DIPLOMAT East Africa - Volume 7

>>19th Edition of Club Games PG 57 October 2010

Volume 007

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•DIPLOMATIC LICENCE

Road Map to Achievement of MDGs

T

hat this year’s United Nations General Assem- leadership can be appraised, it provides benchmarks that bly slotted into the agenda discussions on Mil- countries can use to raise the bar of performance. lennium Development Goals (MDGs) speaks Many viewpoints have been posited for the lagging bevolumes about the commitment of the 192 hind of much of Africa in relation to the multiplicity of ‘kick member-countries to the “we can end poverty out poverty’ campaigns and initiatives. Perhaps the most by 2015” mantra. Whether the deliberations on past, pres- potent is that African nations have been detained into a ent and future of the visionary, if ambitious, targets against beggars’ mindset, always waiting, begging bowl in hand, for poverty will bear fruit across the member nations in the alms from the so-called development partners and donors. next five years is another kettleful of fish of altogether.

It is therefore gratifying that Tanzania’s Prime Minister As things stand now most of the regions of the world for Mizengo Pinda, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and the which the UN fashioned the eight overarching goals in 2001 Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi all advocated Africa’s takare falling behind expectations. No single nation in the east- ing up the challenge rather than looking North for help that ern Africa region has eradicated extreme poverty and hun- might never come or that will come with strings attached. ger while universal primary education remains a dream.

We are not advocating for a severing of ties between deWhile attempts have been made to achieve gender equality veloped and developing nations. This is indeed inconceivand empower women, the region is yet to attain the desir- able given that global partnership, as MDG’s anticipate, is able figures. the natural way to go since we inhabit Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and one meshed and interconnected world.

Rwanda have made laudable steps As a matter of fact, Western funds such towards reducing child mortality rates as the William F Clinton Foundation and and improving maternal health but UN the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to figures indicate that Burundi, Sudan mention but two, are doing a great deal of and Somalia are anywhere but close to good work in poverty stricken parts of Afthese targets. Fluctuations in combatrica. This is not to mention other bilateral ing HIV-AIDS, malaria and other disand multilateral sources of funding that eases in the region are a veritable two remain the lifeblood for vast swathes on steps ahead, one backwards. the continent.

Strategies that can see the While development of global partOur point of departure is that, speakprivate sector playing a nerships has been hailed as one of the ing with President Kagame, despite the pivotal role in creating jobs, MDGs that are on track, doubts have forward looking intentions of donor goods and services and been raised about Africa’s benefit in funding for MDGs, “their perspective is generating revenues will the partnerships. The rising spate of often predicated on paternalism rather environmental disasters such as floods put the implementation of than partnership, on charity not self reliand droughts mean achieving sustain- MDGs in good stead and ance, and on promises unfulfilled rather ability on this score will be a herculean put wind in the sails as the than real change on the ground”. Our contask. clock ticks towards the 2015 sidered opinion is that reliance on donor Whereas the achievability of the funding is unsustainable to the extent that MDGs a short five years from now is in deadline it does not empower countries to create doubt, the concept has been hailed as homegrown solutions including the raising one of former Secretary General Kofi Annan’s most impor- of resources. It is with this in mind that we concur with UN tant contribution to the wellbeing of a world saddled by de- Secretary General’s words to the effect that “the MDGs were bilitating challenges. never meant to be a one-way street – something that rich For the Millennium Declaration provides a framework countries do for poor ones”. against which leadership at local, national, regional and One means by which poor nations can up the ante in global levels can be judged against policy commitments rolling back poverty in all its dimensions is by leveraging the that affect a sea of humanity, specifically in the develop- private sector, considered the engine of growth and develing world, mostly located in the geographical south. To the opment by both the East African Community and the Afriextent that the MDGs provide a scorecard against which can Union

October 2010

11

•IMMUNITIES & IMPUNITIES

Heard and Quoted “The United States doesn’t understand what war looks like. When a war starts, it knows no limits,” Iran President Ahmadinejad in response to a question about any USsupported strike by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“Australia will just have to wait and see whether we get married or not,” New Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and her partner, Tim Mathieson, after becoming the first unmarried couple to move into the PM’s official residence in Canberra.

“This time will be different,”

President Barack Obama during the 65th annual UN General Assembly, offering a now-or-never choice between Mideast stability and perpetual bloodshed

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October 2010

“Twenty-five years ago, I sat across this table for the first broadcast of Larry King Live. Now, decades later, I talked to the guys here at CNN, and I told them I would like to end Larry King Live, the nightly show, this fall and CNN has graciously accepted, to agree to giving me more time for my wife and to get to the kids’ Little League games.”

Renowned CNN Talk show host Larry King on his retirement as quoted on ABC television.

•DIPLOSPEAK Have Your Say

Restructure Kenya's Anthem...

CONGRATULATIONS DEA I am writing from Washington DC to congratulate you on launching Diplomat East Africa and to reach out besides. Your focus on diplomacy, geopolitics and all that feeds them is part of our focus here at the Atlantic Council of the United States where I am building an Africa Centre. I wish you all the best in your new enterprise and hope that we get a chance to work together in some capacity in the coming years.

Dr. Martin Kimani Acting Director Ansari Africa Center Atlantic Council of the United States 1101 15th Street, NW, 11th Floor Washington, DC 20005

KISWAHILI VERSION OF THE NATIONAL ANTHEM SHOULD BE RESTRUCTURED With the promulgation of new constitution in Kenya, Kiswahili is now an official language besides English.

Any document of whatever nature or magnitude, done in Kiswahili, will be recognised.

Language evolves daily. Thus to be patriotic to this country and Kiswahili language in particular, the Kiswahili version of the loyalty pledge and the national anthem need to be revised.

To add flavour to my argument it should be realised that when you sing the national language in Kiswahili it connotes something else from the English version. The Kiswahili version is, to a considerable degree, tampered with and given that Kiswahili language doesn’t have the capacity to ‘judge’ us for plundering it, it has taken more that 46 years to be.

Let us take a look: in the first and second line of the first stanza the transla-

4

October 2010

RANT/RAVE

>>Commonwealth Games Controversy PG 51 September 2010

It is in light of this that your magazine should

Volume 006

Door to Region, Window on World

be congratulated for

fashioning a deal where diplomats of all

ranks can visit and enjoy the annual wildebeest migration tion in Kiswahili is absolutely distorted.

In the name of acquiring rhythm you can’t refer to God as It (Ilete) because He is not just a person but a supreme being thus He should be given utmost respect. It defeats logic and beats the divine and natural law to refer to God as ‘It’. It should be ‘He’. Thus in the sincerity of purpose it should be ‘Alete’.

Becoming official in 1963, the date of Kenya’s independence and applauding the commission appointed by the government to write the national anthem consisting of Thomas Kalume, Washington Omondi, Peter Kibukosya, George Senoga-Zake and Graham Hyslop it should be noted that with now new rebirth we should have a regeneration of our national anthem.

It should be realised that with amendments to our Kiswahili version it would retain its honour and also lend itself to harmonisation and orchestration for performance by orchestras and military bands. The music would also have to fit both the English and Swahili lyrics.

I would not be biased to assert that a commission appointed by the government did the translation. The transla-

Credit for Africa

Achim Steiner UNON Executive Director

OBAMA >>: Big brother watches PG 49 SUICIDE >>: WHO weighs in PG 15

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tion should have been done, in the strict sense of the word, by competent multilingual linguists who understand the nitty-gritty and nuances of both languages.

This will be in line and in spirit with the new constitution. Let us focus on the first stanza of the national language.

The National Anthem in English: “Oh God of all creation Bless this our land and nation Justice be our shield and defender May we dwell in unity Peace and liberty Plenty be found within our borders.

“Ee Mungu nguvu yetu Ilete baraka kwetu Haki iwe ngao na mlinzi Natukae na undugu Amani na uhuru Raha tupate na ustawi.

The right version In Kiswahili should be: Ee Mungu muumba vyote, Bariki nchi/taifa letu, Haki iwe ngao na mlinzi, Natuishi kwa umoja Amani na uhuru Tupate ustawi na mafanikio.

The three stanzas of the Swahili version need aliteration in order to be logical and significant.

Joseph Mambili, P.o Box 30175-00100, 0726840496. Nairobi. Kenya.

Editor’s Note: The proposed version would lose both rhyme and rhythm and in the process, erode the poetic and poetry value inherent in the original. Readers comments are invited.

>>19th Edition of Club Games PG 57

Volume No 007 • October 2010

Door to Region, Window on World

East AfricaIsrael Ties

Development Diplomacy Approach

AT HOME WITH >>: Malaysian First Lady in Kenya PG 18 SPECIAL REPORT >>: Amiran's Green Revolution PG 49

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Contents Table of

EDITORIAL Editorial Director: Kwendo Opanga Managing Editor: Bob Job Wekesa Chief Sub Editor: Patrick Wachira Culture Editor: Ngari Gituku Staff Writers: Wycliffe Muga, Jane Mwangi, Baron Khamadi, Christopher Mburu, Kiishweko Orton, Carol Gachiengo, Mercy Njung'e

MARKETING & SALES Marketing Director: Simon Mugo

SALES TEAM LEADER James Ombima

BUSINESS EXECUTIVES Joseph Ngina, Chris Nyaoro Derrick Wanjawa, Eunice Kiarie Paul Mucheru

DESIGN TEAM Daniel Kihara Raphael Mokora

PHOTOGRAPHY

PG 20 DIPLOMATIC LICENCE Road Map to Achievement of MDG's........................... 1

IMMUNITIES AND IMPUNITIES................. 2

Yahya Mohamed

CONTRIBUTORS Biko Jackson, Nairobi Godwin Muhwezi, Arusha Edward Githae, Kigali Silvia Rugina, Kigali Godfrey Musila, Johannesburg John Gachie, Juba John Mulaa, Washington DC Julius Mbaluto, London Manoah Esipisu, London Kennedy Abwao, Addis Ababa Mishaeli Ondieki, Los Angeles Rodney Muhumuza, Kampala Peter Mwaura, Nairobi Robert Mugo, Alberta, Canada Wangari Maathai, Nairobi

CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION Stephen Otieno

ADMINISTRATION Josephine Wambui, Charles Kimakwa

PRINTER Ramco Printing Works

THE REGION Peace and Corruption Dominate Tanzania Poll ..........6 Divided Opposition Plays into Museveni's Hands...... 7 16 Heads of State at Kagame Fete..................................8 New Constitution...New Kenya............................... 9-10

DNA Diplomacy that Puts Development Top of Agenda........ ..................................................................................12-15 Agricultural Revolution The AMIRAN Way...........16-19 Bashir Visit Rains on Kenya's Parade.....................20-21 A Matter of Strategic National Interest...................22-23 Border Disputes in EA Region.....................................24 Rwanda, Uganda under fire over DRC atrocities........25 Commonwealth Pitch for Parliamentary Diplomacy ...........................……….26-27 Assist Somalia, AU pleads With States...................28-29 World marks UN Day....................................................30

GREEN AGENDA DISCLAIMER: Diplomat East Africa may not be copied and or transmitted or stored in any way or form, electronically or otherwise, without the prior and written consent of the publisher. Diplomat East Africa is published at Vision Plaza, Ground Floor, Suite 19, Mombasa Road, by Global Village Publishers (EA) Limited, Box 23399 – 0625, and Telephone 020-2525253/4/5. Registered at the GPO as a newspaper.

PG 47

The journey towards zero emission.......................31-32 New lease of life for degraded water towers......... 33-34

ECONOMY Investors snap up pie in Kenya's thriving tourism.....35 Broadband revolution takes shape in the region..38-39

INDUSTRY NEWS Towards a Digital Africa................................................42

CULTURE Justice in African Culture....................................... 43-44 Impressions of Arusha in Time and space..................45 Kenyan Shines at China Language Festival…..……....46 UNON blazes the trail............…………………….........…47

HEALTH Paraplegic Hospital Planned....................................... 48

ODYSSEYS Smile That's Truly Malaysian..................................49-50 Her Excellency, House And Heart...............................51

DEA HOTEL Its Comforting Comfort......................................... 52-53

GLOBAL STAGE Middle East Talks Thrown Into Limbo....................... 54

CONFERENCE Meteoric Rise of ICT'S in Africa................................. 56

ENVOYS OF SPORT East Africas' Quest for Medals............................... 57-58 Games, Media And Thi Image of India........................59 Medal Summary............................................................60

WITH A LIGHT TOUCH Mishaps of the Constitution Promulgation...........40-41 October 2010

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•THE REGION Eastern Africa Beat

ELection Time

Peace and Corruption Dominate Tanzania Poll But President Kikwete is expected to romp home comfortably, writes BOB WEKESA

ON THE MOVE:

Chama Cha Mapinduzi officials on the campaign trail Inset:

President Kikwete

I

t could be an indication of worries by eastern Africa’s most stable country that issues of peace have dominated the campaign trail as Tanzania goes to the polls at the end of October.

A recent Synovate Tanzania survey as well as a review of media coverage show that calls for maintaining peace along the brotherhood lines that Mwalimu Julius Nyerere introduced decades ago have dominated the

presidential, parliamentary and civic elections, the fourth since the country went multiparty in the 1990s. Tanzania has 130 ethnic communities held together by the Ujamaa ideology but jitters have been expressed about the possibility of ethnic divisions as the country delves into capitalistic economic mode with communities angling for one of their own at the political high table. The Zanzibar Isles have in the past been rocked by divisive

election related violence raising the spectre of the same happening in the expansive mainland. Pundits reckon this is what has prompted politicians contesting for presidential and parliamentary seats to preach the message of peace.

Interestingly, while Tanzania is the second least corrupt country in East Africa after Rwanda, the Synovate survey shows that corruption comes second after peace issues as a major issue that candidates are focusing on.

Trends in the last decade indicate a rising incidence of both petty and high level corruption as evidenced in the reports of the Controller and Auditor General. Specifically, election related corruption led to the mooting of a law that seeks to hem in channelling of resources for bribery of the electorate.

A case in point is the recent arrest of President Jakaya Kikwete’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) members for selling their membership cards amid claims and counter claims about voter bribery. Corruption in high places has been recorded in the judiciary, the police, mineral resource management and tourism, with some of the cases involving misappropriation of donor funds.

Although Kikwete is expected to romp home for his second and last term according to the constitution, opposition candidates are chipping away at his popularity. One of the issues the opposition is latching on is economic performance and particularly as relates to wealth CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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•THE REGION Eastern Africa Beat

Divided Opposition Plays Into Museveni's Hands

A fragmented opposition guns for a united front that could spell trouble for the incumbent President, now having sleepless nights, writes DEA CORRESPONDENT

I

t is the season of intense political jockeying in Uganda and parties are angling for political battle royal as the mid February 2011 deadline draws closer and closer. Of the three initial EAC member states, Uganda has perhaps experienced the worst of political upheavals often revolving around leadership at the top.

It is with this in mind that fears have been expressed about the possibility of instability as politicians feud over legal and policy management of the forthcoming elections.

Going by the number of candidates who have picked presidential nomination forms, President Museveni will be facing the biggest number of those eyeing the seat he has held uninterrupted for 24 years. Some 40 politicians have expressed interest in the country’s presidency. Pundits say this might be a boon rather than a bane for Museveni as the opposition vote will be split many times over giving him and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party room to sail through.

Not leaving anything to chance, President Museveni, party apparatchiks in tow, has been strategising and acting simultaneously. Last month, NRM drew the first blood by holding primaries adjudged as malpractice-prone and

disorganised. The party is grappling with no less than 600 complaints, quite a huge number for the opening salvo of the 2011 elections season.

The September primaries came with surprises and upsets, the most significant being the falling by the wayside of Prof Gilbert Bukenya, the country’s Vice President who had gunned for the NRM's Secretary General's position against President Museveni’s long time ally and Security Minister Amama Mbabazi.

Stung by the potential fallout from the primaries and with politicians up and down the country threatening to jump ship to the opposition or to contest as independent candidates, NRM has moved fast to attempt to mollify the losers. More importantly though, the tumbling of Bukenya signals the end or at the very least the faltering of a political career with those in the know saying President Museveni had a hand in the bad turn of events for his heir apparent. Pundits have pointed out that by defying the President's entreaties not to leave the Secretary General's position to Mbabazi, Bukenya literally bit the hand that fed him, a man not known to take challenges kindly.

Museveni, pundits say, may have used his clout and experience to hem in Bukenya.

Despite these initial challenges, NRM is not alone as far as pre-

President museveni:

Gearing for elections

election woes go. Convinced that a single political outfit would be better placed to give NRM a run for its money, the opposition, comprising relatively smaller parties, has been plotting a unity pact, the better to face Museveni and NRM. However, talks bringing together the Conservative Party, Democratic Party, Uganda People’s Congress and Forum for Democratic Change have not yielded fruit.

One of the causes of the differences between the opposition is the question of who should be the flag bearer of the Inter Party Coalition (IPC) the rather stillborn outfit that was mooted by the parties. A process initiated to identify the IPC flag bearer settled on Col Kiiza Besigye of FDC but this led to the walking out of the coalition by the UPC mainly because Ola Otunnu, a former Under Secretary of the UN and a 1980s foreign affairs minister was also very keen to be the IPC flag bearer. Things have not been helped by the fact that the DP, another significant party, has been paralysed by leadership wrangles that have split it into many factions.

As it is, only the FDC along with less numerically significant parties, remain the IPC with indicationss being that the opposition differences are irreconcilable to the advantage of NRM

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•THE REGION Eastern Africa Beat

RENEWED VIGOUR

Record 16 Heads of State at Kagame Fete This is a new beginning. We are moving to the next stage on our journey to development and prosperity," says President as he gets new mandate

A

n estimated 40,000 people and a record 16 heads of state turned out for the inauguration of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, amid pomp and colour.

Amahoro National Stadium was the venue of the second such ceremony in Rwanda’s recent history. Just after 10 o’clock Kagame took the oath of office and received the instruments of power from Chief Justice Aloys Cyanzaire and made a solemn pledge to serve to his best ability.

The presence of the large number of heads of state and government served as a testament of the growing amity among African nations. Democratic Republic of Congo’s Joseph Kabila’s presence was particularly significant considering the historical relations between the two countries.

Ties between Kigali and Kinshasa have long been strained owing to the presence of Rwandan rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDRL) in the DRC. Kabila received the biggest cheer of the visiting bigwigs.

Other leaders in attendance included current African Union chairman Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,

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President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and heads of state from Togo, Gabon, Benin, Central African Republic (CAR), and Burkina Faso.

Kagame called his inauguration a new beginning. “This is a new beginning – we are moving to the next stage on our journey to development and prosperity. If what we have achieved together so far is any indication, even better awaits

NEW MANDATE:

President Kagame delivers his inaugural speech

us in the years to come. There are still many challenges ahead of us, but with the trust and support the Rwandan people have shown, we are energised and inspired to go even further.”

Turning to his critics by means of a pan-African nuance, President Kagame said Africa had faced many problems over the years as a result of external forces that did not have the interest of the African people at heart. He said some nongovernmental organisations had a tendency of dictating to African countries what they should do.

He said such actions should not be condoned by African countries, as they were independent. He said the external forces continue to accuse African governments of corruption. President Kagame said such actions by external forces perpetuated arrogance, which brought about poverty and underdevelopment.

He thanked the people of Rwanda for showing confidence in his leadership and pledged to continue working towards enhancing Rwanda’s economic development and prosperity.

The inauguration followed President Kagame’s successful reelection in the August 6, presidential election in which he polled 93.08 per cent of the votes.

The election was only the second since 1994

•THE REGION Eastern Africa Beat

SECOND REPUBLIC

New Constitution...

New Kenya

By EMMAN OMARI

K

enya joined the community of new nations in the region when President Mwai Kibaki signed into law a new constitution before a mammoth crowd and assembled heads of state in Nairobi on August 27, ending two decades of people’s campaign for change.

The country has re-written its constitution in peace time joining Uganda and Rwanda whose current constitutions were precipitated by political crises – the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and 16 years of unstable military and civilian governments in Uganda.

Tanzania revised its current Constitution in 1977 and since then there have been piecemeal amendments by Parliament.

And for the next two years, Parliament will be busy enacting laws to align with the new Constitution, vetting presidential appointees.

The promulgation of the new constitution followed a national referendum in which Kenyans voted overwhelmingly in favour giving President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga the biggest and most challenging task ahead – implementation.

It however gave protection provisions of the law negotiated by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan which created the

fresh start:

President Kibaki displays the new constitution during its promulgation

The new constitution provides for a devolved government,

(national and 47 county regions), bicameral parliament and a new look judiciary

present coalition government and its operations until after the 2012 elections. The new constitution provides for a devolved government (national and 47 county regions), bicameral parliament, a new look judiciary and radical changes in every institution. It borrows heavily from both Westminster and American models.

It spells out radical land policies doing away with the colonial 999 year leases which have reverted to 99 years and Parliament will enact laws that will decide when exactly the leases could be backdated or not.

This particular provision had sent shockwaves through Kenya's European community and multinationals which hold tracts of fertile land for 999 year leases. The same constitution guarantees them that the land will revert back to them at peppercorn value for 99 years.

Then, what has been the contentious issue of dual citizenship has been resolved albeit with a silver lining. A citizen by birth, who obtains another citizenship does not lose it, meaning that people will not just flock into Kenya from other parts of the world and get citizenship. The Constitution seeks to create new

faces in the new dispensation which will see long serving AttorneyGeneral Amos Wako, in office for two decades, and Chief Justice Evan Gicheru vacate office in the coming months. The third constitution since independence – after the Lancaster and the last mutilated edition – has bequeathed a Second Republic, leaving no loopholes for ambiguities.

It fixes the date of the General Election to be the first Tuesday of August in the fifth year, the procedure and date of swearing in a new president and in public not like before when Kenya’s two presidents have been sworn in secretly in State House. This is the trend in most of African countries which have rewritten the constitutions inherited at independence and even in the East African region where presidents are sworn in public following an election.

The past constitution gave the president powers to dissolve parliament and call elections as he or she wished. At one time, former President Daniel arap Moi boasted that the election date were his “secret weapon” which he was to use to the opposition unawares.

Future presidents will have

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•THE REGION Eastern Africa Beat

CONTINUED FROM PG 6

their hands tied, by parliament and courts, even their appointments including that of deputy President will no longer be decided upon by an individual in State House. The running-mate system will enable Kenyans elect the pair through popular vote.

The constitution did away with the colonial all-powerful provincial administration and now vests the power in the people who will in future elect representatives in both the Senate and National Assembly.

The county parliaments will also decide on local issues in their regions.

AMERICAN MODEL

And unlike in the previous constitution the succession line for presidency is fashioned along the American model. If a vacancy occurs, the deputy President runs the country for the remainder of the period, and if he takes it with more than two and half years of the presidential five-year term remaining, he will have been deemed to have served a full term.

In the event the deputy President does not assume office for some reason, the Speaker of the National Assembly takes over in an acting capacity pending elections within 60 days. MPs will no longer be ministers, drawing again from the American model where the president appoints from outside parliament and the cabinet ministers have been renamed cabinet secretaries.

Politicians who in the past have been riding into parliament with the hope of being appointed ministers are now busy trying to re-define their roles in the new dispensation.

Many of the 222 MPs in the current parliament are now positioning themselves for position of governor, senator or speaker in the devolved county governments.

Like in the US, future presidents will more likely be emerging from the most influential and successful

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October 2010

governors and senators.

The governors will control colossal amounts of money collected locally and from the national purse which the constitution provides 15 per cent of the national revenue will go to counties.

Still, for the next 20 years an equalisation fund will be set up in which 0.5 per cent of the national revenue will be pumped in every year to go to develop remote parts of Kenya – basically beyond the railway line artery of the more developed parts inherited from the colonial days. All key appointments in the public service including judges, cabinet secretaries, and even in security, which have been the exclusive preserve of the president will now be vetted by parliament.

The Bill of Rights in the Constitution eliminates torture in police hands and provides for the rights of a prisoner to humane treatment, unlike in the past when police had powers to detain an individual without an explanation.

CHALLENGE

The constitution demarcates the roles of the national government from those of counties including the collection of taxes.

The welfare of people has been put in the hands of counties which will control their own budgets and be accountable to the local people.

The national government will be responsible for policies,including defence, foreign, education and agriculture.

Far reaching future amendments of the constitution spelt out will be through Parliament and will be subjected to a referendum while others can be done throught a popular initiative where individuals can collect one million signatures of registered voters.

The time ahead will be most challenging for Kenya as the country sets about implementing the new constitution

STATS &FACTS The governors will control

colossal amounts of money collected locally and from the national purse

which the constitution provides 15 per cent of the national revenue will go to counties

distribution throughout the country’s 40 million-plus population. Tanzania ranks in the bottom 10 per cent of global economic performance in terms of per capita income.

Interestingly, issues to do with rights, particularly political and human, have not featured much in the campaigns as has been the case in Uganda which goes to the polls in early 2011 and in Rwanda and Burundi which attracted intense local and international opprobrium based on the scale of alleged abuses.

If media coverage is anything to go by, CCM is ahead of the pack in terms of positive coverage, consistent with predictions of Kikwete’s victory, despite having kicked off his campaign on a worrisome note when he was taken ill on day one. CCM has hogged much of media publicity across print and electronic outlets with a positive turn compared to its competitors.

