No image available
/ 25 October 2004
When Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was sworn in as Somalia’s new president earlier this month in Kenya, cautious optimism was expressed at the fact that a new chapter appeared to be opening for the embattled East African country. Diplomats and political analysts warn now that it is essential for Yusuf to return to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as soon as possible to cement the legitimacy of his government.
No image available
/ 22 October 2004
Kenya pulled off what some might view as an unexpected feat this week by improving its standing in Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index. Every year, the Berlin-based NGO ranks several countries according to the levels of corruption that are perceived to exist in their public sectors.
No image available
/ 18 October 2004
Two people were injured on Sunday when the roof of the departure terminal at Nairobi’s Wilson domestic airport caved in after an explosion of unknown origin, police said. Kenyan government spokesperson Alfred Mutua said that no-one was killed in the explosion.
No image available
/ 15 October 2004
The president of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland said on Friday his administration will only negotiate with Somalia if it is for the recognition of their respective states’ sovereignty. ”Somaliland’s independence is sacred and efforts to discuss Somaliland uniting with Somalia are futile and a waste of time,” the president said.
No image available
/ 15 October 2004
Discussions about improving the level of education in Kenya often focus on the challenge of achieving universal primary education — or ensuring that girls are not discriminated against when it comes to schooling. But, as crucial as the focus on children’s education is, it appears to be marginalising another group of people that is also in urgent need of educational assistance: Kenya’s illiterate adults.
No image available
/ 14 October 2004
The United Nations special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, Martti Ahtisaari, was expected to arrive in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on Wednesday to discuss the humanitarian situation in the country, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.
No image available
/ 14 October 2004
Somali veteran politician and soldier Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was sworn in as the new president of his Horn of Africa country on Thursday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Yusuf, who was elected on Sunday by members of his country’s transitional Parliament, took the oath of office before several African presidents.
No image available
/ 12 October 2004
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has welcomed the election of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as Somalia’s transitional president and pledged that the world body will fully support efforts to restore stability in the war-torn Horn of Africa country. The election was held on Sunday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
No image available
/ 11 October 2004
Members of Somalia’s transitional Parliament elected former army officer Abdullahi Yusuf as interim president for the war-torn Horn of Africa nation, the Parliament speaker said. The vote on Sunday was the final stage in a peace plan to end 13 years of civil war and restore a government to Somalia, that has been divided into fiefs ruled by rival warlords since 1991.
Two top officials of a Kenyan jail where five inmates were allegedly beaten to death last week were suspended on Monday when it emerged that another nine prisoners from the same jail had died in hospital over the past week. National Prisons Commissioner Abraham Kamakil announced he had suspended Silas M’tambu, the officer in charge of Meru prison in eastern Kenya, and his deputy, Benedict Mutunga, on compulsory leave to allow ”further investigations”.
The body of a Kenyan girl, who allegedly died after she was raped by a British soldier, will be exhumed at the weekend for forensic analysis, the British High Commission said on Friday, insisting that justice would be pursued till the end. On September 20, a Kenyan court ordered the body of 16-year-old Mantoi Lekoloi Kaunda to be exhumed, six years after she was buried, for analysis to find out if she died as a result of an alleged rape by a British soldier in 1998.
No image available
/ 29 September 2004
Kenya is pushing for an international ban on trade in lion trophies and skins, arguing that the number of the animals has declined sharply over the years as a result of hunting, loss of habitat and lack of prey. ”The number of lions in Africa has declined by between 30% and 50% in the past 30 years,” said Edward Indakwa, spokesperson for the Kenya Wildlife Service.
No image available
/ 24 September 2004
Britain on Friday renewed corruption charges against Kenya, saying the drive to fight endemic graft in the east African country was ”evidently flawed” and devoid of ”political will”. But Kenya has rejected these claims, saying President Mwai Kibaki was fully committed to the fight against corruption.
No image available
/ 22 September 2004
The United Nations expressed fears on Wednesday of ”famine conditions” arising in southern Somalia if violence there is allowed to escalate. ”The current fighting in the area is seriously disrupting the humanitarian operations currently under way,” the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard, said.
No image available
/ 22 September 2004
The killing remains vivid in their minds. And the deep scars on their bodies will continue to remind them of the slaughter of their compatriots at a refugee camp in the tiny central African nation of Burundi. These are the survivors of the massacre at the Gatumba refugee camp on August 13, about 20km from Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi.
No image available
/ 16 September 2004
With the election of a Speaker of its newly formed Parliament late on Wednesday, Somalia edged closer to its first national government in 13 years. In a delayed and drawn-out session, the parliamentarians elected businessman Shariff Hassan Sheikh Adan as the new Speaker.
