Pambazuka News 545: Corporations, crime, revolts and protests
Pambazuka News 545: Corporations, crime, revolts and protests
Reporters Without Borders has called on the heads of state and government attending the Southern African Development Community summit being held in the Angolan capital of Luanda from 14 to 19 August to examine the situation of the media in Zimbabwe, where press freedom violations are increasing at an alarming rate. In the past month alone, Reporters Without Borders has tallied more than 11 violations of the freedom or safety of journalists, all of which have remained unpunished.
When talking about ICTs and the relationship between informal online activists and civil society organisations, the key question, says this article, is: how can traditional civil society organisations capitalise from and build on an almost organic process, happening quite independently from them, without attempting to capture or institutionalise such processes, which would endanger their creativity and flexibility? Or put inversely: how can an undefined, motivated but oftentimes transient group of individuals best use the technical know-how of CSOs?
Join New Tactics and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation's Women Peacemakers Program (IFOR/WPP) for an online dialogue on the topic of 'Faith-based peacebuilding: The need for a gender perspective', from 19-25 October 2011. The role of religion in conflict and peacebuilding, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and the threat this poses for women's human rights are issues receiving increasing attention.
In the next few months, Tunisian women may have a real opportunity as candidates and voters to participate in the country's new, post-revolution, electoral system. With hope, this will lead to more women in decision-making roles in government and a chance to demonstrate that democracies flourish when women, and the special experience and viewpoints they bring to the process, are included.
The newly appointed boss of Ghana’s Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Lauretta Lamptey has said she will not fight for the rights of homosexuals as the law deems their activities to be criminal. Lamptey also said that the argument on gay rights should be a legal discourse, rather than about human rights.
Jermain Ostiana argues that bringing Curaçaoan abolitionist leader Tula to the silver screen should be done by local producers, not the world’s mainstream film industry.
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Once again, millions of African citizens face famine and the destruction of their livelihoods. At this moment, 12 million men, women and children are in dire need of food, clean water and basic sanitation. The crisis is set to worsen and expand over the coming months. This suffering flies in the face of commitments made in continental, regional and national policy frameworks and human rights conventions.
We call upon all students, student bodies, human rights groups and all concerned organisations and individuals to lobby for the urgent and unconditional release of Maxwell Dlamini (President of the Swaziland National Union of Students) and all political prisoners.
In the wake of London’s riots, Patricia Daley reflects on her teenage years growing up in Hackney, the long-term challenges presented by the riots and the hypocrisy behind elite pontificating in response: ‘How can we teach our children to respect human lives, property and their communities, if those with power do not set an example?’
Senegal: The Balkanisation of the rule of law, justice under threat and the republic in danger
Aboubacry Mbodji
Senegal’s political crisis is the result of several factors linked to the derailment of the principles of the rule of law that require the separation and independence of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the state, the equality of all citizens before law and the respect of the sovereignty of the people. Ten years of political alternation have led to a ‘patrimonialisation’ of power and the concentration of power in a single family, which according to Aboubacry Mbodji ‘is a serious danger to the republic’. This is the real meaning of the revolts taking place in the country.
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Can the independence of South Sudan inspire anglophone Cameroon?
Patrice Nganang
The independence of South Sudan on 9 July this year marked the birth of the 54th African nation. This also marks the second time, after Eritrea, that the principle of the inviolability of colonial borders has been flouted, a precedent that according to Patrice Nganang could be applied to anglophone Cameroon.
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Why is emergency aid insufficient?
Renaud Duterme
If charity were enough to abolish misery and exploitation, says Renaud Duterme, we would be living in an idyllic world. The crisis in Somalia, he argues, shows yet again that the concepts of solidarity practised by development organisations are the wrong solutions.
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Normalisation and its effects on producers in the global South
Normalisation is increasingly visible in international commercial transactions whose complexity constitutes an obstacle in the access to European markets by countries in the global South. The solution proposed by the organisation ‘Engineers without frontiers’ is to rethink the way these norms are conceived with the active involvement of southern countries.
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South Africa’s revolutionary radicals recalcitrant in their reflective refusal to revere ‘freedom days’ are dubbed as reactionaries by the ‘democratic state’, writes Reverend Mavuso Mbhekeseni.