Kikwete’s main competition will be coming from Dr Wilbrod Slaa of ChamaChaDemokrasia(CHADEMA) who was a CCM member until his differing with the party’s bigwigs in 1995. A former priest Slaa has always been a pain in CCM’s side since he went against all odds and predictions to floor Tanzanians oldest party’s choice in 1995 constituency elections.

In parliament, he has remained the most virulent critic of Kikwete's leadership. Indeed, political pundits say Slaa, more than Prof Ibrahim Lipumba of Civic United Front (CUF), presents the most credible challenge to Kikwete yet.

Many pundits reckon that Kikwete willremaininpowerbutwithathinner majority compared to his landslide victory in 2005. It is also predicted that CHADEMA will up the stakes by not only increasing its presidential tally from the last elections, but also sending into parliament more MPs. Is this the beginning of the chipping away of CCM’s omnipotence in Tanzanian politics? 

•PICTORIAL Lights • Camera • Action

1

2

3

4

PROMULGATION OF KENYA'S CONSTITUTION 1. President Kibaki holds aloft the new constitution after promulgating it.

At his left is Attorney General Amos Wako 2.Presidents Ahmed Abdala Mohamed Sambi (Comoros) Mwai Kibaki, Yoweri Museveni Uganda), (Kenya), Paul Kagame (Rwanda) and Omar El Bashir (Sudan ) release balloons at the ceremony.

3 Kibaki is congratulated by his counterparts after launching the new constitution 4 Bashir arrives for the fete escorted by Kenya's Tourism Minister Najib Balala 5 Museveni arrives escorted by Kenya'sTrade Minister Amos Kimunya

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•DNA

PHOTO: DEA LIBRARY

Diplomacy•News•Analysis

PRIORITY SCALE

Diplomacy that Puts Development Top of Agenda The success of the current peace process between Israel and Palestine, says Israeli ambassador to Kenya MR JACOB KEIDAR in this interview with DEA’S BOB WEKESA, will greatly increase opportunities for trade not only between Israel and eastern Africa but also between the latter and the entire Middle East 12

October 2010

D

IPLOMAT EAST AFRICA: Tell us about the Israeli diplomatic mission in Nairobi and the diplomatic agenda you are pursuing in the eastern Africa region.

JACOB KEIDAR: This is a regional mission covering most of Africa and the reason why we are stationed here is that Nairobi is the diplomatic centre and convenient as the hosting of the United Nations agencies for Africa. From here we oversee Israel diplomatic interests in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Seychelles and also to the UN Habitat and Unep.

Through this embassy, we have established very good and deep relations in the eastern Africa region.

We have been in this region since the pre-independence period of most African countries when we were a very young country ourselves having attained our independence

in 1948. As soon as we became a republic, we thought that our duty and obligation and the moral thing to do was to extend a helping hand to the 50 countries that were getting independence.

We thought that the populations of the newly independent African countries were struggling with many issues and we offered assistance in agriculture and irrigation, education, water, health and youth development programmes through the national youth service in Kenya for example. In fact, so many eastern Africans received education in Israel and many more thousands were trained by Israeli experts in Kenya due to our early policy of enhancing Africans’ skills and expertise. They remain some of our major ambassadors in the region.

ON RESCUE OPERATIONS

As a matter of fact the cornerstone of our Nairobi Chancery

was laid by Ms Golda Meier, our Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time who eventually became Prime Minister, and Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who was at that time Kenya’s Prime Minister. This was on December 9, 1963 just before Kenya became a republic.

It is because of the warm relations with Kenya that we have been involved in rescue operations during disasters including during the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, the bombing of Paradise Hotel at Kikambala in Mombasa and the collapse of a building in Nairobi about four years ago.

Our rescue teams have always been among the first to arrive on the scene. We abhor terrorism and will go out of our way to help our friends who suffer its consequences. The mission also deals with economic relations. Currently, the commercial value of trade stands at $155 million a year in terms of total volume of

trade to Kenya. Most of this is importation of Israeli goods and services but of course we would welcome much more exports from Kenya.

There is a lot of interest in building commercial ties, and trade between Israel and the region is growing in areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunication and energy. There are many Israeli companies working here such as Amiran. We are involved in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the region as well, particularly in construction of roads. The most rapidly growing sector in terms of collaboration is telecommunications, internet, cellular telephone satellite and many more. Israel companies are very well known and established in this emerging sector.

The main mechanism for government to government relations is the Israel Agency for International Development Cooperation which has on-going and planned projects.

October 2010

MY TAKE:

The Ambassador explains Israel's foreign policy in Africa

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We have just conducted on-thespot trainings in Uganda for prevention of HIV-AIDS among adolescents. We also took farmers to Israel for training from arid and semi-arid areas of Uganda - the Karamoja area, for instance - with a view to introducing irrigation agriculture. We are now helping to put up an emergency ward at Mulago, Uganda’s referral hospital. Our experts are working with regional governments, including Uganda, to develop fish in ponds and improve aquaculture in Lake Victoria.

In Malawi, we assisted in the rebuilding of primary schools in areas that were destroyed by an earthquake recently in the northern part of the country. In Arusha, in Tanzania, we have built a primary school for 1,000 children including facilities for children with special needs also quite recently. This should give you a picture of our involvement in the development agenda of the region rather than in empty diplomacy.

This implies development-based approach to diplomacy is in vogue in Zambia and Seychelles as well.

I can therefore say without fear of contradiction that our diplomacy puts development first and anything else second.

Q: What would you say are the factors that boost the warm relations between eastern Africans and Israelis?

A: The political relations are very good and this was demonstrated by the visit by our Foreign Minister, Mr Avigdor Lieberman, to Kenya and Uganda in September last year. It was a high profile visit with a high powered business delegation and we had agreements signed, for example, in water resource management with Kenya and Uganda.

We enjoy a lot of friendship and political understanding with regional governments because of a number of factors. Foremost is that we have been in the region for a very

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October 2010

a good feeling about Israel. Affiliation to the holy land and matters of religion make eastern Africans and Israeli’s natural allies, concerned about each other’s welfare. Many people in eastern Africa have visited Israel as pilgrims.

CATCHING UP:

Keidar peruses a copy of Diplomat East Africa long time and our ties are of historical nature. Many professionals in the private and public sectors in the region were trained in Israel or right here by Israeli experts.

You find them everywhere including in high places in governments and this helps a lot. Recently, I was in Uganda speaking to a cabinet minister and he told me his father was in Israel. People know what we do and the fact that we are not engaged in development because we want something. We think that we were lucky that we managed to get expertise in certain areas that countries here also need and we should share this kind of experience.

The other factor is that we don’t have any colonial record in Africa on the contrary we were also under colonial rule. I think many people, be they Muslim or Christian, have

I can therefore say without fear of

contradiction that our diplomacy puts development first and anything else second

Q: Comment on the US-led peace process between Palestine and Israel. Does it have the chance of holding?

A: In the Middle East, we are in a very special moment in time after restarting the peace process with the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister Mohamoud Abbas Abu Mazen and our Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and we think that we have a unique opportunity here.

There are clear and big obstacles, everybody knows the difficulties but I think that opportunity is that most of the Arab world, the pragmatic and moderate countries like Egypt, Jordan, Gulf countries, North Africans and Saudi Arabia understand the danger of instability.

This danger comes from radical Islam organisations and terrorists such as al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other dangerous and violent organisations which seek to destabilise not only Israel but each one of the regimes of moderate Arab countries.

So we have a common interest to ensure stability, and one of the ways that may lead to stability is negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

That is why everybody is hopeful that the current peace process will lead to a solution.

Another very helpful building block to these negotiations is moderate Palestinian policy, especially of Prime Minister Mohamoud Abbas who is against violence through suicide bombings and terrorist attacks on Israel. He would like to find a solution once and for all even though there are many elements against it.

Another factor that makes the current process feasible is that the coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin

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Netanyahu is a solid and strong one.

It is much easier for politicians on the right wing of Israeli politics to reach a deal than politicians from the left wing because automatically right wing politicians will have the support of the left. On the other hand, if it is the left wing in power, convincing the right wing is much more difficult. It is in this context that the negotiations between Israel and Palestine should be seen as feasible.

An equally important factor is the commitment of the US government, with the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remaining very focused on the peace process. So, we have quite a coalition of factors working in conjunction.

Q: You are quite upbeat about the current peace initiative. However, many such initiatives have come a cropper in the past. What is the downside of the current peace negotiations?

A: Unfortunately, we also have a coalition of factors working against the peace process. One big factor is that the Palestinians are not united. They have two different camps which are far apart in terms of policies and religious persuasions. You have the moderates who would like to reach a solution of having the two states living side by side in peace and this is represented by Prime Minister Abbas and his people and most of the West Bank.

And then you have Hamas, a very extreme and ultra orthodox Muslim group that believes in a few steps in order to reach their goal, which is to have an Iran-type Islamic republic from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, replacing the Palestinian authority and Israel. They would like to throw everybody out and establish a Palestinian Islamic republic; a very extreme al Qaeda or Taliban thinking like what is happening in Afghanistan or exactly like the al-Shabaab in Somalia. This is very dangerous

as their policies favour terrorist attacks and unleashing missiles on Israel, blowing up buses and shopping malls. They are against the current peace initiative and I hope they will not succeed.

ON IRAN’S LEADERSHIP IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The main problem is that behind them there are strong forces and the leading one is Iran. Iran is a strong, big country with very prominent history. Unfortunately, the current leadership of Iran has a very clear agenda to destroy Israel and they say that very publicly. Recently, their president rhetorically asked why Arab states are entering talks with Israel when it will be destroyed very soon! He (President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) is using terrorist organisations like Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon as proxy for his policies.

Iran would like to be more dominant in the region especially in the Gulf mainly because of oil. We have seen this in Iraq where they tried to strengthen their influence as the Americans were pulling out especially through the Shiite population.

Iran’s main instrument is acquisition of nuclear arms capability and the force of intimidation by sponsoring terrorists in the region from Al Qaeda to Muslim Brotherhood and other Jihad organisations.

Q: Some say your criticism against Iran amounts to double standards because Israel also has or is developing nuclear weapons. What is

your view on this?

A: We never said that we are a nuclear country and we have always been for solutions without those things. What we see is that Iran has been building nuclear arms capability and we ask ourselves why? They have been doing this since the current president came into power. It is like a personal policy of his given that is he is a radical.

This is a very dangerous scenario that we must guard against. When you see a country with leadership that you suspect is not very responsible and you don’t know what they are going to do like the North Koreans you must be cautious.

Q: Would you say you have received support from eastern Africa nations in your relations as concerns your conflict with Palestine? What do you think influences the policies of African countries on this issue?

A: We are grateful and appreciate the policy of eastern African countries which are very consistent with what our government has been committed to. We are committed to a twostate solution and this is the policy of most of the countries in the region.

They have been supportive and this is what we would like to see as the end game, it’s the only way to see a good future for both peoples and without that we shall always be in conflict.

Eastern Africa almost borders the Middle East if you go down from Egypt, Somalia and to Djibouti. To have a Middle East that is more stable is also in the interest of East Africa

BIO DATA Ambassador Jacob Keidar was born in 1956 and is married with three children. He was accredited as Israel ambassador to Kenya, Uganda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and the UN in 2007.

Keidar has had a long experience in diplomacy having served as director general of Middle East Affairs in the Foreign Ministry and as director of multilateral peace talks before the Nairobi posting.

His diplomatic tour of duty has taken him to China, Japan and Hong Kong. His diplomatic career commenced in 1983. He holds undergraduate and masters’ degrees in international relations from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

He speaks fluent Hebrew, English and Japanese and can also communicate in Arabic.

October 2010

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Agricultural Revolution the Amiran Way

•AMIRAN KENYA SPECIAL REPORT

H

ey, progressive Kenyan farmers! Interested in modernising your agricultural skills? Then come on board an Israeli carrier that has already docked on our shores. Futuristic Israeli cutting edge technology is right here in the form of a farmer proof kit - the Amiran Farmers Kit (AFK). It obviates any necessity to travel to the Jewish state to sample futuristic farming.

Through AFK, described as a sustainable wealth creation model, Kenyan farmers are now exposed to modern Israel agro-technology by way of drip irrigation and greenhouse technology, thanks to the kit invented by Yariv Kedar, the head of Amiran’s Agro Division who takes pride in having grown up in Africa as a child.

“I know that better knowledge and technology are what will make a difference to African farmers,” he says. It is Amiran that introduced the first soluble fertilizers into the Kenyan agricultural sector in the early 1990s, thus upgrading the sector by borrowing from Israel’s world class agro-tech innovations.

Note that Amiran is behind Kenya’s world-class flower sector where it has enlisted the services of the best consultants from Israel and supplied most of the quality inputs required by the sector. And the phenomenal success in the flower sector has been successfully replicated in small-scale farming.

“Since the launch of Amiran Farmers’ kit in 2009, Amiran has proved that it is a complete solution approach to small scale holders that includes finance, technology, training and access to markets that provide a sustainable model,” says Managing Director Pinhas Moscovich. “In its efforts to widen the scope and number of farmers, who are

AGRIBUSINESS

Agricultural Revolution the Amiran Way

By JOE OMBUOR

adopting Amiran’s approach and becoming “Amiran Farmers”, the company has joined forces with some of Kenya’s most prominent financial institutions, NGO’s and Donors’,” he says. Institutions partnering with Amiran to empower Kenya’s small scale farmers in this agri-business revolution include Co-operative Bank, who recently launched the new "Amiran Farmer's Kit Finance", Equity bank with a brand finance it launched for the kit in 2009, the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust (KWFT) and the Kenya Red Cross Society that has set up AFKs in 54 secondary schools in drought prone areas across the country.

On the diplomatic front, Amiran has teamed up with the Israeli embassy in Kenya to donate several AFKs to groups in strategic locations a case in point being Rukubi Self Help Women’s Group in Dagoretti, launched in 2009 by Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Aviador Lieberman on a

GREEN REVOLUTION:

Amiran's appropriate technology

visit to Kenya. Six individual members of the group have acquired their own AFKs since the launch using their own funds and resources obtained from loans.

Other beneficiaries of AFKs as a result of collaboration with the Israeli embassy include Tseikuru Secondary School, in Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s home area, a youth group in Sirisia, Bungoma District and women groups in Kisumu,Nyeri and Vihiga districts.

Israeli ambassador to Kenya Jacob Keidar says the Jewish state puts a lot of premium on its co-operation with Amiran as an avenue for bringing Israel’s success in agro-technology to what he describes as “our friends in Kenya”.

The MP for Yatta Charles Kilonzo has in partnership with Amiran, installed over 20 AFKs in secondary schools throughout the constituency seen as a model of how to effectively use Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to hasten development

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•AMIRAN KENYA SPECIAL REPORT

in rural areas. Jointly, Amiran and the Yatta CDF have trained school principals, agriculture teachers and farm managers in an effort that has supplemented school feeding kitties with a minimum Ksh300,000 earned from the sale of crops.

In addition, AFKs have been incorporated into the curriculum of these schools, imparting knowledge and skills in agriculture as business to thousands of students in Yatta Constituency.

Kilonzo describes the unique approach as the only way to break the cycle of poverty that disrupts learning in semi arid areas and the country at large.

Amiran’s Integrated Projects Manager Christopher Nzuki says AFKs could reverse the rural urban migration especially amongst the youth. “Agri business education and the ability to acquire the needed technology to implement it are gradually changing negative perceptions among young people,” he says.

Also poised to benefit from AFKs are refugee camps. Nzuki discloses that Amiran has completed the in-

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stallation and training for the recipients of 120 AFKs tailored to meet the needs of refugee camps in Kakuma and Dadaab in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the international Organization for Migration (IOM).

Amiran Kenya recently won the recognition of the donor community for its efforts to bring modern agricultural technology and knowledge to the smallholder market with an award for eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. It scooped the coveted award for MDG1; the eradication off extreme poverty and hunger for its AFKs project.

Noted Amiran’s Head of Administration, Business Development and Public Relations Gilad Millo: “This award is important as a statement of recognition by the development community endorsing the approach that Amiran has taken to deliver agribusiness revolution to small holder farmers”.

Sponsors of the MDGs Trust Fund, the organization that presented the MDG awards included the United Nations development Programme

STATS &FACTS

“Since the launch of Amiran Farmers’ kit in 2009,

Amiran has proved that it is a complete

solution approach to small scale holders that includes finance, technology, training and marketing,” says Managing Director Pinhas Moscovich

(UNDP), Microsoft Corporation and the End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign among others.

Millo says Amiran Kenya is the largest and most professional onestop shop in East Africa when it comes to agriculture in the region 1,2: LEARNING CURVE:

Amiran experts take farmers through on-field skills transfer 3: FACTOR OF PRODUCTION:

AMIRAN Official explains the workings of the technology 4: INTRESTING:

President Kibaki (centre) flanked by Cooperatives minister Joe Nyagah (right) and Head of Business Development & PR Amiran. Gilad Millo (Left), is taken through a brochure at the African National Conference of Cooperative Ministers at KICC 5: GREEN HOUSE:

Creating the roght environment for growth of crops 6: SOLIDARITY:

Ambassador Keidar in a jig with beneficiaries

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Diplomacy•News•Analysis

STORM

Bashir Visit Rains on Kenya’s Parade

Raging controversy over why Kenya did not execute warrant of arrest against him stole the show from the launch of new constitution

By KWENDO OPANGA

STATS &FACTS

He was not expected at this fete for he is wanted by the International

Criminal Court (ICC) for the twin horrid charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. And, indeed, there are two warrants of arrest out against him

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October 2010

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ever before had an invited guest kicked off such controversy amid Kenya’s parade of deserved pride with such unwanted local and global impact.

August 27 was Nairobi’s big day.

The occasion was the promulgation of Kenya’s new constitution; a widely acclaimed basic law that had been the subject of fierce political battles for two decades.

The venue was Nairobi’s magnificent Uhuru Park. Uhuru being the Kiswahili word for freedom and freedom being what the new constitution promises from the Bill of Rights to devolved government.

President Kibaki was the chief guest tasked with the final word of promulgating the new document

and Kenyans turned out in their tens of thousands to own the basic law they had voted overwhelmingly for 23 days earlier.

And then the unexpected happened; a bald man, short and stout, armed with a walking stick and behind who walked uniformed military men and beside who walked a cabinet minister, strode towards the dais.

Silence momentarily enveloped the crowd. Gasps were heard from the dais. Fingers pointed at the man on the ceremonial tarmac. And then came the questions on the crowded dais and equally jam-packed terraces: Is that not El-Bashir? Bashir?

Are you sure? What could he be doing here?

The announcement by the master of ceremonies confirmed it.

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The arriving dignitary was indeed Sudan’s President Omar El-Bashir.

He was not expected at this fete for he is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the twin horrid charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. And, indeed, there are two warrants of arrest out against him.

GENOCIDE

Mr Louis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, expects that states that are signatory to the Rome Statute that ratified the Court and which include Kenya, would arrest El-Bashir and hand him over to the Court.

Even more poignantly for the assembled past and present heads of state, diplomats, dignitaries and masses of ordinary Kenyans, Ocampo is investigating several Kenyan leaders suspected of masterminding the post-election murder and plunder of late 2007 and early 2008.

What message is Kenya sending to the world? That was the immediate question that preoccupied the minds of the thousands at Uhuru Park and the millions who followed the event on live television.

DAMAGE

Kenya’s taste of triumph turned insipid in the mouths of many of its international friends. Scathing criticism and indignation followed fast and furious from Washington, London, Brussels, The Hague and the UN in New York.

Kenya’s government officials and diplomats overseas who would have spent the days after the promulgation of the constitution receiving messages of congratulation were reduced to fighting to limit the damage from El-Bashir’s unexpected visit.

At home, a rift opened up in Kenya’s oft-wobbly coalition government when Prime Minister Raila Odinga condemned El-Bashir’s visit and, to the astonishment of many,

denied knowledge of the government’s invitation to him.

Rights groups, led by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) were quick to condemn the visit. They argued that it showed that Kenya was not ready to deal with its own perpetrators of crimes against humanity and resettlement of internally displaced people still languishing in makeshift camps.

Most Kenyans or East Africans had probably not heard of Baroness Catherine Ashton. They may be even more lost if they were told that she is the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security as well as VicePresident of the Commission.

But they clearly understood what she was on about when a statement from the European Union reported her thus last month: “The High Representative is concerned by the visit of President Omar Al-Bashir to Kenya, a State party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) ... She urges Kenya to respect its obligations under international law to arrest and surrender those indicted by the ICC…….She calls upon Kenya to continue to co-operate with the ICC in its investigation into the 2007-2008 post-election violence.”

And the gravity of the matter was buttressed by the fact that this statement originated from Brussels and not Nairobi and that it was Ashton and not a local representative who was addressing Kenya.

For good measure, the statement reminded Nairobi that the European Union is a staunch supporter of the ICC as a valuable instrument of the international community to combat impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the community as a whole.

It concluded that genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes must not go unpunished and their prosecution must be ensured by measures at both domes-

PENSIVE:

Al Bashir follows the proceedings

tic and international level.

Ashton’s message was in diplomatic terms pretty strong and three-pronged. Was Nairobi by both inviting and not arresting El-Bashir saying it had turned its back on the Rome Statute? Was Nairobi now not keen to pursue those suspected of masterminding the post-poll chaos and, was it testing the resolve of the international community regarding fighting impunity?

Before Ashton, US President Barack Obama weighed in on the matter, expressing his dismay at ElBashir’s presence at the promulgation. Kenya’s High Commissioner in London was called in by the Foreign Office to explain Nairobi’s position and the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC referred El-Bashir’s visit to the UN Security Council.

Backed by the African Union (see separate statement), Kenya put up a robust defence of its decision to invite El-Bashir to the fete. In a statement, which we carry in full elsewhere, Nairobi argued that the invitation was part of its “legitimate and strategic interest in ensuring peace and stability in sub-region and promoting peace, justice and reconciliation in the Sudan.”

CURRENT

Nairobi argued that the invitation was part of its

“legitimate and strategic interest in ensuring peace and stability in sub-region and promoting peace, justice and reconciliation in the Sudan”

The AU was just as robust and defiant in its defence of Kenya and Chad which has also recently played host to El-Bashir. Its statement bore a striking similarity to Kenya’s in justifying the need for interaction between Nairobi and Khartoum: “The African Union Commission recalls that both Chad and Kenya being neighbours of The Sudan have an abiding interest in ensuring peace and stability in The Sudan and in promoting peace, justice and reconciliation in that country, which can only be achieved through continuous engagement with the elected government of that country.”

October 2010

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DAMAGE CONTROL

A Matter of Strategic National Interest

Statement by the Kenyan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Moses Wetangula on the presence of Sudanese President Omar El Bashir in Kenya

O

n August 27, the people of Kenya marked an extraordinary moment in the country’s history.

Our new constitution was promulgated by HE President Mwai Kibaki in front of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans and several foreign dignitaries, including 4 Heads of State from our sub-region.

The decision to invite HE Omar Hassan El Bashir, President of the Republic of the Sudan, was based on a number of factors: The desire to entrench and deepen the principle of good neighbourliness and the need to maintain close relations with neighbouring countries is a matter of strategic and national interest for Kenya.

As a guarantor of the Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), it is incumbent upon Kenya to ensure that progress towards the conclusion of the Sudan peace process is undertaken successfully for the promotion of peace, justice and reconciliation in that country. interlocutor

Leaving President Bashir out of the invitations to the ceremonies would have amounted to initiating a process of isolation of one of the key partners to the CPA. This would be inimical to its implementation, and particularly holding of the referendum in Sudan. Such an outcome could jeopardise the peace pros-

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October 2010

and secondly, for them to learn from our experience. A cardinal principal in Kenya’s foreign policy is to ensure peace and stability in neighbouring countries, since any past turmoil in the sub-region has always had serious repercussions in this country.

Kenya also takes her commitments to the African Union very seriously out of the realisation that our future is inextricably linked to that of the entire African continent. We are therefore in this regard part and parcel of the AU’s request to the UN Security Council to defer proceedings against President Bashir for at least one year for purposes of peace and reconciliation in the Sudan.

SURRENDER

pects, with disastrous consequences for Kenya and the sub-region, as well as erode Kenya’s role as a trusted interlocutor between the parties to the CPA. Kenya is a regional leader and one of the few countries in the world to pass a new constitution in peace time. It was therefore considered important to include in our invitations, neighboring countries which are still experiencing problems internally, first as a sign of encouragement to their own internal processes,

WE WERE RIGHT:

The Minister explains a point

The African Union’s request to the UN Security Council to defer the proceedings against President Bashir for one year, in accordance with Article 16 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, has never been acted upon.

This prompted the AU Member States to enter an Assembly Decision at the 13th Ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in 2009 in Libya, not to cooperate with the ICC on the specific issue of the arrest and surrender of Sudanese President El-Bashir.

The ACP, a group with 79 member states stretching three continents also saw merit in the position taken by the AU and has offered unequivocal support to that position.

