Immediate former Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet, took the oath of office as Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) for Tourism and Wildlife at a ceremony witnessed by President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi.
At the ceremony conducted by Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua and attended by Deputy President William Ruto, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Tourism CS Najib Balala among other senior government officials, Mr. Boinnet signed the Leadership and Integrity Code and the Accountability Pledge.
President Kenyatta also witnessed the signing of the Leadership and Integrity Code and the Accountability Pledge by incoming Inspector General of Police Hillary Nzioki Mutyambai who had earlier taken the Oath of Office at the Supreme Court.
The signing of the Leadership and Integrity Code and the Accountability Pledge by state officers is part of the Head of State’s unwavering commitment to entrenching ethos of good governance and integrity at the highest levels of public service. It is also in line with the President’s stand on absolute fidelity to the principles of transparency and accountability.
Congratulating Mr. Boinnet and Mr Mutyambai on their appointment as CAS and Inspector General of Police (IGP) respectively, President Kenyatta said he looked forward to working with them in delivering quality services to Kenyans.
“I am looking forward to working together with you in our mission to deliver services to the people of Kenya,” President Kenyatta said.
President Kenyatta thanked outgoing IGP Boinnet, saying he served his term with diligence and took the National Police Service to a higher level.
“Your commitment to duty made the National Police Service what it is today. I hope you will take that experience to the Ministry of Tourism as well and move it to a new level in our conservation efforts,” President Kenyatta told Mr. Boinnet.
President Kenyatta also commended incoming IG Mutyambai, saying he expects him to use his wide experience and exposure in the security sector to continue the work of ensuring that the lives of Kenyans and their properties are protected.
“No nation can achieve economic and political stability without security. I look forward to working with you to ensure we achieve our social and economic objectives for the people of our nation,” President Kenyatta said.
The Head of State urged the new IGP to work closely with his colleagues and members of the National Police Service Commission in order to deliver on the mandate of the service and in line with its motto of “Utumishi kwa Wote”.
At another function at State House, Nairobi, President Kenyatta received credentials from the incoming Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Wu Peng. Ambassador Wu is also the Permanent Representative of China to the UNEP and the UN-Habitat.
President Kenyatta witnesses swearing-in of Tourism CAS Joseph Boinnet
Fake police officer arraigned in court for arresting a hawker
BY PRUDENCE WANZA – A man has been arraigned in court for impersonating a police officer. One Samuel had initially arrested a hawker at Globe Cinema Rundabout, frequented by hawkers in Nairobi.
He was also charged with possession of handcuffs belonging to a police officer. The accused, Samuel appeared before Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi at the Milimani Law Courts and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He will be released on a bond of Ksh. 100,000.Hearing set on 13th May, 2019.
3 people charged for defrauding a Ukrainian 100Million shillings
BY PRUDENCE WANZA – Three people have been charged at the Milimani Law Court of obtaining Ksh. 100m falsely.
The particulars are that, on diverse dates between the month of January 2018 and October 2018 at the offices of M\S Afrosolutions Company along Kaptei Road Kileleshwa in Nairobi county jointly with others not before court with intend to defraud obtained US dollars 1.05M equivalent to Ksh. 100M from Mr. Kavalenko Henneddii, a Ukrainian National by pretending to sell him gold.
The three, Consolata Achieng, Washington Libese and Enock Mungwana appeared before Chief Magistrate, Francis Andayi and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
They will be released upon payment of a bond of Ksh.2m and an alternative cash bail of Ksh. 1m.
The case will be heard on 15th May, 2019 and will be mentioned on 23rd April, 2019.
Man arraigned in court for fake Range Rover deal
BY PRUDENCE WANZA – A man has been arraigned in court for obtaining Ksh. 3,213,000 from one James Ochieng Onyango by falsely pretending to sell him motor vehicle of make Range Rover with registration no. KBU 220U.
The accused, Emmanuel Mulobi Musebe, pleaded not guilty to the charges before the Chief Magistrate, Francis Andayi at the Milimani Law Courts.
He will be released on a bond of Ksh. 1M and an alternative cash bail of Ksh. 500,000.
The hearing of the case is set to be 13th May, 2019 and the mention on 23rd April, 2019.