Following Norway’s terrorist atrocity, Gerald Caplan underlines the egregious double standards around discussing terrorism.
Concerned by the entrenched homophobia (along with severe prejudice towards LGBT people in general) within Sudanese society, Ghareeb considers what explains the persistence of extreme intolerance.
This Unicef paper reports on a study to provide insights into the magnitude of the shocks associated with the crisis in macroeconomic terms in South Africa, the country’s capacity to withstand or cushion these shocks, and the extent of fragility in terms of poverty levels and child well-being.
In recent years Madagascar has experienced a slow, seemingly unstoppable decline of its fragile economy, that has put a strain on the lives of millions of Malagasy citizens. After two and a half years under the administration of the transitional government of Andry Rajoelina (half a presidential mandate), the economy has been ranked worst in the world by Forbes magazine; thousands have lost their jobs and a food crisis is looming in the southern region of the country. Food crises in the region have been recurrent over the past decade, but an independent United Nations expert has warned that the sanctions imposed on Madagascar have made the situation untenable from a food security standpoint.
The price of maize in the Horn of Africa has doubled over the last year, the World Bank has said. In Kenya, it has increased by 89 per cent, according to the bank’s Food Price Watch report. This is the fourth highest increase in the price of maize in the world behind Uganda (122 per cent), Somalia (107 per cent) and Rwanda (104 per cent). Overall, the Food Price Watch says global food prices in July 2011 remain 33 per cent higher than a year ago.
While countries are rolling out new tests that will enable them to diagnose more patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), a worldwide shortage of the drugs to treat these patients is likely, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns. DR-TB can occur when TB patients do not complete their initial course of TB treatment. The only way to test for DR-TB is through cultures or via molecular testing – neither of which has been widely available in many high incident countries - until the advent of the GeneXpert, a two-hour molecular TB test released in 2010.
Some researchers are pointing to land investment deals in Africa, also called land grabs. According to a recent study by the Oakland Institute these deals increase price volatility and supply insecurity in the global food system. The organisation says massive amounts of land are sold or leased to foreign companies. In 2009, this amounted to an area the size of France. For more, listen to this interview posted online by Free Speech Radio News with Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute.
Water affairs officials are unable to tell MPs whether the health of South Africa's rivers is improving or worsening, but a rash of red spots across maps they presented suggested the latter. Briefing members of Parliament's water and environmental affairs portfolio committee, the department's acting chief director for water resources information management, Moloko Matlala, listed the main problems affecting the quality of the country's river water. These included fecal pollution, eutrophication (the inflow of nitrates and phosphates), high salinity, high toxicity (from, among other sources, agricultural pesticides) and acid mine drainage.
General Solomon Mujuru, a former Zimbabwean military chief and guerrilla leader in the country's independence war, has died in a fire at one of his homes, Zimbabwe's army commander said. The cause of the fire was unclear, but police said Mujuru's body was 'burned beyond recognition'. His widow, Joice Mujuru, is the country's vice president. Her supporters are vying for supremacy within their party should Mugabe die or retire.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of African migrants arriving in Italy in overcrowded boats, officials say. More than 3,000 people have reached the small island of Lampedusa - 200km (124 miles) off the Tunisian coast - in the past few days, they report. Arrivals are said to include Somalis and Nigerians as well as North Africans fleeing the violence in Libya.
Ugandan police have fired tear gas and water cannon filled with a pink dye to break up an opposition vigil near the capital, Kampala. Several hundred opposition supporters gathered for a 'light a candle' ceremony to mourn at least nine people killed during protests in April. Police said the meeting was illegal and could cause violence. The opposition has vowed to step up protests against President Yoweri Museveni's government.
Africa will speak with one strong voice at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change to kick-start in Durban, South Africa in November this year, the SADC Senior Programme Officer for Environment and Sustainable Development, Mr Alex Banda said. Mr Banda was speaking on the sidelines during the 5th SADC Multi Stakeholder Water Dialogue in Manzini on 28 June. 'SADC in April this year developed a common position during a meeting in South Africa on key issues we are going to be pushing for but within Africa as a continent,' Banda said.