We have read in the media that Kenya has gone against world opinion by inviting President Bashir to visit our country. I wish to ask which this world opinion is if countries such as the USA, China, India and Russia are not members of the ICC. It is also worth noting that African countries comprise of the single largest regional group in the ICC and it is therefore critical that their views are taken seriously

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Sudan Hails Kenya’s New Constitution The embassy of the republic of the Sudan wishes to congratulate the Government and the people of the sisterly Republic of Kenya on the successful promulgation of the new constitution that was free, fair and transparent on August 4, 2010.

Highlighting the importance of the historic event and in the spirit of the cordial relations between the two countries and the crucial role that Kenya played in the peace process in the Sudan, the Government of the Sudan was honoured to participate in the promulgation ceremony at the highest level represented by His Excellency Omer Ahmed Al-Bashir, the President of the Republic of the Sudan.

Though the invitation was extended to both the President and the First Vice President, it was agreed that, due to obvious protocol considerations, the country be represented by the President.

On the heels of this visit and following a very successful discussion at State House between President AlBashir and President Mwai Kibaki after the ceremony, the Presidency of the Sudan composed of Their Excellencies President Al-Bashir and the Vice President Ali Osman Taha, held a successful meeting on August 29, 2010 in Khartoum. They agreed; inter alia, on the following: To hold the South Sudan Referendum on the date stipulated in the CPA, on the 9th of January 2011; They adopted a number of measures to remove all the impediments facing the Referendum Commission; They formed a joint political committee for the speedy demarcation of the North-South border before the Referendum; and, The meeting called upon the regional partners and international community to live up their commitments and pledges to support the implementation of the remaining provisions of the CPA.

AU Defends Kenya over Al-Bashir, Tells off UN The AU vows not to co-operate with UN Security Council resolution to arrest Sudanese President and declares it shall oppose any attempt to coerce African Countries to undermine the common African position The African Union Commission has noted with grave concern statements attributed to some members of the UN Security Council as well as the decisions ICC-02/05-01/09 of 27 August 2010 of the ICC Pre Trial Chamber informing the United Nations Security Council and the Assembly of the States Parties to the Rome Statute about Omar Al-Bashir’s presence in the territories of the Republic of Chad and the Republic of Kenya.

The said statements and the decisions assert that the two African Union Member States have “a clear obligation to cooperate with the Court in relation to the enforcement of such warrants of arrest, which stems both from the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1593, whereby the United Nations Security Council ‘urge[d] all States and concerned regional and other international organizations to cooperate fully’ with the Court, and from article 87 of the Statute of the Court”, to which the two countries are state parties. The African Union Commission further notes that the decision by the Pre-Trial chamber was made strangely in respect of the “expected

attendance of Omar Al-Bashir at the celebration scheduled for Friday, 27 August 2010”.

The African Union Commission expresses its deep regret that both the statements and the decisions grossly ignore and make no reference whatsoever to the obligations of the two countries to the African union, arising from decisions Assembly/AU/Dec. 245(XIII) adopted by the 13th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, wherein the Assembly “Decide[d] that in view of the fact that the request by the African Union has never been acted upon (by UN Security Council), the AU Member States shall not cooperate pursuant to the provisions of Article 98 of the Rome Statute of the ICC relating to immunities, for the arrest and surrender of President Omar El Bashir of The Sudan”, which decision was reiterated (decision Assembly/AU/Dec. 296 (XV) by the 15th Ordinary session of the Assembly in July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda. Additionally, the statements and the decisions did not take cognisance whatsoever of the obligations of AU Member states arising from Article 23 (2) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which obligates all AU Member States “to comply with the decisions and policies of the Union”.

Addis Ababa, 29 August 2010

…And COMESA Supports Kenya The 14th COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government dismissed the criticism leveled against Kenya for hosting Sudan’s President Omar El Bashir as unwarranted.

In a communiqué issued at Lozitha Palace in Swaziland at the end of the two-day summit, the COMESA Heads of State and Government said in view of the central role Kenya has continued to play as a guarantor of the Sudan peace process under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) it was not wrong for Kenya to host Bashir during the historic event.

The COMESA leaders, at the same time, appreciated Kenya’s engagement and sacrifices in the peace processes in the Horn of Africa.

They also acknowledged Kenya’s commitment to support the full implementation of the Sudan’s CPA and its commitment to keep all parties engaged until the successful holding of the Sudan referendum in January next year.

On democracy and governance, the summit congratulated President Kibaki, the government and the people of Kenya for holding a successful democratic and peaceful national referendum that endorsed the new constitution.

The COMESA Heads of State and Government also congratulated Bashir for his re-election and the people of Sudan for holding peaceful democratic elections in 24 years.

Other heads of state and government who were congratulated for their re-election included presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Pierre Nkurunzinza of Burundi and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.

Reiterating the importance of peace and security in creating an enabling environment for investment, economic development and regional integration, the Summit commended the African

Union, African regional economic communities and other regional mechanisms for the sustained efforts in addressing conflicts and insecurity on the continent.

They welcomed the progress made towards consolidating peace in the Great Lakes Region and called on the international community to support efforts by the governments of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo in peace consolidation and development to ensure long term stability of the Great Lakes region.

The Summit further urged countries in the region and the international community to implement sanctions against negative forces in the region such as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda.

In this regard, the regional leaders condemned the recent terrorist attack by Al Shabaab on Uganda that led to the loss of innocent lives and noted with concern the deteriorating situation in Somalia and its negative impact on the economic and social welfare of the region.

On legal and institutional matters, the summit reappointed Hon Justice Nzamba Kitonga of Kenya as President of the COMESA Court of Justice, Hon Justice Ernest Linesi Sakala of Zambia and Hon Justice Borhan Mohamed Tawhid Amrallah of Egypt as judges of the Appellate Division of the COMESA Court of Justice.

Hon Justice Samuel Rugege of Rwanda was appointed principal judge while Hon Justice Menberetsehai Tadesse of Ethiopia and Hon Justice Stanley Maphalala of Swaziland were appointed judges of the COMESA Court of Justice First Instance Division.

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COLONIAL ERRORS

Border Disputes in EA Region

D

In a new book WAFULA OKUMU points out the escalating trans-boundary resource disputes result from colonial boundary-making errors, undefined borders and population bulge

r Wafula Okumu rightly points out that the “heightening of tensions and increasing potential for inter-state conflicts in Eastern Africa due to growing discoveries, or rumours of existence, of natural resources in borderlands”.

In what amounts to a new scramble for Africa, Wafula argues that the hunger for resources by world powers is deadlier now, given the burgeoning populations.

Wafula charts out the partitioning of land into concessionary blocks awarded to Chinese and Western companies to hunt for hydrocarbons, iron ore, bauxite/alumina, copper, manganese, molybdenum (moly), uranium, zinc and platinum group metals (PGMs), found in Eastern Africa’s borderlands.

He cites the flashpoints as Ethiopia-Eritrea (1998), the Uganda-Kenya faceoff over Migingo Island in Lake Victoria (2009), Eritrea against Djibouti (2008), and the on and off conflict in the DRC that often draws in Uganda and Rwanda.

Other conflict areas in the expansive region include “...the SomaliaEthiopia-Kenya borders, the SudanKenya border (over the Elemi triangle), the Uganda-DRC border, the SudanChad-CAR-DRC-Uganda borders, and the Kenya-Uganda border. In the second tier of disputes are the Tanzania-Mozambique, Tanzania-Malawi, Tanzania-Uganda, Uganda-Rwanda and the Kenya-Ethiopia borders.

Okumu’s paper maps out most of the conflicts in the region while providing a cohesive thematic analysis

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GOLD RUSH:

The entrance to a mine shaft

of the historical and contemporary causes. The intricacy of border conflicts lies in the fact that “...each of the countries in Eastern Africa has had at least one border dispute with a neighbour, mainly over territorial claims, mostly over lack of clearly defined and marked boundaries, the availability of trans-boundary resources, and security-related matters”.

Okumu reckons the post conflict prone border areas in the region are the Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia confluence points that have not known real peace since the 1960s. While the conflict in these areas were about communal identity and fights over pastures and water, the search for and discovery of hydrocarbons fuelled conflict.

Of the DRC, he says: “...a situation has emerged around the Tutsi populations spreading across the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. The Rwandan invasions of eastern DRC in 1998 and 2009, under the guise of protecting the Tutsi population, have more recently been reinterpreted as being functional to the exploitation of the Congo’s min-

eral riches”. He mentions the Albert basin where commercially significant oil reserves were recently discovered

by Uganda as being a potential flashpoint between it and the DRC as the basin straddles the borders of the two countries.

The Abyei border point separating North and South Sudan is one of the most threatening situations. This is specifically because the Sudan holds a referendum early next year which may lead to the self determination of the South. Drawing a borderline over the Abyei region will be the most difficult decision. What makes matters more delicate is that both the North and the South are reported to be arming themselves just in case.

Okumu says the border line has implications for the control of oil-rich areas. The delimitation and demarcation has been a divisive issue with the Dinka Ngok and the Misseriya, expressing suspicions that the governments in Khartoum and Juba have manipulated local populations to promote their respective interests.

Okumu provides some important historical perspectives to the border disputes in the region.

Boundary-making in Eastern Africa was a very deliberate and elaborate process calculated by Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Portugal to enhance their respective imperial interests, Okumu argues.

“The Kenya-Tanzania-UgandaRwanda borders, for instance, reflect the British obsession to control the source of the Nile and the colonial intrigues to gain access to the mineral wealth of the present eastern DRC”, he treatises

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FIGHTING IMPUNITY

Rwanda, Uganda Under Fire over DRC Atrocities Leaked UN Report implicates soldiers in systematic mass murders, rape and looting of minerals

By VICTOR BWIRE

T

he prolonged war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been blamed on external interference in general and hunger for the country’s vast minerals in particular.

The war has led to massive human rights violations and atrocities, including mass murders, rape and internal displacements, in what amounts to crimes against humanity under international humanitarian rights law.

It is estimated that over 5 million people have died as a result of this war while nearly I million have been displaced and currently live without access to water, food, schools, housing and related basic needs. The DRC is home to vast amounts of diamonds, copper, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium, niobium, and tantalum.

This thinking got credence with the recent draft report by the United Nations on documenting atrocities in DRC, which accuses both Rwanda and Uganda military and civilians of committing inhuman acts. According to the report, the regimes in Rwanda and Uganda, heavily involved in the war in the DRC, saw looting of mineral resources and killing, rape and mass murders of Hutus.

Should the contents of the report be true, Rwanda will have violated several international, regional and national laws and treaties it has signed, ratified and domesticated. Effectively, Rwanda has retrogressed in the fulfillment of its obligations under these human rights conventions.

Critically, it will have violated the

This thinking got credence with the recent draft report by the United

Nations on documenting atrocities in DRC

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on Elimination of racial Discrimination, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention of Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the International Criminal law instruments (under the Rome Statutes), which require that States to ensure that every human being has the inherent right to life, be protected by law. That will be testy, indeed.

The contents of the UN report have been extensively covered by the International press. The period under review was between 1993-2003 and allegations range from crimes against humanity, war crimes, to genocide, because apparently, Rwandese soldiers targeted Hutus in a revenge mission.

PLUNDER

It is emerging that Rwandese soldiers, while in DRC, not only battled

with Uganda forces over control of resources, but went on the rampage, killing civilians, destroying property and executing Hutus who had fled the genocide in Rwanda.

The damning report comes in the wake of continuing concern by human rights defenders both regionally and globally that the country is slowly sliding into a dictatorship. Several human rights defenders and media practitioners have been victims of the perceived shrinking of democratic space. Rwanda has just come out of an election. Punitive laws have been enacted including the Genocide Ideology Law that makes it a very serious offence to deny that genocide took place in the country.

It would be interesting to see what action the Government will take against officers and civilians implicated in the atrocities.The Rwanda Government reacted angrily to the allegations and rubbished the claims.

It threatened to pull out its forces serving in the UN, which had released another report in 2001 which similarly implicated Rwanda and Uganda in the war and plunder of mineral resources in DRC. A report prepared by an independent judicial commission appointed by the Uganda Government in 2004 and chaired by British-born Justice David Porter implicated Uganda senior military officers and Ugandan business people of looting mineral resources in the DRC. Rwanda and Uganda have been involved in the war and events in DRC since October 1996

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FORMER BRITISH COLONIES

Commonwealth Pitch for Parliamentary Diplomacy We must emerge stronger, more cohesive and more solid, better equipped and determined to deliver on effective legislation, oversight and representation - KENNETH MARENDE, PRESIDENT, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

By PATRICK WACHIRA

A

s the world marches towards a new economic and political order, Commonwealth states are grappling with increasingly compounding challenges to reduce poverty, fight HIV/AIDS and expand access to education.

Indeed, the President of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Mr Kenneth Marende, also the Speaker of Kenya’s National Assembly, put it succinctly when he said that a third of the Commonwealth’s 2 billion citizens live below the poverty line, on less than a dollar a day.

And to capture the enormity of the challenges, Marende said that almost 75 per cent of those living in poverty across the Commonwealth were women. Further, almost two thirds of HIV/AIDS cases globally are to be found in Commonwealth states.

To round it up, a half of the world’s 115 million children without access to primary school education are languishing in Commonwealth countries.

Speaking during the 56th edition of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference in Nairobi, Marende was emphatic that the work of parliamentarians “must be relevant to address the plight of mankind as it reckons with mother earth

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at the local, national, regional and global levels” which called for parliamentary diplomacy. While democracy entailed expanding opportunities, promoting liberties, strengthening human capabilities and safeguarding human rights, development was about “harnessing opportunities, enhancing economic freedom and ensuring equitable and fair distribution of resources”.

Marende felt that legislators had little choice but to speak to development and make it happen or else the aspirations and struggle for demo-

COMMON INTRESTS:

Delegates arrives for the conference (left), Commonwealth Parliamentary Association President Kenneth Marende signs a conference document at parliament buildings, Nairobi

cratic governance would be hollow.

Parliamentarians, he said, should complement and provide leadership to the executive so as to effectively articulate international affairs through partnerships that would catalyse bilateral friendship groups for exchange of experiences. He quoted American theologian, Reinhold Neibuhr: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”

Kenya’s President, Mwai Kibaki, who officially opened the confer-

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ence, said that the electorate looked up to the parliamentarians to find solutions to the socio-economic problems afflicting them and it was up the latter to provide leadership. He cited climate change, status of women, peace and security, migrant workers as development challenges confronting “us and which require urgent attention”. Climate change was particularly crucial as it threatened human survival and was, therefore, urgent.

“We must act responsibly to save lives. Parliaments must be pro-active and take the lead in lobbying their respective governments to reduce carbon emissions,” said the President.

He underscored the need to reduce use of fossil fuels and instead look to alternatives, such as hydro, solar and nuclear power for energy needs. The promotion of gender equality and the political representation of women also received favourable mention, buttressed by the fact that it forms Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals.

Kibaki was of the view that sustainable development was a challenge to the commonwealth and that water and sanitation, health and education

were basic human rights that must be enjoyed by all in order for them to be productive. The Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee, Mr Dato’ Seri Mohd Shafie Bin Apdal said the organisation could no longer afford to hide in a cocoon of anonymity.

“People need to know who we are, what we do and what is in for them.

We must seek new ways of branding and marketing CPA products and services and replicate successful commercial marketing strategies.”

WIND

Apdal said time had come to abandon the top-down management development models and instead promote diversity to inspire innovation, economic and social empowerment.

“There can be no second-class citizen of CPA. It is an inclusive, collaborative association of equals.”

A greater sense of unity in the organisation was crucial as was a change of attitude towards collaboration and empowerment in an environment that placed high premium on the aspirations, contribution and needs of different peoples.

“I suggest that now more than ever we have to create linkages between the work of the CPA and the people we represent and demonstrate a range of practical and positive impacts,” said he.

He said parliamentary democracy was a “fragile flower that has to be nurtured and protected especially when the chill winds of economic pressure blow strong”.

The CPA conference was attended by over 1,000 delegates from all over the world, who represented a membership of 17,000 parliamentarians scattered across some 54 states which were colonies of Britain.

Rwanda, though a member, does not fall under this category. The CPA has been the voice of parliamentary democracy throughout the Commonwealth since 1911

INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY Every year on October 17 the UN observes the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

That has happened since 1993 when the General Assembly designated this day to promote awareness on the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries, particularly in developing states.

In 2000 at the Millennium Summit, world leaders committed themselves to cutting by half the year 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty (people whose income is less than a dollar a day), boosting health, fighting diseases and stopping environmental degradation. The theme this year will be: “From Poverty to Decent Work: bridging the gap”.

One of the main aims of the day is to make the voice of the poor heard. Various nongovernmental organizations and community charities support the day by actively calling for country leaders and government to make the fight against poverty a central part of foreign policy.

This day comes at a time when people living in poverty and informal sector workers are living in poverty and are even more uncertain about employment stability, working conditions, training opportunities and the availability of social protection.

According to International Labour Organisation (ILO), the share of workers in vulnerable employment worldwide is estimated to reach more than 1.5 billion (50.6 per cent) equivalent to over a half of the worlds working population. ILO found out that the global unemployment rate reached 6.6 percent in 2009, up 0.9 per cent from 2007, while the global youth unemployment rate rose from 11.8 per cent in 2007 to 13.4 percent in 2009 with wide regional variations.

The main observance will endeavor to illustrate ways in which the poor will access decent work and opportunities for learning and training can be developed. New approaches which overcome exclusion and are environmentally, socially and economically advantageous will be highlighted

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DESPERATE SITUATION

Assist Somalia, AU Pleads with States Situation described as “precarious” following September grenade attack on MPs in which 32 people, including six PMs lost lives

By PATRICK WACHIRA

T

HE African Union has petitioned member states to urgently contribute troops and other personnel to the African Union Mission in Somalia, (AMISOM) The AU Peace and Security Council further called on states that have pledged support to troop contributing countries to AMISOM to honour those pledges. A further appeal was made for increased support towards the rebuilding of professional, national and effective Somali Security Forces.

The AU petitioned the Somalia government to appoint a new premier to facilitate the formation of a new cabinet and strengthen the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs).

In a communiqué issued after the 241st meeting of the Peace and Security Council on September 23, the AU said it had taken note of the resignation of the prime minister of the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, and encouraged President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to urgently appoint a new PM to allow for the speedy appointment of a new cabinet. AU fur-

The AU petitioned the Somalia Government to appoint a new Premier to facilitate the formation of a new

cabinet and strengthen the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs)

28

STATS &FACTS The dead included 10

civilians, six MPs, five security forces and two hotel workers. Since then the spate of suicide bombings and battle killings are shot up to an unprecedented level

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ther encouraged the President and the Somali leadership to tirelessly work for unity and cohesion within federal institutions in order for them to fulfil their tasks and obligations.

The President was urged to intensify dialogue and reach out to peaceembracing groups willing to join the peace process.

The Peace and Security Council expressed concern at the “continued precariousness of the situation and the pursuit of acts of violence”, and strongly condemned the terrorist attacks by Al Shabab and other armed groups, with the support of “foreign elements”.

The council reiterated its appreciation to AMISOM for its continued efforts, in spite of the many challenges facing the mission, and expressed gratitude to the troop and police contributing countries for their unflinching commitment as demonstrated in their partners’ support to the continued and increased deployment of troops and other resources to AMISOM. The council took note of the efforts by the commission towards convening meetings of military and security experts, in August and September, to work out a revised modus operandi for AMISOM. “The council looks forward to the submission by the Chairperson of the Commission of a comprehensive report on the situation in Somalia,” and expressed hope that the report would include an evaluation of action by the international community.

The evaluation will enable the council make crucial decisions and seek the support of the UN Security Council and the larger international community, the communiqué said.

The council was briefed on the Somalia situation by Ambassador Boubacar Diarra, Special Representative of the chair of the commission for Somalia.

The plea by AU was mainly prompted by the August 24 attack at

the Muna Hotel which saw a fierce gun battle between the assailants, who appeared in jungle fatigues, and loyal forces, leaving behind a horrific scene. The dead included 10 civilians, six MPs, five security forces and two hotel workers. Since then the spate of suicide bombings and battle killings have shot up to an unprecedented level.

The attack was staged just a day after the Al Shabab threatened “massive war” against what it saw as “invaders”, an oblique reference to the AU peace keeping troops, mainly from Uganda and Rwanda.

So deadly were the figures that the toll in just two days shot up to at least 70 people, including two of the attackers. Somalia’s Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman termed the attack deplorable, coming as it did in the Holy month of Ramadhan when Muslims fast and pray.

In mid September, the Islamists attacked two radio stations in Mogadishu, Radio HornAfrik and Global Broadcasting Corporation, which they looted. Some five stations have been attacked in recent weeks

CROSSFIRE:

A good Samaritan rescues a child

using Hizb-Al-Islam, an offshoot of the Al Shabab.

The attacks on radio stations followed a wave of kidnappings of journalists in the capital, which have been roundly condemned by the global organisation, Reporters Without Borders, which has termed the terrorist organisations as top “Predators of Press Freedom”.

The African Union made its plea just two months ago to have AMISOM transformed into a UN Peace Mission so as to effectively secure Somalia from turbulence and turmoil. The AU had told the international community and the UN Security Council in particular, to “play their rightful role” and to mobilise resources “commensurate with the magnitude of the challenges facing Somalia and the region”.

Even Pope Benedict XIV, ordinarily somewhat aloof to world events, appealed to the international community to halt the violence.

Serious questions are now being asked by observers of the unfolding scenario in Somalia about whether the AMISOM forces are losing the war against the Islamists, who have now virtually taken control of the capital.

Perhaps it is time the UN Security Council acceded to the request to boost the numbers and actual mandate of the peacekeeping forces in Somalia so that their role is extended to securing the capital and other parts of the war ravaged country rather than just being relegated to being on the defensive, which has proved to be ineffective in holding the fort.

Questions are also emerging about the role of other states, now reduced to observers over the unfolding spectre in Somalia, now that the AU wants the states more involved.

Are African states unwilling or unable to act to stem the tide of violence and bloodletting?

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ANNIVERSARY

World Marks UN Day

U

N Day will be celebrated annually on October 24 as an anniversary of the entry of United Nations Charter in 1945. It has been celebrated since 1948.

It is marked throughout the world by meetings, discussions and exhibitions on the goals of the organisation.

The UN deals in peace development, human rights, humanitarian assistance, disarmament and international law.

In 1971 the General Assembly recommended that member states observe it as a public holiday. Some of the UN bodies include the General Assembly, the main deliberative organ of the UN. The Economic and Social Council is the principal organ that co-ordinates the economic, social, and related work of the UN. The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the UN and settles legal disputes between states and advisory opinion to the UN and its specialised agencies. The Security Council deals with maintenance of international peace and security and the secretariat that carries out the day to day work of the organisation.

It services the principal organs and carries out tasks as varied as the issues dealt with by the UN such as administering peace keeping operations and preparing studies on human rights.

On this day the UN organises many activities particularly in the main offices in New York, The Hague (Netherlands), Geneva (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria) and Nairobi (Kenya). These include concerts, flying the UN flag on important buildings, debate on the relevance of work of

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October 2010

AFRICA’S SILENCE ON PEACE DAY Africa observed a minute of silence on September 21 when the world marked the International Day of Peace.

The day was proclaimed by the UN and is marked as a single rallying point for the entire continent to demonstrate that peace is possible.

To coincide with the day, the African Union (AU) called for cessation of hostilities in all conflict areas still going through varying levels of violence and appealed for humanitarian supplies to communities in such areas.

Poignantly, a minute of silence was observed at 10.00am (GMT) for peace across Africa. Further, all AU partners, humanitarian organisations, civil society, media houses and religious outfits were urged to fully embrace the objectives of the Peace Day and contribute to its success.

The AU also appealed to the UN to take all necessary steps in support of the Year of Peace and Security and Peace Day in Africa, saying its role was critical in the overall success of peace initiatives both on the continent and beyond.

the UN in modern times and proclamations by the state heads and other leaders.

The UN today provides a comprehensive appraisal of the many challenges facing the international community and makes efforts to find solutions. Among current objectives of the UN include seeking to end poverty by year 2015.

“The goals can be achieved .The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are difficult and ambitious, but doable. Many poor countries have made enormous progress. The world as a whole is on track to reduce poverty by half by 2015, a tremendous achievement,” said the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in August at the UN headquarters

The Union encouraged all businesses in Africa to contribute to the initiative and to sign the AU-initiated Make Peace Happen Industry Charter.

Member states were urged to commence preparations in earnest and mobilise all stakeholders as well as set up structures to co-ordinate the activities of the day

•GREEN AGENDA Planet Earth

FOOTPRINT

The Journey towards Zero Emission…

UNEP launches ambitious master plan to reduce emissions in global operations by 3 per cent per year, and now many companies are catching up

By JANE MWANGI

top 500 corporations in America for the year 2009. Hewlett Packard emerges tops, followed by Dell while Peabody Energy came in last.

The ranking, according to Newsweek, are based on the companies’ environmental performance, policies and reputation. This is just an example of how the social and economic case for going green is becoming more compelling. Some of the major companies which have implemented green strategies include Bank of America, General Electric, DuPont and Home Depot.

For the most part companies have started developing environment - friendly products and services, especially, solar panels

T

he 2006 release of the controversial documentary film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ by former American Vice-President Albert Gore could not have been more timely. The film has served to awaken the world, in rather vivid fashion, to the harsh reality of global warming.

