Kenya’s Kibaki inaugurates road project in Malawi
By Lucky Mkandawire, Nyasa Times
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Thursday wrapped up his two-day tour of duty in Malawi with a landmark inauguration of a multinational road project in the capital Lilongwe.
Since his arrival on Wednesday, President Kibaki undertook a number of tasks including holding a bilateral talk with his Malawian counterpart Joyce Banda.
And on Thursday, just few hours before he flew out to Kenya, the visiting president laid a foundation stone for the Lilongwe West By-pass road project which is being funded by the African Development Bank (ADB).
The by-pass road is part of the multinational Nacara Road Corridor Project that will benefit Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
Part of the ground breaking activities of the Lilongwe West by-pass road. President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and President Banda
The by-pass will connect the country’s main road (M1) on the Blantyre-Lilongwe road and the Lilongwe-Mchinji road.
Speaking after laying the foundation stone, the Kenyan leader observed that President Banda’s decision to invest in road infrastructure will go a long way in transforming the country’s economy.
He urged the government to continue placing infrastructure development because it is a strategic aspect in trade reforms for any country.
“Infrastructure upgrade and expansion are the center of business reforms. This is because infrastructure acts as a key enabler of socio-economic development in any country,” said Kibaki.
The Kenyan president observed that the construction of the road will not only divert transit traffic from the city centre but also significantly reduce travel times and increase movements within it.
“This road will also improve the country’s competitiveness in export market as it is destined to contribute to the reduction of the overall costs of doing business,” noted the 81-year-old leader who will be leaving office in two months time after serving for 10 years.
Turning to Malawian traders, Kibaki encouraged them to take advantage of the new road network to explore extra business ventures within and beyond its immediate environs.
“In addition to the advantages, the by-pass will also benefit other neighbouring countries such as Zambia thus promoting intra Africa trade integration.
“This is in line with the objectives of the COMESA [Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa] master plan for infrastructure development where member countries have committed themselves to developing closer partnerships in implementation of economic corridors which will eventually reduce the cost of cross border trade,” he explained.
Kibaki said it was his expectation that the increased inter state trade within the COMESA bloc would create employment and contribute to poverty reduction.
In her speech, President Banda said the road, to be constructed by SADC regional network standards, would lead to improved mobility, generate more development in the area as well as create employment among many Malawians.
“Today’s function goes a long way in the realization of the development priorities my government set in 2012 when I took over.
“The construction of this new road is one of the excellent examples of my government’s commitment to improving the socio economic well being of Malawians by providing improved mobility, access and connectivity for our nation’s socio economic development,” President Banda said.
She said the by-pass will enable traffic going to Zambia and Mozambique pass through Lilongwe without disturbing local traffic while the domestic traffic going to the north and south of Malawi will also ably pass through the city with minimal delays.
Banda, however, urged those residing along the corridor to cooperate with the contractors to ensure that work is completed in time.
“No one should develop or cultivate in the road reserve… Compensation was paid for a road corridor of six to 10 meters implying that all land within this corridor has been reserved for future expansion,” she warned.
President Banda then pledged that her government would ensure implementation of the project does not suffer serious challenges that would negatively affect its progress.
While in the country, the Kenyan president also laid wreath at the mausoleum of Malawi’s founding president Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, held a high-level discussion with the business community and also met Kenyans living in Malawi.
Labels: JOYCE BANDA, KENYA, MALAWI, MWAI KIBAKI, ROADS
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Kibaki appoints judge Chomba to Kenya's judges vetting board
By Speedwell Mupuchi
Sat 26 May 2012, 12:43 CAT
JUSTICE Frederick Chomba, a former Supreme Court judge, is among nine judges Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki appointed to the Kenya Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board.
Other members of the board include Sharad Rao, the chairperson, local Kenyan justices Roseline Odede, Abdirashi Abdulahi, Meuledi Iseme, Ngotho Wa Kariuki, Justus Munyinthya, and Albi Sachs of South Africa and Georgina Wood of Ghana.
Judge Chomba's appointment to the Kenya Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board is in accordance with the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Act of 2011.
According to the Act, the nine-member board should have three judges from other countries and three from Kenya.
