Kibaki delays talks

Story by MUCHEMI WACHIRA
 

President Kibaki’s meeting with PNU negotiators has resulted in a  delay of today’s peace talks.

The ODM side and Annan’s team were kept waiting for their government counterparts for close to four hours.

The opposition negotiators then left Serena Hotel, the venue of the meeting, and only came back after the PNU side arrived at the hotel.

The talks resumed after midday.

The President also met Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and a team he had appointed to spearhead peace and reconciliation efforts in the country.

The team includes: Attorney General Amos Wako, Finance minister Amos Kimunya, Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua, Transport’s Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Moses Wetangula (Foreign Affairs), Uhuru Kenyatta (Local Government) and George Saitoti (Internal Security).

Mr Ludeki Chweya and Geoffrey Kibaara had been appointed joint secretaries of the team which is yet to start work.

The meeting, sources said, centred on the progress of the Annan talks especially on proposals for the creation of a prime minister’s position, its functions and powers.

ODM and PNU negotiators have since agreed on principle to create a prime minister’s position, two deputy prime ministers and inclusion of ODM members in Cabinet.

And at Thursday’s meeting, sources said, the ministers insisted that the prime minister’s position should be non-executive and that no powers should be transferred from the presidency.

The leaders maintained that having been sworn in, the President should enjoy the powers bestowed on him by constitution for five years.

They urged PNU negotiators, Ms Karua, Mbooni MP Mutula Kilonzo, Education minister Sam Ongeri and Mr Wetangula to be firm at the talks and ensure PNU interests carried the day.

The negotiating team suspended Thursday’s session at 11 am  allow time to consult on the draft joint proposal. 

The Legal Working Group -a sub-committee established on Tuesday to transform the political deals struck during earlier sessions in legal terms acceptable to both sides- was to meet from 8.30 am to conclude their work before reporting to the full negotiating team from 10 am. The sessions were however delayed as the working group started meeting at 12 pm.

Members of the group are: Ms Karua and Kilonzo on behalf of PNU and ODM’s William Ruto and James Orengo.

The group’s facilitator is M Hans Corell, who is a Swedish legal expert.

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Mediation talks enter crucial stage

Written by Daniel Waitere

The on-going mediation talks to resolve Kenya’s political stalemate resumed Thursday with discussions centered on the terms of reference for the proposed post of Prime Minister.

The talks were however delayed after the government side failed to show up on time prompting the ODM team to leave the Serena hotel, the venue of the talks.

The government negotiators had asked for a time out to go and brief President Mwai Kibaki on the progress of the talks.

The negotiating teams had agree in principle on the creation of a Prime Minister post but are yet to thrush out details on whether the position will be executive or non executive and what role the Prime Minister will play in Parliament. 

The talks were suspended Thursday mid-morning to allow the negotiators to brief their principals on the governance structure team.

Both sides were expected to hold consultations on Thursday afternoon before returning to the talks.

“We have more or less agreed on a non-executive prime minister but with some substantial meaningful responsibilities,” government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo said, according to the AP news agency.

Mr Kilonzo also said that further details had to be resolved but would not specify.

 

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The road to democracy is tricky

 

 <Written by Harrison Mwirigi Ikunda, Kenya

What makes some states to be considered stable, developed, promising? And what makes others and most of them African failed states, or not promising? How would we describe Kenya of January 2008?  I guess it has not been promising of late.

Democracy is expensive. Democracy is also risky. Democracy is not easy to build. But the alternatives to democracy are not anything near bad but rather horrible states. In a nutshell as for now the world order agrees that democracy provides hope. But what is wrong with the Kenyan democracy?

To start with Kenya is not yet democratic. Institutions for promotion of democracy are still very shaky. The institutions to promote democracy are either non existent, weak, sabotaged, corrupted, poorly funded and suffering from one malady to another.

