Kenya: ODM leaders accused by a Kisii councillor of ordering killings after Raila lost the presidential elections

This calls for a thorough investigation and any leader found to be involved should loose the parliamentary seat and face the courts. It may now come to pass as the truth, what the councillor is saying, because one wonders why many ODM leaders have been voicing their voices calling for the release of those in custody for having killed people. It now seems that some ODM leaders want a quick release of these people so that they do not reveal anything on who may have ordered them to kill and burn houses and churches belonging to those they did not agree with politically. API

DO says last year’s polls were rigged

Story by DAVE OPIYO and ANGWENYI GICHANA

A District Officer Thursday said last year’s General Election was rigged in favour of certain candidates in the expansive Kisii district.

Mr Charles Wambugu, the Kisii South District Officer One said Thursday that some voters were issued with more than two ballot papers, especially the Presidential ones, “in a scheme done with the full knowledge of Electoral Commission of Kenya officials.’’

He told the Independent Review Commission chaired by retired judge Johann Kriegler, that minors were allowed to vote using the identities of those who had died in order to increase the votes of particular candidates.

Mr Wambugu, the Kisii South District Officer One, said some Returning Officers in certain constituencies were notified of the plan in advance with strict orders to turn a blind eye to it.

Said Mr Wambugu, “This information was confided to me by one of the Presiding Officers who was actually involved in the ploy. It was quite embarrassing.”

Voters cards

He added, “Many people under the age of 18 were allowed to vote by the ECK officials using the identity and voters cards of those who had died several years ago. It was quite unfair because it gave certain candidates a head-start over their rivals.”

Mr Wambugu, while presenting his submissions said these revelations really put to question the integrity of the officials being hired by the election’s watchdog especially in the grassroots.

The provincial administrator said some of the polling clerks might have been compromised to allow some voters to be issued with excess ballot papers.

Said Mr Wambugu: “The polling clerks are paid very little money. They are vulnerable to being compromised.”

He said the number of security officials who were  enforcing the law at polling centres were not enough.

Many a time, he said, these individuals, who were also not well armed, were overpowered by the voters.

“The government needs to mobilise all security personnel to provide adequate security to all polling centres to deter a repeat of violence in such areas,” he said.

Electoral process

At the hearings held at the Gusii County Council hall, another resident, Mr Kingsley Nyangena said some electoral officials in Kisii district did not provide or allow agents to fix their seals in the ballot boxes or allow them to retain copies of form 16 A containing declaration of the election results of a polling station.

‘‘They did not allow party agents to sign the relevant forms so as to enable them make alterations of results delivered to tallying centres.

“Many ballot boxes were delivered unsealed and were being sealed at the tallying room without any witness agent,” said Mr Nyangena.

He added: “This means that a lot of alterations took place. I tried to raise the issue but the returning officer turned down my protest. What conclusion do you think one can make, they were compromised.’’

The residents also blamed the violence that followed the release of the Presidential poll results to incitement by politicians.

They accused ODM of being behind the spate of violence that saw more than 1,000 people killed and 350,000 others displaced.

“Some of their politicians incited the youth to create violence after their candidate was not declared the President,” said Councillor Kepha Mogaka.

His sentiments were echoed by those of Mr Nyandugo Omambia who said tribal politics played out prominently during the campaigns.

Were threatened

Another councillor, Mrs Redemptor Monchari, said due to this, most polling agents representing the Party of National Unity were not allowed into voting halls as they were perceived to be traitors.

“That is why some of the votes cast could not be verified in the province since the PNU agents were threatened if they dared venture into the hall.”

Former nominated MP, Catherine Nyamato said a new constitution should be enacted which will strengthen such institutions like the Electoral Commission of Kenya to be effective in their duties.

Mrs Nyamato said ECK laws did not provide for the verification of signatures for those signing such forms like 16A thereby leaving this to open abuse.

Thursday’s hearings in Kisii were chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, the chair of the commission. He was accompanied by commissioners Lucy Kambuni and Francis Angila.

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API#source,nation. ke

Conference on child labour and abuse

The world wide concern about Child labour and issues of child soldiers; it’s impact on the fate of growing population of the Third world nations has risen to unprecedented levels in the last few years. This explosion of information on Child Abuse has made all of us much more aware of what is happening. But, the sheer magnitude of it can also be overwhelming. We often ask ourselves, in spite of all the media are we really certain about what we need to know and is there anything we as average citizens can do about it? Join us on 2nd till 5th of September,2008, as we learn the answers to those two important questions,

What Do We Know?
What Can We Do?