Ethiopian authorities have turned down a strong demand by Kenyan lawmakers to stop the construction of the controversial Gibe III hydro-electric power dam, terming it 'unthinkable'. The massive dam, that is expected to cost $1.7 billion, has come under sustained criticism from mainly western rights groups over what they say are the negative environmental and social impacts and the threat it is said to pose to the livelihoods of an estimated 500,000 people living in Kenya. Kenyan Members of Parliament last week demanded the Ethiopian government stop all construction until an independent environmental impact assessment was done, saying that communities living around Lake Turkana would be affected.
Sierra Leone’s Independent Media Commission (IMC) has raised alarm over threats posed by journalists to the peace building in the country. The IMC, which is responsible for regulating the country’s media Thursday, blamed journalists for breaching code of ethics with articles or programmes carrying 'elements of indecency and incitement'. This statement comes in the wake of concerns raised by lobbyists and members of the public over the possibility of widespread violence around elections scheduled for next year.
El Bechir Diallo, a freelance journalist, is currently being held at PM3, a military camp in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. The Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent reported that El Bechir was abducted in the morning of 11 August 2011 by officials of the Criminal Investigations Department (DPJ) of the Guinean police for no apparent reason. MFWA is sad that despite progress made by Guinea in democratic governance, journalists and citizens are still held without recourse to the laws of Guinea.
This helpful guide for activists - developed by SECTION27, TAC, SERI and Read Hope Philips Attorneys - sets out the legal responsibilities of local government in South Africa and rights under the Constitution and in law. It shows how to engage government from inside, by participating in formal processes, and from outside by going public through complaints, petitions, protest action, the media and the courts.
Eritrea and Rwanda are among Africa’s smallest and poorest states, states this Africa Research Institute briefing. 'Substantial military resources, and expertise, have enabled both countries to exert disproportionate influence over regional security. Aggression and authoritarianism have not prompted matching responses from donor nations. While President Paul Kagame’s leadership of Rwanda has been championed as “visionary”, President Isaias Afwerki is accused of transforming Eritrea into a rogue, pariah state.' The document argues that popular perceptions of these comparable, though seldom compared, countries have been simplistic – and polarised.
The United Small and Medium scale Farmers' Associations of Nigeria (USMEFAN) is a national coalition of smallholder farmers and their organisations. It envisions a food self-sufficient Nigeria where ecologically sound and sustainable agriculture forms the foundation of an ever buoyant economy in which the small and medium scale family farmers who produce most of the food, in harmony and cooperation with nature, also enjoy enhanced livelihoods, live and work in dignity and self confidence, making the rural environment attractive for and truly supportive of human habitation. In this interview, GRAIN talks to Olaseinde Makanjuola Arigbede of the United Small and Medium scale Farmers' Associations of Nigeria (USMEFAN).
Two battered plastic chairs bar entry to the toilets at the Bangwe Township Clinic in Blantyre. The toilets are not working because there is no running water - yet again. And if patients want to use the facilities they will have to run to the next- door primary school, which has pit latrines. 'It’s not a new thing here,' says a nurse, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 'It’s been like this for two weeks now. We often don’t have running water, especially during the dry season. We have two toilets, so at times (like this) we close them.'
As several African governments examine the possibility of setting up their own 'offshore' financial centres, the trade name for tax havens, campaigners are calling for transparency and fair tax regimes. 'We need pan-African action,' says Alvin Mosioma, coordinator of the Tax Justice Network Africa, an organisation that advocates fair tax regimes to promote economic and social development. 'The African Union has established a special panel on illicit financial flows, in which Thabo Mbeki participates, and the African Tax Administrators Forum meeting held in 2008 was also a promising start, but Africans have been too silent too long on the issue of financial transparency.'
Behind slick aid agency publicity campaigns designed to raise funds for famine in East Africa lies an aid industry that is complicit in corruption and the promotion of unaccountable government.
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe outlines the origins of what he terms the genocide-state in Africa, going back to the Igbo genocide of 1966 to describe the character of modern-day states. There should be a total arms ban on these states to advance the quest of people across Africa to construct democratic states.
