The conflict between Western Sahara´s independence movement Polisario and Morocco has reached its most critical point since the ceasefire in 1991, writes Tom Varghese, right, former leader of the Rafto Foundation´s student group. Rising tensions, a deteriorating humanitarian situation and a diplomatic deadlock are nurturing a steadily growing fraction within Polisario, pressuring the current leadership to return to arms.

Children in sub-Saharan Africa born to mothers with CD4 cell counts under 350 cells/mm3 are more likely to die, whether or not the children themselves are HIV-positive, according to a study published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes in December 2007. Child malnutrition and low maternal haemoglobin were associated with higher child mortality rates.

The government of Botswana announced yesterday that two cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) have been identified in the country. They are the first cases to be reported in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa. Two patients with XDR TB have been quarantined at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gabarone.

The Moroccan government has announced an ambitious programme to reform its health care system to provide better care in all regions of the country. Health Minister Yasmina Baddou said the ministry hopes to make more affordable treatment available to the country's least privileged.

To what extent is international society responsible for the protection of civilians during humanitarian crises? This paper reports on a policy advisory group convened to discuss Africa’s responsibility to protect. The aim was to interrogate issues around humanitarian intervention in Africa and the responsibility of regional governments and the international community in the face of humanitarian crises.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia, ruled on December 20 that a gay Egyptian man should receive a further hearing from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which earlier rejected his bid to stay in the US.

Malawi has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan after 41 years and switched allegiance to China, which has become a major economic power in Africa. The decision, announced on Monday, reduced Taiwan's allies to just 23 countries, most of which are small and impoverished nations in Latin America, Africa and the South Pacific.

Jackie Selebi, South Africa's police chief, has resigned as president of Interpol to fight corruption allegations in his home country. The world police organisation on Sunday said Selebi had stepped down "in the best interests of Interpol and out of respect for the global law enforcement community that it serves".

Reporters Without Borders has caled on the Chadian authorities to explain why the police raided privately-owned radio FM Liberté in N’Djamena, closed it down and arrested its manager, Djekourninga Kaoutar Lazar.

The insurgency led by dissident general Laurent Nkunda in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has spelt out its demands at a peace conference to end the conflict in the troubled North and South Kivu provinces in the east, where, according to the UN, insecurity and human rights abuses have displaced at least half a million people in the past 12 months.

The success of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme which aims to provide free education to every child in Nigeria caused the number of primary school leavers to more than double in 2007, creating a backlog that the secondary education system is struggling to cope with. Over 49,000 children in the northern Nigeria city of Kano who completed primary school in 2006 and wish to attend secondary school may not be admitted due to a severe shortage of trained teachers and classrooms.

HIV-infected women living in rural areas are finding it increasingly difficult to access life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and tend to be more marginalised than those living in urban areas, non-governmental organisations say. "Rural women who need ARVs find themselves in a quandary because levels of income for a rural household tend to be low," said Tariro Kutadza, provincial coordinator of the Zimbabwe AIDS Network (ZAN) in the northern province of Mashonaland West.

About 1,400 families (8,400 people) displaced in Musigati commune in the northwestern province of Bubanza, following fighting between government forces and the Forces Nationales de Libération (FNL), desperately need help, according to local officials. Laurent Kagamba, adviser to the Musigati administrator, said that since the simultaneous attacks on three military positions on 28 December and another on 9 January in the same commune, residents had fled their homes.

Zambia's mines are coming under increasing and sustained criticism for repeatedly polluting drinking water sources in the Copperbelt mining region, the country's economic heartland. Last week the country's second largest copper producer, Mopani Copper Mine, which has mining operations in Mufulira town, near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, accidentally discharged polluted water, after a pump malfunction failed to purify it, into the reticulated water system of a private water utility company.

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Or, more importantly, would as many people stop to smell a rose by a different name? In an open letter to Ubuntu Linux founder Mark Shuttleworth, published yesterday, the suggestion was made to rebrand all the forms of Ubuntu as different editions of the distribution.

“The 2007 post election skirmishes is just a culmination of sustained tension in the community but the extent and impact of damage, looting, raping, sodomy, eviction and killing has never been witnessed before. The country was hosting three presidential candidates from three ethnic tribes Luo, Kamba and Kikuyu. Political tension and envisioned ethnic conflicts was certainly predicted as this was the most hotly contested election in the history of Kenya.

Kenyans for Peace, Truth, Justice have received alarming reports from human rights monitors in Nairobi’s low-income areas, who have reported that local political leaders are mobilising gangs of youth to deter attendance to the rallies called by the Orange Democratic Movement on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) concludes that the mission of Africa Command (Africom) infringes on the sovereignty of African states due to the particularity of Africa’s history and Africa’s current economic and political relationship to the United States. Further, Africom is designed to violate international law standards that protect rights to selfdetermination and that prohibit unprovoked military aggression. Africom is also likely to become a device for the foreign domination and exploitation of Africa’s natural resources to the detriment of people who are indigenous to the African continent.

This weeks' AU Monitor brings you news and updates from the African Union, as it announces the 10th Ordinary Session of the Assembly in Addis Ababa, holding under the theme: "Industrial Development of Africa". Also, questions are being raised as to whether this summit will cause African leaders to " rethink the continent's approach to an industrial take-off ".

Further, former United-Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has accepted an invitation from AU Chairman John Kufuor to lead an AU panel to negotiate peace in Kenya . Mr. Annan called on both sides of the conflict to "bear in mind the interest of Kenyans and show goodwill".

The Centre for Citizen's Participation in the AU is holding a continental conference on the AU summit in which the main objective is to " create a platform where structured debate and collation of views will be made among stakeholders across the continent". The conference aims to include the meaningful participation of Africa's citizens into decision-making processes of the AU. Lastly, draft agendas for the 12th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council and the 10th Ordinary Session of the Assembly are now available.

In regional news, Charles Onyango-Obbo provides commentary of the East African Community's (EAC) involvement in the Kenya crises , stating that the crises has set a record for attracting the most former African presidents but that "the East African Community has had no public role at all" in the process.

In peace and security news, the United Nations and African Union Special Envoys for Darfur recently began a week-long mission to facilitate peace in the region.
Following a meeting of the Forum on Tax Administration of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) participants agreed to set up an international tax centre in Africa, with the aim of building the capacity of tax administrations in African countries.

Congratulations to Bw Ngugi, for a very succinctly presented case for the "people powered revolution", in his article, LET US NOT FIND REVOLUTIONARIES WHERE THERE ARE NONE A look at the Kenyan opposition party"
The only hope is that we can find right thinking people/leaders like Bw Ngugi to galvanise action accordingly
Best wishes to all Kenyans

City Water Services, a subsidiary of British-based water company Biwater, has lost an international legal case for breaching its contract to deliver water and sanitation services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between 2003 and 2005. The contract with City Water was issued following a controversial water privatisation, supported by the UK government.

Mozambican officials have now confirmed what people living in the Zambezi valley and along other rivers have suspected for at least a week: that in terms of water levels, the 2008 seasonal floods are worse than those of nearly a decade ago. However the authorities and the Mozambique Red Cross (MRC) have been working flat-out in a so-far successful operation to move people away from immediate danger – especially along the Zambezi.

The PRC Sub-Committee on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons undertook missions to various countries affected by the problem of forced displacement as part of its activities for 2007. It should be recalled that this Sub-Committee deals with all matters pertaining to forced displacement on the Continent.

This Case Study has examined how rural women mobilised to establish a women's shea butter sector enterprise in Burkina Faso. By adding value through processing of shea nuts into shea butter, women are directly reaping the benefits of their labour. The enterprise is creating jobs and providing extra income to the women. Shea is one of the few economic commodities in the region that is entirely under the control of women.

An Inspection Panel report on the World Bank’s safeguard policy violations in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) forest sector operations prompts discussion on new approach and greater role for Pygmies in decision-making about the future of the world’s second-largest rainforest.

The Arnett Drive Settlement has been in Reservoir Hills since 1972. Many of the people living there came there after being evicted from Cato Manor in 1959 and then Newlands in 1971. Today they are under armed attack by the eThekwini Municipality that has its notorious Land Invasions Unit demolishing shacks.

Maurice Carney analyses the recently-concluded review of Congo's mining contracts and the significance of this process in safeguarding the country's considerable mineral wealth

On par with a resolution to the current conflict in the northeast of the Congo is the mining review process that the Congolese government announced in April 2007. The government initiated a review of some 60 odd mining contracts, established during the period of conflict (1996 – 2002) and the transition (2003 – 2006). The review offers an opportunity for the Congolese government to stop the systematic looting of the Congo. The review is now complete but the government has yet to publish the results. In spite of repeated requests and pressure from civil society to make the review process transparent, the government has kept the process shrouded in secrecy. In early November, the Congolese newspaper, Le Phare [1] published what it claimed to be leaked results of the review, which stated that many of the contracts would be renegotiated or outright cancelled. Reuters [2] also reported that it saw preliminary reports that called for 61 mining contracts to be renegotiated or cancelled. The impact of these news reports was swift and global in scope; publicly traded mining companies with interests in the Congo on the London, Toronto and New York stock exchanges experienced a sudden drop in their stock prices. This provided some insight into the significance of Congo’s resources to investors in the West. Moreover, it begins to explain in part why the Congo, probably more than any other African nation, has been subjected to repeated external intervention. Kwame Nkrumah stated as much in his Challenge of Congo, [3] when he observed that the Congolese peoples’ struggle is both an internal and external one. The forces arrayed against the Congolese are enormous and global in scope. Foreign governments, global mining conglomerates, multi-lateral institutions and local elites all work in concert to control Congo’s fabulous wealth in perpetuity.

Watchdog groups such as Global Witness estimate that 70 percent of Congo’s copper wealth may already by sold-off to foreign mining companies without little discernible benefit to the Congolese people [4]. Billions of dollars have been raised in the financial markets of London, New York and Toronto while the Congolese people suffer from crushing poverty and debilitating and incessant conflict.

