Kenya on Tuesday dropped murder charges against a prominent white rancher over the killing of a game warden for lack of sufficient evidence, the country’s top prosecutor said, as officials blamed police for rushing a flimsy case to court. The high-profile charge has rekindled deep colonial-era resentment.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi has sacked his information minister, seen as too close to powerful Somali warlords, amid a deepening split in the fledging transitional government still exiled in Kenya, officials said on Tuesday. Gedi fired Mohamoud Abdullahi Jama over the weekend.
As Ethiopia prepares for weekend elections, its human rights record has come under increasing criticism from watchdogs who believe the poll has already been marred by myriad abuses. Human Rights Watch accused Addis Ababa of taking advantage of a fight against the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front to justify the torture, imprisonment and sustained harassment of its critics.
At least 75 people have been reported killed and thousands more displaced in southern Sudan’s Lakes State since interclan violence, sparked by cattle rustling and disputes over pasture and water, erupted on April 24, aid workers said on Wednesday.
A Kenyan judge on Friday ordered a prominent white rancher to await trial on a capital murder charge in a maximum-security prison, rejecting a defence request for the British aristocrat to be held in less austere confines. The rancher is accused of murdering an undercover Kenya Wildlife Service officer at his vast ranch on April 19.
Calls for debt relief to be awarded to African countries have become de rigueur in non-governmental circles and a good many news publications. But does the matter crop up during dinner conversations across the continent? Is it sufficiently important to crowd out sports talk among people riding minibus taxis on their way to work?
Few would dispute that community radio stations play a valuable role in informing people about events in their neighbourhood — and give a voice to those who might be denied a platform by larger media organisations. It’s a shame, then, that governments often hamper the development of community radio.
The United States has issued a drought alert for Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, warning that conditions in parts of the Horn of Africa countries threaten starvation, water shortages and diseases. The alert was issued on Wednesday in Washington by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
British Airways (BA) has severed ties with ailing Kenyan carrier Regional Air which this month was forced to suspend all flights for six days over a cash-flow crisis. Under the 2001 franchise agreement, Regional Air had been using BA’s flag and flight numbers to its destinations in East and Southern Africa which include Khartoum, Asmara, Djibouti, Johannesburg, Lilongwe, Lusaka and Harare.
A Kenyan lawmaker known for linguistic improvisation was briefly detained by authorities this week for allegedly composing a song that mocks President Mwai Kibaki and his wife, police said on Thursday. MP Reuben Ndolo was arrested and questioned on Wednesday in Kenya’s Eastern Province.
Last week’s call by the United Nations Population Fund to governments to increase spending on reproductive health may prove to be hard for Kenya to implement. Kenya has no budgetary allocation for reproductive health. Concerns are mounting that without state commitment to provide family planning in Kenya, maternal mortality may continue to rise.
Ethnic clashes, blamed on competition for increasingly scarce water and grazing, are sweeping northern Kenya, as drought and famine intensify in the neglected region. Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 people have been killed in renewed violence perpetrated under the cover of long-simmering ethnic animosities, and fueled by the myriad conflicts which surround northern Kenya.
The mandate of the peacekeepers patrolling a buffer zone between the warring parties in Côte d’Ivoire has been extended for one month by the United Nations Security Council. The short extension, approved late on Monday, will allow the UN and France to monitor progress at peace talks between the government and the rebels.
Amnesty International (AI), the British-based human rights watchdog, has accused Kenyan authorities of violating the rights of terror suspects in the East African country — and called for an immediate end to these alleged abuses. "We do not support terrorism. However, measures to prevent terrorism can only be effective if they also guarantee and protect human rights," said a researcher on Kenyan issues for AI.
The crisis over the relocation from exile of Somalia’s transitional government deepened on Wednesday as powerful warlords said they will move to impeach President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Warlords controlling the capital of Mogadishu said they will introduce a no-confidence motion against Yusuf in Parliament and seek his removal.
Somalia’s transitional government-in-exile met in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday in a bid to bridge deep divisions over plans to relocate to the war-shattered nation that are now in chaos, officials said. But with inter-clan tensions still running high, there was no indication that Tuesday’s meeting would yield any immediate consensus, the officials said.
