Norway elected to UN Human Rights Council – Do they deserve the seat?

“I am pleased that Norway has now been elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Our work now begins in earnest. During the next three years we will participate actively in the Council. We will take our share of responsibility and work systematically to promote human rights,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Today Norway was elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council together with the US.

“The aim of our engagement is clear. It is to ensure that individuals are better protected against abuse and have better access to the rights set out in existing standards and conventions in the field of human rights. As a member Norway aims to make a difference,” said the Foreign Minister.

“As a member of the Human Rights Council we will continue our efforts to ensure compliance with the prohibition against torture and to strengthen the rights of particularly vulnerable groups. We will also continue to support human rights defenders. We will particularly focus on the issue of internally displaced persons. We will stress the importance of corporate social responsibility. We will seek to increase the focus on freedom of expression, free media and the rights of women and children. We will use our voice in the Council to draw attention to serious human rights violations by oppressive regimes that are unwilling to cooperate or make improvements,” Mr Støre added.

“I am proud of the great job diplomats here at the Ministry and at our diplomatic and consular missions have done to promote Norway’s candidacy,” the Foreign Minister concluded.

source.mfa.norway

Condom accident exposes son’s promiscuity – The housemaid wanted a sex goose

By Joseph Muchiri

Residents of Maili Inne in Eldoret were treated to a sad late evening drama when a 14-year-old boy handed his mother a packet of condoms instead of the matchbox she had asked for.

Though the boy had done it inadvertently, the woman couldn’t hide her shock and screamed her lungs out before she collapsed in a heap and fainted.

The incident, which took place two weeks ago, had alarmed neighbours who rushed to the home to find the boy making frantic efforts to simultaneously hide the offending packet of condoms and offer first aid to his mother.

Earlier in the day, the woman’s househelp had sought permission to go and visit her parents in Bungoma. The woman had readily granted her request unsuspecting that a plot was being executed between the maid and her son.

The househelp had secretly arranged with the boy to spend the night in his room and leave very early for Bungoma the next morning.

She had left the home casually but surreptitiously made her way back into the compound and jumped through the window. The boy had left the window of his room unlocked to facilitate the plan.

Exposed by blackout

Their plan, carried out with precision, could have perfectly succeeded were it not for a power blackout in the early evening.

The woman, who was caught in darkness, went to the son’s room to borrow a matchbox as she could not trace any in the house.

The son, engulfed in darkness and throes of passion, accidentally picked the packet of condoms and quickly handed it to his mother. He wanted to prove his obedience and willingness to help his mother at all times.

But when she opened the strange looking matchbox, she couldn’t believe her eyes to find herself holding some condoms and fainted.

“What has happened?” some neighbours asked when they found the confused boy wondering what to do.

He was too dazed to explain, and it did not take long for them to gather what was happening. They shone a touch at the boy demanding an explanation. Some entered the room and flushed out the house help.

The woman came to later to find her son and the house help kneeling before her seeking for forgiveness.

source.standard.ke

Uhuru shouldn’t count on Kibaki’s backing – Now it is clear he may have to carry his own cross on this budget issue

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta arrives at Continental House, Nairobi, on Monday where he was to meet the parliamentary finance committee. Photo/MICHAEL MUTE

By  MACHARIA GAITHO

In Summary

• Finance Minister may have erred by politicising the row over budget figures

 

Mr Uhuru Kenyatta has come out with plenty of egg on his face, unlikely to be wiped off by the launch of a counter-attack that tries to deflect blame to political foes rather than addressing the issue at hand.

When the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance minister got the opportunity to respond in Parliament last Wednesday to claims of Sh9.2 billion discrepancy in the Supplementary Budget, he was scathing in his denouncement of Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara, who had made the claim in Parliament, and the Mars Group that had scrutinised the budget and raised the red flag.

Probe the issue

Speaker Kenneth Marende referred the matter to Parliament’s departmental committees on Finance and Budget to investigate the issue and report back to the House on Tuesday.

In the interim, however, Mr Kenyatta discovered that there was indeed something wrong with his sums.

Instead of waiting for an opportunity to explain himself to the two committees or on the Floor, the Finance minister called a press conference to concede that there was indeed a typing or computer error that had caused the discrepancy in question.

What Mr Kenyatta did next was even more remarkable. He went to public meeting ”a church fund-raiser” in President Kibaki’s Othaya constituency where his defence assumed political dimensions.

Mr Kenyatta and his allies hit out in every which way, blaming the media, mystery saboteurs at the Treasury and unnamed political enemies out to embarrass him, probably with the presidential succession in mind.

The Finance minister even won the support of his host, President Kibaki’s son, Jimmy, who came out with the assurance that Mr Kenyatta had the support of his father against the unnamed detractors.

Mr Kenyatta is one of the key politicians in the PNU alliance queuing up the race to succeed President Kibaki.

The remarkable event at Othaya was reminiscent of the Byzantine politics of the Kanu era.

That was the period when every issue was debated on the grounds of political enemies out to finish me, and where the only factor for survival was securing the backing of the president.

Times, however, have changed a great deal. Although a number of politicians are ready to fight in Mr Kenyatta’s corner, Kenya is at a period when most must carry their own cross.

President Kibaki is not given to standing strongly by any politician who makes an error of judgment or incurs the wrath of Parliament, as ministers George Saitoti, Kiraitu Murungi, Amos Kimunya and former minister David Mwiraria can attest.

All had to step aside at different times after being embroiled in graft allegations, although they were all subsequently reinstated after the temperatures had cooled.

In Mr Kenyatta’s case, it is not at the moment, strictly speaking, graft allegations that he faces.

