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Pambazuka News Editors

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/38120

FEATURE: In the second of a three part series, Ike Okonta analyses how MEND has transformed the image of Niger Delta communities from hapless victims to an assertive political bloc.
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Rafael Marques argues that Angola is undergoing a process of commercialization as a substitute to democratization.
- Emman Ozoemena wonders if there are lessons to be learnt from the American experience in managing an open political field.
LETTERS: Readers respond to recent articles.
PAN AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem bids farewell to Dr Wanjiru Kihoro.
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Registration announcement
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Links to news on Sudan, Somalia, Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda
HUMAN RIGHTS: Zim government intensifies crackdown on dissent
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women in the new millennium
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Q/A: Internally displaced people
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: From votes to security
DEVELOPMENT: Development indicators improve in Africa
CORRUPTION: Corrupting the fight against corruption
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: AIDS campaign induces behaviour change
EDUCATION: School fees and HIV/AIDS
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Xenophobia and the East African federation
ENVIRONMENT: Programmes to combat climate change
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: San communal lands contested
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: MONUC press preview
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: The return of the bell curve
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: UNICEF launches online Swahili game to boost HIV prevention
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.

MEND: Anatomy Of A Peoples’ Militia

Ike Okonta

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/38119

This week, four Scottish oil workers returned to Britain after being seized from an Exxon Mobil compound in the Niger Delta by gunmen seeking a £21m ransom. Earlier this year, local militants stormed a Royal Dutch Shell facility, prompting the oil giant to pull out hundreds of workers and close down wells. Ike Okonta looks at the structure and origins of one of the militias based in the area. He argues that the MEND militia is not an organisation in the formal sense of the word, but an idea, underlying the slew of youth movements that began to proliferate in the Niger Delta in the late 1980s. This article is the second part of a three-part series. The first article, entitled ‘Niger Delta, Behind The Mask’ (www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/38005 was published last week.


The first thing that strikes you on meeting members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) militia is the ease with which they move about in Warri metropolis, and also in the creek villages, indicating clearly that they are amongst people who not only identify with their cause but also go out of their way to offer them protection and safe havens during attacks by Nigerian soldiers. However, their movements are constrained by the ever-prowling soldiers.

The second thing you notice is that the militants, or the ones elected by the others to respond to your questions, are articulate, well-educated, and conversant with latest political developments in Nigeria and other parts of the world. The introductory encounter took place in a hotel room in Warri. The author had sent word in advance that he would be arriving that Thursday afternoon, and would like to interview one or two leaders of MEND. His courier, a local journalist, said he would try to arrange the interview, but that he was not giving any firm promises as getting hold of MEND leaders would be dependent on the level of Nigerian military presence in Warri that week.

MEND leaders are constantly on the move, extremely cautious, and do not take telephone calls personally, aware of the fact that the soldiers hunting for them have electronic devices capable of pinpointing mobile phone signals with accuracy. The author was in luck. He arrived in Warri when the peace process, initiated by FNDIC leaders, Oronto Douglas, the lawyer and environmental activist, and other Ijaw leaders, was still plodding on, and the Obasanjo government appeared willing to restrain the soldiers for the negotiations to be concluded. A knock sounded on the door of his hotel room and he opened the door. A young man, casually dressed in blue jeans and shirt sleeves stood there smiling.

‘Are you the MEND leader?’ the author asked, surprised. The media images beamed out to the world by the local subsidiaries of the international news wires always depicts MEND fighters as muscular masked men, clutching Kalashnikovs and adopting belligerent postures, as though ready to fire at the slightest provocation.

‘But exactly what do you understand by MEND?’ he countered. ‘There is no such thing as MEND. What I do know is that there are armed youth in the creeks who say they have had enough of the oil companies’ double standards, and are determined to put to an end the exploitation of their people by Shell, Chevron and the Federal Government.’[1]

MEND is not an ‘organisation’ in the formal sense of the word. It is an idea, a general principle underlying the slew of communal, civic and youth movements that began to proliferate in the Niger Delta, and particularly in the Ijaw-speaking areas, in the wake of General Babangida’s failed adjustment policies in the late 1980s.

The country had been run by a succession of authoritarian and corrupt governments since the end of the civil war in 1970, the tragic apogee of which was the Babangida junta. The ensuing economic hardships, the government’s apparent inability to address this crisis, and its refusal to provide a civic and political framework in which oppressed citizens could air their grievances and seek remedy began to encourage a drift towards religious, ethnic, and irredentist organisations. The Ken Saro-Wiwa inspired Movement of the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), which emerged in 1990, and the Ijaw National Congress, born in Port Harcourt a year later, have their genesis in this turbulent economic and political milieu.

These organisations pursued such civic goals as the end to military rule and the return of democratic civilian government, the creation of new states in ethnic minority areas, and an increase in their share of oil receipts. They utilised non-violent protest marches, advocacy in the mass media, petitions addressed to the government, and awareness-building seminars to press their case. However, as economic conditions worsened country-wide and election results were annulled by Babangida in mid 1993, a wave of anger and desperation began to spread among youth in such cities as Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Warri and Onitsha.

Militant youth organisations such as Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Arewa Peoples Congress (APC) and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) emerged in this period. These were communal organisations that drew their membership from the Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo ethnic groups respectively. OPC and MASSOB wanted dissolution of the Federation, which they said should be replaced with new independent countries based in the various ethnic groups. APC, on the other hand, called for perpetuation of the status quo, but under Hausa political and military leadership. The youth militias began to arm themselves. Clashes with the Nigerian military, and also amongst themselves, became a staple of Nigerian public life from 1994 onwards. General Sani Abacha had toppled the interim government Babangida had installed before he quit in November 1993, thrown Moshood Abiola, winner of the June 1993 presidential elections into jail, and unleashed a wave of terror targeted at journalists, democracy activists, and the youth militias challenging his right to rule.

Political developments in the Ijaw territory followed a slightly different trajectory. The group had not benefited from the various state creation exercises embarked upon by the government in the 1980s and early 1990s. The INC was at the forefront of the agitation to correct what it perceived as a ‘gross injustice.’ It argued that the Ijaw were deliberately dispersed in several coastal states where they constituted an oppressed minority, and that it was only fair that they be brought together in two or three homogenous states. Even so, it was not making any headway.

Skirmishes between Ijaw youth and the oil companies operating in the western delta had begun in the late 1980s, the former complaining that they had not been offered employment in the very industry on their doorstep, and which, to make it worse, was destroying their rivers and farmlands. Ijaw elders and community leaders had mediated, and the process of this mediation gave birth to new youth-led civic groups. Prominent among these were Movement for the Survival of Ijaw Ethnic Nationality (MOSSIEND) and Movement for Reparations to Ogbia (MORETO). Ogbia is an Ijaw clan in the central delta, and from which Oronto Douglas hailed.

The creation of new local government councils in the Warri area by the government in 1997 provided the trigger for the militarization of youth groups in the area. Three prominent ethnic groups occupy Warri metropolis and its hinterland, extending into the creeks. The Itsekiri are perceived to be small but politically dominant. The other two are the Ijaw and Urhobo. There have been squabbles turning on ownership of land, and the rents to be derived there from, among all three groups since the 1920s. But these were usually peaceful affairs, fought out in the law courts.

But the lethal cocktail of economic deprivation, military dictatorship, and worsening environmental crisis in the western delta, which reached explosive heights in the 1990s, ensured that when the next round of land tussles arrived, the entire city would go up in flames. This was exactly what happened in 1997 when the military governor announced the creation of a new local government council with headquarters in an Ijaw village, and then rescinded the decision the following day and moved it to an Itsekiri village. Ijaw youth accused Itsekiri elites of having pressured the government to relocate the seat of the new council to their area. The latter countered that the entire Warri territory belonged to the Itsekiri but that even so they had had no hand in the governor’s decision. Youth from both groups quickly entered the fray.

There was a stampede to arm on both sides. Events quickly degenerated into ethnic massacres and counter-massacres.

The proliferation of small arms in the Warri area inevitably fed into oil bunkering, an illicit activity which had been practiced for decades in the high seas by powerful government officials in collaboration with oil workers.

Fringe elements in these militarised youth groups were to find ‘work’ here, helping the illegal oil barons to tap into pipelines to siphon crude oil and which was then taken to waiting ships. With the return of electoral politics in 1999, politicians in the Niger Delta also recruited from these armed elements to intimidate their political opponents and rig the vote. The oil companies also offered these youth ‘protection work’ in their facilities, arming them with lethal weapons in a cynical move to divide emergent and politically assertive youth organisations that were beginning to emerge. The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), a new influential organisation founded by Oronto Douglas, Asume Osuoka and others in 1998, had united youth all over Ijaw land in a peaceful but powerful opposition to the exploitative activities of the oil companies and the Federal Government in the region. The famous Kaiama Declaration, a document adopted by youth from several Ijaw clans and spelling out their grievances and how they might be addressed, was the brainchild of the IYC leadership.

It is important to note that it was a small minority that drifted into oil bunkering and protection ‘services’ for the corrupt politicians and oil companies. The overwhelming majority of Ijaw youth remained solidly under the control of the civic and communal organisations they themselves had founded, even after they had come under brutal attack from government soldiers in such towns as Kaiama and Odi in 1998 and 1999 respectively. However, the IYC was to subsequently split into factions following a leadership crisis. Asari Dokubo, one its leaders, went on to establish the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), declaring that the peaceful methods of the IYC had not been effective and that what the new civilian government headed by President Obasanjo would heed was militant action. Even so, the bulk of the remaining IYC members continued on the path of non-violent political action.

In the morning of 15 February 2006, government helicopter gun ships attacked the Ijaw village of Okerenkoko in the western delta. Okerenkoko is a part of Gbaramatu, an Ijaw clan in the western delta. Government officials alleged that Okerenkoko and neighbouring villages were the epicentre of the illegal oil bunkering activities President Obasanjo had resolved to stamp out, and that Federal troops had been instructed to ‘deal with’ the Ijaw youth participating in the activity. The gun ships returned again on 17th and 18th February, flattening houses and huts and killing several innocent people. [2]

Enraged youth all over Ijawland vowed revenge. It was this bloody incident that triggered the birth of the MEND militia.

MEND and its methods

Although the Okerenkoko attack provided the immediate impetus for the coalescing of several militant strains in the decades-old Ijaw struggle for self-determination into MEND, the movement can be said to have taken several years, dating from Isaac Boro’s short-lived ‘revolution’ in February 1966, to finally come into its own.

The founding core of MEND’s membership is derived from the Gbaramatu clan which was in the eye of the storm in the 1997 local government crisis, and then subsequently bore the brunt of the helicopter gun ship attack of February 2006. Even so, this thesis holds true only to the extent that MEND is viewed as a formal organisation with a clearly delineated membership structure and chain of command. But as already stated, MEND is not so much an ‘organisation’ but an idea which many civic, communal, and political groups, each with its own local specificity and grievances, have bought into.

Resentment at the activities of the government and the oil companies run deep in all Ijaw clans in the eastern, central and western parts of the delta. An intricate maze of creeks links these clans all the way from Port Harcourt in the east to Warri in the west. The explosion of mobile telephony and internet services in Nigeria since 1999 has ensured that communication and coordination between armed units can be effected within minutes. These features are at the heart of the coalescing of disparate but united social concerns to birth MEND.

MEND’s strength and military successes so far lie in four key factors:

First, it has successfully tapped into the fifty-year old Ijaw quest for social and environmental justice in the Niger Delta. There is no village in the Niger Delta where MEND sympathisers do not exist. Consequently, the movement operates in extremely friendly and cooperative terrain, able to mount lightning attacks and then melt into the hamlets undetected.