Somalia’s transitional leaders met in Nairobi on Friday in a bid to restore order to a heated parliamentary debate over a controversial peacekeeping mission to their anarchic country that degenerated into a bloody brawl. A spokesperson said President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had called for political dialogue and harmony.
The United Nations believes that more than 180 000 people may have died in the troubled Darfur region in western Sudan. According to the UN’s top emergency coordination official, Jan Egeland, the number refers to people who have died of malnutrition and disease, and does not cover those who have been killed in the conflict.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee) until 15 September 2005, and called on both countries to refrain from any threat of use of force against each other.
Thousands of elephants in Central Africa are killed each year to cater to world consumer demand for ivory, much of which passes through the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, wildlife trade expert Edmond Martin said on Monday in Nairobi. Martin said Khartoum now holds one of the world’s largest markets for illegal ivory.
At least 20 magistrates on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast went on strike on Monday to demand a 1 000% pay hike as the Kenyan justice ministry warned that court officers not reporting for duty will be fired. ”The strike is historic,” said Justus Munyithya, chairperson of the coastal branch of the Law Society of Kenya.
Action by Churches Together appealed this week for more than ,2-million to fund projects aimed at alleviating food and water shortages in Eritrea, caused by four years of drought. Scarce rainfall has resulted in another poor harvest, and food reserves have been depleted and the coping mechanisms of the population are stretched to the limit, said a statement.
As the citizens of the Central African Republic go to the polls to choose a new president and parliament this weekend, experts differ on whether it is a step toward true democracy. The landlocked nation has had a violent and troubled past. Since independence from colonial master France in 1960, it has been continuously rocked by political instability.
Somalia’s new environment minister asked the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate possible hazardous waste that was washed ashore by last year’s tsunami. The waste may be causing illnesses among local people. The minister said strange objects washed ashore all along his country’s coastline when the tsunami struck on December 26 last year.
Talks to boost chances for the conclusion of a global trade pact in 2006 turned to the thorny issue of agriculture in Ukunda, Kenya, on Friday with a landmark World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling against United States cotton subsidies weighing heavily in discussions.
Toxic waste washed on to Somalia’s coastline by last December’s tsumani have spawned diseases bearing symptoms of radioactive exposure in villagers along the shorelines of the shattered African nation, the United Nations Environment Programme said on Friday.
Togo’s electoral commission has set April 24 as the date for presidential elections, news reports said on Friday. The way for elections was cleared when Faure Gnassingbe stepped down as president last weekend after heavy international pressure.
Trade ministers from 33 countries on Thursday began crafting a ”rough” plan to conclude talks to liberalise global commerce further by 2006, paying particular attention to the interests of poorer countries, officials said. ”We want the Doha round [of trade talks] to be completed successfully next year,” Kenyan Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi said.
Police in Kenya arrested 53 anti-globalisation demonstrators on Thursday, keeping them from reaching the venue of a meeting of trade ministers from 30 countries discussing further efforts to liberalise global commerce, officials said on Thursday. The meeting will discuss a framework accord on future trade rules.
An Australian tourist has been killed by a hippopotamus at a popular resort in central Kenya, police said on Tuesday. Simon Kiragu, the regional police chief, identified the victim as 50-year-old Vicky Elizabeth Bartlett. She was with a group of 12 tourists at Lake Naivasha on Monday night when the hippo attacked, Kiragu said.
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/ 26 February 2005
Plans by Kenyan MPs to award themselves a R111 000 bonus have outraged a country already reeling from a string of corruption allegations. A parliamentary committee has recommended that each of the 222 MPs should receive 1,5-million Kenyan shillings when the Parliament ends in 2007. The committee has also recommended new constituency offices.
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/ 25 February 2005
Concern is mounting over Ethiopia’s flagship ”safety net” policy set up to end dependency on aid for five million people, the United Nations said. Paul Herbert, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the needy have still not received any food or cash under the scheme.