Take the media for instance. It is one of the organs within and without the state capable of ensuring that all the arms of the government operate fairly. But the present state of the Kenyan media shows that it is highly vulnerable to state machinery, vulnerable to vested interests, vulnerable to hate groups, vulnerable to all manner of skewed thinking and so on.

And unfortunately looking to arms of the government like the Judiciary, it has lately come under sharp and severe focus in the wrong mode, that it is risky for everyone unless full confidence is restored. And this is without delving so much to other arms of government, suffice it to say this is the time for constitutional and institutional reforms if we gave to escape future political precipice like the one we are in at the moment.

Innocent people have been murdered, property destroyed. Old wounds revived internal refugees in the erstwhile peaceful country, emergence of illegal groupings and so on. Kenya needs an urgent healing. Nobody in his or her right mind would appreciate the current state affairs. It is high time we implement some quick wins to sort out the political mess and then implement a strategic plan to sort out historical problems of governance, land, fragile institutions, and poverty and so on.

It is unfortunate that when Kenya turned into multi-partism in 1991 some sweeping housekeeping measures of the country were easily ignored as a result of the political dispensation then, and when again in 2002 the country experienced another form of political revolution the emergent political challenges quickly buried some structural reform necessities that the long periods of political and economic distortions dating as far as to before and during colonial era have come to haunt us.

The reality is that Kenya needs urgent repairs and laying a better foundation for posterity. Quick fixes won’t help if once again we forget that the problems run very deep. And Kenyans through education and institutionalized laws need to be reminded that no tribe is bad, no tribe is superior and no tribe is by itself evil. The problem lies worth the salient weaknesses of the institutions and the leaders. They are the ones which promote evils of tribalism, favouritism and exclusion to the detriment of all.

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Maize and dairy farmers in western Kenya facing a crisis

Leo Odera Omolo

<Written by Leo Odera Omolo

 

Farmers in Western Kenya especially those farming in the North Rift Region are facing planting crisis following recently increased fuel prices and high cost of all other farm inputs.

 

Reports emerging from Eldoret town say that soaring prices coupled with the effect of the post-election violence have forced some large and small scale farmers to consider abandoning cultivations of maize and wheat for fear of incurring heavy losses.

 

Farmers now want the government to re-introduce guaranteed minimum return (GMR) loaning scheme policy to cushion them incase of crop failure.

 

One prominent farmer in Uasin Gishu district Mr. said Chepkeitany remarked “we are likely to experience low harvest this season due to high cost of production.

 

The shortest GMR loan scheme policy, which protected the farmers against incurring losses following poor harvest was scrapped by the government several years ago leaving farmers with no alternative but to take risks in agricultural investment.

 

Fears by the farmers have been confirmed by the Agricultural Ministry’s field officials who admitted rising production costs would interrupt this season’s planting programming.

 

The price of fertilizer like double ammonium phosphate has increased from Kshs 2600 to Kshs 3400 while diesel has increased from Kshs 77.29 to Kshs 82.24per litre.

 

The North Rift region covering Trans-Nzoia and Uasin Gishu districts are always recognized as the granaries of Kenya .The region produced 12 million bags f Maize and 3.7 million bags of wheat last year.

 

The farmers in the region were motivated to increase the acreage under production for maize and wheat following the disbursement of Kshs 482 million by the government through the Agricultural Finance Cooperation AFC to boost productivity.

 

The revivals of agricultural mechanizations through tractor hire services and revitalization of the Kenya Seed Company and AFC have also enabled farmers to increase crop acreage.

 

The reports has also painted a gloom picture fro milk production in the country indicating that several milk processing companies and dairy farmers alike are also strugging to keep up with milk demand in the country.

 

Low supply of the product due to the violence that characterized the milk producing Rift Valley has left many processors in the country and like others is is bearing the fruit of post election violence.

 

The company’s branch manager Rosemary Aloo was recently quoted by the local press saying “our production process has been revised to match the milk supplies we receive from our outlets in the Province”, a bulk of our suppliers in the region have been affected by the violence “she added.