According to the Canadian Journal Corporate Knights, some companies stand to gain spectacular wealth at the expense of the Congolese people. Tenke Mining from Canada, who recently merged with the Lundin Group, also from Canada acquired the Tenke Fungurume concession for just $15 million. The mine is reputed to be valued at $60-billion and contains the largest and highest grade of undeveloped copper cobalt deposits in the world [5]. American mining giant Phelps-Dodge, recently bought out by Freeport McMoRan, also has ownership in the Tenke Fungurume deposits. In spite of reports by human rights groups that the contracts around Tenke Fungurume represent one of the most odious in the Congo, the United States government Overseas Private Investment Corporation recently provided risk insurance for Freeport McMoRan’s billion dollar Congolese venture [6].

When Katanga Mining announced its potential merger –worth about $3.3 billion- with Nikanor in early November, its stock price jumped 42 percent. According to Katanga Mining chair, Arthur H. Ditto, the agreement “sets the course to establish one of the largest and most important mining complexes in the world." [7] The remarkable benefits to these companies are clear and unmistakable but when it comes to the people of the Congo, the benefits are hard to find. Corporate Knights says of the Katanga mining agreement with the Congolese government that it “allows a tax regime that appears to offer very little benefit to the Congolese government.” [8] One of the key principals of Katanga mining is Belgian, George Forrest for whom the United Nations prescribed financial sanctions as a result of his participation in the illegal exploitation of Congo’s resources. It was also revealed that George Forrest was a key funder of Joseph Kabila’s political party, People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) during the 2006 elections. [9] In April 2007, the Congolese newspaper “Le Potentiel” reported that Nikanor got the KOV concession located in the Katanga province in 2005 by promising to lend Gecamines, Congo’s state company 24 million Euros. Le Potentiel noted that should Nikanor sell its rights to the KOV concession, its two principles, Bennie Steinmetz and Dan Gertler would stand to pocket 350 million Euros each without producing a single gram of copper [10] . Nikanor executives say the KOV project represents "the highest grade major ore body in the world." This may explain why the listing of Nikanor on the London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at $1.5 billion represented the largest valuation of any company in history on entry to AIM. Together Katanga Mining and Nikanor have raised over $2 billion for the KOV project, [11]which is about the same amount of the proposed 2007 Congolese government budget.

Clearly with the hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, renegotiation or cancellation of any of the contracts mentioned above is highly unlikely and potentially as risky as the conflict in the east for the Kabila government. The Congolese people are watching to see whose interests the government will serve. The results from the contract review process will serve as one of the key determinants to the relationship between the Kabila administration and the people of the Congo for the duration of his tenure as head of state. However, one must say that there is little chance that Kabila will act in the interest of the people of the Congo. Many observers believe that if it were not for the insistence of long-time nationalist and current Prime Minister who served as Deputy Prime Minister to Lumumba in 1960, Antoine Gizenga the mining review process may not even have been initiated in the first place. Now that the review is complete, the Kabila government finds itself in a quandary regarding the publication of the report’s contents, knowing that the people of the Congo are being vigilant in regard to the future of their country’s wealth.

When one contemplates the corporate and foreign political forces, as have been outlined in this article and elsewhere, surely the most casual observer would say that the die in all likelihood has already been cast for the Congolese people to be impoverished for generations to come. The international finance community is determined to consign the people of the Congo to pauperization, dependency and perpetual supplier of raw materials for the West’s economic benefit. In fact, a key reason Kabila received unconditional support from the West prior to the 2006 elections, is because he had made it clear to them that he would facilitate unfettered access to Congo’s riches and preside over a client regime. Kabila infamously stated “I invited the business community to go into the Congo just like Stanley did way back in the 1800s and I told the business community back then that they had to have a spirit of adventurism - go see what is happening look at the opportunities and of course install yourself.”[12] The arrogance with which these western forces and their local sycophants are moving, one gets the sense that they feel entitled to the wealth of the Congo even as the soil of the Congo is drenched with the blood of its sons and daughters. There is a callous disregard for the at least 4 million Congolese who have perished in the current scramble for the country’s riches. It appears that the devaluation of the African people, the Congolese in particular has been normalized to the point where millions dead and hundreds of thousands of black bodies raped and sexually mutilated while local elites and multi-national corporations enrich themselves hardly register a whimper of indignation or protest.

As people of conscience, we must do our utmost to expose one of the greatest heist of the 21st century and provide solidarity to those Congolese who have been waging a historic fight for genuine independence, democratic rule and control of their country’s resources. Anything less makes us co-conspirators in the devaluing of our self-worth as Africans and the debasing of our sense of dignity as human beings. The words of Che Guevara are ever present and relevant when he asserts, “The Congo problem is a world problem. Victory will be continental in its reach and its consequences and so would defeat.”[13] Should one agree with Guevara, Nkrumah, Fanon and others who spoke of the significance of the Congo to the future of Africa, people throughout the African world must:
1. Aggressively raise awareness about the situation in the Congo
2. Determinedly mobilize global support on behalf of the Congolese people
3. Doggedly resist corporate appropriation of the Congo’s wealth
4. Actively support progressive forces and civil society in the Congo

* Maurice Carney is Executive Director of Friends of the Congo

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

* Please click on the link for the article notes

Kola Ibrahim argues that the new economic partnership agreements that are being proposed by the EU are driven by the old unequal economic relationships.

The new plan of the European Union to have economic agreements with her former colonies has not received much attention in terms of critical analysis especially by the civil society groups and trade union movements. However, those who have spoken on it have given some explanations on why it must be rejected. The issue is what alternative is available if the agreement is rejected. It should also be stated that as the negotiation of the agreement is going on, the WTO is also renegotiating with African countries in order to force the pill of economic enslavement that was earlier rejected at the Cancun Round in 2005. According to the letters of the agreement, African countries are to be given "preferential treatment" to European market for some of their agricultural products without restriction while the third world countries will also have to "gradually" open up their market for European business. Definitely, this market includes education, health and public utilities. Many African leaders have vaguely complained about the agreements but there is a consensus that the agreement will represent an advantage for the third world countries.

The agreement represents another way of rapaciously and legally exploiting the resources of the third world countries especially Africa where most of the population are living in absolute poverty. In the first place, the goods to be exported to European countries are mostly agricultural produce with little local content and market value while European countries will bring in finished goods which are high valued. This definitely means the continuous underdevelopment of the third world countries. Therefore, there will continuously be wide technology gap, increased trade imbalance and capital flight from the countries.

Secondly, most poor African farmers lack the infrastructure facilities to produce agricultural goods at cheaper cost as the transport system are archaic, modern storage system unavailable, farm equipments inaccessible while credit facilities are rare for tens of millions of poor farmers. This will mean that African countries will receive little pie of the market while local farms in Europe will massively and cheaply produce as a result of favourable technological and economic situations thus lowering prices in the market which will only benefit the big farmers who produce at cheap prices. Thirdly, as against what is being portrayed, the European countries will continue to subsidize their local farmers, especially the big business farms, which will mean economic disaster for the African countries most of whom depend on agricultural export for revenue.

Furthermore, the agreement gives right of access to European business in African countries. This means that there will not special treatments or consideration for government owned firms while social services should be open to competition without any special spending. It implies that state-owned firms will be under funded thus leading to their being bought over at the stock market or through wholesale privatization (that is to the European multinationals) while education, health, water, electricity, transportation will be totally commercialized and privatized for the market to have access. All this is meant to make labour cheap and flexible for exploitation. This process will result in retrenchment, high cost of accessing social services, rotting away of social services as a result of under funding and fall in living standards. It is a return to full scale neo-liberalism. All this is meant to give European firms a preferential access to African market at token as against the threat from other economic centres especially China, South East Asia and US. This is the real kernel of the agreement.

However, it is the rich big business of Europe that will enjoy this plan to rapaciously exploit the working poor of Africa. For instance, it is the rich farms (mostly owned by big multinationals in beverage industries) that are enjoying the subsidies being given by the European governments from the state resources that should have been used to provide better living for the poor in their countries. According to a 2005 report from Seattle to Brussels Network, titled "the European Corporate Trade Agenda", 15 percent of French farms (that is big business farms) received 60 percent of the European Commission's subsidies to France while 70 percent of small farmers received just 17 percent of the subsidies. It goes further to show that 70 percents of the EU subsidies goes to just 20 percent largest farms in Europe. These subsidies are in the final analysis going to the pockets of the big multinational firms such as beer and beverage companies that have big farms. These companies are also extensions of the world capitalist business with links to bigger firms through stock trading, bank loans and credits, etc. In fact, Oxfam reported that "farm income in UK has declined by more than 40 percent while France has lost half of its (small) farmers over the past 20 years".

Therefore, the so-called subsidies and economic agreements being negotiated by the European countries are basically on behalf of big business and not in the interest of the whole European working class. In fact, the movement of European big farms and industrial production to some third world countries is being used to drive down wages in developed countries as European working class are threatened with retrenchment employment movement and industrial relocation. Therefore, the imbalance trade agreement that favours privatization, commercialization and trade liberalization will neither favour the European working class as much as the poor people of Africa. Two third of the world trade is concentrated in just 500 big multinationals while the top 200 companies that account for one quarter of the world economic activities employ just 1 percent of the global workforce meaning that the rest are employed mostly by governments. Therefore, further attempt at handing over the economy to the big business through trade liberalization will lead to retrenchment and further concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich few.

