RUSHDIE OUDIA

Melinda French Gates: Innovation the right dose for Africa’s health and poverty

Saturday June 25 2022

Co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda French Gates, in Paris on July 1, 2021, where she spoke at the Generation Equality Forum. PHOTO | AFP

By JACKSON MUTINDA

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The co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda French Gates, spoke to Jackson Mutinda about solutions for the continent’s development problems on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali.

You are in Africa at a time the continent is hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. What message did you bring to this meeting?

My message was that there's incredible innovation going on on the continent, with a young generation that's up and coming with a lot of ingenuity. And, you know, so much progress has been made on the continent in the past 20 years.

Childhood deaths are down, immunisation rates are up … all of that progress. We need to maintain the momentum because some of those things went backwards because of Covid-19. Now, malaria deaths are up, immunisation rates are down. And so my message is, let's keep what we call in the US the pedal to the metal -- let's keep pushing forward all this progress and change that’s happening.

When we invest in the health system, people grow up healthy, they don't deal with much malaria and then they can go on to get a great education and the job that they want and fulfil their dreams. And so my message is, let's make sure we keep focusing on health so that this amazing young population can live its dreams.

You were there when the Kigali Declaration on eradicating malaria and neglected tropical diseases was adopted. Now, looking at what is happening globally – with pandemics like Covid-19, wars and disruption of global supply chains – don’t you think it's too ambitious to achieve by 2030?

We have innovation on our side. Ten years ago we didn't have a malaria vaccine, we didn't have any vaccine for a parasitic disease. Now we have one, and it's being delivered in Africa. Now, it's only 50 percent efficacious, but we have another vaccine coming very soon that should be more efficacious.

Again, 15 years ago it was difficult for mum to get a bed net. And then we started delivering bed nets. Now, people regularly use bed nets and, well, a next-generation bed net with a better insecticide is coming. So we have all this innovation. And we have people used to doing the right things like detecting malaria in the health system, detecting it quickly and getting on top of it quickly. We have families that are now sleeping under bed nets. So it's possible.

It certainly is an ambitious agenda, and a lot will hang in the balance with this war in Ukraine that's causing all kinds of problems in countries, including the continent of Africa. But we need to keep fighting because we're seeing many more people being healthy and not dying of malaria as in the past.

Also read: Europe gives $12m funding for malaria vaccine

Do you see more political will in the implementation of health and development programmes you've helped finance?

Definitely. I mean, we're sitting here in Rwanda. They have invested in their primary health care system. I've just come from the telemedicine project, which is run by Babyl (an organisation using an app that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning with live health workers for consultation).

They’re taking the patient load off doctors and making sure that patients can call into a call centre, where there are nurses and doctors, and they go through their symptoms, and then they triage. Some of those patients need to go to the health clinic, but some can be treated over the phone, or sent straight to the laboratory to get a test, then decide if they need to see a doctor, and so taking that load off the system so that the doctors can deal with the most serious issues.

Boy, that's a fabulous innovation! And they're doing it using feature phones, which are predominantly used in Rwanda and many countries in Africa. But when you think of how that's changing the health system, wow!

Just like M-Pesa when it was first created in Kenya, you could do a bit with it. But now when I see so many countries doing digital money and doing digital ID, people are able to save and transact. If people save, if there's a health shock or something they want to invest in -- like a business or their kids’ education – they have the money. I'm seeing a lot of good change across the continent. You see a case like Rwanda, and you think, wow, this is really possible.

You have placed women at the centre of your programmes and that seems to be paying good dividends…

Put women at the centre and it starts to change things: They change their family, they change their community, they change a whole country. Rwanda is a great example. Now, over 60 percent of parliamentarians are women. And when you go into the banking sector -- you see a woman at the helm at the Bank of Kigali -- and it's not, as some women have pointed out to me, unusual anymore.

Read: Women pressing on for progress in East Africa

The policies, the laws have been changed, and now it's got where the social norm is: you expect to see women in lots of high roles. I think that kind of change is possible when you empower women. I also know in the development community we have to do specific programming. So we can't assume that if there's one phone in the family, it's a woman who has it, you have to assume the man has it.

So what's the extra mile we need to go to make sure the woman has an account on that phone, because the man will get the phone, he'll get a digital account, but she needs one too? Again, at Babyl they found that as soon as they got women signed up with a national ID, more women were calling into the call centre. So I know that empowering women makes a difference.

You have had messaging around reproductive health. How has that gone?

It's gone actually well, and we're seeing more places across the continent where women are asking for contraceptives, whether you're in Niger, Senegal, Kenya, or Rwanda, women are saying this is a tool I need and want to use.

I think the message has been well received, but we still need to do more to have more supply of contraceptives. One thing they do here in Rwanda, which is what countries that are farther along on this journey do, is to offer a basket of contraceptives, you know, long-term and short-term; long-term being an IUD (intrauterine device) or an implant, short-term being the pill or condoms. When you offer that basket, women are more likely to use and stay on a contraceptive. And then you add something like telemedicine, where there's no bias, they feel it's private, they can get counselling.

Let's say they're using a method and they feel like oh gosh, I'm having these side effects… they can call in and so they're likely to continue using the method. That really helps because when women can time and space their births, they're healthier, their children are healthier, and the family is wealthier.

Health and poverty are closely related, so which one do we need to eradicate first?

You have to have good health to have a chance to honestly lift yourself out of poverty. So if you have a family that is constantly dealing with bouts of malaria, they're depleting any savings they have, whereas if you can help contain malaria in their region, or make sure if they get it they can get diagnosed and get medicine quickly, then they are not spending much of their family savings or income on that. The mum and dad and older kids can go to work, and the younger kids can go to school. So you have to invest in health to help a country and its citizenry lift themselves out of poverty.

There has been a discussion around equity in terms of access and supply of medicines and vaccines between rich countries and poor countries. How can this be resolved?

Covid exposed the inequities and injustice in health. The fact that the high-income countries were in line first for medications, vaccines, that's not okay. And so, the countries that couldn't get them were outraged and they should be.

Read: Vaccine deserts: The poor nations trailing in the fight against Covid-19

But I think one of the silver linings coming out of Covid was making sure that more vaccines are created in more places. On the continent of Africa, there should be probably three regional hubs.

Before coming to Kigali I visited the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal, where the Foundation has been investing since 2012. They've been around almost 100 years, they make yellow fever vaccines of very high quality. Well, guess what? There's still a shortage of yellow fever vaccines, so they're ramping up production. And Russia has just dropped out of the equation. So Institut Pasteur de Dakar is going to create much more capacity.

They are also readying to create the measles and rubella vaccine. So it doesn't have to be created somewhere else; it can be created on the continent. Other vaccines with this mRNA technology are coming along. If we invest now, which you just saw BioNTech do here in Rwanda, then as mRNA comes along, it may eventually help us deal with malaria and tuberculosis. And Institut Pasteur in West Africa will also move to mRNA vaccines over time, and then I think we’ll probably have one other hub on the continent, likely in the south. That’s going to make sense for Africans.

We’ve seen a move from grants to partnerships. What next? Do we foresee in the near future sub-Saharan Africa financing its own health programmes?

Yes, the goal should always be helping low-income countries become middle-income countries and middle-income countries become high-income countries. That’s where everybody would like to progress. So our job is to have deep partnerships, understand what's needed and what our partners want, and then we do a mix of grants and investments.

We are all about trying to make sure there is innovation, but that the innovation is shared equally. Some 95 percent of malaria cases are on the continent of Africa and 96 percent of the deaths happen here. So we felt that there needed to be more innovations. That meant having to put in a whole bunch of scientific grants to incentivise scientists to do it. And it means investing in things like mRNA. So when it comes along, we can use it for malaria.