Many corporations, hitherto incredibly resistant to change, have been forced to implement policies to be in tandem with the eco-friendly world. This has become a global movement as evidenced by Newsweek’s exclusive environmental rankings for the

which have successfully generated billions in revenue. The companies formerly regarded as some of the worst polluters, have today cleaned up their act, both literally and figuratively.

It is in line with this that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on September 6 published an ambitious new strategy to reduce its carbon footprint and pave the way towards a zero emissions future.

The strategy is expected to entail less air travel, more ‘green meetings’ and e-conferences in order to catalyse a neutral climate.

This goes along with introducing a wide range of efficiency measures across its global operations from

cutting electricity and paper use in its offices, which is, without doubt, a first for the global leader in matters environment.

Between 2010 and 2012, UNEP is committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 3 per cent each year. Launching the new strategy, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: “These are bold ambitions for any organisation with a workforce of over 1,000, offices across the world and a busy international calendar involving implementing projects and policies and working with governments and other partners across continents.

But we have a responsibility to lead by example, and all UNEP staff

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are aware that becoming more sustainable today is the only way we can protect tomorrow—and if we can get this right it should generate economic savings too.”

He further stressed on the need to “lead by example” and provide a basis for raising awareness of similar organisations, governments, and the public as a whole. UNEP is determined to share methods that can be used by other organisations to reduce their own environmental and climate footprint, a first-rate endeavour in all respects.

Achim also said that staff involvement would be key to the strategy’s success. “I am personally committed to seeing this strategy implemented, and will work closely with the senior management team to see that this happens.”

A key target area emphasised in the expected roll-out is workrelated travel by UNEP employees.

At present, it was revealed that air travel is responsible for over 85 per cent of UNEP’s carbon emissions.

It is projected that more journeys will be undertaken by train and, in addition, there will be greater investment in e-conference technology.

UNEP will also establish an e-communication plan where all UNEP employees are provided with access to online communication tools and online meeting rooms.

Implementing the mammoth efficiency measures could save the organisation an estimated US$ 800,000 per year.

Greenhouse gas emissions from UNEP’s offices due primarily to electricity use make up around 15 per cent of the organisation’s carbon footprint. It is recommended that in order to reduce workplace emissions, all UNEP offices with 10 or more staff members will undertake in-house greenhouse gas emission reduction audits based on the Sustainable United Nations (SUN) guide to climate friendly

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buildings and offices.

Consequently, each office is expected to develop preliminary emission reduction plans by December 2010. An Environmental Management System (EMS) will be the tool used to monitor the organisation’s environmental impact and subsequently come up with progress reports on emission targets.

This move by UNEP is further aimed at supporting the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50-85 per cent by 2050. It is committed to monitor, manage and report on its climate and sustainability performance on an annual basis.

Indeed, the main call is for more organisations to follow suit. Some of the few ways in which companies can go green include seeing to it that their products are eco-friendly, on-toxic and biodegradable.

Instead of using general batteries, rechargeable batteries can be used.

The amount of paper should be reduced by trying to go for online bill payment, online banking and emails. In addition, wherever possible double-sided printing should be used.

The measures are expected to push the greenhouse agenda quite remarkably both in the short and long term, thus contributing significantly to lower emissions. And the journey towards zero emissions has just begun...

MULTIPRINT ENTERPRISES

STATS &FACTS Between 2010 and 2012, UNEP is committing to reduce its

greenhouse gas emissions by 3% each year.

Greenhouse gas emissions from UNEP’s offices due primarily to electricity use make up around 15% of the organisation’s carbon footprint

WEDDING CARDS

ts or s p ad Re l e s a h r nu Flie er ks rs t n t A Le Boo ste Po

BROCHURES Congratulations Amiran Kenya on your recognition for Millenium Development Goals Trust Fund 2010 Award for Contribution to the fullfilment of MDG1 -Eradication of extreme poverty & Hunger.

We are proud to be Associated with you.

MAGAZINES

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•GREEN AGENDA Planet Earth

SAVING EARTH

New Lease of Life For Degraded Water Towers A new innovative fund set up to restore and manage Kenya’s important water catchment areas in degraded mountain forests sets the pace for other countries in East Africa, writes PAUL UDOTO

T

he restoration and management of Kenya’s critical yet degraded mountain forest water reservoirs has been given a new lease of life with the formation of a special fund.

Through a recent Gazette notice signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, the government published regulations establishing the Water Towers Conservation Fund.

The landmark move that has gone largely unnoticed creates a framework that could be replicated in other East African countries. The fund provides a veritable template through which the region’s critical water catchment areas dubbed ‘water towers’ could be more effectively managed.

It has been a convoluted process since five years ago when a regional workshop on organised

by WWF --- the global conservation organisation--- and United Nations Environment Programme (UNDP) recommended the protection and management of montane ecosystems in Eastern Africa, especially the Mau Forest Complex and Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda, as ‘water towers’. Despite both mountain ecosystems’ substantial

contribution to the socio-economic development of Eastern Africa, they were both cited for being under enormous pressure from human activities. This was partly blamed on weak governance and undue political interference.

The new fund addresses some of these concerns by supporting the restoration, conservation and sustainable management of the water towers, including, the Mau Forest Complex and Mt Elgon forests, whose catchment areas are both national and regional.

The region’s key water towers have a major influence on ecological stability, economic development and human well-being. Their importance in sustaining ecological processes and meeting diverse human needs throughout the region cannot be overstated.

The Fund, which is being administered by the Kenyan Prime Minister’s Office, will support the restoration, conservation and sustainable management of the Mau Forest Complex and the other water towers in Kenya in an equitable, efficient and transparent manner.

Though the fund might not be the magic wand for all the ills afflicting key water towers, its formation

marks a critical turning point in the journey towards effective protection and management of these natural resources.

The creation of the fund is in line with the aspirations of Kenya’s Vision 2030 development blueprint that aims at making the country a newly industrialising middle income nation, providing a high quality of life for all the citizens in a secure and healthy environment. The blueprint provides for the rehabilitation and protection of forests in the five major water catchment forests of Mau Escarpment, Mt Kenya, Aberdare Ranges, Cherangany Hills and Mt Elgon.

According to development blueprint, Kenya’s water endowment is low and currently stands at 647 cubic metres per capita per year hence Kenya’s classification as a water scarce country, according to the recently published National Climate Change Response Strategy. The natural endowment of renewable freshwater is low, and water resources are unevenly distributed in both time and space.

Climate change will worsen this already precarious situation.

The new fund will get an initial Sh50 million in the current financial year. It will be further funded

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•GREEN AGENDA Planet Earth

through government allocations, grants and other income generated from proceeds of the fund.

The regulations establishing the fund were jointly prepared by the Interim Co-ordinating Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Finance Ministry and the Attorney-General’s Chambers after consultation with other relevant ministries.

The establishment is part of the Interim Co-ordinating Secretariat’s mandate, which includes “developing a framework for longterm measures to restore and manage the Mau Forests Complex and other water towers”.

The creation of long-term effective institutional frameworks is among the intervention plans developed by the Interim Coordinating Secretariat to implement the recommendations of the Mau Forest Task Force for immediate and medium-term action.

Other key interventions include strategic management plan for the Mau Forest Complex, monitoring and enforcement, relocation and resettlement, livelihood support and development, restoration and replanting of degraded sites, boundary surveys and issuance of title deeds for forest blocks private sector investment and resource mobilisation.

The Gazette notice says the Fund will be managed by a National Water Towers Management Committee that will comprise eight members, including the chairman who shall not be a public officer but appointed by virtue of his or her knowledge and experience. Other members include the permanent secretaries from the Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and Ministry of Water and Irrigation. “The committee will also include four other persons appointed by virtue of their experience in management of

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public resources,” says the minister in the Gazette notice.

In the past, Kenya has experienced erratic rainfall attributed mainly to depletion of the five major water towers. This has led to poor yields for farmers, escalating food prices and debilitating droughts. Environmental experts have warned Kenya’s semi-arid and arid areas are slowly turning into deserts due to a receding forest cover. A joint report by the Kenya Forests Working Group and the Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing describes these key mountain forests as “the lifeline of the nation” given that they are the upper catchments of the main rivers that support the Kenya’s key economic sectors, including energy (hydropower generation

STATS &FACTS Closed canopy forests cover only 1.7 per

cent of Kenya’s land area,

yet provide crucial services to the people, the nation, and the environment.

The world recommended forest cover is at least 10 per cent

covers 70 per cent of our electricity needs), water, agriculture, livestock and tourism (Kenya’s prestigious conservation areas depend on those rivers).

For instance, the Mau Complex is the largest of the five “water towers” of Kenya, forming the upper catchments of all main rivers in the Western part of Kenya.

These rivers are the lifeline of major lakes in Kenya and trans-boundary lakes such as Victoria in the Nile River Basin; Turkana in Kenya and Ethiopia, and Natron in Tanzania.

The Mara River, whose origin is in the same forest, is the lifeline of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

Closed canopy forests cover only 1.7 per cent of Kenya’s land area

•ECONOMY

Investment•Technology•Prosperity

L

ocal and international investors have snapped up the new window of investment opportunity offered in Kenya’s thriving tourism industry. Nine sites have been quickly taken up in Meru, Bisanadi, Kora and Mwingi national parks in northern Kenya. The investors are preparing to start the construction of at least 300 beds to be ready by 2012.

The construction of the lodges and tented camps in previously restricted areas is meant to increase bed occupancy and open up new remote areas to tourism. The plan is being rolled out on the understanding that investment in tourism infrastructure will be required to keep Kenya ahead in the safari industry.

The intention is to move the tourists to the less congested areas, and that their activities shall have less ecological footprint.

Lack of accommodation in newlycreated circuits has been identified as a major hindrance to attracting tourists to these destinations,

and increased international tourist arrivals. Other sites that have also been offered for tourism facilities development are in Kisumu Impala Sanctuary and Ndere Island National Park in Lake Victoria.

The Kenya Wildlife Service recently advertised 13 new sites for building lodges and luxury tented camps in the expansive and popular destination Tsavo Conservation Area — the largest protected wilderness in Kenya. The offer has generated a lot of interest from potential investors to some of Kenya’s most visited parks.

The parastatal is processing bidders for lease, development and operation of tourist accommodation facilities in three national parks in this area through an open tender process.

INVESTORS

FLORA AND FAUNA

Investors Snap up Pie in Kenya’s Thriving Tourism

By PAUL UDOTO

especially those from the domestic market.

The timing of these investments is particularly significant given that the year 2010 has been billed as Kenya’s best in international visitor arrivals and revenue collection since independence. It is now widely acknowledged that the country has managed to shake off the double curse of post-election violence and global economic meltdown two years ago to this year’s double blessing of favourable foreign exchange rate

The construction of the high quality lodges and permanent luxury tented camps in low use and wilderness activity areas of Tsavo East, Tsavo West and Chyulu National Parks is part of Vision 2030 development plan that seeks to make Kenya a globally competitive and prosperous country.

The offer, expected to realise an additional 422 beds in the three parks, is open to experienced local and international tourism investors.

The lucrative investment opportunity is the first phase of a 10year management plan that seeks to diversify Tsavo’s tourist experience by promoting investment in low volume, high value tourism in the conservation area’s low use and wilderness areas. The plan further proposes to develop tourist products that appeal to different market segments and provide a high quality, low environmental impact visitor experience. Despite the Tsavo area having 2,796 permanent beds, most of which are in high use zones of Mzima Springs, Kamboyo and Voi, Continued on pg 40 October 2010

35 35

•PICTORIAL Lights•Camera•Action

1

2

4

KOREAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION DAY Sep 28th

3

1 SECURITY ASSURED: The Ambassador of the Republic of the Korea to Kenya and Ms Lee Han-Gon, welcoming Police Spokesman Mr Eric Kiraithe, during the occasion at the residence, Mzima Springs, Nairobi 2 TÊTE À TÊTE: The New Egyptian Ambassador to Kenya Mr Kadir Fathi Abdelmutalib,(right) chats with the host Han-Gon 3 KEY NOTE SPEECH: Host Ambassador addresses guests 4 WELCOME: Ambassador Han-Gon embraces his German counterpart Ms Margit Hellwig Boette 5 ANIMATED: The Nigerian High Commissioner Dr Chijioke W. Wigwe, shares a light hearted moment with Ambassador Han-Gon, as madam Eli Kwon the host ambassador's spouse looks on

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October 2010

•PICTORIAL

Lights•Camera•Action

2

4

1

3

5

AMBASSADORIAL WEDDING FOR MINISTER'S DAUGHTER 1. TIGHT: The newly weds, Steve Biko and former Ms Sylvia Wetangula up close at the wedding 2. BEST STEP FOWARD: Prime Minister Raila Odinga joins dancing troupes

4. ON BEHALF OF: US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger spoke for hundreads of envoys in attendance 5. DOWN THE AISLE: The bride's parents Moses and Phylis walk daughter to the altar

3. HIGH POWERED: President Mwai Kibaki , VP Kalonzo Musyoka, Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and other dignitaries in a group photo with newly weds

October 2010

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•ECONOMY

Investment•Technology•Prosperity

INTERNET GOVERNANCE

Broadband Revolution Takes Shape in Region An email from Nairobi to Kigali is first sent to Europe then back to Kigali, but this will change shortly, say experts

By JEVANS MIYUNGU

F

ibre optic fever has hit East Africa, the last major region on Earth without fibre-optic broadband Internet

access.

Until the third quarter of last year the region relied on slow and costly satellite connections. However, after billions of shillings in investment, the region has recently been connected via the first of three submarine fibre optic broadband cables.

East Africa has in the last two years seen increased infrastructure investments. Three undersea fibre optic cables—the East Africa Marine System, (TEAMS), Seacom and EASSy –are live, ensuring optimal connectivity. These investments create an opportunity for much higher levels of local and regional interconnection.

Telecom and economics analysts say there is a significant potential for lasting social and economic change brought about by the provision of high speed internet.

A World Bank analysis revealed that each 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration results into 1.21 per cent increase in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth in developed countries and 1.38 per cent in developing countries.

During the third East Africa Internet Governance Forum (2010) titled Strengthening East Africa’s Critical Internet Resources Thinking

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October 2010

Globally:ActingLocallyheldonAugust 11-13, in Kampala, participants held elaborate discussions on the state, achievements, challenges and future plans for broadband in the region.

The easy accessibility of fibre cables and competition has pushed internet service providers into cutting down prices. The price reductions are commendable.

Dr David Turahi of the Ministry of ICT, Uganda, felt that bandwidth prices are yet to reach affordable levels. “We had a lot of expectations from Seacom, we thought the prices would collapse. We were paying $4000 per MB and now pay $700 per MB. If we are going to do BPO we still need these costs to drop so that we can compete and get the prices lower,” he said.

CARTEL

The irony is that a few years ago a megabyte of bandwidth was selling at between $4,000 and $6,000 a month, but currently for wholesale arrangements the price has been reduced to about $400, more than 10 times less.

Although Internet Service Providers (ISPs) currently buy the same capacity at $400, many have not come out openly to reduce enduser tariffs, while for those who have done it, the cost is untenable.

The most affected are individual internet consumers and small-andmedium enterprises, who cannot afford $500 per month, the current

STATS &FACTS A World Bank analysis revealed that each 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration results into 1.21 per cent increase in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth in developed countries and 1.38 per cent in developing countries

price for a dedicated one megabyte link per month. Operators have been accused of operating a cartel to fleece users but they counter that they need to recoup their investments first.They say meaningful price reductions will take some time.

The region has operational internet exchange points for example IXPs in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania are running and transporting data on the loop. Centrally, though, with all these investments, internet costs are still high and most cross-border internet traffic exchange is done in Europe and North America.

For example to send an email from Nairobi to Kigali, first the email is sent to Europe then back to Kigali.

The anomaly is that Rwanda is landlocked, and has its international fibre connectivity terrestrially connected via Uganda and Kenyan coast of Mombasa.

The scenario is replicated across the entire region and serves as a barrier to growth, innovation and operational efficiency. Of utmost concern is that cross-border and regional communications are entirely dependent on global connectivity.

There is also the challenge of inadequate last mile, as the expansion of infrastructure is still limited to the capitals, where the operators are guaranteed a steady market from tourists, entrepreneurs and other interested parties. The absence of infrastructure in the rural areas has hampered penetration of internet.

•ECONOMY

Investment•Technology•Prosperity

Continued from pg 35

Analysts say that most of the projects are private-led. Most fibre optic cables are owned by entities in the private sector whose main objective is to make money. This affects proliferation of the technology negatively and the government is apparently indifferent.

Resilience of infrastructure

Fibre cuts are frequent within the region. This poses a challenge in fibre loops such as during the recent bomb blasts in Uganda which affected neighbouring states. In most of the East African countries, the available content is either not in the right language or is not suited to the needs of the target population.

Majority of traffic goes down to social networking and not development oriented activities.

Burundi

In Burundi, high prices of international bandwidth are a big challenge. There have been efforts to bring telecom providers together to share networks to give more benefits to both operators and consumers.

Five operators have come together to connect Burundi through the development of a national backbone based on a PPP model. The network will have a fibre ring with four exits, two through Rwanda and two through Tanzania.

Rwanda

In Rwanda, satellite is expensive and the submarine cable which is supposed to give a relief has higher uncertainness of service. There are a number of broadband projects going on. Kigali Metropolitan fibre optic network, the national fibre backbone that is under construction connects all districts in the country. It is slated for completion by December 2010.

Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) is subsidising the cost of bandwidth especially for rural areas at $120,000 each month. The country is calling for the ratification

of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNCLOS which gives the right of protection and the right of transit as a recommendation for other landlocked countries to have access to the submarine cable and for legal protection. By March 2011, the National Backbone will be ready for use.

Uganda’s History of National Broadband Infrastructure During the exclusivity period, the infrastructure was rolled out by MTN, UTL and Celtel. Until recently, Uganda depended only on satellite for international access; however satellite is expensive and has limited capacity compared to optical fibre.

The Government of Uganda is developing a high capacity National Backbone Infrastructure while other telecom operators have rolled out broadband infrastructure in most parts of the country. The Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) has rolled out optical fibre which is used for broadband transmission by Telecom operators.

All ministries (28) are connected with 2.5Gbps connectivity while 2.5Gps connectivity is available in the main towns (Kampala, Mukono, Bombo, Jinja and Entebbe). Optical fibre has been laid to the eastern and western regions of the country and the ministry is implementing Phase II (lighting the fibre). In Uganda, the dream is to connect everybody by 2015 including all schools and health centres.

Resolutions of the forum

There was consensus on the need to harmonize regulatory frameworks to facilitate cross border network operators and improve the resilience of national, transnational and sub marine fibre optic.

The East Africa Communications Organisation (EACO) should take the lead in the interconnection of national Internet Exchange Points to form a regional Exchange shortlry

The development of high-end visitor facilities is part of the strategic positioning of Kenya’s tourism sector to tap into the World Tourism Organisation projected 1.6 billion international tourist arrivals by 2020

70 per cent of the conservation area remains under-utilised. To enhance the value of the sites for investment, KWS plans to improve accessibility and security presence.

Kenya’s Vision 2030 development blueprint’s underutilised parks initiative provides for expansion of bed capacity, opening up of less visited parks and increasing visitation to 3 million tourists by 2012. This initiative targets various national parks, including Meru, Mt Kenya, Tsavo East, Tsavo West, Ruma and Mt Elgon.

The development of high-end visitor facilities is part of the strategic positioning of Kenya’s tourism sector to tap into the World Tourism Organisation projected 1.6 billion international tourist arrivals by 2020.

Currently, during peak tourism, bed occupancy levels are close to full occupancy at 92 per cent. Additional numbers can only be accommodated if Kenya increases the bed capacity.

The area is the tourism flagship of Kenya Wildlife Service’s protected areas and offers a distinctive visitor experience that capitalises on its exceptional resource values. It is known for its sheer size as Kenya’s largest protected area complex (covering approximately 4 per cent of the country’s landmass). The area boasts of a variety of ecosystems, biodiversity and natural habitats and is home to a high number of endangered species, most notably the country’s largest elephant population, black rhinos, hirola and Grevy’s zebra.

In terms of scenic beauty, Tsavo is famed for its diverse landscapes and scenery, untamed wilderness and magnificent volcanic features.

History of the conservation area, including exploits of the early European explorers, the iconic maneaters lions and railway construction has been subject of world renowned documentaries and films.

Tsavo accounts for over 20 per cent of average annual visitation into KWS parks

October 2010

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•WITH A LIGHT TOUCH Seriously Lighthearted

HUMOUR

Gaffes, Tension of Promulgation of Constitution

By BALOZI DIPLOMACIA

T

hat Friday, preparations for the promulgation of our new constitution reached fever pitch.

The Situation Room, which is how His Excellency Minister Mambo wa Kigeni had christened the boardroom, was abuzz with activity; calls to protocol officers across the continent to ensure presidents and high-ranking officials were on their way, allocation of vehicles to state parties, pairing of protocol officers with those dimwit security guys always mumbling incoherently into shrill walkie-talkies...name it.

It was all crazy, the preparations for the proclamation of the constitution. Allowed into the Situation Room to serve tea to a team from all ministries, my colleague Asumpta, the tea-cum-juice-porridge, gal, sorry, woman, inadvertently poured hot tea on one of our senior government ministers out of sheer fright.

“Serves them right”, I told myself as the grey-suited minister, since christened Chai Masala Moto, winced in either pain or embarrassment or both. Had I not advised that serving tea (meaning coffee and other refreshments as well), be left to me in keeping with my protocol officer status which Asumpta is yet to attain? Later that day, it was realised that in the heat of the moment

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October 2010

that Rosalinda, His Excellency the Minister’s secretary, had mistakenly sent a letter of invitation to President M7 when it was meant for Mtukufu Ndugu JK. HE had to work the phone himself undoing the damage with colleagues on the other side of the line with affability while delivering expletives in between the calls to a Rosalinda who was trembling like a fluttering flag in the windy season.

As Rosalinda panicked, bit her nails and lips and generally cowered into a pitiable figure under the weight of the brick bats from HE, I made knowing winks of mockery in her direction whenever I had a chance to. After all, had I not been dismissed when I proposed that promulgation mail be handled exclusively by the protocol office with I - and myself alone - in charge?

At a pre-promulgation dinner called by the Synod of African Diplomats, HE did not seem to arrive on time. An official from the security team then took it upon himself to explain the delay, particularly when it appeared that some of the envoys were contemplating leaving.

“Attention, attention all men and women,” I winced as the guy who we have since named Goof Gaffe, called the eminent congregation of diplomats to order. “The progranation is

eating a fat doll on the waziri but he is around about the parliament corner and he will be cornered no more. Patience is the main virtue and I order you to remain seated if you please”, Goof Gaffe was saying as the minister made his way into the hotel.

From pure consternation, now everybody was laughing at the unsolicited antics of Goof Gaffe. I had the presence of mind to whisper to waziri that Goof Gaffe was “our stand in, stand up comedian” and he nodded knowingly and patted me on the back, upon which I ballooned with pride.

The pre-promulgation dinner was now underway. Shortly, the chairman of the Synod of African Diplomats rose to speak. “I would like to thank the officer who spoke here before HE arrived. To say nothing especially when speaking is half the art of diplomacy, as you all know (laughter and applause). But our colleague said so many nice things that relaxed us and we should consider conferring on him a doctorate (more laughter as Goof Gaffe rises and caresses his bulging tummy in appreciation. (More laughter)”. The Synod chairman went on to more serious matters and then concluded by inviting waziri.

After the “all protocols observed” salutations, HE asked Goof Gaffe to

rise once more to which he obliged with a wide smile, a further caress of his tummy with the left hand while brandishing his walkie-talkie with the right hand.

“Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce our comedian in chief,” HE said. “A true diplomatic comedian is one who entertains guests on cue when the minister is running late. As you know, our new constitution gives all our comedians freedom of speech, just as with other freedoms”, he added, and Goof Gaffe saluted to further mirth from the merry making envoys.

The next day, promulgation day proper, right after ushering in President Omar Al-Bashir to whom I had lobbied hard to be assigned, one colleague from the military pulled me aside and inquired “what did you guys do to Mzenangu?”

“Who is Mzenangu? I got work to ensure my guests are well taken care of”, I retorted acidly.

“I am told he talked yesterday at the pre-mulgeshen dinner and then you ensured he was fired shortly after”, the officer said and before I could respond proper, the puzzle pieces fell in place. Goof Gaffe had been fired for embarrassing the government. Just then, I heard the new constitution proclaimed and reverted to my work in earnest.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom many like to regard as a rabble rouser not only pulled the carpet of dignified air from world leaders at the UN General Assembly, but also stupefied them in a way that can only be best described as a well-orchestrated charm offensive. His antics caused a walk out, in ‘never before seen and perhaps never will be seen again’ fashion, with US diplomats describing Ahmadinejad’s statement as “abhorrent and delusional”. As you will expect, H E the President of Iran, who only two months ago challenged US President Barack Obama to a verbal duel, was unfazed. His moment of fame was here and here it remained!

