News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Zim set to implode as its citizens revolt

Posted: 04 Jul 2016 11:35 PM PDT

Zimbabwe is on the brink of implosion, and the burning of warehouses at Beit Bridge was just the beginning.

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Harare - Zimbabwe is on the brink of implosion, and the burning of warehouses at Beit Bridge on Friday was just the beginning.

On Monday morning, sporadic protests broke out in parts of Harare over police roadblocks and spot fines, prompting anti-riot police to fire gunshots and teargas to ward off protesters. Police on the streets of Harare were overwhelmed and called in reinforcements.

Zimbabweans have lost patience with a government that is failing to govern, and are now rising up against food shortages, the ban on importation of basic commodities, cash shortages, and the failure to pay civil servants their June salaries.

What is happening in Zimbabwe has not been seen in the nation's history - where citizens have taken to the streets regardless of the state ordering the police to deal with disturbances ruthlessly.

Civil-society organisations in Zimbabwe have called for a day of protest on Wednesday against the ban on importation of goods, the failure to pay civil servants, and police roadblocks.

There have been threats of violence against those who defy the call to go to work.

The opposition MDC has urged its supporters to join the protest.

“We are heartened by the fact that civic-society organisations are planning for action on Wednesday. We totally support that endeavour,” party spokesman Obert Gutu told reporters.

“These pop-up demonstrations and protests sprouting up everywhere, which are engulfing our cities and towns, are symptomatic of grave national grievances that remain unresolved.”

On Monday, Bulawayo public transport operators decided that all public transporters would park their vehicles in protest against police brutality on the streets. They have resolved that public transport will not resume until all illegal roadblocks are dismantled.

The rise in social unrest in Zimbabwe could lead to an increased influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa.

When Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was asked on Monday, at a media conference at her department, whether South Africa had a contingency plan to deal with this possibility, she did not answer the question.

Foreign Editor

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Call for Kenya to probe activists killing

Posted: 04 Jul 2016 12:57 PM PDT

Human rights activists are demanding an urgent probe in Kenya into last week's murder of three men, including a human rights activists.

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Johannesburg - Human rights activists are demanding an urgent probe in Kenya into last week's murder of three men, including a human rights activists.

All three were allegedly killed by police. Amnesty International (AI), together with 34 Kenyan and international human rights organisations, on Monday released a media statement urging the Kenyan authorities to urgently investigate the killings and demanded that those responsible be brought to justice. “The Kenyan authorities must urgently investigate the killing last week of three men, including a human rights lawyer, and ensure that those found responsible are held to account in fair trials,” read the statement.

“The shocking abduction, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings of lawyer Willie Kimani, as well as his client and their taxi driver, whose bodies were recovered from a river 73 kilometres north-east of Nairobi, should be cause for alarm over the state of human rights and rule of law in Kenya, especially in the face of reports suggesting that police officers were involved.

“These extrajudicial killings are a chilling reminder that the hard-won right to seek justice for human rights violations is under renewed attack,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

“The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) must initiate and lead prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into the abduction, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial execution of these three people with a view to bringing criminal charges against all those reasonably suspected of responsibility,” said Wanyeki.

The bodies of Willie Kimani, who was employed by International Justice Mission, a Christian legal aid charity, his client Josphat Mwendwa, a motorcycle taxi rider, and Joseph Muiruri, a taxi driver, were recovered on June 30, 2016 from Ol Donyo Sabuk River in Machakos County, eastern Kenya, a week after the three went missing in circumstances suggesting they were victims of enforced disappearance.

Initial reports immediately suggested that Administration Police (AP) officers, one of whom Mwendwa was defending himself against in court that day, may have abducted them.

The three were last seen as they left Mavoko Law Courts, in Machakos County, on 23 June 2016, where they had attended a hearing of a traffic case against Mwendwa.

Police officers from Syokimau AP Camp laid traffic charges against Mwendwa in December 2015, months after he had lodged a complaint with IPOA against a senior officer at the camp. Mwendwa alleged the officer unlawfully shot him in April 2015 as he dismounted a motorcycle after the officers had waved him down to stop. Human rights organisations in Kenya have evidence indicating the three men were briefly held at Syokimau AP Camp soon after they were abducted.

The men's whereabouts after that remained unknown until their bodies were recovered seven days later.

“That these killings are coming before numerous similar allegations in other parts of the country have been adequately investigated is a matter of serious concern of the willingness of the Kenyan authorities to stem cases of police killings,” said Henry Maina, regional director at Article 19, Eastern Africa.

“That a lawyer working for an international organisation and his client could be abducted and disappeared in broad-day light only to be found dead is a matter that cannot be taken lightly,” said Maina.

Kamau Ngugi, National Coordinator at Kenya's National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders added: “A transparent process of investigating and prosecuting those responsible is what is now needed to reassure shocked Kenyans of their safety and restore their faith in the national.”

Kenya's international partners - in particular Sweden, the UK and USA - that are currently providing financial support to the Kenya police units implicated in extrajudicial killings, should urge Kenyan authorities to ensure effective investigations into these killings and prosecution of those responsible.