We aspire to:
1) To tackle this scourge of Child Labour and Soldier
2) Lobby the UK Government to apply sanctions to Countries that allow this menace.
3) Establish relationship between Groups, NGO’s and Individuals that
fight against this scourge
4) To empower bright youths of the third world by providing better life for them

The conference would be held at:
Hyde Park Motel
Station Road,
East Tisted,
Near Alton,
Hampshire, GU34 3QP
Date: 2nd till 5th of September,2008

IHDO has set up an Access Fund to support the travel costs and all-round air fare cost for participants who are unable to raise sufficient funds on their own. All participants, however will be expected to fund raise for their hotel bills in the UK, which will not be waived. To qualify for the access grant, delegates would be expected to write a motivation letter to the conference chair person, explaining
why they feel they are eligible for the access grant.Fax your application to +448715034581. Also, contact email:jeffry_robert@yahoo.com for more information on your registration/Call for Papers. On behalf of the conference organizing committee it is my great pleasure to invite you to contribute to the “International Conference On Child Labour 2008”

Compliments of the Season,

,,,,,,,,,
Volunteer
IHDO

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API

Guys, how true is this, please can some one shed some light.

BY  Victor Simwa,

CFCLife P.O Box 30364,

00100, Nairobi. 2866000

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From: Zipporah Nganga [mailto:Zipporah.Nganga@crbafrica.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 3:44 PM
Subject: For all ladies out there.. 

For your info.  

A young lady was raped by a man posing as a plain clothes officer; he asked her to come to the police station when she and her male friend didn’t have a driver’s license to show. He sent the boy off to get his license and asked the girl to accompany him to the police station. Took her instead to an isolated area where the horrendous crime was committed.

The law clearly states that between 6 pm and 6am, a woman has the right to REFUSE to go to the Police Station, even if an arrest warrant has been issued against her. It is a procedural issue that a woman can be arrested between 6pm and 6 am, ONLY if she is arrested by a woman officer and taken to an ALL WOMEN police station. And if she is arrested by a male officer, it has to be proven that a woman officer was on duty at the time of arrest. 

It is good for us to know our rights. To what extent it comes of use remains to be seen in any situation.

Pls forward it to as many girls as possible and the boys who need to know the rights of their girls, while out there.

Sarah Kimani |Administrative Assistant| The Kenya Institute of Management |Management Centre, Off Mombasa Road, Belle Vue, South C *: 43706 00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya| (: +254 20 3569117/3569104/2361160  | (: (fax) +254 20 607268| |sarah@kim.ac.ke | www.kim.ac.ke 

 

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API

What should cost more, water or a K Street prostitute?

Story by CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO

 

A FEW DAYS AGO, I WAS INvolved in a small United Nation’s event somewhere in Gigiri.

There, an expert made an eye-opening presentation on the present global food crisis.

There was a big global food crisis 50 years ago, he said. “How do 2008 food prices compare to 50 years ago?” he asked.

The room was stumped. Well, he said, current food prices have risen five times more than they did in 1958.

The combination of international food prices and their local knock-on effects, he said, means the poor – who already spend 75 per cent of their income on food – are spending 26 per cent more.

Effectively, they are now spending all their income to feed themselves and their families.

About 2.2 million children die annually in poor countries due to malnutrition, he reported.

That figure, however,  is “good news” because it reflects a considerable reduction over the decades.

There was notable reduction in child malnutrition between 1970 and 1995. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t happen because there was more food produced.

The improvement in women’s education accounted for the highest contribution to the reduction – 43 per cent.

Per capita food availability came in a distant second, for it contributed to 26 per cent of the reduction.

Even more startling, health environment improvements contributed only 19 per cent.

In fourth place was the improvement in the status of women relative to men. It contributed 12 per cent.

Therefore, you might conclude, educating women and giving them better opportunities in life, and treating them equally, reduced the number of children who died of malnutrition by a whopping 61 per cent.

That, though, will be in the future. For now, the combination of high fuel and food prices is fanning unrest, with East Africa witnessing protests in Mogadishu and Nairobi.

On Tuesday, Kenya’s Agriculture minister, William Ruto made one of the scariest comments since the post-election violence ended.

He said that this year, the growth of Kenya’s population finally outstripped food production.

Generally, the people who think more deeply about the world argue that if humankind is to avoid catastrophe, it must change the way it is consuming, especially, perishable or limited resources like fossil fuels and land, which have now been joined by water, and food.We went out to the market and randomly checked prices of some essential good, and sure we found that we have got our values all wrong.

