Monday, February 25, 2008
News Roundup 25 February 2008
Taskforce to Assess Damage in Kisumu
A task force has been set up to evaluate the damage in Kisumu town, caused by the post-election violence.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250505.html
Rise And Fall of Country’s Democracy
Regarded as a beacon of hope and democracy, the world is struggling to come to terms with events in Kenya.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250504.html
Power Deal Must Cater for National Interests
Since the 1990s, Kenyans have yearned for a new constitutional order for people to participate and enhance human resource development.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250435.html
Nakuru Park Catches Fire
Lake Nakuru National Park was on verge of total destruction Friday as a wild fire, which broke out on Thursday, continued unabated for the second day.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250441.html
Kenya at Crossroads
THE Kenya government has agreed in principle to create a prime minister’s office, raising hopes for a government of national unity. Both sides are yet to agree on what powers it will hold.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250574.html
Group Warns of Looming Crisis
Chief mediator Kofi Annan should not let the Government and the Opposition postpone the tough details of a power-sharing agreement as this could see the country plunge into a fresh wave of violence, the International Crisis Group warns.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250444.html
Githongo - Corruption to Blame
Grand corruption could have played a key role in last year’s discredited General Election, a former anti-corruption czar has said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250506.html\
Athletes Threaten to Boycott National Duty
Kenyan athletes have threatened not to represent the country in any competition citing security concerns following allegations that they bankrolled ethnic clashes in the vast Rift Valley triggered by the disputed presidential election results.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250437.html
KENYA: Nowhere to go
Source: IRIN More than 10,000 displaced people, who have moved to their “ancestral lands” in western Kenya to escape ethnic violence, face an uncertain future in what is, for many, a foreign country.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/c4dfed2e3af07134e5aec0aaab80e4e8.htm
Kenya: Power Deal Must Cater for National Interests
Since the 1990s, Kenyans have yearned for a new constitutional order for people to participate and enhance human resource development.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250435.html
Kenya: Opposition Cries Foul as Passaris Axed
The much expected nomination of the Adopt-A-Light proprietor, Ms Esther Passaris, as a councillor in Nairobi was dealt a body blow when her name went missing from a list gazetted by Local Government minister Uhuru Kenyatta.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250321.html
Kenya: Meeting of Kibaki With His Team Delays Annan Talks
President Kibaki held a meeting with the Government team of negotiators Friday morning, delaying mediation talks being chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250328.html
News.Life In Displacement Camp In Kisumu
02/25/08
BY Jeff Otieno Kisumu City
Post election violence in Kenya has resulted into various problems among the most notable one is the internally displaced people who live in camps for fear of attacks from their aggressors.
Entrenched animosity seems to have taken centre stage among various communities who have co-existed for ages as brothers and sisters and [...]
http://www.publiceyesite.org/blog/?p=1836
Kenya: Whether We Like It Or Not, the U.S. Must Undo the Gordian Knot
In the third century, Greek and Persian empires shared the then known world and enjoyed complete duopoly of military and economic power.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250265.html
Kenya: This Insatiable Lust for Land Must End
As we engage in political acrobatics at the House of Peace with Mr Kofi Annan and his team, a few unscrupulous people are subverting the public interest.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250264.html
Kenya: There is No Such Thing as Reigns of State
A recent Nation piece urged President Kibaki to share “the reigns of state” with Raila Odinga. But - as the Shakespearean asks in King Henry IV Part I - “Can England brook a double reign” (between Harry Monmouth and Harry Hotspur)?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250271.html
Kenya: Githongo Tells of Fights With Ministers
Former anti-corruption tsar John Githongo has talked of how he differed with Cabinet ministers appointed by President Kibaki on the best way to fight corruption when the Narc Government came to power.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250262.html
Kenya: Current Doublespeak Has a Vital Message for Citizens
Doublespeak is when one says what one does not mean and when one does not mean what one says. And silence can be doublespeak.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250269.html
Kenya Consults Kagame Over Power-Sharing Tips
President Kenya’s Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka yesterday met with President Paul Kagame as the East African nation continues to search for a solution to the post-election crisis there.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250151.html
Kenya - Odinga in Lagos, Gives Conditions for Peace
Kenya opposition leader, Raila Odinga yesterday said he was ready for a power sharing arrangement in the government of President Mwai Kibaki.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250153.html
Here’s How to Deal With the Feeling of Trauma After Post-Poll Violence
Since the December 27 elections, people all over the world have either read newspaper articles or watched images on television of Kenyans who have been brutalised, killed or displaced from their homes. Official estimates put the death toll at 1,000 and 400,000 displaced.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250090.html
Kenyan political foes resume crisis talks
Kenyan leaders were due on Monday to resume power-sharing talks to end the political crisis in the East African state that has sparked violence which has claimed more than 1 000 lives. The negotiations on a power-sharing deal have stalled on the term and powers of a would-be prime minister, a position that currently does not exist.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=333205&referrer=RSS
What a Prime Minister Might - And Might Not - Do
A fifth week of talks to end Kenya’s violent election dispute is scheduled to begin Monday, with the extent of power to be exercised by a new prime minister one of the key items on the agenda.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250002.html
Fresh Urgency as Talks Resume
The talks must now assume a serious sense of urgency and conclude a political settlement within this week, mediators were told on a day Party of National Unity (PNU) threw another tantrum over the ongoing mediation.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250007.html
Fresh Dispute Over Prime Minister Deal
The Government and ODM Sunday differed over the number of concessions made so far in the talks aimed at ending the post-election political crisis.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250009.html
For Kenya’s Human Rights Chairman, an Environment of Fear
Threats Shadow Critic of Election And Its Aftermath
It was a telephone call that drove home Maina Kiai’s worst nightmare.
Kiai, the head of Kenya’s National Commission on Human Rights, had appeared on television during a dinner party in January in one of Nairobi’s wealthy neighborhoods. Since the disputed presidential elections the previous month, he had been denouncing rights violations by all factions in Kenya, highlighting in particular the government’s alleged meddling in the vote and police brutality.
“This man has a few more days to live,” a former government minister attending the party told the guests, according to a person who was there.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/24/AR2008022402050.html?nav=rss_world
Odinga Presses Obasanjo to Act on Kenya
Nigeria may have been urged to quietly join the efforts to return peace to Kenya.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802240001.html