Supporting Kenyan security agencies without insisting on accountability for human rights violations makes donor countries complicit in those violations.

The rights bodies said they planned demonstrations in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya on Monday to protest the murders.

African News Agency

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Calls to probe Harare police violence

Posted: 04 Jul 2016 12:57 PM PDT

Amnesty International on Monday called for an independent investigation after police in Zimbabwe cracked down on a public transport sector strike.

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Johannesburg - Amnesty International on Monday called for an independent investigation after police in Zimbabwe cracked down on a public transport sector strike which brought large parts of the capital Harare to a standstill.

Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda, said: “The deplorable use of force by the police against protesters amounts to human rights violations under the country’s international and domestic laws. Police must comply with international standards governing the use of force in policing protests.

“Authorities must launch an independent and impartial investigation into the conduct of the police officers who are found to have used unnecessary force against protesters,” Mwananyanda said. “Police must stop using force to suppress dissenting voices.”

Amnesty said public transport operators and taxi drivers embarked on protests around Harare against increased police roadblocks, leaving commuters without transport.

There were reports of violent clashes between protesters and police, with Zimbabwe Police Republic later issuing a statement announcing a heavy police presence “to deal with any public disorder situation”.

Police had arrested dozens of people after commuter transport operators in some of the city’s areas were involved in violent clashes with police as they protested against police roadblocks.

The protesters used stones and burning tyres to blockade roads that led into the city centre and said they would not allow any vehicles to ferry people into town until the police stopped mounting roadblocks every day.

The protesters also demanded that corrupt police officers who fleeced them of their money at the roadblocks be arrested.

Protests were reported in Ruwa, Zimre Park, Hatfield, Epworth and Mabvuku where drivers and conductors blocked roads with stones and attacked any vehicles found ferrying people into town.

African News Agency

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Kenya looks to tech to break sex-ed taboos

Posted: 04 Jul 2016 12:42 PM PDT

The United Nations Population Fund and Nailab are targeting entrepreneurs for their ideas on providing sex education through technology and social media in Kenya.

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Nairobi - When Kenyan teenager Rosemary Olale found out she was pregnant, her guardians threw her out of their home in shame, despite the fact no one taught her about safe sex.

She didn't dare tell them she was also HIV positive.

“You just feel like everybody doesn't want you,” said Olale, sitting with a dozen other HIV positive women, each with a small child on her lap, in a small home in Nairobi's Saika slums.

Olale, now 37, started the group in 2005 to provide other HIV positive women and young mothers with support in dealing with stigma, poverty and reproductive health issues.

Teenagers across Africa urgently need more information about sex to combat soaring rates of HIV and unwanted pregnancies, experts say, as widespread taboos and cultural conservatism prevent discussions in schools and homes.

“Where I come from, talking about the sex education with your girl is really difficult,” Olale told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

However, a growing number of businesses, charities and individuals are seeking to fill the gap in information.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Nailab, a Kenyan firm that supports technology startups, are behind the latest initiative, which targets entrepreneurs for their ideas on providing sex education through technology and social media.

Candidates in the I.AM campaign launched this month, have until August to submit their ideas before four winners are chosen to receive training, mentorship and funding to develop their ideas further.

“All girls, all boys must have comprehensive sexuality education,” said Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA executive director. “That's really when they can make the choice in their lives.”

Kenya pledged to improve access to sexual education and family planning services at the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, but has had difficulty implementing new policies due to conservative opposition.

A bill to teach sex education and provide access to contraceptives in schools was introduced into Kenya's upper house of parliament in 2014, provoking a national outcry.

“People are fearing that when you're speaking about sex or when you're speaking about sex education, it's like losing your values,” said David Opoti Inzofu a pastor at Nairobi's Riruta Christ Bible Church, who openly discusses family planning with his congregation.

“There is no day I can remember where my mother or my father sat with me and discussed with me about sex. Never.”

Sex education and family planning are critical in delaying motherhood, reducing HIV rates and deaths from unsafe abortions, UNFPA says.

Some 29 000 young people aged between 15 and 24 are infected with HIV annually in Kenya, government data shows. New infections are spiking among adolescent girls who know less about HIV transmission than boys, it says.

One in five teenage girls are mothers, with some 13 000 dropping out of school each year to raise their children, UNFPA says.

Kenya is a hotbed of technological innovation in Africa, with technology giants such as Google, IBM and Microsoft setting up headquarters in Nairobi.

For an issue as taboo as sex, technology allows people to have anonymous and informative conversations without the fear of stigma or discrimination.

“(If) somebody builds a software that allows people to anonymously chat about their sexual challenges, and we see tens of thousands of young people using it - that will be the most exciting part of this,” said Sam Gichuru, chief executive of Nailab.

Technology can also reach many more people than face-to-face groups like Olale's. Some 80 percent of Kenyans own a mobile phone, government data shows.

“A lot of these children are now getting access to mobile phones and technology,” said Siddharth Chatterjee, UNFPA's representative in Kenya.

“Imagine the knowledge they can generate through that technological edge.”

Reuters

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