RAPHAEL OBONYO

Raphael Obonyo is a public policy analyst. [email protected]

RwandAir cancels flights to DR Congo

Saturday May 28 2022

An aircraft at the Airbus delivery centre awaiting delivery to RwandAir. PHOTO | AFP

Summary

DRC on Saturday said it had “immediately” suspended the RwandAir flights in the country with government spokesman Patrick Muyayasaying that a “stern warning is given to the Government of Rwanda” over its alleged involvement in the conflict in North Kivu, eastern DRC.
Rwanda has denied any involvement with rebel groups in DRC.

By VALERIE KOGA

More by this Author

Rwanda's national carrier RwandAir has cancelled all flights to the Democratic Republic of Congo hours after Kinshasa said the airline has been barred from its airspace.

"RwandAir has decided to cancel all flights to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, and Goma with immediate effect," the airline said on its Twitter handle on Saturday.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience and disruption this may cause to our customers and we will waive change of reservation fees and offer re-issues or refunds for those affected."

The airline added that it would update its clients on any changes.

DRC on Saturday said it had “immediately” suspended the RwandAir flights in the country with government spokesman Patrick Muyayasaying that a “stern warning is given to the Government of Rwanda” over its alleged involvement in the conflict in North Kivu, eastern DRC.

The move came after DRC on Thursday accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels who are currently fighting government forces in North Kivu province. Rwanda denied any involvement.

On Saturday, RwandAir announced via its Twitter handle that, "Follow

In the headlines

South Sudan slams UN over sanctions

Security Council renewed an arms embargo and sanctions amid continuing unrest in the country.

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace

Kalonzo barred from Kenyan presidential contest

Eyes on EA central banks as inflation bites

Farewell to the last of the lion-whisperers of East Africa

Rwanda denies backing armed group in DRC

Chadema youth arrested despite dialogue

Saturday May 28 2022

Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan. PHOTO | FILE | NMG

Summary

20 members of the latter’s youth wing were arrested for what the police called illegal assembly.
Hours later they were released unconditionally from Babati central police station in Manyara.

By BOB KARASHANI

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Hardly a week after a meeting between Tanzania’s ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and opposition Chadema, about 20 members of the latter’s youth wing were arrested for what the police called illegal assembly.

Hours later they were released unconditionally from Babati central police station in Manyara.

"What we see is some people, with their own interests in mind, trying to use senior members of the police force to disrupt political reconciliation efforts that have been set into motion by President Samia Suluhu, our chairman Freeman Mbowe and other stakeholders within the country," Chadema protocol and communications chief John Mrema said in a statement.

Chadema, which is spearheading calls for a new constitution before the 2025 General Election, repeated its position during the May 21 talks with the CCM led by President Samia at State House in Dodoma. Both parties termed the discussion as the beginning of a new political dialogue initiative.

According to Chadema Secretary-General John Mnyika, the party tabled two issues: Reviving the constitutional change process, which stalled in 2014, and restoring constitutional and civil rights that were threatened under the previous administration.

Proposals

Mr Mnyika said the team submitted proposals on how to fast-track the Katiba Mpya process and other key democratic reforms such as reinstating political party activism without undue interference, preventing a recurrence of politically-motivated court cases, and abolishing oppressive laws.

They also pressed for security guarantees for political exiles so that they can come home. Proper structures and instruments, including a credible Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be set up to expedite the mending process, and the adoption of an acceptable timeline for completion of all processes were also tabled.

However, Chadema declined an invitation from a task force set up to co-ordinate the constitutional and democratic reforms process.

"Our position on the task force has not changed. We believe this direct dialogue process that we have just begun is the best way to heal all the wounds," Mr Mnyika said.

The 25-member task force, formed last December by the Registrar of Political Parties, formally proposed that the constitution process should be postponed until after the 2025 election and the intervening period used to amend electoral and political participation laws. ACT-Wazalendo, which gave its proposal to the task force, wants the Katiba Mpya process restarted based on a previous draft prepared by another committee led by former prime minister Joseph Warioba.

According to ACT-Wazalendo Public Relations Secretary Salum Bimani, the process should begin with amendments to the current constitution to level the field for all political parties come the 2025 election.

“The amendments should cover regulations governing both the 2024 local government (civic) elections and the 2025 presidential and parliamentary elections," Mr Bimani said. "Then if the full Katiba Mpya process is not completed by August 2024, it can be paused and resumed immediately after the two elections are held," he added.

Among other things, the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) headed by Judge Warioba proposed the introduction of an administrative structure of three governments for Tanzania Mainland, Zanzibar and the Union respectively whereas the final version of the second draft by another Constitutional Assembly (CA) departed significantly from the Warioba draft by retaining the current two-government structure (Union and Zanzibar).

