Source: AAP

Kenya has adopted a new constitution, but the landmark was overshadowed by an international furore at the presence of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, whom an international court has indicted for genocide and war crimes.

A steering committee on cattle rustling in the eastern Africa region wants member states to ratify the protocol on combating the vice.

The committee said ratification of the protocol on prevention, combating and eradication of cattle rustling in eastern Africa will add muscle to the fight against the vice.

The call was made on Monday as delegates from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan began a two-day meeting of the Mifugo project, a partnership between the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs’ Cooperation and the Institute of Security Studies.

Established in 2008, Mifugo, a Swahili word for livestock, is tasked to implement the fight against cattle rustling.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Augusta Muchai, the Mifugo programme head, said the five member states had not ratified the protocol.

She said by not ratifying the protocol signed in 2008, the member states were slowing down the fight aginst the vice. “I request that members of the steering committee put pressure on the relevant authorities in their countries to make sure that they ratify the law,” Muchai said.

Representing Uganda’s Inspector General of Police as the guest of honour, Okoth Ochola, the assistant Inspector General of Police, said efforts were underway to have Uganda ratify the protocol.

“Even though Uganda is committed to ratifying the protocol, this has not yet happened due to various challenges.”

Ochola added that the First Lady, Janet Museveni, who is also the Karamoja affairs state minister, was paying personal attention to the ratification process and “with her push, we are optimistic that any remaining hurdles will be overcome.”

Earlier, Dr. Nicholas Kauta, the director of animal resources at the agriculture ministry, had said cattle rustling was responsible for the proliferation of livestock diseases (New Vision).
 

LARGE quantities of drugs stolen from public health units are sneaked into Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Yoweri Museveni has disclosed.

The President said new research showed that Government drugs are sold in private shops, while big consignments are sent to the turbulent neighbouring countries for fat sums of money.

He said the racket of thieves, that involves unscrupulous health workers and businessmen, had been taking advantage of the instability in neighbouring countries to do business in medicines meant for Ugandans.

Addressing residents of Kirerema trading centre, Namutumba district in Busoga, Museveni, implored the wanainchi to arrest and take to the Police, or report to the nearest authorities, any person found selling Government drugs. The President is currently touring Busoga region to promote the Prosperity-for-All programme.

“Since you know them, I am giving you authority to arrest and report those involved, so that we deal with them,” he said
Museveni also made an impromptu visit to Nsinze health centre IV in Nsinze sub-county to assess its drug stocks.
Patients at the centre complained that they were not getting adequate treatment due to shortage of medicines.
He cautioned persons who have been stealing drugs to desist from the practice or the long arm of the law would get them.

“A bull that wants to die licks an axe,” he quoted an old-time precautionary adage.

Later, the President visited Sulaiman Muyinda, a commercial farmer in Kirerema III village in Bulange sub-county.

Muyinda grows three acres of pineapples, mangoes, groundnuts and oranges.

The President commended Muyinda for his efforts and promised to get him a pick-up truck to ease his transport.
He also donated sh10m to the 30-member Bukadde Magezi farmers’ group to be used as a revolving fund (New Vision).

Besieged Somali President Sheikh Sheriff Ahmed Sheriff, is one of the 10 or so heads of state invited to attend the promulgation of Kenya's new constitution Friday, Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Francis Muthaura, announced here Wednesday.

Kenya's new constitution has elicited international attention as a result of the post-election violence two years ago that added Kenya to the league of unstable African nations.

Outlining the programme for the promulgation of the new constitution, Muthaura said 'Also on the guest list is South Sudan's President Slava Kiir, who is involved in a fierce campaign for autonomy from the north in a referendum set for January.'

However, Sudanese President Hassan Omar el-Bashir, who has Kiir as his deputy in the national government, will not be making the trip as a result of the International Criminal Court's warrants of arrest hanging over his head.

In a media briefing, Muthaura said President Sheriff, who on Tuesday lost 20 members of parliament in a suicide attack in Somali capital, Mogadishu, had confirmed his attendance, the turmoil back in his country notwithstanding.