Light pollution: the dark side of keeping the lights on
Twenty five years ago Los Angeles experienced a massive power blackout due to an earthquake. The entire city was thrust into darkness. The emergency call service, 911, was inundated with panicked residents reporting “a giant silvery cloud”, was engulfing the sky. Unknown to the callers, they were seeing the Milky Way, the galaxy containing our Solar System, in the night sky for the first time. Some of these urbanites had never before experienced a non-light polluted sky.
Light pollution is the excessive and obtrusive light produced by humans at night. This light is from artificial sources, mainly electricity from houses, offices, streetlamps, billboards or car headlights. There are two main types of light pollution: point source, that is light directly from a source, and skyglow, the combined and accumulated effect of point source lighting that spreads through the atmosphere. This is the slight glow one can see on the horizon if looking towards a city from a rural area.
Almost a quarter of global land area is now under light polluted skies. And 80% of the world’s population now lives under such light polluted skies, meaning a third of humanity can no longer see the Milky Way.
The introduction of artificial light at night has occurred in a universe, that is, in fact, exceedingly dark. Apart from the soft glow of celestial light, it is remiss of us to forget that half the earth always used to be, at any moment in time, in utter darkness. We only experience sunlight daily because of the random virtue of happening to be close to a star. That means that over evolutionary timescales, life on earth, and humans also, have adapted to constant and regular day-night cycles.
Many species use these sunlight cycles, and moonlight cycles, to time their behaviour, activity and sleep patterns as well as when to mate and when to feed. But now, the spatial coverage of light pollution is large, and its intensity is increasing.
But there’s a bigger problem: there’s mounting evidence that increased lighting has a range of negative effects.
Lighting’s bad side
Lighting negatively affects the environment as it disrupts the natural light cycles that species are cued into. These include changes in time partitioning such as singing, activity and foraging in animals, or altering individual health.
And there’s increasing evidence that lighting has negative effects on human health. Melatonin is the hormone that regulates human sleep patterns and is expressed under light. Changes in light regimes away from day-night cycles caused by light pollution means that it can disrupt this vital hormone’s natural expression. This has been linked to obesity, reduced sleep quality and impaired memory.
Because melatonin is an anti-oxidant that can remove free radicals, the disruption of its expression by artificial light may increase cancer risk. Disruption of natural light cycles is particularly acute with newer LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights, which are increasingly being adopted globally for their energy efficiency benefits. Yet, there’s little consideration of their negative health consequences.
Managing the problem
A recent review in Science has outlined five key strategies to reduce lighting globally, which will not necessarily compromise its benefits. They are:
The introduction of light to previously dark areas should be avoided.
Lighting should be at the lowest usable intensity.
Lighting should only be used where it’s directly needed and shielded where possible.
Lighting should only be used when required.
Lighting should be “warmer”, meaning more orange colours should be used rather than in the harsh white spectrum.
African research required
Given the extent and severity consequences, the dearth of light pollution research in Africa is a surprising oversight. Africa still remains one of the least light polluted continents, but this is rapidly changing with the expansion of lighting infrastructure, which it is closely tied with economic development. This is especially true for rural areas that may increasingly gain access to electrical grids and LED lights.
The recent global atlas of artificial skyglow did not make any ground-based measurements in Africa (nor South America or most of Asia), and serves as an example of how desperately a more robust and widespread understanding is required of its impacts.
Light pollution is a pernicious and increasingly understood global change driver. While many Africans may still see the Milky Way, the expansion of lighting infrastructure is imminent. As with other global change drivers, the continent is at an important juncture to ensure that its economic trajectory does not compromise its human and environmental health. How best to do so for light pollution still remains to be decided.
Bernard Coetzee, Conservation scientist, University of the Witwatersrand
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Scorecards can help measure health outcomes. An East Africa case study
Information is important for high level managers to make informed decisions. The advance of information and communication technology means that information is generated in abundance and at a fast pace. But this has led to managers facing information overload. This is particularly true in the health domain – a sector fragmented with information systems from a variety of data sources.
One way round the problem is to visually present the information from different sources on a single screen. This can enable data managers to monitor a comprehensive set of performance indicators at a glance and make informed decision.
A tool that enables this is the scorecard, or dashboard, which gives a full view of an organisation’s performance by using a “traffic light” visualisation to link short and long term goals. This concept was introduced by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 1996 and has since been used by managers in various sectors.
I conducted a study over four years to understand how scorecards could be used in the East Africa Community to strengthen regional collaboration and address common health agendas. During the study a regional scorecard was developed, made up of indicators measuring health performance of partner states based on set targets.