CONSIDER THE AVERAGE PRICES of the things that are essential for life and economic survival:
(i) Litre of milk – Sh70.
(ii) Litre of fuel – Sh100.
(iii) Kilo of tomatoes – Sh99
(iv) Kilo of sugar – Sh75
(v) Kilo of unga – Sh74
(vi) Loaf of bread – Sh37
(vii) Mineral water 500ml – Sh 9.50
(viii) Half a litre of tap water -50 cents, or Sh1 if you are buying it from a pipe in the slums.
(ix) Cost of a newspaper – Sh35.

We checked with the list of luxury, leisure, and things that we wouldn’t die if we went without.

(i) The alleged average cost of  an “experience” with a prostitute on K Street – Sh2,000.
(ii) Cinema ticket – Sh200 to Sh 470 in the upmarket movie theatres.
(iii) A tot of good whisky – Sh120 [a litre would be about Sh1,000]
(iv) Cost of nightclub entrance – Sh150- Sh300.
(v) Cup of coffee at a fashionable café or restaurant – Sh100.

The point has been made. Men will pay Sh2,000 for an hour with a Koinange Street prostitute, but they are already complaining that Sh100 for the far more precious litre of fuel, and 50 cents for tap water are  “too much”.

We pay Sh470 for a ticket to watch a movie, but scream when a kilo of maize flour goes for only 15 per cent of that.

Folks will pay Sh1,000 for a litre of whisky, but would cut out the milk for their children if it went to Sh80 a litre.

Indeed at Sh70 a litre, the price is already considered “too much”.

And on this, the working and middle classes are not very different. The poor-paid chap in Kibera who spends Sh500 on chang’aa, would never touch sugar if it went to Sh80 a kilo.

If you increased the cost of a litre of tap water to Sh25, most of the fellows who are happily drinking beer at Sh110 will be out on the streets doing battle with police.

There are very many poor people who have no expenditure discretion, but the world would be a much safer place and our future better secured if, philosophically, we came to accept that fuel and milk deserve to cost more than whisky.

And that tap water is more precious than a short frolic with a prostitute, and should cost more.

Until the world makes that mental shift, there will always be food shortages, and fuel prices will continue rising.

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API*SOURCE.NATION.KE

Libyan leader to visit Togo this weekend

The guide of the Libyan revolution, Muammar Qaddafi, is expected this weekend in Togo for an official visit, diplomatic sources told APA.

The Jamahirya leader will be welcomed in Kara at, about 430 kilometres from Lome before going on to the capital by road, the source said.

He will make stops in some big Togolese cities including Sokode which has the biggest Muslim community of the country.

In Lome, Muammar Qaddafi will pitch his tent on the esplanade of the convention centre located at the city cnentre.

On Monday, he will head to Benin to attend the summit of the heads of state and governments of the Sahel Saharan Community (CEN-SAD) from 17-18 June in Cotonou.

The last visit of Muammar Qaddafi to Togo dates back to July 2000 for the summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now the African Union (AU).

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api#source.apa

Egypt calls on Eritrea and Djibouti to give chance to regional mediation efforts

Egypt expressed its deep concern with the renewed military confrontations between Djibouti and Eritrea in their common border areas.

On Thursday, Egypt demanded that both Eritrea and Djibouti to exercise restraint and resort to reason in order to avoid bringing the region to further tension and instability.

According to Ambassador Hossam Zaki, spokesman of the Egyptian Foreign ministry on Thursday, the Egyptian government has appealed to both the Eritrean and Djibouti sides to give opportunity “for the mediation efforts at regional and international level” to contain the situation and restore normal relations between the two neighbours as soon as possible.

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api#source,apa

Politics of distrust pulls 650 observers monitor poll in Ainamoi

Story by WALTER MENYA and SOLLO KIRAGU

Some 650 observers monitored the Ainamoi by-election — one of the closely watched polls in the country.

The Institute of Education in Democracy topped the list of the Electoral Commission of Kenya-accredited observers with 119, one in each polling station in addition to its director and chief executive officer.

Other observer organisations included the American and Finnish embassies, the Canadian high commission and a host of local and international human rights bodies.

“We are very happy with the observer turnout in this by-election,” said the Kericho district elections coordinator, Ms Catherine Lang’at.

Redeem image

ECK is seeking to redeem its image in the by-elections after the disputed December 27, 2007, General Election.

The by-elections were held Wednesday in Ainamoi, Wajir North, Embakasi, Kilgoris and Emuhaya.

The observers expressed satisfaction with the voting in Ainamoi and said they were anticipating a free and fair process.

They called on the candidates to accept the outcome.

Ms Lang’at regretted the low voter turnout, blaming it on poor weather conditions and the Tuesday deaths of two MPs from the region.