In this article from MRZine Hassane Zerrouky interviews Egyptian scholar and researcher Samir Amin. The way Amin sees it, nothing will be the same as before in the Arab world: protest movements will challenge both the internal social order of Arab countries and their places in the regional and global political chessboard.
Ronald Wesso reports on the Food Sovereignty Campaign in South Africa, which is taking steps towards agrarian reform and food sovereignty through land occupations.
Yash Tandon draws on the recent massacres in Norway to examine the polarising of identities, which he describes as 'the most dangerous cancer of our times'. 'Why and how do all these multiple identities get reduced to two nominal but highly dangerous polarised identities - "them" and "us"; the "insiders" and the "outsiders"; the "included and the excluded"? In whose interest are these binary identities created, and by who?'
South Africa's Right to Know Campaign and Anti Eviction Campaign are demanding access to a government audit of a controversial Cape Town housing company.
One of ‘the most important aspects of Frantz Fanon’s legacy for the youth of South Africa is to take seriously his call for real engagement, at the point where thought meets action’, observe Chantelle Malan and Danielle Bowler, following a Rhodes University colloquium to mark the 50th anniversary of Fanon’s death.
Is the UK making ‘the same blunder’ in Algeria that France did in Tunisia, asks Lakhdar Ghettas. The British government should strengthen its relationship with the Algerian people, rather than doing business with a regime engaged in ‘fake reform measures’, Ghettas argues.
A recent report on the pollution of Ogoniland prepared by United Nations Environment Programme marks ‘the first official confirmation’ that there is ‘a major tragedy on our hands’, writes Nnimmo Bassey.
Over the years, we have been harassed, cajoled, insulted, discriminated against and referred to as beasts called inhuman, insane, sick, immoral and not upright thinking members of society.
Information and communication technology has ‘opened a new e-governance space’ that ‘has huge potential for improving opportunities for the participation of citizens in local and central government structures,’ writes Mammo Muchie. ‘Local Governance and ICTs in Africa’, launched by Pambazuka Press this month, offers a useful starting point for those interested in how these technologies ‘can be used to change the governance architecture in Africa’.
The media’s response to Norway’s recent terrorist atrocity have revealed anti-immigrant, racist and xenophobic attitudes among ‘conservative sections the world over’, writes Norah Owaraga.
Young working class Britons' failure to act collectively will inadvertently punish them, since this renders them unable to articulate their concerns publicly and fight against the root causes of their dispossession, argues Nimi Hoffmann. They should look to the global South, which offers lessons in how to build sustained, focused collective action.
Six week’s ago the trustees of the Africa Centre gave Hadeel Ibrahim, Chief Executive of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and world renowned architect, David Adjaye, six weeks to raise funds, provide a redevelopment scheme, a sustainable business plan and funding. Today the business plan and £3.6 million of funding has been delivered, writes Dele Fatunla.
An article in the Huffington Post, which references findings documented in the Worldwatch Institute report 'State of the World 2011', finds that despite the challenging circumstances that women in developing countries face, important innovations in communications and organising are helping them play a key role in the fight against hunger and poverty. 'Access to credit, which provides women farmers with productive inputs and improved technologies, can be an effective tool in improving livelihoods in Africa and beyond,' said Worldwatch Institute's executive director Robert Engelman.
From the man who walked on water...
The end of the world is nigh!
Despite accompanying debates about supposed non-white mediocrity, resistance to affirmative action is not about maintaining standards but rather about maintaining ‘white mediocrity’, argues Lewis R. Gordon.
The failure to implement prevention programmes for mother-to-child transmission on an appropriate scale has resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable HIV infections among newborns, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says. The results of this study, it is hoped, will influence guidelines in the direction of even earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy.
A consortium of East African institutes is researching new seed varieties better suited to dry areas to combat the effects of climate change in the region. The partnership, comprising seven universities and institutes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, will also disseminate technical knowledge to agricultural extension services and farmers, and promote new insurance and financing schemes for building resilience to climate change.
This animated YouTube video compiled by the Praekelt Foundation presents an overview of the mobile technology landscape in Africa, with statistics and facts about mobile phones and their use on the continent.
