The notion that the truth will set you free has enduring appeal in developing countries that are newly free of repressive governments. But Kenya is discovering that setting up a truth commission to probe human rights violations is less straightforward than it might appear.
Ministers from Africa’s Great Lakes and Horn of Africa regions were on Tuesday due to give legal muscle to their commitments to stemming an alarming proliferation of small and light weapons. A Kenyan Foreign Ministry official said the regions’ 11 states would sign a protocol in Nairobi on Tuesday.
At least 50 000 people have been forced to flee their homes in southern Sudan because of militia attacks and fighting between government and rebel forces. The clashes over the past few weeks have occurred despite an October 2002 ceasefire between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
Rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region say government-backed Arab militias have broken a recent ceasefire agreement and as a consequence they may pull out of planned peace talks, media reports said on Friday. A rebel spokesperson said 32 civilians had been killed and several villages torched on Wednesday.
At least 114 people have been found dead following recent floods in Djibouti, the Red Cross said on Thursday. ”Two villages have been particularly affected. We estimate 10 000 people have lost their homes or their property,” Steve Penny of the International Red Cross Federation said.
Africa’s Anglican bishops were due to hold a two-day meeting in Nairobi from Wednesday to mull whether they can continue accepting donations from provinces that support the ordination of homosexual bishops, an official said on Tuesday. ”They might even refuse such cash,” an official said.
The President of the island-nation Seychelles, Albert Rene, stepped down on Wednesday, 27 years after seizing power in a coup. His successor, Vice-President James Michel, was to be sworn in later in the day, local media reported. Michel is the longest-serving minister in the government.
A high-profile Kenyan opposition lawmaker was on Wednesday charged in court with corruption in connection with a land transfer deal that cost a state firm 272-million shillings (about ,5-million), police said. William Ruto was charged together with a former commissioner of lands, Samuel Mwaita.
A mother of seven has been kept locked up in a Kenyan hospital for a year because she cannot pay her medical bill, local media reported on Tuesday. The woman was admitted to a hospital in the town of Meru last April after a domestic quarrel, and shortly after gave birth to twins.
Floods caused by heavy rains have forced an estimated 2 000 people out of their homes in western Kenya and claimed the at least four lives, officials said on Monday. The government and the Kenya Red Cross Society have advised people living in flood-prone areas to move to higher grounds.
The United Nations Security Council has given Secretary General Kofi Annan the go-ahead to plan for a peacekeeping mission in the war-torn Central African country of Burundi, the UN News Service said. ”It is my intention to immediately begin preparations,” Annan wrote in a letter to the Security Council, released late on Monday.
A white zebra has been born in Nairobi’s national park, to the wonderment of visitors and researchers. The baby zebra was first discovered when a group of Masaai cattle herders living on the edge of the game reserve reported that a little calf was on the loose in the park.
The drafting of a new Kenyan Constitution that shifts considerable powers from the presidency to a yet-to-be-created post of prime minister formally ended on Tuesday after a six-year gestation, but opponents of devolution still have a few cards to play.
Civil servants in Kenya have threatened to go on their first-ever strike at the end of March if the government fails to award them a 600% pay rise. The Kenya Civil Servants Union, which has been in existence for a year, says it has been negotiating with the government on behalf of about 250 000 workers.
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/ 25 February 2004
Connoisseurs have long appreciated the merits of Kenyan coffee, typically described as having a fruity, acidic flavour. But now coffee farm output has seriously declined — something attributed to rising production costs, mismanagement within cooperative ventures and poor policies on the part of the government.
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/ 4 February 2004
The Church in Africa is concerned about United States pressure on African countries to introduce anti-terror legislation on pretext of fighting terrorism. The church is cautioning African governments against enacting such laws blindly, which it warns infringe on human rights.
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/ 2 February 2004
The signing of a wealth-sharing agreement earlier this month between Sudanese officials and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army was hailed an important step towards peace in that country. Now, hopes are growing that the accord might also spell the end of another conflict: that in northern Uganda.
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/ 15 January 2004
Kibera slum, near the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is at a considerable distance from the Indian city of Mumbai, where the World Social Forum is scheduled to begin in just two days. Nonetheless, the 700Â 000 inhabitants of this slum, said to be Africa’s largest, will provide one of the summit’s talking points when it gets under way.
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/ 12 January 2004
A decision by the guardians of 72 HIV-positive children to sue Kenya’s government for alleged discrimination in public schools appears to have struck a nerve in the East African country. Aids organisations say this trend may be widespread, and they are calling on the government to take action in the matter.
Rustlers shot and killed 10 people, including five children, in two raids in northern Kenya and set dozens of huts on fire before stealing thousands of goats and hundreds of camels, officials said on Thursday. Security forces were pursuing the two groups of attackers who were attempting to return to their home villages.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and other humanitarian agencies will this week launch the second phase of emergency aid distributions in northern Somalia, where tens of thousands of people are facing food shortages because of drought.
Rights groups in Kenya are faced with the daunting task of persuading the government of President Mwai Kibaki to adopt a truth, justice and reconciliation commission (TJRC). A task force found that 90% of Kenyans backed the formation of such a commission.
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/ 16 December 2003
Under Kenya’s current Constitution, drafted during the colonial era, the president enjoys extensive powers. To reduce these powers — which have sometimes been abused — some Kenyans have called for the current process of constitutional review to allow for the post of prime minister. However, others disagree.
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/ 12 December 2003
Rights groups in Kenya have criticised the government’s decision to introduce an anti-terror law to tackle terrorism. The groups say the proposed Bill has been imposed on Kenya by the United States government as a result of two terror attacks witnessed by the country in the past five years.
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/ 12 December 2003
The Health Ministry of the Republic of Congo reported on Thursday that the current ebola outbreak in the country’s northwestern Cuvette Ouest Department is stabilising, with 29 deaths among 42 registered cases to date. Since December 2 no further deaths had been registered in the two worst-affected villages.
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/ 10 December 2003
Sudan’s fledgling civil society organisations are demanding the setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) as soon as the final peace agreement between the government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army is signed. The agreement seeks to bring to an end Africa’s longest-running conflict.
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/ 9 December 2003
A Kenyan man has been arrested after decapitating his infant nephew and eating parts of the severed head after a row with the boy’s mother, police said on Tuesday. The man’s motives were being investigated, said police, adding that he had no known history of cannibalism.
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/ 2 December 2003
The United States embassy in Kenya warned its citizens of looming terrorist attacks in the country’s capital, Nairobi, the embassy’s spokesperson said on Tuesday. Kenyan authorities have tightened security around the city.
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/ 2 December 2003
The World Health Organisation and UNAids have launched a new initiative to provide anti-retrovirals to three million people by the end of 2005. The "3 by 5" campaign will focus on five areas, including global leadership in the fight against Aids and "sustained country support" for the therapy.
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/ 27 November 2003
In an effort to strengthen bilateral relations between their two countries, the foreign ministers of the Republic of Congo and South Africa on Tuesday signed an agreement providing for the establishment of a joint cooperation commission ”in various fields of common interest”.
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/ 26 November 2003
Brigit Namwalo has nothing to celebrate. ”I have become [my husband’s] punching bag and several times he has knifed me,” she says. Her remarks come in the midst of an international campaign, 16 Days of Activism on Violence against Women, which is being observed in more than 100 countries, including South Africa.
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/ 19 November 2003
Kenya finds itself in a quagmire as it struggles to contain the HIV/Aids pandemic ravaging the country. According to the National Aids and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Programme, about 270 000 people urgently require ARV treatment. But, at most, only 11 000 Kenyans are receiving the drugs.