Second, MEND is a loose coalition of armed militants, guided by a collegiate leadership. This leadership does not in any way constrain the ability of the various units to take their own decisions and mount military attacks independent of the others. The units plan their attacks separately, but are able to coordinate with other units in joint expeditions when necessary. Consequently they are active in all parts of the delta, adopting hit and run tactics and making it difficult for Federal troops to box them into a particular area and launch a massive attack.

Third, MEND militants fight in familiar territory, having fished and farmed in the maze of creeks, marshes, and mangrove swamps that constitutes the Niger Delta since childhood. The Nigerian army and Navy have superior hardware, but they often lose their way in the creeks when they mount attacks or give chase to the militants, rendering them impotent or worse, vulnerable to counter-attack. Several soldiers and naval ratings have lost their lives in this manner.

Fourth, MEND is an astute manipulator of the mass media, and has ensured that its case against the government and the oil companies has been clearly and eloquently made in newspapers and television networks in Nigeria and world-wide. Its case has been helped by the tragic events of 1990-1995 in the Ogoni area, during which period Shell officials worked actively with the Abacha junta to unleash mayhem and mass murder on the people, culminating in the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni eight on 10 November 1995. Journalists and environmental activists in Nigeria, Western Europe and North America who participated in the Ogoni struggle have enthusiastically taken up MEND’s case, even as they urge the militants to put down their guns and return to the path of peaceful dialogue pioneered by the IYC in 1998.

Hostages as weapon

MEND’s weapon of choice is the kidnapping of foreign oil workers. The calculation here is simple. The Nigerian government is notorious for its cavalier attitude when the lives of its citizens are at stake. But other countries, particularly the United States, France, United Kingdom and Italy which have massive oil installations in the Niger Delta in which their citizens operate, usually cry out in loud protest when the latter are taken hostage. Foreign workers are thus the militants’ favourite targets. MEND’s most spectacular hostage taking was carried out at Shell’s Forcados oil terminal in February 2006. Militants grabbed nine expatriate workers employed by Willbros, an engineering firm in contract to Shell, and spirited them away in a speedboat. Following several weeks of complex negotiations between the militants, Ijaw leaders, the Obasanjo government, the oil companies and the American and British governments, the last three of the hostages (several had been released previously) were set free on 27 March. [3]

It is significant that since MEND began to take hostages early in the year, none have been harmed. Government officials have sought to represent this aspect of MEND’s activities as racketeering, claiming that the militants usually extort ransom from the hostages and the government before the former are released. While it is true that there are fringe elements in the Niger Delta who have embraced hostage-taking as a lucrative commercial venture, they are not to be confused with MEND militants. The objective of the latter is fundamentally political: to focus the attention of Western governments and the world media on the Niger Delta when they grab these hostages, and to exploit the blaze of publicity thus generated to announce their grievances and demands of the Nigerian government.

It is, however, in attacks on Shell facilities that MEND militants have displayed absolutely no restraint, an indication of their deep anger at the company’s callous treatment of the Ijaw and the other ethnic groups in the Niger Delta since it began to produce oil in the region in 1956. Shell officials participated in military attacks on delta communities all through the 1980s and 1990s. In my interviews with several of the militants last August, they reeled off the names of the towns and villages that had tasted Shell’s guns: Iko, Umuechem, Ogoni, Nembe, Kaima, Odi…It was a very long list.[4]

MEND’s attack on the Forcados oil-loading platform was as audacious as it was crippling. The oil company was forced to suspend production of 19 per cent of its daily production. The company’s Cawthorne Channel flow station and Odidi II flow station were also destroyed. Pipelines all over the delta were blown apart, and Shell workers threatened with slow and painful death.

ChevronTexaco, Elf and ENI did not escape MEND’s attention. Their facilities also came under attack, and their staff routinely abducted. At the height of MEND’s military assaults in April, a quarter of Nigeria’s oil production had been shut down, and Shell’s giant off shore Bonga oil field, although protected by naval ships and gun boats, was also considered a potential MEND target. Dr Edmund Daukoru, a former Shell employee and since 2003 President Obasanjo’s Minister in charge of petroleum, was so worried that he hurried to Washington D.C. to confer with Sam Bordman, the US energy secretary, on ways and means of taking the MEND ‘problem’ on hand.

In response to what they deemed to be an imminent invasion by special forces from the United States, MEND, Asari Dokubo’s NDPVF and Martyrs Brigade and Coalition for Militant Action in the Niger Delta (CMND), two new groups that subsequently emerged to complement the formers’ militant activities, announced the formation of a ‘Joint Revolutionary Council’ and pledged that they would deploy newly acquired heat-seeking rockets to attack and disable Shell’s offshore Bonga Oil Field. Given that they had successfully attacked several offshore oil facilities in the past, this announcement triggered panic in the international market. Combined with already tight supplies elsewhere, particularly in the Middle East where oil production has significantly reduced in the volatile Iraq-Iran corridor, spot prices surged towards the roof, hitting $72 per barrel.

MEND’s press statements are not only calculated to create maximum panic in the international oil markets. They are also designed to leverage the concerns of the giant US and European financial companies that have invested heavily in Gulf of Guinea’s burgeoning oil and gas industry, with the Niger Delta as its epicentre, to pile pressure on the Nigerian government. Leading the pack are Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale, Bank of America Securities, Credit Suissie First Boston, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investments, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Lehman Brothers. It is significant that these financial behemoths, who together have invested an estimated $15 billion in the Nigerian oil and gas industry (this does not include direct investments by oil companies and related industries) held meetings with Nigerian government officials in November 2005 when confidential reports by American embassy officials in Abuja indicated that the Obasanjo government was speedily losing control of the delta to emergent youth militias.

MEND’s shock tactics yielded dividends initially. Chevron and Shell officials had backed military attacks on local communities all through the 1990s, insisting that their business interests obliged them to offer logistical and financial support to Nigerian troops in their ‘legitimate’ effort to protect the delta oil fields from ‘miscreants.’ But as attacks on its facilities in the western delta accelerated in 2003-2004, resulting in the killing of company workers (three Nigerians, two Americans and their guards), shutting down 140,000 barrels of daily production, and hitting a peak in April 2006, Chevron executives in California began to rethink their martial policy, and subsequently made the unprecedented statement that the company was not in support of military solutions in efforts to restore peace in the Niger Delta.

They also quickly unfurled a ‘new’ Global Memorandum of Understanding, which they promised would tackle development problems in the impoverished communities with renewed vigour. Fred Nelson, head of Chevron’s West Africa operations, told journalists in early June that ‘brute force does not work in the long term. Our strategy is dialogue with the communities to solve their problems. If we can solve their problems the security issue will go away.’[5] MEND’S spokes persons claimed this new pacific posture as a victory.

The militia has also carefully positioned itself to derive maximum mileage from the activities of other militant groups that although not as well-organised and politically coherent, nevertheless share similar grievances and regularly mount their own military attacks on oil company facilities and government troops. These fringe groups have a bewildering array of names, and forge alliances and coalitions as quickly as they dissolve them. Prominent are South-South Liberation Movement (SSLM), Movement for the Sovereign State of the Niger Delta (MSSND), DE Gbam, Niger Delta Vigilante, and Meninbutus, among others. Some of these groups stem from student cults that came into their own with the return of electoral politics in the late 1990s. Politicians in Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa state were quick to press them into service to leverage votes at gunpoint, a trend which subsequently spiralled into oil-bunkering ‘services,’ intimidation of fellow students in universities and other higher institutions all over the Niger Delta, and local community clashes in such areas as Ogoni, Okrika, and Kalabari.

MEND spokespersons regularly deplore the activities of these cults when they veer away from the explicitly political objective of advancing the cause of self-determination and equitable sharing of oil receipts, but are also quick to spring to their defence when soldiers and riot police attack them unjustly.

On July 1, the MEND-led Joint Revolutionary Council issued an ultimatum to President Obasanjo to hand over to it the Rivers State Commissioner of Police for ‘fair trial.’ The police had attacked and killed three Ijaw youth in Abonema town in the eastern delta who they subsequently claimed were cult members involved in raiding of commercial banks in Port Harcourt. MEND rejected this claim, insisting that the slain youth were Ijaw patriots who had ‘fallen in the field of battle.’ Four days after the expiration of the ultimatum, militants struck in the remote oil facility area of Sangana, and in a display of professionalism and bravado, abducted four naval ratings.

MEND’s military exploits have not dented the offensive capabilities of Nigeria’s armed forces. But they have demoralised the troops, and also forced local journalists and other public commentators to begin to ask questions regarding the combat-readiness and overall effectiveness of the Army and Navy.

Most importantly, MEND has transformed the image of the Ijaw, and indeed the entire local communities of the Niger Delta, from the hapless and quiescent victims popularised in the press, ever on the receiving end of atrocities deployed by the government and the oil companies, to an increasingly organised and assertive political bloc, able to hit back at their molesters.

• Dr Ike Okonta is a research fellow in contemporary African politics at the University of Oxford. He is co-author of Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights and Oil, Verso, New York, 2003.

• Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

References

[1] Ike Okonta, Interview with Mr X (not real name), one of the leaders of MEND, Warri, 17th August 2006
[2] See FNDIC, Pathway to the Council, handbook published by the FNDIC, July 2006. See also Constitutionality of the Ijaw Struggle, handbook published by the FNDIC, Warri, December 2005 for Oboko Bello’s version of events leading to the emergence of the Warri local government crisis of 1997. It is to be noted that Itsekiri leaders also have their own version of these events, diametrically opposed to Bello’s.
[3] Associated Press, ‘Nigerian Militants Release Last Hostages,’ 27 March, 2006.
[4] Ike Okonta, interview with Mr X and two other MEND militants, August 2006.
[5] Nigeria Today, ‘Chevron Against Use of force in the Niger Delta,’ 12 May, 2006.

The Power of Oil and the State of Democracy in Angola

Rafael Marques

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/38118

The civil war in Angola ended in 2002. In this speech, given at Harvard University, Rafael Marques argues that the peace agreement signed in April 2002 has failed to promote democratic values or engage citizens in public affairs. Elections that the government promised the people since 1999 have not materialized. Instead, Angola is undergoing a process of commercialization as a substitute to democratization, writes Marques.


It is a privilege for me to be here at Harvard, a center of intellectual and scientific excellence. I am here simply as a student to have a conversation and share some ideas about Angola.

I am also in the US to learn from you about the merits of an open-minded and uncompromised debate about democracy, international relations and solidarity.

Currently, preparations are being made for the registration of voters in Angola, as a major leap forward towards the holding of elections in 2007, 2008 or 2009. There have been hints of elections ever since 1999.

These elections would be the second ever held in the country. The only other ones, the 1992 general elections, led to war breaking out again.

What is at stake at the moment is whether holding elections could be a measure of democratization for Angola or not? That is the first of several questions to be asked.

After a devastating 27-year conflict, a military peace deal signed in April 2002 has not been fostering the promotion of democratic values in society and engaging citizens in public affairs. Angola has been described as a “state without citizens.” Despite recent promises of increased transparency, accountability and democratization, little has yet been accomplished to bridge the gap between the rulers and the ruled. The underlying causes of this situation are many and interlinked. Political power is highly centralized and some would argue that historically this power was further consolidated through the control of resource flows by three institutions – the Presidency, the National Bank and SONANGOL, the national oil company.

The reality is of opportunity, but for whom? For those who hold power and sway, it means dividends from the privatization of the state, according to the hierarchy in the regime. For outsiders, it means a rush to promote their economic interests, cut new deals or explore new market opportunities.

This prompts the second question. What does the present situation mean for the majority of Angolans? Put in a different way, is the country just open for business or is there some scope for democracy as well?