I think African governments want to be self-sustaining, right? So we try to be in deep partnerships to make sure governments are on that path. We're trying to connect the dots and help people see all the innovations that are going on so that they can be shared. So as I mentioned, Babyl in Rwanda, we made a grant to help them get up and running. Today it is run by Rwandans and they don't need continued grants from us; they're on a path where they will break even in a couple of years.

What makes you lose sleep about global health?

Let’s just take Covid as an example. I was outraged to see that there were healthcare workers in Africa who couldn't get a vaccine when we were giving it in the West, you know, essentially to everybody. That didn't make any sense. So that kept me up at night.

I've been in and out of lots of health clinics in Africa and I know how tough those environments are. And those are the people doing the hard work -- the frontline work. So that certainly kept me up. I did a little better, personally, when I started to see the women going out and the health care workers giving the right messages, making sure people hand-wash, making sure they wore masks, I was like, okay, they're doing the real work until they get a vaccine.

But what keeps me up at night is just knowing there are still needless maternal deaths, just because we haven't helped fix health care clinics in the right way and children are dying. I've been in situations where I've seen babies sucking on oxygen, with pneumonia, where there's not enough oxygen to go around, you know, a little premature baby. That’s tough. And so it still keeps me up at night that we haven't got further. We’ve done well on infant and child mortality, but we need to do better. We really do.

Also read: Why a newborn is more likely to die in Nairobi than in rural areas

What needs to be done by the countries affected before organisations like the Gates Foundation come in?

Well, you have to have a peaceful and steady government. It’s almost impossible to work in war-torn countries or during conflict. So you need a peaceful government. And then you need a committed government that is there for the people and that wants to make the right investments in healthcare, in education, in helping their citizens lift themselves up.

Are there other areas that you consider important in your programmes?

Many people in Africa are farmers, right? They farm a small plot of land and so making sure they get pest-resistant seeds that are specific to their area; drought-resistant seeds, flood-resistant seeds… making sure that people get the right seeds, have access to fertiliser -- which is very tricky with the whole Russia situation in Ukraine -- that people can grow what they want, put some on the market and have enough to eat for nutrition... That is incredibly important because, again, countries want to be self-sustaining in terms of food systems. And that is a key piece we work on and in Africa, we work with the African institution, Agra (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa).

Read: How food and milk will bring peace to conflicts in Africa

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Zimbabwe lobbies to rejoin Commonwealth

Saturday June 25 2022

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa. FILE PHOTO | AFP

By KITSEPILE NYATHI

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Zimbabwe at the ongoing Commonwealth summit in Rwanda continued with lobbying for readmission 18 years after it was thrown out of the body over allegations of human rights abuses.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government submitted an application on May 15, 2018 to re-join the grouping of 54 countries, a year after the ouster of strongman Robert Mugabe in a military coup.

The late Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe between 1980 and 2017 with an iron fist, was at the loggerheads with the Commonwealth over alleged human rights abuses and electoral fraud.

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Rwanda Charity Manyeruke , who is attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Kigali as an observer alongside other top government officials, told local media that the southern African country’s participation at the summit was a “positive development.”

“Zimbabwe is excited to be participating in Commonwealth forums as this presents opportunities to network with the international community taking into account the government of Zimbabwe’s policy of engagement and reengagement,” Ms Manyeruke said.

“The Commonwealth meeting in Kigali has provided opportunities for our Zimbabwean diaspora across the globe, who are participating as panellists, facilitators and as delegates in the forums.

“I have met with the Zimbabwe diaspora, media, private sector, academia, civil society, those in finance and banking, arts and students, “They have had an opportunity to engage.”

Three Zimbabwean ministers have been attending side events at the summit such as the Commonwealth Women Forum and the Commonwealth Business Forum.

The Zimbabwean mission in Rwanda is also holding an exhibition to showcase products from the southern African country.

Harare has been lobbying countries such as Rwanda to support its efforts to be readmitted into the Commonwealth.

Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs deputy minister David Musabayana said he had held meetings with influential people to discuss the country’s potential readmission.

“We are humbled to be invited to attend as observers,” Mr Musabayana said.

“There is a lot of interest in Zimbabwe from Commonwealth member countries, who are keen to do business and invest in Zimbabwe,” he added.

After the coup, countries such as the United Kingdom appeared ready to support Zimbabwe’s return to the Commonwealth, but the stance has since changed owing to President Mnangagwa’s reluctance to implement promised electoral reforms.

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President Paul Kagame takes up reins of Commonwealth club

Saturday June 25 2022

Rwanda President Paul Kagame speaks during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kigali on June 24, 2022. PHOTO | CHOGM

By BERNA NAMATA

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As Rwandan President Paul Kagame takes charge of the Commonwealth for the next two years, he faces a daunting task of reviving an association that faces an existential threat due to its colonial history.

President Kagame took over chairmanship from Britain under PM Boris Johnson at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Kigali.

As chair, he is expected to oversee the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the implementing organ of the 56-nation club, whose memberships is drawn from those predominantly with colonial ties to the then imperial British Empire. In recent years, the club has admitted countries with no such historical ties including Rwanda, Mozambique and most recently Togo and Gabon.

“Countries join the Commonwealth because it has many meetings at Heads and Ministerial level and is thus a forum that provides political legitimacy. These French colonies, as are some Caribbean Commonwealth countries, are also Francophonie members. All this strengthens their political legitimacy, deepens the impression that they are recognised and accepted by the global community,” a diplomat told The EastAfrican.

The Commonwealth values enshrined in its charter include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace.

Read: Is Commonwealth membership still relevant to countries today?

Crown vs sovereignty debate

Critics argue that despite the increasing membership, the club has failed to live up to its values as member countries continue to violate these principles without being held to account partly because it has no binding framework to impose sanctions.

The Commonwealth, which is headed by Queen Elizabeth II, 96, is under pressure as more countries seek sovereignty and break ties with the British monarchy.

In 2020, Barbados became the fourth Caribbean country to replace the Queen as its Head of State, joining Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Dominica who did soon after gaining independence in the 1970s. Eight other former British colonies in the region, however, still pledge allegiance to the Crown.

But, most recently, in March, Jamaica formally expressed its intention to become independent amid protests calling on the monarchy to pay reparations for slavery during a visit to the country by Prince William, second-in-line to the British throne and his wife Kate Middleton.

Now, speculation is rife that Britain is attempting to persuade Jamaica to shelve the plans by endorsing Kamina Johnson Smith, their candidate for the position of Commonwealth Secretary-General.

But Ms Smith’s candidature has also created a rift between members in particular with the Caribbean, which had previously endorsed the current Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland who has had a controversial and extended tenure.

Read: Scotland retains Commonwealth SG seat in rare contest

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DRC refugees influx into Uganda poses health crisis

SA police try to unravel mystery of 21 teens deaths

Loliondo: Tanzania stands ground on Maasai move

Uganda's Kiira Motors in race against time

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Chogm in Kigali: Colonies’ triumph over the British empire

Saturday June 25 2022

Delegates at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda. PHOTO | AFP

By Charles Onyango-Obbo

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As the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) closed in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, questions about its relevance, and criticism about it being a colonial relic, were as loud as ever.

It was the 26th biannual Chogm of the Commonwealth’s modern era, and the second held in the East African Community zone, after it met in Kampala, Uganda, in 2007. Chogm was due to take place in June 2020, but was postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Commonwealth has been remade by forces as disruptive as the pandemic, though less dramatic, and the Kigali venue for its 26th meeting is revealing. Rwanda entered the Commonwealth in 2009, the first expansion of the bloc in the 21st century. It came 14 years after Mozambique joined in 1995, the Commonwealth’s last expansion of the 20th century.