No image available
/ 16 September 2004
It’s probably fair to say that the plight of the Ogiek receives little attention on a continent with more than its share of political and economic crises. The Ogiek are ”one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer peoples of East Africa”, according to Survival International — an organisation that fights for the rights of indigenous communities.
No image available
/ 15 September 2004
Eritrea has expelled British Broadcasting Corporation reporter Jonah Fisher from the northeast African country with no explanation given, Fisher told AFP on Saturday. Last week, the Eritrean government ”cancelled my press accreditation and soon after they gave me three days to leave the country,” explained Fisher over the phone in Nairobi, where he is presently staying.
No image available
/ 13 September 2004
The Kenyan tourism sector is back on a profitable path after setbacks spawned by negative publicity in the past five years, the state-run Kenya Tourism Board said on Monday. The sector is expecting its revenue to increase by three billion shillings (,5-million) this year, up from 25-billion (,5-million) it earned in 2003, said KTB spokesperson Rose Kwena.
No image available
/ 8 September 2004
The swearing-in of Somalia’s transitional Parliament on August 22 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and the first meeting of the MPs days later may have gone smoothly, but the real challenges facing the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country have just begun. ”History is littered with dishonoured Somali peace accords,” said an analyst.
No image available
/ 7 September 2004
A con man who plastered tomato sauce to a bandage to fake a back injury and receive alms in Nairobi’s streets has been arrested, a Kenyan newspaper said on Tuesday. Gibson Ngige was arrested on Sunday and frogmarched to Nairobi’s railway police station along with two accomplices, who have been collecting about 1 500 shillings begging for money to pay for medical treatment.
No image available
/ 6 September 2004
A campaign to set up a women’s land movement has kicked off in Kenya, at a time when the East African country has embarked on a controversial land-reform debate. Campaigners argue that such a movement would ensure women speak with a unified voice. It would also incorporate their concerns in the on-going land debate.
The Sudanese government and the main rebel group in the south of the vast country have extended an ongoing ceasefire for three months, amid deadlock in talks aimed at ending 21 years of conflict, the chief mediator said on Tuesday. A civilian protection monitoring team has said that both sides have violated the ceasefire.
The world could face a humanitarian failure if up to half a million refugees return to southern Sudan in the event of a final peace deal between rebels and government forces before the end of the year, the United Nations warned on Monday. Peace talks in Kenya are aimed at ending 21 years of devastating conflict in Sudan.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121313">Hunger stalks Darfur’s refugees</a>
Kenya’s tourism and wildlife minister Emmanuel Karisa Maitha has died of a heart attack during a press interview in Germany, reports said on Friday. After Maitha collapsed during an interview with Deustche Welle in Frankfurt on Thursday, he was taken to hospital, but doctors failed to resuscitate him, wrote the East African Standard newspaper.
Kenyan police used tear gas violently to disperse at least 200 Maasai tribesmen who were demonstrating in the capital, Nairobi, to demand their land back, an AFP journalist reported. ”We have used force to put off the demonstration because it was illegal,” Nairobi police chief Julius Ndegwa said as riot police charged on the Maasai.
The Kenyan government is to dispatch geological experts to its western region to probe new volcanic activities on Mount Elgon on its border with Uganda, which threatens about 20 000 people, officials said on Monday. Mount Elgon, which is 4 321m high, has been dormant for more than a century.
Rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) over the weekend killed four elephants that had strayed from a national park and started destroying crops in villages in central Kenya, police and a KWS official said on Monday. The elephants reportedly destroyed crops, fences and other homestead structures in villages.
They inconvenienced commuters and drew the wrath of taxi drivers, but have Kenya’s new transport regulations also managed to make traffic conditions in the country less hazardous? At the start of February this year, the government implemented a series of regulations aimed at reducing mayhem on the nation’s roads, including stipulations on safety belts as well as speed regulation.
Kenya is to write off about six billion shillings (about R481-million) owed by coffee farmers, whose sector has suffered as a result of the depressed world coffee market, the president’s office said on Sunday. Coffee production has steadily slumped from about 127 000 tons in the mid-1980s to about 49 000 tons last year.
A curious case involving 13 so-called ”miracle babies” and immaculate conception has sparked concern about the proliferation of new church groups in Kenya. The case, which has dominated newspaper headlines in Kenya, is prompting calls for the government to investigate suspect religious ministries.
Relief agencies in the troubled Sudanese state of West Darfur have set up a working group to monitor and coordinate activities to stem the spread of hepatitis E as cases of the disease continue to be reported, the United Nations said. Twenty-seven people had died across Darfur by August 15 and more than 1 000 had been affected.