What are the prospects of change, defining a new future for Angola? This is the third question I shall try to elaborate on as part of this conversation.

Electoral Democracy

The first indication of democracy in the country would be the establishment of checks and balances in the state institutions, as well as their openness to public scrutiny. This is essential for the process of nation-building,

To demonstrate the absurd contradictions of the system, justice is still administered through the former colonial Portuguese Penal Code of 1886. Portugal itself has reformed the Penal Code a number of times since then.

Many of the state institutions have not been altered to fit the new political system. For instance, the office of the Attorney-General is still governed by a one-party Marxist-Leninist law (cf Law 5/90, of 5 April) to safeguard not democracy but the “socialist legality”. This office is, by law, under the presidency and the President of the Republic gives direct instructions to the Attorney-General, which must be complied with in accordance with article 5, clause 2, of law 5/90.

Unfortunately, this situation, which is unconstitutional, cannot be challenged in court. The Constitutional Court, which is required to safeguard the Constitution, has not been established since 1992. Three members of the Constitutional Court are supposed to be elected by a two-thirds majority of Members of Parliament(article 135, clause 1b). The ruling MPLA does not have such a two-thirds majority and has found it risky to bring up the issue because it might wake up the opposition.

So far, the judges of the Supreme Court, appointed by the President of the Republic, perform the duties of the Constitutional Court in violation of the Constitution. The vice-president of the Supreme Court, Mr. Caetano de Sousa, is also currently the head of the National Electoral Commission, appointed by the President of the Republic.

On July 22, 2005, the Supreme Court decided that the President has been performing interim duties since 1992, the year he failed to win in the polls. Back then the second round of the presidential elections never took place because war broke out again. As such, none of his periods as President count. So, after 25 uninterrupted years in power, he can run again for three more consecutive periods.

Another important aspect to take into account is the effectively subordinate role of the National Electoral Commission, which also includes opposition members, in relation to the Inter-Ministerial Commission for Elections, all of whose members come from the MPLA government.

And why does the opposition not rally behind the issue? As I speak, the 220 parliamentarians, whose constitutional mandates expired 10 years ago, are lavishing upon themselves luxury cars of their own choice from a special budget of over US$16.5 million which they granted to themselves.

Moreover, some of the main opposition parties represented in Parliament, like UNITA, PRS and PLD, also hold ministerial portfolios in the government and the due privileges. That’s how the patronage system works. The political opposition becomes part of the problem and not of the solution.

Along with the control of the judicial power by the political powers comes control of the State media, which comprises the only radio and TV broadcasters with national coverage and the only daily newspaper in the country. The Minister of Information, from the MPLA, also heads the National Radio of Angola. I worked for the state media, and I can say from experience that there was more room for some innocuous criticism 12 years ago than there is today. These media outlets only reproduce the orders of the political establishment.

The six privately owned weekly newspapers, as critical as they are, remain ineffective in expressing the thoughts and wishes of the majority. They circulate almost exclusively in the capital, Luanda, at an average price of US$2.50 for a 24-page tabloid, which is too expensive for the average citizen. Altogether these papers only print up to 25,000 copies per week, while there are over four million people living in the capital alone.

Both the judiciary and the media are fundamental to the exercise of democracy, one by upholding the rule of the law and the other to serve as a vehicle for freedom of expression. But they are, in fact, instruments of partisanship.

Moreover, the regime has produced a state class, in which figures of the ruling MPLA accumulate wealth rapidly by robbing the state coffers. That’s how the President’s family, without a record of labour, has amassed a vast fortune and is a major shareholder in the telecommunications, banking, mining and other most profitable enterprises. Other high-ranking families of the regime are also entitled to such fortunes.

These brief examples illustrate that the time of peace is being used neither for serious institutional reform nor to establish a proper transitional platform to a fully fledged democracy. To put it simply, there are no functioning institutions for the formal democratic participation of citizens.

How can elections change this state of affairs? The absence of a transitional mechanism, to mitigate abuses of power, leaves little room for peaceful change and risks a showdown between the government and the people for lack of alternative and buffer institutions.

The Power of Oil

Any change will put at risk not just the ruling party, but the business interests of the state class, who are the partners for foreign governments and enterprises in oil, diamonds, construction, etc. Foreign interests fight for privileged access to the state class.

The interests of the Presidential family in remaining in power, to safeguard their business interests, coincide, for instance, with the US policy to ensure stability and safeguard a continuous flow of Angolan oil into the US. By 2007, Angola’s oil output is forecast to surpass 2 million barrels a day and continue to increase until 2010.

The international view of Angola has been narrowed down to business interests. Angola is undergoing a process of commercialization as a substitute to democratization.

International pressure has mainly been self-serving and the call for good governance has focused more on issues of transparency and an improved climate for foreign investment than on poverty alleviation and democratization. Countries with a strategic interest in Angolan oil, especially China, have been willing to provide Angola with concessional, oil-backed loans, which carry no conditions on improved governance.

In the past, the US led Western countries in fomenting guerrilla warfare in the country in the name of a global fight against communism while, at the same time, allowing Cuban soldiers to guard Chevron oil facilities. Then it switched sides to annihilate the guerrillas in the name of helping to achieve peace and democracy.

Such international leverage in the country’s affairs has robbed the people of external solidarity in the fight for change. Reality shows that it is all about access to the country’s natural resources and profitable dealings. In 2005 Angola could boast the highest rate of growth in Gross Domestic Product in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) area (if not all of Africa), according to IMF figures. In stark contrast, Angola has some of the worst poverty levels in Africa. Last year Angola was ranked 160 out of 177 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index. According to the statistics, 67% of the population lives below the poverty line. Of those living in rural areas, 90% are estimated to live below the poverty line. Illiteracy and infant and maternal mortality rates are very high. The shares of the government budget allocated to health (4.4% in 2006) and education (3.8%) are lower than average in the SADC area and have declined steadily since 2004. In general, there has been a bias against spending on initiatives to improve broad-based primary education and primary health care.

In principle, elections will not provide people with alternative choices because the political opposition is either incorporated into the system, tamed or too marginal to have the resources and the ability to make itself known to a wider audience. This explains why the pressure for elections from civic organizations and society at large has gone quiet.

Thus the holding of elections will by no means be a measure for democracy. The regime has already prepared itself for an eventual alternative, which it calls an agenda of national consensus. From time to time, when pressure mounts, it takes it out of its pocket to lure people into an idea of broad dialogue to give a new direction to the country.

For there to be a space for democracy, Angolans have to find a more balanced and sustainable way of dealing with the openness to foreign investors, which is used as an international public relations tool to re-legitimize the regime and dodge the pressing need for dialogue on the country’s situation.

We must be forceful in explaining that one issue must not obscure the other. We must have them both, and democracy should be a priority to establish the rule of law that turns the institutions of state into the safe keepers of transparency, fair competition and greater safety for foreign investments. Currently, businesses have to rely on powerful individuals for protection, but sooner or later this will come to an end.

Prospects of Change

As a citizen, I always wonder why my political leaders always prefer to take the most difficult and treacherous routes of war, violence, corruption and denial to govern the country?

My country is drifting towards a political dead end. The growing detachment between the rulers and the ruled, in the formation of the state class, can only lead to profound resentment and an unpredictable outcome.

Dialogue and compassion are not new ideas, but that’s what Angolans have always needed most from their rulers, and been denied.

There must be the political will by the regime to open up and allow the establishment of a “state of citizens” as the best option to avoid the perils of anarchy, for its own good and because time is running out.

Thank you to the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program and its co-sponsors. And thanks to the Northcote Parkinson Fund for sponsoring my trip here as part of the Civil Courage Prize.

• Rafael Marques de Morais, an Angolan journalist and a human rights activist, is the winner of the 2006 Civil Courage Prize.

• Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Speech by Rafael Marques de Morais at the Civil Courage Prize

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/38121

Through his writing, Rafael Marques de Morais has exposed the corruption of the Angolan government, the tragic impact that diamond extraction has on the lives of local populations and the abuses committed by the industry’s private security companies. The speech he gave when accepting the Civil Courage Prize can be veiwed at this link.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here today to celebrate with you a moment of solidarity and, at the same time, to concern you with Angola. Ours is a tragic country, whose people have always yearned for peace but instead experienced foreign-sponsored civil war, exploitation of its natural resources, and international indifference.

In the last two years there has been a great effort by the government to project a more positive image of Angola. The focus has been on the very high GDP growth, as initially reported by the International Monetary Fund, derived from an increase of oil production and prices. In our capital, Luanda, rise a few skyscrapers for multinational corporations and extremely wealthy nationals. Housing developments for the privileged are also springing up in the capital, as well as fine shops and restaurants. But not for the people!

Since independence, we have been led by false promises. Soviet and Cuban military help arrived. Then the west had a change of heart towards Angola after the arrival of peace, and was supposed to hold an international donors’ conference to help rebuild it. That conference never took place. Now we have the Chinese miracle: a promise that the Chinese will rebuild the country’s infrastructure. We’ll see.

Such empty promises have bypassed the obvious need for internal dialogue, better use of the country’s resources to improve the people’s wellbeing, and for the government to serve those it claims to represent.

Open, participatory and transparent dialogue is fundamental to the task of addressing nation-building, reconstruction, and defining of the country’s future. We must end the cycles of reckless and undignified dependency on external powers.

Angola needs to change how its people live. For example, over 60% survive on a dollar and a half a day, and Angola has the second highest infant mortality rate in the world.

What is happening today is a legal and political process of privatizing the State for the benefit of the current ruling class. To do so, the regime counts on the full support of the foreign powers in need of Angolan oil, diamonds and other natural resources. Incidentally, Angola provides 8% of the oil consumed in the U.S.

For President Dos Santos’ 27-year grip on power, all that matters is international legitimacy, to avoid having his regime be subjected to internal democratic scrutiny.

On August 21, 2006, the World Bank country representative issued a critical statement asking the media and civil society organizations to stop using its reports to criticize the Angolan government. But the Bank claims to support transparency initiatives, as well as strengthening civil society organization in the country. So its statement goes against the right of access to information, which is fundamental for transparency and democracy.

MCK, a critical young Angolan rapper, has just released an album in which he sings “we export oil and import suffering.” How do we change this reality?

Two collaborators from the countryside asked me for help. We scraped our pennies together, and set out to ask very modest individuals to contribute in kind for human rights monitoring in the lawless diamond-rich region of Lundas, in the northeast of the country. José Bartolomeu, a local citizen, described their current condition in blunt terms: “Angola is a foreign country to us. We Angolans are treated worse than animals.” [1]

By early last year, I had lost any ability to continue to carry out meaningful civic work due to a successful campaign to isolate, drain all known sources of support and to turn me into an outcast. In Angola, for business to proceed as usual, it becomes necessary to squash any alternative voices that challenge the powers that be. As an uncompromised civic campaigner, I came to be labelled a radical - a danger to some private and international interests.

I use as a guide Martin Luther King’s assertion that “if we are to speed up the coming of the new age we must have the moral courage to stand up and protest against injustice wherever we find it.” [2]

Now, with the country at peace, Angolans can address this long history of disenfranchisement of the individual, by civil war, by the current policy of winner takes all, and lastly, by institutionalized corruption. People are forced to be corrupt on a daily basis to survive.

As Martin Luther King says, “The urgency of the hour calls for leaders of wise judgment and sound integrity – leaders not in love with money, but in love with justice; leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity; leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.” [3]

Angola is in need of a government that protects its own people and brings them together to build a strong nation, and to give them dignity and honor.

Hence, in humbleness, I accept the Civil Courage Prize as a step toward a different Angola, grounded on the values of justice, freedom and integrity.