In Kigali, Gabon and Togo officially became members of the Commonwealth at the heads of state summit. Diplomats in East Africa have suggested that Burundi is also knocking on the Commonwealth door. It all looks like the wasteful pursuit of a dodo. Perhaps it isn’t.

Mozambique’s and Rwanda’s entrances, like Gabon’s and Togo’s, were unusual — they had never had previous structural or colonial link with the UK. Mozambique had been a Portuguese colony, and fought a bitter war of liberation to win its independence in 1975. Rwanda had been a Belgian colony, and a few years after Independence in 1962, fell firmly under France’s “sphere in influence” in Africa. It is for these reasons that their Commonwealth is telling.

British-French political grudge

Mozambique’s entrance had some of its roots in the global movement against apartheid in South Africa. It also picked up the causes in Mozambique and Angola against Portuguese occupation.

As South African History Online notes: “The reaction of the outside world to the development of apartheid was widespread, and by the 1980s posed a sustained challenge to the South African regime.

“While countries throughout the world took various measures to weaken and topple apartheid, it was the anti-apartheid movements in the United Kingdom (UK), Holland and the United States of America (USA) that mounted the most serious of these challenges to the apartheid state, the UK’s perhaps being the most effective of all such organisations throughout the world.”

These movements, especially in the US and UK, moreover functioned in a context where the governments were the staunchest supporters of apartheid.

In Rwanda’s case, it was the Rwanda Patriotic Front/Army-led war, which started in October 1990, against the Juvenal Habyarimana government of the time, that did it. It ended in victory for the RPF/A, but only after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in which nearly one million Tutsi, and many Hutu, were slaughtered in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

The RPF/A was formed by Ugandan-based Rwandan refugees and exiles, and launched its return-to-the-motherland campaign from there. Several of its rank and file, and mid-level leadership, were also drawn from other Anglophone (and Commonwealth) countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Canada, Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UK diplomatic support for the RPF after it took power was both controversial and decisive in the context in which the new Kigali government had to fight for international legitimacy.

France didn’t help its cause, and its real and perceived dalliance with extremist killer Interahamwe militia and arming of the military left it hobbled with the image of an enabler of the Genocide. With the RPF’s rise to power, the French sphere of influence in Rwanda all but collapsed. Where once French was the official language, now it was English — and Kinyarwanda.

It was a coincidence, of course, yet Rwanda’s accession to the Commonwealth seemed like the settlement of a 220-year-old British grudge against the French. France was a significant and decisive contributor toward the US’s eventual victory against the British crown and independence in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783. France wasn’t done, rubbing it in Britain’s face, by gifting the American people the colossal Statue of Liberty, in New York, commemorating the alliance of France and the US during the American Revolution.

Britain’s loss in America British began to shake the empire, and paying for the war effort led to a sharp rise in national debt. Britain was to survive another century of relative global dominion, but the seeds of the Commonwealth were sown; of British influence through historical ties, “shared values”, and use of the English language was born. It came formally to fruition as the British Commonwealth of Nations in 1926 in the post-World War I period as the anti-colonial movement gathered steam around the world.

Revenge of the colonised

Fast forward to nearly 100 years later, and while parts of it could be anachronistic, the other parts tell a story of a Commonwealth that is a triumph of the colonised against their old colonial master. The Commonwealth is becoming what the empire looks like when the colonies take their revenge — and keep the trophy.

If you sit before a TV station in London these days, the signs are all there. There are a slew of programmes on how the Caribbean, South Asian, and other people from former colonies helped make modern Britain. A disproportionate number of faces in TV advertisements and British popular culture are people of colour.

On both the left and right of British politics, politicians of colour have risen to notable prominence. Among several, there is Chancellor of the Exchequer (minister of Finance) Rishi Sunak, who was touted as a possible successor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mr Sunak’s parents are emigrants of East African South Asian descent.

His father Yashvir, a doctor, and mother Usha Sunak, a pharmacist, were born in Kenya and Tanzania respectively.

Perhaps the second most controversial UK minister after Mr Johnson, Home Secretary Priti Patel is also of South Asian descent. Born in London, her paternal grandparents were from Gujarat, India, before emigrating to Uganda, and running a convenience store in Kampala. In the 1960s, her parents emigrated to the UK.

Chogm in 2100

So, looking ahead to what this Commonwealth and Chogm will look like in 80 years, or earlier, the UK prime minister who will arrive then for Chogm in some African capital in the next 25 years will not look like Mr Johnson, but Mr Sunak, Ms Patel, or Chuka Harrison Umunna, the former Labour Party Shadow Cabinet member, who was dubbed “Britain's Barack Obama”. He was born to a Nigerian father and English-Irish mother.

One rather optimistic (or bleak) research projected that white Britons will have become a minority by 2051 due to immigration and growth in the population of settled ethnic minorities from the Indian sub-continent and other non-European Union countries. This “tanning” (to borrow the idea from Steve Stoute and Mim Eichler Rivas’s The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy) will affect other large Commonwealth countries, including Canada and Australia.

Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the Commonwealth, but with age and poor health weighing her down, Prince Charles has effectively taken over the role. Prince Charles represented the queen in Kigali, and became the first British royal to visit Rwanda. But even with that, and Prince Harry and his mixed heritage wife Meghan Markle stepping down as senior working royals, the British monarchy, if it survives to end of the century, is unlikely to remain untouched by the great demographic shifts changing the times.

And, contradictorily, the Commonwealth may need to decline, or completely die out as a political force, for it to thrive. Its present quirk, as the only such organisation that has a mini-Olympics in the form of the Commonwealth Games, could well be the reason for its existence in the decades to come. Organising sports, for those who are otherwise denied glory in the Olympics to shine; a steward of English, the universal language of the world, being the source of its relevance.

With Britain a minor power, there will be less nationalist resentment toward the Commonwealth.

In Rwanda, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial to honour victims.

Even just 15 years ago, not even the most fanciful mind would have imagined that the story of the Commonwealth would be touched by the tragedy that was unleashed on the surrounding hills and valleys.

The strangeness of it is that had none of the horrors happened, Chogm wouldn’t have gone there this week, and Prince Charles wouldn’t have been in Kigali.

The author is a journalist, writer, and curator of the “Wall of Great Africans”. Twitter @cobbo3

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Commonwealth’s rich nations take heat for failing to help small states

Saturday June 25 2022

Heads of state and government at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda. PHOTO | CHOGM

By BERNA NAMATA

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Rich and influential Commonwealth countries — including the UK, Canada and Australia — have been put on the spot for failing to help low-income and small member states in their hour of need at the height of the global pandemic.

They also happen to be members of the elite G7 or G20 in the case of Australia, while on the other end of the spectrum, the Commonwealth has 13 Least Developed Countries and 32 small states.

The Commonwealth is supposed to be an important “collective voice” and a vehicle to potentially provide leverage for global positions but influential and rich members remain lukewarm and pursue national interests, to the detriment of the majority of Club members who happen to be developing countries.

Read: Is Commonwealth membership still relevant to countries today?

Voiceless members

“There is undoubtedly value in a Commonwealth advocacy and consensus-building role. The global stage is a crowded one and voice and influence are at a premium. It is crucial though that Commonwealth voice and advocacy add real value: It must be able to recognise and respond to the differences among members and be used assertively on behalf of the majority of voiceless Commonwealth members in fora such as the Bretton-Woods institutions, the G20 and the G7,” said Ransford Smith, former deputy secretary-general of the Commonwealth.

Ahead of his arrival for the summit in Kigali on Tuesday, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau tweeted, pledging to “work with leaders at the meeting to address the shared crises that many countries are facing like the impact of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and Climate Change, and the rising cost of living.”