The board established as an independent body through an Act of Parliament is charged with the responsibility to determine the suitability of a judge or magistrate by considering whether or not they met criteria for appointment as judge of the superior court or as magistrate; their past record, including past judicial pronouncements, competence and diligence; any pending or concluded criminal cases before a court of law against them; any recommendations for their prosecution by the Attorney-General or the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission; pending complaints from any person or body, including the Law Society of Kenya, Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, Disciplinary Committee, Advocates Complaints Commission, Attorney-General, Public Complaints Standing Committee, Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission, National Security Intelligence Service, Police or, Judicial Service Commission.
According to the Act, the board in considering matters shall take into account professional competence - intellectual capacity, legal judgment, diligence, substantive and procedural knowledge of the law, organisational and administrative skills and the ability to work well with a variety of other people - written and oral communication skills; integrity - a demonstrable consistent history of honesty and high moral character in professional and personal life, respect for professional duties, arising under the codes of professional and judicial conduct; and ability to understand the need to maintain propriety and the appearance of propriety; fairness - being impartial to all persons and commitment to equal justice under the law - temperament, the elements of which shall be a demonstrable possession of compassion and humility; history of courtesy and civility in dealing with others; ability to maintain composure under stress and ability to control anger and maintain calmness and order; good judgement and common sense.
Other issues the board considers include legal and life experience, the elements of which include the amount of legal experience and suitability of the experience for the position, including trial and other courtroom experience and administrative skills; broader qualities reflected in life experience such as the diversity of personal and educational history, exposure to persons of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Kenya Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutanga on April 30 when he met the Vetting Board stated that judicial officers now and in future must be competent, diligent, knowledgeable, organised and able to work with a variety of people.
"Expeditious vetting satisfies the aspirations of the constitution, for we see the clean-up of the Judiciary as only the beginning of Kenya's social transformation. It is important that when the Judiciary is called upon to adjudicate on matters of leadership and integrity, as is likely to happen at a time when the country chooses candidates for executive and legislative positions, the Judiciary shall not be found with a single blot on its character," he stated.
"It is an exercise that is unprecedented in the Commonwealth - one that requires a delicate balance of high-level professionalism and deep sensitivity to both the judicial officials whose record your Board continues to examine, as well as the public that has exceedingly high expectations of those who would sit in judgment over its affairs.
"Even as we take stock of these decisions, it is imperative that we avoid the temptation to see them through the sharp prism of narrow individualism which, in the first place, put so many of our institutions in trouble in the past. ... Ordinary Kenyans demanded a transformed Judiciary that would take seriously the task of winning back public confidence. This is one of the tools they chose to test the mettle and institutional commitment of the Judiciary to undergo transformation. I assure Kenyans that I will not allow our departing colleagues to be stepped on while they are down... For the rest of us who continue to serve, we must be aware that the bar of public service has been raised so high that it will not be possible to merely do the bare minimum to get by."
Labels: JUDICIARY, MWAI KIBAKI
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Tsvangirai’s begging bowl and youth gangs
Saturday, 19 November 2011 22:55
Sunday Mail Reporters
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai visited Morocco last week where he received more lessons on the North African uprisings. At home his MDC-T is understood to have recruited about 340 youths to form what the party is calling “reaction teams” as suspicion that the Western-funded party is preparing to unleash violence gathers momentum.
While in Morocco, reports say Mr Tsvangirai was promised more Western funding if his party manages to stage revolts that will push President Mugabe and Zanu-PF out of power if the MDC-T loses in the forthcoming elections.
These latest revelations come amid reports that the MDC-T has recruited more than 340 youths in Harare and Chitungwiza to run a string of violence campaigns through terror groups known as “reaction teams”.
Sources last week revealed that although Mr Tsvangirai was in the North African country under the cover of the Amadeus Institute annual conference, he was, in fact, drumming up support ahead of elections slated for next year.
The sources said his latest foray to the North and the creation of the “reaction teams” were tailored to instigate mayhem that would prompt Western intervention under the guise of the United Nations, as happened in Libya.