My beloved family has been a blessing. I could not have done what I have without them. My son Okidi is already learning to excuse me for my long absences and short spans of attention when present. I dedicate this award to my son Okidi.

I take a moment now to express my gratitude to the Northcote Parkinson Fund Trustees for honoring me this year. To Mr. John Train, my benefactor, Ann Sloane, Molly Hickok and Barbara Becker, who have been so friendly in organizing my visit, I thank you.

I hereby express my deep gratitude to Deborah Harding and Anne Luzzatto who nominated me for this prize.

Thank you so much, distinguished guests, for sharing this moment of reflection with me.


References

[1] Marques, Rafael, Operation Kissonde: The Diamonds of Humiliation and Misery (www.cuango.net)
[2] King, Martin Luther, Jr. Facing the Challenge of a New Age, in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., page 143, (ed.) James M. Washington, Harper & Row, Publishers
[3] Idem.

A preview of Nigeria’s open political field

Emman Ozoemena

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/38117

Elections are due to be held in Nigeria in April 2007. Emman Ozoemena points out that as the elections get closer, “it is important to note that there is need for key actors to learn how to manage contestations for power in such a way as to ensure that the nation comes out of this season unscathed as one indivisible entity that cares for the poor and excluded in our society.”


For those who can hear very well, the drumbeat signaling the 2007 election is increasing in tempo each passing day. The signs of impending elections, usually characterised by electioneering campaigns and political activities are in the air across the country. For most citizens, the ubiquitous posters of aspirants, media appearances, and visits to communities by vote-seeking politicians are indicators for the approaching elections. Just like the hoofbeats of horses in war times, the harder the noise, the more obvious it is to see that it is yet another election year.

In the midst of all this, some die-hard pessimists and non-tough minded optimists (and if you may merchants of crises) are busy inventing webs and spins that cast doubts over the possibility of elections next year. Some months ago, new fears crept into the nation’s political circles under different euphemisms. They were crafted by professionals who know how to stalk fear in the system.

Just after the third term imbroglio failed the Interim National Government (ING), a hoax surfaced on the nation’s political scene. Like any political currency, speculations trailed this hoax while denials and counter-denials followed. What made it rather curious was that the alleged purveyors of the ING option were men not given to idle talk. Take Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, for instance. He was associated with the ING idea. He is a serious minded fellow, though he later vehemently denied being involved with the ING option. I believe no progressive politician would ever fall for such an inane thought as ING. Then enter Chief Sunny Okogwu, the avid public commentator. He was also reported to have canvassed for the ING idea in media reports. Aside from the two, swarms of voices joined in the debate for desirability or otherwise of ING in Nigeria.

But then, just like a well orchestrated drama, the focus shifted to the imbroglio in the Presidency leading to PTDFgate. This further polarized the polity into three identifiable camps namely ‘President Obasanjo Supporters’, ‘Vice President Atiku Supporters’ and the ‘Obasanjo-Atiku Must Resign Campaigners’. The EFFC Report that followed PTDFgate jolted the political landscape with every politician “taking cover” for his life as Mallam Nuhu Ribadu led an anti-graft commission, releasing damming score cards on public officials whom we elected to keep public trust.

Finally, we have the current impeachment spree that now looms over some states. Chief executives and the lawmakers are slugging it out with the Judiciary waiting in the wings to either remain the unbiased arbiter or be consumed in the ambition of its members to climb to the exalted seat of acting Chief Judge without due process. There is a daily increase in the number of political actors, NGOs and campaign organizations who have reportedly made their positions on the issue public.

But, then we should ask; what is at the heart of the issue? What do the people of Nigeria want? Does the posturing of the political class and/or the power elite represent the heartbeat of the citizens? Are there verifiable indicators that Nigerians are ready for elections in 2007? Are members of the political class laying booby traps to truncate the process? The fear being expressed by many is that if care is not taken, the ghosts responsible for failure of the nation’s electoral process in the past may be back to foist on us once again the “never-ending transition programme”.

It is important for us to ask ourselves where we want to be six months into our journey to democracy. This question is becoming a stark reality given the events of the past weeks, which have stirred up the collective indignation the citizens. What expectations would the 2007 elections deliver for the electorate? The questions are endless. As we review the emerging scenarios in the country, it is important to know that there is no choice facing the country other than for us to make up our minds that it is the process of democracy in action.

A similar situation happened in the United States of America between 1963 and 1973 - “the decade of tensions” in American history, similar to the civil war year during the 19th century. Owing to the unfortunate assassination of President John F. Kennedy in May 1963, Vice President Lyndon Johnson took over as President for the remainder of Kennedy’s term. When the term ended in 1964, Johnson contested as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate and won the election. The United States Constitution allowed him to run for two terms of four years each in his own right. So though Johnson was eligible to run again in 1968 presidential election, within the ruling party, the Democratic Party there was an intractable internal crises. Some wanted the President to seek re-election, while others thought otherwise. The camps within the party were divided amongst supporters of Johnson and his ardent opponent Senator Eugene McCarthy, who decided to put up strong resistance to the president’s dream for a second term.

As power elites within the party impressed on President Johnson to break his silence on the re-election bid, he responded in an unprecedented way by backing down on his ambition for a second term. Instead, he lined up behind another candidate for the top job, the brother of JFK, Senator Robert Kennedy. With this development, Robert and McCarthy had to slug it out at the Democratic Party’s convention in 1968. But then Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angles by a young Syrian Immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan while on a victory party after the California primaries. The Johnson camp reached out and produced another candidate, Hubert Humphrey, the vice president at the time.

The Democratic Party lost the 1968 election to Richard Nixon, the Republican Party candidate. Nixon had previously lost the presidential election to President J.F Kennedy in 1959 in a narrow victory. Most historiographers have rightly described this period as the “season of tempest” in American history.

Are there lessons to learn from the American experience in managing an open political field? For those who take time to study democratic movements one thing that stands out is that election years in which an incumbent president is not seeking re-election, are usually tension soaked.

For the purpose of this treatise, we must explain the “Open Field Phenomenon”. This is when an election year involving the incumbent president or president who has served out his or her term and who is therefore barred by the constitution from running in another election. When attempts to amend the 1999 Constitution failed on May 16, the presidency of Nigeria technically speaking became open beginning from May 27 2006. Naturally, this created a scenario where contenders for the Presidential race worked hard selling their programmes and manifestos to Nigerians. The political firmament was filled with new tensions arising from struggles for space by a legion of aspirants. This could be rightly described as politics of succession.

Nigeria is standing at a critical stage in her political development. The outcome of the 2007 elections will impact greatly on the nation’s ability to develop a democratic culture. The army of aspirants at the national and state levels aspiring to run for elections are indicative of renewed interest and faith in the system by the people, and a strong indication that democracy is on course in Nigeria. The incumbent president and 58% of current governors are not candidates for the elections. Fresh hands are taking part in the contest.

Add to this that the number of aspirant state governors have considerably increased from the number in the 1999 and 2003 elections. With the expanded space, do we assume that aspirants now have more platforms to run from, or do we assume that they would want to operate largely from the point of aligning themselves with the winning political party? There is the temptation to ask why most aspirants want to run on tickets of the ruling party. The bandwagon effect of “join the winning party” is a common phenomenon which demands our attention.

We are then posed with the challenge of how to resolve the internal crisis and leadership tussle in the parties. The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition parties are all factionalized and crisis-ridden. How this impacts on the polity ahead of 2007 is open to conjecture. Even the newly registered political parties, which their leaders initially were operating as private estates, are not exempt from internal bickering.

There is no doubt that political parties in Nigeria operate poor internal governance mechanisms. The leadership exercise power arbitrarily, excluding members on key decisions. This is one area that requires serious work by the political class and the electorates, if we want democracy to grow in the country. Party leaderships must be accountable to their members if democracy will be deepened in Nigeria. Without mincing words, most parties were built on faulty foundations with no binding principles and ideology. This type of hollow politics concomitantly translates into what we have today, politics driven by desire for power, not issue driven politics that seek to either provide leadership or alternative and credible opposition. If anyone dared conduct a survey on the nation’s political class on the core ideology of governance, chances are that the result would be zero.

What emerges in the media is that most aspirants are yet to come to terms with what constitutes campaign issues, especially around development and the core expectations of the people. It was funny hearing some aspirants to the presidency simply muttering the trite cliché: “If elected I shall continue with Mr. President’s economic reform agenda”. I chuckled listening to a front runner presidential aspirant saying that he intends to be committed to President Obasanjo’s economic reform agenda, as if the Reform Agenda is a magic wand that would sway votes to his side.

As we get closer to the 2007 elections, it is important to note that there is a need for key actors to learn how to manage contestations for power in such a way as to ensure that the nation comes out of this season unscathed, and as one indivisible entity that cares for the poor and excluded in our society. There are several lessons to learn from the US political history of the late 1960s as we approach 2007 elections.

• Emman Ozoemena, a Public Policy Analyst is based in Abuja. He can be reached on ozoemman@yahoo.ca

• Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Adieu Mama Pambana

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/38113

I have been writing obituaries so frequently in the past year that I am beginning to feel there are no more adjectives left to appreciate the lives of fallen comrades. But somehow one has to find the words, both as part of grieving and also in defiance of death, to remind us that the thief of all thieves, while it may rob us of loved ones, will not be able to rob us of their memories too.

On Saturday, 26 October, 2006 they buried a very dear comrade and friend: Dr Wanjiru Kihoro. Unfortunately I could not be at the funeral but did attend two public testimonials (one an evening of political tributes and the other a funral service on Heroe’s day, both in Nairobi) as part of the farewell to Wanjiru. She was buried in the land of her ancestors in the picturesque Kikiyu District of Nyeri, Kenya. Wanjiru had been in a coma for over three years and nine months since she suffered severe injuries in a plane crash early 2003. A number of prominent politicians, including MPs in the newly triumphant NARC-Kenya government, died in the accident.

For all these years, friends and relatives, but especially her incredibly optimistic husband and comrade, Wanyiri Kihoro, and her father took turns by her side at the National Hospital in Nairobi. They all hoped against hope and prayed for her recovery. Any small sign of attentiveness no matter how dim was interpreted as a sign of her ‘coming back to us’. Friends and relatives were encouraged to visit her and talk to her normally with the hope that one voice, or a cacophony of recognizable voices, might jolt her sensory nerves back to life.

I was one of those fearful friends who dreaded going to see Wanjiru while she lay in bed. A few times, I had synchronized my contact with Wanyiri to coincide with the closing hours for hospital visits so that I could be disallowed but could wait for Wanyiri to get out so that we could sit and chat. One such night on my way from Kla we ended up sitting up till after 2.00am. Instead of me giving him words of encouragement it was Wanyiri who was cheering me up, insisting that I must go and see Wanjiru, talk to her , even syndicate our political arguments, jokes, saying that maybe it would help.

About eight weeks ago, a mutual friend and comrade, Micheline, who had worked with Wanjiru at the Africa Centre, Akina Mama Wa Africa and Abantu, who is now
Africa Director of UNFIFEM in New York, came to Nairobi. She dragged me and her husband, James Oparo, who was as squeamish as me, to go and see Wanjiru instead of meeting up with Wanyiri after the closing hours.

And I am now glad I went again. We spent quite a long time with her, Mzee and Wanyiri chatting, being nostalgic and generally doing the usual exchange of hot political gossip that political activists are known for. Of course the Wanjiru on the bed was not the Wanjiru we had known. She was much smaller but the machines monitoring her heart beat became very agitated and Wanyiri explained to us that it meant she could hear us and was trying to respond.

After looking after a terminally ill person for a long time carers tend to become both medical doctors and believers in miracles. Wanyiri’s father in law and Wanyiri were virtually part of the hospital establishment. It was an act of spousal and parental devotion that is rarely seen these days.