The scorecard
The developed scorecard was used in the six partner states that make up the East African Community. These are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The research was part of the larger global Health Information System Program. The initiative has been ongoing for the last 20 years and involves software development and country implementation of District Health Information Software in several countries in Africa, Asia, South America and Europe. I am part of the global network and have been engaged in implementing and evaluating health information systems in several of these projects in Africa.
The East African Community scorecard was first used to monitor maternal and child health care.
A set of indicators measuring countries’ maternal and child health care performance were selected in the design of the regional scorecard. Data populating the selected indicators were periodically pulled from the national level health information system.
For example, one indicator included in the scorecard measured the percentage of women who visit health facilities at least four times during pregnancy. This indicator was based on World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations which have since been increased to eight visits.
The scorecard was designed and developed by regional and national health information systems experts as well as officials responsible for maternal and child health policies in the partner states’ ministries of health. The development process entails a series of face to face meetings complimented with off-site discussions. Members from health information initiatives were also part of the implementation process.
The regional scorecard measured the countries’ performance by displaying a red colour where performance was off track, a yellow colour for progress but requiring more effort, and the green colour indicating the target achieved.
The first regional scorecard was launched on 2015 in the East African Community. The event brought together ministers in the region responsible for health, selected parliamentarians, the academia and development partners.
Using a colour coded approach, the scorecard managed to capture the attention of leaders from the region by quickly identifying the indicators with poor performance as well as those that needed more drive to achieve agreed targets.
By arranging the countries together while showing their performance, the scorecard generated a competition element among leaders. For example, while progress was observed from Rwanda and Tanzania in reducing child mortality, progress towards maternal health goals was slow across the rest of the region.
This awareness prompted ministers of health and parliamentarians to commit resources to areas with lower performance.
In addition, the leaders of the East African Community endorsed the first regional scorecard, and asked for it to be produced annually.
Lessons learnt
A few useful lessons were learnt from the research. It showed that the scorecard was:
An effective communication tool. By using the traffic light display, managers could track performance of several indicators. Its visualisation enabled information to be understood at a glance.
Useful as the basis for performance benchmarking: understanding areas that affect the success or failure of the organisation is of a paramount importance in the management of complex system like health sector.
A good advocacy tool. It can be used in discussions among technical and non-technical stakeholders in viewing the progress and address challenges.
Way forward
Based on the experience in East Africa Community we believe the scorecard can be useful in creating awareness among high level managers and engaging them in a broader discussion on improving the maternal and child health care. Managers can rely on the scorecard to quickly inform them of the performance of their organisation as well as what progress is being made towards a defined set of targets.
We are working on a third version of the scorecard for the East Africa community to be integrated into other health programmes such as HIV and TB.
Wilfred Senyoni, PhD Candidate in Information Systems, University of Oslo
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Bouteflika steps aside as Algerians push to reclaim and own their history
Algeria’s long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika has agreed to step down following a series of mass protests against his original plan to bid for a fifth term.
After weeks of uncertainty, the country’s military chief Ahmed Gaed Salah declared the 82-year-old leader constitutionally unfit to rule. An interim leadership will be formed under the supervision of the army. Everything seems to suggest that the country is heading towards elections and a constitutional referendum.
Some observers have drawn parallels between events in Algeria and the “Arab Spring”. These mass demonstrations against corruption and acts of police brutality which swept through North Africa from 2011. The pro-democracy uprisings led to the overthrow of three authoritarian regimes: Tunisia’s Ben Ali, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.
Political pundits and analysts drawing these comparisons may be tempted to speculate about hidden agendas, or deplore the lack of a common ideological framework for the opposition. This is because, in countries where opposition forces failed to cohere in a meaningful way, the 2011 revolutionary momentum was easily hijacked by counter-revolutionaries.
But these debates miss the point. They overlook the social and cultural value of the Algerian protests. They also reveal that the international community has remained centred on the question of political stability since the civil war of 1991-2002. In fact, the singular achievement of these demonstrations is that Algerians have reclaimed ownership of their past.
This is apparent in the way that protesters invoked the memory of the war of independence. It could also be seen in their allusions to slogans or songs from that time, calling for “Algeria’s liberation”.
The memory of Algeria’s liberation was politically hijacked by the elites who’ve held power since the 1954-1962 Algerian war of independence.