Reports say while at the conference, the MDC-T leader met Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga and Libyan interim prime minister Abdurraheem El-Keib.
In Kenya, President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election held on December 27 2007. Supporters of Kibaki’s opponent, Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement, alleged electoral manipulation.
Opposition supporters went on a violent rampage in several parts of the country leaving more than 1 200 people dead. On February 28 2008, President Kibaki and Odinga signed a power-sharing agreement called the National Accord and Reconciliation Act, which established the office of prime minister and created a coalition government.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Mr Jameson Timba last night almost blew Mr Tsvangirai’s cover, saying his boss had only received “lessons on democracy” in Morocco.
“It is totally untrue and malicious. The Prime Minister travelled to Morocco to attend the annual event and is now back in the country,” he said.
“The only ‘training’ he has received is on democracy.”
The West has instigated revolts and has toppled many African leaders in many countries in North Africa under the guise of democracy.
However, sources maintained the trip was a part of a “workshop” on how to mobilise citizens to revolt against a legitimate government.
They said the visit should be read in the context of a previous trip Mr Tsvangirai made to Rabat where he received United States funds through the Moroccans.
Although the exact details were still sketchy last night, the sources said Zimbabweans should be wary of the spirit behind last week’s trip.
“It is not by coincidence that he visited Morocco at the same time the so-called reaction teams are being set up.
“Of course, the annual conference provides the right cover, but the purpose was on the North African-style revolts. This involved meetings with officials from that region.”
Speaking at the conference, Mr Tsvangirai created the impression there was large-scale violence and destruction in Zimbabwe and called for external intervention.
“I urge you all to support Sadc and the regional effort to stabilise the situation in Zimbabwe so that the people in our country are allowed to choose their own government without violence and intimidation,” he said.
“I call upon every one of you to stand by us in this delicate moment, aware that we must all become global citizens, ready to defend peace and democracy everywhere . . .”
Mr Tsvangirai went further to praise the North African uprisings. This is not the first time that the MDC-T leader has gone to Morocco for his questionable meetings.
In 2008, Mr Tsvangirai allegedly received an unspecified amount of money during his visit to Morocco. A leaked American diplomatic cable revealed Morocco had previously provided him with "clandestine financial support".
He also received a dubious prize at an event organised by Amadeus then run by the son of Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri.
While Mr Tsvangirai was allegedly getting funding and lessons on the North African uprisings, it emerged last week that the MDC-T was setting up youth gangs known as "reaction teams", which are modelled on the MDC-T's discredited "democratic resistance committees".
The committees, notoriously known as (DRCs), were accused of perpetrating violence a few years ago.
Investigations revealed that the party has recruited 240 youths in the capital and 100 others in Chitungwiza.
Insiders said the reaction teams operate as virtual military wings of the party. The insiders added that the teams were under strict instructions to fight "where necessary".
MDC-T spokespersons could not be reached for comment last night.
"The recruitment is ongoing and 10 youths are being recruited from each district. So far in Harare, 240 youths have been recruited and the provincial head of security is behind the recruitment.
"In Chitungwiza, more than 100 youths were recruited."
An insider said the youths are holding meetings across the country through a programme co-ordinated by the party's security department.
"They hold meetings and night vigils which are fully sponsored by the party. Their next meeting is scheduled to be held in Gwanda on December 2 and 3."
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, MWAI KIBAKI
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Piracy impacts on Regional trade, says Kibaki
Written by George Chellah and Joseph Mwenda
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 5:19:25 PM
KENYAN President Mwai Kibaki has said the problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia impacts on the regional and international trade and posses a great danger to the environment. And President Rupiah Banda, who is the incoming chairman of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) reaffirmed his government's continued support to the ICGLR process in the promotion of peace, security, democracy and good governance and the observance of good human rights.
Addressing the 3rd ordinary summit of the ICGLR at Lusaka's Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC) yesterday, President Kibaki described the security situation in Somalia as serious.
"A serious security situation still prevails in Somalia, related to this unresolved conflict is the problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia, which remains a matter of great concern. This is a matter of international concern as it impacts on the regional and international trade and posses a great danger to the environment," President Kibaki said.