The attack on civil society across Africa ‘is now increasingly becoming bolder, broader and more dangerous. And it is going beyond governments to include regional bodies such as SADC,’ warns Paul Okumu, in a call for all CSOs both in the North and South to ‘strengthen and support the solidarity effort as a matter of urgency’.
In an article for the Guardian’s Bike Blog, Jane Madembo relived her experience as a public transit and bicycle commuter in Zimbabwe. Madembo explains that public transport was scarce in the low-density, suburban areas where she had to travel for work, leaving her and other commuters to rely on inadequate and overcapacity transport methods.
A coalition of 18 trade Unions, 11 national Christian councils, 15 umbrella NGO Bodies as well as civil society groups, think tanks and human rights organisations from Malawi and across southern Africa have called on the Malawian President, Bingu wa Mutharika, to put an immediate stop to the ongoing harassment and intimidation being meted out to Malawian citizens - and take action to ensure that those responsible for the deaths of 19 people during anti-government protests are held to account.
The British government has denied a visa to Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesra, a leading LGBT activist in Uganda and the 2011 winner of the prestigious Martin Ennals award for Human Rights. She had been invited to open Foyle Pride in Derry, Northern Ireland, 24 August.
The Telegraphs reports that Libya's rebel leader has promised to hand over power to an elected assembly within eight months of the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's regime. sketching out the country's path to democracy, after the end of Gaddafi's 42-year reign, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chair of the National Transitional Council, sought to draw a line under questions about the intent and the legitimacy of his un-elected council, which has become the de-facto government in the rebel-held east of Libya.
A new study is asking the European Parliament, European Union member states and European civil society organizations to push for regulatory measures targeted at Europe-based companies engaged in oil exploration in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study follows on the heels of landmark UN findings reported on August 4, highlighting the devastating impact of oil spills in the Niger delta over the past five decades, which will take up to 30 years to clean up.
In their highly misguided and at times absurd responses to the UK’s recent rioting, we may well ask if Britain’s elites ‘are living in a time warp’, writes Lara Pawson.
This report from the Economist Intelligence Unit claims that African countries south of the Sahara are poised to enjoy a surge in growth in their banking systems during this decade. The three main drivers in this development will be generally very high rates of economic growth, financial deepening to fulfil huge unmet needs for basic financial services and new technologies to provide them – particularly over mobile phones.
Tax avoidance, not developing country corruption, is the biggest source of illicit capital flight, writes Charles Abugre in Part 2 of a four-part series of articles on the flow of ‘dirty money’.
How do multinationals and unethical companies conceal and move capital abroad? Mostly through manipulating import and export prices, writes Charles Abugre in Part 3 of a four-part series on the flow of ‘dirty money’.
The illicit extraction, concealment and channelling of capital from poor countries abroad destroys societies and must be curtailed. So how do we do this, asks Charles Abugre in the final article in a four-part series on the flow of ‘dirty money’.
'If a government based on devolution and the dispersal of power is to be given a chance, the IMF’s role in political horse-trading in Kenya should be curtailed,' argues Charles Abugre.
Gus John urges UK Prime Minister David Cameron to ‘lead’ one nation and not demonise and expose the African heritage community to racists and fascists in the wake of the recent violent civil unrest.
The US government’s counterterrorism activities and ‘humanitarian’ assistance in Somalia and the Horn of Africa go a long way towards explaining the region’s entrenched problems, writes Horace Campbell.
There are many challenges and obstacles facing developing countries in moving their economies to more environmentally friendly paths, says this paper from the South Centre. 'On one hand this should not prevent the attempt to urgently incorporate environmental elements into economic development. On the other hand, the various obstacles should be identified and recognised and international cooperation measures should be taken to enable and support the sustainable development efforts.'
Jamaal Abdi, an eight-year-old boy at the Badbaado camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, would like to have an education. He has his own dreams for the future. But since Abdi and his family arrived at Badbaado camp – the biggest camp for people displaced by the drought and famine in southern Somalia and home to nearly 30,000 people, mostly women and children – he has done nothing but sit around all day. But for Abdi, it’s nothing new. He’s never been to school.