The Oujda Group
During the independence war against France, the National Liberation Army placed Bouteflika in charge of the western border, close to the Moroccan city of Oujda. He became part of the Oujda group led by Houari Boumédiène. It was Boumédiène who helped Ahmed Ben Bella unseat the first post-independence provisional government in 1962.
Boumédiène then became defence minister, and had much influence over the government through the army. Bouteflika became foreign minister. Following political tensions at the top Boumédiène overthrew Ben Bella in a 1965 military coup.
Under the military-led National Liberation Front, Algeria was a one party state until the 1989 constitution introduced a multiparty system. Bouteflika became a member of the Front’s central committee when serving as a foreign minister. With the help of interior minister and the head of intelligence, he took office in 1999.
Bouteflika was initially able to gain popularity by acting as if he intended to break with his predecessors’ anti-colonial and pan-Arab traditions. He capitalised on the imperative of national security to build legitimacy in the aftermath of the civil war. Algeria remained under a state of emergency for almost 10 years after the end of the civil war. This was known as Algeria’s “black decade”.
Beyond the country’s borders, Bouteflika proved popular. The international community was particularly receptive to this narrative in the context of the post-9/11 “war on terror”.
Under Bouteflika
Under Bouteflika, the penal code was amended to impose punishments for any “insulting or defamatory” statement likely to harm the president. This law saw independent journalists and human rights advocates repressed in the name of national security.
During the same period, a law was promulgated which granted amnesty to terrorists guilty of committing crimes during the civil war. Implicitly, this new law exonerated members of the Algerian secret services. Many of them had served with the Armed Islamic Group. This was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian government and army in the Algerian civil war.
Historically, the power elite – made up of the military, the secret services and the Political Bureau of the National Liberation Front – built its legitimacy on a distorted memory of the war of independence. This arguably added to Algeria’s post-colonial identity crisis and the climate of polarisation that laid the ground for civil war.
Bouteflika later capitalised on the trauma of the “black decade”, while depriving Algerians of the economic and social resources they needed to cope with the growing challenges regarding migration, climate, water scarcity and security. Ironically, this is partly the reason why the question of political stability still prevails today.
Looking ahead
This history demonstrates why the debate around today’s political crisis often misses the mark and ignores the real issues. It’s important to fully appreciate what it means for Algerians to reclaim ownership of their history with confidence – and to consider a world beyond Bouteflika’s troubled leadership.
Dounia Mahlouly, Senior Teaching Fellow, Social & Political Sciences, SOAS, University of London
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Three suspects of DUSIT D2 Hotel terror attack denied bond.
BY PRUDENCE WANZA – Three suspects of the DUSIT terror attack will now remain in custody pending trial. This is after the court denied their release on bail or bond.
The three namely, Mire Abdullahi Ali, Hussein Abdille and Mohammed Hassan were charged with conspiracy to carry out the DUSIT D2 terror by providing Internet services to the attackers of the hotel, in March.
The prosecution had objected their release on bond since they face serious offenses and if given bond they would abscond court.
The Chief Magistrate at Milimani Law Courts, Francis Andayi in his ruling cited that matters of terrorism are of great concern and that he is convinced the offenses as charged are serious. He also added that matters of terrorism are a threat to security to the entire human race.
He further stated that if released they might abscond court and interfere with witnesses in the case.
The three will now remain in custody pending trial.
Chief Magistrate handling Samburu Governor’s case recuses himself over allegations of ‘taking sides’
BY PRUDENCE WANZA – Samburu Governor’s lawyer Paul Nyamodi has expressed dissatisfaction with Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti presiding over the case.
This follows an article in the Star newspaper where the magistrate cited that corruption is as bad as murder and gave his views regarding the 150million bond that he gave the Samburu Governor. The lawyer also indicates that the accused persons will not receive justice because the magistrate already has a mindset.
However the prosecution led, Alexandra Muteti, says that the interview has nothing to do with the delivery of justice. He says that whay the lawyer said is a case of expressing displeasure to the Magistrate. He further states that the DPP has a duty to protect the interest of administration of justice and there is nothing that displays in the article.
Chief Magistrate, Douglas Ogoti has in his ruling indicated that he will never cling to any matter where parties express displeasure and that he has no other interest apart from delivering justice in the matter. He has further indicated that his conscience is clear and it tells him he should not handle the matter.
The magistrate has ruled that the matter be deferred to Chief Magistrate, Lawrence Mugambi for plea taking of the thirteen accused persons tomorrow on 5th April, 2019. The suspects will remanded in custody until tomorrow for plea taking.