According to Mr Bimani, the CA draft would not be accepted in Zanzibar because "it portrays Zanzibar to be similar to a provisional or municipal government” under the Union structure.

ACT Wazalendo also said in its views that fresh consensus was needed on various other matters outlined in the current constitution, including presidential powers and separation of powers between the three pillars of state: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, along with election systems.

In the headlines

RwandAir cancels flights to DR Congo

This came hours after Kinshasa said the airline has been barred from its airspace.

South Sudan slams UN over sanctions

Security Council renewed an arms embargo and sanctions amid continuing unrest in the country.

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace

Kalonzo barred from Kenyan presidential contest

Eyes on EA central banks as inflation bites

Farewell to the last of the lion-whisperers of East Africa

Rwanda denies backing armed group in DRC

Why Ugandans panic when Kenya ‘renovates its roof’ every five years

Saturday May 28 2022

Summary

From the early 1990s for example, many Kenyan business people, notably of Asian extraction, used to cautiously relocate part of their capital to other states in the neighbourhood as the country approached general elections.
These days they no longer do for, chaotic as their politicians are, Kenya’s institutions of democracy and accountability under the constitution are real and reliable.
Interestingly, it is the Ugandan business community who become fearful of approaching Kenya elections and reroute their merchandise away from Mombasa port.

By JOACHIM BUWEMBO

More by this Author

It is an unfortunate thing to be amputated of any part of your body, but it is simply terrible to happen when you are already an adult. It is hard getting used to, and those of us have lived with amputees know, for example, that they take off their artificial limb if they want to do something quickly, and only put it back on for appearances.

In a way, outstanding individuals become so much part of a society that members don’t want to contemplate their departure.

Fortunately, though, the advancement of science and governance systems is making societies’ need to rely on great individuals less and less. So the era of legends is really coming to an end.

When Queen Elizabeth II goes in the foreseeable future, for example, Great Britain will remain great.

Angela Merkel retired and Germany keeps getting stronger, though many of us don’t even know her successor’s name.

Any person of average education can recognise John F Kennedy and Barack Obama, but many people, myself included, wouldn’t pick Joe Biden out of a group photo of smart, old white men, yet US remains the most powerful nation with him as president.

In the arts, stars are now being made by marketers and producers with computers, and when they fade away they are not missed.

In sport, athletes are actually breaking records set by real legends, thanks to coaches and doctors who supervise their computer-designed training regimes and diets.

Footballers today practically make billions of times more money that Pele ever made, and are followed by half a billion people on social media, but will be forgotten as soon as their sell-by date comes.

In science, teams and companies are inventing life-saving solutions as fast as they are needed and the days of individual scientists saving mankind seem to be over. Systems and science — read Artificial Intelligence — are closing the curtain on legendary inventors.

It is societies that haven’t nurtured strong systems that find it hard to contemplate change from a strong leader to another. From the early 1990s for example, many Kenyan business people, notably of Asian extraction, used to cautiously relocate part of their capital to other states in the neighbourhood as the country approached general elections. These days they no longer do for, chaotic as their politicians are, Kenya’s institutions of democracy and accountability under the constitution are real and reliable.

Interestingly, it is the Ugandan business community who become fearful of approaching Kenya elections and reroute their merchandise away from Mombasa port. But this is understandable, for they are too used to channelling their imports (which usually are three times their exports) through Kenya and haven’t yet done much to develop their own industrial production, despite having humongous potential from mineral and agricultural inputs.

To understand this Ugandans’ preference of things “falling” from outside with minimal effort on their part, you need to know about our delicacy of choice, a small seasonal grasshopper locally called nsenene, and shiny roofing iron sheets.

When the seasonal high-flying insects pass for a day in May and again in November, what attracts them to the ground are shiny lights, which get even brighter when reflected on the galvanized roofing sheets. So these days rich guys invest in those sheets, erect them at a certain orientation and connect powerful bright lights. The poor insects fly into the blinding reflection and slide into collection containers, and off to the market they are taken, via imported second-hand fridges.

This year as we celebrate 100 years of the founding of Makerere University, which has produced tens of thousands of agriculture graduates, we haven’t yet found a way of farming nsenene. So, if you have a neighbour with a shiny roof, you rely on it to get several nsenene into your compound.

Mombasa and Kenya are our shiny roof. Whenever Nairobi does its five-yearly renovation, we fear that they are going to repaint the roof green or black, and we may not get our nsenene falling from the skies.

Ugandans need to erect our shiny roof by exploiting our vast minerals and manpower. That way, even if Kenya removes its shiny roof and puts a black one, we won’t have to panic and feel like amputees.

Joachim Buwembo is a Kampala-based journalist. E-mail: [email protected]

In the headlines

RwandAir cancels flights to DR Congo

This came hours after Kinshasa said the airline has been barred from its airspace.

