tapped, and almost none of the non-renewable sources.

The warning has serious implications. In 1995, during a period when temperatures soared in Niger, the withdrawal of water exceeded the Iullemeden system’s recharge rate. The OSS research team projects that there could be a drawdown of 10 metres of the deep waters of the IC by 2025.

But the moment people dip into these deep waters, the risk of being exposed to water with a high concentration of minerals increases. “There has been a surge in the number of children crippled by skeletal and dental fluorosis [a bone disease caused by too-high fluoride content in water, which often affects people in areas with deep boreholes],” said Dodo.

One of the best-known high fluoride belts extends along the East African Rift from Eritrea to Malawi, according tothe World Health Organization (WHO). Studies in early 2000 discovered high prevalence rates of the disease in parts of Niger and Nigeria. WHO reported that since then people in some of these areas have been provided with alternative water.

Few realize that the water in the Iullemeden Aquifer System, which they see as their salvation, is connected to the surface water and under just as much pressure

Mining and the use of chemicals is another common cause of water pollution in these areas.

What can be done?

“Mitigation measures and alternative sources of water can only work to a certain extent – we have to change our behaviour, and use and manage water responsibly,” Dodo said. “The Iullemeden Aquifer System is located in one of the earth’s regions most vulnerable to climate change, desertification and drought – two phenomena that threaten, among other things, the recharge of aquifers.”

In 2008 the OSS project helped map the aquifer and develop an information base on it, such as the flow, discharge and recharge rates. These tools can help the countries concerned to set up a transboundary mechanism to manage Iullemeden, but not much has been done. “In 2009, Mali, Niger and Nigeria adopted an Agreement with road map (not yet signed) in order to establish this consultation mechanism for managing transboundary groundwater resources,” said Dodo.

Until the government develops and implements a plan to manage the surface water, a lot of money and effort is being wasted on providing water in Niger, where people are dealing with yet another drought. Aquadev, a small Belgian NGO, has struck water four in out of 15 attempts in six years. Each attempt cost at least US$20,000. “There is a lack of knowledge and skills to this kind of work at the local level,” said Stephanie van Steenberghe of Aquadev.

Dodo said the local authorities need good maps that show the aquifer at the village level. “The maps we have now produced should be downscaled, and the people involved in this job need a good understanding of the hydrology and the geology of the area.”

Using Isotopes

Help could be at hand. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) uses isotopes (variants of a chemical element) for water analysis and has helped Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan tap into the Nubian aquifer.

The IAEA has used isotopes to test the quality of water for decades. It is a cheaper method, as it only takes a few samples to show what the quality of water is for hundreds of kilometres.

First, the age of the aquifer is determined by using the naturally occurring radioactive isotope, carbon-14, in the same way it is used to test ancient artefacts. The water in the Iullemeden’s IC aquifer is more than 50,000 years old. The IAEA can also determine how much water remains the aquifer, and how long it could last. The IAEA in a collaborative project with other UN agencies discovered that the water in the Nubian aquifer would last several centuries, putting any concerns about possible conflicts in the future at rest.

Dodo said that if countries know how much water is available, and until when, the potential risk for conflict over water can be deflated. “When it is all transparent and out in the open, they should be able to manage it properly.”

jk/he source www.irinnews.org

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

Life is getting tougher for ordinary Nepalese

KATHMANDU,  – Most Nepalese face an uncertain economic future and the possibility of political unrest after Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA) failed to agree on a new constitution on 27 May.

“I’m really worried about the rise in prices, which is already too much for us. I was hoping for the first time that things would improve here,” Laxmi Chettri, who works in a hotel and is the sole support of her bed-ridden husband and two children, told IRIN.

“Where can I go for help now? Who do we turn to?,” asked Shanta Tamang, 30, who migrated to the capital, Kathmandu, to find work but can barely feed her three children on the less than US$30 per month she earns as a cleaner.

Nepal plunged deeper into political crisis when the 601-member CA, tasked with drafting the next constitution, failed to reach an agreement on the contentious issue of federalism in the Himalayan nation’s future, and missed the fourth deadline since the CA was established in 2008.

There has been no effective government for more than five years since a decade-long civil war between Maoist and government forces, which left over 13,000 people dead, ended in 2006.

In response, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, a member of the dominant Maoist party, called for fresh elections to be held in November 2012, a move that was strongly opposed and led to calls for his resignation.

“We are seriously concerned about the prime minister’s unilateral decision to call for elections,” said Jhalnath Khanal, chairman of the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) party.

Poor most affected

The impact of the stepped-up political instability on millions of Nepalese, many of whom are already living below the poverty line, is worrying. The Central Bureau of Statistics notes that 25 percent of the country’s 30 million inhabitants live below the poverty line, surviving on less than $1 per day.
 
“Prices will naturally increase and make the lives of the poor more difficult. The government has taken a back seat, and the current crisis will have a negative impact on our economy,” economist Pranab Budathoki, who also heads the Nepal office of the non-profit Local Interventions Group, told IRIN.
 
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) considers three and a half million Nepalese moderately to severely food insecure, and counts the country among the poorest in South Asia.
 
In 2011 the biggest price increases were in vegetables, which went up by 47 percent, while cereal and grains rose by 10 percent. In 2012 the price of mansuli, the most common type of rice and a staple component of the Nepalese diet, is $0.62 per kg, compared to $0.34 per kg in 2008.
 

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Ordinary Nepalese protest against the country’s ongoing political instability

Political unrest and strikes are expected to occur in the coming months, bringing temporary price spikes that are likely to exacerbate the country’s 10 percent inflation rate, setting up a spiral of economic uncertainty and the fear of a return to conflict.
 
The Far West, the country’s poorest region, experienced almost 30 days of strikes between April and May, organized by various politically affiliated ethnic groups, and resulted in major price increases in the price of basic foodstuffs, cooking fuel and other commodities.
 
More than 46 percent of the Far West population live below the poverty line, according to the government’s 2011 Nepal Living Standards Survey.
 
“The prices increased because there was shortage of supply and the transport became very expensive,” said Ravindra Shrestha, a local food trader in Bardiya District, nearly 700km southwest of the capital. Much of the landlocked nation’s imports come from or via neighbouring India.
 
“We experienced more than 30 percent price hikes in rice, lentils, sugar and oil,” said Dipendra Pandey, a food trader from Dadeldhura, a remote hill district in the Far West region.
 
The World Bank noted in 2011 that Nepal’s economy – with only 3.5 percent real GDP – continued to suffer from political uncertainty, but hoped an accelerated political transition would reduce this.
 
For ordinary Nepalese struggling to get by, the prospects of that happening any time soon look bleaker. “There is nothing I can hope for now,” said 20-year old Urmila Chaudhary.
 
UN reaction
 
On 29 May, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced his disappointment that Nepal’s Constituent Assembly had expired without the adoption of a long-awaited constitution, and called on all parties to work together in the national interest to ensure that the achievements of recent years would not be lost.
 
Nepal had entered an “uncertain constitutional and political period”, a statement by his spokesperson noted, and the government and political leaders, as well as leaders of various communities, need to demonstrate the courage and wisdom to come together to address the challenges the nation faces.
 
Ban’s spokesperson pointed out that “As an immediate priority, a political consensus on the way forward is essential to ensure stability and continuity.”
 
nn/ds/he source www.irinnews.org