 

Although the relatively calm central Province has provided the lifeline supply from this region is being fought for between the big players in the dairy industry-Spin Knit Dairy, New KCC and Brookeside Dairy as well as other small -scale processors dotting the province.

 

Statistics from the Kenya Dairy Board, the market regulator shows that milk production in Kenya by last year had almost grown by 100 per cent in over a period of four years.

 

Production in the country stood at 3.8 billion litres annually compared to 2.8 billion litres in the year 2004.

 

However ,this year’s production is expected to take a nosedive in the first quarter .Majority of farmers engaged in milk production in the Rift valley Province have been displaced from their farms and dairy cattle stolen.

 

Over the past two years, Kenya has developed as a net exporter of milk mainly to its neighbours in the region and middle east countries. Of the total sales revenue for the family business, about 10 percent originates from export sales.

 

 

Ends

Leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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Cameroon to start exporting iron ore in 2011

<By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE. The Cameroon Iron Ore Company (CamIron), controlled by Australia’s Sundance Resources, will export iron ore from its $2.46 billion Mbalam iron ore project by 2011, its general manager said on Thursday.

        Roger Bogne said feasibility studies and environmental assessments will be submitted before the end of February, and the company should reach a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government by March, paving the way for Cameroon to issue an exploitation permit.

      “We plan to start constructing project infrastructure by the beginning of next year and I can assure you that the first shipment to external markets of iron ore exploited in Cameroon will take place in 2011,” Bogne said in an interview with API. “The project is well on course, there are no hitches.”

      Officials at Cameroon’s Ministry of Mines, Industries and Technological Development said, in anticipation of next month’s signing, that Cameroon had set up a task force to draft the memorandum of understanding which spells out the terms of iron exploitation.

      CamIron was founded in 2005 to develop an area of 875 square km at Mbalam, 300 km from Yaounde in southeastern Cameroon. In 2006, Australian iron ore miner Sundance Resources Limited acquired 90 percent of its shares.

      The iron ore deposits were discovered between 1976 and 1984 by the United Nations Development Fund (UNDF) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Cameroon’s Ministry of Mines, Industries and Technological Development estimates CamIron’s exploration area contains iron deposits of between 800 million and 1 billion tonnes, including 218 million tonnes of high grade ore.

      Sundance said an October 2006 study indicated the area had the potential to be developed into a very large, low-cost producer of high grade ore.

      “The government of Cameroon attaches great importance to this project … given its capacity to produce 35 million tonnes of iron ore a year over a period of 20 years,” Mines, Industries and Technological Development Minister Badel Ndinga Ndanga said last week, urging CamIron to press ahead quickly.

      The Mbalam project involves the development of a mine, crushing and screening plant, and stockpiling facilities. A 470-km long railway line will be constructed to link Mbalam to the Atlantic coast at Logbabe, where a deep-sea export terminal will be developed to handle large ocean-going vessels.

      This infrastructure is also expected to open the way into remote southeastern Cameroon for other investors and boost tourism in a region rich in wildlife, particularly western lowland gorillas.

      The Mbalam area is part of an iron ore province in the Archean Congo Craton that spans three countries, including Cameroon, the Congo Republic and Gabon. The iron deposits of Gabon are best known and are centred on the deposits at Belinga. Previous evaluation in Gabon by Kumba Resources Ltd of South Africa in the Batoula/Boka Boka region, 140 km south of Mbalam and 50 km east of Belinga, indicated a resource of 850 million tonnes of 60% Fe.

     According to Sundance, the resources within Cameroon are typical supergene hematite enrichments of the Archean banded iron formation protore which has been recrystallised to ferruginous quartzite or itabirite. They occur in a similar geological setting to large iron ore deposits mined in the past in Liberia, in neighbouring Gabon, and currently being evaluated in Guinea.

     Work undertaken in the Mbalam area indicated hematite mineralisation extending over two kilometres along strike at widths of up to 600m but more commonly at 400m.

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