Any African who was in the UK from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s would have known or heard about Wanjiru. She was very active in the Kenyan and Pan African struggles of those years. She was a pioneer African feminist working both for the liberation of Africa and the emancipation of African Women. At a time when many progressive groups paper over the gender dimension of struggles by declaring the revolution the only target, she and her fellow pioneering sisters formed AMWA and were insistent that the liberation of the African Woman should not be delayed until victory came. She was also an early mobilizer and organizer for what we called disdainfully in those days, ‘bourgeois democracy’. She believed in and worked for a democratic Kenya at a time when many of us thought we could use AK47 to shoot our way to State Lodges and rain down Socialism from above! She built solidarity with all kinds of progressive groups be they African, Latin American, Asian or European, believing and putting into practice the unity of progressive humanity in the face of national oppression and imperialism.

She was a mobiliser, organizer, agitator but also very enterprising. While she was ideologically and intellectually on the Nkrumah and WEB du Bois side of Pan Africanism, she was organizationally in the Garveyite tradition of creating independent economic bases for political struggle. She would organize Whip rounds, Harambe, individual taxation, fee paying get-togethers, sales of publications, auctions, and others all to support the struggle.

Most of the famous and not so famous Kenyan politicians that I know today were influenced by Wanjiru. The Kihoro’s little flat in Union Street, Clapham North, became both a haven and transit lounge for Kenyan activists running away from the authoritarian killer government of Moi and KANU. Wanjiru would organize for them to meet other Kenyans and Africans, members of the British establishment (Conservative or Labor), human rights groups, Diaspora lobbies, and others. She was capable of remaining in solidarity with comrades who had fallen out and even those fighting against governments like Jerry’s Ghana or the NRM in Uganda, with whom she had close personal and political associates.

When her husband, Wanyiri, was arrested in Kenya and detained without trial in the infamous Nyayo detention centre (a place built in the basement of a huge shopping complex without people suspecting for a long time that human beings were being tortured under their feet as they do their shopping) Wanjiru did not become a grieving exile widow but used his incarceration and torture to focus international attention on the deplorable human rights situation in Kenya. At that time Kenya was darling of the West. Moi was regarded as ‘moderate African leader’, provided military bases for the West and throughout the Cold War was on the right side of Washington and London. In return, his masters rewarded him with aid and loans. Western tourists and INGOs trooped to Kenya.

So close was the relationship with the British that throughout the 1980s the Thatcher government and later the Major government never allowed any big peaceful demonstration in front of the Kenyan High Commission. They used to allow only 12 demonstrators at a time. We used to organize 12 hour non-stop demos and the Kenyan security would film the 12 of us for those 12 hours! So complete was the hold of Moi/KANUon Kenyans that Wanjiru and her comrades could not raise 12 Kenyans for the demonstrations. The Kenyan regulars were usually Wanjiru and her comrades in the UKENYA and UMOJA external groupings for the Kenyan pro-Democracy Movement including Mwakenya. They included Yusuf Hassan, Wangui Wa Goro, Shiraz Duraini and Adulatif Abdallah. Ngugi wa Thiongo, after his release from detention without trial, became the titular leader of these groups. People like Irungu Houghton provided the back-stopping secretariat. Of course there were numerous other Africans, especially Nigerians and Ghanaians, allied to the Africa Research and Information Bureau (ARIB) and the journal, Africa World Review (AWR) and also those in the Solidarity movement on Kenya the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya ably led by the Trinidadian writer and publisher, John La Rose of New Beacon Books who, also sadly passed away early this year.

As Wanjiru is laid to rest I salute her courage in staying the course of the struggle and living to see a Kenya free of Moi and KANU rule. But I regret that she did not live long enough to enjoy the benefits of democracy for which she fought and sacrificed so much - ultimately her life, and am sadder still that many of the political leaders in Kenya today have forgotten so soon the pains and groans of the masses that brought them to power, and are behaving in a way that may make KANU seem electable again.

Since she died, there have been so many eulogies and praises from all kinds of people (many well meaning and deserving) but there are many from people shedding crocodile tears - especially politicians who betrayed the struggle – as well as those she helped bring to power who forgot about her as she lay wasting on the hospital bed I am sure Wanjiru would not have been surprised about this since she did not engage in the struggle because she wanted to be acknowledged. She was not without her own contradictions and weaknesses like all of us mortals. And for anyone engaged in struggle there were bound to be mistakes and misjudgments because the only person who does not make mistakes is the person who does nothing.

Sleep well Wanjiru, You did your best and your best was more than enough in one lifetime. Adieux Mama Pambana!

• Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

• Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Global: Day For Darfur Campaign

2006-11-01

http://www.dayfordarfur.org/index.asp

On September 17 2006 tens of thousands of people around the world took part in the Global Day for Darfur to show world-wide support for the Darfuri people and to put pressure on our Governments to protect the civilians. The people of Darfur continue to suffer needlessly. The Campaign Continues. The groups involved in the Global Day for Darfur are planning more events right around the globe to highlight this crisis.

Global: Food First Policy

2006-11-01

http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1527

The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced a joint $150 million Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), provoking immediate criticisms that the proposal fails to take into account the failures of the original Green Revolution.

Freedom will prevail in the end

Roselynn Musa

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/38116

What Reverend Mmoja Ajabu misses in his letter (www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/37997) to the editor is that Government Ministers in Zimbabwe have publicly said that the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are a non-event. The West is imposing sanctions so that ZANU [PF] governs the people of Zimbawe democratically. I am sure in the end democracy will prevail in Zimbabwe.The reverend should also know that ZANU [PF] blames the MDC for sanctions in order to divert the people of Zimbabwe from the real issues.

The issue of inter-continental adoption

Margherite Williams

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/38115

The article, ‘Madonna and David’( http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/38006) is a comprehensive discussion of social issues raised by an inter-continental adoption. There are value judgments made in the press and across the internet about the relative moral worth of the materialistic Western culture the boy will be raised in, versus the simpler and mythically uncorrupted lifestyle of the indigenous African. So long as these arguments remain at the level of "talking heads", there is probably no reason for concern. However, one assumes that Madonna will share the responsibility for caring for the child with nannies and tutors who might not be so discerning. I'd feel terrible sadness for a child who was taught to yearn for a romanticized paradise were he ever to dare to complain about London traffic noise or Washington politics.

The Situation in Somalia

Hadi Abdi Yusuf

2006-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/38114

First of all, I would like to thank you for the good job that you are doing, which a lot of people appreciate and find useful. The Somali Human Rights Action (SHRA), which I am the chairman of, is a grassroots organization working in the central regions of the country, particularly the Hiran Region and the capital city of Somalia, Mogadishu. The SHRA is a non-political and non-profit making organisation.

As much as we appreciate your efforts to highlight what is going on in Somalia, we feel that you are not talking much about the actual situation on the ground. Further, it seems as if most of your articles do not consider the history of Somalia when analysing the political situation.

We believe that there are very important historical factors that are necessary to include in the analysis of the political situation in Somalia. In addition, we believe that it is important to communicate these factors to the world.

In closing, I would like to caution you that the situation in Somalia may spread to other African countries, or the entire Horn of Africa.

Keep up the good work!

Editors reply: Thank you for your kind words. We would welcome articles from you or those you work with who might help overcome some of these limitations.

Africa: Civil Society Organisations' consultation

2006-11-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/38051

The Women, Gender and Development Directorate is organising a Civil Society Organizations’ (CSOs) Consultation from 02 to 03 November 2006 at the AU Commission in Addis Ababa. The purpose of the Consultation, on the role of the CSOs in the monitoring and reporting on the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA), is to work out a modality of collaboration between CSO partners and the Gender Directorate in the annual monitoring of and reporting on the implementation of the SDGEA.
AFRICAN UNION
COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION DIVISION
PRESS RELEASE N. 65/2006
CONSULTATION ON THE ROLE OF CSOS IN THE MONITORING AND REPORTING ON THE SOLEMN DECLARATION ON GENDER EQUALITY IN AFRICA

Addis Ababa - 01 November 2006 - The Women, Gender and Development Directorate is organising a Civil Society Organizations’ (CSOs) Consultation from 02 to 03 November 2006 at the AU Commission in Addis Ababa.

The purpose of the Consultation, on the role of the CSOs in the monitoring and reporting on the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA), is to work out a modality of collaboration between CSO partners and the Gender Directorate in the annual monitoring of and reporting on the implementation of the SDGEA. The Consultation will also consider the future role of the Pan African Women Organization (PAWO) within the African Union.

The first day (02 November) will be devoted to Consultation on the role of the CSOs in the monitoring and reporting on the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA), adopted in July 2004.

Deliberations will focus on the modality for a coordinated collaboration between CSO partners and the Gender Directorate in the annual monitoring of and reporting on the implementation of the SDGEA.

The second day (03 November) will be devoted to discussion on the future role of PAWO within the AU (Work program attached.)
Participants will be drawn from African Civil Society Organizations in each of the five regions, the RECs, AU Commission and the NEPAD Secretariat.

Media representatives are invited to cover the proceedings of this consultation.

Communications division contacts:
AFRICAN UNION
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
P. O. Box 3243
Telephone: 0115 511092
(Direct) 0115 517 700 Ext. 220
Fax : 0115 510154
Web Site : www. africa-union.org

First Pan African Cultural Congress

Addis Ababa 13-15 November 2006

2006-11-02

http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/index/index.htm

The First Pan African Cultural Congress organised by the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia will be held on 13-15 November. The agenda for the meeting has beein published and includes sessions on Memory and Heritage; Language, Culture, and Education; Culture, Youth, and Gender; Cultural Rights, Freedoms, and Intellectual Property Rights; Cultural Development; Culture, Development, and Social Transformation; Cultural Policies in Africa; African Culture, the Media, and New Technologies.

Africa: Women in the New Millennium

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610290157.html

In this dynamic analysis of the gender revolution, authors Anne Breneman and Rebecca Mbuh create a platform for scholars from a variety of cultures to reflect upon their experiences as women and men in gendered cultures and upon their visions of prospects for gender equality and empowerment. Conceived during the United Nation's Fourth World Women's Conference in 1995 and continued during the Beijing +5 conference in 2000, this work represents the culmination of a ten-year project involving women from China, Sweden, Korea, Cameroon, Indonesia, South Africa, and the USA.

Global: Nairobi+21 Journal

2006-11-01

http://www.agenda.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1585

This journal published by AGenda, creates a space for discourse between generations. Feminists and activists of the 'older generation', the stalwarts of the women's rights movements, investigate the successes as well as the short-comings of the last two decades.

Namibia: Domestic Violence Tops Crimes Against Women

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610300725.html

More than one-fifth of all violent crimes in Namibia occurs in the context of domestic relationships. Due to this finding, which forms part of the Legal Assistance Centre, research on the implementation of the Combating of Rape Act and the Combating of Domestic Violence Act that is still underway, the LAC feels that if domestic violence is eliminated from society, women will be significantly safer from this crime.

Namibia: Women suffer a host of health issues

2006-11-01

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php

A recent draft health assessment of women's health in three regions of Namibia where the HIV prevalence rate is high has identified six diseases including HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and cancers as priority health issues affecting women. The Community Assessment of Women's Health care in Namibia, carried out in Khomas, Caprivi and Kavango was done on women who are HIV-positive and negative, untested women, community leaders and service providers during which it found that HIV, STIs various cancers, high blood pressure and tuberculosis are the most pressing of health issues that the women face.