But at the Commonwealth Business Forum on the same day whose theme was A Global Reset: Leveraging the Commonwealth for a Global Recovery, a panel of experts pointed out the lack of solidarity in tackling global issues facing the developing world.

There is the need to address the underlying inequality that exists between Commonwealth members as rich countries continue to trade with each other and have done little to support developing countries still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

The conversation on inequality in the Commonwealth was started by President Paul Kagame, the incoming chair of the bloc, who challenged leaders to tackle inequality in his speech.

“We need to keep making sure that when we talk about the Commonwealth, we actually mean the Commonwealth. Not just that being ‘common’ to a few of the many 54 countries.

“This is why I said, it keeps being a work in progress. We keep having to engage one another, finding out what we can do to bring that balance to the extent that everyone in the Commonwealth, the family of nations, feels they are part of it, no one is left behind…” said the president, calling for more efforts to ensure that small, developing nations within the Commonwealth are not left behind.”

A panel raised concerns about the lack of solidarity despite the shared crises.

And, as the coronavirus pandemic recedes, there is concern over a global rise of fuel prices, the cost of living, and food insecurity partly linked to the war in Ukraine. This is in addition to existing challenges of climate change and debt sustainability in the developing world.

Donald Kaberuka, the managing partner, SouthBridge, and a former president of the African Development Bank said the current response to the crises by the international community including within the Commonwealth has been “insufficient” as the global South remains sidelined, citing limited access to Covid-19 vaccines in the developing world.

“We should begin to consider the crisis we are living through as the new normal. There are many more crises to come... and each time the response has been unequal between the global North and South. I’m not blaming the global North, I’m only saying what happened…” Mr Kaberuka said, referencing the support Ukraine has received including the recent $9 billion financial package by the EU, with favourable payment terms of a 10-year grace period, and repayment period of 25 years.

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South Africa police try to unravel mystery of 21 teens deaths at a bar

Monday June 27 2022

Emergency services personnel load a body into a pathology services truck at a township pub in South Africa's southern city of East London on June 26, 2022, after 20 teenagers died. PHOTO | AFP

By AFP

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Most of the victims, some as young as 13 years, were found dead inside a popular bar in the southern city of East London. Seventeen died inside the bar, while four died in hospital.

Thirty-one others were hospitalised with symptoms including backache, tight chests, vomiting and headache, official said.

Most were discharged on Sunday, leaving two in hospital, they said.

The fatalities bore no visible signs of injury, sparking initial speculation among local officials and politicians that this was a case of underage drinking that went tragically wrong.

Strong, suffocating smell

But new details emerged Monday as survivors spoke of a strong and suffocating smell in the jam-packed double-storey building.

Sinovuyo Monyane, 19, who was hired by the bar to promote an alcohol brand, said she was still "confused" but felt lucky to be alive.

She said she struggled to escape through a door gridlocked with people.

"We tried moving through the crowd, shouting 'please let us through,' and others were shouting 'we are dying, guys,' and 'we are suffocating' and 'there are people who can't breathe'," she told AFP.

"I passed out at that moment. I was running out of breath and there was a strong smell of some type of spray on in the air. We thought it was pepper spray," she said.

Regained consciousness

She later regained her consciousness after someone sprayed water on her.

"I got up and realised that there were bodies lying around. I saw people being poured water, but those people did not even move," she said in a phone interview.

"I could have died."

Special investigators from Pretoria have been rushed to the scene.

"The detectives will be resuming their work at the crime scene today," regional police spokesman Thembinkosi Kinana told AFP.

'Traumatised'

Many of the victims are thought to have been students celebrating the end of their high-school exams, officials said.

Autopsies are being conducted to see if the deaths could be linked to the poisoning.

"Post-mortems (were) completed by last night and the bodies will be released to their families today," said Yonela Dekeda, provincial spokeswoman for the health department.

Forensic analysis will be conducted this week.

"Samples were taken and were on first flight today to Cape Town, where the tests will be conducted," said Unathi Binqose, a government official on safety.

Drinking-age laws

Drinking in South Africa is permitted for over-18s.

But in township taverns which are often located cheek-by-jowl with family homes, safety regulations and drinking-age laws are not always enforced.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is among those who have voiced concern.

The teenagers reportedly "gathered at a venue which, on the face of it, should be off-limits to persons under the age of 18," he said.

A resident DJ, who was also celebrating his birthday on the night, spoke of a rush of revellers who forced their way into an already packed venue.

"We tried to close the door but people kept pushing. The bouncers could not handle the crowd that was pushing from outside the entrance door. There were so many people," the DJ said.

He turned off the music to try discourage revellers, but to no avail.

The crowd was just "unruly and could not be managed," he said, adding he was "traumatised."

In a tweet, African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed his thoughts and prayers "during this time of unspeakable grief and sorrow."

In the headlines

Why EAC force is yet to deploy to DR Congo

The deployment proposal has been received with mistrust and even rejection by a large section of politicians, civil society and the public.

Comesa watchdog to probe Toyota prices

Watchdog seeks to assess whether Toyota’s sales and pricing model through Toyota Tsusho Corporation skewed competition.

DRC refugees influx into Uganda poses health crisis

Loliondo: Tanzania stands ground on Maasai move

Uganda's Kiira Motors in race against time

Uganda arts teachers on strike to protest unfair pay raise

Beware of those who come with gifts, even if they appear friendly

Monday June 27 2022

Tanzania is reviving the constitution review process that had been suspended some 10 years ago, back in the day when Jakaya Kikwete was president. TEA GRAPHIC | NMG

By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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It sometimes looks like the Tanzanian political situation makes turns that very few anticipated and seeks to deliver results that few thought possible. This past week is no exception.

Literally out of the blue, the top policy organ of the ruling party, called the National Executive Committee (NEC), last week came out and declared to the public that it had directed the government to revive the constitutional process that had been suspended some 10 years ago, back in the day when Jakaya Kikwete was president.

At the behest of the new chair, President Samia Suluhu, the old machinery of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) was changing tack on this important issue.

Many of us had not seen this coming, although it is fair to say that we should have seen it.

The reason it was not so clear in its coming but the palpable resistance on the part of the ruling party against any conversation hinting at constitutional reform.

Conventional wisdom

The explanation can be found in so many factors, but let us say that rule number one in such things is that the turkey can hardly be expected to vote for Christmas.

It is conventional wisdom that the main opposition forces in the country have been sufficiently clear on the need for any new constitutional dispensation to do away with those aspects of the constitution which they have been vocal against, one of which is the extremely centralised powers in the hands of the president, making him or her what they have called an “imperial president.”

For those who may not understand this, a note of explication is called for: The president of Tanzania appoints the Cabinet, of course, without the appointments being questioned.

Then he/she appoints the principal secretaries of ministries; the commissioners, directors, deputy directors in government departments; the regional commissioners, the district commissioners, the executives at regional and district levels; all the executives of parastatals and specialised agencies; heads of defence, security and pretty much everyone in public office.

The issue here is that at no point are all these officers brought under oversight and scrutiny by any committee or council.

These presidential appointments give the president virtually the power to pick whoever he/she fancies, even if he/she cannot tell the appointee from Adam.

Under the present constitution, although election results for MPs and district councils can be contested in lawcourts, presidential election results are not challengeable.

Even worse, under a curious amendment brought in by Benjamin Mkapa in 1996 when he was president, a president is elected by a simple majority, meaning we could have a president elected by as low as 10 percent of the vote, even lower.

It is not even clear whether the president pays tax, which is the number one duty of every citizen.

The Tanzania president is obviously above the law, and is virtually a king/queen. One can see where those calling for a new constitution are coming from.

Local government

But there is more. The main opposition party has for some time posited a strong local government wherein citizens in their localities will choose their leaders and rulers.

