Kenya’s senior public servants traverse Western region for ‘Yes’ votes
Listen Nairobi (Alshahid) -Five Permanent Secretaries from Western Province are traversing the region to drum up support for the Proposed Constitution. Led by Labour PS Beatrice Kituyi, the PSs said the document, if passed, would enable the country to realise the Vision 2030. The PSs said they had the permission to move around the province [...]
Kenya referendum poll: 62pc say Yes to draft law
Listen Nairobi (Alshahid) – A new opinion poll by Strategic Research conducted early this month, indicates that 62% of Kenyans will vote Yes, 20% of registered voters will choose No while 18% were still undecided. Curiously 63% interviewed believe that the new draft constitution is a good document but needs amendments. “When we ask them [...]
Somalia: Ripe moment for aggressive intervention and progressive mediation
Listen In the next few months Somalia will be sadly entering a world record of twenty years of civil war that is not showing any signs of ending. However, scholars who have spent time studying how conflicts begin and end will agree that warring groups in Somalia have reached a hurting stalemate and are now [...]
Kenya Prime Minister Raila: “NO” Camp leaders are non-reformists
Listen Nairobi (Alshahid) -Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga has censured opponents of the Proposed Constitution, saying they do not deserve to comment on the draft. Mr. Odinga said those leading the opposition to the new constitution had been in power for years, but failed to give Kenyans even a draft to consider. He spoke when [...]
Peace, Security, and the upshot of political subjugation
Listen I could think of any tactfully discreet and diplomatically clear way to describe the outcome of the 15th Extraordinary Session of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government on Somalia without compromising the essence of my message, I would have simply chosen that approach. Therefore, going crude is the appropriate way: As [...]
Geopolitics and Conflicts in Eastern Africa
Listen From the protracted crises in Sudan and Somalia to the border face-off between Ethiopia and Eritrea, to the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008 and the fragile grand coalition government that followed, Eastern Africa is wallowing in conflicts. The region is steeped in conflicts and the threat of both full-blown cross-border and internal warfare [...]
Hydro-Power Politics: Lake Turkana and River Omo on Centre-Stage
Listen The damming of River Omo in Southwest Ethiopia for hydro-power generation will affect negatively more than 200,000 agro-pastoralists in the region and Lake Turkana. The Ethiopian agro-pastoralists use the river’s annual floods for agricultural production and to generate pasture for their livestock while River Omo is the major source of water for Lake Turkana. [...]
IGAD leaders chart way forward to support Somalia Government
Listen Addis Ababa (Alshahid) – The two day Summit of the 15th Extraordinary Session of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development(IGAD )Assembly of Heads of State and Government on Somalia ended on Monday with several concrete actions to chart the way forward in solving political and security crisis in the country including sending over 20,000 [...]
East African Community: The Past Haunts the Present Integration Process
Listen This was clearly evident during the negotiations leading to the signing of the East African Community Treaty, the ushering in and implementation of the Customs Union, the Common Market, among other projects. For example, in July 30 1999 the Treaty was postponed as Tanzania disagreed over trade provisions especially concerning the proposed zero tariffs [...]
The Nile Agreement is still being opposed by Egypt and Sudan
Listen Egypt and Sudan are still opposed to the new Nile agreement. This was exhibited recently in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa when the meeting of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) ended with open disagreements among the Nile member states. Sudanese water minister Kamal Ali Mohammed said his country would stop cooperating with the nine [...]