South Africa: The Slide From Poverty Into the Sex Trade

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610290008.html

Two men walk determinedly towards the improvised minibus taxi rank on the Mpumalanga side of the Ressano Garcia border post with Mozambique. One dangles a faded canvas bag leisurely over his shoulder. The other mumbles something in Portuguese and points a finger in the direction of the taxis, his unoccupied arm swinging purposefully as if to remind the two women in tow carrying heavy bags that being a man extricates him from such burdensome preoccupations.

Swaziland: A woman deputy prime minister

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56115

Swazi gender rights groups have welcomed the appointment of a woman to the post of deputy prime minister in a country that only this year granted women equal rights under the constitution. "I think it is about time we had capable women in that position," said Lomcebo Dlamini, director of the Swaziland branch of the non-governmental organisation, Women in Law in Southern Africa.

Women’s Peace Torch Arrives in Uganda

2006-11-01

http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=525

The Women's Peace Torch arrives today in Kampala to begin a journey of solidarity with the women of Northern Uganda. Having travelled in 2003 to more than 10 African countries in preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing with the message, "There is no sustainable development without peace," and to the Democratic Republic of Congo during the review of the Dakar Platform for Action, the Women's Peace.

Zimbabwe: Midwives Shortage Affects Service Delivery

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310535.html

The maternity wing at Harare Central Hospital has been hit by a critical shortage of midwives, seriously compromising service delivery. Out of the required 158, only 41 are at work and are overwhelmed by work so much that they are finding it difficult to cope.

CAR: Ratify protocol on African Court of Human Rights

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56104

Central African non-governmental organisations are urging states within their region to ratify the protocol on the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights to bolster the fight against impunity and corruption. "It is time civil-society organisations in central Africa mobilised together to get our states really engaged in the establishment of the African Court," Loamba Moké, the central Africa coordinator and focal point for the coalition advocating the establishment of the court, said.

Global: Amnesty International honours Mandela

2006-11-01

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=288581

Amnesty International bestowed its most prestigious honour -- the Ambassador of Conscience Award 2006 -- on former president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on Wednesday (1 November 2006). The award recognises exceptional individual leadership in the fight to protect and promote universal human rights. Amnesty International spokesperson Bill Shipsey said Mandela had come to symbolise all that was hopeful and idealistic in public life, more than any other living person.

Global: Promises to eradicate hunger

2006-11-01

http://www.hrea.org/lists/display.php?headline_id=4669

Despite repeated promises to eradicate hunger, the number of people going hungry continues to grow - now more than 852 million - with a child dying every five seconds from malnutrition and related diseases, an independent United Nations expert said today. It is a "shame on humanity," especially when the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) calculates that our planet could feed twice the current population of 6 billion if there were better food distribution, the UNHCHR Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler told a press conference.

Sudan: Darfur Lawyer Defends Victims

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200611010032.html

Salih Mahmoud Osman, a lawyer who has defended and given free legal aid to hundreds of victims of human rights abuses in Darfur, Sudan for the past two decades will receive Human Rights Watch's highest award on November 7. Osman, who is from the Darfur region of Sudan, has provided legal representation to those who have been arbitrarily detained and tortured by the Sudanese government, regardless of which ethnic group they are from.

Zambia: Govt moves in to check human trafficking

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56130

Orphaned at the age of nine, Miselo fell into prostitution at 14, plying her trade in bars and clubs in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, sometimes waking up beaten, lost and dumped on the street. Now 18, she has an 18-month old daughter to care for. Hardly a charmed life – but it could have been much worse. Last year, Miselo met a truck driver at a bar where she was working and they struck up a friendship that seemed truer than the usual quick-money relationships she was used to.

Zimbabwe: Government Intensifies Crackdown on Dissent

2006-10-31

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/30/zimbab14478.htm

In reaction to a recent wave of protests against deteriorating social and economic conditions in the country, the Zimbabwean government has intensified its campaign to suppress peaceful dissent, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today (1 November 2006). The 28-page report, “‘You Will Be Thoroughly Beaten’: The Brutal Suppression of Dissent in Zimbabwe,” reveals the repressive tactics that the government has used against civil society activists in the past year.

DRC: IDP return picks up

2006-11-01

http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountrySummaries)/084820F49F706085C1257211004F5BD1?OpenDocument&count=10000

Despite renewed attacks and displacement, the security situation in DRC improved in 2006 compared to previous years. The first round of presidential elections took place relatively peacefully in July 2006. Moreover, military operations to drive out militias with the support of peacekeeping troops have allowed the Congolese government to dominate large areas of eastern DRC, and permitted hundreds of thousands to return home.

Egypt: Who asked them anyway?

2006-11-01

http://www.aucegypt.edu/fmrs/documents/kasiasreport_000.pdf

Instead of looking exclusively at international policies affecting refugees, the research also considered domestic policies and how they determine the identities, opportunities and welfare of asylum seekers. The contradictions between these policies and their actual implementation were considered, which included looking closely at the role of international, local and community-based actors.

Ethiopia: Death toll rises to 67

2006-11-01

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31341209.htm

Another 2,000 people were displaced when the towns of Kibredehar and Musthale were inundated following heavy rains in the country's highlands. A United Nations humanitarian agency said last month that devastating flash floods in August had forced more than 135,000 Ethiopians to abandon their homes.

Gambia: New arrivals from Senegal

2006-11-01

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/ce5d0e1b01962a4afa215741aa31efb5.htm

Refugees from Senegal's southern Casamance region continue to arrive in Gambian villages along the border. Over 800 arrived across the border between Senegal and Gambia during the second half of October, bringing the total to more than 6,200 Senegalese refugees in Gambia.

Global: Internally Displaced People

2006-11-01

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900SID/AMMF-6UBHG8?OpenDocument

This paper from UNHCR is a compilation of questions and answers regarding Internally Displaced Persons. For decades they were largely ignored and forgotten, but together they probably comprise the world's largest group of vulnerable people.

Global: Negotiating access and culture

2006-11-01

http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/WP33%20Healtchare%20Provision%20and%20HIV%20LC.pdf

This Refugee Studies Centre Working Paper seeks to illustrate the complexity of factors that influence healthcare decisions and opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers living with HIV. It reviews the cultural, social, legal, institutional and structural barriers that jointly prevent effective and successful healthcare utilisation.

Global: Reparations, reconciliation and forced migration

2006-11-01

http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo044/

This guide is not intended to provide a comprehensive discussion of reparations and reconciliation, which are both highly complex and contested concepts. Instead, the goal of this guide is to highlight some of the key legal, political, technical, ethical and development issues raised by reconciliation and redress as they relate to forced migration, with a focus on conflict-induced displacement.

Kenya: The stranded 2 000 Somali Refugees

2006-10-31

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/454203a02.html

A UNHCR team is heading to Liboi on the Kenya/Somali border Friday (27 October 2006) to arrange the transfer of some 2,000 Somali refugees reported to be waiting there after the shuttling to the Dadaab camps was suspended mid-October. The suspension was put in force after it was discovered that Kenyan nationals were fraudulently presenting themselves as refugees, and that refugees already registered at the Dadaab camps were posing as new refugees with the aim of receiving multiple registration cards and consequently more assistance.

Niger: Refugees can stay

2006-11-01

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2021884,00.html

Niger's government has called off a threat to expel thousands of Arab refugees from neighbouring Chad. No reason was given for the move, announced in a government statement. "After studying this question and all its socio-economic implications, the government has decided to stop the expulsions," government spokesperson Mohamed Ben Omar said in a statement broadcast on state television.

Angola: Militants to Cooperate With Government

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310508.html

The president of UNITA, the country's main opposition party, Isaias Samakuva, last weekend urged the militants and members of his organisation to collaborate with the government in the improvement of the social conditions of the populations. Speaking at the end of the fourth UNITA Parliamentary Gathering, which took place at Quibaxi village, Dembos municipality of the north-central Bengo Province, Isaias Samakuva pointed the bad state of the roads as the main obstacle which hinders the development of this region.

DRC: Appeals for calm

2006-11-01

http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=12911

The African Union on Tuesday (31 October 2006) hailed the hailed the generally peaceful conduct of the second-round presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo and called for calm as the vast nation awaits final results. In a statement released here, the AU Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare welcomed "the smooth conduct of the second round of the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo."

DRC: From Votes to Security?

2006-11-01

http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/conk0610.php

Voting went peacefully in presidential runoff elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo on October 29. And both contenders have promised not to resort to force to contest the results. But there is still a significant threat of violence as the votes are counted. While most observers see the election success as a "moment of hope" for the Congo, there is also agreement that fundamental issues of security, corruption, and governance, as well as how to sustain international funding for reconstruction, are still unresolved.

DRC: Polls repeated in volatile areas

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56140

Repeat elections have been conducted in parts of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri District following disturbances during Sunday's presidential polls. Speaking on Tuesday (31 October 2006), the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Apollinaire Malumalu, told IRIN that the disturbances had occurred in Fataki, 90 km northeast of Bunia, the main town in Ituri, after a soldier shot dead two polling clerks.

Nigeria: Nigeria’s Faltering Federal Experiment

2006-10-31

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4464&l=1

Nigeria’s federal system and politics are deeply flawed, contributing to rising violence that threatens to destabilise one of Africa’s leading countries, says a new Crisisgroup report. Failing to encourage genuine power sharing, they have sparked dangerous rivalries between the centre and the 36 states over revenue from the country’s oil and other natural resources; promoted no-holds-barred struggles between interests groups to capture the state and its attendant wealth; and facilitated the emergence of violent ethnic militias, while politicians play on and exacerbate inter-communal tensions to cover up their corruption.

Somalia: Hardline positions delay talks between rivals

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56136

Reconciliation talks between Somalia's transitional government and the country's politically influential Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) stalled in Sudan for a second day on Tuesday (31 October 2006), raising fears that attempts to broker a peace deal between the two rival groups were on the brink of collapse, officials said.

Global: Corrupting The Fight Against Corruption

2006-11-01

http://www.namibian.com.na/

At its recent annual meeting, World Bank officials spoke extensively about corruption. Joseph Stiglitz, in an article appearing in the Namibian, gave recommendations for the World Bank if it is to successfully take up the fight against corruption. First, corruption takes many forms, so a war on corruption has to be fought on many fronts. Second, it's fine for the World Bank to deliver anti-corruption sermons, but policies, procedures, and institutions are what matter.

Uganda: Donors Want UPE Fund Fraudsters Sued

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310154.html

The Government should put in place a system to prosecute individuals who misuse Universal Primary Education (UPE) funds, development partners said yesterday. USAID deputy mission director Elzadia washington said although the Government had recognised education as productive for the future of Ugandans, the sector suffered from corruption, including ghost teachers and pupils.

Africa: Development Indicators Improve

2006-11-01

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21107847~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

Many African countries, including Senegal, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Uganda, Ghana and Cape Verde, have lifted significant percentages of their citizens above the poverty line and might well be on course to meeting the income poverty Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving poverty by 2010, according to a World Bank report.

Egypt: Urban Poor Turn to the Street

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310360.html

The poor in Egypt's heaving capital city, Cairo, are increasingly turning to selling cheap products in the street as a means to survive despite its limitations, say specialists. "We have a 'street society' in Egypt. So when families need extra money to survive, street selling is one of the easiest ways to get it,"said Dr Sarah Loza, a sociologist who runs SPAAC, a social policy NGO in Cairo. Street vendors have become a major part of Egypt's large 'informal sector' - unregistered employment without taxes or benefits - which some experts say makes up around 30 per cent of the national economy.

Global: Communication for development

2006-11-01

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5042338

After the formal greetings and a string of political and international organisation figures lining up to express their good intentions towards communication for development, the World Congress on the Communication for Development (WCCD) really got started with a session explaining what the goals of the congress were.