On the other hands, the African leaders are not much enthusiastic to confront this imperialist agenda because they depend on them for survival. For instance, most African leaders are sustained in power by big business in their various countries through political support and provision of liquidity from which most of these leaders get their “rents" through direct looting of the treasury or promotion of policies that will favour their personal economic interests. In fact, most African leaders have been integrated into big business with most of them coming from the private sector while most of their advisers and legislators are either businessmen or IMF/World Bank trained intellectuals who are seconded to the African leaders to give prescriptions of neo-liberal policies that will favour the multinational vampires that are the backbones of these multilateral financial institutions. Through shares, stock trading, merger, "strategic partnership", etc, local businessmen and politicians are linked to the world business; therefore, the local leaders cannot challenge it.

Also, career advancement for these IMF/WB advisers depends on how much they are able to ensure the implementation of these policies. For instance, the multilateral institutions have promoted the former ministers of finance and education in Nigeria, Okonjo Iweala and Oby Ezekwesili, after they have ensured the implementation of the neo-liberal economic pills of privatization, deregulation, commercialization and debt buyback fraud. Moreover, these leaders have practically nothing to lose in the agreement. For instance, most of the government subsidies to farmers through bank loans and fertilizers only go to the big farms that are owned for instance in Nigeria by ex-generals and politicians in power. With a smooth connection to the local and international markets they definitely have a lot to gain as they will have increased access to the European market at the expense of millions of local farmers and working people who will bear the brunt of economic enslavement and neo-liberal exchange for big business profits.

Therefore, the Economic Partnership Agreement is nothing but another attempt to colonize the African countries and indeed the third world countries in close collaboration with the local leaders and businessmen. A genuine agreement to help Africa and her poor people will mean massive development of infrastructures, technology and industrial capacities of the African countries by Europe with no strings attached. This will help Africa to develop its massive human, natural and materials potentials while the trade between various countries will be dictated by mutual interest to provide basic needs for the working poor. Capitalist businessmen, multinational vampires and their local collaborators cannot carry out this task who are ready to milk the poor dry in search of maximum profit; it lies in the hands of the working people of Africa, third world and indeed Europe by building a radical working people's party that will struggle for power and create a socialist economic planning where the massive resources of the society will be nationalized under the democratic control of the working and poor people themselves which will provide the resources for the massive development of the third world countries while laying the basis for a genuine trade and aid among nations. Leaving the fate of the working and poor people in the hands of the rich moneybag politicians is the tragedy of all time.

Many free trade agreements have been signed and enacted into law by capitalist governments at the back of the working people. This is because the working people in Africa and other third world countries do not have political platform of their own. This is why a radical, working class party is needed to champion the interests of the poor working people. The first task in this direction is to build a left alliance among labour activists, radical organizations, civil societies against this ruinous capitalist onslaught and demand for abrogation of all imperialist free trade agreements. This will mean building struggle movements at the grass root, local national and international levels against this agreement as a basis for the formation of a working class political platform. It is unfortunate that many official trade unions bureaucrats in many third world countries have accepted neo-liberal ideology. They only raise fingers when pressures from the rank-and-file workers threaten their positions. This places heavy duties on genuine working class activists to build a genuine alternative - through day to day interventions in the struggle of the working people for better deal - firstly within the trade union movements as a basis for building working class political platforms.

* Kola Ibrahim is a student activist from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, email: [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Kenya continues to dominate the African blogosphere as the ODM opposition begin three days of protests against the election.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/337/blogs_01_kenyanpundit.gif continues to publish her diary of events and thoughts around the election and post election. Her latest post is a piece by Kenyan Mariposa “I am a lesbian.
A queer.
A shoga.
A dyke.
An ‘ abboration’ of nature.
Mariposa writes that she left Kenya when she was 24 years old “burdened” by the choice she had to make. She finds herself far away from friends, family and country in this time of crisis and violence but is not surprised
“Yet, in the stillness of my heart, I am not surprised. I am not at all surprised that underneath the veil of calmness lies intolerance. We are as a nation and as individuals are not sentries of peace, we would like to believe that we have no strong affiliations to the groups that we belong to. However, I ask, take a moment to ask, who do you consider your friends, your crew, are they born from the same background, do they look like you, what are their professional and personal affiliations, are they in synch with yours?”
Yet despite the chaos and violence, the corruption and intolerance she remains hopeful in that the Kenyan people have an opportunity to become more mindful and compassionate about others and end the “vicious cycles of hate”.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/337/blogs_02_mentalacrobatics.gifMental Acrobatics considers the possibility of a “silver lining” in the midst of dark clouds over Kenya when Parliament convened “and no punches were thrown”. Nonetheless the situation has reached the levels of farce as the President appears to have dug his head in sand whilst the opposition have their man elected as Speaker of the House.

“ODM controlling parliament sets up some very interesting and indeed ridiculous scenarios. Kibaki gets to appoint a cabinet and that cabinet has to work through parliament. Yet the majority in parliament is completely opposed to Kibaki’s policies and will do whatever it can to wreck them. Kibaki, if he was thinking straight, could have overcome this by appointing ODM MPs to key cabinet positions. Instead he chose to ignore ODM all together in a move that made no political sense. ODM due to their strength in numbers will control all parliamentary committees. In another ridiculous scenario, some powerful parliamentary committees have a majority of seats reserved for the opposition in an attempt to prevent the largest political party in parliament from dominating all proceedings.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/337/blogs_03_potashke.gifKenyan Urban Narrative revisits his “Kikuyuness” and discovers that all Kenyans are equal but some are more equal than others – those who stole the truth and with it took the land.

“They told me that Red was for the blood that was shed and green was for the land that was won. I grew up and then I realised: red was for those who died fighting and green was for those who lived- to reap matunda ya uhuru. My ancestor inherited the red, your ancestor inherited the red; so why do we have to die that those that inherited the land may stay ever green?”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/337/blogs_04_charlestaylortrial...The Trial of Charles Taylor provides a detailed day to day report on the trial of Charles Taylor which for the past week has seen the defence cross examine one Denis koker, a Mende from Sierra Leone and former member of the AFRC who were aligned to the RUC. Koker provided security for an advisor to the President. His evidence is a detailed and chilling witness to the violence wielded by
Taylor and the RUF as he describes what was called “Operation No Living Thing”.

“He said it was an order from Mosquito–that we are burning houses so that if ECOMOG or government soldiers come, they cannot stay in Kono. He said we will take the zinc roofs and build other houses. Then the RUF and Juntas would completely control Kono. I saw them shooting civilians in Kono. I saw them capture civilians in Koidu Town and surrounding villages, looting property, capturing kids–boys and girls, they shot civilians who were unwilling to carry loads. In Koidu, they captured civilians and forcefully initiated them into the force. Many women and children were captured. Those who weren’t captured ran away toward Guinea as refugees. In Koidu, women were captured and made into wives. It was like serving yourself tea to drink. It was very common wherever we went–in Freetown, Masiaka, Kono, and all along the way there. I saw it myself. Operation No Living Thing went on every day and every night, burning houses all over Kono. They burned mud houses and even concrete houses. In Koidu Town, there were more houses burned down than I could count. There were more than 100 and I couldn’t count them anymore. I wanted to find a way to reach Kailahun because that was my mother land. The group was moving towards Kailahun anyway. RUF and AFRC fighters had broken into a bank in Koidu and taken money and diamonds. They wanted to use this to open a route to Kailahun. Eldred Collins handed us over to be security for this together with Staff Sargeant Saliu Kanneh, who was Julius Maada Bio’s bodyguard. I saw the money myself in big bags. I became frightened because I had taken a military oath. We had no respect. In the military I had taken some courses and learned how to fight a war. I saw that the money was looted and thought it would be a disgrace to my family.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/337/blogs_05_akin.gif
Nigerian blogger, Akin reports on the “shame and scandal in the family” surrounding former President Obasanjo who is accused by his son, Gbenga, of having an affair with his wife and far worse, his father-in-law for having an incestuous relationship with his daughter.

My grandfather is my father
There appears to be two children in the marriage and their supposed father casts doubt on their paternity by seeking a DNA test that brings in his father and father-in-law – how reprobate can this get?.............Some matters need to handled with discretion especially where children are involved though this matter of a seemingly seriously wronged man by his wife, his father and his father-in-law is a powder-keg ready to shake Nigerian societal values to its core – this case cannot be an exception..............But this can almost be too reckless on the part of the petitioner, representing the very ugly face of acrimonious divorces – if the children were to find out that their father is either of their grandfathers rather than the husband of their mother – how damaging would that be for the children and to what end?

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/337/blogs_06_orenotes.gifOre of Ore’s Notes reports on her recent trip to the island of Zanibar and her final stop in the “Spice Tour” where she visits a slave chamber.

“Slaves were hidden in here after trade in slaves was abolished. The cave is a dank pit, which appeared to spiral into the ground. After taking about 20 steps down, the daylight was already being subsumed by the underground darkness. I climbed down as far as my slippers would allow me to on the slippery and damp ground. Our lone torch gave out and my camera battery, which I had been carefully nursing all through the trip (not having a battery charger with me) eventually failed. It was time to call it a day and head back.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/337/blogs_07_blacklooks.gifBlack Looks publishes messages from members of Kenya’s Nabuur community in towns and villages across the country. The messages were sent my email and sms to each other and to their volunteer supports.

“04 jan: “Hi Pelle! It’s terrible here! No phone cards. Pple dying esp. children of disease. Hunger biting. More police shooting. Trying to raise some support to assist people.”
01 jan: “Security situation is getting worse! over 300 ppl killed - one being my cousin. Gun shots everywhere. The impact is real - no basic needs available.”
30 dec: “Kibaki declared Presidential winner though opposition won. He’s just been sworn in 15 minutes after. There’s bloodshed in Kenya. Police kills over 50 ppl.”

* Sokari Ekine the Community Coordinator for Kabissa.org and is author of Black Looks

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

Representatives of the African diaspora gathered in Brussels recently following a call by Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade to protest against the signing of new EU-Africa trade deals. The EU says the agreements will be beneficial for the African economy, something disputed by some African states.