Ahmadinejad treated the international audi-

ence to a 9/11 conspiracy theory, stating that “the US government orchestrated the attack in order to save the Zionist regime in the Middle East”. The “Bush Did It” words were however a new addition to his repertoire. Much to the chagrin of some, he was just getting warmed up with claims that the US took advantage of the ‘suspicious’ September 11 attacks to justify its occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq; this was too much to stomach for the US delegation. The Americans stood and walked out without listening to Ahmadinejad’s third theory that the attack was the work of a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation.

The long and short of this is that new Speaker of the British House of Commons, John Bercow is an angry man but let’s hear the short of it, or is it the reason for his anger?

The 47 year old, while contributing to the goingson during the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference in Nairobi waxed indignant and the reason was simple: the opposition and some of his critics had riled him by saying he was the shortest speaker of the House of Commons ever.

He had no kind words for those who thought he was vertically challenged and promptly dismissed them as “backstreet lowly scribes” who should know better than to insinuate that his height did not measure up!

Bercow, who replaced Michael Martin only in June and is the 157th Speaker had apparently done his research- and discovered that he was not a pioneer in this respect. He found there had been three speakers between 1398 and 1456 who were shorter than he was or believed to be so.

And rather than expend his energy hurling further expletives at his perceived naysayers, he told the plenary at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre where the CPA was meeting that afternoon that short people should stick together.

Perhaps he would have summed it up by saying there is safety in numbers, after all. Or was his speech, like his enemies had said, being short as well? Shortly, (pun unintended!) he delved into other matters at hand...

October 2010

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•INDUSTRY NEWS Products & Services

CONNECTING AFRICA

Towards a Digital Africa The spectre of 1 billion people in 53 countries using one domain in the journey to put Africa on the digital map is a reality.

DEA’s JANE MWANGI talked to the brains behind it, SOPHIA BEKELE, the Executive Director of dotconnectafrica DEA: Expound on the endorsers of the dotconnectafrica initiative, namely the African Union (AU), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the process it took for this to come about?

Sophia Bekele: I first approached the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in 2006 and then finally got our endorsement in 2008. In fact, as ECA also have a mandate to coordinate their policies with AU, they assisted in identifying the appropriate unit for us at the AU to pursue the same.

We then approached African Union, the Director of Infrastructure at the time and submitted our proposal.

Concurrently, in 2007 we submitted our dotafrica proposal for support with ITU in Geneva and the Africa office in Ethiopia. ITU then turned over the proposal for the AU to do a study. Discussions took place with the African Union Commission (AUC) and eventually recommendations were put forward to the chairman’s office for support, resulting in a letter endorsing the project in August 2009.

Q: Why should every African look forward to the birth of the ‘DotAfrica generation’? Expound on the commercial and social benefits.

A: We created a theme, generation.africa so as to inspire the youth who are the next generation innovators and trustees of Africa.

This birth would give the DotAfrica generation a platform from which to address the global internet community as a unified voice for the

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promotion of Africa’s interest.

Q: What is the force behind this monumental undertaking and the implications of the expected rollout of an Africa tld?

A: DotConnectAfrica (DCA) was inspired by the need to coordinate the implementation of the dotafrica initiative, which I initiated at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). At the same time, it was in order to address the lack of adequate internet policy in Africa and acknowledgment of the impact of the policy in widening the gaps of the digital divide.

DCA seeks to assist in the strategic coordination of government internet policies, establish policy priorities, offer new policy choices, and ensure that the implications of internet policy options are fully considered.

Q: Share with us some of the teething problems and stumbling blocks you have experienced?

A: A Project such as this will naturally attract considerable interest from competitive forces as is encouraged through the ICANN bidding process. While the overall experience has been positive, unfortunately even at the earlier stages, there were people trying to crush our efforts at birth.

Q: You have dubbed the launch as the “Yes campaign for Africa”.

Kindly tell us more on this?

A: These are values that people react positively to. We want an open

MISS BEKELE:

Support dotconnectafrica registry in Africa to prevent capital flight

dialogue and comment from the public and all stakeholders and the “yes” campaign will allow us to do just that. Most importantly, .eu and .asia have been launched, and “it is time for .africa’, We are impassioned not to have Africa left behind.

Q: Will having a dot Africa domain narrow the digital divide and what criteria will be used to locate the registry?

A: The direct benefit of the dotAfrica domain to ICT developmentcannotbeunderstated.

While a dotafrica domain on its own brands Africa at a continental level, signifying the entities that register with the domain as “from Africa, by Africa and to Africa”, the fact that nearly 80 per cent of Africa pays money to a foreign registry to obtain their identity no less contributes to capital flight from the continent.

What we have proposed is to have the dotafrica registry located in Africa so that revenues remain in Africa. Additionally, this relocation of business creates a whole new industry of local registrars.

Assisting local entrepreneurs and businesses to new or additional lines and expanding employment opportunities and contributing to Africa’s economic activities.

Q: Share with us the figures, statistics and monetary implications likely to be accrued?

A: The economical benefits of a dotafrica continental identifier are not without the backing of numbers. We are looking at a one billion people, 53 countries including the Diaspora Africans and an opportunity to use a single domain. In this fact are figures to include over hundreds of thousands of businesses with premium names, a vibrant youth that is to be part of generation Africa and opportunity to cross market with existing country domain names, as well as develop rural Africa

•CULTURE

REVIEWS•RAVES•REVUES•REPASTS

Justice in African culture

A

“Isi ntutu a karo ibe ya; no individual human being is greater than the other,” according to an Igbo proverb. The concept of human rights and equality, far from being novel, is deeply engrained in African culture

By CAROL GACHIENGO

s children growing up in the confusion of a newly westernised country, we were taught a little song that was a strange mix of misinterpreted Christian ideology and colonial-social principles.

God comes first my neighbours second and I come last...

From a religious perspective,

the first part is indisputable, but there is much to argue about the second and third position. Some might say that the Christian principle of loving thy neighbour as thyself calls for a second and equal position for self and neighbour; psychologists would likely assert that teaching children they come last might result in self esteem issues that could do no one any good and might serve only to deplete self confidence. From a justice perspective, the concept that all are equal before the law

would quickly put the debate to rest.

Among the most celebrated sections of Kenya’s new constitution is the chapter outlining human rights – the rights to which each of us is entitled for no other reason than that we are human beings, and which cannot be granted or taken away from us by anyone; the right to life, freedom from discrimination, the right to privacy, access to justice, and the economic and social rights of access to healthcare, food, water, sanitary housing and education.

Many of these concepts are not new to Africa.

In African culture, in days gone by, human rights were such an integral and inseparable part of everyday life that they required no distinct document detailing them.

Everyone was entitled to certain rights as a human being and no one needed to read or learn about what those rights were. They were part of an everyday code of conduct, so that even a young child knew her due. Equally important, everyone understood that rights went hand in hand with duties.

The right to own property existed concurrently with the duty to respect the neighbour’s property, for instance.

African societies, while many and varied, in general exhibited a respect for human rights in many aspects.

O. Oko Elechi, in a presentation at the 18th International Conference of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, writes that the restoration of rights, dignity, interests and wellbeing of victims, offenders, and the entire community was the goal of African indigenous Justice systems.

While offenders were punished, retribution was not the purpose, but rather a restoration of human

October 2010

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•CULTURE

Reviews•Raves•Revues•Repasts

dignity and harmony.

Among the Akan people of Ghana, all human beings were considered equal, hence the Akan maxim that “all human beings are children of God; no one is a child of the earth.” The value for human life is reflected in the Ghanaian proverb

words: ‘Convinced that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny’.

African jurisprudence, while evolving, continues to be shaped by Western law. In the case of human rights, the most outstanding influences are the Magna Carta of 1215, the Bill of Rights of 1688, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 – all based on Judeo and Greco-Roman concepts of justice. We have come to believe that human right are a Western invention. Recognizing

It is the human being who counts Call on gold, gold does not respond Call on clothes, clothes do not respond It is the human being who counts In African societies, the rights to food and shelter were recognized and protected. Everyone had access to land, either through private or communal ownership.

Africa had no “leisured class of land owners.” Therefore everyone had the opportunity to fulfil their right to shelter and food.

In more recent times, the very practical struggle for freedom from violation of human rights makes African people, along with others who have shared such violation, experts on the subject.

No one can understand the right to shelter and food as well as those who have had it taken from them; one can truly grasp the meaning of the right to life and freedom when he has been persecuted and enslaved. Equality takes on a larger meaning to those who have been scorned and kept out of school on the basis of skin colour.

Africans, as formerly colonised people, understand along with these brothers and sisters, from a very practical standpoint our intrinsic right to human dignity.

Human rights were at the core of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) from its inception.

It had from its foundation the objective to ‘eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa’. The OAU Charter begins with these

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that the concept of human rights is innate and has been in practice in Africa for a very long time is the first step towards rebuilding the esteem that was lost the day we were taught to sing “my neighbour second... and I come last.”

Human rights were at the core of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) from its inception. It had from its foundation the objective to ‘eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa’

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EAC CAPITAL

A

Impressions of Arusha in Time and Space

The most East African of the region’s cities teems with diversity, writes BOB WEKESA

rusha City is always a beehive of activity as the heartbeat of the East Africa Community (EAC). At any one time of the year, the city has a menu of academic deliberations, lightened by a repertoire of entertaining and sportive activities.

It is here that protocols for the establishment of the East Africa’s Customs Union and Common Market were signed as the metropolis hosted hundreds of nationals from Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.

The name borrows from the Arusha community, who, together with the Maasai and Meru, live in the immediate vicinity. However, with Kiswahili as the lingua franca of Arusha, as with the rest of Tanzania, hardly does one hear the residents speaking in their mother tongues.

This contrasts other cities in the region, where the official languages – English and Kiswahili – vie with community tongues.

HAVEN:

Arusha set in touristic environment

Though much smaller and less glamorous than Dar es Salaam, Kampala and Nairobi, Arusha has earned the distinction of being the most East African of the region’s cities. As the headquarters of the EAC, the city has served as the cooking pot for decisions with far-reaching ramifications.

Arusha resonates with the history of the EAC. It is here that the three founding Presidents of the reloaded Community, Daniel arap Moi (Kenya), Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (Uganda) and Benjamin William Mkapa (Tanzania) signed the treaty formally establishing the East African Community on November 30, 1999.

Here, skyscrapers and an intricate maze of thoroughfares are the hallmark of a modern city. Clearly, lowlying Arusha’s elevated stature lies in the groundbreaking decisions for an East African bloc.

The signing of the protocol that rolled out the Common Market regime by Presidents Mwai Kibaki, Kikwete, Museveni, Pierre Nkurunziza and Paul Kagame mid this year is confirmation that Arusha is indeed the launch pad for the region’s determined stride towards full integration.

During the presentation of the Common Market decision to the people at the Sheikh Abeid Karume Stadium, President Kikwete paid glowing tribute both to the historic city and the stadium, falling short of calling for the renaming of the stadium the East Africa Stadium. Sheikh Karume, the father of current Zanzibar President also known as Karume, was a revolutionary Prime Minister of Zanzibar.

The over 300, 000 residents of Arusha have noticed the swelling numbers of visitors during the many commemorations, region-wide workshops, seminars and other meetings. However, this does not seem to have taken them by surprise.

For, Arusha has witnessed the comings and goings of regional leaders and their minders many times over.

And well after the presidents of the five member states along with attendant dignitaries and delegations leave, a sizable number of international citizens working for the EAC and UN agencies are still within the bounds of this northern Tanzania city.

It is here that the British Government handed over power to the indigenous people, symbolized by that great ideologue, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, in 1961. One of the major attractions is the Azimio Museum, dedicated to the Arusha Declaration of 1967 that firmly put Tanzania, for better and for worse, on the path to socialism.

A living testimony to the positive aspects of the Declaration is the flawless Kiswahili in which residents communicate, in addition to a studied and carefully cultivated civility that stuns visitors. Portraits of President Kikwete adorn walls in both commercial and State buildings, simply referring to him as ‘Ndugu’ (brother) rather than ‘His Excellency’!

The heart of the city is the sevenstorey Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) in the central business district

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•CULTURE

Reviews•Raves•Revues•Repasts

MAZE OF LANGUAGES

Kenyan Shines at Chinese Language Festival Nineteen year old university student overcomes odds to outshine veterans after only four months of learning

By JUDIE OMBUOR

T

he annual Chinese Bridge Competition is closely akin to a festival of languages. It is a global event highly treasured by the Chinese people and government.

The 2010 version brought together 108 contestants from 64 countries spanning the five continents. Africa had seven contestants representing Kenya, South Africa, Cameroun, Sudan and Zambia. I was proud to be from a continent where Chinese is least spoken.

The month-long event was a microcosm of languages. Never before have so many languages been spoken around me, some sounding like the twitter of birds. But the main languages were English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and of course, Chinese. My knowledge of French enabled me communicate easily with many contestants from non-English speaking countries.

At times there was a language gridlock and sign language came in handy. Take my roommate, for instance. She hailed from Kyrgyzstan and spoke only Chinese besides her native tongue. Since my Chinese was rudimentary, we could hardly communicate, forcing us to resort to gestures!

I would laugh tears whenever I heard her speak on phone to her mother in their tongue, tickled by the funny sounding pronunciations.

She taught me some of the tongue twisting words such as salamatsyz by (meaning ‘how are you?’) and menin

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RESPLENDENT:

Writer resplendent in Chinese garb

atym (meaning ‘my name is...’). I found Kyrgyz words as enthralling as they were intriguing.

Kyrgyz alphabet was beguiling, too, by the way capital and small letters are used interchangeably in sentences without any order or rule.

In the competition, we were divided into four groups, each with 27 contestants. My group was called Zhang Jia Jia after the small town in Southern China where we sojourned with Chinese families in the run up to the competition.

I was the only black person in my group and my fellow contestants fell over each other, seeking to know more about me, where I hailed from and how I had managed to be in the competition after only four months of learning Chinese. Many thought I was a genius! A teacher offered that I was a prodigy whose talent could not be matched. Some contestants had been on Chinese for well over 10 years. I was flattered.

Among the contestants were Koreans, Vietnamese, and Singaporeans to whom Chinese is like a second language learned from childhood, much the same way Kenyans are exposed to Kiswahili.

The language was more complicated in Hunan Province, Southern China, where we were because the local dialect and accent differs significantly from standard Chinese (Mandarin) spoken in Beijing and other major cities. I found it a nightmare following instructions.

We finally all assembled at the

venue of Chinese Bridge Competition, 2010 in Changsha City, Hunan Province.

I came to learn that the Chinese bridge competition was a truly big event in China from the way we were pampered, tight security, with leading and trailing security cars filled with police officers armed to the teeth. We travelled in posh buses. We appeared on television during commercial breaks and advertisements.

The opening day was witnessed by envoys accredited to Beijing, among them Kenya’s Julius Sunkuli.

And now, the competition! We were all draped in our country’s national attire, which for me, was Kenya’s Maasai traditional regalia. Everyone wanted to take photos with me and I realised just how rich African tradition is. My colleague, Naomi Kemei was also clad in a colourful Maasai outfit, complete with accessories.

MINCE-MEAT

I felt on top of the world carrying the Kenyan flag during the competition. In my elementary Chinese, well rehearsed for the occasion, I gave a brief introduction of myself and my country, Kenya, mentioning such features as Lake Victoria, Mount Kenya and the Great Rift Valley. The hall at Hunan University erupted in clapping, making me feel lighter on my feet.

Then I gave a brief speech on my feelings about China since I first set foot in the country a couple of weeks earlier. For my talent show, I chose singing because back home, I am a member of the fledgling Girls Choir of Kenya. A battery of claps escorted my Chinese song.

The part on Chinese speech, delivery lasting 90 seconds, was mincemeat for me. I scored an incredible 44.5 marks out of 50. The top scorer had 47 out of 50. The clapping that greeted my performance seemed to last forever as I kept on bowing in appreciation

UNON Blazes the Trail Mission aims to achieve equitable and just society where both the developing and developed world do not compromise the survival of generations

By MERCY NJUNG’E

S

ituated in the leafy suburbs of Muthaiga in Nairobi, Kenya’s Mission to United Nations (UN) is the only UN mission represented in a Third world country.

The Kenya UN offices (UNON) used to operate as different entities until 2009 when they were combined into one. The diplomatic mission comprises of UN-Habitat, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations at Nairobi (UNON).The office operates entirely like the other UN offices in Geneva, New York and Vienna.

The current head, Mr Kamau Macharia oversees the three missions and the challenges they face ensuring that Kenya plays worthy host to the UN headquarters. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not play any decision making roles in the mission but ensures that Kenya plays as the best host to the international organisations. According to Macharia the three missions are under the same roof but have different core responsibilities. UNON’s responsibility

ECONOMY

is to ensure a blue zone area around Gigiri and its suburbs for civil servants and diplomats working for bilateral embassies, while the government invests in infrastructure, power, lighting and provision of water. It also ensures there is security for the international community.

UNEP deals with environmental issues, biodiversity and climate change. It promotes international cooperation in the field of environment and recommends appropriate policies. UNEP is a staunch supporter of Africa Group as well as the Group of 77.

SHELTER

UN-Habitat is the UN agency for human settlement. Its core mandate is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. Through the ministry of housing, they are able to improve the settlement of people in different parts of the country. The government of Kenya has helped to upgrade the status of UN bodies by providing se-

curity, improving road networks, being efficient and improving accessibility between the airport and Gigiri.

The mission’s primary role is to perform diplomatic functions and representational duties on behalf of the government of Kenya. The Kenya Mission to UN is guided by its vision to be a champion for all matters pertaining to environmental governance and human settlement for the benefit of Kenya, Africa and the world at large through effective diplomatic engagement.

UNON also seeks to be a premier diplomatic mission seeking an equitable and just society where both the developing and developed world do not compromise the survival of the current and future generations.

Some of its core values, which have continued to guide the organisation, include patriotism, team spirit, commitment, collective responsibility, professionalism, discipline, dignity, integrity, equity and respect for nature.

The mission’s primary role is to perform diplomatic functions and representational duties on behalf of the government of Kenya

Facilitating policy through the Permanent Representative Committee and dialogue between permanent missions to UNON and regions including South-South Cooperation is yet another function. It also brings critical environmental issues to the attention of decision makers in the government at the national level.

UNON assists in keeping abreast of conventions and protocols that Kenya is party to with a view to advancing and articulating a national position on them and liasing with the Group of 77, China and the African Group with a view to developing common positions of interest for the region.

A study in 2000 estimated that the UN contributes over US$350 million annually to the Kenyan economy – making it the country’s single largest source of foreign exchange. This figure is growing, as the UN commits greater resources and personnel to emerging development arenas in Sudan, Somalia and the greater East African region

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•HEALTH Mind • Body • Soul

NOVEL INSTITUTION

Paraplegic Hospital Planned

Rehabilitation and trauma centre will be the first in East and Central Africa for spinal injury victims

By MERCY NJUNG’E

T

he Kenya Paraplegic Organisation plans to build a rehabilitation and trauma centre in the country at a cost of $3 million at Kiserian on the outskirts of Nairobi.

According to the Director of KPO and the brain child of the idea, Mr Tim Wanyonyi, it will be the first and only rehabilitation and trauma centre in East and Central Africa. South Africa offers treatment which costs KShs 7-9 Million which is quite expensive and out of reach for many deserving cases.

Paraplegia is a complete paralysis of the lower half of the body including both legs, usually caused by damage to the spinal cord. Such damage occurs as a result of automobile and motorcycle accidents, sporting accidents, falls, and gunshots wounds.

The Kenya Paraplegic Organisation (KPO) was launched in August 4, this year in Kenya.

According to Wanyonyi the rehabilitation centre’s long term objective is to save lives. “We will bring the services closer to home and provide relief to people suffering from this condition”, said he.

CAMPAIGN

The hospital will among other services help the paraplegics manage their general hygiene, offer psychological help and rehabilitate those in depression. This is what will make

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the hospital different from the general hospitals that only attend to one after an accident and subsequent discharge.

The hospital will start with 150 beds and will be open to people of all ages. The greatest challenges that paraplegics face are accessing public transport, schools, public buildings, stereotype, reproductive health and fitting in social places. Wanyonyi explained that the funds to build the rehabilitation centre will be raised through an initiative called “One Million Peoples Campaign” which seeks to raise KShs 100 million from willing people.

STIGMA

“The media and our own networks will help in raising the money. There are some donors who have offered gifts such as a car, bicycles, laptops and mobile phones for those who will help in raising the amount,” said Wanyonyi. He cited Safaricom, Zain, and Sameer Group of Companies, Sarova Hotels and UUNET as among those who have contributed towards the success of the campaign.

Wanyonyi pointed out the stigma surrounding the paraplegics include the state of mind, poverty, bed sores, and the cultural approach that disability is a curse. “People need to change their attitude towards us.

There is need for the society to understand that one condition is differ-

NOBLE CAUSE:

Tim Wanyonyi on the proposed Trauma Centre

ent from the other, and allow those who want to work in public buildings be given a chance. We are still useful to the community and should be given an opportunity”.

Wanyonyi called on the international community to assist in equipping the hospital once the building is put up saying the cost would be enormous

•ODYSSEYS People & Places

Smile That’s Truly Malaysian

“A

smile is a gift to others and when you smile the world smiles with you.” That’s a gem and the woman who speaks this inspiring line has a smile that drapes her face and lingers - like a halo of light.

It is as if the smile welcomes one and then reminds one, continuously but effortlessly, to feel at home. And feel welcome and at home you will for her personality and mien also ooze grace, warmth and confidence.

Meet Fatimahwati Abdul Rahman, wife of the Malaysian High commissioner to Kenya and perhaps the silent force behind the gleaming task of the career diplomat. Her contribution and adroit handiness is something I go on to discover; all the while learning from the snippets of wisdom concealed behind her humility and hospitality.

Not many are allowed the privilege of delving deep into the life of an envoy’s significant other; slipping behind the walls of the imposing architectural bulwark for a photographic glimpse into her alluring lifestyle. But today, DEA has a rendezvous with Zainuddin’s other half. She is dressed colourfully and vibrantly in the Malaysian traditional dress, baju kurung Kedah, which perfectly radiates the sunshine in her face.

Fatimahwati describes herself as a very involved wife and mother. “I run

JANE MWANGI delves deep into the dazzling life of FATIMAHWATI ABDUL RAHMAN, wife of the Malaysian High Commissioner to Kenya HE ZAINOL ZAINUDDIN, and uncovers the humility and hospitality behind a charming facade

a very tight ship. We are a small mission here and the most important thing is to ensure that everybody is working together.”

Having been back in the country for only three months straight from New York, she says she has barely had time to finish unpacking. And if you thought that being a housewife is all there is to this devoted spouse, you are wrong – she is as intelligent as she is beautiful, something that is complimented by the fact that she holds a mathematics degree from University Sains Malaysia in the province of Penang.

FAMILY MOMENT : Ambassador Zainol with wife Fatimahwati and son Umar

Fatimahwati admits that she is at her happiest with her family around her. As if on cue, her son Umar Zainol suddenly joins us and flashes his mother a radiant smile – the kind that melts a parent’s heart.

Umar, the second of their two children, is preparing to go to Scotland to enroll for a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. I ask why he does not want to follow in his father’s footsteps and he quite charmingly replies, “Diplomatic matters are best left to my dad, he’s still young and doing a handy job all by himself.”

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•ODYSSEYS People & Places

Their daughter is pursuing her law degree in the US. “I always encourage my children to follow their heart’s desire, so I had nothing to do with her choice of career, if she’s happy, I am happy. I am just like any other parent who desires the best for their children,” she says.

Sampling Malaysian cuisine proves to be a celebrated treat for my taste buds as I go on to pay my compliments to the chef: my gracious host modestly replies that she can cook but is not a perfect cook.

“My husband and son cook as well; it’s a joint family affair.” Cooking and entertaining guests is second nature to her. “My favourite dish is ‘bangkit’ and ‘pineapple patchery’.

The latter, which she discovered in Uganda, is made from pineapples.

“Their pineapples are so delicious,” the inevitable compliment follows.

She is not shy around the kitchen as she prepares the meals herself.

A gourmet chef has nothing on her as the mouth-watering buffet comprised of chicken kurma, ghee rice, peanut sauce and delightful desserts expertly designed to leave a lasting impression.

Fatimahwati admits that she loves it in Kenya because she gets fresh foods especially herbs, which she uses a lot in her cooking. “I remember going to a certain bookshop in Nairobi to buy a recipe book on Kenyan cuisine but was surprised when the attendant told me there’s none, only foreign cook books. I asked ‘why not?’ With the rich variety of foods Kenya has to offer, they ought to be documented.”

“In the grand scheme of things, being an envoy’s wife is about supporting him and ensuring the welfare of the ladies’ association,” she says.

The association is a close-knit union of the wives of chancery staff that she brings together in every country they are posted to.

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“This is our fourth hardship posting after India, Moscow and Uzbekistan. The most important thing is making the most out of the particular place we now have to call home.

“I want to build a cohesive environment, to become one family with chancery staff. I want to learn about the culture of Kenya. Like Malaysia we are both multicultural and very resourceful.”

Life is a pleasure jaunt, what with the children all grown up now and Fatimahwati says she now indulges in a lot more ‘me’ time. She invests her time in greening their Runda residence, gardening and planting beautiful flowers. Her first love, she says is quilting, which is the art of sewing bedspreads, cushion covers etc.