Namibia: Informal Economy is Growing

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310216.html

The informal economic sector in Namibia should not be ignored, as it provides income for at least 133 000 people, most of them self-employed, says a new study. More than half are women, who comprised 53,1 per cent of the 488 people in six regions interviewed by the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRi).

Africa: ARVs on the frontline

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56068

Providing HIV/AIDS treatment and care in countries at peace is hard enough; extending those services to people on the run from conflict or disaster seems, on the face of it, hopelessly complicated. But even during the height of the fighting in war-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the medical relief group Médecins Sans Frontières was doing it in two clinics in Bukavu, capital of South Kivu Province, developing a model that has been replicated in other conflict areas.

Africa: Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis on the Rise

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200611010100.html

Massive social mobilization is needed to defeat the deadly resurgence of tuberculosis, says the Open Society Institute’s Public Health Watch in five new reports released today. The studies on TB policy in Bangladesh, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Thailand highlight how TB, HIV/AIDS, and poverty combine to cause almost two million preventable deaths each year.

Africa: Why has the G8 defaulted?

2006-11-01

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=288098

The United Nations' special envoy for HIV and Aids in Africa accused the world's wealthiest countries on Sunday (29 October 2006) of failing to deliver on promises to increase aid to the most impoverished continent. "Where is the G8 money? Where is the promise? ... The world is running out of patience. Why has the G8 defaulted?" Stephen Lewis told reporters in Malawi.

Global: WHO calls for cheaper TB tests for developing world

2006-10-31

http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&item=News&itemid=3183&language=1

Better and cheaper tests for tuberculosis are badly needed in developing countries, where there is a large and relatively untapped market for them, says the World Health Organization. The UN health agency called for industry investment in better tuberculosis (TB) testing methods in a report published this week (25 October), stressing the impressive market available for these diagnostic tests in developing countries.

Malawi: irrigation clubs help HIV/AIDS-stricken communities

2006-10-31

http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/06/06103001/index.asp

Mr Nkhoma has a big smile on his face as we join him in front of his impressive maize field in the village of Kajintchi, 120 km to the north of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. He is the president of one of the 42 clubs in the irrigation project implemented by the Malawi Red Cross with the support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, who supply them with seed, a pump and give technical advice.

Swaziland: AIDS campaign induces behaviour change

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56085

An aggressive HIV/AIDS awareness campaign has had a positive impact on the sexual behaviour and attitudes of Swazis, a new survey has found. More than 40 percent of the land-locked kingdom's adults are HIV positive. The study was commissioned by the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and conducted by the Mexico-based research centre, Community Information and Epidemiological Technologies (CIET).

Uganda: Mother-to-child Aids vaccine trials

2006-11-01

http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/News301020063.htm

Ugandan and American Aids researchers have begun the first ever clinical trial of a vaccine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through breast-feeding which, if successful, could prevent at least 25,000 infections in new-borns in East Africa alone. In the first phase of the trials the researchers will be testing whether the vaccine, formally known as ALVAC-HIV, is safe for use in children, following which they will study whether it can stop the transmission of the Aids virus to a suckling baby through breastmilk. Preliminary results are expected in mid-2007.

Botswana: School fees and HIV/Aids

2006-11-01

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php

The Government of Botswana's decision to reinstate secondary school fees after a 20-year hiatus may have negative implications for the country's fight against HIV/AIDS. In the experience of other developing countries, the introduction of even modest school fees has led to falling enrollment, as the most vulnerable students drop out of school. Often parents pull girls out of school first, preferring to invest their limited resources in sons, who tend to attain higher salaries in the future.

Global: Childhood care and education, the forgotten link

2006-11-01

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35377

Latin America and the Caribbean leads the developing world in the provision of pre-school education, according to the annual Education for All Global Monitoring Report, published by UNESCO last week. However, despite well-documented benefits for child development and well-being, the Report finds that this area remains the forgotten link in the education chain in many regions, and that half the world’s countries have no early childhood care and education policy for children under age three.

Kenya: Another Varsity Closed

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200611010049.html

The lecturers strike bit harder as another university was closed, while some institutions refused to release the tutors' salaries. It was a rude shock for some lecturers yesterday (30 October 2006) who had gone to banks to withdraw their October pay, only to be turned away. Investigation by The East African Standard showed that at least three universities have not released the salaries. At Kenyatta University, which has 700 lecturers, only 100, who are also administrators, have been paid.

Liberia: EC Signs Euro 12 Million Education Plan

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310491.html

The European Commission (EC) has presented a 12 million Euro (US$ 14.4m) agreement to President Johnson-Sirleaf for long-term assistance and quick impact support to the education sector of Liberia. According to a press release, the EC Support to Education in Liberia (ECSEL) Programme was developed after extensive consultations with the Ministry of Education between 2005 and 2006.

South Africa: A Framework for Non-Fee Paying Schools

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310270.html

The South African Department of Education is to develop a framework, which allows advantaged schools to receive subsidies if they enrolled non-fee paying learners. This after Education Minister Naledi Pandor recognised that the number of fee exemptions granted to poor learners at certain schools was becoming a burden on schools' finances.

East Africa: Xenophobia and the EA federation

2006-11-01

http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/Opinion3010200611.htm

There is a new wave of xenophobia that is slowly creeping into the East African region that if not nipped in the bud, could undermine the ongoing efforts at political federation, the much cherished goal of our region. The timing of this xenophobia is unfortunate. It has come at a time when the leaders of East Africa have just launched the fast-tracking of the political federation.

Africa: Study Shows Urgent Measures Needed

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610301100.html

A tough package of measures to reduce climate change-causing emissions, including legally-binding annual targets, must follow today’s publication of the Stern Report in the UK, Friends of the Earth International urged today. The ‘Stern Review on the economics of climate change’, which looks at the economic costs of climate change, shows that governments can afford to act – and must do so urgently – to avoid disastrous economic costs.

Global: Corals get climate survival guide

2006-11-01

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6103314.stm

Strategies to help vulnerable marine ecosystems survive the impact of climate change have been published by conservationists. Coral reefs and mangroves are being degraded by global warming, pollution and coastal developments, they said. The authors believe limiting the human impact on the habitats will allow them to be more resilient to climate shifts.

Global: Programs to combat climate change

2006-11-01

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php

Governments from 190 countries will meet in Nairobi, Kenya on the 6th November for the UN climate negotiations to shape the future of an international climate agreement. The talks are crucial in taking forward the international agenda on tackling climate change – with scientists agreed that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Nigeria: Among the five most polluted spots on earth

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310595.html

The Niger Delta has been impacted by 1.5 million tons of crude oil spill over the last 50 years threatening rare species including primate fish, turtles, bird and damaging crops while destroying the livelihood of many of the 20 million people living there and fuelling the upsurge in violence. Experts have also listed the Niger Delta among the five most polluted spots on the face of the earth with dire consequences for the health of inhabitants of the area.

Kenya: The National Land Policy Document

2006-10-31

http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143960283

Ethnic conflicts over land and the issue of absentee landlords, who control huge tracts of land, are some of the critical issues addressed by Kenya’s new National Land Policy document. Other key areas that the proposed land policy seeks to address are problems related to historical injustices over land tenure, the mushrooming of slums and other unplanned settlements.

Namibia: San Communal Lands Contested

2006-11-01

http://www.namibian.com.na/

The Namibian San are living lives of poverty and dislocation. While different San peoples face different situations, there is a depressing common core to their poverty. It begins with being landless, often on their own land. Government policies since Independence, some well meant, some ignorant of San needs, have not helped.

Rwanda: Life mirrors the tumult of Great Lakes

2006-10-31

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/4540c03e4.html

After an epic decade on the move, victims to every spasm of war that has convulsed Africa's Great Lake's region, Rwandan refugees Hilarie Mukamurara and her husband, Pierre Myiridandi, finally made it back to their home village last year – only to find that their three plots of land had been illegally sold in their absence.

DRC: Child 'paparazzi' snap DRC at election time

2006-11-01

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=288070

Bwinja Bwinja points his digital camera at a ripped election poster of presidential hopeful Jean-Pierre Bemba and snaps away. The 12-year-old boy's camera has given him a special role in the Democratic Republic of Congo's historic election. At night he sleeps with his 10 brothers and sisters in a freight container and an old bus burned and caked in lava from a 2002 eruption of the nearby Niyarongo volcano in this eastern Congolese city.

DRC: Monuc Press Review

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610300899.html

Unsurprisingly, the main stories in today's Kinshasa press are all related to the second and final round of DR Congo presidential election which was held yesterday all over the country. On Sunday, 29 October, as they went to the ballot box to select the country's first democratically president in more that 40 years, Congolese voters demonstrated a sense "discipline, dignity and responsibility", in the way they did in July's first round of voting, Le Phare notes.

Global: Audience left laughing and out of breath

2006-10-31

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=5042449

In a packed plenary room of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome this week, the BBC’s World Service Trust organised a world debate, hosted by BBC World star moderator Stephen Sackur. The “Is a Free Media Essential for Development?” question was asked to a panel of five people from all continents, as a contribution to the first World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD) that spans from October 25 to 27.

Global: UNESCO TV documentary

2006-11-01

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35384

“The Children of Darfur”, directed by Denmark’s Camilla Nielsson and produced by UNESCO, received the International TV3 Actual Award in Barcelona, Spain, a 10,000-euro first prize for outstanding examples of investigative journalism. The Award is organized by the Catalan Broadcasting Corporation in order to recognize investigative journalism, encourage reporters/filmmakers to continue their work in this genre and give due recognition to their talent.

South Africa: SABC board divided over blacklist report

2006-11-01

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A306146

SABC board members did not agree unanimously with the way the state broadcaster handled its response to the report of a commission of inquiry on allegations that it blacklisted political commentators, Parliament’s communications committee heard yesterday. Board member Prof Alison Gillwald said she understood a board decision for an ad hoc committee to draw up a statement meant that board members would have an opportunity to scrutinise it before its release.

Global: The new African-Americans

2006-11-01

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=9800

Hailing from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, South Africa and other countries, the area's African-born population is diverse within itself. Its growth in recent years, which is expected to continue, could change the face of the traditional black community here as it has in some other parts of the country.

Global: The Return of The Bell Curve

2006-10-31

http://www.blackcommentator.com/203/203_left_margin_bell_curve_bloice_ed_bd.html

On more than one occasion over recent months I’ve heard or read something actually defending inequality. After a lifetime of hearing about the idea of “liberty, equality and fraternity”, I was hearing educated people saying inequality is what keeps the system going - a motive force propelling our society to ever new heights.

Africa: Security Council extends UN mission

2006-11-01

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20441

Calling on all parties in the Western Sahara and neighbouring states to cooperate fully with the United Nations mission in bringing peace to the disputed territory, the Security-Council today voted to extend the UN mission for another six months until April next year.

CAR: Rebels capture key town

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56127

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has called on the international community to help it restore peace and order in its northern town of Birao. The town was captured by a rebel coalition calling itself the Union des Forces Démocratiques pour le Rassemblement on Monday (30 October 2006).

Côte d’Ivoire : Divided country united in opposition

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56114

Tension is rising in Cote d'Ivoire as opposition and government supporters threaten to oppose a new peace plan expected to be approved on Tuesday (31 October 2006) by the United Nations Security Council to reunite the divided country. A 12-month extension of President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate endorsed by the Security Council in October last year failed to result in long-awaited presidential elections, and the polls have been postponed again.

Global: International Arms Trade Treaty

2006-10-31

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/ca-271006

Last week at the United Nations, the majority of the world’s governments took the first step towards a global Arms Trade Treaty to prevent international arms transfers that fuel conflict, poverty and serious human rights violations. The vote comes three years after the launch of a campaign, which has seen over a million people in 170 countries calling for a Treaty.