He appealed to the international community to assume greater responsibility in Somalia.
"In order to ensure the emergence of a stable and democratic country," he said.
He reminded the delegates that they were gathered to review the progress that they had made since committing themselves to co-operate in promoting peace, security and development in the region.
"You will recall that we signed a pact on security, stability and development in the great lakes region during our last summit held in Nairobi, Kenya," he said.
President Kibaki said he was happy to observe that much progress had been made after most of the member states ratified the pact.
He said the ICGLR has made very encouraging progress.
"We are encouraged by the co-operation between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in addressing the issue of armed militia groups in Eastern DRC through their joint co-operations," he said.
He said the ICGLR was also encouraged by the renewed diplomatic relations between the DRC and Rwanda.
"We hope that lasting peace will soon be realized in the region," he said.
He said a look at the issue of human development portrayed a region faced by the most serious challenges of poverty, hunger, disease and environmental degradation.
President Kibaki said he believed that with sincere commitment on the part of all member states and with the spirit of togetherness they had a great chance of success.
President Kibaki who handed over the chairmanship to President Rupiah Banda expressed gratitude for the cooperation extended to him during his tenure as chairman.
And President Banda urged the ICGLR to continue recognizing the assistance rendered by the Africa Union and United Nations.
"The assistance rendered by the Africa Union, United Nations and the Group of Friends of the Great Lakes Region is something we all must recognize, without the involvement of these bodies, a number of achievements would not have been recorded."
"It is therefore, only befitting that we consolidate these efforts by ensuring that the gains we have made with their support continue to be sustained," Banda said.
"I wish to reaffirm my government's continued support to the ICGLR process in the promotion of peace, security, democracy and good governance and the observance of good human rights."
"Regarding the current peace and security situation in the region, I wish to state that the region continues to face many challenges," he said.
Banda described the disarmament and border security initiatives between Rwanda and Congo DR, which was done within the framework of the Nairobi CommuniquŽ as encouraging to the region.
"The cessation of hostilities in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is a positive move towards the attainment of peace in the region which we must all continue to pursue with determination," said Banda.
Banda applauded Nigeria's former president General Olusegun Obasanjo and Tanzanian former leader Benjamin Mukapa for their commitments towards the normalization of the situation in the region.
Banda further said Zambia had found suitable accommodation for the regional centre for democracy, good governance and civic education.
"I am happy to inform you that Zambia has found suitable accommodation for the region for the regional centre of good governance and civic education. As Zambia this gives us a sense of humility that you ICGLR member states proposed that the regional centre be named "The Levy Patrick Mwanawasa Regional Centre for the promotion of democracy, good governance, Human Rights and Civic Education."
"We indeed appreciate your thoughtfulness in bestowing this honour on our late president.
And special envoy of the Secretary General on the Great Lakes region and former Nigerian president General Olusegun Obasanjo said he was glad that tension in the Great Lakes Region had eased in the past year.
General Obasanjo welcomed last week's summit between President Joseph Kabila of Congo DR and Rwanda's leader Paul Kagame.
"I commend both leaders' commitment to promote peace and stability in the Great Lakes region," he said. "This is no doubt a result of the collective efforts of the two countries and the region."
He said the meeting between the two leaders was an example of how the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) could serve effective instrument for change.
He further observed that the Great Lakes Region was still faced with profound security, humanitarian, developmental and environmental challenges.
And in his message to the (ICGLR) read for him by Ambassador Ahmed Haggag, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said his country attached particular importance to the attainment of peace and stability in the Great Lakes region.
"This emanates not only from the geographical proximity, cultural bonds, but also from the Nile River that creates a life line binding the history and destiny of our peoples."
"Our endeavours in achieving real peace within this region should aim at formulating wider mutal confidence and practical capacity building programs.
"It should also include coordinating policies of disarmament and reintegration of ex-combatants in the society, in addition to programs of repatriation of refugees and internally displaced persons."
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mukapa and Central African Republic Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touadera were among the several dignitaries that attended the summit.