Targeted and broad-based sanctions must be imposed against the illegitimate and corrupt government of Mwai Kibaki. Everyone knows that the elections were fraudulent and steps must be taken to defend Kenya's nascent democracy. No lasting peace will come to Kenya without justice in the 2007 elections and too much is at stake. The welfare of 150 million people in the East African region is in jeopardy.

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) requests applications for their 2008 programme in Journalism and Democracy to be held in Kalmar and Stockholm during 5 May – 23 May. The programme is set up as a process-oriented workshop consisting of lectures, discussions, group sessions, study visits, research and presentations both written and oral. Participants from Zimbabwe are particularly encouraged to apply. This is a fully funded programme. the deadline for applications is February 15, 2008.

We need Democracy, not Band Peace! I have watched with utter shock some of the prescriptions the middle class residing in leafy suburbs have opted to give to Kenya. It is very clear that Kibaki presidency is as a result of pure robbery of the will of voters. How on earth can one then prescribe celebrity bands to sing for peace, and religious groups to pray for peace when its public knowledge what the cause of discord threatening to burn Kenya to ashes is?

Prayer and music will not restore our republic if it does not isolate the issues and urge the people to act on them. For peace to prevail, all must push towards a speedy dismantling of a leadership system whose mandate is questionable. All prayers and songs ought to be encouraging those who are acting within the law and civility to see to it that this happens. Prayer and music ought to be educating all those who are keen on breaking the law by destroying other people’s property to desist and instead refocus their energies on the public enemy of the time.

Kenyans do not need music reminding them of patriotism, they need music to urge on the fight against tyranny of the few against the majority. We do not need to pray for peace, we need to pray for those who are genuinely fighting the dictatorship of a few elites against the will of the Kenyan people. Engaging in musical bands for peace is to seek cheap publicity at the expense of the lives and property of innocent civilians who are bearing the brunt of electoral fraud.

What we need now are liberation songs. Songs such as Bob Marley’s “Stand up for your rights.” We need songs to make those who might have misplaced anger to direct it against the actual public enemy…theft of people’s will. That is not similar to suing for peace while camouflaging and sugar coating tyranny. The Kenyan song ought to be “don’t seat back and hope for the best, get rid of the individual tyrants… don’t allow them to hide behind tribal masks.” Will prayer restore the Kenyan republic? Not at the tenor it has assumed! If Kenyans simply pray for peace and attain artificial normalcy, chances are that they will be giving more time for enemies of the republic to simply restock their powder keg reserves. Kenyans prayed in 1988, 1990 – 92, and in 1997. The year 2002 offered an opportunity for Kibaki and his team to help actualize the 14 year prayer wishes. It became clear that we were on a rollercoaster to strife after 6 months of his leadership. A leading anti corruption czar, Mr. John Githongo fled the country; this was simply wished away. Kenyans held a government sanctioned prayer for peace after the referendum and buried under the carpet what the will of the people had stated by voting against a state sponsored constitution.

As middle class, we might retreat to our restaurants and sip cold drinks. We might even have passports to flee if the red ambers of public anger catch up with us. Yes, we might even choose to simply engage in intellectual talk about the situation and position ourselves for jobs in either of the two warring factions. But we must remember that our drivers, watchmen, cooks, house helps, are watching keenly the developments. For religious leaders, we must remember that the displaced people and those whose property is being destroyed are our members. As it was in the ancient times when faith was used to rally people to a just cause, so it should be today in Kenya if we are to succeed in our quest for peace. Kenyans should not burry their heads in the sand.

In part one, Onyango Oloo diagnosed the Kenya crisis. In Part two he prescribes, amongst other remedies, continued civil action against the Kibaki government

In this section of my essay, I want to examine the options ahead for the Kenya democratic movement.

Many of us heaved a sigh of relief when Raila Odinga announcement the postponement of the rallies.

Let me hasten to add that our sigh of relief DID NOT coincide with NOR WAS IT THE SAME AS the sighs from the Kenyan comprador and petit bourgeois elite.

Rather, our own sense of relief was grounded on organizational, tactical and strategic considerations.

We felt that the initial round of protests were largely spontaneous and unfocused.

Even the first attempts of ODM to rally the troops to Uhuru Park relied heavily on the passions and voluntarist energies of the ODM popular base. These actions were not very well coordinated in our view and that is why the cops had an upper hand.

We also felt that after the series of lumpen jacquerries in the informal settlements which had left in their wake infernos, innocent victims and tribal acrimony, it was crucial for the ODM to step and take charge, because contrary to the strident accusations of PNU supporters online and throughout the country, the Orange Democratic Movement as a party HAD NO ROLE in the riots and subsequent carnage.

This fact is graphically illustrated by the plight which befell hundreds of innocent Kisii speaking voters in Nyanza and parts of the Rift Valley. A comrade of mine who was one of the defeated aspirants in one constituency on the southern tip of Nyanza province recounted to me the violent reprisals and terrible ordeals which befell innocent Kisiis who had actually voted for Raila Odinga. He told me that there was a series of very blatant rigging of the ballots for Kibaki in parts of the Greater Kisii region where the PNU Presidential candidate got abnormally high amounts of votes- a clear plan to steal votes from Raila Odinga. When these artificial tallies were announced by ECK and especially after the shocking award by Kivuitu to Kibaki of the 2007 Presidential prize, mass anger erupted in places like Migori, Kericho, Kuresoi and Kisumu. The target this time was not confined to innocent Kikuyus and their property but also members of the Kisii who were wrongly accused by enraged Luo and Kipsigis mobs of having “betrayed” the people of Nyanza in bringing back Kibaki to power. I am told that even now there are unclaimed bodies literally some of the tea estates in Kericho with many members of the Kisii community losing their businesses in Kisumu and some areas in the Rift Valley. The many illegal road blocks erected on the Kisii-Nairobi road especially the Sotik-Narok section were scenes of unbelievable horrors if one happened to be a Kisii. This account corroborates the harrowing narrative of the Toronto-based Dr. Matunda Nyanchama that was posted on the Africa-Oped and Mwananchi online discussion forums.

My comrade told me that it took his own urgent personal intervention to two members of the ODM Pentagon that enabled the leadership of ODM to travel to the Rift Valley and Nyanza to appeal for calm and the end of ethnic slaughter.

The point I am trying to drive home is that the ODM leadership could have hardly "ordered" an ethnic attack on the Kisii community which rallied together to rout Simeon Nyachae and eliminate the PNU as a political force in Gusii land.

If anything, the ODM leadership, especially in southern Nyanza can be accused of being largely impotent in the face of a grave crisis affecting their own fervent supporters.
I would like to state for the record that I have been disgusted by the emerging PNU propaganda that attempts to portray the ODM leadership as Interhamwe type masterminds of genocide when the facts point to two developments:

The deployment of state troops who went on a shooting rampage in Nairobi, Eldoret, Kakamega, Bungoma, Kisumu and Mombasa killing innocent civilians and two; The cynical abdication of duty by the same state employed uniformed security forces when looting and plunder was taking place in Kisumu, Kibera and Mombasa to just cite three examples where eye-witnesses (including my brother in law in Mombasa who happens to be a half-Kikuyu and who had his bar on the west mainland pillaged and plundered under the uncaring eye of hordes of heavily armed cops who stood by as his club was stripped of all the equipment, appliances and facilities that he spent the last two years installing to revamp the place). It is my considered opinion that the looting and plunder WAS CONSCIOUSLY FACILITATED BY THE STATE TO DISCREDIT RAILA ODINGA AND THE ODM. This position was echoed by an elderly clear headed Kisumu resident when he was interviewed last night by a KTN television crew.

The PNU propagandists peddling the spurious “genocide” allegations are of course blissfully oblivious to the fact that the MAJORITY OF DEAD VICTIMS of the post-electoral violence has police wounds riddling their corpses.

If there is a case that can be made of pre-meditated mass killings, then the person in the dock should be those Kibaki connected and conniving political schemers who instituted a shoot to kill policy after arming cops with live ammunition instead of rubber bullets.

The breaking news revelations by Maina Kiai, the fiercely independent Chair of the state funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights to the effect that members of the dreaded Mungiki sect had been reactivated by the Kibaki regime to carry out murderous attacks in Nairobi slums thought to be ODM strongholds is a stunning setback that is already causing ripple effects and knocking the wind out of the sails of those Kibaki supporters online who have been trumpeting a concocted campaign against Raila Odinga and his ODM colleagues who they have stridently accused of ethnic cleansing.

What is even more astonishing that this story was broken by none other than Mungiki insiders who took the initiative of contacting Maina Kiai's offices.

It should be recalled that only a few months ago the same Kibaki regime was indiscriminately executing innocent Agikuyu youth suspected of being Mungiki members based on the sole “evidence” of ethnicity.

What a CYNICAL case of Use and Dump and Abuse Again!

The PNU propagandists may very well get what they wish for with unintended legal consequences for their paymasters because I earnestly believe that an independent, transparent international inquiry composed of legal experts into the Kenyan post-electoral deaths is far more likely to indict the Michukis and the Murages than anyone else within the ODM leadership.

And that is why I say:

Bring on the Inquiry, the Tribunal, the Commission!

Let the investigations commence this very afternoon!

As I was saying before I veered off on that tangent, many progressive and democratic minded Kenyans were grateful when ODM called off the mass rallies.

Why?

The masses were fatigued; they were famished; they were unorganized and disorganized and certainly not very politically conscientized and sensitized. As one of my comrades was pointing out to me yesterday evening, mass action is NOT A JOKE.

You need a detailed strategy.

You need mobilizers.

You need resources; in the same way an army needs supply lines, commanders and maximum flexibility of tactics to outwit the other side.

Of course Onyango Oloo is NOT going to delve into any kind of detail about how one can implement a successful, sustained and popular mass action strategy here online.

I would have to be certified INSANE for me to do that.