“I love having friends, my home is very ideal for entertaining diplomats.

I also have a passion for reading especially real accounts, children’s books and biographies. Mahatma Gandhi is my favourite, we share the

PROUD OF MUM:

Fatimahwati and son Umar in a happy moment at home

same birthday and every year as the UN is observing his birthday, they are indirectly celebrating mine,” she muses cheekily.

She read Kuki Gallmann's two books about Kenya before coming to the country. Of course, Kenya is now her home, she proudly admits.

“I have to read widely because I have to entertain visitors from diverse backgrounds and preferences. We get visitors from all over the world who sometimes come and stay for two to three days, so you need to have a bit of knowledge and understand the dos and don’ts.”

And she lives a charmed life. “Am in love with precious stones, my favourites are Tanzanite’s. But I prefer rubies, sapphires and diamonds although they are a bit expensive.”

Having been married to the High Commissioner for 26 years now begs the question as to her secret for looking so young. “Smiling a lot and eating a lot of raw vegetables, this is the secret to staying young,” she says matter-of-factly.

“I love Kenya and my favourite get-aways are Mombasa and Mt Kenya. This is an important juncture for Kenyans as they have been given a new lease of life and should make full use of it. The leaders need to listen to the young people; they really are a force to reckon with.”

In addition, she says that one outstanding thing is that Kenyans love education, there’s a school after every three miles in most parts I have visited, the fact that you are stressing on education tells that you are a progressive nation.

“I personally think that you can only look forward to great things ahead.”

It is late when I finally make my departure. My belly is so full and the love, goodwill and enthusiasm this family radiates plaster a smile on my face that lingers, just like my host’s

•ODYSSEYS People & Places

Her Excellency, House And Heart

W

By JANE MWANGI

e are at the delightful and tastefully luxurious mansion of the Finnish ambassador in Nairobi’s leafy suburb of Spring Valley. Her Excellency Heli Sirve is our gracious hostess.

The magnificence of medieval cathedrals oozes from its breathtaking ambience with a panoply of earth-inspired colours and cool tile floors.

“Karibuni sana,” is the warm welcome that greets us, a prelude to her refreshingly candid humour that will resonate throughout the evening.

Sirve invitingly opens the doors to her abode and to her heart.

There is a grace about her that casts a light into an interior full of joy, hope and love. Kenya, we learn, has been her well-appointed home for the past two decades. But her

tour of duty as an envoy spans three years.

“The Finnish government has had this home since 1980. I love the fact that it is in a very beautiful part of Nairobi and is one with nature.”

True. Her lush garden is replete with trees, with emerald green leaves, and exotic birds that serenade the residence.

She admits that it’s a tad too big for one person. Her beloved husband passed on 15 years ago and their only son and his family live in Finland. Sirve has just played host to a group of Finnish journalists and close Finnish and Kenyan friends.

“I love entertaining guests because it goes hand in hand with my work,” she explains.

Sirve’s spirits leap higher with the enthusiasm of vivid recollection as she describes her long affair with Kenya. “I first came to Kenya in 1987

PERFECT AMBIENCE:

The Ambassador enjoys a relaxed moment at her residence

H E Heli Sirve, the Finnish Ambassador to Kenya opens the doors to her abode and also her heart

after being appointed the head of bilateral co-operation; we were stationed in Western Kenya.”

Years later when applying for the preferred country of duty, she chose Kenya without batting an eyelid. “It is difficult to compare Finland and Kenya. But both are refreshingly friendly, warm and have straightforward people. What I have come to love most about Kenyans is that they can be very hearty provided they are in good health.”

The sunshine of contentment breaks through the dimly-lit evening as she shares some of her other pursuits. When not in her ambassadorial robe, Sirve can be found appreciating the best literature and paintings.

“I love historical books; I take time to select good authors whose works are profound and thought provoking before buying or borrowing books.” Snuggling warmly under a pristine duvet while enjoying a narrative of years gone by, best illustrates her love for the arts. “You have very talented painters here and I enjoy the pieces that they create on canvas”.

“My favourite room in this house has to be the smaller dining room next to the kitchen. I relish the time spent in the wee hours waking up to the morning sun while having my breakfast.”

Except for the uninvited monkeys in her garden, one would say she lives in perfect symbiosis and harmony, but then again, this place does cut the clear picture of an idyllic paradise.

Sirve’s best destinations in Kenya are Mombasa, Nakuru, Naivasha and the Amboselli National Park.

Loitoktok and the Daadab Refugee Camp, however, ring loudest to her.

Her voice of goodwill and enthusiasm penetrates the air like the tinkle of a bell: “I have a very nice and rewarding profession, one that gives you opportunities in life that you would otherwise never have had. I make the most of every day.”

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•DEA HOTELS Lifestyles & Hospitality

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

It's Comforting Comfort For its authenticity and exceptional customer service, Kenya Comfort Hotel cuts a niche for being homely and simply satisfying

By JANE MWANGI

I

n the heart of Nairobi’s Central Business District sits a delightful haven that offers comfort and convenience. It exudes the aura and essence of the vibrant city centre without its sanctums degenerating into the street activity. It is cool, tranquil and hushed for optimum relaxation; yet at the same time so authentic for that seemingly endless Kenyan hospitality.

Kenya Comfort Hotel opened its doors as a budget facility in 2002 to fill the gap for those who couldn’t afford five star facilities but wanted safety and comfort all the same.

Convenience is the superlative declaration of this hotel that stands hazy blue, bordered on the east by the Central Police Station, on the north by the Nairobi Outpatient Centre and joined at the hip with Nakumatt Lifestyle shopping mall, not forgetting its proximity to Jeevanjee Gardens where guests can unwind, surrounded by the leafy canopy of trees. From here, guests can sample the offerings of eastern Africa’s leading metropolis.

Widely renowned for its excellent customer service, its array of clientele ranges from guests from every part of the world and with majority in the recent past hailing from South-East Asia and neighbouring Tanzania. Mr John Kiriama, the General Manager classifies the hotel as being between a two and three star hotel. “We pride ourselves in offering unique services, tailor

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October 2010

made to suit the various income groups of our clients”, he explains.

There is a wide range of options from triple to quad rooms, family rooms and an apartment. Plans are underway to set up a dormitory room for those who are game with group accommodation.

“We have a sun lounge on the seventh floor that is a favourite with tourists who are guaranteed to enjoy a spectacular view of Nairobi,” he says. True to his word, the sun lounge is indeed breathtaking, overlooking the bustling metropolis; a shimmering splendour as guests bask in the afternoon sun.

From hosting during major conferences such as the World Cities

LOW BUDGET:

General Manager John Kiriama on pocket friendly rates

Conference, Maendeleo ya Wanawake Conference and the recently held Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference, Kenya Comfort Hotel continues to be the accommodation of choice for local and international gatherings.

“We are very active in Corporate Social Responsibility activities as we are members of the Kenya Paraplegic Organisation, an organisation that assists survivors of spinal cord injuries, among others”, Kiriama says and adds that they have hosted a huge number of diplomats and ministers from various African countries. “Our name defines the essence that is the Kenya Comfort Hotel. Sleep is one of life’s comforts

•DEA HOTELS Lifestyles & Hospitality

ECLECTIC:

The hotel caters for all classes of clientele and so we go out of our way to ensure our clients derive the ultimate comfort during their stay with us”, Kiriama reassures. The hotel with two branches- Milimani and town centre-has a total of 120 employees, who undergo in-house training annually to ensure they rank among the best in the hospitality industry.

They are also given staff commendations in form of monetary incentives.

The Milimani branch is undergoing a major facelift at a cost of Ksh150 million while its town centre counterpart is set to be fitted with a state of the art elevator. The entire second floor will be transformed into an all-inclusive

conference centre. “We want to go all out to ensure our conference facilities measure up to international standards. We are very proud to be associated with international booking agencies such as Expedia and PayPal which ensures we are always fully booked”, he chimes.

Kariama and his staff go about their daily duties with gusto, pep and enthusiasm. As he confides, his is a tale of humble beginnings. “I begun as an accounts clerk in 2003, then our director saw some potential in me and handpicked me to be in-charge of operations. It was then that I went back to school to earn a higher national diploma in hotel and hospitality”, he says. One good

turn led to another and he became manager and shortly thereafter was promoted to General Manager.

“Our golden rule is making the guest very comfortable and happy; our service goes hand in hand with that. That is why we have put up telephone numbers of senior management along the corridors and reception boards where the guests can get in touch with us any time of day or night”.

In addition the restaurant operates 24 hours for easy convenience, not to mention the street level fast food restaurant, Gallito’s that guests can enjoy as they watch big flat screen TVs. Now that’s a mark of comfort

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•GLOBAL STAGE Window on World

GRINDING HALT

Middle East Talks Thrown into Limbo Slow progress on negotiations to blame but there is room for optimism and hope, say experts

P

eace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were thrown into limbo last month when the 10-month moratorium on Israeli settlements was not extended, making the possibility of derailment very real, experts said.

Still, some said the deadline may not have been make-or-break, as there is still room for compromise between the two sides.

Indeed, Bloomberg News Service reported that Palestinian President

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Mahmoud Abbas said he would confer with Arab leaders this month to “clear up our position,” and some experts said that could indicate he is not ready to leave the talks just yet.

Abbas has said in the past that he would walk away from the talks if the moratorium was not extended. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that he would not extend the 10-month moratorium, but as september drew to a close called on Abbas to continue with the peace talks.

While both sides said peace was possible, skeptics noted that several US

administrations over many years have attempted to broker a peace deal and all have ultimately failed

As Israeli settlers celebrated the end of the moratorium, US diplomats scrambled to find a solution amenable to both sides.

Michele Dunne, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that while the possibility remains that the talks could stall, a number of compromises could still be worked out.

The number of new housing units could be curtailed, or the Israelis could promise to build them in areas likely to be absorbed into Israel after a final agreement, she said.

Still, the issue has put Abbas in a difficult position, she said.

The Palestinian president was initially reluctant to join the talks, saying that only a full freeze could prompt him to participate. When that didn’t happen, he agreed to talks if the Israelis agreed to a partial freeze on construction -- or the so-called moratorium -- but only after much arm twisting by the United States.

“Now he doesn’t even have that.

It’s really hard for him to agree to remain in the talks,” Dunne said.

“It’s going to be very difficult for Abbas to explain to his own people, as well as to other Arab states, why he’s continuing in talks if he’s not getting anything,” she said.

David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said it remains unclear whether Abbas will pull out, although it is unlikely to happen immediately.

And the fact that he did not do so on Sunday implies that he may be looking for a compromise or a way to finesse the issue, Pollock said.

While it may appear that he is giving too much while receiving too little, his position remains in line with the majority popular sentiment among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Pollock said.

“People are frustrated and cynical, but at the same time they see

•GLOBAL STAGE Window on World

no better alternative,” he said.

Abbas, if he chooses to, can ride this out and find a plausible reason to stick with the negotiations, which is the best way in the medium term to limit settlement activity, Pollock said.

Meanwhile, there is speculation about a shake-up within Netanyahu’s coalition government. Some believe that he may explore the possibility of creating a more moderate coalition.

WASHINGTON

The talks, which had been stalled for nearly two years, picked up again in Washington earlier this month.

While both sides said peace was possible, skeptics noted that several US administrations over many years have attempted to broker a peace

deal and all have ultimately failed.

The stakes are high for the negotiations, not only for the two sides directly involved but for the United States and other countries which are targets of radical Islam, as militants have exploited the conflict to spread their message.

Speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Jordanian Queen Rania Al Abdullah said: “I’m not saying that the Middle East problem, the IsraeliPalestinian issue, is the one that created religious extremism. Religious extremism would have existed anyway.

But extremists have done a... good job of using this cause to amplify their message, you know, to try to reach the masses.” Critics, however,

have voiced doubts over whether the Obama administration can shepherd the two sides to a peace deal within the span of one year -- the timeline proposed by the administration.

Skeptics have billed the one-year deadline as too ambitious, noted the rift in the Palestinian leadership, and argued that the two sides are only in talks to please Washington and are not committed to the process

Skeptics have billed the one-year deadline as too ambitious, noted the rift in the Palestinian leadership, and argued that the two sides are

only in talks to please Washington and are not committed to the process

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55 55

•CONFERENCE Meetings & Events

Meteoric Rise of ICT’s in Africa

T

oday, Africa boasts a vibrant mobile telephony infrastructure which is steadily growing. A new study released by the World Bank indicates that one in every three Africans owns a mobile phone.

With an excess of 550 million subscribers, East Africa commands 50 per cent penetration. 2.5G and 3G are becoming ubiquitous on the continent with the evolving technology while mobile money transfer is fast becoming de facto. On the larger scale, data services growth is calculated to push mobile revenues to $107 billion by 2013.

This explains why big corporations are partnering and looking into Africa to shift the tides towards connectivity. The World Bank is investing heavily in agribusiness, mobile communications, innovation, SME creation and supporting technology entrepreneurs targeting Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. This is driven by the need for creating sustainable business in the knowledge economy.

Speaking during the Aitec ICT summit at the KICC on September 8, Lead ICT Policy Specialist for the World Bank, Tim Kelly said, “The World Bank is providing bulk-buying facilities of SMS for agricultural cooperatives to stimulate the market and increase usage”.

According to Mr Kelly, a publicprivate partnership aimed at positioning Africa’s economies to be at par with those of the Developed World in matters connectivity was incepted on December 17, 2009. The partnership integrates the Government of Finland, infoDev / World Bank and

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October 2010

Connectivity signals shift in the knowledge economy with increased investments by key stakeholders heralding brave take-off

By JANE MWANGI

Nokia with other partners including Mobile Monday, Korea ICT4D Fund and MCT Mozambique.

In the first phase of this partnership of creating sustainable businesses in the knowledge economy is the establishment of a regional mobile applications laboratory in Africa.

The laboratory is set to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in this emerging field. It will, among other things, offer services such as training and accreditation, mentoring of developers, certification, replication and scaling up of successful ideas. In addition it will also act as a repository for knowledge of application case studies. It is facilitated by Mobile Monday, an open networking organisation for mobile industry professionals fostering cross-border business development and hosted by iHub, Nairobi’s innovation centre.

The World Bank and its partners are investing heavily in the mobile so-

KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY:

Kenya's Information PS compares note with presenters Bekele and Barry Ryan at KICC

This explains why big corporations are partnering and looking into Africa

to shift the tides towards connectivity

cial networking sector through the establishment of social networking hubs in Nairobi, Kampala, Dar-esSalaam and Maputo with the apt Mobile Monday group. The mode of penetration will be the study of possible ICT interventions in East Africa to benefits Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

In addition, the World Bank is also working with the African Development Bank and the African Union (AU) on the strategic use of ICTs in Africa. The study captures the use of mobile applications in education, agriculture and rural development, health, mobile social networking and financial services.

The mobile flagship report is set to be released in 2011.

Nokia devices lead in Africa giving Symbian and Java ME leadership, for now. The primary devices in Africa are feature phones but smart phones are becoming commonplace. It is estimated that Android, Blackberry and Apple will continue to grow at an unprecedented rate.

With such glowing accolades, perhaps the question that therefore begs is, where should mobile applications in Africa be focussed? Well, M-Government and spurring global competitiveness in knowledge and business process outsourcing for economic growth. This translates to the creation of new jobs and industries, as well as improved national productivity in existing industries.

According to Moses Kemibaro of Dot savvy Limited, M-Learning is expected to lead to enhanced education on the continent while MBusiness will translate to improved access to global markets

•ENVOYS OF SPORT

Friendship Games

U

ntil the very last minute, New Delhi was hoping that the umpteenth failure to meet deadlines, security and health fears as well disappointments over residences for the sportsmen and women, will be forgotten as everything comes together for a memorable Commonwealth Games.

Indeed, a senior official of the Indian organising committee compared the preparations to a big Bollywood wedding in which, after the initial pandemonium, everything comes together in a happy ending.

In spite of everything, the message from New Delhi last month was that India was ready to host 72 sporting nations for the October 3 to October 14 so-called Friendship Games.

East Africa’s stars of track and field, their coaches and officials refused to let the controversies surrounding preparations for the Commonwealth Games distract them from their main mission – prepare

East Africans' Quest for Medals Controversies besieging New Delhi’s preparations for the Commonwealth Games aside, newcomers Rwanda, powerhouse Kenya, upbeat Tanzania and confident Uganda say they will bring the medals home

By DEA REPORTER

well, compete better and win medals. Rwanda, the newest entrant to the Games, which bring together former colonies of Britain, was admitted into the Commonwealth Games Federation in January.

DELEGATE

Rwanda’s 60-strong delegation of cyclists, athletes, swimmers, boxers, table and lawn tennis teams, had been in residential training since September 9. This explains why the Executive Director of Rwanda Olympic Committee, Mr Thierry Ntwali, told Rwandan media that they have prepared a strong team.

“Our intention is to win medals.

This will be our maiden participation and I believe we have a lot to

offer against regional power houses Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania who have been regular participants,” he said. Rwanda is banking on one of her 3,000 metre steeplechase ace Gervais Hakizimana. The Francebased athlete told Times Sport: “I have been training at Fourome Training Centre (borders Spain) and I’m happy with my progress. I’m going to compete against the world’s best, so it’s very important that I prepare well, which I have tried to do.”

Rwanda has also been boosted by the presence of Jean Baptista Simuceka and Eric Sebahire who have been training in Italy. Simuceka will compete in the 5,000m while Sebahire will line up for 10,000m.

October 2010

57 57

•ENVOYS OF SPORT Dieudonne Disi, Gervais Nizeyimana and Rashid Safari who have been undergoing intensive training in Bugesera, will feature in the marathon. Adrien Niyonshuti, currently contracted by one of South Africa’s top cycling clubs MTN Energade, four-time Tour of Rwanda champion, Abraham Ruhumuriza, Nathan Byukusenge, Nicodem Habiyambere, Gasore Hategeka and Obed Ruvogera is flying Rwanda’s flag in cycling.

KENYA Kenya, the best performing of the four East African nations because of its pedigree in long distance running, is hoping for a stellar performance in New Delhi.

Buoyed by the exploits of David Rudisha, who broke the 800m world record twice in a week, Kenya is in New Delhi with its tail up even though the 21-year old record holder is not be part of the party. Ezekiel Kemboi, the 3,000m steeplechase gold medal winner in Melbourne, Australia, four years ago is returning to the Club Games accompanied by the supporting star cast of Richard Mateelong and World Champion Brimin Kipruto.

Kenya finished 10th after raking in 18 medals, six gold, five silver and 7 bronze in Melbourne. But top in everyone’s mind had been the battle for the women’s 800m, especially after South Africa’s World Champion Caster Semenya was cleared

by IAAF to run Semenya has since pulled out.

Gladys Cherono Koech and Winnie Chebet, had said they were not afraid of the 19-year-old South African. Semenya won an IAAF gold in Berlin as Kenya’s Janeth Jepkosgei finished second. Jepkosgei has Koech and Chebet for company in India. Koech had said of Semenya: “She has beaten me, but it was a close race. Now we will see how she performs in Delhi. Certainly,

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October 2010

revenge will be in the air when we meet and, that aside, I believe the gold is coming home.”

At the African Championships in Mauritius last year, Semenya beat Chebet with a time of 1:56.72 seconds.

“I have only run against her once, in Mauritius, and she was too fast for me. But she helped me run 2:01.36, which was then my personal best time,” Chebet had said. “Now I want to beat her so that I get even. I will be looking to get to her in Delhi, and I know I have the potential to beat anyone.”

“I have only run against her once,

in Mauritius, and she was too

fast for me.

But she helped me run 2:01.36, which was then my personal best time,”

UGANDA Uganda won three medals, two gold medals and a bronze, in Australia. The two gold medals, one in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase

by Dorcas Inzikuru and Boniface Kiprop Toroitich (men 10,000m) were at the expense of Kenyans.

Boxer Martin Mubiru won bronze in the flyweight (51kg) category. That rivalry is to be played out again as Kenya bids to stave off the Ugandan challenge in long distance running and boxing.

Unlike their Kenyan counterparts whose preparations have been going on reasonably well, Uganda’s have been marred by reports that some USh200m meant to prepare the team had been squandered.

According to the New Vision, an audit commissioned by the new executive of the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) discovered that expenditures by the old administration amounting to over USh1 billion could not be accounted for.

But that notwithstanding, Uganda is fielding its biggest Commonwealth Games team ever. The contingent of 91 comprises 67 athletes in 10 disciplines, 15 coaches, seven officials and two journalists. Sports Minister Charles Bakkabulindi leads the delegation together with UOC boss Rogers Ddungu.

TANZANIA The sweetest news for Tanzania must be the return of their boxers to the international arena.

Tanzania Deputy Minister for Information, Culture and Sports Mr Joel Bendera told the National Assembly recently that the International Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) had lifted a ban imposed on the Boxing Federation of Tanzania (BFT), after national team boxers and their coach were implicated in smuggling of narcotics into Mauritius in 2008.

To underline its seriousness Bendera said Tanzania had hired a Cuban coach to prepare the pugilists. Morale has been high in the Tanzanian camp since then and the government met all the athletes for a warm send-off.

The Tanzania Olympic Committee (TOC) Secretary General Mr Filbert Bayi said: “It has been a tradition to meet with our representatives before such big tournaments. I hope they (sports men and women) get inspired.”

Tanzania surprised Kenya in Melbourne by winning the marathon gold medal courtesy of Samson Ramadhani. With Samson returning to defend his medal, Tanzania hopes to repeat the feat in New Delhi.

According to Bayi, all teams have had one-month-long residential training. Tanzania has a contingent of 40 athletes and officials to compete in five disciplines that include paralympics, table tennis, swimming as well as athletics and boxing.

Bayi’s team list has athletes Restituta Joseph (10,000m/marathon), Zakia Mrisho (5,000m), Patrick Nyangero and Ramadhani (marathon). Others are Damian Chopa (5,000m), Marco Joseph, Shamba Gidahech, Dickson Marwa (10,000m), Barae Saqware (1,500m)Frank Shija and Ignus Mtweve (shot-put) 

•ENVOYS OF SPORT

FRIENDLY FIRE

Games, Media And The Image of India

C

ommonwealth Games, sometimes referred to as Friendly Games, originally were introduced to foster better understanding and goodwill among former colonies of Britain.

The games are unique, being the only ones which share a common language. All athletes and officials can converse in English, creating an atmosphere that has led to their being known as the Friendly Games.

Host countries have used the Club Games for diplomatic window dressing over several issues. The 2010 edition in India, a country that prides itself as an emerging superpower, means a lot is at stake. The last thing New Delhi wanted to hear are corruption scandals that have trailed the preparations.

On August 14, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh held a meeting with the minister concerned to review preparations. Among the attendees were Sports Minister Mr M S Gill, Urban Development Minister, Mr Jaipal Reddy and Delhi Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit.

The PM’s action came a day after the Congress top brass, including party chief, Ms Sonia Gandhi, deliberated on the matter at a meeting of the party’s core group.

With the games ranking second to the Olympics, the media gaze on India for the two-week event will be intense.

America, for one, sees India as a giant but inept state. The feeling is that after a decade of drift and uncertainty, India is taking its expected place as one of the three major states of Asia.

Economic liberalisation is gathering steam, with six per cent annual growth and annual exports in excess of $30 billion according to Stephen P. Cohen in his book “India: Emerging Power” . This is the image India would like to project to the world.

The Games are held every four years. The first edition in 1930, then known as British Empire Games was staged in Hamilton, Canada. The games have never been interrupted since inception except duringworld war 1 and world war 11

The games are unique, being the only ones which share a common language.

All athletes and officials can converse in English, creating an

atmosphere that has led to their being known as the Friendly Games THE MEDALS TALLY SO FAR...

East African nations Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have been some of the most competitive participants in the Commonwealth Games.

Kenya and Uganda both first competed at the Games in 1954.

Tanzania took part in 1962 as Tanganyika and 1966 as Tanzania following the union with Zanzibar in 1964. Rwanda joined the Commonwealth in November 2009 during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad & Tobago. They will make their debut at the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Of the three, Kenya is the most successful having raked in 162 (Gold 59 Silver 47 and Bronze 56) medals. Twenty-two of these medals have come from a single event, the 3000 metre steeplechase, in which no athlete but a Kenyan has won a medal since 1994.

Uganda, who have competed in thirteen of the eighteen previous Commonwealth Games comes second with 39 medals (Gold 10 Silver 12 Bronze 17) and Tanzania coming in third with 21 (Gold 6 Silver 6 Bronze 9). Although most of Kenya’s medals have come from athletics, Tanzania has always beaten Kenya in the Marathons.