This would do away with the practice of the current president picking a native of the southernmost part of the country to serve as governor of a northernmost district, which he/she does not know or care for, and so on.

There are so many other obvious aberrations in the constitutional dispensation and the governance practices in this country, and these need to be addressed in any conversation that President Samia intends to institute at this point. Furthermore, any serious discussion around the constitution will have to take on board a number of these issues.

I do not expect that the ruling CCM party will gladly walk to the slaughter of the very arrangements that have benefitted them, sometimes allowing them to harvest where they never planted. How does anyone expect these people to abandon all that simply because they have finally travelled the Road to Damascus and seen the light.

There will have to be some hard-nosed negotiations in these exchanges, and a lot of pedagogical work will have to be done, because there are too many gaps in what our people, including those who would like to be considered as political minds, understand about what a constitutional review entails.

It is not going to be easy, and Samia could find that she has bitten off more than she can chew or swallow, and the steepest obstacles for her to jump over will most likely come from her own party, which is too far gone in the entrenched anti-democratic culture for us to believe that suddenly they have changed their spots.

Constitutional debates

Timeo danaos et porta ferentes, said the ancient Latins. I fear the Greeks even when they bring presents. Those familiar with the story of the Trojan Horse understand the full import of that saying, and I suppose they will be wary of these issues all the while as they follow the constitutional debates if these debates indeed do take place.

Meantime, the Ngorongoro/Loliondo saga rages on unabated, and more eruptions cannot be discounted.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is now on YouTube via jeneralionline tv. E-mail: [email protected]

In the headlines

Why EAC force is yet to deploy to DR Congo

The deployment proposal has been received with mistrust and even rejection by a large section of politicians, civil society and the public.

Comesa watchdog to probe Toyota prices

Watchdog seeks to assess whether Toyota’s sales and pricing model through Toyota Tsusho Corporation skewed competition.

DRC refugees influx into Uganda poses health crisis

SA police try to unravel mystery of 21 teens deaths

Loliondo: Tanzania stands ground on Maasai move

Uganda's Kiira Motors in race against time

Uganda arts teachers on strike to protest unfair pay raise

Sudan accuses Ethiopia army of killing 7 soldiers, civilian

Monday June 27 2022

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country's de facto leader since the 2019 ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir. PHOTO | AFP

By MAWAHIB ABDALLATIF

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Sudan claims seven of its soldiers and a civilian were “executed” by the Ethiopian military after holding them captive.

In a statement on Monday, Sudan’s army said it was riled by the decision to parade the bodies in public and vowed to respond.

“This treacherous action will not go unanswered, and [we] will respond to this cowardly behaviour,” the statement reads.

The Sudanese army said the act “contravenes all laws and customs of war and international humanitarian law.” Brig-Gen Nabil Abdullah, the Sudanese army spokesperson, said the Ethiopian army acted “with all contempt.”

Ethiopia is yet to comment.

Border dispute

Sudan’s junta leader Lt-Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, visited the border Al-Asira area in southeast Gedaref state, where the soldiers and a civilian are said to have been taken captive. Some military leaders accompanied him.

The soldiers are said to have been guarding the area during the planting season. Farmers and pastoralists often clash in the fertile porous border area claimed by the two neighbouring countries.

Read: Rockets fired as Ethiopia, Sudan clash again in border row

Tensions have risen in recent years, souring relations and heightened by war, which erupted in November 2020 in the northern Ethiopia region of Tigray, forcing an influx of refugees into Sudan.

Khartoum and Addis Ababa have since been locked in a tense war of words, trading accusations of violence and territorial violations.

The border dispute feeds into wider tensions in the region, including over Ethiopia’s controversial Blue Nile dam.

Read: Why Sudan is wary of third filling of Ethiopia Nile dam

Sudan and Egypt, both downstream countries, have been opposed to the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and are pushing for an agreement over the filling of the reservoir and the operation of the dam.

- Additional reporting by AFP

In the headlines

Why EAC force is yet to deploy to DR Congo

The deployment proposal has been received with mistrust and even rejection by a large section of politicians, civil society and the public.

Comesa watchdog to probe Toyota prices

Watchdog seeks to assess whether Toyota’s sales and pricing model through Toyota Tsusho Corporation skewed competition.

DRC refugees influx into Uganda poses health crisis

SA police try to unravel mystery of 21 teens deaths

Loliondo: Tanzania stands ground on Maasai move

Uganda's Kiira Motors in race against time

Uganda arts teachers on strike to protest unfair pay raise

Influx of DRC refugees into Uganda poses health crisis as Covid spikes

Monday June 27 2022

Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo wait in a line for lunch at the Nyakabande Transit Centre in Kisoro, Uganda following deadly fighting between M23 rebels and DRC troops. PHOTO | AFP

By JONATHAN KAMOGA

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The recent explosion of violence in eastern DR Congo has triggered a new wave of refugees crossing into Uganda, presenting a potential health crisis as the region grapples with a new Covid-19 wave.

More than 62,000 Congolese refugees have entered Uganda since January and the numbers have increased in the past few weeks following renewed fighting between government forces and M23 rebels.

According to the Uganda Red Cross, the majority of the refugees are not vaccinated against Covid-19.

The UN refugee agency protocol is that refugees are scanned for several diseases, including Covid-19, at receiving centres near the border. But it has not been easy to control movements of those coming from the DRC, with many of them refusing to go to reception centres for screening, opting to remain along the border as they wait for fighting to subside.

“In fear of being processed as refugees, many set up temporary shelters at the border where they mix with the local communities,” Uganda Red Cross spokesperson Irene Nakasiita told The EastAfrican on Thursday.

By Thursday, official data showed that Uganda had administered 21.7 million vaccine doses, of which 16 million were single doses and 10 million double doses.

The country has a target of vaccinating about 21.9 million people, which is 49 percent of the population.

And although there is no official date data on how many Covid-19 cases have been detected among the refugees, Uganda health officials are still worried they pose a health risk.

As of Wednesday, there was a daily average of 98 new detected cases and the National Planning Authority says there will be more than 1,000 new infections by end of this week.

Covid-19 cases have been on the rise in East Africa, with governments’ vaccination campaigns having slowed down.

Read: Covid-19: Alarm as infections rise in East Africa

Kenya’s positivity rate stood at 12 percent as at Thursday, a level the World Health Organisation considers threatening enough to call for a lockdown. The government has now ordered mandatory wearing of masks in congested spaces and in all public transport.

Tanzania’s Health ministry says it recorded 68 Covid-19 cases between April and May and this number rose to 161 new cases from May 5 to June 4, representing a 100 percent surge.

Uganda Health officials attribute the low vaccine uptake to a lack of medical personnel, logistics challenges and lack of information, especially in rural areas where people still shun the vaccine.

The country is facing the expiry of over six million doses of vaccines worth over Ush333 billion ($88.65 million) in the next three months, according to Minister for Health Jane Ruth Aceng.

Low vaccination

In a Cabinet report last Monday, Dr Aceng said “the low rate of utilisation of the vaccines started when the third wave was controlled and the economy reopened in January 2022, which affected the seriousness of the risk perception. This was compounded by myths and misconceptions on social media and worsened by negative activists who are decampaigning vaccination.”

However, governments in both Kenya and Uganda have no plans of introducing lockdowns to contain the infections, but are pushing for vaccination.

Read: Kenya reinstates mask mandate

In Uganda, plans to vaccinate school-going children were halted after Education ministry officials rejected the proposal arguing that schools are not gazetted health facilities.

Many parents are also against the idea of vaccinating their children and fear they could be forcefully jabbed in school although the Health ministry has assured that no child will be vaccinated without the consent of parents.