Meanwhile, workers in tea estates in the area failed to vote after their employers refused to give them time off.

Most of them remained in the farms and factories conducting business as usual.

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pi source.nation.ke

Passaris, ODM darling cries wolfy, not conceding defeat saying elections rigged curtailing her ambitions, “even with tighs up” to become honourable

ODM clinches 3 seats in by-elections, PNU takes 2

Published on June 12, 2008, 12:00 am

   

By Standard Team

 ODM has won three parliamentary seats as its rival-cum-partner Party of National Unity ran away with two in the just-concluded by-elections.

The Wednesday polls were largely peaceful although armed police kept vigil at various tallying centres.

ODM clinched Ainamoi, Wajir North and Emuhaya constituencies while PNU won the Kilgoris and Embakasi.

ODM’s Benjamin Langat is the new MP for Ainamoi taking over from his late brother David Kimutai Too. Langat got 17,276 votes to beat UDM’s Dr Paul Chepkwony who managed 16,266 in the hotly contested by-election.

Langat, 42, is former accountant with the Kenya Tea Development Authority.

The victory was sweet music to ODM party, which had been accused by the UDM campaign team of imposing Langat on the constituents to inherit his late brother’s seat.

From Left: Wilbur Otichilo ODM- Emuhaya, Benjamin Langat ODM – Ainamoi and Mohamed Gabow ODM -Wajir North

Analysts had predicted that ODM would lose the seat to the UDM’ Chepkwony who had controversially lost in the party nominations.

 

Former minister re-elected

In Kilgoris, former Immigration Minister, Mr Gideon Konchellah, returns to parliament on a PNU ticket having beaten his ODM rival, Mr Johana Ng’eno by more than 7,000 votes.

Konchellah garnered 33,440 votes and Nge’no managed 26,088. Politicians whipped up ethnic consciousness during the campaigns where the predominantly Maasai community accused the Kipsigis, considered “foreigners” in the area, of attempting to take over leadership in the one district constituency.

In Emuhaya, Wilbur Otichilo of ODM got 10,947 beating Kaddu’s Julius Ochiel, who managed 8,488 votes as Narc-Kenya candidate Prof Norah Olembo came third.

Mohamed Gabow becomes the new MP for Wajir North on an ODM ticket after garnering 5,759 votes to beat Dr Abdulahi Ali of KANU who got 4, 729 votes in the hotly contested polls.

PNU’s Ferdinand Waititu won the Embakasi with 36, 536 votes against his closest challenger ODM’s Ms Esther Passaris who had 27, 339.

Kalembe Ndile of the Independent Party (Tip) garnered a partly 843 votes.

The seat was a boost for PNU as it added its membership in the House to 45 after another victory in Kilgoris. 

Ferdinand Waititu PNU- Embakasi and Gideon Konchellah PNU- Kilgoris

An elated Waititu thanked the voters and assured them of his commitment to ensure that the promises he made will be fulfilled.

 However, Passaris refused to concede defeat and termed the exercise a “rigged vote”.

“Why has the presiding officer not responded to our concerns we raised the previous night? There were open malpractices, where people voted more than twice in full glare of the ECK officers. ECK should come clear and make it known whether they rigged the election in favour of PNU,” said Passaris. 

Kalembe Ndile left the venue shortly after the announcement, saying that the people had lost a chance to be represented by a “true” servant of the people.

 

“Do not celebrate yet for your concerns have not been addressed. You have missed to be represented by a humble leader who was keen on serving you. I was the Biblical Moses who was to deliver you from bondage,” he said.

The by-elections were to fill seats where two ODM legislators, Mugabe Were of Embakasi and Kimutai Too of Ainamoi, were shot dead and another two constituencies that were undeclared in the chaotic December 2007 polls.

The fifth seat, Emuhaya, was represented by Speaker of the National Assembly, Kenneth Marende, who resigned after being elected to serve the House.

 

—Stories by Stephen Ndegwa, Maseme Machuka and James Ratemo

 

 

 

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api, source.standard.ke-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man dies after attack

12/06/2008 12:07

LONDON (Reuters) – A man has died after he was assaulted in a supermarket in southwest London, police said on Thursday.

The 57-year-old suffered a head injury during the incident at the Sainsbury’s store in Collier’s Wood, Merton on Tuesday evening.

Media reports said the confrontation erupted after a row about queue-jumping.

He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died late on Wednesday night.

Detectives had already charged Tony Virasami, 37, with causing grievous bodily harm and he is due to appear at Wimbledon magistrates court later on Thursday.

However a police spokesman said it was likely the matter would now be treated as a murder investigation.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)

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api.source.uknews