South Sudan slams UN over sanctions

Security Council renewed an arms embargo and sanctions amid continuing unrest in the country.

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace

Kalonzo barred from Kenyan presidential contest

Eyes on EA central banks as inflation bites

Farewell to the last of the lion-whisperers of East Africa

Rwanda denies backing armed group in DRC

SHORT STORY: Daring escape to freedom

Saturday May 28 2022

Jabbing him painfully in the ribs, Cally leaned her head on his shoulder and inhaled the crisp night air as it whipped past them. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGA

Summary

As rough hands clamped down and tightened around her arms, Cally lost the last vestiges of her control and reason. Screaming incoherently, she begun to fight and wrestle with two policewomen who were attempting to cuff her.
Jack’s palms were sweaty, and his heart drummed erratically, thumping twice quickly then skipping a beat, as he stood behind a thick tree and watched Cally’s attempt to fight her arrest, digging his nails into his damp palms as he held himself back from rushing to her aid.

By NADYA SOMOE

More by this Author

Read Part I here

***
Cally had been sad before in her 18 years, but never like this. She’d been sad when her father died, she’d been sad living with Pierra, her stepmother, but she’d never felt a despair so deep it cut through all logic, making her want to fling herself into the deep rushing waters of the river she was standing next to.

Just this morning, the morning of her 18th birthday, an argument over her inheritance had left Pierra dead, though by no real fault of Cally’s, and now her boyfriend Jack, the one person she’d thought she could count on had betrayed her. Standing in a pool of flashing red and blue lights, surrounded by a terrifying cacophony of voices, sirens and a hoard of police brandishing guns and barking a series of bewildering orders, ‘Get down!’ ‘Hands up!’ ‘Don’t move!’, all Cally could do was stand frozen in place, unable to truly comprehend the depth of what she was feeling.

As rough hands clamped down and tightened around her arms, Cally lost the last vestiges of her control and reason. Screaming incoherently, she begun to fight and wrestle with two policewomen who were attempting to cuff her.

Veins popping in her forehead, Cally twisted her torso and tried to wrest their wrench like grips from her arms, but they wouldn’t budge.

As the cuffs snapped cold, hard and biting into her now bruised wrists, Cally searched accusingly for Jack, her despair morphing to a fiery hatred as she remembered he was the first person she’d called after Pierra fell and cracked her head open, how he’d assured her things would be fine, then lured her here to betray her; under this bridge by a rushing river, which during the day sparkled and glinted in sunlight filtering down through a canopy of close growing trees lining the river bank, where they’d first kissed.

But she couldn’t see him, surrounded and pulled this way and that, half blinded by the lights and fully dazed by shock.

Cally’s shoulders slumped as she acquiesced to despair and was led away, docile now, to a waiting car.

Jack’s palms were sweaty, and his heart drummed erratically, thumping twice quickly then skipping a beat, as he stood behind a thick tree and watched Cally’s attempt to fight her arrest, digging his nails into his damp palms as he held himself back from rushing to her aid.

His mouth was dry, but even in his panic, his thoughts formed clearly and his body moved with precision.

As the group of police begun to conglomerate around his girl, he stood still in the shadows, now long forgotten by everyone but Cally who was whipping her head about looking for him, waiting until the last man walked past him; then Jack slipped out like a ghoul, grabbing the man around the throat, cutting off his scream and strangling him until he passed out.

Quickly, Jack donned the man’s uniform and holster, slung a heavy bag over his shoulder and strode out confidently into the bedlam of lights, sirens, and the excited shouts of men and women.

“You rich kids think you can get away with anything,” it was one of the arresting policewomen, accompanied by a male colleague who was driving the car.

Cally turned her now tear stained face to the side and stared blankly out the window.

“We found your mother,” the woman started, then stammered as Cally's soft but vehement whisper cut her off.

“She’s not my mother.”

“Well, we know about the changes to your inheritance, and you were the only one there,” the woman pressed on, “Too bad there aren’t camera’s inside, because we know,” she drifted off as her attention was caught by a movement outside her window.

Sitting astride on a powerful motorcycle, a fellow officer was waving them down as he rode alongside them.

The policewoman rolled down her window as the man begun to gesticulate.

“Top priority!” he was yelling over the sound of the road, “She’s not been searched yet! She has a weapon!”

His tone was official, his stance authoritative, his manner commanding. And so the car skidded to a stop as the policewoman turned to glare suspiciously at Cally, who seemed to have perked up, the colour returning to her face, a glint of something in her eyes.

“Don’t move!” Jack, now dismounted, had his gun drawn and pointed into the front seat of the car as he leaned slightly to open the back door for Cally to clamber out, “The handcuff’s key,” he said impatiently as both police stared dumbfounded at his unrecognisable face under the opaque helmet, “The key!” Jack fired into the air, training the gun back at them; he had seconds, sirens wailed in the distance as the rest of the police convoy approached.