Labels: ICGLR, MWAI KIBAKI, PIRACY, RUPIAH BANDA
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Kibaki rules out early election in Kenya - media
Written by Reuters
Friday, March 27, 2009 6:08:20 AM
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has ruled out bringing forward the next election after calls from some quarters for a snap poll due to the poor performance of his unity government, local media said on Thursday.
Kibaki and his Prime Minister Raila Odinga -- who formed a coalition a year ago to end violence after the disputed December 27, 2007, election -- have faced a tide of criticism from Kenyans, including some calls for a new election.
But the 77-year-old president, on a visit to western Kenya, ruled out bringing forward the next presidential poll from 2012.
"We just held elections recently. We will have to wait for four years. Do not expect it now or tomorrow," he said, according to the local newspaper, The Standard.
Kibaki and Odinga's alliance stemmed a national crisis in the first months of 2008 that killed at least 1,300 people, displaced more than 300,000 and crippled important sectors of the economy like tourism and agriculture.
Critics say, however, that they have failed since then to rein in corruption, stop police brutality, push forward political reforms or counter economic hardships being felt around the east African nation of 35 million people.
Labels: ELECTIONS, KENYA, MWAI KIBAKI
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Washington suppressed Kenyan exit poll to keep Kibaki in power
By Stephen Gowans
Q: When does the US government hide an exit poll that calls a foreign election into question? A: When it doesn’t want the candidate who got the most votes to win.
That’s what happened when a US government-financed exit poll cast doubt on the victory of Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki in a December 2007 election.
In
a January 31, 2009 New York Times article, “A chaotic Kenya vote and a secret US exit poll,” reporters Mike McIntyre and Jeffrey Gettleman revealed that the “results of an exit poll, paid for by the United States government, that supported the initial returns” favoring the challenger, Raila Odinga, were kept secret.
The exit poll showed Kibaki losing by six percentage points.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, favored by the US government in Kenya's December 2007 election, lost the vote according to a suppressed US government-financed exit poll.
When Kibaki claimed he had won the election, despite charges of ballot counting fraud and its own exit poll that called the result into question, Washington rushed to congratulate him and urged Kenyans to accept the outcome of the disputed vote.
The US government favored Kibaki, who “had a good relationship with the Bush administration and generally supported American counterterrorism policies in East Africa,” the article says.
Odinga, on the other hand, was viewed skeptically by US officials, because “he was educated in East Germany and named his son after Fidel Castro.”
During the election the US ambassador, Michael Ranneberger, tried to influence the vote in Kibaki’s favor, proposing to release “a voter survey showing Mr. Kibaki ahead and trying to block a roughly simultaneous one favoring Mr. Odinga.”
Ranneberger also “made public comments praising Mr. Kibaki and minimizing” corruption in Kibaki’s government.
The poll was conducted by the International Republican Institute, the international arm of the Republican Party, with funding provided by USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. The IRI receives much of its funding from the US Congress’s NED, the National Endowment for Democracy, whose ostensible mission is to promote democracy abroad. Its real mission is to promote the foreign interests of US banks, corporations and investors, by backing political parties and movements that oppose governments that fail to provide a congenial climate for US investment and exports.
While presented as an organization with an admirable mission, the NED was established to do openly what the CIA used to do covertly – meddle in the internal affairs of other countries. The US government established the NED after the CIA’s role in funding overseas political parties, church groups, cultural organizations, dissidents and trade unions was revealed in the press. These revelations served to discredit these organizations, most social democratic and all vehemently anti-communist.
By changing the paradigm from covert to overt funding and by replacing the CIA with a new “democracy promotion” organization as the source of funding for US fifth columns, it was hoped the stench of secret CIA funding would be lifted, even though the objective was the same: to manipulate the internal affairs and elections of other countries to serve the interests of US capital.
The IRI is involved in many countries, including Zimbabwe, where it has played an active role in formulating the policy platform of the Movement for Democratic Change. That platform, not surprisingly, favors the creation of a climate favorable to foreign investment and exports, and advocates robust privatization and elimination of subsidies, tariff barriers and affirmative action for domestic investors – measures congenial to the interest of the US corporate ruling class.