There is no evidence yet of any fraud, only some dodgy arithmetic and tampering with figures.

And that begs the question why Mr Kenyatta had to come out fighting and politicise an issue that he would have been better advised to own up (errors) and seek the indulgence of Parliament.

The flip-flopping and theatrics are not likely to win him much support within the crucial constituency he has to win over – Parliament. There is a world of difference between innocent typing errors and sabotage by political enemies.

Typing errors

It might get even worse if fellow MPs feel they were misled to listen to him in silence last Wednesday, and even applaud when he tore into Mr Imanyara and the Mars Group, only for the scenario to change with confession later of the so-called typing errors.

When the matter comes up in Parliament today, many MPs will also be uncomfortable that they might also be under scrutiny. Parliament passed the Supplementary Budget without noticing any anomalies, which reveals a lot about the quality of MPs.

MPs were also inclined to accept Mr Kenyatta’s explanation, and might feel that they were made fools of by subsequent events.

The attempt to rally troops round for a political battle might not win the Finance minister many supporters in Parliament, especially when most MPs are clearly mystified by the complexities of the budget-making presence and might not want to stick their necks out in subjects they do not understand.

Source.nation.ke

Kenya: ODM MPs plan censure Motion against Uhuru

By Kepher Otieno

Some ODM MPs are now planning a censure Motion against Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta over Sh9.2 billion-budget riddle.

At the weekend, Education Assistant Minister Ayiecho Olweny and MPs John Mbadi and Oyugi Magwanga

said Uhuru was incompetent to run the ministry.

The MPs told The Standard a Motion to compel Uhuru out of the ministry was on the way unless he resigned to pave way for investigation.

They said Uhuru should “own up” and quit “to pre-empt” a censure Motion against him in Parliament.

“We will not pass the Appropriation Bill in Parliament until Uhuru apologises to the House for bringing

a fictitious budget for approval,” said Mr Mbadi.

The MPs said they were shocked that Uhuru misled Kenyans on the estimates.

“Whether it was an error of omission or commission, Uhuru owes Kenyans an apology. That magnitude is

too big and questionable. If it’s a typing error, how could it happen in nine ministries?” asked Mbadi.

Prof Olweny added: “We have lost faith in Uhuru and the President should remove him from that ministry with immediate effect.”

Olweny said they would mobilise back-benchers to block attempts by the minister to table the Appropriation Bill for amendment.

Said he: “You can’t take someone who is not well-versed with economics and accounting to lead such a sensitive ministry. He will mess up.”

Budget making process Mbadi said the intended Motion was to ensure that the Budget making process is not a prerogative of the Executive.

“We want to use this Motion to address glaring disparities so that MPs can be allowed to scrutinise the Budget and interrogate the estimates before

they tabled in Parliament for ratification,” he said.

Said Magwanga: “If Uhuru is reading sabotage from junior staff, then he should honourably quit that ministry. Finance is one of the ministries run by highly qualified professionals. If they are too smart for Uhuru, let him resign so that someone else is appointed.”

source.standard.ke

 

Suspicious teacher goes bananas over barmaid – Burning her house, he thought, was the best solution

By George Olwenya

A secondary school teacher was recently beaten senseless before being handed over to Siaya police when he attempted to set his lover’s house ablaze.

The jilted lover had, at midnight, stormed the house of his girlfriend who is a barmaid in Siaya town with a can of kerosene but changed his mind when he was about to strike a match.

The middle-aged teacher was angered because he believed the barmaid had been cheating on him yet he had been paying her house rent. They had also planned to

get married.

The incident, which is still the talk of the town, took place at Karapul Estate. Neighbours vented their anger on the teacher who claimed he was merely trying to win back his lover following a petty difference.

 

settle difference

The girl is a barmaid in a leading drinking joint in Siaya town.

Their one-year relationship had of late run into problems and on the material day, he decided to visit the girl at her place of work to settle their differences.

He, however, could not accomplish his mission since she was busy with customers and failed to give him audience, forcing him to leave.

He went back to his house and called the girl on the phone after which she promised to show up later in the night. He waited in vain.

Her failure to turn up so angered the teacher that he decided to burn her house.

According to the teacher, who turned himself in to the police, he was forced to go to his lover’s house in the middle of the night to confirm if she was in.

 

warning phone call

Recalling the events that landed him in police cells, the teacher said after a long wait in his house, he armed himself with half a litre of kerosene and went in search of his loved one.

He tiptoed to her house in the darkness and after putting his ear to the wall for sometime, he realised that she was not home.

This angered him because he suspected that she had gone with another man. That is when he phoned to warn that her house would soon be on fire.

The teacher then forced his way into the house through the window and after putting on the lights, he sprinkled kerosene all over intent on setting it ablaze.

“My conscience, however, would not allow me to strike the matchbox that I was holding in my hands. On second thought I decided I could not do such a thing to someone I loved so much,” he told a senior police officer while pleading for leniency.

The teacher said instead he woke up the girl’s sister, who is a neighbour, for advice.

But the loud conversation between the two woke up neighbours who upon hearing his story threatened to teach him a lesson for disrupting their sleep.

The neighbours set upon him with kicks and blows. His efforts to escape their wrath proved futile when the mob caught up with him in his house.

 

stopped working

A neighbour who went to his rescue called the police on his mobile phone and the teacher was rescued from the angry mob.

The barmaid, however, maintains that their relationship had ended and she did not understand why the man was still after her.

“We were lovers for nearly a year and he promised to marry me but he failed to ensure I stopped working at the bar as we had agreed,” she told the police.

source.standard.ke