The gunshot revived the statues, and the policewoman shakily pressed a key into Jack’s outstretched hand.

Then in a movement so rapid it was as if he had spirited her away, Jack swept Cally onto the back of the motorbike and gunned the engine.

“You…” Cally was lost for words.

“We needed money to disappear,” he tapped the heavy bag by his side, “There was a reward for you, so…”

Jabbing him painfully in the ribs, Cally leaned her head on his shoulder and inhaled the crisp night air as it whipped past them.

In the headlines

RwandAir cancels flights to DR Congo

This came hours after Kinshasa said the airline has been barred from its airspace.

South Sudan slams UN over sanctions

Security Council renewed an arms embargo and sanctions amid continuing unrest in the country.

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace

Kalonzo barred from Kenyan presidential contest

Eyes on EA central banks as inflation bites

Farewell to the last of the lion-whisperers of East Africa

Rwanda denies backing armed group in DRC

Farewell to the last of the lion-whisperers of East Africa

Saturday May 28 2022

Tony Fitzjohn. PHOTO | COURTESY

Summary

Until his death in a Los Angeles hospital on Monday, Fitzjohn was arguably the last of a dying breed of conservationists, who devoted their lives to the protection and restoration of Africa’s wildlife.
Sir Fitzjohn is known in Kenya for the 18 years where he spent helping the late George Adamson, the internationally renowned conservationist of the Born Free fame, rehabilitate and return lions to the wild in Kora.
In Tanzania, he transformed Mkomazi, a heavily degraded game reserve, into an international beacon of conservation before handing it over to the Tanzanian authorities in 2020 — rich in all species of wildlife, including migrating herds of 600 elephants.

By KITAVI MUTUA

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The wildlife conservation community is mourning Tony Fitzjohn, a conservationist who spent two decades in Kenya rearing lions and leopards at the Kora National Park in the east of the country.

Until his death in a Los Angeles hospital on Monday, Fitzjohn was arguably the last of a dying breed of conservationists, who devoted their lives to the protection and restoration of Africa’s wildlife.

His pioneering conservation work is the subject of several award-winning movies and documentaries, including The Leopards of Kora, a 1982 wildlife documentary about the release of two leopards into the Kora wild; To walk with Lions, a 1999 film that details the fight to save Kenya’s wildlife; and Born to be Wild, a BBC documentary released in 1999 about the translocation of an elephant named Nina to the Mkomazi Game Reserve in northeastern Tanzania on the Kenyan border after 27 years in captivity.

Sir Fitzjohn is known in Kenya for the 18 years where he spent helping the late George Adamson, the internationally renowned conservationist of the Born Free fame, rehabilitate and return lions to the wild in Kora.

In Tanzania, he transformed Mkomazi, a heavily degraded game reserve, into an international beacon of conservation before handing it over to the Tanzanian authorities in 2020 — rich in all species of wildlife, including migrating herds of 600 elephants.

For his work, Fitzjohn was awarded the Order of the British Empire, OBE, and the Prince Bernhard Medal for Conservation. His camp in Mkomazi was visited by royalty, celebrities and conservationists who admired and supported his efforts.

According to Bob Marshall Andrews, chairman of George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust based in London, Fitzjohn, 76, died while undergoing treatment in Los Angeles.

“He died of pneumonia on Monday night after a prolonged fight against a malignant brain tumour diagnosed while in Kenya in August last year,’’ Mr Andrews told The EastAfrican by telephone.

He said Fitzjohn had two delicate medical operations, one in London and the other in Los Angeles, to remove the tumour, but succumbed to pneumonia.

Fitzjohn is survived by his wife Lucy, who was on his bedside at the hospital, and four children.

The Trust has proposed that he be flown to Kenya for burial next to his mentor, Adamson, at Kora.

Fitzjohn was one of the great wildlife conservationists of his generation. He was born in England and, as a young man, spent 18 years with the legendary Adamson in Kora.

“His main towering achievement was the rehabilitation of the huge Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania,” read a statement released by the George Adamson Wildlife Trust eulogising him. “This was at the invitation of the Tanzanian Government in 1989.”

Fitzjohn’s restless spirit driven by an enduring passion for the wild was evident at the age of 22, when he accepted the risky job whose previous holder had just been killed by a lion.

After school, he quit a job as a management trainee in London to become, first, a nightclub bouncer, then a long-distance truck driver in South Africa before travelling to Kenya, where he met Mrs Joy Adamson who linked him up with George.

As the title of his memoirs Born Wild suggests, Fitzjohn seems to have been born a bit rough and with an inherent cynicism about authority, particularly in cases when he felt his rights were abused.

