Kenya accepts APRM review

Kenya has agreed to be reviewed by a team of African Union (AU) experts in November to assess the country’s political reform record. The review is to be conducted by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

The review, which was sanctioned by the African Union Heads of States, will determine the Kenyan unity government’s performance since it was created last year, following a disputed election and resulting violence.

APRM Prime Minister Wycliffe Oparanya launched the preparatory activities for the assessment on Thursday. “The exercise will have particular emphasis on the institutions and stakeholders charged with carrying out the envisaged reforms,” Oparanya said.

Kofi Annan warns Kenya over future poll violence

In parting remarks made after a three-day visit to Kenya late on Wednesday, former UN chief Kofi Annan warned that the country risks returning to ethnic clashes if reforms are not implemented.

Kofi Annan

“My conversations with Kenyans during the last three days have underscored that there is a crisis of confidence in Kenya’s political leadership,” Annan said. “Only Kenya’s politicians can solve that crisis. I urge them to listen to the voices of Kenyans.”

Annan said that he had noted some progress on the reform agenda but warned that time was running out.

Politically-fueled ethnic tensions flared up in early 2008 following a disputed presidential election, plunging Kenya into weeks of deadly turmoil.

Flown in to mediate the crisis, Annan led the two sides to a power-sharing agreement that made incumbent candidate Mwai Kibaki president and his rival, Raila Odinga, prime minister. The deal brought an end to the clashes, but has resulted in a bloated coalition government unchallenged by a real political opposition.

On this day August 7, 1998

Car bombs simultaneously exploded at the United States embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, killing over 200 people and injuring over 4,500 others.

The attacks, linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to American attention for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list.

Along with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, the Embassy Bombing is one of the major anti-American terrorist attacks that preceded the September 11, 2001 attacks.

East Africa gets high-speed internet

Yesterday the 15,000 km (9,300 mi) subsea fiber-optic cable began operations, providing the East African countries of Djibouti, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique, with high speed internet connections to Europe and Asia.

Seacom Cable Map

The cable was officially switched on in simultaneous events held across the region, including in Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

The launch was described by the Chief Executive of SEA Cable Systems as being “a historic day for Africa… [that]… marks the dawn of a new era for communications between the continent and the rest of the world”.

Upon being switched on, the owners of the cable stated that it would reduce internet costs by up to 95% to wholesale customers, whilst providing a far greater speed of internet connection.

Kenya confirms first swine flu case

A British medical student has became the first confirmed case of swine flu in Kenya, east Africa. The student, who was in a group of 33, was in Kenya to attend a series of medical camps in Nyanza province.

The whole group is currently quarantined in their hotel in Kisumu while undergoing treatment. A second suspected case involving a Kenyan woman who had just arrived from India was put in isolation at Kenyatta National Hospital in the capital Nairobi pending laboratory results.

Over the weekend there was panic in the capital as mobile text messages circulated warning people to stay away from Sarit centre, a popular commercial establishment where another suspected case had been diagnosed. The patient’s test results however came back negative for the H1N1 virus.

UN requests US$700 million in aid for East Africa

The United Nations has called for wealthy donor nations to donate US$700 million (£382 million or €484 million) in emergency aid for Eastern Africa to prevent widespread famine. Since the start of 2008 the number of people living in hunger has almost doubled to seventeen million in the area, the UN claims.

According to UN emergency releif co-ordinator John Holmes, food levels are dangerously low in much of Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Northern Kenya and Uganda. The area, known as the ‘Horn of Africa‘, has seen drought, war and high food prices all worsen the situation. Holmes has warned that the levels of those in need could rise still further.

A total of $1.4 billion is to be raised for the period from now to the year’s end, but at least $716 million of that remains to be found. “We may need significant funds after that period – this is not the end of the story,” warned Holmes.

Kenyan PM calls for suspension of Mugabe from African Union

Raila Odinga, the Kenyan Prime Minister, has said that Robert Mugabe should be suspended from the African Union until he allows free elections to take place in his country. He has said that the AU ” should suspend him [Mugabe] and send peace forces to Zimbabwe to ensure free and fair elections.”

Odinga continued, “[The] African Union will be setting a dangerous precedent if Mugabe is allowed to participate in its meetings,” he said. “Right now Mugabe is a crisis, they have no president with legitimacy to run the country.”

Robert Mugabe was recently under a large amount of pressure to postpone the election after the main opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, pulled out due to fears of violence. For example, Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations yesterday called for the election to be postponed. He said that he “strongly supports the statement of the Chairman of SADC (Southern African Development Community) that conditions do not exist for a run-off election to be held at this time and that they should be postponed.”

Mugabe yesterday claimed the the current results show that he will have a ’sweeping victory’ in the unopposed presidential run-off elections. He announced his victory on one of the state run television networks. “The returns show that we are winning convincingly, that we have won in all the 26 constituencies in Harare, an MDC stronghold where we won in only one constituency in March.”

Photo US Government