The hollowness of the US government’s pro-democracy stance is so frequently revealed, it’s hardly necessary to point it out. Its backing of Israeli efforts to reverse the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections that brought Hamas to power and its support for innumerable corrupt and despotic Arab regimes shows that the US government’s conception of democracy is roughly synonymous with its foreign policy interests. New revelations that it concealed an exit poll that pointed to electoral fraud in order to protect a favored candidate in Kenya’s December 2007 election, simply reinforces the view that Washington is not democracy’s champion, but its greatest enemy.
Labels: ELECTIONS, KENYA, MWAI KIBAKI, RAILA ODINGA
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A Chaotic Kenya Vote and
a Secret U.S. Exit Poll By MIKE McINTIRE and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: January 30, 2009
For three days in December 2007, Kenya slid into chaos as ballot counters steadily took what appeared to be a presidential election victory for the challenger and delivered it to the incumbent.
Ballot-counting in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2007. Violence erupted when the incumbent was finally declared the winner.
As tensions mounted, Kenneth Flottman sat in Nairobi and grew increasingly frustrated. He had in his hands the results of an exit poll, paid for by the United States government, that supported the initial returns favoring the challenger, Raila Odinga.
Mr. Flottman, East Africa director for the International Republican Institute, the pro-democracy group that administered the poll, said he had believed that the results would promptly be made public, as a check against election fraud by either side. But then his supervisors said the poll numbers would be kept secret.
When the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, was finally declared the winner amid cries of foul, Kenya exploded in violence that would leave more than 1,000 people dead before the two sides negotiated a power-sharing deal two months later. With rioters roaming the streets, Mr. Flottman sent an e-mail message to a colleague saying he was worried that, in rebuffing his pleas to release the poll, the institute had succumbed to political pressure from American officials.
“Supporting democracy and managing political outcomes are two different objectives for a nonpartisan, foreign-based organization or country,” he wrote, “and sometimes there is a conflict that requires a choice.”
A year later, the poll’s fate remains a source of bitter contention, even as Kenya has moved to remake its electoral system. The failure to disclose it was raised at a Senate hearing in Washington last year and has been denounced by human rights advocates, who said it might have saved lives by nudging Mr. Kibaki to accept a negotiated settlement more quickly.
Exit polls, of course, are not always accurate, and it is impossible to know if events might have played out differently had the institute publicized the results, as it has usually done elsewhere. But in Kenya’s highly contested election, this particular exit poll, conducted by an experienced American organization, might have been the best gauge of who really won.
An examination by The New York Times found that the official explanation for withholding the poll — that it was technically flawed — had been disputed by at least four people involved in the institute’s Kenya operations. The examination, including interviews and a review of e-mail messages and internal memorandums, raises questions about the intentions and priorities of American observers as Kenyans desperately sought credible information about the vote.
None of those interviewed professed to know why the institute withheld the results. But the decision was consistent with other American actions that seemed focused on preserving stability in Kenya, rather than determining the actual winner.
When Mr. Kibaki claimed victory on Dec. 30, 2007, the State Department quickly congratulated him and called on Kenyans to accept the outcome, even though international observers had reported instances of serious ballot-counting fraud. American officials backed away from their endorsement the next day and ultimately pushed the deal that made Mr. Odinga prime minister.
After insisting for months that the poll was flawed, the institute released it last August — long past the point of diplomatic impact — after outside experts whom it had hired determined that it was valid. It showed Mr. Kibaki losing by about six percentage points.
The institute would not make anyone available for interviews. In written responses to questions, a spokeswoman, Lisa Gates, said that the decision to withhold the results was based on “a lack of confidence in the data, nothing else,” and that any suggestions that it was at the behest of the United States government were “completely false.” To clear its name, the institute has asked that the State Department inspector general look into whether the poll was withheld “at the request of U.S. government officials,” she said.
“Had I.R.I. released a poll which we had reason to believe was incorrect,” she said, “The New York Times would be asking — quite rightly — how we could have been so cavalier and irresponsible.” The outside experts’ review, she said, showed that the initial results were off by two percentage points.