The key thing to remember is that the crisis in Kenya has by now evolved far beyond Raila Odinga and the stolen Presidential vote or the right of ODM to form the next government.

What we are now dealing with as Kenyans is the need to repulse a criminal conspiracy to overthrow democratic rule and restore the neo-colonial fascist ethno-kleptocracy of the Moi-KANU years.

What we are dealing with as Kenyans is a direct danger to ALL of the democratic gains we have made over the last twenty-five to thirty years.

What we are dealing with as Kenyans is an immediate threat that could plunge Kenya into a bloody civil war that would make Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Congo look like child’s play.

The danger we face as a nation calls IMMEDIATELY for, among other prerogatives:

1. A UNITED response that does not look at the problem through PAROCHIAL ETHNIC spectacles;
2. A DEMOCRATIC and PEACEFUL response that eschews militaristic and violent conspiracies;
3. A perspective grounded on SOCIAL JUSTICE and ANTI-IMPERIALIST precepts to ensure a progressive, egalitarian and just eventual outcome;
4. A PROTRACTED approach realizing that Kibaki and his henchmen, having tasted state power, will not, of their own accord relinquish the same unless forced to do so by united, democratic, progressive determination of the Kenyan people rising up to demand their country, their rights and their aspirations back from the PNU usurpers;
5. An organic linkage with the international solidarity and fight back campaigns spearheaded BY PROGRESSIVE AND PATRIOTIC KENYANS OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY together with our other global comrades in many countries throughout the world; There is ONLY ONE WEAPON at the disposal of the Kenyan people at this present time and that weapon is:

ORGANIZATION.

Let me repeat Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary dictum over and over and over and over again:

Organize, Organize, Organize!

Yes we know that the MOST AGGRIEVED IMMEDIATE ENTITY is the ODM who have just been robbed of an election that they won fair and square in broad daylight.

However the issue is far, far beyond the ODM and its immediate supporters. They are millions of Kenyans who are not necessarily aligned to ODM who are completely outraged and want to be part of a successful fight back.

This reality calls for the launching of a Kenya- wide organizational and democratic conduit which is much broader than any one political party in the country.

The other day I called for the formation of a NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT founded on the four pillars of JUSTICE, PEACE, DEMOCRACY and TRUTH. This movement must be based on the poor wananchi in the urban and rural areas, the youth, the women, the cultural and religious minorities, the progressive elements among the middle-class, patriotic Kenyans outside the country and all anti-imperialist forces.

My call is merely one of dozens of such calls emanating simultaneously from Kenyan progressives from all over the country, from Mombasa to Malaba, Moyale to Loitoktok.

Already we see fast mutating ancestors of that kind of an organization sprouting almost on a daily basis.

At the civil society front, a network of over 30 NGOs and non-profit formations formed a Coalition for Peace, Justice and Truth within the first few days of January.

At the core of this coalition are such credible institutions like the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Mars Group, Law Society of Kenya, Kituo Cha Sheria, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, NCEC, the Centre for Multi-Party Democracy-Kenya and other like minded bodies.

We must commend the admirable work of such Kenyan militant patriots and progressives like Muthoni Wanyeki, Gladwell Otieno, Cyprian Nyamwamu, Kepta Ombati, Ndung’u Wainaina, Maina Kiai, Zahid Rajan, Haron Ndubi, Zarina Patel and Mwalimu Mati in jump-starting this much needed vehicle and process.

Among the praise worthy initiatives of the new coalition are efforts to engage members of the Central Kenyan communities through an entity called the Republican Forum- a network of younger business people and professionals from among the Agikuyu. This forum which meets regularly at a certain Nairobi hotel and counts among its regulars people like David Ndii, Mutahi Ngunyi to name just two, is right now assessing the ECONOMIC and FINANCIAL immediate impact and long term ramifications of the Kibaki/PNU on Central Kenya within the context of the national reality that the Agikuyu, like other Kenyans live all over the country and if the anti-Kibaki backlash maintains an ethnic tag how this will mess up national harmony. Apart from that, the group has a mandate to emphasize to the GEMA communities that Kibaki’s coup should not be seen as synonymous as a “victory” for millions of individual Kikuyus, Merus and Embus but rather an insult and assault on every one of them who as Kenyans are equally affronted by this callous subversion of democracy, justice, and yes, prospects for peaceful coexistence across all our diverse Kenyan peoples.

Over and above the above, forces within the coalition are exhorting Kenyans to do the following:

(i)Agitate for new presidential elections within the next three months;
(ii)Urge ODM to take up their seats and continue their struggle in the 10th parliament because a boycott will be a political faux pas that will play right into the hands of the PNU usurpers;
(iii)Engage the police, the paramilitary and the military with a view of winning over these security forces to the side of the democratic and patriotic forces;
(iv)Mobilizing the international community, especially the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union to realize that Kenya will be UNGOVERNABLE under an illegitimate regime and that their interests and the interests of neighbouring countries like Uganda, Rwanda, the DRC, Sudan, Ethiopia etc will be at risk if the current political impasse persists;
(v)Step up indigenous, in country humanitarian efforts reaching out to ALL the victims of the post-electoral strife regardless of ethnicity, political affiliation and regional origins;

There are of course some other interesting developments but I guess it as this point that I will dutifully ZIP MY LIPS.

*Onyango Oloo, a Kenyan political activist and ex political prisoner.

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Last year saw three female presidents come into power. In Argentina, left-leaning Cristina Fernandez was elected president, becoming the country's second ever woman to occupy its highest office. In her inaugural speech, Fernandez vowed to ensure the conclusion of the numerous human rights abuses cases arising from the dictatorship era from 1976 to 1983.

On 3rd January more than 1000 backyarders from Delft and other areas of Cape Town, who occupied N2 Gateway houses in Delft before Christmas and were granted a stay of eviction by the Cape High Court, return to the Court. They claim that the order through which first the Cape Town City Council and then Thubelisha Homes tried to evict them was invalid and hence the evictions were illegal. They want to stop the evictions altogether.

For over a week now, post election violence in Kenya has dominated the news. A country formerly seen as one of the most stable in Africa has turned overnight into chaos, violence and ethnic clashes that are being compared to the nightmare of Rwanda 13 years ago. What happened ?

The most frequently used headlines for the election-related violence has been “tribal killings” between the dominant Kikuyu and the Luo. The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle have used words like “savage” in the front page and described the Mungiki ethnic group as “blood drinking” in last week’s articles.

In framing the conflict this way, the media not only misleads and oversimplifies the problem, worse, it affirms existing stereotypes that all of Africa’s problems can be reduced to savage tribal violence. The implication is that still, fifty years after independence, most African institutions lack the “sophisticated political and economic contentions” of other countries in the West. It becomes obvious in such scenarios to consider “humanitarian” intervention to bring in much needed civilization.

What the Kenyan election controversy has uncovered is that it much more to do with economics than with ethnic rivalry. Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, in a recent article on the subject stated “They don’t seem to recognize sufficiently that Kenya like Africa as a whole has only two tribes: the haves and the have-nots.”

Much of the violence is concentrated in well known slum areas like Kibera and Mathare in the capital Nairobi. At around this time last year, we were in Nairobi for the World Social Forum. What we observed in the city were the obvious contradictions that can be seen in many African cities – well paved roads, fancy hotels and banks not unlike those in London or New York. But, spread throughout the city were the poor. In pockets within the city were the slums where the poorest of the poor reside in conditions unimaginable for human survival. It is in such areas that the violence is concentrated; people who have nothing to fear and nothing to lose.

When violence erupts so suddenly, the immediate response of the most vulnerable is to leave their homes and flee. Already there are reports of Kenyans leaving for neighboring Uganda in the thousands. What is alarming in this case is that there are already in Kenya millions of refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. Kenya has provided safe sanctuary and passage to millions of refugees escaping conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

The Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia & Sudan) is the most volatile region in the continent. Assistant Sec. for African Affairs Dr. Jendayi Frazier stated in a talk in San Francisco that she spends 70% of her focus on issues related to the five countries in Horn. The violence in Kenya, if not abated soon, has the potential to engulf an existing volatile situation into further chaos.

Nothing short of an independent investigation into charges of election rigging will begin to restore confidence of Kenyans. It is the first step toward long term cessation of violence and hostility that can then lead to political stability. It is important that both candidates exhibit the necessary leadership in resolving a crisis.

The worst proposal to “solve” yet another problem in Africa is the consideration of a military alternative, as in AfriCOM (an Africa Command center) which the State Department announced a year ago.

Expected to go into full operation in September of this year, AfriCom is being promoted as “security” measure to end conflicts and provide humanitarian assistance to Africa’s hotspots. The current violence in Kenya will, no doubt, be used as yet another reason why the US should speed up the operational phase of AfriCom.

As we have seen in the case of Iraq, military responses to deeper economic and political problems are no solution at all. They in fact exasperate and further divide communities along religious, ethnic and economic lines.

Let Kenyan leaders step in to propose solutions to the elections.

UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM ACADEMIC STAFF ASSEMBLY (UDASA)

STATEMENT ON THE GRAVE ELECTION AND POST-ELECTION SITUATION IN KENYA

As an association of academics with the social responsibility of pursuing truth and being obliged to take up issues of great concern to citizens of countries in which we work, UDASA wishes to register our grave concern about loss of live and the wanton destruction of people’s property arising from the sad events that have been unfolding since the hurried inauguration of Mr. Mwai Kibaki as the President, for a second term, of the Republic of Kenya. As intellectuals we have made our modest contribution to the building and consolidation of democratic institutions and traditions in Tanzania and, more generally, in East Africa. General Elections are the principal means by which citizens may exercise their hard-worn sovereignty.

On the 27th of December 2007, General Elections were conducted in Kenya. On the 30th of December, 2007, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Mr. Samuel Kivuitu announced that Mr. Mwai Kibaki, the leader of the Party for National Unity (PNU) that had gained 33 seats in the 210 seat Kenyan Parliament against 95 seats gained by the party of his main rival, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), was the winner of the Presidential race in that General Election.