Portraying Rwanda’s genocide as an encounter with hell
Quoting the words of one local missionary, the Time magazine cover of May 1994 reads:
There are no devils left in Hell, They are all in Rwanda.
As many as 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi, were killed in a 100-day orgy of brutal murder and rape by members of the majority Hutu in Rwanda.
Time’s evocation of hell presents the genocide as an unimaginable phenomenon. It’s also a theological framing of the violence as a product of pure evil.
This vision of the Rwandan genocide as hell is not incidental. Similar iconographies of hell define popular imagination and understanding of the genocide. Consider, for example, the title of Canadian Romeo Dallaire’s memoir, Shake Hands with the Devil. The book provides details of General Dallaire’s experience as the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda during the genocide.
Also, a short documentary film produced on Dallaire by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002 was titled _A Good Man in Hell.
The distinct impression these accounts give of the genocide in Rwanda is that it’s, as the American diplomat and political critic Samantha Power’s book aptly suggests, “A Problem from Hell”..
The imagining of genocide as hell conveys the impression that the horrors are not fully imaginable. They can only be witnessed in symbolic forms. In addition, such imaginings encourage a moral – or theological – response to an otherwise violent phenomenon spurred by political events.
The examples I explore constitute the pivot of Western media and artistic representation of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Yet such iconographies are not exclusive to Western representations of the atrocities. As I point out, they are also part of a central feature in major stories on the genocide written by African authors.
Coming into awareness
Genocide, understood as hell in several other literary projects, is profoundly marked by immense horror. The Rwandan hell figures as a site of unqualifiable cruelty. There, brutal rape is prevalent. Violence is inflicted with extreme sadism and decadence is the normal order of things.
A notable representative work of the kind is Canadian Gil Courtemanche’s celebrated novel, Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali [A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali]. In the novel, the encounter by a Canadian journalist with the Rwandan mass atrocities presents as a descent into hell.
The examples from Africa include Boubacar Boris Diop’s celebrated novel, Murambi, le livre des ossements [Murambi, the Book of Bones]. The novel relies heavily on the Biblical story of the Gentile’s conversion to Christianity. Cornelius’s conversion and meeting with apostle Simon Peter is central to understanding Diop’s thematic concerns in this novel.
Read more: Debate continues about the media’s role in driving Rwanda’s genocide
The main story of Murambi is about Cornelius Uvimana, a Rwandan exile returning from Djibouti. Cornelius arrives four years after the genocide to witness what he believes to have been the extermination of all members of his own family, and to write a play about the genocide.
His journeys through massacre sites are presented as a descent into different parts of hell. Within this hell, Cornelius’s main guide is his uncle Siméon Habineza, who, like Biblical Simon Peter, “baptizes” Cornelius into ideas and helps him find new insights into human cruelty.
Cornelius’s journey to his hometown of Murambi could symbolise a process of coming into awareness. His ignorance about the genocide and his sense of self-righteousness disappear as he delves deeper into the hell of post-genocide Rwanda. He realises while inside this hell that the massacre of over 50,000 people including his mother and siblings has been planned and executed by his own father, Dr Joseph Karekezi.
Descent into hell
Just like Diop’s Murambi, some other accounts of the genocide present encounters with atrocity as descent into hell. These include Veronique Tadjo’s memoir, L’ombre d’Imana: voyages jusq’au bout du Rwanda (The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda). There’s also a genocide survivor memoir Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by [Immaculée Ilibagiza], Benjamin Sehene’s novel, Le Feu sous la soutane [“Fire Beneath the Cassock”]. Finally, the novel, Le Passé devant soi (The Past Ahead) by Gilbert Gatore.
All differently and in fascinating ways represent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in some form constituting descents into hell.
The prevalence of the hell narrative suggests that stories about the 1994 genocide have been evolving as descent narratives. These narratives represent the sites in which one encounters the casualties of genocidal violence as hell and the journey there as a descent into hell.
In such narratives, the protagonist usually descends into an infernal underworld that looks like an afterlife. After a “tour” of the infernal underworld, he or she emerges bearing a new moral awareness put into the service of bearing witness to the unspeakable horrors and evil he or she saw there.
Understood in this way, the Rwandan Genocide narratives are a legacy of cautionary tales in which the damned bequeaths to posterity the moral “truths” about its genocidal past.
Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba, Assistant Professor, University of Winnipeg
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.