Kenya won a single gold in 1990 (Douglas Wakiihuri) and two silver in 2002 (Joshua Chelanga) and 2006 (Fred Mogaka). Tanzania, on the other hand, have won two gold :1978 (Gidamis Shahanga ), 2006 (Samson Ramadhani), Silver in 1982 through Juma Ikangaa, Silver in 1998 (Simon Basiligitwa) , Bronze in 1990 (Simon Robert Naali) 1998 (Andea Geway Suja) and 2002 (Francis Naali)

October 2010

59 59

•ENVOYS OF SPORT KENYA’S PERFORMANCE AND MEDAL TALLY (ATHLETICS AND BOXING)

MEDAL SUMMARY G 59

S 47

B 56

Total 162

Athletics 100 yards 1962 Gold Seraphino Antao KEN 9.50 100m 1974 Silver John Mwebi KEN 0.51 200 yards 1962 Seraphino Antao KEN 21.28 Gold 200m 1970 Charles Asati KEN 20.74 Bronze 400m 1970 Charles Asati KEN 45.01 Gold 1974 Charles Asati KEN 46.04 Gold 1990 Silver Samson Kitur KEN 44.88, Bronze Simon Kipkemboi KEN 44.93 1994 Gold Charles Gitonga KEN 45.00 880 Yards 1966 Bronze Wilson Kiprugut KEN 1:47.2 800 Metres 1970 Gold Robert Ouko KEN 1:46.89 1974 Gold John Kipkurgat KEN 1:43.91 Silver Mike Boit KEN 1:44.39 1978 Gold Mike Boit KEN 1:46.39 Bronze Peter Lemashon KEN 1:47.57 1982 Silver James Maina KEN 1:45.45 1990 Gold Sammy Tirop KEN 1:45.98 Silver Nixon Kiprotich KEN 1:46.00 1994 Gold Patrick Konchellah KEN 1:45:18 1998 Gold Japheth Kimutai KEN 1:43.82 2002 Silver Joseph Mutua KEN 1:46.57 2006 Gold Alex Kipchirchir KEN 1:45.88 Bronze John Litei KEN 1:46.98 1 Mile 1966 Kip Keino KEN 3:55.34 Gold 1500 Metres 1970 Kip Keino KEN 3:36.68 Gold 1974 Bronze Ben Jipcho KEN 3:33.16 1982 Bronze Mike Boit KEN 3:43.33 1990 Silver Wilfred Kironchi KEN 3:34.41 1994 Reuben Chesang KEN 3:36.70 Gold 1998 Laban Rotich KEN 3:39.49 Gold 2002 William Chirchir KEN 3:37.70 3 Miles 1966 Kip Keino KEN 12:57.4 Gold 5000 Metres 1970 Bronze Kip Keino KEN 13:27.6a 1974 Ben Jipcho KEN 13:14.3a 1978 Henry Rono KEN 13:23.04 Silver Mike Musyoki KEN 13:29.92 1982 Bronze Peter Koech KEN 13:36.95 1990 Silver John Ngugi KEN 1998 Gold Daniel Komen KEN 13:22.57, Silver Tom Nyariki KEN 13:28.09, Bronze Richard Limo KEN 13:37.42

60

2002 Gold Sammy Kipketer KEN 13:13.51, Silver Benjamin Limo KEN 13:13.57, Bronze William Kirui KEN 13:18.02 2006 Gold Augustine Choge KEN

12:56.41, Bronze Benjamin Limo KEN 13:05.30 6 Miles 1958 Bronze Arere Anentia KEN 28:51.48 1966 Gold Naftali Temu KEN 27:14.21 10000 Metres 1974 Bronze Richard Juma KEN 27:56.96 1978 Silver Mike Musyoki KEN 28:19.14 1990 Silver Moses Tanui KEN 28:11.56 1994 Lameck Aguta KEN 28:38.22 Gold 1998 Simon Maina KEN 28:10.00 Gold Silver William Kalya KEN 29:01.68 2002 Wilberforce Talel KEN 27:45.39 Gold Silver Paul Kosgei KEN 27:45.46 2006 Silver Geoffrey Kipngeno KEN 27:51.16 Marathon 1990 Gold Douglas Wakiihuri KEN 2:10:27 2002 Silver Joshua Chelanga KEN 2:12:44 2006 Silver Fred Mogaka KEN 2:12:03 3000 Metres Steeplechase 1962 1966 Bronze Benjamin Kogo KEN 8:32.81 1970 Silver Ben Jipcho KEN 8:29.6a, Bronze Amos Biwott KEN 8:30.8a 1974 Gold Ben Jipcho KEN 8:20.67, Bronze Evans Mogaka KEN 8:28.51 1978 Gold Henry Rono KEN 8:26.54 Silver James Munyala KEN 8:32.21, Bronze Kip Rono KEN 8:34.07 1982 Gold Julius Korir KEN 8:23.94 1990 Gold Julius Kariuki KEN 8:20.64, Silver Joshua Kipkemboi KEN 8:24.26 1994 Gold Johnstone Kipkoech KEN 8:14.72, Silver Gideon Chirchir KEN 8:15.25 1998 Gold John Kosgei KEN 8:15.34, Silver Bernard Barmasai KEN 8:15.37, Bronze Kipkurui Misoi KEN 8:18.24 2002 Gold Stephen Cherono KEN 8:19.41, Silver Ezekiel Kemboi KEN 8:19.78, Bronze Abraham Cherono KEN 8:19.85 2006 Gold Ezekiel Kemboi KEN 8:18.17, Silver Wesley Kiprotich KEN 8:19.38, Bronze Reuben Kosgei KEN 8:19.82

110 Metres Hurdles 1974 Gold Fatwell Kimaiyo KEN 13.69 440 Yards Hurdles 1962 Silver Kimaru Songok KEN 51.9 , 400 Metres Hurdles 1970 Bronze Charles Kipkemboi Yego KEN 50.19 1974 Bronze William Koskei KEN 49.34 1978 Gold Daniel Kimaiyo KEN 49.48

1990 Silver Gideon Yego KEN 49.25 1994 Silver Gideon Biwott KEN 49.43, Bronze Barnabas Kinyor KEN 49.50 Tripple Jump 1998 Bronze Remmy Limo KEN 16.89m 20 Kilometres Road Walk 2002 Bronze David Kimutai KEN 1:28:20 4 x 400 Metres Relay 1970 Gold Kenya 3:03.63 1974 Gold Kenya 3:04.43 1978 Gold Kenya 3:03.54 1982 Bronze Kenya 3:06.33 1990 Gold Kenya 3:02.48 WOMEN 800M 1974 Bronze Sabina Chebichi KEN 2:02.61 1978 Silver Tekla Chemabwai KEN 2:02.87 1994 Bronze Gladys Wamuyu KEN 2:03.12 2006 Gold Janeth Jepkosgei KEN 1:57.88

1974 Bronze Isaac Maina KEN 1978 Bronze Douglas Maina KEN Featherweight 1930-38 57.15kg/126lb, 1950 58kg, 195457kg 1962 Silver Ali Juma KEN 1966 Gold Philip Waruinge KEN 1970 Gold Philip Waruinge KEN 1974 Bronze Samuel Mbugua KEN 1990 Bronze David Gakuha KEN Lightweight 1930-38 61.24kg/135lb, 1950 62kg, 195460kg 1966 Bronze Stephen Baraza KEN 1970 Bronze Moses Mbugua KEN 1978 Silver Patrick Waweru KEN 1982 Gold Hussein Khalili KEN 2006 Bronze James Menya KEN

1500m 1998 Gold Jackline Maranga KEN 4:05.27

Light Welterweight 1954-2002 63.5kg, 2006- 64kg 1974 Bronze Philip Mathenge KEN 1982 Silver Charles Owiso KEN 1990 Silver Nicodemus Odore KEN 2006 Bronze Black Moses Mathenge KEN

5000 Metres 2002 Silver Edith Masai KEN 14:53.76, Bronze Ines Chenonge KEN 15:06.06 2006 Gold Isabella Ochichi KEN 14:57.84, Bronze Lucy Wangui KEN 15:00.20

Welterweight 1930-38 66.68kg/147lb, 1950-2002 67kg, 2006- 69kg 1970 Silver John Olulu KEN 1998 Silver Absolom Okoth KEN

10000m 1994 Bronze Jane Omoro KEN 32:13.01 1998 Gold Esther Wanjiru KEN 33:40.13 2002 Salina Kosgei KEN 31:27.83, Silver Susan Chepkemei KEN 31:32.04 2006 Gold Lucy Wangui KEN 31:29.66, Silver Evelyn Wambui KEN 31:30.86

Light Middleweight 71kg 1970 Bronze David Attan KEN 1978 Silver Abdurahman Athuman KEN

Marathon 2006 Silver Hellen Cherono KEN 2:30:56 BOXING Light Flyweight 48kg 1974 Stephen Muchoki KEN 1978 Stephen Muchoki KEN 1982 Abraham Wachire KEN 1990 Silver Abdurahaman Ramadhani KEN 1994 Abdurahaman Ramadhani KEN 1998 Silver Moses Kinyua KEN Flyweight 1930-38 50.80kg/112lb, 1950- 51kg 1962 Bronze Philip Waruinge KEN 1978 Gold Michael Irungu KEN 1982 Gold Michael Mutua KEN 1990 Bronze Maurice Maina KEN 1994 Silver Duncan Karanja KEN Bantamweight 1930-38 53.52kg/118lb, 1950- 54kg 1966 Bronze Nderu Mwaura KEN 1970 Silver Samuel Mbugua KEN

Middleweight 1930-38 72.57kg/160lb, 1950 73kg, 1954- 75kg 1994 Bronze Peter Wanyoike KEN Light Heavyweight 1930-38 79.38kg/175lb, 1950 80kg, 1954- 81kg 1978 Bronze Edward Thande KEN 1990 Gold Joseph Akhasamba KEN 1994 Bronze Odhiambo Opiyo KEN 1998 Bronze Samuel Odindo KEN 2006 Bronze Joshua Ndere KEN Heavyweight 1930-38 79.38kg/175lb+, 1950 80kg+, 1954-82 81kg+, 1986- 91kg 1982 Bronze Mohammed Abdallah Kent KEN 1990 Gold George Onyango KEN 1994 Gold Omaar Ahmed KEN Super Heavyweight 91kg+ 1994 Silver Miriambo Anyim KEN

•DIRECTORY TANZANIA

THE AMBASSADOR OF ALGERIA A. LAHIOUEL 34 Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road P.O. Box 2963 Dar es Salaam Telephone No:2117619 Fax No: 2117620 e-mail: algemb@twiga.com EMBASSY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ANGOLA The Ambassador of Angola Brito Sozinho Plot No. 78 Lugalo Road P.O. Box 20793 Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2117674, 2139235 Telex No: 41251 EMBANG TZ Fax No: 2132349 E-mail: ngola@cats-net.com EMBASSY OF BELGIUM Ambassador of Belgium Peter Maddens Black lines House , 5 Ocean Road P.O. Box 9210 Dar Es Salaam Telephone No:2114025,2112688, 2112503 Fax No. 2117621, 2125675 Telex No: 41094 AMBELG E-mail: ambabel.dsm@cats-net.com BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION Social security house Azikie Street/Samora Machel Avenue P.O. Box 9200 Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 211765964, 2113501/2 Fax: 2112952/2668436 Fax: 2116703 EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BURUNDI The Ambassador of Burundi – Amuri Leanare Lugalo Road House No. 1007, Upanga P.O. Box 2752 Dar es Salaam Fax 2121499 E- Mail: burundemb@raha.com CANADIAN HIGH COMMISSION The High Commissioner of Canada Andrew McAlister 38 Mirambo/Garden Avenue

2112837, 2112863, P.O. Box 1022 Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 21128656, 2112831/5 Fax No: 2116896 Fax No: (Dev. Section) 2116897 Facsimile: 2116897, 2116896 E-mail: dslam@dfait-maeci.gc.ca EMBASSY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA The Ambassador of China Xinsheng Liu Chancery: 2 Kajificheni Close P.O. Box 1649 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2667586, 2667694 Fax No: 2666353 EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA The Ambassador of Cuba – Ernesto Diaz Gomez Chancery: Lugalo Road Plot No. 313Upanga , Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 211592 Fax No: 2115927 8 E-mail: embacuba.tz@raha.com DANISH EMBASSY H.E Bjarne Henneberg Sorensen Chancery: Ghana Avenue P.O. Box 9171 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2113887/91, 2117510 Direct Line: 2111325 Telegraphic Address: AMBADANE Telex No: 41057 Fax No: 2116433 E-mail: daramb@um.dk EMBASSY OF THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT The Ambassador of EgyptMasr Ummuldunya Chancery: 24 Garden Avenue P.O. Box 1668,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2113591/2117622/ 2111716 Telex No: 41173 Fax No: 2112543 E-mail: egypt.emb.tz@intafrica.com EMBASSY OF FINLAND The Ambassador of Finland -

Jorma Paukku Corner of Mirambo/ Garden Avenue P.O. Box 2455,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2119170 Fax No:2119173 e-mail: finemb @twiga.com EMBASSY OF FRANCE The Ambassador of France Emmanuelle d’Achon Chancery: Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road/Kinondoni Road P.O. Box 2349 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2666021/3 Fax No: 2668435 E-mail: ambfrance@africaaonline. co.tz EMBASSY OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY The Ambassador of GermanyDr. Guido Herz Chancery: NIC Building , 10th Floor,Samora Avenue P.O. Box 9541,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2117409 - 15 Fax No: 2112944 e-mail: german.emb.dar@raha.com HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA Chancery: Design House , 2 Dar es Salaam Place P.O. Box 34889 ,Lusaka Telephone No: 73035/7 Telex No: 42960 UYCOMZA HIGH COMMISSION OF INDIA The High Commissioner of India - Debashish Chakravarti Chancery: NIC Investment House 7th & 8th Floor Wing ‘’A’’Samora Avenue P.O. Box 2684 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2117175/6 2116551 Fax. 2118761 Telex. 41335 HICIND TZ E-mail. Hcitz@cats.net.com EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA The Ambassador of Indonesia –

Trijono Marjono Chancery: 299 Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road P.O. Box 572,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2119119,2118133, 2115841 Fax No: 2115849 Telex No: 41575 INDON TZ Telegraphic Address: INDONESIADAR ES SALAAM E-mail: kbridsm@raha.com EMBASSY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN The Ambassador of Iran – Abbas Vaezi Chancery: Plot 31 Upanga Road P.O. Box 5802 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No:2112255/2117623 Fax No: 2118804/5 Jihad Sazandegi: 2150505 Cultural Center: 2130475 EMBASSY OF ITALY The Ambassador of Italy Marcello Griccioli Chancery: Lugalo Road 316 P.O. Box 2106 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2115935/36, 2123010/11 Ambassador’s: 2113741 Fax No: 2115938 e-mail: italdipl@raha.com EMBASSY OF JAPAN The Ambassador of Japan – Hiroshi Nakagawa Chancery: Plot No. 1018 Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road P.O. Box 2577 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2117384, 115827/9, 2117384, 2117383 Fax No: 2115830 Telex No: 41065 TAISHI Telegraphic Address: TAISHI HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA The High Commissioner of KenyaZachary Dominic Mu buri Chancery: P.O. Box 5231 NIC Investment House 14th Floor Samora Avenue ,Dar es Salaam

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•DIRECTORY TANZANIA

Telephone No: 2112955/6, Fax No: 2113098 E-mail khc@raha.com EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA H.E Soon Chun Lee Chancery: Plot 8/1 Tumbawe Rd ,Oyster bay P.O. Box 1154 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2600496/2600499/2602000 Fax No: 2600559 E-mail rok@intafrica.com BUREAU OF THE SOCIALIST PEOPLE’S LIBYAN Arab JAMAHIRIYA Ambassador of LibyaMr.Ahmed Abdulasalaam Chancery: Mtitu Street No. 386 P.O. Box 9413 ,Dar es Salaam Telegraphic Address: ASHABI Telephone No: 2150166/ 2150188 Fax No: 2150068 Telex No: 4117 HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE The High Commissioner of Mozambique – Mr.Amour Zacharias Kupela Chancery: 25 Garden Avenue P.O. Box 9370 ,Dar es Salaam Chancery: 25 Garden Avenue P.O. Box 9370 ,Dar es Salaam ROYAL NETHERLANDS EMBASSY The Ambassador of the Netherlands - Karel van Kesteren Chancery: ATC Town House Terminal Blg Ohio Street , 2nd Floor P.O. Box 9534 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2118566/8 2130428 Telefax No: 2112828 Fax No: 112828 HIGH COMMISSION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA The High Commissioner of Nigeria – Dr.Tafida Chancery: 83 Haile Selassie Road, Oyster bay

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P.O. Box 9214 , Dar es Salaam Tel No: 2667620/2666000/ 2666834/2666843 Telefax No: 2668947 Telex No: 41240 E-mail: nhc-dsm@raha.com ROYAL NORWEGIAN EMBASSY The Ambassador of NorwayMr.John Lomoy Chancery: Plot 160, Mirambo Street P.O. Box 2646 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2113666 Fax No: 2116564 Telex No: 41221 NORAMB Telegraphic Address: NORAMB E-mail: ambassade-dar@norad.no EMBASSY OF THE STATE OF PALESTINE The Ambassador of Palestine Fariz Mehdawi Chancery: 612 United Nations Road P.O. Box 20307,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2150636/2150643 Dir. 2153257 Fax No: 2153257 EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND The Ambassador of Poland(Ryszard Malik) Chancery: 1/9 Chisiza Close P.O. Box 2188 Oyster bay, Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2667501 Fax No: 2668309 E-mail: polamb@twigas.com EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF RWANDA The Ambassador of Rwanda Zemo Mutimura Chancery:Plot No. 32 Ali Hassan Mwinyi Rd P.O. Box 2918 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2115889, 2117631 Fax No: 115888 Telex No: 41292 Telegraphic Address: AMBARW TZ EMBASSY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION The Ambassador of Russia –

Mr.Valery Orlov Chancery: Plot 73 Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road P.O. Box 1905 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2666005/6 Fax No: 2666818 E-mail: embruss@intafrica.com SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH COMMISSION The High Commissioner of South Africa HE Mr SG Mfenyana Chancery: Plot 1338/9 Mwaya Road ,Masaki P.O. Box 10723 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2601800 Fax No: 2600684 EMBASSY OF SPAIN H.E Mr. Gerran Zurita Chancery: Plot No. 99B ,Kinondoni Road P.O. Box 842, Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2666018/9 Ambassador’s: 2666936 Fax No: 2666938 E-mail: embesptz@mail.mae.es EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SUDAN H.E Abdelbagi Kabier Chancery: 64 Upanga P.O. Box 2266 Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road, Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2117641 Tel:/Fax No: 2115811 E. mail - sudan.emb.dar@raha.com EMBASSY OF SWEDEN Ambassador of Sweden Lennarth Hjelmåker Chancery: Mirambo Street/Garden Avenue P.O. Box 9303 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2111235 Fax: 2113420 E-mail.www.swedemb-dar.com EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND The Ambassador of Switzerland Emmanuel Jenni Chancery: 79 Kinondoni Road / Mafinga Street

HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA H.E Ibrahim Mukibi Chancery: Plot No. 25, Msasani Rd , Oyster bay P.O. Box 6237 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No:2667391/2667009 Fax: 2667224 E-mail: ugadar@intafrica.com EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA H.E Alfonso E. Lenhardt Chancery: 140 Msese Road P.O. Box 9123 , Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2666010 Telex No: 41519 Fax No: 2666701 EMBASSY OF THE FEDERATION REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA H.E Richard Viietz Chancery: Plot No. 35/36 Upanga Road P.O. Box 2838 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2115891 - 2 Fax No: 2115893 E-mail: ambyudar@raha.com HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA H.E Inonge Mbikusita Chancery: Plot No. 5 & 6 ,Junction of Ohio/ Sokoine Drive P.O. Box 2525 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: Fax/Phone: 2112977 E-mail:zhcd@raha.com HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZIMBABWE Major Gen Rt. John Edzai Chimonyo Chancery: Plot 2097 East Upanga Off Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road P.O. Box 20762 ,Dar es Salaam Telephone No: 2116789 Fax No: 2112913 T Telex No: 41386 E-mail: zimdares@cats-net.com

•DIRECTORY Uganda

EMBASSY OF ALGERIA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H. E Aziria ABEDELKADER P.O. Box 4025, Kampala Tel. No. 256-312-265212/3 Fax: 256-312-265214 Telex 61184, Jazaira E-mail: ambalgka@imul.com Ambassador's Line: 256- 41-232689

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BURUNDI Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Jean NGENDANGANYA Plot No.14 Hannington Road SM Chambers Building, 1st Floor P.O.Box 29214. Kampala Tel: 256-41-235850 Fax: 256-41-235845 Email: ambabukpl@utlonline.co.ug

APOSTOLIC NUNCIATURE (VATICAN EMBASSY) Ambassador & Head of Mission) H. E. Archbishop Christophe PIERR Chwa II Road, Mbuya Hill P.O. Box 7177, Kampala Tel. 256-41-505619 Fax: 256-41-221774 E:mail: nuntius@utlonline.co.ug

CHINA Embassy of the People's Republic of China Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E Fan GUIJIN Plot 37 Malcolm X Avenue Kololo P.O. Box 4106, Kampala Tel. 256-41-231095/259881/234058 Fax: 256-41-235087/341463 E-mail: chinemb@infocom.co.ug

EMBASSY OF AUSTRIA Head of Bureau: (Charge d'Affaires a.i.)

Mr. Franz BREITWIEZER Regional Office for Development Co-operation of the Austrian Embassy in Kampala Crusader House, Annex 3rd Floor 3 Portal Avenue P.O. Box 7457, Kampala.

Tel. 256-41-235103/179 Fax: 256-41-235160 Email: franz.breitweiser@ada.gv.at ROYAL BELGIAN EMBASSY, KAMPALA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Jan DE BRUYNE Email: jan.debruyne@diplobel.org 3rd Floor Ruwenzori House Lumumba Avenue Plot 1 P.O. Box 7043, Kampala.

Tel. 256-41-349559/569/570 Emergency No. 256-772-704400 Fax. 256-41-347212 E-mail: kampala@diplobel.org , coop. kla@diplobel.org (development cooperation) Website : www.diplomatie.be/kampala.

EMBASSY OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Minister Counselor/ Charge d'Affaires A.I. Mr. Biselele WA MUTSHIPAYI 20 Philip Road, Kololo P.O. Box 4972 Kampala Tel. 256-41-250099/232021 /230610 Fax: 256-41-340140 Email: amba_rdc_kla@yahoo.fr EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Ricardo Antonio Danza SIGAS KAR Drive Plot 10 Lower Kololo Terrace P.O. Box. 9226, Kampala Tel. 256-41-233742 Fax. 256-41-233320/236438 E-mail: ecuba@africaonline.co.ug ROYAL DANISH EMBASSY Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Mr. Stig BARLYNG Plot. 3 Lumumba Avenue P.O. Box. 11243 Kampala Tel. 256-312-263211

Emergency Mobile: 256-772-221470 Fax. 256-312-264624 Telex: 61560 AMBADANE E-mail: kmtamb@um.dk Website: www.ambkampala.um.dk EMBASSY OF THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Reda Abdel Rahman BEBARS E-mail: stibar@um.dk 33 Kololo Hill Drive P.O. Box 4280 Kampala Tel. 256-41-254525/245152 Telex No. 61122 EGYPT UGA Fax. 256-41-232103 Email: egyembug@utlonline.co.ug

H.E. Alexander MÜHLEN Plot 15 Philip Road, Kololo P.O. Box 7016 Kampala Tel. nn256-41-501111 Fax. 256-41-501115 Telefax: 343136 Emergency no.256-77-763 000 E-mail: germemb@africaonline.co.ug EMBASSY OF ICELAND Counsellor/ Chargé d'Affaires a.i Ms. Agusta GISLADOTTIR, Country Director ICEIDA Uganda East African Development Bank Building 4 Nile Avenue KAMPALA, Uganda Tel: 041 230984/92 Fax: 041 341079

EMBASSY OF THE FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Terfa Mengesha REMCHIE Plot No. 3L, Off Kira Road, Kit ante Close.

P.O. Box 7745, Kampala Tel. No. 256-41-348340/ 256-41-341881 Fax. No. 256-41-341885 E-mail: ethiokam@utlonline.co.ug

THE HIGH COMMISSION OF INDIA High Commissioner: H.E Sibabrata TRIPATHI 11 Kyaddondo Road, Nakasero P.O. Box 7040 Kampala Tel. 256-41-259398/344631 /342994 Telex. 61161 Fax. 256-41-254943 Gram: HICOMIND, KAMPALA E-mail: hc@hicomindkampala.org hoc@hicomindkampala.org attache@hicomindkampala.org/

T HE FRENCH EMBASSY IN UGANDA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E Bernard GARANCHER Plot 16 Lumumba Avenue, Nakasero P O Box 7212, Kampala Tel. 256-41-342120 / 342176/342344/5 Fax: 256-41-341252 E-mail:: ambafrance.kampala@diplo matie.gouv.fr Emergency Tel: 256-77-777717

EMBASSY OF IRELAND Chargé d 'Affaires e.t.

H.E. Áine HEARNS Plot No. 25, Yusuf Lule Road Nakasero P.O. Box 7791 Kampala Tel. No. 256-41-344 348, 256-312-63104/5 Fax: 256-41-344353 E-mail: ireland@ireland.co.ug

EMBASSY OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Political, protocol and Consular Affairs

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ITALY Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: H.E. Umberto PLAJA 11 Lourdel Road, Nakasero P.O. Box 4646 Kampala Tel. 256-41-250442/250450/341786 Fax: 256-41-250448/349526

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•DIRECTORY Uganda

Emergency; 256-75-750448 E-mail: ambkamp@imul.com Website: www.imul.com/embitaly EMBASSY OF JAPAN Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H. E. Ryuuzo KIKUCHI East African Development Bank Building, Nile Avenue, Kampala.