Immediately, thereafter, Kenya has been plunged into violence triggered by outbursts of anger and resentment against supporters of PNU and those ethnically associated with Mr. Kibaki who ODM and its supporters accuse of rigging the tallying of the final count of the General Election results and thus stealing victory in the Presidential race from Mr. Raila Oginga of ODM. More than 300 people are said to have died so far and thousands have been internally displaced. Some Kenyans are said to be already fleeing to neighbouring countries as refugees. All the General Election observers, both local and international are in agreement that there were undue delays in having the constituency election tallies submitted to the Electoral Commission headquarters. There is also consensus now that the results that the Chairman of ECK announced on the 30th December 2007 on the basis of which Mr. Kibaki took the oath as the winner of the Presidential race were not credible tallies of the General Election results where the Presidential race is concerned. The ECK Chairman himself has subsequently made the surprising admission that he himself did not know who won the Presidential race in spite being the one, who announced that Mr. Kibaki won the election on the 30th December, 2007.

Popular displeasure has been unleashed. This displeasure has in some cases taken a very violent turn that has expressed itself in ugly scenes of the destruction of people and property. Political passions have been aroused and in heat of the raised political passions ethnic bigotry has been aroused and made to thrive. Some citizens now have taken to thinking that an injustice had been committed against a political leader or groups of political leaders they considered to be of their kind. Other citizen also now being encouraged to believe that an advantage, however unfair, had been gained by a political leader or group of leaders considered to be of their kind. Seeds of ethnic cleansing are being sowed among residences with mixed ethnic backgrounds coinciding with rival political camps.

UDASA believes that it is time to call on all concerned to sit down and discuss the underlying issues that are the source of the unfolding conflict. The tallying of the election results needs to be revisited. Furthermore, a wider debate needs to be initiated on issues such as the composition and role of election commissions.

Dr. D.L. Nyaoro Chairperson

From the look of things, it would appear that we are still a long way from resolving the serious post-election crisis that is gripping and almost crippling Kenya.

Even after Raila Odinga and ODM considerably softened their preconditions for internationally mediated talks with their opposite numbers by dropping their demand that Kibaki must resign; calling off a series of rallies and mass actions across the country and lowering the decibel of their political rhetoric, Mwai Kibaki and his fellow usurpers seems set on a suicidal path to tighten their hold on the stolen public offices.

On Tuesday, January 8, 2008 the besieged Pretender President in the State House compounded the putschist, undemocratic initial injury he had inflicted on the Kenyan nation by unilaterally and illegally appointing his cronies and side-kicks to ministerial positions literally hours before African Union Chairperson John Kuffuor of Ghana landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to mediate in scheduled talks between ODM and PNU.

Not only did Kibaki violate Kenyan law by appointing these individuals before they had been sworn in formally as members of parliament, the Othaya MP was desperate to confront the visiting Kuffuor with a fait accompli by grabbing the most powerful and strategic cabinet positions for himself and his faction.

In doing so, Kibaki also laid bare a lot of what Kenyans had been suspecting for months:

Kalonzo Musyoka, the ODM-K leader and also ran presidential candidate had always been a fifth columnist amidst opposition ranks causing much rancour while still in the original ODM and bolting off to form ODM-K as a stratagem of wangling for himself the coveted VP slot. Now every boast of Kalonzo’s about being a “peace maker” and ‘Mr. Clean Hands” rings hollow; words and phrases added to the growing hill of human turd, the self-created merde composed of his swaggering and sauntering election campaign boasts of being the “most formidable opponent” of Kibaki and the “people’s servant”.

How could Kibaki’s so called “most formidable opponent” agree to be a mere junior stand in for his alleged nemesis?

How could an alleged “peace maker” and so called “servant of the people” jump hastily into bed with someone whose criminal actions had led to so much blood shed, ethnic acrimony, economic devastation and political uncertainty?

What is also clearly evident is that Kibaki’s move to appoint Kalonzo Musyoka as his deputy could be an advance gambit anticipating a re-run of the presidential contest where Kibaki and his schemers reckon that Kalonzo may single-handedly delivered the Akamba bloc vote.

Judging by his less than stellar showing at the just concluded parliamentary and presidential elections, it is by no means a sure bet that Kalonzo will actually live up to this lofty expectations.

Many of us in the progressive and democratic camp here in Kenya have been chastened with the emerging agenda of the United States and such multi-lateral global bodies like the World Bank.

A leaked memo authored by the Guyanese born Kenya Country director of the World Bank Colin Bruce basically setting the ground for an acceptance of the Kibaki coup d'etat is a very sobering reminder that when it comes to crunch time, institutions such as the World Bank will gravitate towards the status quo.

Some of my reliable sources here in Nairobi inform me that the United States publicly unstated position militates against a re-run of the election, leaning more towards a negotiated power-sharing formula between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki- as if the national crisis that has seen tens of thousands of democracy seeking Kenyan protesters lash out in anger in response to the stolen presidential vote outcome.

It is also not very clear what the mainstream African agenda is regarding the current crisis in Kenya.

Conterminous with the arrival and presence of John Kufour was the puzzling tour of ex-Presidents Kaunda of Zambia, Mkapa of Tanzania, Chissano of Mozambique and Masire of Botswana.

Were they in Kenya to bolster or undermine the shuttle diplomacy of the Ghanaian head of state?

What are more disturbing are the personal, ideological and strategic intentions of President Yoweri Museveni from the neighbouring nation-state of Uganda.

Credible reports indicate that Ugandan troops-some of them dressed in Kenyan police uniform, some of them in civvies- have been implicated in the extra-judicial state ordered executions of unarmed civilians in Kisumu, including many infants and minors, with some shot at close range while cowering in their own homes.

An observer in Nairobi has privately suggested to this writer that the Kibaki posse of political criminals did approach the Ugandan government expressing their insecurities about dealing with any negative fallout from within the Kenyan military establishment in the aftermath of the elections.

Museveni, according to this source, is supposed to have reassured the Kenyan head of state and his shadowy kitchen cabinet that Uganda was ready to do ANYTHING- including dispatching troops to Kenya to thwart any efforts at overturning the Kibaki civilian coup.

The observer in Nairobi is of the opinion that the main thing driving Museveni’s mother hen attitude towards Kenya has less to do with guaranteeing Kenyan political stability as with the Ugandan president’s own megalomaniacal ambitions to be the capo dei capi of East and Central Africa over the next few years. As many readers of these lines know, there is a push to consolidate the process of implementing the East African Community as an economic, legal, social and POLITICAL entity. Part of the provisions of that process is the creation of an East African Community President.

My source avers that Museveni sees himself as the natural born leader who will fit that slot. M7 (as the Ugandan president is often referred to, especially in his native land) thinks that Kenya’s Raila Odinga stands in Museveni’s way because of the ODM flag-bearer’s own charisma, Pan African appeal and political pedigree (it never hurts to be scion/offspring of one of the Third World’s most celebrated nationalist heroes, Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga).

The observer in Nairobi is convinced that Museveni’s covert and overt (he is the only leader to have so far "recognized" the illegitimate hostage in the State House) support for Kibaki is rooted in a cynical, mid term quid pro quo strategy of neutralizing any aspirants to the ultimate East African crown jewel.

I ran this hypothesis by another friend of mine, this one a highly placed individual embedded at the core of Kenya’s National Security Intelligence Service.

My NSIS contact was very skeptical about the Museveni Factor as delineated by my observer pal.

He says that going by his own contacts within the Ugandan armed forces and intelligence agencies, there does not seem to be ANY credence that could lift the Museveni Hypothesis above the level of wild rumour and baseless speculation. He also doubts the reports, lately echoed by Raila Odinga himself about the active participation of Ugandan troops in the state-engineered massacres of civilians in Kisumu.

I will leave my readers to use their own discretion to interrogate, verify and/or corroborate the veracity or otherwise of these serious allegations regarding the role played by President Museveni in the current Kenyan crisis.

Nevertheless, my spooky intelligence pal shared with me something else:

He told me that there is a high level of uncertainty and even mild dissent within the armed forces, the regular police and other elements of the Kenyan state security apparatus.

He claims that the wildly refuted SMS rumours which speculated that Kenya’s army chief and the police commissioner had resigned around New Year’s Day were NOT totally baseless because there had been some kind of heightened pressures on the duo within those ranks that the military and the police should not be seen to be condoning Kibaki’s electoral grand larceny.

The NSIS Deep Throat also told me that overall morale within the armed forces has been lowered considerably and that there are more and more middle-ranking officers who are quitting the Kenyan military to pursue soldier of fortune opportunities in places like Iraq or take up private civilian security consulting gigs within the country- a trend that he evaluates as not being in the best interests of the Kibaki junta.

My shadowy source also asserted that the MAJORITY of the members of the REGULAR police are OPENLY sympathetic to ODM and that could be one reason why the Michukis and Murages opted for members of the dreaded GSU and the Administration Police together with the elements from the National Youth Service as the storm troopers to protect the illegal installation of Mwai Kibaki. Even here he says that many of those young people dressed up in those fierce looking anti-riot gear are actually NOT GSU but AP and NYS personnel because the commander of the Administration Police is allegedly closer to the kitchen cabinet cabal than the other police heads.

Again what I am purveying here is a perspective from one individual. Whether what he is saying is true or not is subject to further investigation and verification.

There are so many things which have been happening in Nairobi which are yet to make it to the public domain. For instance we are told that immediately after the polls, former President Moi (with or without some of his kids) boarded a plane bound for Germany. Upon arrival, the authorities in that European state loaded promptly on another Nairobi bound flight, barring his presence in Germany.

* This is the first part of the essay, the second of which will appear in the next issue of Pambazuka News

*Onyango Oloo, a Kenyan political activist and ex political prisoner.