“We are surely going to vaccinate the children but from ages 12 to 17 only during the holidays and their parents have consented. We shall give them the Pfizer vaccine,” said Health ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyona said.

Also read: Africa seeing rise in vaccine-preventable diseases

In the headlines

Why EAC force is yet to deploy to DR Congo

The deployment proposal has been received with mistrust and even rejection by a large section of politicians, civil society and the public.

Comesa watchdog to probe Toyota prices

Watchdog seeks to assess whether Toyota’s sales and pricing model through Toyota Tsusho Corporation skewed competition.

SA police try to unravel mystery of 21 teens deaths

Loliondo: Tanzania stands ground on Maasai move

Uganda's Kiira Motors in race against time

Uganda arts teachers on strike to protest unfair pay raise

Comesa watchdog to probe prices of new Toyota cars

Monday June 27 2022

A Toyota Kenya showroom in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By NATION AFRICA

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The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Competition Commission has launched a formal inquiry into the pricing of new vehicles and spare parts by Japanese car maker Toyota.

The watchdog said its investigation will assess whether Toyota’s sales and pricing model through its subsidiary, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, skewed competition in the regional market.

“The commission has preliminary concerns that Toyota may be prohibiting out-of-territory passive sales to the detriment of consumers and ... maintaining high prices of brand new vehicles and spares. As such, the commission will assess [the firm’s] conduct to determine its effect ... and apply appropriate measures as per the regulations,” said the commission’s chief executive, Dr Will Mwemba.

Toyota controls a large market share within the Comesa bloc with its units preferred for their relatively lower maintenance costs and high availability of spare parts. In Kenya, Toyota is the biggest seller of new cars.

Dr Mwemba said the investigations into Toyota’s business practices will be guided by the provisions of Article 16 of the Comesa Competition Regulations, which prohibits acts that may distort the market such as price-fixing.

Natural market forces

The regulations require that the pricing of commodities and services be directly determined by the natural market forces of demand and supply. Anything that significantly affects pricing other than supply and demand is deemed market distortion.

“The commission has reasonable cause to suspect ... that the distribution agreements do not allow authorised distributors to sell Toyota products outside their respective territories or countries, or sell Toyota products to any third party whom they believe will sell, export, or transfer directly or indirectly to any place or country outside their territory,” Dr Mwemba said.

“Furthermore, the commission has reasonable cause to suspect ... that Toyota has provided price guidelines to its authorised distributors for the pricing of [its] products sold to consumers in the common market, which may contravene the provisions of the regulations pertaining to resale price maintenance,” he added.

Not an indictment

The watchdog, however, said that investigations do not amount to an indictment on Toyota’s business practices.

“It should be noted that the commencement of the investigations neither presupposes that the conduct being investigated is anti-competitive nor that Toyota has violated the regulations. The commission will, in accordance with provisions of Part 3 of the regulations, conduct an inquiry to determine whether the alleged conduct has its object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in the market or a substantial part of it.” Dr Mwemba said.

In Kenya, Toyota through its dealership — Cfao Motors Kenya Limited — has adopted new strategies, including venturing into the car trade-in model, to grow sales of its new vehicles. In the arrangement, a motorist will be able to surrender his or her car and pay an additional amount to acquire a new model.

The dealer will run the trade-in model by working with its affiliates that sell used cars. The strategy is common among second-hand car yards, which allow customers to hand in their vehicles and pay the additional sums that will enable them to drive off with a model of a higher price and/or specifications.

In the headlines

Why EAC force is yet to deploy to DR Congo

The deployment proposal has been received with mistrust and even rejection by a large section of politicians, civil society and the public.

DRC refugees influx into Uganda poses health crisis

SA police try to unravel mystery of 21 teens deaths

Loliondo: Tanzania stands ground on Maasai move

Uganda's Kiira Motors in race against time

Uganda arts teachers on strike to protest unfair pay raise

Why the EAC regional force is yet to be deployed to DR Congo

Monday June 27 2022

Congolese police escort a convoy transporting the body of a soldier killed the during fighting at a border post with Rwanda. PHOTO | AFP

By PATRICK ILUNGA

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By LUKE ANAMI

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Slightly over two weeks after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s proposal to deploy the East African Standby Force (EASF) to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, there are no boots on the ground.

The proposal was endorsed by regional leaders at the third EAC Heads of State Conclave on peace and security in eastern DRC in Nairobi on June 20.

But if the reaction inside DR Congo is anything to go by, it could take even longer or not happen at all.

The EASF is expected to face off with several armed militias and M23 rebels who have intensified attacks on civilians in the last few months, killing tens and displacing thousands.

Read: EAC leaders endorse deployment of troops to stabilise Congo

But however noble President Kenyatta’s deployment proposal, not everyone in the DRC agrees with the regional leaders’ decision of a military solution to stabilise the restive eastern DRC provinces.

The proposal has been received with mistrust and even rejection by a large section of politicians, civil society and even the public, who are particularly wary of the possibility of having Rwandan troops in the contingent. Kinshasa had already objected to having Rwanda contribute troops during the third Conclave in Nairobi.

In a swift reaction, on June 20, the 10-year-old North Kivu-based citizen's movement and civil society group Lucha (Struggle for Change) wrote to President Félix Tshisekedi, opposing the deployment saying it could pose an operational problem in an area with more than 100 local and foreign armed groups, the Congolese army, UN peacekeepers and the Ugandan army.

Aggression accusations

Lucha says in the letter that it "vigorously rejects the project of deploying a new regional force."

"All the armies from the East African Community states are already present in the east of our country in one form or another. The Rwandan army is associated with the M23 in North Kivu and supports the Red-Tabara [Burundian rebellion based in Congo]. The Ugandan army, which you invited, has been operating openly in North Kivu and Ituri since November 2021. The Burundian army operates regularly in South Kivu, and the South Sudanese army in the province of Haut-Uele [northeast of DRC]. The Tanzanian and Kenyan armies are already present in North Kivu and Ituri as part of the UN intervention brigade," the letter reads.

"At least three out of seven member states of the East African Community have been involved for more than two decades in the aggression and destabilisation of our country through direct interventions of their armies or by proxy, through armed groups. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi accuse each other of destabilisation. They compete for influence, even control of part of our country for security as well as economic and geopolitical reasons, so much so that more than once they have had to confront each other on our territory, directly or through armed groups," Lucha writes.

Many in the DRC also fear that Uganda, Burundi and perhaps Rwanda, three countries whose rebel groups are hiding in Congo, could find themselves facing divergent situations that could complicate an already complex situation in eastern DR Congo.

For these reasons, Lucha does not mince its words and calls on the Congolese head of state "to abandon this project without delay."

"It is not enough to exclude the Rwandan army from this regional force, the participation of the Ugandan, Burundian and South Sudanese armies is undesirable as well," Lucha insists.

Read: DRC agrees to EAC force deployment without Rwandan army

Tough decisions

President Tshisekedi has to make tough decisions. His main political opponent Martin Fayulu accuses him of "subcontracting the security of the country to Rwanda and Uganda and unnecessarily creating a competition of East African countries over the Congo." He has called on the president to reveal "his secret deal."

Read: How EAC force could change Congo conflict dynamics

Members of parliament too have been at the forefront of opposing the deployment. MP Delly Sessanga said: "The Nairobi deal raises more questions than it answers. What is the format of this regional force, how much of a compromise and commitment has our government made to this force?" He added: "Peace cannot be bought at the risk of becoming a client state. Peace must be built and earned."

Lucain Kasongo, a senior executive of former president Joseph Kabila's party -- the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) – said he doesn’t see the point of the regional force because the Congolese army can handle the rebels.

“I think the best way to do things is to keep an eye on our army,” said Kasongo.

Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize winner, warned: "the regional force composed of countries at the root of destabilisation, atrocities and the plundering of our resources, will bring neither stability nor peace and risks aggravating the situation."

Technical regulations

The Conclave communique said the regional force will be deployed once all logistics have been worked out by the relevant EAC organs.

The Conclave was presented with a detailed brief on the military track by the Chief of Defence Forces of Kenya, Gen Robert Kibochi, in his capacity as the chairman of the Committee of East African Community Chiefs of Defence Forces.

He gave a Concept of Operations, Status of Forces Agreement, Rules of Engagement and other legal and technical regulations to facilitate the operationalisation of the regional force and its various operational arms. The regional force is also expected to co-operate in the implementation of the disarmament and demobilisation process.

The Heads of State adopted Gen Kibochi’s presentation for immediate implementation.

Both the Sectoral Council on Co-operation in Defence Affairs and the EAC Council of Ministers are expected to come up with a budget and composition of the force to be deployed but whose final decision will be determined by the EAC Heads of State summit scheduled for next month according to Dr Kevit Desai, Kenya’s Principal Secretary in the Ministry of EAC and Regional Affairs.

There are no timelines given and no one can say exactly how long these discussions and agreements will take to be concluded, but the reality on the ground is that violence has not stopped. More civilians -- even those previously outside rebel-hit areas-- are now facing growing sectarian violence arising from information being spread of foreigners interfering in DR Congo.

The Medicins Sans Frontiers, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu have expressed concern about the escalation of hate speech and incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, specifically against Kinyarwanda speakers.

Hate speech has been spread online by political party figures, community leaders, civil society actors and members of the Congolese diaspora.

“Hate speech fuels the conflict by exacerbating mistrust between communities. It focuses on aspects that have previously mattered less, incites a discourse of ‘us vs them’, and corrodes social cohesion between communities that have previously lived together,” they said.

However, DR Congo’s presidential advisor to President Felix Tshisekedi on EAC matters, Prof Serge Tshibangu Nzenza, is optimistic. “The regional force has not been deployed yet as we speak. But it will be deployed in a few days,” he said in an interview with The East African on Thursday.

The Third Conclave was attended by presidents Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi), Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan) and Felix Tshisekedi (DR Congo). Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hasan was represented by Dr John Steven Simbachawene, the High Commissioner to Kenya.

Civilian deaths

Fighting between the Congolese army and M23 has resulted in 23 civilian deaths since May 2022, including three children according to the UN.

There have been accusations and denials between DR Congo, Kigali and Kampala over the violence. Last week, the speaker of DR Congo’s National Assembly accused Uganda of siding with M23 and Rwanda during the battle for Bunagana town in North Kivu on June 13.

Conversely, Rwanda has accused the DR Congo of aggression and colluding with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu rebellion militia.

“From where we sit, the only change we observed since the Nairobi meeting is that M23 has opened the border at Bunagana,” said Theo Wanteu, MSFs head of mission in Uganda in an interview on Thursday.

In the headlines

Comesa watchdog to probe Toyota prices

Watchdog seeks to assess whether Toyota’s sales and pricing model through Toyota Tsusho Corporation skewed competition.

DRC refugees influx into Uganda poses health crisis

SA police try to unravel mystery of 21 teens deaths

Loliondo: Tanzania stands ground on Maasai move

Uganda's Kiira Motors in race against time

Uganda arts teachers on strike to protest unfair pay raise

Tanzania spends millions to move, build new life in Tanga for Loliondo Maasai

Sunday June 26 2022

The Maa Unity Agenda protest in Nairobi on June 17, 2022, condemning the eviction of the Ngorongoro Maa community. PHOTO | AFP

Summary

By this week, about 237 people of both Maasai and Hadzabe communities had been moved to Msomera village, which is 600 kilometres away from a place their ancenstral home in the Arusha region.

By BOB KARASHANI

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By APOLINARI TAIRO

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So far missing from the raging international controversy on the relocation of Maasai families from Loliondo, in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro area, is Msomera village, about 50 kilometres from Handeni township in Tanga region, 600 kilometres away from Loliondo.

This vast and sparsely populated rural landscape bordering Kibindi district and Manyara region is the government’s final destination of choice for the Maasai families relocated from Loliondo.

Tanzanian authorities have in the past two weeks aggressively pushed ahead with the relocation of the pastoral Maasai community from Loliondo, despite criticism by civil society and anthropologists around the world.

Read: Tanzania removes Maasais out of Ngorongoro

The government has been at pains to dismiss widespread claims from critics both at home and abroad that Loliondo, a designated 4,000-square kilometre game-controlled area in Arusha Region's Ngorongoro district, is Maasai ancestral land which would render their relocation more of an eviction.

But by Thursday last week, 40 households in Loliondo, among them 237 people of both Maasai and Hadzabe communities had been moved, with their livestock, to Msomera, at government cost, according to the Tanga Regional Commissioner.

The relocation is a closely co-ordinated effort between at least five line ministries working under the direct supervision of Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, an indication of how much President Samia Suluhu’s administration wants it to happen despite the negative international attention.

The first batch of 20 households arrived a week ago and the second batch, also comprising 20 households, arrived on Thursday night. Another 60 or more households, said to have agreed to the ‘‘voluntary’’ move from Loliondo, will be arriving here in phases as the government hastens the infrastructure construction and upgrade in this 162,000-hectare area dedicated to the relocation.

The plan is to give each household up to 10 acres of land for grazing their herds, subsistence agriculture and other needs as comfortably as possible, government officials told The EastAfrican on our visit this week. "The objective of this operation from the outset was to ensure that those being settled here will find better standards of social services from day one," said a government official who sought anonymity.

Aerial view in Ngorongoro. PHOTO | MWANANCHI | NMG

Dubai trophy hunters

The current Loliondo land saga goes back to 1992 when a Dubai-based hunting company, Otterlo Business Corporation, acquired an exclusive hunting permit for 4,000 square kilometres in Loliondo, by way of a permit obtained through a controversial 25-year deal with the government. Critics of this deal say the Dubai firm has since been lobbying to have 1,500 square kilometres of the land cleared of human settlement for uninterrupted trophy hunting.

This led to a confrontation between the Maasai pastoralists on the land and local police, which culminated in a court case at the East African Court of Justice (EACJ), with the court granting an injunction to prevent "eviction" of Maasai from Loliondo. The injunction is still in place.

Read: Tanzania ends hunting deal with Dubai royal family

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in a June 19 statement called on Tanzanian authorities to respect the EACJ injunction and "ensure appropriate peaceful measures are undertaken towards recognising, respecting and protecting the rights of the Maasai communities." "Intimidations of community members be stopped," the IUCN said.

"What is required is a fair, just and equitably governed consultative process to identify long-term solutions, and to investigate and address human rights violations related to nature conservation, including any establishment, amendment or expansion of protected or conserved areas."

It is therefore curious, why the government has decided now to disregard it and go ahead with the evictions, and in the process spending billions of shillings on the actual relocation and to ‘’develop’’ Msomera.

Priority infrastructure listed by the government includes water supplies for both domestic and animal, health and education facilities, upgraded roads and communication infrastructure. But even more, money is being spent on the logistics of transporting families in minibuses, and trucks for the herds, probably running into billions of shillings. Government sources say an official budget for the exercise has not been shared even internally, pointing to how controlled the entire operation is.

Read: ULIMWENGU: Trouble in Ngorongoro paradise and MPs see no evil

Project blueprint

A quick spot check by The EastAfrican confirmed official government updates on the relocation operation, such as the ongoing construction of a Tsh1.99 billion ($8.5 million) dam, 167,000-litre storage tank and pump house, and laying of pipes to cover an initial six kilometres of the 20-kilometre distribution network mapped out in the project blueprint.