'The presidents in the East African Community bloc and four other countries have confirmed their attendance. We also received confirmations from the Panel of African Personalities who were involved in resolving the 2008 post-election violence ,' said Muthaura.

Members of the panel, chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, were former Tanzania president Benjamin Mkapa, former South African first lady Graca Marcel-Mandela and former Nigerian Foreign Minister, Prof Oluyemi Adeniji Security in and around Nairobi moved up to red alert level following the arrest of three Tanzanian nationals in Kenya at the weekend with hand grenades and assortment of other explosives and ammunitions.

Following the security threats, Police Commissioner Matthew Iteere said security agencies had been deployed to the city.

Over the past two weeks, Kenyan police have arrested over 100 Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals who were allegedly being trafficked to South Africa by a syndicate linked to Somali businessmen.

The high security alert was also necessitated by the twin bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in May that killed 76 people and similar explosions in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where six people died. While Somali militant groups claimed responsibility for the attacks in Uganda, the one Rwanda is still unresolved.

Kenya hosts more than a million Somali refugees in camps in the north. The capital is also home to Somali businessmen with links to the Al Shaabab militiamen who claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks on Tuesday that killed the Somali MPs and the Kampala bombings.

During constitutional referendum, three grenades were hurled at a campaign rally in central Nairobi killing six people. The constitutional promulgation ceremony will be held at the same venue, hence the high security alert.

The police commissioner announced that given the significance of the occasion all roads leading into and out of Nairobi, especially from the city two main airports, would be closed until Friday evening.

Nairobi - Pana 25/08/2010
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THE Rift Valley Railways (RVR) and the Ugandan and Kenyan governments have signed a revised concession pact to pave way for the release of about $250m (sh2.2 trillion) to boost operations along the Kenya-Uganda railway line.

Jim Mugunga, the Privatisation Unit spokesperson, said the agreement will fast track the introduction of a professional operator to manage the network and attract development partners to invest in the sector.

Finance minister Syda Bbumba and Kenya’s trade minister Amos Kimunya officiated at the function that took place at the finance ministry offices in Kampala on Wednesday.

However, yesterday Bbumba referred all inquiries regarding the date of commencement of works to transport minister John Nasasira, whose phones were all switched off.

“All the terms and conditions are determined by the transport ministry, mine is divestiture,” Bbumba said.

The two governments have been at loggerheads with RVR’s principal shareholder, Citadel Capital, over the inclusion of two crucial railway lines in a concession.

The company was contracted to manage the Mombasa-Kampala railway line for more than two decades.

The signing ends the row between the Egyptian equity firm and a section of Ugandan and Kenyan businessmen, who did not want the Tororo-Pakwach and Kampala-Kasese railway lines included in the concession, against Citadel Capital’s demands.

The two lines, leading to two regions endowed with minerals, oil, and agricultural potential as well as the sprawling Southern Sudan market, are now in the concession.

The development also confirms Citadel Capital as the principal shareholder in RVR (51%) with Kenya’s investment powerhouse TransCentury taking up 34% of the shares. Ugandan investors bag 15%.

However, in a bizarre twist, RVR officials, who did not want to be named, said there had been no signing following a cancellation letter from the finance ministry on Monday.

“The letter suspended the signing till further notice,” said an RVR official, who declined to disclose the details of the letter to New Vision.

RVR Uganda managing director Christina Wadulo said she was on leave and unable to comment on the matter.

The revamping of activities along the Kenya-Uganda railway have dragged on since 2005, when the Kenyan and Ugandan governments handed over the railway management to RVR, which was then under the shadowy South African investment firm, Sheltam Rail.

Controversy crippled in after the firm’s chief executive officer, Roy Puffet, secretly sold off 49% of RVR shares to wealthy Egyptians, who demanded to chair the RVR board.