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Peter Adwok Nyaba critically analyses the struggle by the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement within the context of African liberation

“… [the] drive for African unity in our times requires a popular mass-based, Africa-wide political movement whose central goal is political and economic unity of African people..” K K Prah [2006]

Introduction

Before we proceed to define what African liberation is, there is need that we perceive and agree on the definition of who is an ‘African’. It would be a fatal mistake to assume that anybody on the African continent today including those who deny that identity is African. On the other hand it will equally be serious a mistake bordering on ignorance of history to perceive that people of the African descent domicile outside the continent e.g. in the Americas, Europe, Asia or Oceania are not Africans. What then is the criterion for classifying or categorising one as an African?

The Africans are the only race in the last one thousand years that has been raped, brutalised, denied its humanity, commoditised, exported like goods, its natural resources stolen by Europeans and Asians, its societies torn apart, their social bonds disrupted and compartmentalised into colonial territories. The history of the African people and people of African descent has in short been that of tremendous tribulations at the hands of nearly all the other races. No human race has gone through such a legacy and possesses such historical indignity.

An African therefore is one who or whose ancestors have gone through this experience and heritage. Black colour, although a characteristic feature of many of us, does not alone define who is African. It is the legacy of sustained dominance, exploitation and enslavement that really defines the African and people of the African descent domicile elsewhere in the world. This sustained societal domination has created a sense of belonging and other realities of its own but it is more among the African Diaspora that the urge to solidarity and identity consciousness in more evident.

On the continent this sustained domination worked negatively in many instances. It subverted the African confidence in them and created syndromes of inferiority, self-hate, and lack of self-esteem to paraphrase Prah. And many others prevalent today even in our societies e.g. the practice of skin bleaching, hair straightening or simulating the or anything European or Arab, are manifestations of this self-hate. It is in this context that we want to discuss the African liberation in all its dimensions socio-cultural, political and economic.

African Liberation

Let’s now attempt to define ‘African liberation’, what are its parameters and which social and political forces pursue this liberation struggle? In the context of decolonisation African liberation has been seen as process leading to independence from European colonial rule. Although that may be a significant aspect of it, African liberation is a socio-cultural and political process for self-rediscovery, self- re-humanisation and return with dignity into human history. Colonialism and dependence on Europe removed our people from history. Liberation essentially is the return of the African people on the continent and in the Diaspora back into history such that they take their rightful place in the course of human development. This process in the final analysis must translate into transforming the oppressive reality by which the Africans have been submerged in for centuries. Its main parameters are social and cultural emancipation, political independence, economic vibrancy, unity of the African people on the continent with their kin and kith in the Diaspora.

The oppressive reality the Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora find themselves is the reality of neo-colonialism – maintaining colonial relationships through diplomatic and economic strings which perpetuates economic exploitation and the robbing of the continents natural resources through such institutions as the Lome Convention [I, II, III & IV], the Cotonou Protocol -2000, which has perpetuated African’s dependence on the European Union. Europe continues to exploit the Africans through such agreements made by African leaders who never cared for their people. It is relationship in which Africa suffers capital flight to Europe, America and Asia to the tune of billions of dollars per year with a corresponding pauperisation of the Africans as manifested in the Human Development Indices of most of these countries.

A synoptic view of the African political landscape reveals astounding reality of conflicts, civil wars, famine, preventable diseases, and many other epidemics. Fifty years of flag independence most African countries find themselves in fiscal deficit which must be covered by donors – a sad reminder that it is ‘not yet uhuru’. They are unable to feed their own people or provide the minimum of life requirements as a result the Africans risk their lives fleeing away to become voluntary slaves in Europe, the Middle East and America. Africa is witnessing a brain drain to the West and this works negatively for Africa’s development.

In historical perspective, African Liberation and the struggle thereof is not something new. It also didn’t start with the struggle for decolonisation in the fifties and sixties. The process started against the European and Arab aggression many centuries ago. We may have to remind ourselves of the struggles against European slave merchants on the Atlantic coastal areas of Africa; against the Arab slave expeditions along the Indian Ocean coastal areas of East Africa and in the Nile Valley across the Red Sea. Africans played heroic roles against this human tragedy.

The Africans also didn’t accept lying down on their stomachs the European colonialism after the Berlin Conference 1884. We may have to remind ourselves of the Mahdi’s uprising against the corrupt Turco-Egyptian state in northern Sudan. It is a matter of fact many of participated albeit as slaves in the war against the European power. The defeat of the Italians at Adowa in 1895 by the Ethiopians under Menelik II is a vivid reminder that African people always cherished freedom in their lands.

The struggle for freedom as manifested by decolonisation of Africa was long drawn out against European colonial administration. It also included the political, military and diplomatic actions against Apartheid in South Africa which ended in the majority rule in 1994. The situation in South Africa had been describes as ‘internal colonialism’ – in which the dominant political class, representing the social, economic and political interests of the predatory white racists captured the state and used it to dominate, oppress and exploit the majority of the citizens. This internal colonialism was more vicious and ruthless than the European colonialism.

Social and political forces for African liberation

The Africans struggle for freedom started in earnest with the process of decolonisation. This struggle took different forms ranging from negotiations [Lancaster talks] for countries like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania [British East Africa], Nigeria, Ghana, Cameron [British West Africa], Senegal, Ivory Cost, Mali, Niger [French West Africa] among others; to revolutionary armed struggle as it occurred with the Portuguese [Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau] and French colonies [Algeria] or with armed struggle against internal colonialism as in the case of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Eritrea and Southern Sudan.

The unfortunate outcome of this struggle for freedom and independence was the confirmation of Africa’s division in the images of its former colonial masters and the perpetuation of their respective zones of influence. Africa emerged divided and fragmented after decolonisation. Nearer home in Sudan, the Acholi, Madi, Kakwa, Masaai, Zaghawa, Azande, Beja, Anyuak just to mention a few find themselves today divided by the colonial borders of the countries surrounding the Sudan. The situation is the same in many regions of Africa.

The attempt in Addis Ababa in 1962 to forge African unity in formation of Organisation for African Unity (OAU) quickly turned into leadership club, which affirmed the colonial division of Africa. It became a ‘unity’ of African leaders to perpetuate the colonial legacy of oppression, marginalisation and political exclusion of sections of their citizenry. The first phase of African liberation therefore faltered. The result of this ‘false start in Africa’ is the present crisis in which the continent is embroiled. Conflicts, civil wars, military coups, economic depression, refugees, internal displacement, are all symptoms of a serious error of judgement of our independence leaders. There is no African state that has not had a military coup, civil war, tribal wars and conflicts, etc.

African liberation is therefore a struggle against neo-colonial state. It can only occur in the context of a continental movement to which the Africans in the Diaspora may subscribe to. A continental movement which involves all the social and political forces united in their different and variegated political parties and organisations, associations, and unions. A ‘Pan African Movement’ capable of capturing the aspirations of the African people and unite them in solidarity with one another and with the African Diaspora. The Africans may borrow a leaf from the Pan Arab Movement and solidarity in terms of its form and structure but with a different social and cultural content.

Is the Sudanese people part of the African Liberation?

We in Southern Sudan are emerging from a half century struggle against the politics of racial domination, exclusion and marginalisation. The Sudanese political situation resembled apartheid in South Africa and Namibia and qualified as a case of ‘internal’ colonialism. In this context the dominant political class, representing the social, economic and political interests of the predatory Jellaba, captured the state in 1956 and used its different parameters to politically exclude from power, marginalise dominate, oppress and exploit the majority of the citizens.

Disenchanted with the historical role played by the Jellaba in slavery and slave trade, the people of Southern Sudan, had always remained suspicious and never accepted the political dispensation that ensured Arab hegemony over the whole country. The call for ‘federation’ by Southern Political elite in the nineteen fifties didn’t come out of the blues. It was anchored in the belief that the Jellaba would not accept the concept and principle of power sharing in a unitary state. The people of Southern Sudan had to fight two wars to win the exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement has now made it a constitutional right and therefore a victory for all the Sudanese people.

The relentlessness with which the people of Southern Sudan pursued their political objectives played a fundamental role in the awakening of the other marginalised and oppressed Sudanese particularly those of the African stock in central [Nuba and Funj], western [Fur, Masaalit, Zaghawa, among others] and eastern [Beja] Sudan. It is worth mentioning that hitherto many of these people, submerged by the oppressive reality they lived were ensnared into the false belief that professing Islamic Religion and speaking Arabic language [culture] was tantamount to being Arab hence superior to their brethren in the South. They therefore fought bitterly and fiercely to brutalise and dehumanise their brother and sisters in Southern Sudan.

The Southern Sudan influence is manifested in the wars in Dar Fur and Eastern Sudan. This has shattered the myth and falsehood that northern Sudan was homogeneously Islamic and Arab. Yes many of them, indeed most of them, are Muslims but they are not all Arabs. As a matter of fact even those who call themselves Arabs are indeed not Arab but a hybrid race – children born to Arab fathers by African mothers. It now can be said that the Africans in the Sudan have awoken to the reality of their collective oppression. They have therefore taken up the mantle for their own liberation suggestive of their conscientisation i.e. they have correctly perceived of their submersion in the culture of oppression and therefore the need to transform that oppressive reality. Like Southern Sudanese they have now enrolled in the process of their total liberation and emancipation.

Having said that, it goes without saying that we in Southern Sudan, as well as our brothers and sisters in other parts of the Sudan, who subscribe to the definition of the African, are indeed an integral part of Africa and its liberation. It may not be a late realisation because looking back into the sixties, one of the liberation fronts established by Southern Sudanese was Azania Liberation Front, something anchored in the South African experience.