His expulsion from Kenya in 1988 and the death of Mr Adamson at the hands of Shifta bandits the following year were a turning point in his life, culminating in harassment by police and game authorities.

On several occasions, he was arrested, beaten up and charged in court, in a campaign aimed to frustrate their conservation work and force them out of the park.

Fitzjohn believed that Adamson was murdered to stop his conservation work, which had gained global approval because some people were benefiting from a chaotic Kora.

He cites an incident in August 1987, when he was arrested in Mwingi, Kitui County, and driven hundreds of kilometres to Hola, Tana River County, where he was charged with dealing in wild animals and running a tourist camp without a permit.

“It was a laughable nightmare,” he said. “I lived in a cage with a leopard that wouldn’t even let my girlfriend near me, let alone a tourist. I had no option but to plead guilty to the charges and pay the fines.”

In another incident, he was arrested by rangers who were known to him and beaten up as his staff watched. The rangers accused him of trespassing in Kora, yet they knew he was Adamson’s assistant. His permit to keep leopards in Kora was revoked by the Kenya Wildlife Service and he fled to Tanzania in 1988 after it became apparent that the government then wanted him out, leaving his ageing mentor alone and exposed to attacks. The following year, on August 20, Adamson, who had put Kenya on the global conservation map through his pioneering work of rehabilitating orphaned lions in the 1970s, was shot dead by bandits associated with the Shifta movement in northeastern Kenya.

In Tanzania, at the age of 45, Fitzjohn decided to marry an ex-nun called Lucy who was 22 years younger. They had four children, Alexander, Jemima, and twins, Imogen and Tilly.

He then set up base in Mkomazi, a neglected game reserve that he turned from a wilderness into a national park, setting up infrastructure including an airstrip, roads, dams, electricity and water.

His rhino sanctuary and the programme for breeding and releasing endangered African wild dogs saw him awarded the prestigious OBE by the Queen of England in 2006.

“When I moved to Tanzania I was 45, but had no house, no car, no kids, and my relationship with my girlfriend was crumbling. Devastated by Adamson’s death, I needed to reassess what I wanted to achieve,” he narrates in his memoir.

At Mkomazi, which borders Tsavo National Park, there was the problem of sport hunting. But still poachers were killing elephants, leaving their carcasses by the roadside and driving out lions and other animals.

Later, Tony, as he’s fondly known in conservation circles, accepted an invitation by Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu to return to Kenya to help rebuild the world famous lion camp at Kora and bring back the wild cats.

In one of his interviews with Nation.Africa at the graveside of his mentor in the Kora wild, r Fitzjohn revealed his deeply personal struggle with guilt and anger at the brutal murder of Adamson and the subsequent collapse of the lion project.

“Going back to Kora would be a significant homecoming for me. It's a very magical place. It still hits me right between the eyes every time I go there,” he told Nation.Africa then.

Upon return, he planned to restore the Adamson's camp — which was burnt down by the Shifta bandits — and preserve it as a museum.

He recalled with amusement his early days in the vast Kora wild, his incredibly close bond with the big cats and the awful incident in 1975 when he was attacked by a lion.

They had no painkillers in the bush except some ancient veterinary syrup and he couldn't swallow anything, as blood kept pouring from gaping holes in the neck. Worse still, doctors wouldn't arrive until the next morning.

It took several painful weeks at the Nairobi Hospital before Fitzjohn was back on his feet to resume his work in Kora.

“Kora was a tough school,” he recalled, “but it made me an expert in capturing and cuddling Africa's top predators, as well as raising and returning them to the wild.”

According to him, life in the wild was simple, remote and isolated from the outside world. They lived off corned beef and tinned peas most of the time.

In Kenya, Fitzjohn and Adamson reintroduced more than 30 lions and 10 leopards into the wild.

Despite its remote setting, the project received many visitors, including journalists, researchers and people simply looking for an escape or adventure.

Even though he considered the lion attack his closest shave yet, it wasn’t a heavy price to have paid for the privilege of living with wild animals since 1971.

Fitzjohn always shunned praise for his achievements. His hopes for the future were much the same as they have been all his life: to live in Africa, surrounded by wildlife, with more animals than people to speak to.

In the headlines

RwandAir cancels flights to DR Congo

This came hours after Kinshasa said the airline has been barred from its airspace.

South Sudan slams UN over sanctions

Security Council renewed an arms embargo and sanctions amid continuing unrest in the country.