Somalia: Egyptian Government to Mediate Rivaling Groups

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200611010010.html

The supreme leader of Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts judiciary council Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys is in Cairo, Egypt, to convene with senior Egyptian officials over the tense situation surrounding the peace talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum between the interim government and Somalia's Islamists.

Sudan: Ambassador adamant Pronk stays out

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56080

The Sudanese ambassador to the UN told reporters on Thursday (26 October 2006) that the head of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, Jan Pronk, who was expelled from the country for remarks in his personal web-blog, had not supported the Khartoum government. Responding to questions on Pronk's status, Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem said, "He was a failure as far as we are concerned. He was not supportive, he was abusive, he became part of the problem rather than the solution."

Sudan: Military solution in Darfur

2006-11-01

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56102

In his briefing to the United Nations Security Council on Friday (27 October 2006), the UN’s top official in Sudan, Jan Pronk, highlighted the government’s gross violations of the Darfur Peace Agreement and stressed that Sudan was still looking for a military solution to the deepening crisis. Pronk added that his ongoing criticism of the Sudanese government’s decision to seek a military solution, having signed a ceasefire agreement, had prompted his expulsion from his position of UN Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Sudan.

Uganda: Revised Govt-LRA Ceasefire Deal Signed

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200611010038.html

Talks aimed at ending two decades of fighting in northern Uganda, were given a boost on Wednesday (1 November 2006) with the signing of a revamped truce in Juba, south Sudan, officials said. The Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) ended a week-long impasse when they penned the landmark agreement. Under the latest ceasefire, the LRA will return to two previously abandoned neutral sites in southern Sudan which they had fled fearing attacks from the Ugandan army.

East Africa: UNICEF launches online swahili game

2006-11-01

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20438

Seeking to reach East African adolescents and young people in the battle against AIDS, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched its first interactive feature in Swahili, an online game that empowers the young to make good life choices and prevent HIV.

Global: Nonprofit Blogging Strategies

2006-11-02

http://www.gilbert.org/programs/workshops/Seminars/NPBlogS#lp

It's easy to start a weblog. It's harder to have it be of strategic value. To most people, even the words "blogging" and "weblog" don't sound strategic. Blogging's conflicting reputation as either the future of journalism on the one hand or personal gossip rag on the other makes it hard to see where it fits in our communication plans.

Global: Technological convergence

2006-11-01

http://rights.apc.org/documents/convergence_EN.pdf

The decade since the mid-90s saw a series of changes in the communications environment as African governments moved away from monopoly ownership of national telcom operators to competition among a variety of players offering communications services. Open markets and independent and transparent regulators were increasingly seen as necessary conditions for investment.

Rwanda: Medics to use cell-phones

2006-10-31

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html#useful

Health workers are soon to start using their cell phones to track and control the spread of HIV/Aids and other diseases countrywide. This is due to a mobile phone application that has been introduced in Rwanda before any other African country. The application has been introduced under the auspices of Voxiva Inc-US and GSMA. a global trade association for GSM mobile phone operators.

Rwanda: Rwanda To Become Top ICT Hub

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310255.html

All public schools in Rwanda are expected to join the information super-highway by the end of next year. Already, half of the primary and secondary schools have embraced the new technology, which has been given priority by the Government under its 2020 vision programme. The on-going programme includes tertiary and university students, and is part of a national IT policy to make the tiny Great Lakes nation, which is still recovering from the 1994 genocide, a force to reckon with globally.

South Africa: Lessons for the continent

2006-10-31

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html

There has been a recent set of developments in South Africa that bring convergence between the worlds of telecommunications, media and broadcast much closer. Three things in particular – media liberalisation, new technologies to deliver media and yet another project that promises cheap bandwidth – all make it likely that South Africa will become the first fully converged market on the continent.

South Africa: Making ICTs accessible and affordable

2006-11-01

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310212.html

The Portfolio Committee on Communications is leaving no stones unturned in influencing the rollout of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to all South Africans. Without access to the means to communicate and distribute information and communication South Africa's democracy will remain a monopoly of the rich and the powerful. Access and affordability of Internet and broadband connectivity have remained a problem area for the government and this is despite the government's efforts to make ICTs available to all South Africans.

Africa: 2006 Gender Symposium

2006-10-31

http://www.codesria.org/Links/new06/gender_symp06.pdf

In the period since the beginning of the 1990s, CODESRIA has been at the forefront of the quest to harness the efforts of African scholars in both extending the frontiers of knowledge production around issues of gender, and doing so in a manner that ensures that for as many scholars as are active in its networks and at other African sites of scholarly work, gender is integrated into their frames of analyses.

Africa: National Institute for Medical Research

2006-11-01

http://www.nimr.or.tz/Pages/Activities.html

The 22 nd Annual Joint Scientific Conference (AJSC) of the National Institute for Medical Research, Tanzania will be held at the Arusha International Conference Centre, Arusha, Tanzania from March 06-09, 2007. The Conference will be followed by a Workshop on Translation of Health Research into Policy and Practice to be held on March 9, 2006.

Africa: Small Grants For Thesis Writing

2006-10-31

http://www.codesria.org/Links/new06/small_grants06.pdf

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the eighteenth competition under its Small Grants Programme for Thesis Writing. The grants are intended to contribute to the development of the social sciences in Africa and the strengthening of the research capacities in African universities through the funding of primary research conducted by post-graduate students and professionals.

Global: African Conflict and Peace Review

2006-11-01

http://www.upeace.org/system/africa/news.cfm?id_activity=423&actual=2006

A new academic journal will be launched during 2007, dealing with conflict and peace issues from a multi-disciplinary, and distinctly African perspective. The African Conflict and Peace Review will provide a vehicle for African scholars, and those focussing on Africa, to publish their views on issues of conflict and peace affecting the continent.
Call for Papers African Conflict and Peace Review

A new academic journal will be launched during 2007, dealing with conflict and peace issues from a multi-disciplinary, and distinctly African perspective. The African Conflict and Peace Review will provide a vehicle for African scholars, and those focussing on Africa, to publish their views on issues of conflict and peace affecting the continent.

Researchers from any discipline – political science, media studies, law, sociology, etc – are invited to submit articles for publication. The Review will endeavour to publish articles reflecting a diversity of topics and a diversity of approaches. The ideal article should be between 5 000 and 7 500 words and, at least during the initial years, there will be a preference for introductory and general articles, although some outstanding articles dealing with issues in more depth will also be considered. It is hoped that a significant number of articles published in the Review will be of such a nature that they can be prescribed in undergraduate as well as postgraduate courses in African universities.

The aim of the Review is to make Africa’s voice on the pivotal issue of peace and conflict on the continent heard, and to help ensure that the scholarly community in Africa engage with one another on issues relating to continental peace and security.

The Review will appear twice a year from 2007. Articles can be submitted on a continuous basis, and will be peer reviewed. The focus will be on quality, originality and relevance, and engagement with the scholarly literature on the topic addressed. All sources should be recognised and references provided in footnotes. Book reviews are also welcome.

Articles must conform to the Guide for Contributors, available at www.africa.upeace.org and may be submitted to karen.stefiszyn@up.ac.za
To subscribe, please contact:
African Conflict and Peace Review UPEACE Africa Programme C/O Centre for Human Rights University of Pretoria South Africa
0002 Tel: +27 12 420 4948 Fax: +27 12 362 5125 pulp@up.ac.za

Global: Individual registration for WSF 2007

2006-10-31

http://wsf2007.org/individual-registration-for-wsf-2007-is-now-open

The Individual Registration Form is now available on the website. Download it, fill it in, and return the form to the WSF 2007 Secretariat. A few days after you have registered, you will receive a CODE that you need to make the payment for your individual registration; then visit the event website (www.wsf2007.org) to make the payment online.

Global: Registration Announcement

2006-11-01

http://wsf2007.org/registrations

Registration of organizations and activities for the WSF 2007 event is now open. Please note that organizations – not individuals – can register activities. Registration of organizations that have access to the Internet is done in wsfprocess.net Detailed guidelines on how to register organizations as well as activities are found on the website.

Africa: ReConnect Africa November Issue

2006-11-01

http://www.reconnectafrica.com/

Connecting Africa to the global world, ReConnect Africa is a unique online publication and portal that provides readily accessible information and essential services for employers who recruit, manage and develop African human resources and for graduates and professionals in Africa and the Diaspora seeking opportunities in employment, business and investment in Africa.

Kenya: Vacancy Announcement

Kenya Community Based Health Financing Association

2006-11-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/38056

Kenya Community Based Health Financing Association was registered in 2002 under the Societies Act of Kenya. Currently the Association has nine member organizations and it seeks to participate in advancing access to quality and affordable health care through initiatives that are based on the values of justice, peace, good governance, human rights, gender equality and equity and sustainable human resource development.
KENYA COMMUNITY BASED HEALTH FINANCING ASSOCIATION
c/o P O BOX 6736, KONDELE 40103, KISUMU


VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Kenya Community Based Health Financing Association was registered in 2002 under the Societies Act of Kenya. Currently the Association has nine member organizations and it seeks to participate in advancing access to quality and affordable health care through initiatives that are based on the values of justice, peace, good governance, human rights, gender equality and equity and sustainable human resource development. The Association seeks to recruit qualified Kenyan citizens for the following positions:

NATIONAL CO-ORDINATOR

The person will oversee the activities of the Association both at the national office and in the field, act as a Public Relations Officer for the Association and liaise with Government officials and development partners, encourage new initiatives in community health financing and promote research in this field of study

Major Responsibilities
• Official representative of Kenya community Based Health Financing Association
• Co-ordinate, lobby and advocate for community based health financing (CBHF)
• Organize national conferences in collaboration with the Executive Committee
• Fundraising for the Association
• Liaise with Donors/Government Ministries
• Collect and compile reports from member Associations
• Provide support, technical assistance, assess training needs and prepare appropriate training in collaboration with member Associations
• Co-ordinate research work on CBHF
• Gather information for Resource Centre
• Ensuring that funding contracts between development partners, Kenya Community Based Health Funding Associations and member organizations are adhered to

Qualifications required
• Degree in Social Sciences, Public Health or any other related field
• At least 5 years work experience in a related field, preferably in Project Management, Hospital Administration or Health Insurance
• Computer literate

Skills Required
• Good communication and interpersonal skills
• Good analytical and report writing skills
• Financial and office management skills
• Public relations skills
• Planning skills
• Working experience with donors and Government departments
• Self motivated
• Prepared to travel widely in Kenya
• Prepared to work long hours

REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR

The person will keep a good and accurate record of the Association’s finances by recording all income and expenditure receipts and maintain a set of books of accounts, maintain in good condition all association’s property including furniture, office equipment and records

Major responsibilities
• Day-to-day running of the Association’s activities
• Keeping of records
• Assist in preparing budgets
• Keeping proper books of Accounts
• Prepare books of accounts for audit
• Compile reports from member Associations (narrative and financial)
• Maintain the Association’s Resource Centre
• Keep an inventory of all organization’s property
• Maintain a schedule for reporting

Qualifications
• At least a CPA II, Section 4
• Computer literate
• Administration skills an added advantage

Skills Required
• Good oral and written communication skills
• Good interpersonal and public relations skills
• Good analytical and report writing skills
• Self motivated and committed

Interested applicants should send hand written letters of applications, typed curriculum vitaes including names and addresses of three referees and daytime telephone contacts and photocopies of certificates to The Chairperson, Kenya Community Based Health Financing Association (KCBHFA), care of P O Box 6736, Kondele 40103, Kisumu, Kenya

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted on phone.

Closing date: Friday, 24th November 2006

Fahamu