This sparked off a bitter row with other shareholders, who included Kenya’s TransCentury (20%), Centum Ltd (10%), Tanzania’s Mirambo Holdings (15%), Prime Fuels of Kenya (15%) and Babcock Investments Holdings of Australia (10%).

The shareholder’s stakes, apart from TransCentury’s, were later liquidated after the World Bank intervened to settle the boardroom wars (New Vision).

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and presidents
from Rwanda, Somalia, south Sudan and Comoros are
among those expected at the event

 

SPECIAL REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENTS
Daniel Ooko and Ben Ochieng
.

ISLAMABAD: Fearing a backlash from the media and public, Senate Chairman Farooq H Naek has cancelled a visit of senators, which could have promoted the Pakistani cause of raising funds for the flood affectees, Daily Times learnt on Thursday.

In continuation of stringent measures for an austerity cut in expenditures, the Senate chairman disapproved all foreign visits, including the one to attend the 56th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Conference, scheduled to be held from September 10 to 19 at Nairobi, Kenya, sources told this scribe on Thursday. Expenditures on delegates, spouses, attendants and observers varied from $3,500 to $1,000 per head in addition to travel and TA/DA expenses. Millions of rupees from the national exchequer have been saved by Naek’s orders. Although, this good gesture of the Senate chairman to spare money for humanity in need was beyond any doubt, yet the significance of the mega event of the CPA in Nairobi, Kenya could not be denied as well.

This time, the CPA had envisaged an impressive agenda, which mostly related to the challenges the South Asian countries in general and Pakistan in particular had to encounter with. The CPA General Assembly would hold an extensive workshop in Nairobi on the global water and food crisis, sustainable development of energy and environment and preparation of the Commonwealth for the Emerging New World Economic Order. The participants of the 56th CPA Conference would thoroughly debate on the parliamentary procedural mechanism of accountability, scrutiny of governance through the Internet for strengthening oversight, the role of MPs in the gross roots projects, in protection of migrant workers and in natural disaster management.

All these crucial issues presently dominated our political culture. The authors of the CPA agenda, had been well conversant of the political controversies in its member countries such as Pakistan, enable the MPs from the South Asian countries to contribute their experiences and get benefit out of decades-old experiences of stable parliaments of the developed countries.

Naek while cancelling the trip to Nairobi directed the Senate administration that concrete steps be taken for evolving the IT mechanism through which member countries, unable of virtual participation, could get benefit from or contribute their shares in all mega events of the CPA. Instantly, it would not be materialised because any change in the procedural mechanism for the sessions of the CPA required a 60-days prior notice from the mover under the constitution and the rules of procedure of the CPA.

A reliable source in the Senate claimed that it was not the issue of millions of rupees being spent on lucrative foreign trips. The main dilemma was the way Pakistan spent the money from the national exchequer and what it gets of this hard-earned liquidity. Islamabad’s archrival, India, always surpassed Pakistan at all the global forums because India’s participation in the global debates on every issue had been marvellous. It was the reason that the Indian politicians and citizens occupied significant positions in global bodies such as the IPU and the CPA.

An official in the Senate said that the cancellation of the foreign trip to Nairobi was an ultimate outcome of the media’s ongoing hostile campaign against the elected government’s bid to liaise with the global forums and communities. Although, Pakistan’s absence from the Nairobi conference pacified the political rivals but it would also enable our global rivals to get maximum benefit from this situation.

On the other hand, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Interior Minister Senator Rehman Malik continued to enjoy foreign trips in the name of sensitising the world community for assistance for the flood affectees. Separately, Minister of State and Board of Investment Chairman Saleem H Mandviwalla had been paying a two-day visit to the Republic of Korea to apprise the Korean government and the private sector of the devastation caused by the massive floods in Pakistan. Despite the fact that religious scholars had been advocating the Muslim community to donate for the flood affectees instead of performing Umrah and Haj, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had performed Umrah a couple of days ago.

It is pertinent to mention here that the CPA had been established as an Empire Parliamentary Association, which had been renamed as CPQA in 1948.