Thursday, February 21, 2008
Kenyan Community in Canada in Action for Kenya
KENYA: PEACE, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION
PRESS RELEASE
Ottawa, February 16, 2008
Concerned Kenyan-Canadians living in the National Capital Region along with African and Canadian friends of Kenya are rallying today with three main objectives: to demonstrate our solidarity with the people of Kenya at a time of suffering and social instability; to support the on-going negotiations and call for peace, reconciliation and justice; and finally to recognize humanitarian assistance offered so far by Canadians to victims of violence and displacement while urging continuing and increased humanitarian support to those impacted by the fighting.
Launch of Emergency Volunteer Scheme for Kenya
What: Launch of Emergency Volunteer Scheme for Kenya
When and Where:
Nairobi East - Friday 22nd 2008; Tom Mboya Grounds, 10:00am – 1:00pm
Nairobi West - Saturday 23rd 2008; Kibera Grounds; 10:00am – 1:00pm
Nairobi North - Monday 25th 2008; Lions Clinic Huruma; 10:00am – 1:00pm
Volunteer for peace and development, Volunteer for a peaceful neighborhood!
The volunteering scheme approach for Kenya plans to tap the energy of the influential persons, retired professionals and youth leaders to bring about positive change, instill a sense of responsibility and equip them with necessary tools to initiate reconciliation amongst their affected neighbourhoods. Through emphasis on the need for restoration of trust and building social cohesion - it endeavours to promote ownership of the healing process, reconciliation and peace rebuilding.
MoreKenya’s Nobel winner Maathai receives death threats
Kenya’s Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai said on Wednesday she has received death threats since urging tribal elders to help stop ethnic killings following a disputed December 27 presidential election. Maathai, a lauded environmentalist and veteran of the Kenyan civil rights movement, said she reported the matter to police after getting three text messages on her telephone on Tuesday.
“Because of your opposing the government at all times ... we have decided to look for your head very soon,” said one of the messages she read to reporters. She urged the government to restore bodyguards whom she says it recently recalled. Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her environmental work, was one of several big names to lose their seats in parliamentary elections also held on December 27. She is the latest of several civil rights activists—including Maina Kiai, head of the government-funded National Commission on Human Rights—to receive death threats during Kenya’s political crisis.
Group roots for new law
The civil society is calling for an interim constitution to pull the country out of the current political crisis. Once the interim constitution is put in place, it will oversee a complete overhaul of the current constitution, bringing in new institutions of governance, civil society members representing 160 lobby groups said Wednesday in a press conference in Nairobi under the auspices of the National Civil Society Congress (NCSC).
Annan’s team in crucial talks over PM’s role
Government and ODM negotiators in the Kofi Annan-led talks were Wednesday evening on the verge of reaching agreement on the creation of a prime minister’s post. But they were yet to agree on exactly what powers and responsibilities the holder of the office should have. Although the details of the position were yet to be worked out, it heralded the beginning of softening of hard-line positions that the two sides have taken since former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan embarked on the mediation process on January 29.
Sources close to the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee, which Mr Annan chairs, revealed that both Government and ODM sides had agreed on the need to create the premier’s post as part of the political settlement. It is understood that the resolution was made by the four-member working group of the mediation team appointed on Tuesday to explore the options of governance structures that could be acceptable to both sides.
Media shrugs off ban threat
The media fraternity Wednesday reacted sharply to threats by the Government to disband the Media Council of Kenya. This follows their move to establish a taskforce to audit how media houses covered last year’s general elections and the subsequent violence. The council’s taskforce is chaired by Mr Peter Mutie of the Public Relations Society of Kenya with Mr Hiram Mucheke of the Kenya Institute of Mass Communications, Dr Levi Obonyo, a university lecturer and the director of Information, Mr Ezekiel Mutua, as members.
Civil society rejects power sharing
Civil society groups want an interim constitution providing for a transitional Government enacted. The 160 NGOs on Wednesday said power sharing would not be a panacea to the political impasse, and called on Parliament to amend the Constitution. At a meeting at the Centre for Multiparty Democracy offices, Nairobi, the NGOs called for the overhaul of Parliament to pave way for a Senate that would devolve power and annul judicial and electoral laws.
Kibaki tells opposition not to dictate solutions
President Kibaki met the Government Coalition Parliamentary Group and declared that there was no constitutional vacuum. The President at the same time warned against inciting Kenyans into acts that could derail the peace talks and told the Opposition not to dictate solutions. “This is not the time to dictate solutions, but to reason together so that we can find short and long term sustainable solutions to the challenges we face,’’ said Kibaki at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
ODM MPs threaten mass action over talks
The ODM Parliamentary Group has demanded that Parliament be summoned in one week to amend the Constitution to implement the mediation talks’ proposals. The more than 90 MPs warned on Wednesday that if that did not happen, ODM would call for peaceful mass action. The party dismissed PNU’s call that mediation proposals must be constitutional as a ploy to delay decisions.