American Preferences
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Labels: ELECTIONS, KENYA, MWAI KIBAKI, NEOCOLONIALISM, RAILA ODINGA
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Kibaki backs down on repressive media law
Written by Constance Matongo
Friday, January 09, 2009 5:20:04 AM
KENYAN President Mwai Kibaki has backed down on the repressive media law a few days after he signed the Bill.
And Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) vice-president Amos Chanda has welcomed Kibaki's decision to back down on the recently signed law, raising hopes of possible amendment to the piece of legislation.
According to AllAfrica.com, President Kibaki had directed the country's chief legal advisor and the minister for communications to study amendments proposed by the media fraternity to the Kenyan Communications (Amendment) Act 2008 and the Kenya Communications Act 2008.
President Kibaki also directed Attorney General Amos Wako and information minister Samuel Poghisio to present appropriate recommendations on the proposed amendments to Cabinet.
The new legislation provides for heavy fines and prison sentences for press offences. It also gives the government, above all the information and interior ministries, authority over the issuing of broadcast licences and the production and content of news programmes.
According to the website, President Kibaki stated that he had noted the concerns by the media regarding the two Acts and asked the Attorney General and the communications minister to study the proposed amendments and consult with the media representatives.
President Kibaki's move comes in the wake of intense public pressure on him to protect the constitutional right to freedom of expression and the press.
And Chanda said the media in Zambia hoped that President Kibaki's decision to send back the law was for the right reasons.
“The fact that the President [Kibaki] has responded to pressure in a positive way is a positive step, As PAZA we welcome it and we hope it has been sent back for the right reasons,” said Chanda.
Yesterday, three Zambian media bodies petitioned the Kenyan government through its High Commission in Zambia.
PAZA, the Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of The Post and MISA Zambia condemned the decision by President Kibaki to assent to the bill in spite of heightened protests and appeals not to go ahead.
Labels: AMOS CHANDA, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, MWAI KIBAKI, PAZ
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Zambia media bodies petition Kenyan govt
Written by Constance Matongo
Wednesday, January 07, 2009 3:07:03 PM
THREE media bodies in Zambia have petitioned the Kenyan government for signing the new retrogressive media legislation.
The Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of the Post, Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) and Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) signed a petition through the Kenyan High Commission.
“We strongly condemn the decision by President Mwai Kibaki to assent to the bill inspite the heightened protests and appeals not to go ahead. This piece of legislation we believe is retrogressive and ill-conceived in nature as it threatens the fundamentals of freedom of expression including freedom of the press,” the statement read. “As media practioners in Africa, particularly, Zambia, we are concerned that Kenyan authorities are setting a bad precedent to other African countries.”
The media bodies stated that it was shocking that Kenyan authorities were working towards stifling the media when most countries in the world were ensuring that press freedom was upheld as one of the fundamental human rights.
In addition, the media bodies stated that the power given to the security minister to restrict media operations in a state of emergency was undemocratic given that a state of emergency was bad enough in a democracy.
“We also believe that discretionary power given to the security minister to switch off broadcasting stations at will is not only excessive but also a serious violation of fundamental freedom of expression of citizens,” read the statement. “The power to seize equipment from ‘erring’ broadcasting stations without court order undermines not only media freedom but property rights of media owners.”
The three media bodies also stated that the new law violated the East African Community Treaty and several other international instruments to which Kenya was a signatory.
The further called on the Kenyan government and other progressive citizens to individually and collectively safeguard democratic practice by upholding press freedom in the interest of good governance and accountability.
They also called on the Kenyan government to avert a possible crisis arising from lack of consensus by all stake holders on the enactment of the controversial bill.
“We note that major stakeholders such as media practitioners, media associations and even Kenyan Coalition partners –orange democratic Movement led by Prime minister Raila Odinga, the general citizenry have not been adequately consulted in this matter,” the statement read in part.
The media bodies also said the Kenyan government should suspend the law and create an enabling environment for further inclusive consultations with all stakeholders.
“We further appeal to the UN, the African Union and other watchdog media organisations to step up the responses to the Kenyan situation,” stated the media bodies./JC
Labels: FREEDOM OF SPEECH, KENYA, MEDIA, MWAI KIBAKI, PFC, THE POST
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