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace

Kalonzo barred from Kenyan presidential contest

Eyes on EA central banks as inflation bites

Rwanda denies backing armed group in DRC

SHORT STORY: Rejection, death and betrayal

Saturday May 28 2022

Motionless under the bridge by a tree on the river bank. His silhouette was unmistakable, but his figure was hunched, shrugged under obvious tension. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGA

Summary

It was late at night when the phone, hanging loosely on a peeling, stained wall, in the dimly lit shabby dinner, rang shrilly.
Cally had been sitting, nursing a coffee for so long that the only other person in the dingy establishment, a thin waitress, had stopped staring sullenly at her and disappeared somewhere into the back. Cally snatched the phone up.
The drive from the dinner to where a narrow bridge crossed a river on the edge of town was short. Jack was exactly where he said he’d be. Motionless under the bridge by a tree on the river bank. His silhouette was unmistakable, but his figure was hunched, shrugged under obvious tension.

By NADYA SOMOE

More by this Author

Cally had been excited to turn 18. Life with a step-mother who wanted nothing to do with her was miserable. So that morning when she woke to a spectacular sunrise, the setting moon in the west and the rising sun in the east and a wash of light, airbrushed colours in pastel tones drizzled decadently in a baby blue sky, she felt like a new day had truly dawned.

Finally, she could move out! Daydreaming and watching the sky grow lighter, Cally jumped when a shrill voice called out from downstairs.

“Are you awake?!” it was Pierra, her step-mom.

Inhaling as she walked down into a large airy kitchen, Cally found Pierra seated on a tall barstool along the granite kitchen counter with her usual dour look souring her pretty features.

“You’re eighteen,” she began before Cally could sit, “and that would mean I’m no longer responsible for you…but I know you and that boyfriend of yours are planning to live…”

“What are you on about?” Cally was testy, it was too early in the morning for an argument, besides, it was her birthday.

“You seem to still need a guardian to execute your finances in line with what your father would have wanted,” Pierra pressed on ignoring the wild look that sprung into Cally’s eyes, “And so there’s been a change to your trust…”

“What?” Cally cut in, panic rising gnarled, twisted and ugly in her chest, “And don’t talk about him!” she added, yelling vehemently at the woman who’d married her late father for his incredible wealth, and never bothered to hide her motives.

“Sneaking out, going to parties,” Pierra spread her arms and shrugged her shoulders that were draped in a fancy robe, “A judge already made the ruling, you can’t access your trust until you’re 25th…”

Seven more years?! Fury erupted like a savage animal from a cage Cally had guarded inside herself so long that the bars had grown rusty and weak. She couldn’t handle seven more years, just so Pierra could have more money. Cally’s mind went blank as she lunged forward, her arms extended, her fingers claws.

Seeing her coming, Pierra tried to move but the long hem of her robe got caught on one leg of the stool she was perched on, so as she jumped up, she stumbled back instead.

Pierra fell in slow motion, her arms flailing to catch at air, her gown rippling as if she were underwater, her mouth a perfect ‘O’, her eyes registering shock and fear, then going blank, as her head cracked hard with a sickening thud onto the granite counter top behind her.

It took Cally several minutes to register what had happened. She stood numbly, looking at the prone figure swathed in an expensive, black robe crumpled on the floor. Then, with an emptiness borne of shock enveloping her comfortably, she went back upstairs and packed everything she cared to take, loading it robotically into her car. As the sun rose high in the sky, Cally, trembling and slightly nauseas, drove off without looking back.

“Jack?” Cally’s voice was shaking as she called her boyfriend, “Something’s happened.”

“Are you okay?” The concern in his voice settled her nerves a little.

“I’m…” she paused, then exhaled her words in a torrent, “Pierra’s dead…she fell…just now…we were arguing...she changed a clause so I couldn’t get my money…”

“What!” Jack’s exclamation stopped her dead and Cally swerved dangerously as she struggled to control her car with one hand, the other cradling her phone to her ear, “Dead? How? Are you sure?”

“I…She hit her head…she fell…I couldn’t do anything,” Cally moaned, biting down the words that she hadn’t wanted to do anything.

“Remember the dinner we had those pancakes at?” Jack paused carefully, “The booth near the telephone? Wait for me,” the phone went dead and Cally almost cried at how lonely she suddenly felt.

It was late at night when the phone, hanging loosely on a peeling, stained wall, in the dimly lit shabby dinner, rang shrilly. Cally had been sitting, nursing a coffee for so long that the only other person in the dingy establishment, a thin waitress, had stopped staring sullenly at her and disappeared somewhere into the back. Cally snatched the phone up.

“It’s me,” Jack’s deep voice said, “Will you come get me? By the river, under the bridge.”

The night was cool. Thick black blue clouds drifted low in a navy sky, pushed by a strong breeze. It ruffled the mass of heavy curls about her head and Cally shivered, pulling her woollen sweater tight around her.

The drive from the dinner to where a narrow bridge crossed a river on the edge of town was short. Jack was exactly where he said he’d be. Motionless under the bridge by a tree on the river bank. His silhouette was unmistakable, but his figure was hunched, shrugged under obvious tension.