The existing Msomera village dispensary has been renovated and there are plans to build a larger and more modern health centre; two newly built schools, one primary, one secondary, are ready to admit students but are waiting certification by school inspectors.

Tanzania is building houses, schools and health facilities for all relocated families from Ngorongoro to Msomera. PHOTO | BOB KARASHANI | NMG

There are ongoing upgrades on the road links to Handeni and Korogwe - the closest urban centre. Government officials say the roads component of the project alone will cost Tsh2.53 billion ($1.1 million).

At least 100 of the 500 planned new houses for the resettled families have already been built, a project being undertaken by Tanzanian army conscripts. Private contractors — including one Chinese — are working round the clock to complete connecting the village to the power grid. Currently, only a few houses have electricity, including 20 of the newly built homes for the new families.

What next?

Back in Loliondo, no one knows what will happen to the families who have refused the voluntary relocation.

On Wednesday the government appeared to further tighten the screw on those opposed to the relocation and Commissioner General of Immigration Anna Makakala announced a 10-day special operation to weed out all "illegal immigrants" in the Loliondo area.

Read: Dar to crackdown on illegal Kenyan Maasais

“I am warning people who have entered the country illegally to officially get proper documentation to legitimise their stay and operate within the confines of the laws of the country,” she said in Loliondo, where she was inspecting progress of demarcation and beacon placing for the planned game reserve.

The announcement came on the back of reports of violent clashes between police and Maasai out to stop the beacon demarcation.

According to Tourism and Natural Resources Minister Pindi Chana, the intention is to turn 1,500 sq km of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area into a full-fledged Game Reserve to strike a balance between conservation and livelihoods and "protect the area for the best interests of the nation at large."

The Loliondo Game Controlled Area was established in 1951 as a strategic area for the protection of Serengeti and Maasai Mara cross-border ecosystems in Tanzania and Kenya.

The new Game Reserve will be named Pololeti, said Ms Chana saying 400 beacons have already been placed to demarcate the area for the new reserve.

The government has cited the rapid growth of human and livestock population in the area since 1959, from 8,000 to 110,000 people, and from 260,000 to over one million heads of cattle, too much to warrant their removal to prevent human wildlife conflict.

In Msomera, the relocation has a silver lining. Long-time Handeni resident Jackson Kagonji, says Msomera was a backward place, and not even public teachers wanted to be posted there because there was no electricity, water and the roads were hell. “Now it's slowly turning into a kind of paradise before our very eyes," he said.

‘Government generosity’

According to Handeni district administrative secretary Mashaka Mgeta, before the project began Msomera was listed as a government Reserve Area with a population not exceeding 6,000 and made up of local Zigua livestock keepers with a few Maasai pastoralists who wandered through and some settled.

Mr Mgeta said the idea of having Maa community here was therefore not strange, only that the earlier Maasai settlers here were not from Loliondo but Maasai lands.

Richard Tobiko, a father-of-two who was among the first batch to relocate to Msomera from Loliondo with his young family a week ago, says so far, the experience was good and "not only did we receive a generous compensation package but they also provided the transport to bring us and our livestock here plus a real brick house and all basic amenities including grazing land, water and electricity. We can hardly believe this kind of generosity from the government," Mr Tobiko said.

The family runs a little grocery shop from their house. He said "Back in Loliondo we lived in mud huts with no electricity, no good hospitals, and we were forbidden to do any kind of business. So it's like a dream come true." "And even though I have relatives in Loliondo still calling us sell-outs, my advice to all the doubters back there is that they should come see for themselves what is on offer, then make a decision whether to join us or not."

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Sunday June 26 2022

Containers at the port of Mombasa. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By ANTHONY KITIMO

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Importers and exporters in Kenya are set to benefit from increased competitiveness and reduced cost of doing business from reduced shipment delays and demurrage charges after President Uhuru Kenyatta assented to the National Electronic Single Window System Bill, 2021, on June 21.

The Bill empowers Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade) to operate autonomously without the Exchequer’s funding. KenTrade facilitates cross-border trade.

KenTrade CEO Amos Wangora said; “The law will enhance the use of Single Window System by helping protect data,” stem fraud and exploitation in the logistics coordination system often faced by importers and exporters using the platform.

Mr Wangora said the law makes KenTrade a one-stop Customs release centre and offers electronic trade transactions. Before, traders needed to deal with more than eight agencies before cargo was released for import/export but the law will consolidate the agencies to work under the KenTrade system.

The law comes two months after KenTrade launched the Africa e-trade platform to handle the exchange of commercial documents. The platform is integrated in 22 countries, which are members of the African Alliance for Electronic Commerce.

According to the law, only the Single Window system shall serve as a single entry point and platform for any person involved in trade and transport to lodge documents electronically including import or export documents.

The system, fully integrated into the Kenya Revenue Authority’s Integrated Customs Management System (ICMS), will also ensure 100 percent paperless compliance as it will be used for processing, approval and facilitate the electronic payment for fees and levies, due to the government, on all goods imported or exported making it easier and cheaper.

KenTrade says businesses suffer both direct border-related costs, such as expenses linked to supplying information and documents to relevant authorities, and indirect costs, such as those arising from procedural delays, lost business opportunities and a lack of predictability in the regulations.

Based on the present volume of imports and transit goods through Kenya, the streamlining will save the economy $150 million to $250 million annually during the first three years.

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Kenya to begin work on 127km Voi-Taveta railway link

Sunday June 26 2022

Refurbishment of Kenya’s Voi-Taveta metre gauge railway is set to start in the 2022/23 financial year. PHOTO | NMG

By ANTHONY KITIMO

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Kenya will begin rehabilitating the 127-kilometre Voi-Taveta metre gauge railway line to serve the Kenya Ports Authority’s inland container depot at Taveta on the border with Tanzania.

Kenya’s Planning Principal Secretary Saitoti Torome said plans to refurbish the old line were complete and works will commence in the 2022/2023 financial year.

The rehabilitated line is expected to connect the Taveta ICD with the port of Mombasa making it easier to move cargo and boost transit volumes, export and transhipment to Tanzania and Burundi.

The cargo throughput from the two countries at the port of Mombasa has been declining in the past few years. About 232,000 tonnes of cargo destined for Tanzania were handled at the port of Mombasa in 2021, with 1,000 tonnes going to Burundi.

The Kenya Ports Authority has secured a 50-acre plot at the Taveta-Holili border crossing where it will build the inland freight hub.

The railway and freight hub will bring port facilities closer to importers and exporters and will reduce the distance from Mombasa to Bujumbura via the Northern Corridor by 358 kilometres.

It will also facilitate faster and more efficient trade through the Taveta/Holili One-Stop-Border-Post.

Also read: Plans in high gear for East African coast highway

Notice to vacate

The Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) has issued a notice to encroachers on railway land reserves along the Voi-Taveta railway corridor to vacate before the end of June.

“We wish to bring to the attention of all members of the public that the corporation intends to rehabilitate the 127-kilometre of Voi-Taveta MGR line. A 14 days notice is hereby issued to all unauthorised persons who have encroached or are living on and/or operating along the MGR line corridor to voluntarily vacate immediately or face forceful eviction upon expiry of this notice to give way for the planned revitalisation exercise,” reads part of the notice by KRC.

The corporation said upon expiry of the notice, all illegal structures, and property found along the corridor will be demolished and or removed at the encroachers' risk and cost. Some sections of railway land along the corridor had been grabbed and stalls built on it.

Dilapidated bars

The line is now dilapidated and rail bars are missing, especially inside Tsavo West National Park.

The railway line which was built in 1924 by the British government during World War I stopped operations in 2000.

According to the KRC masterplan, once the line has been rehabilitated, it will be linked to the standard gauge railway at Voi.

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