The idea that the Dodd-Frank Act in the US will stop mineral exploitation by armed groups is flawed, argues this article. 'Mineral exploitation, the object of activism and legislation, is but one source of revenue for these armed groups. They literally rule over the territories they control, taxing every economic activity and terrorizing the civilians into submission. Losing access to the mines will marginally affect their capacity to generate funds, considering that weapons and ammunitions are relatively inexpensive. In other words, if there were no minerals, the conflict would still rage on as armed groups would find other sources of revenue.'
The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has made an impassioned appeal to the world to save an estimated 390,000 starving children in famine-ravaged regions of Somalia, saying the international community must not let the so-called 'disaster fatigue' numb compassion and generosity. Anthony Lake, the UNICEF Executive Director, said at a news conference at UN Headquarters to mark World Humanitarian Day: 'The statistics can be mind-numbing, but remember that the data is sons and daughters. The statistics are little boys and little girls, every one of them.' In addition to the tens of thousands of Somalis who have already died as a result of the drought-induced famine, which has been exacerbated by conflict and poverty, an estimated 390,000 children are suffering from malnutrition. Four fifths of them are in the worst affected areas of the country’s south-central zone.
The Berkman Center has released three new publications as part of their circumvention project. Over the past two years, the Center has carried out a number of research activities designed to improve our understanding of the knowledge, usage, and effectiveness of circumvention tools as a means to promote access to information online in repressive online environments.
South Africa’s progressive constitution and laws extend the same protections to unaccompanied minors (the term given to children who cross border without parents or adult care-givers) as to local children, but in practice they face immense bureaucratic hurdles and are often left to fend for themselves. Although no figures are available, Mmone Moletsale of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that based on reports from their partners, South Africa was receiving an increasing number of such children, but still lacked an efficient system for dealing with them.
John Wiyual returned from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to South Sudan in December 2010, hoping the move would not disrupt his five children's education too much. Wiyual's family was among the first groups of Southern Sudanese to go home, pending the South's secession, which became reality on 9 July. For Wiyual and thousands of other returnees in the Greater Upper Nile region - comprising the states of Upper Nile, Unity and Jonglei - basic services, land and employment opportunities are the key considerations influencing the pace of their reintegration.
The Hawks confirmed that they were investigating African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema for fraud and corruption, eNews reported on Saturday. 'From the information that we have, we have enough to tell us that we need to do a full investigation...there's a lot that tells us that we have reason to worry,' Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela said. ENews also reported that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) initiated its own investigation into Malema's financial affairs and alleged failure to pay tax.
Stiff competition in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa has compelled SA to prioritise 'economic diplomacy' among a range of foreign policy measures designed to drive economic growth. This comes as SA is losing its prime position as the preferred gateway from which to do business on the continent. A draft foreign policy white paper released last week also proposes the setting up of a development agency targeting other African countries, saying the 'success of economic diplomacy will determine the extent to which SA can achieve its domestic priorities'. Regional integration, reform of the international trading system, and negotiating preferential access for African goods on international markets form the core of SA’s economic diplomacy.
Liberia’s October 2011 general and presidential elections, the second since civil war ended in 2003, are an opportunity to consolidate its fragile peace and nascent democracy, says this report from the International Crisis Group. 'Peaceful, free and fair elections depend on how well the National Elections Commission (NEC) handles the challenges of the 23 August referendum on constitutional amendments and opposition perceptions of bias toward the president’s Unity Party (UP)... The most serious threats to security, however, are the persistence of mercenary activities and arms proliferation.'
'The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) welcomes the decision made by the Competition Tribunal on 19 August 2011, to allow the ACB to intervene in the merger proceedings involving multinational seed giant, Pioneer Hi Bred’s bid to take over South Africa’s largest seed company, Panaar. The ACB, represented by Legal Aid South Africa, and advocates Stephen Budlender and Isabel Goodman, has consistently sought to lead evidence and present argument on public interest grounds that militate against authorisation of the merger.'
Kenyans outraged over lost loved ones accuse public hospitals here of frequent medical negligence. Aware of a shortage of space and personnel, the government has been working to build and upgrade hospitals and train more doctors, thanks to funding from the Chinese government. Meanwhile, a group of citizens has formed a foundation to speak out against medical negligence, reports Global Press Institute.