P.O. Box 23553 Kampala Tel. 256-41-349542/3/4/5 Fax. 256-41-349547 E-mail: jembassy@jembassy.or.ug THE HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA High Commissioner H.E. Japheth R. GETUGI Plot 41, Nakasero Road P.O. Box 5220, Kampala Tel. 256-41-258232/5/6 Fax. 256-41-258239 E-mail: kenhicom@africaonline.co.ug EMBASSY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE 'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: HE Pak Hyon ZAE 10, Prince Charles Drive, Kololo P.O. Box. 5885 Kampala Tel. 256-41-254603/343424 Telex: 61144 DPRK UG Fax. 256-41-250-224 THE GREAT SOCIALIST PEOPLE'S LIBYAN ARAB Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: Vacant First Counsellor Mr. Salaah A. FARID Jamahiriya People's Bureau, Kampala Plot 26, Kololo Hill Drive P.O. Box 6079, Kampala Tel. 256-41-344-924-27 256-312-344100 Telex. 61090 Allibya Fax. 256-41-344969, 256-312-344237 E-mail: l.a.p.b. @ utlonline.co.ug ROYAL NETHERLANDS EMBASSY Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: H.E . Yoka BRANDT

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4th Floor, Kisozi Complex, Nakasero Lane P.O. Box. 7728 Kampala Tel. 256-41-346000 Fax. 256-41-231861 E.mail: KAM@minbuza.nl www.netherlandsembassyu ganda.org ROYAL NORWEGIAN EMBASSY Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Bjørg S. LEITE Plot 8a, John Babiiha Avenue P.O. Box. 22770 Kampala Tel. 256-41-343621/ 346733/340848 Fax. 256-41-343936 Mob: 256-75-703107 (Emergency) E-mail: emb.kampala@mfa.no Website: www.norway.go.ug Email: bsl@mfa.no THE HIGH COMMISSION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA High Commissioner H.E. Chukudi Dixon ORIKE 33 Nakasero Road, Kampala P.O. Box 4338, Kampala Tel.256-41-233691/2 Fax. 256-41-232543 Telex 61011 Telegraphic address: "NIGERIAN, KAMPALA" Email: nighicom-sgu@africaonline.co.ug EMBASSY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: HE Mr. Valery UTKIN 28 Malcolm X Avenue, Kololo P.O. Box 7022, Kampala Tel:256-41-345-698 Telegraphic address: "SOVPOSOL" Telex 61518 SOVPOS UG Fax 345-798 E-mail: russemb@imul.com EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF RWANDA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: H.E Kamali Karegesa IGNACE Plot No. 2, Nakaima Road Next to Uganda National Museum P.O. Box. 2468 Kampala

October 2010

Tel. 256-41-344045/333541 Fax. 256-41-258547 ROYAL EMBASSY OF SAUDI ARABIA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: H.E. Ahmad Mohammed Abdullah AL-BAHLAL Plot 3 Okurut Close, Kololo P.O. Box 22558, Kampala Tel. 256-41-340614/340616 Tel: 256-41-231248 (Ambassador's Direct) Fax: 254017 E-mail: resakla@utlonline.co.ug EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SUDAN Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Hassan Ibrahim GADKARIM Plot 21 Nakasero Road P O Box 3200 Kampala Tel: 256-41-230001/346583, 256-312-261358/261082 Fax: 256-41-346573 E-mail: sudanikampala@utlonline.co.ug HIGH COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICAN High Commissioner: H.E. Thanduyise Henry CHILIZA Plot No. 2B Nakasero Hill Lane P.O. Box 22667 Kampala Tel: 256-41-343543/44/46/60 or 256-312-220006/9 Fax: 256-41-438216 EMBASSY OF SWEDEN Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: HE Mr. Erik ÅBERG Plot no. 24 Lumumba Avenue, Nakasero P.O. Box 22669 Kampala Tel: 256-41-340970 Fax: 256-41-340979 Emergency Tel: 256-77-740970 Email: ambassaden.kampala@sida.se HIGH COMMISSION OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA High Commissioner H.E . Rajab H. GAMAHA 6, Kagera Road, Nakasero

P O Box 5750, Kampala Tel: 256-41-256272 Fax: 256-41-343973 Emergency Number after Closure: 256-41-348139 Telegramme: TANZANREP KAMPALA E-mail: tzrepkla@imul.com HIGH COMMISSION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND High Commissioner: H. E. Francois GORDON CMG British High Commission 4 Windsor Loop P. O. Box 7070 Kampala Main switchboard: (256) (31) 2312000 Telephone: (256) (31) 2312000 Fax: (256) (41) 4257304 General Enquiries (256) (31) 2312281 Consular/Visa Sections (256) (31) 2312267 Political Section Email: bhcinfo@starcom.co.ug Email Kampala.Visasection@fco.gov.uk Email Consular.kampala@fco.gov.uk Website http://ukinuganda.fco. gov.uk/en/:: EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary: H.E. Steven Alan BROWING Plot 1577 Ggaba Road P.O. Box 7007 Kampala Tel. 256-41-259791/5 , 234142, 233231 Fax: 256-41-259794 EUROPEAN UNION Delegation of the European Com mission in Uganda Head of Delegation Amb. Vincent DE VISSCHER 15th floor, Crested Towers Building Plot 17-23 Hannington Road P.O. Box 5244, Kampala Tel: 256-41-233303/4, & 256-41-250049, 343516 Emergency Tel: 256-41-257907 Fax: 256-41-233-708 E-mail: delegation-uganda@.cec.eu.int

•DIRECTORY Kenya

ALGERIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Muthaiga Road 37 PO BOX 64140 Mobile Plaza 00620 Nairobi Phone: 254 20 31 04 30, 254 20 31 04 40 Fax: 254 20 31 04 50 Email: Algerianembassy@wananchi.com

ARGENTINIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Kitisuru Km. 3.3e P.O. Box 30283 Nairobi GPO 00100 Kenya Phone: (+254) 20 418 3119 (254) 2 - 254 20 41 8 0161 Fax: (+254) 20 418 3054 Email: ekeny@bidii.com

AUSTRALIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Riverside Drive (400 mtrs off Chiromo Road) (Postal Add: PO Box 39341) Nairobi, Kenya Phone: 254 20 444 5034-9 Fax: 254 20 444 4718 Web Site: http://www.kenya.embassy. gov.au/

AUSTRIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

2nd floor, City House Corner Wabera Street/Standard Street P.O.B. 30560 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (+254/20) 31 90 76 to 78 Fax: (+254/20) 34 22 90 Web Site: http://www.aussenministerium.at/nairobi Email: nairobi-ob@bmeia.gv.at AUSTRIAN CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA 3rd floor, Ralli House Nyerere Avenue P.O.B. 84045 Mombasa, Kenya Phone: (+254) (41) 31 33 86 Fax: (+254) (41) 31 33 86 Email: tibor@tgaalarchitects.co.ke

BANGLADESHI CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Ole Odume Str. P.O. Box 41645 City: Nairobi Phone: +254 2 562 815

Fax: 562 817

BELGIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Limuru Road Muthaiga Nairobi Phone: + (254) (20) 71.22.011/71.22.166/ 71.23.093/71.22.181 Fax: + (254) (20) 71.23.050 Web Site: http://www.diplomatie.be/ nairobi Email: Nairobi@diplobel.fed.be

BELGIAN CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA P.O. Box 91276 - 80103 Mombasa (Kenya) Fax: + (254) (41) 474.236 Email: consulbel@mombasa.be BOTSWANA CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA P.O. Box 754 00606 Sarit Centre Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (2542) 447735 (2542) 448726 Fax: (2542) 449782

CANADIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Limuru Road, Gigiri Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (011 254 20) 366 3000 Fax: (011 254 20) 366 3900 Web Site: http://www.kenya.gc.ca Email: nrobi@international.gc.ca

CANADIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA The Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations Environment Programs, Nairobi Limuru Road, Cigiri Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (011 254 20) 366 3000 Fax: (011 254 20) 366 3900 Email: nrobi@international.gc.ca

CANADIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA The Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (HABITAT), Nairob Limuru Road, Gigiri Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (011 254 20) 366 3000 Fax: (011 254 20) 366 3900 Email: nrobi@international.gc.ca

CHILEAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Riverside Drive N 66 Riverside P.O.Box 45554 00100 Nairobi City: Nairobi Phone: 254(20) 4452950 254(20) 4452951 Fax: 254(20) 4443209 Email: echile@echile.co.ke

CHINESE EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Woodlands Road Nairobi, Kenya Phone: 00254-2726851 00254-2722559 Fax: 00254-2726402 00254-2711540 Web Site: http://ke.china-embassy.org Email: chinaemb_ke@mfa.gov.cn

COLOMBIAN EMBASSY I N NAIROBI, KENYA International House 6th Floor Mama Ngina Street P.O. Box 48494-00100, NAIROBI Phone: 009 254 2 246770/1 Fax: 009 254 2 246772 Email: emkenia@colombia.or.ke

CONGOLESE EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Embassy of Congo in Nairobi, Kenya Botschaft , 2nd floor, City House, Corner Wabera Street/ Standard Street Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (+254 / 2) 24 73 65 Fax: (+254 / 2) 33 17 92 Email: austria@africaonline.co.ke COSTA RICAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA No. 982-Code 00621 Village Market Nairobi Kenya Phone: 00 (254) 20 -71-20330 Fax: 00 (254) 20 -71 22255 Email: aranibarmkt@iconnect.co.ke CUBAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA 5th Floor, International Live House Mama Ngina Street P.O. Box 198, Sarit Centre Nairobi, Kenya.

Phone: (254) 202 41003y 204 1005 Fax: (254)) 202 410 23 Email: embacuba@swiftkenya.com

CYPRIOT CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA

International House, 6th Floor P.O.Box 30739 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: + 254 20 2220881 Fax: + 254 20 312202

Email: cyphc@nbnet.co.ke CZECH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Jumuia Place, Lenana Road P.O.Box 48785 00100 Nairobi Republic of Kenya Phone: 0025420/2731010 0025420/2731011 0025420/2731012 Fax: 0025420-2731013 Web Site: http://www.mzv.cz/nairobi Email: nairobi@embassy.mzv.cz,zamini. cz@africaonline.co.ke DANISH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA 13 Runda Drive, Runda P.O. Box 40412-00100 GPO Nairobi, Kenya Phone: 254 20 7122848-51 Fax: 254 20 7120638 Web Site: http://www.ambnairobi.um.dk Email: nboamb@um.dk

DANISH CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA Mikanjuni Road, Liwatoni Bay P.O. Box 99543 Mombasa, Kenya Phone: +254 41 229241/2/3 Fax: +254 41 221390 Email: jhn@africaonline.co.ke

ECUADORIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA P.O.Box 76626, Nairobi, Kenya Phone: 254 2 722382 Fax: 254 2 720936 Email: alfaroma@net200ke.com

EGYPTIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA 24 Othaya road off Gitanga road, Kileleshwa P.O.BOX: 30285 GPO 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (25420) 3870298-38702783870360 Fax: (25420) 3870383 Web Site: http://www.mfa.gov.eg/Missions/kenya/nairobi/embassy/en-GB Email: eg.emb_nairobi@mfa.gov.eg

ERITREAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA PO Box 38651 2nd Floor, New Rehema House Raphta Road, Westlands Phone: +254-2-443164 Fax: +254-2-443165

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•DIRECTORY Kenya

ETHIOPIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

State House Avenue P.O. Box: 45198 GPO Nairobi, Kenya Phone: 00254-2-2732057 Fax: 254-2-2732054 Email: executive@ethiopianembassy. or.ke

FINNISH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Eden Square, Block 3, 6th floor Greenway Rd off Westlands Rd Phone: +254-(0)20-3750721-4 Fax: +254-(0)20-3750714 Web Site: http://www.finland.or.ke Email: sanomat.nai@formin.fi FINNISH CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA Mikanjuni Road Liwatoni Bay c/o Shipmarc Ltd. Postal address: Honorary Consulate of Finland P.O. Box 99543 City: Mombasa Phone: (254-41) 229 241/-2/-3 Fax: (254-41) 221390 Email: jhn@africaonline.co.ke FRENCH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Barclay's Plaza, 9th Floor, Loita street P.O. Box 41784 00100 Nairobi Phone: [254] (20) 277 80 00 Fax: [254] (20) 277 81 80 Web Site: http://www.ambafrance-ke. org/ Email: ambafrance.nairobi@diplomatie. gouv.fr GERMAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Williamson House 4th Ngong Avenue Nairobi Phone: (00254 20) 426 21 00 Fax: (00254 20) 426 21 29 Web Site: http://www.nairobi.diplo.de Email: info@nairobi.diplo.de

GERMAN CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA, KENYA

Bank of India Building 2. Stock, Nkrumah Road, Mombasa P.O Box 86779, Mombasa, Kenia Phone: (00254 41) 222 87 81 Fax: (00254 41) 231 45 04 Email: mombasa@germanconsul.com

GREEK EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Nation Tower, 7th Floor Kimathi Str.

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P.O.Box 30543 00100 Nairobi Phone: (00254 20) 340722 or 340744 Fax: (00254 20) 2216044 Email: gremb.nai@mfa.gr GREEK CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA P.O. Box 90194, Mombasa, Kenya Phone: (002541) 1228286 Fax: (002541) 1314642

GREENLANDIC EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Royal Danish Embassy in Kenya Cassia House Westlands Office Park off Waiyaki Way P.O. Box 40412 Nairobi Phone: +00 254 20 445 1460-3 Fax: +00 254 20 445 1474 Web Site: http://www.ambnairobi.um.dk Email: nboamb@um.dk

HONDURAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Kabarsiran Avenue (off James Gichuru Road) Lavington, P.O.Box: 61146-00200 Phone: 00 - 254 - 20 444-2612 Fax: 00 - 254 444-2101 Web Site: http://www.mfa.gov.hu/ emb/nairobi Email: mission.nai@kum.hu

HONDURAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Kabarsiran Avenue (off James Gichuru Road) Lavington, P.O.Box: 61146-00200 Phone: 00 - 254 - 20 444-2612 Fax: 00 - 254 444-2101 Web Site: http://www.mfa.gov.hu/ emb/nairobi Email: mission.nai@kum.hu

HUNGARIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Kabarsiran Avenue (off James Gichuru Road) Lavington, Nairobi, Kenya P.O.Box: 61146-00200 Phone: 444-2499 Fax: 444-2101 Web Site: http://www.mfa.gov.hu/ emb/nairobi Email: mission.nai@kum.hu

HUNGARIAN CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA

October 2010

Mombasa Kastan Center NR Nyali Bridge, P.O.Box 90653, Mombasa/Kenya Phone: 475-074, 474-947, 0733-608-767 (mobile) Fax: 471-257, 473-533 Email: mike@southerncrosssafaris.com INDIAN CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA Bank of India Building Nkrumah Road PO Box 90164 Mombasa Phone: +254 41 2224 433/2311 051 Fax: +254 41 2316 740 Web Site: http://www.hcinairobi.co.ke/ Pages/AHC_mombasa.html Email: cimsa@swiftmombasa.com INDIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Jeevan Bharati Building Harambee Avenue PO Box 30074-00100 Nairobi Phone: +254 - 20 222 566 / 2225 104 / 2224 500 Fax: +254 - 20 316 242 Web Site: http://www.hcinairobi.co.ke/ Email: hcindia@kenyaweb.com

INDONESIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Menengai Road, Upper Hill P.O. Box 48868-00100 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (254-20) 271-4196 to 98 Fax: (254-20) 271-3475 Web Site: http://www.indonesia.or.ke Email: indonbi@indonesia.or.ke

IRISH CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Dante Diesel Workshop Building Masai Road Off Mombasa Road P.O. Box 30659 00100 Phone: 00 254 20 556647 Fax: 00 254 2 556647 Email: irconsul@swiftkenya.com

ISRAELI EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Embassy of Israel in Nairobi, Kenya send edits Bishop Road(Opp. Fairview Hotel) P.o.Box 30354 - 00100 Nairobi,Kenya Phone: 254 20 2722182 / 3 Fax: 254 20 2715966 Web Site: http://nairobi.mfa.gov.il Email: info@nairobi.mfa.gov.il ITALIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Mama Ngina St.

International House, 9th floor P.O. Box 30107 Phone: (2542) 337356 Fax: (2542) 337056 Web Site: http://www.ambnairobi. esteri.it Email: ambasciata.nairobi@esteri.it

JAPANESE EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Ground Floor, ICEA Bldg, Kenyatta Avenue P.O. Box 60202 Kenya Phone: +254-20-341244 Fax: +254-20-252007 Web Site: http://www.ke.emb-japan. go.jp/ Email: jinfocul@eojkenya.org

EMBASSY OF REP OF KOREA HisExc. Lee Han-Gon University way, Ann. Towers 15th Floor.

P.O.Box30455-100 Nairobi, Kenya.

Tel: 222000, 2218888 Fax: 2217772, 312317 web: ken@mosat.go.ke email: emb-ke@mosat.go.kr KUWAITI EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Matayja Road P.O.Box 42353 960, 6763275, 6761614 Fax: (+254-20) 6767053

MALAWIAN EMBASSY IN KENYA Westlands, off Waiyaki Way P.O. Box 30453 Phone: +(254) 2 440 569 Fax: +(254) 2 440 568

MALAYSIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA No. 58, Red Hill Road Gigiri P.O. Box 42286, 00200 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: +254 20 7123373/74/75 Fax: +254 20 7123371/67 Web Site: http://www.kln.gov.my/ perwakilan/nairobi Email: malnairobi@kln.gov.my

MOROCCAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA United Nations Street, Gigiri P.O. Box 617 00621 Nairobi City: Nairobi Phone: (+254) (20) 7120 765 / 795 Fax: (+254) (20) 7120 817

•DIRECTORY Kenya

Email: sifmanbi@clubinternetk.com

MOZAMBICAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Embassy of Mozambique P.O.Box 66923 Bruo House, 3rd Floor Standard Street Nairobi Kenya Phone: (+254-20) 221979, 214191 Fax: (+254-20) 222446 Email: mozambiq@africaonline.co.ke

NEPALESE CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Nairobi, Kenya Gateway Place, Milimani Road, Phone: 254-2-2713131-7 / 254-204348149, Fax: 254-20- 2713138 Email: gkaruri@gateway-insurance.co.ke

DUTCH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Riverside Lane P.O. Box 41537 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: +254 20 42 88 000 Fax: +254 20 44 47 416 Web Site: http://www.netherlandsembassy.or.ke/ Email: nlgovnai@africaonline.co.ke KIWI CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Diju Investments, Mirage Plaza, Room 2C Second Floor, Argwings Kodhek Road PO Box 52224, 00200 Phone: +254 20 601074 Fax: (+254) 20 272 1990, +254 20 601076 or (+254) 20 27 Email: dijuinvest@inds.co.ke

NORWEGIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Lion Place, Waiyaki Way P.O.Box 4636300100, Westlands, Nairobi Phone: (020) 4451510-6 Fax: (020) 4451517 Web Site: http://www.norway.or.ke/ Email: emb.nairobi@mfa.no

PAKISTANI EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

St. Michael's Road, Off Church Road, Off Waiyaki Way, Westlands, P.O. Box 30045, 00100, Nairobi Phone: (+254-20) 4443911 & 4443912 Fax: (+254-20) 4446507 & 4443803 Email: parepnairobi@iwayafrica.com

PHILIPPINE EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA State House Road (next to Hillcrest College) P.O. Box 47941 00100 Phone: (25420) 272-5310 Fax: (25420) 272-5316 Email: nairobipe@philembassy.or.ke / nairobipe@dfa.gov.ph

ROMANIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Gardenia Road-Gigiri or P.O. Box 63240 Nairobi 00619 Phone: (00) (254) (20) 7123109 or 7120607 Fax: (00) (254) (20) 7122061 Email: secretariat@romanianembassy.co.ke

RUSSIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA P.O. Box 30049, Lenana Road, Nairobi, Kenya Phone: +254 20 272-87-00 Fax: +254 20 272-18-88 Email: RUSSEMBKENYA@MAIL.RU RWANDAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

2nd floor, International House, P.O. Box 30619 Phone: +254-2-575975 Fax: +254-2-317-400

SAUDI ARABIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Kenya Nairobi P.O. Box 58297 00200 City Square Main Muthaiga rd Nairobi, Kenya Phone: 020 260997/020 260999 Fax: 37452 62/374 5263 E-mail: keemb@mofat.gov.sa SEYCHELLES CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA 114 James Gichuru Road P.O.Box 23686 Lavington Phone: (+254-2) 577628/+254-20540957 /+254-20-540754/+254-733759785 Fax: +254-20-577628 /+254-20-540754 Email: urbannre@africaonline.co.ke

SEYCHELLES CONSULATE IN MOMBASA, KENYA Honorary Consulate of Syechelles in

Mombasa, Kenya P.O.Box 81149 Phone: +254-11-224184 Fax: +254-11-226072 Email: mason2001ke@yahoo.com SLOVAK EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Milimani Road PO Box 30204 Phone: +254-20-2721896/+254-202721898/+254-20-2717415 Fax: (+254-20) 2712956 Email: sknai@swiftkenya.com SOUTH AFRICAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA

South Africa Consulate , Kenya PO Box 42441 Phone: (+254-20)-215616 / +254-20215618/+254-20-228469/+254-20252420/+254-20-252421 SPANISH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA CBA Building 2nd Floor Upper Hill PO Box 45503 00100 Nairobi Phone: (+254-20) 2720222/6 / 0733631144 Fax: +254-20-27202226 Email: emb.nairobi@maec.es

SUDANESE EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Kabarnet Road, off Ngong Road 48784 Nairobi, Kenya.

Phone: (2542) 720-854 Fax: (2542)722-253 Email: salahmousa@yahoo.com SWEDISH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Lion Place, 3rd floor Waiyaki Way, Westlands Nairobi Kenya Phone: +254 (20) 423 40 00/+254 (0)734 600 851 Fax: +254-20-445 2008/09 Web Site: http://www.swedenabroad. com/nairobi Email: ambassaden.nairobi@sida.se

TANZANIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Taifa Road Re-insurance Plaza, 9th Floor Phone: (+254-2)-331056 / 331057 / 331104 Fax: +254-2-218269 Email: tanzania@user.africaonline.co.ke

THAI EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

Rose Avenue, Off Denis Pritt Rd, P.O. Box 58349 P.O. Box 58349 Phone: (254-2) 715243, 715800, 715796, 714276 Fax: (254-2) 715801, 715802 Web Site: http://www.thaiembassy.org/ nairobi Email: thainbi@thainbi.or.ke

TURKISH EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA P.O. Box 64748 00620 Phone: +254-20-7126929 / +254-207126930 Fax: +254-20-7126931 Web Site: http://www.nairobi.emb.mfa. gov.tr Email: tcbenair@accesskenya.co.ke

UGANDAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Uganda House Kenyatta Avenue P.O.Box 60853 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (+254-20) 2330801, 2330814, 2330834 Fax: (+254-20) 2330970 Email: asiimwe@africaonline.co.ke UGANDAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Riverside Paddock Off Riverside Drive Phone: (+254-20) 4445420/4449096 Fax: (+254-20) 4443772 Email: ugacomnrb@todays.co.ke, ugahicom@todaysonline.com BRITISH CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA Upper Hill Road PO Box 30465-00100 GPO Phone: 254 20 2844 000 Fax: 254 20 2844077 254 20 2844239 Web Site: http://www.britishhighcommission.gov.uk/kenya Email: bhcinfo@jambo.co.ke AMERICAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

P. O. Box 606 Village Market 00621 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: 363-6000, Fax: 363-3410 Web Site: http://nairobi.usembassy.gov/

VENEZUELAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Mama Ngina Street International House,

October 2010

67 67

•DIRECTORY Kenya

3rd floor Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (+254-20)-340 178 / 340 167 / 2340 178 Fax: +254-20-337 487 / +254-20-2337 487 Email: embavene@africaonline.co.ke

YEMENI EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Corner Ngong and Karbarnet Roads P.O. Box 44642 Kenya Phone: (+254) (20) 56 4379 / 57 4646 or

(+254) (20) 386 4379 / 387 4646 Fax: (+254-20) 3874680, 3861071 ZAMBIAN EMBASSY IN NAIROBI, KENYA Nyerere Road Nyerere Road City: Nairobi Phone: (+254-20) 72476,724799,724850 Email: zambiacom@swiftkenya.com

ZAMBIAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA

P.O.Box 48741 Nairobi Kenya Phone: (+254-20) 2724850, 2724796, 2724799 Fax: (+254-20) 2718494 Email: zambiacom@swiftkenya.com

ZIMBABWEAN CONSULATE IN NAIROBI, KENYA

High Commission of Zimbabwe in

Nairobi, Kenya 6th Floor Minnet ICDC Building, Mamlanka Rd, PO 30806 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: (+254-2) 721071 Fax: (+254-2) 726503 Email: zimna@africaonline.co.ke

Update your contacts habari@diplomateastafrica.com

+254 20 2525253/4/5

•DEA CLASSIFIEDS

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October 2010

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