MoreChina has proved it’s not a friend to count on
Outsiders — only in the literal sense since the world is now a global village — got embedded in the Kenya tragedy after ballots became bullets. In the face of causeless and atavistic bloodletting, irresponsible display of State might, misplaced aggression, retrogressive exhibition of prejudice and agile protesters, only irresponsible outsiders would have cheered, while proclaiming non-interference. China is one such prisoner of indifference. China is a ‘development partner’ no country should count on to take a position on the side of reason.
East African Standard comment
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Council of the European Union Conclusions on Kenya
2851st EXTERNAL RELATIONS Council meeting Brussels,
18 February 2008
The Council adopted the following conclusions:
1. The Council expresses its deep concern that the violence, uncertainty and instability in Kenya continue.
2. The Council reiterates the urgent need for Kenya’s leaders to engage seriously and flexibly in order to bring an immediate end to the violence and to ensure security, stability and the protection of human rights for all in Kenya. The Council calls on the Kenyan parties to engage constructively in a genuine spirit of compromise in order to find a legitimate political settlement.
3. The Council strongly supports the efforts by the Panel of Eminent African Personalities, led by Mr. Kofi Annan, and stands ready to provide any further assistance it can to this process.
The Council reiterates the necessity for the International Community to stand united behind the dialogue process chaired by Mr. Annan. The Council will monitor this process closely.
Individuals who obstruct the dialogue process or who encourage violence will have to face the consequences.
4. The Council welcomes the agreement between the Kenyan parties on 1st February to take immediate steps to end the crisis. It is encouraging that the parties plan to address the long term issues as well as the short term ones. The Council welcomes the intention by the Kenyan parties to establish a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission aimed at bringing about debate and consensus on how Kenya should address the root causes of the crisis.
5. The Council welcomes the response by the United Nations to events in Kenya, both politically and in support of the affected civilian population.
6. The Council welcomes the agreement by all parties to an international investigation into the violence since the elections and calls for further co-operation by the Kenyan authorities with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide of the Secretary General of the UN.
7. The Council reiterates that until a legitimate political settlement is agreed, the EU and its Member States cannot conduct business as usual with Kenya. The Council will continue to closely monitor the situation in Kenya and support all efforts towards ending the violence and ensuring democracy, stability and respect for human rights.
SMS used as a tool of hate
When Joyce Mandela’s cellphone beeped to signal she had a SMS, the 27-year old Kenyan expected a note from a friend. Instead, she found a message of hate. “If your neighbour is a Kikuyu, just kick him or her out of that house. No one is going to ask you anything,” the SMS read. “You don’t know who is sending them, you don’t know how they got your number,” said Mandela, leaning against a lush fruit tree surrounded by squalid tents in this refugee camp next to one of the capital’s sprawling slums.
MoreTuesday, February 19, 2008
ODM wants ECK disbanded
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has demanded that a new team be appointed at the Electoral Commission of Kenya before the pending by-elections are held. Party leaders Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi and Najib Blala said that the commission was to blame for the chaos that has rocked the country and that voters had lost faith in it following what they (the leaders) called its mishandling of the disputed December 2007 elections. Said Mr Balala: “The ECK team should resign so that its officials are investigated.” Mr Odinga also demanded that the current commissioners ‘‘should not organise or supervise any of the forthcoming by-elections.’’ The leaders were addressing thousands of mourners who turned up for Embakasi MP Melitus Were’s burial in Budalangi at which one of the MP’s widows was barred from viewing her husband’s remains.
Nigerian diplomat jets in as peace talks resume
Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji from Nigeria is expected to arrive today to assist former UN chief Kofi Annan in the mediation efforts. Mr Adeniji is a former Nigerian minister and UN official. And Government and ODM negotiators yesterday held an informal meeting to prepare for the official resumption of the mediation talks today.
Government representatives, Cabinet ministers Martha Karua, Sam Ongeri and Moses Wetangula, and MP Mutula Kilonzo met ODM’s Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto, James Orengo and Sally Kosgei in the absence of Mr Annan. And the African chapter of the Human Rights Watch has said a political agreement in Kenya was a step forward, but politicians must take immediate steps to ensure accountability for human rights violations for further negotiations to build lasting stability.
Reforms could see the return of powerful PM
The executive Prime Minister’s office, abolished on December 12, 1964 when Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya’s first President, is now inevitable if a political settlement out of the impasse is to be reached, The Standard has learnt. It is understood to be behind the inordinate delay in striking a deal because of its far-reaching political implications. Sources say it is also the reason for the unrelenting pressure by the international community backing power sharing “as it’s the most viable option in such an arrangement”. “We can make the amendments to make the fundamental changes in order to achieve a political settlement,” Mr Raila Odinga, the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) said last night.