“I knew you’d come, I knew it,” Jack whispered as she drew close. His voice was hoarse and as he spoke, Cally heard the regret dripping off of every syllable. Freezing where she stood, realisation dawned hot and bitter as out of the darkness that had enveloped them snuggly, police sirens and piercing red and blue lights shattered their cocoon. He’d betrayed her. She’d was caught.

***
Read Part II here

In the headlines

RwandAir cancels flights to DR Congo

This came hours after Kinshasa said the airline has been barred from its airspace.

South Sudan slams UN over sanctions

Security Council renewed an arms embargo and sanctions amid continuing unrest in the country.

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace

Kalonzo barred from Kenyan presidential contest

Eyes on EA central banks as inflation bites

Farewell to the last of the lion-whisperers of East Africa

Rwanda denies backing armed group in DRC

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace as relations with Kigali deteriorate

Saturday May 28 2022

A RwandAir plane. DRC has baared the airline from its airspace. PHOTO | FILE

By PARTICK ILUNGA

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Relations between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda seemed to deteriorate Saturday after DRC barred RwandAir from its airspace.

Patrick Muyaya, spokesman for the Congolese government, announced that DRC has “immediately” suspended the flights, adding that a “stern warning is given to the Government of Rwanda” over its alleged involvement in the conflict in North Kivu, eastern DRC.

DRC on Wednesday accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels who are currently fighting government forces in North Kivu province. Rwanda denied any involvement.

Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said the country has “no intention of being drawn into an internal matter of the DRC.”

The DRC summoned Vincent Karega, the Rwandan ambassador to Kinshasa, over the rebel issue.

Mr Muyaya also announced that the M23 rebel group is now “considered as a Terrorist Movement”. The M23 is therefore “excluded from the Nairobi discussion process” through which armed groups had been called to dialogue with the government to find a solution to the armed conflict in eastern DR Congo.

Sources further said that calm has been restored in eastern DRC on Friday morning even as the Congolese army announced it had pushed back the M23 rebels it was fighting in North Kivu.

Chief of staff of the Congolese army, General Celestin Mbala, has since Friday been in Goma, the largest city in North Kivu, to direct military operations.

Fighting in the region has forced more than 72,000 civilians to flee their villages, according to the United Nations.

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MAIMBO: Why World Bank is pushing against subsidies in E. Africa to deal with crises

Saturday May 28 2022

Samuel Munzele Maimbo, the World Bank director for development finance. PHOTO | COURTESY

Summary

Covid-19 destabilised the economies of developing countries that have lost a lot. On top of that, the war in Ukraine has taken wheat from Ukraine and Russia off the market.
Any government thinking about a response has to look at short-term and long-term needs. Short-term needs could be food and fuel and long term needs would be education.

By NELSON NATURINDA

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Samuel Munzele Maimbo, the World Bank director for development finance, spoke to Nelson Naturinda on how the bank is helping regional economies deal with global crises

There has been an outcry over high commodity prices. Countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania have given economic subsidies for fuel but the World Bank is reported to be against these. What do you want the economies to do to assist their people?

Context matters. We must consider the state of the global economy. Global economic growth has been declining from 5.5 percent in 2021 to 4.1 percent currently.

Covid-19 destabilised the economies of developing countries that have lost a lot. On top of that, the war in Ukraine has taken wheat from Ukraine and Russia off the market.

Any government thinking about a response has to look at short-term and long-term needs. Short-term needs could be food and fuel and long term needs would be education.

The World Bank position is that subsidies are effective if temporary or targeted. If you do not have these two working carefully, the risk of mismanaging subsidies is high.

President Yoweri Museveni has repeatedly told Ugandans there will be no tax cuts or subsidies. Is he saying this out of pressure from you the financiers?

Our country-based model is to always put the authorities in the forefront of deciding specific policies. What we provide is advisory on how to make sure that specific policy instruments are designed in a way they work.

It is early, at the moment when food prices are rising, to be definitive in terms of the use of subsidies. It is much easier to get subsidies wrong than to get them correct, especially in a complex environment.

But people are looking for short-term relief. What are you doing?

When the World Bank is confronting global problems, we provide global solutions. When Covid-19 came, we were looking at relief. Between April 2020 and March 2022, the World Bank gave developing countries $200 billion; $73 billion on highly concessional terms, in addition to $26 billion for technical assistance. We have provided $17 billion for agriculture. Over the next 15 months, we shall be giving about $170 billion to help countries deal with multiple crises arising out of the war in Ukraine. The key is that for us having given support to governments, the governments must make sure they are the final link.

Have East African countries approached you for support because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

We recently had several delegations come to the World Bank to express their challenges. The challenges in East Africa are pretty similar to those in other parts of the region. One of these is the rising debt vulnerability. The number of countries that are at high risk of debt distress has increased from six to 12. The war has caused a rise in food prices, energy prices and slow tourism.

