After 3 days of heavy gun battle, Kenyan security forces have been able to take over the Westgate mall. Presently, the attackers are believed to be holed up in a supermarket. According to recent reports on the situation, the government… Read more ›
After the attack on Westgate mall in Nairobi on Saturday, governments across East Africa are bracing themselves for the possibility of attacks from Al Qaeda. An official from Medrek, Ethiopia’s leading opposition party, said the nation is at risk of… Read more ›
The governments of Ghana and Kenya have expressed their condolences to the family of the late author and ex-Chairman of Council of State, Kofi Awonoor. He is reported to have been shot at the Westgate mall in Kenya yesterday by… Read more ›
A combination of Kenyan defence and internal security forces are working to round up a deadly hostage situation which has lasted for over 24 hours in Westgate mall. Yesterday the attackers stormed the mall before throwing grenades and opening fire… Read more ›
A large protest demonstration that was called by the opposition Semayawi (Blue) Party in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa failed to take place after security forces blocked roads and bridges leading to the protest site. Police surrounded Semayawi Party leaders and… Read more ›
Numerous witnesses in the ongoing ICC trial have confessed to fearing for their lives and safety after receiving death threats. In a conference last Friday, human rights activist Maina Kiai said militants stormed his Nyeri County home and threatened to… Read more ›
A journalist serving time for posting images online of Police attacking protesters in Djibouti is being denied access to healthcare. According to the report published by Reporters Without Borders, Maydaneh Abdullah Okieh, the technician in charge of the Djibouti news… Read more ›
Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, is set to join 131 other world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Kenyatta’s presence at the meeting has been in question following his deputy’s absence due to an ongoing trial in… Read more ›
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday issued a statement calling for a collaboration between her government and the governments of Sudan and Egypt in building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The collaboration is aimed at fufilling the recommendations… Read more ›
Kenya’s High Court on Friday, stopped a government plan to relocate 55,000 mostly Somali refugees from the capital, Nairobi, and other cities to camps, Human Rights Watch said. Such relocation would be a violation of refugees’ dignity and free movement… Read more ›
The Dutch embassy in Kenya has warned that foreigners are at risk of attack, following Wednesday’s discovery of a large quantity of explosives on a bus by police in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Kenya has seen a series of grenade and… Read more ›
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has held talks with his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir in an attempt to defuse tensions following deadly clashes in Abyei, a region where both sides have claimed ownership, officials said Monday.
This follows appeals by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the African Union for calm in the flashpoint area following the killing of a tribal chief and a UN peacekeeper on Saturday.
“Our president has been in direct contact with president Bashir… they exchanged ideas about this sad incident,” South Sudan’s Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told reporters.
Both Juba and Khartoum have condemned the fighting which killed Kual Deng Majok, the Abyei leader of the Dinka Ngok, a people viewed as loyal to South Sudan.
Majok and an Ethiopian peacekeeper were shot dead in an attack by gunmen from the Misseriya, a pastoralist people who graze their cattle in Abyei and are seen as supporters of Khartoum.
Several Misseriya are also reported to have been killed, as well as a Dinka colleague of Majok. Two peacekeepers were also wounded.
Ban urged both sides to “avoid any escalation of this unfortunate event,” while the AU, which has been mediating between Khartoum and Juba on Abyei, said they must “ensure that the current situation does not spiral out of control.”
Although Sudan and South Sudan have been taking steps since March to normalise their relations in other areas following months of intermittent clashes along their undemarcated frontier, Abyei’s status has not been resolved.
Abyei’s status was the most sensitive issue left unsettled when South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011. A referendum to determine Abyei’s future was stalled and Sudanese troops shortly after took over the region by force.
Provocative killings
Negotiations on the region’s future are ongoing, but Benjamin said he believed the killings were “done by Misseriya militia… to frustrate the Abyei referendum.”
Khartoum has however affirmed its committment “to all the agreements that have been signed” with Juba, adding that they hope the killings will not impact a recent warming of relations between the former civil war foes.
At least 4 000 Ethiopian troops with the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) are based in the district.
South Sudan “has requested UNISFA search for the perpetrators to bring them to justice”, Benjamin added, calling Saturday’s attack “provocative killings”.
“Sudan’s government should also take steps to find out who committed this crime,” he added.
Majok’s death is the most serious incident since Sudanese troops withdrew in May last year to end a year-long occupation that forced more than 100 000 people to flee Abyei towards South Sudan.
Although Sudan and South Sudan have been implementing timetables for restoring relations between the two countries set out in March, they have not met deadlines to set up Abyei’s administrative structure, including a police service — also agreed upon in March.
(Bloomberg) – Kenya’s government said it will introduce new taxes and cut spending to cover the cost of a 25.5 billion-shilling ($300 million) wage increase that ended a strike by state teachers, lecturers and doctors.
The measures will raise 40 billion shillings, ensuring that the additional expenditure for the salaries and other unspecified costs is “fully covered,” Finance Minister Robinson Githae told reporters today in Nairobi, the capital.
Teachers at Kenyan state schools began a strike on Sept. 3 to demand a 300 percent wage increase and returned to work on Sept. 24 after reaching a deal with the government, according to the Kenya National Union of Teachers. Lecturers called off a one-week strike on Sept. 19 after being awarded a 33 percent pay rise, the Nairobi-based Daily Nation reported on Sept. 20.
Kenyan doctors yesterday called off a month-long strike after the government agreed to meet their demands, Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union Chairman Victor Ngani said on a broadcast by Nairobi-based Kenya Television Network.
The tax measures announced by Githae today include raising 4.5 billion shillings from a 10 percent excise duty on cash transactions using mobile-phone money-transfer systems such as Safaricom Ltd. (SAFCOM)’s M-PESA product. The government will also receive 14 billion shillings from the African Union for its role in supporting a peacekeeping force in Somalia, as well as 10 billion shillings from surpluses held by industry regulators, he said.
Regulators
The agencies include the Communications Commission of Kenya, the Capital Markets Authority, the Insurance Regulatory Authority, the Retirement Benefits Authority and the Central Bank of Kenya, Githae said.
The teachers’ pay hike will raise an additional 5 billion shillings from increased income tax while expenditure cuts will save the government 12.5 billion shillings, he said.
Kenya, where Tullow Oil Plc (TLW) said in March it’s discovered oil, is also studying a capital-gains tax for the mining, oil, gas and other natural-resources industries, Githae said, without providing more details. He also didn’t specify what spending cuts are planned.
Growth in Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, slowed to 3.3 percent in the second quarter from 3.4 percent in the previous three-month period as record interest rates stifled lending.
Monetary policy will remain “tight” in order to curb inflation, Githae said, without elaborating. Inflation slowed for a 10th consecutive month in September to 5.3 percent.
zegabi is an East African Opinion Journal.
Read more ›