The liberation process in the Sudan now helps highlight the nature of ‘internal colonialism’ I allude to above but more importantly highlights the perennial conflicts that run across African between the Arabs and the Black Africans in Dar Fur, Chad, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Mauritania. These are conflicts to which many African leaders would prefer to squint from or fudge under the carpet of diplomacy as they flirt with Arab leaders like Gadhafi. A pan African Movement should confront this reality head-on to bring the Arab to accept the Africans as their equals.

This brings me to the recently established African Union and the proposed United States of Africa. What kind of United States of Africa including the Arabs? Going by the Arab’s attitude towards the Africans it will be like a union between the slave and his/her master/mistress. The United States of Africa is not an instrument for African liberation. Instead United States of Africa led by Mohamar Gadhafi is another was of perpetuating Arab hegemony in Africa particularly when viewed in the context of their lukewarm response to the war in Dar Fur and lack of support for the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2005).

What should be done?

As part of the liberation process we need to embrace democracy and democratic principles of political organisation and action as tools for liberation. As a matter of fact this requires a high level of political awareness, consciousness and organisation. Africa has been so much segmented and partitioned that their primary conscious knowledge of themselves is their immediate clans or lineages. Even where the same ethnic community has been divided by the colonial borders people remain oblivious to the fact that they are one and the same people. We need to get out of this clannishness and look at the wider picture embracing our destiny as a people.

This discussion forum which has just been inaugurated in my opinion is a conscious attempt to start engaging ourselves in bigger issues that concern the destiny of the Africans on the continent and those of the African origin. This is a process of conscientisation which of necessity must be followed by mobilisation and organisation at every level of our society. This is because liberation will not come until we have internalised some of these issues like construction of a continent-wide political movement whose main goal the political and economic unity of the African people. Borrowing from the European theatre it is the political and economic unity that will really bring an end to the endemic wars and conflicts on the African continent.

In Sudan, we have been absorbed by our own massive problems. This has prevented many of us from engaging in regional and continental issues. The present dispensation which allows Government of Southern Sudan and the SPLM to have offices in the regions must be used to widen our contacts with our neighbours to increase cooperation in solving cross border issues, increase trade and unhindered movement of our people and their goods. The establishment of regional associations and unions of academicians, students, youths, women and political parties will accelerate this process. The movement for African liberation and unity must be two-ways traffic across the colonial borders with the ultimate objective of making these borders irrelevant in the lives of our people. This will eventually lead to the deconstruction of the colonial state and the final unity of our people.

The perpetuation of the neo-colonial state as a diplomatic as well as a reference of sovereignty was a major failure of our leaders. It is this attitude to the colonial state that witnessed the death in its infancy of the East African Community in the sixties. It is hoped the recent attempts to revive this important regional body and more particularly the joining of Burundi and Rwanda will help pull the peoples of these countries together. We are of the opinion that regional institutions of cooperation and economic integration should be stepped up and buttressed as a means of strengthening our economies to achieve genuine liberation.

The neo-colonial state, we in a misnomer, call nation state did not address the concerns of the vast majority of the African people for social and economic development. The current crisis on the continent may be attributed to the failure of the African leadership. Looking round the continent there are many failed or collapsed states. Their economies are in shambles and their people are daily escaping to other areas. Africa is experiencing a plight of its people this time voluntarily to become slaves in developed economies. This situation necessitates a second round of African liberation.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the Sudanese people are an integral part of the African liberation. But it is only those Sudanese who recognise and accept the fact that they are part of the African heritage I talked about above. The SPLM being the vanguard of the struggle of our people for the last twenty four years must continue to play this role more vigorously now than before.

The SPLM must become the rallying point for all the Sudanese in the south, east, west and north. It must engage in genuine democratic discourse and build viable, transparent and accountable relationship between the leaders and the masses of the people. It must punish clannish behaviour of some of its leaders and cadres; it must rid the government and society of corruption, nepotism, favouritism and all elements of bad governance.

The SPLM in its effort to transform into a popular mass-based political party in the Sudan must adopt methods of political organisation and action which are democratic. It should be a link between the Sudanese and the other Africans and the African Diaspora. Its departure point must of necessity incorporate a ‘firm cultural vestiture which strengths and roots African national consciousness in our cultural and historical belongings’ [Prah]. In this way the SPLM will be part of the process of uniting the ranks and file of our people across the colonial boundaries.

The Sudanese struggle for liberation, social justice, freedom and democracy is therefore part of the African liberation. We must therefore transform ourselves into conscious mass [Pan Africanist Movement] and agent of Pan Africanist ideals in this way we will have participated in the liberation of Africa.

* Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba is the author of The Politics of Liberation in South Sudan: An Insider’s View

* This article is taken from a talk delivered by the author at Juba University on November 17th, 2007

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Renowned Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o give his views on the unrest that has engulfed Kenya since last month's disputed elections.

Writers must sometimes feel like the Greek prophetess Cassandra, gifted to see the future but fated not to be believed.

What is unfolding in Kenya could as well have been lifted from my novel Wizard of the Crow where the ruling party and the opposition parities engaged in Western-sponsored democracy become mirror images of one another in their absurdity and indifference to the poor. The picture of men and women burnt down in a church where they had gone for refuge still haunts my mind. A child running away from the fire was caught and hurled back into the flames.

One of the few survivors was quoted as saying: "But they knew me; we were neighbours. I thought Peter was a friend - a good neighbour. How could Peter do this to me?" I had heard the same puzzled cry from Bosnia. I had heard the same cry from Iraq. I had heard the same, same words from Rwanda: "We were neighbours; we'd married into each other. How could this happen?" And now I hear the same cry from Eldoret North in my beloved Kenya. For me this burning of men, women and children in a church is a defining single instant of the current political impasse in Kenya.

And this must be separated from accusations and counter-accusations of rigged elections by the contending parties. Rigged elections is one thing - it can be righted by any mutually agreed political measures - but ethnic cleansing is another matter altogether. What is disturbing is that this instant seems to have been part of a co-ordinated programme with similar acts occurring in several other places at about the same time against ordinary members of the same community.

Ordinary people do not wake up one morning and suddenly decide to kill their neighbours. Ethnic cleansing is often instigated by the political elite of one community against another community. It is premeditated - often an order from political warlords. Or it may be the outcome of an elitist ideology of demonising and isolating another community. Either way the aim is to drive members of the targeted community from the region.

Premeditated

Frantz Fanon, the intellectual visionary of the Third World, had long ago warned us of the dangers of the ideology of regionalism preached by an elite whose money can buy them safe residence in any part of a country. A single instance of premeditated ethnic cleansing can lead to an unstoppable cycle of vendettas - a poor-on-poor violence - while those who tele-guided them to war through the ideology of hate and demonisation are clinking glasses in middle-class peace at cocktail parties with the elite or the supposed enemy community.

This crime should be investigated by the United Nations.

If it is found that a political organisation has run a campaign on a programme that consciously seeks to isolate another community as a community, then they ought to be held fully accountable for the consequences of their ideology and actions. It is often easier to blame a government when it is involved in massacres. This is as it should be. A government must always be held to higher standards, for its very legitimacy lies in its capacity to ensure peace and security for all communities. But what about if such a massacre is inspired by a programme of an opposition movement?

This ought to receive equally severe condemnation from all and sundry, for being in opposition does not give an organisation the right to run on an ideology of isolation and hate targeted at another community. An opposition movement is potentially a government of tomorrow. A programme that such a political organisation draws while in opposition would obviously be the programme they'll try to implement when in power.

That's why such acts must be condemned even when they are clothed in progressive, democratic-sounding words and phrases. I therefore call upon the United Nations to act and investigate the massacres in Kenya as crimes against humanity and let the chips fall where they may. For the sake of justice, healing and peace now and in the future I urge all progressive forces not to be so engrossed with the political wrongs of election tampering that they forget the crimes of hate and ethnic cleansing - crimes that have led to untimely deaths and the displacement of thousands.

The world does not need another Bosnia; Africa certainly does not need another Rwanda.

*Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Director of the International Centre for Writing and Translation, at the University of California Irvine.

*A version of this article first appeared in BBC World Update on January 10 2008

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Kenyan government to end its 10-day ban on live news reports as violence that erupted after President Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of the election subsided.

The Global Call for Action is asking social movements and civil society worldwide to mobilize together in the week culminating on January 26, 2008. The Call was generated inside the World Social Forum and was launched in June 2007 in Berlin by many international networks. It is promoted by all the organizations and movements at the global, national, and local level who refer to the WSF Charter of Principles.

This is an overview of mineral deposits and extractive industries in Malawi - with particular emphasis on recent initiatives to exploit uranium deposits that were, until recently, deemed uneconomic, but have now attracted attention due to changing global factors.

WEDO is an international organization that advocates for women’s equality in global policy. This is a part-time consultant position for one year, commencing February 2008, with possibility of renewal pending funding. Consultant will be based at WEDO’s office in New York, or with a partner organization in Latin America or Africa that has reliable communications systems. Deadline for applications is January 27, 2008.

This conference, to be held at Wits Campus in Johannesburg from 9-11 June 2008, emerges from an ongoing collaborative research project initiated in late 2006 by the Nordic Africa Institute entitled Political Economies of Displacement in Post-2000 Zimbabwe. The project links researchers located within and outside Zimbabwe who share an active interest in mapping the complex dynamics of change related to the crises, uncertainties and multiple displacements of contemporary Zimbabwe and their effects on neighbouring states and diasporas further afield.

World Bank Country Director, Mr Colin Bruce, was a man on the spot as a confidential memo he authored supporting President Kibaki’s re-election kicked off controversy in Nairobi and Washington. The leaked January 8 briefing note, originating from the World Bank Kenya office, lays out the case for accepting Kibaki’s victory on the basis of "oral briefings and documents from senior UNDP officials" who "monitored the overall electoral process".

Talks between the Government and ODM to hammer out a solution to the crisis that has crippled the country collapsed, putting in jeopardy a process that had returned calm to the country.