Apart from Covid-19 and the war, natural disasters have not gone on leave. These impact countries differently.

Our planned support of $170 billion is about responding to immediate needs and investing in future.

Citizens are worried about the increasing debt. Aren’t you worried?

People are right to be worried about the public debt. You cannot talk about development without talking about sustainable debt.

Are we worried? Yes, we are. Globally, the total debt to GDP has increased to over 200 percent. The worry comes in when you look at rising inflation, decline in economic growth, rising food prices, energy prices, you are coming out of Covid-19.

What the World Bank has done is to put in place a project called the sustainable development finance policy, which will make sure that countries are talking about debt. The citizens, the government should be aware of where they are. The pillars of transparency, fiscal management and debt management capacity apply.

If debt is not being managed well, at what point do you take action?

Under the sustainable debt policy, all the actions that are negotiated are made public. It allows citizens and civil society to actively monitor what is happening and have the conversation with government. We are not global police. We provide support.

Uganda’s debt to GDP ratio has risen from 41 percent to 50 percent and the government is taking action by having such a conversation.

There are countries in the region which have reached 70 percent and have not taken action. There are countries that are high debt level, but they are sustainable because their revenue generation capacity is high. Every single situation is different.

What is important for World Bank is that you are having that conversation and you are being honest with yourself as a country.

***

BIO
Samuel Munzele Maimbo is the director of the International Development Association Resource Mobilisation and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Corporate Finance department at the World Bank.

Mr Maimbo joined the World Bank in 2001.

Before that, he was a bank inspector at the Bank of Zambia and auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He holds a PhD in Public Administration (Banking) from the University of Manchester and an MBA in Finance from the University of Nottingham.

In the headlines

RwandAir cancels flights to DR Congo

This came hours after Kinshasa said the airline has been barred from its airspace.

South Sudan slams UN over sanctions

Security Council renewed an arms embargo and sanctions amid continuing unrest in the country.

DR Congo bars RwandAir from its airspace

Kalonzo barred from Kenyan presidential contest

Eyes on EA central banks as inflation bites

Farewell to the last of the lion-whisperers of East Africa

Rwanda denies backing armed group in DRC

Film explores Zanzibar's colonial past through love story

Saturday May 28 2022

The central characters Denge (male) and Yasmin in the film "Vuta N' Kuvute" in the period drama filmed by Kijiweni Productions in TZ. PHOTO | CAROLYNE ULIWA | NMG

Summary

The film features first time actors such as contemporary taarab singer Siti Amina, who portrays the powerful and resilient Mwajuma. There are also more experienced actors like Gabo Zigamba playing the notorious officer Matata.
Vuta N’Kuvute was selected for the 37th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and screened at the 29th New York African Film Festival.
The film received the special jury prize for the Seattle International Film Festival 2022 (USA), the Best Long Fiction award in the Mashariki African Film Festival 2021 (Rwanda), and the Oumarou Ganda Prize for Best Fiction at Fespaco 2021 (Burkina Faso).

By CAROLINE ULIWA

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Vuta N’Kuvute, a coming-of-age political love story set in the final years of British colonial rule in Zanzibar, will make its Dar es Salaam debut at Century Cinemax (both Mlimani City branch & Dar Free Market) on May 27 and will run until June 9.

Adapted from the book by Tanzanian Shafi Adam Shafi, which was published by Mkuki na Nyota, the film explores the isle’s culture across the divides of class and racial segregation imposed by the colonial regime.

The main character Denge, played by Gudrun Mwanyika, is a frustrated and rebellious Zanzibari young man who is part of the freedom struggle against British rule. He meets Yasmin (Ikhlas Gafur Vora), a runaway Indian-Zanzibari bride, who is also rebelling against the patriarchal repressive norms of the time.

The film features first time actors such as contemporary taarab singer Siti Amina, who portrays the powerful and resilient Mwajuma. There are also more experienced actors like Gabo Zigamba playing the notorious officer Matata.

Vuta N’Kuvute was selected for the 37th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and screened at the 29th New York African Film Festival.

The film received the special jury prize for the Seattle International Film Festival 2022 (USA), the Best Long Fiction award in the Mashariki African Film Festival 2021 (Rwanda), and the Oumarou Ganda Prize for Best Fiction at Fespaco 2021 (Burkina Faso). In addition, Vuta N’Kuvute will be the opening film at the 25th Zanzibar International Film Festival this year.

The film was shot in Zanzibar over two years, with the script written by Amil Shivji, the Kijiweni Production founder and director, and Jenna Bass. Some 100 crew members were involved, most of them from Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania with a few from Kenya and South Africa.

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