Month: June 2024

Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan police officers may be set for deployment to Haiti on Tuesday, according to local reports and the French news agency, AFP. Multiple inquiries to the government of Kenya for confirmation of such reports were not answered. This development comes after numerous delays and court challenges, including the newest lawsuit that accused Kenyan President William Ruto of contempt of court.

Last year, a United Nations Security Council resolution approved the Kenyan-led mission, but earlier this year the High Court of Kenya ruled against the deployment, saying it was unconstitutional. Issues cited by the court include the lack of a “reciprocal agreement” between the countries.

The Kenyan government eventually secured that agreement but the same people who sued the government in the first place filed another lawsuit seeking to block the deployment.

From a legal perspective, the legitimacy of the agreement is still in question, lawyer Wallace Nderu told VOA.

“The ground for this application is that when the then-prime minister of Haiti was signing this agreement with Kenya, there was no known government in Haiti. The president had been assassinated; there were no elected leaders in Haiti. So where does he drive the mandate to negotiate an agreement on behalf of his country Haiti comes into question,” said Nderu, a lawyer and a program officer at ICJ Kenya, the International Commission of Jurists, a non-governmental, non-profit, member-based organization.

Nderu also said Kenyans feel the agreement was hastily put together, noting its content has not been shared with the population.

“Part of the provisions in the law … indicates that these agreements, after being signed, have to be gazetted in the official Kenya Gazette,” Nderu said. “So, concern is raised that this particular agreement is very secretive. We are not aware of the content of the agreement … it raises the legitimacy of the government deploying the police to Haiti.”

The Kenya Gazette is an official government publication that contains legal notices, government appointments, and other official announcements.

A new commander for the police force was appointed Monday by the inspector general.

President Ruto has maintained that stabilizing the troubled Caribbean nation is “a mission for humanity … a mission for solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Haiti.”

In addition to Kenya, other nations including Benin, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados and Chad said they will join the mission.

While some Kenyans support the mission in Haiti, others have wondered why their country wants to lead the multinational force, given that nations more powerful and better equipped have not been willing to step forward.

The reported deployment will take place on the same day that protests against proposed tax increases that have rocked Kenya in the past week are to resume.
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Dakar, Senegal — Senegal said Monday it had implemented voluntary COVID-19 screening tests and reimposed the wearing of masks at Dakar’s international airport for returning pilgrims fearing the virus was linked to the deaths of some Mecca pilgrims.

Dakar suspects that a number of the some 1,300 deaths — according to a Saudi tally — are down to a respiratory syndrome ailment such as COVID-19, Health Minister Ibrahima Sy said on Sunday.

“Initially, we thought it was related to heatwaves because the temperature was excessively high, but we realized that there is a respiratory syndrome with the cases of death,” Sy said of the deaths during the hajj pilgrimage, which took place during intense heat.

“We told ourselves that, probably, there is a respiratory epidemic, and it was our duty to be able to monitor the pilgrims on their return by putting in place a screening system for everything COVID-19 related,” said Sy in remarks carried by Senegalese broadcasters.

The health ministry said it had “strengthened the health surveillance system” by deploying a team at the airport to provide voluntary screening tests and identify pilgrims suffering from flu-like illnesses.

The ministry also urged the population “to be vigilant, to show restraint and to be more serene to avoid an epidemic.”

Out of 124 rapid diagnostic tests, 78 proved positive for the COVID-19 virus, 36 of which were later confirmed by PCR tests, the ministry said.

Charles Bernard Sagna, chief medical officer for the airport, said the alert was raised when the Senegalese medical team based in Jeddah had reported “a significant number” of passengers with respiratory problems.

“There is no cause for alarm but there also has to be prevention,” the ministry said Sunday.

Senegalese daily L’Observateur reported that five of the dead at the hajj were Senegalese nationals.

They were among an around 12,000-strong officially registered Senegalese contingent.

Saudi Arabia’s official SPA news agency earlier reported 1,301 deaths at the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, where temperatures climbed as high as 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the country’s national meteorological center.

More than 80 percent of pilgrims attending mainly outdoor rituals were “unauthorized” and walked long distances in direct sunlight, according to SPA.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims with the means must complete at least once in their lives.

Saudi officials have said 1.8 million pilgrims took part this year, a similar number to last year, and that 1.6 million came from abroad.
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The World Health Organization says more farmers in Malawi have begun to benefit from shifting away from tobacco cultivation, just months after the country ratified a treaty that aims to address public health risks associated with tobacco. However, some farmers say there are challenges due to a lack of markets for their crops. Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.
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Maiduguri, Nigeria — At least seven people were killed and 100 kidnapped on Saturday night when gunmen attacked a rural community in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state, residents and police said Sunday, the latest attack against residents in the north of the country.

Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, have frequently raided communities in the northwest, kidnapping residents, students and motorists for ransom.

Residents said gunmen on motorbikes arrived in Maidabino village in Danmusa local government area of Katsina, and started shooting sporadically, forcing residents to flee.

Hassan Aliyu told Reuters by phone that the attack took residents by surprise and dozens of women and children were confirmed missing.

“They killed seven people, including burning two children,” Aliyu said. “They spent more than six hours destroying our properties.”

Auwalu Ismail, another resident, said the gunmen first blocked all roads leading to Maidabino before the attack.

“They burnt down our shops, vehicles, and took away our livestock. They also kidnapped my wife and more than 100 women and children,” he said.

Katsina state police spokesperson Abubakar Aliyu Sadiq confirmed the attack and the seven deaths but would not say whether anyone was missing. He said the police were investigating.

“The remaining men who did not flee are living in fear … and waiting to hear news about their abducted loved ones,” said Muhammad Sani, whose sister was abducted.
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Nairobi — Kenya’s President William Ruto said Sunday that he was ready for “a conversation” with thousands of “peaceful” young protesters who held nationwide demonstrations this week to oppose proposed tax increases.

Organized on social media and led largely by Gen-Z Kenyans who have livestreamed the demonstrations, the protests have caught Ruto’s government off-guard, as discontent mounts over his economic policies.

“I am very proud of our young people… they have stepped forward peaceful and I want to tell them we are going to engage them,” Ruto said in his first public comments on the protests.

“We are going to have a conversation so that together we can build a greater nation,” Ruto said during a church service in the Rift Valley town of Nyahururu.

His characterization of the protests as “peaceful” came after rights campaigners reported two deaths following Thursday’s demonstrations in Nairobi.

There was no immediate response from the protesters, who have called for a national strike on June 25.

The demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but officers fired tear gas and water cannon throughout the day to disperse protesters near parliament.

According to a Kenya Human Rights Commission official, 21-year-old Evans Kiratu was “hit by a tear gas canister” during the protests and died in hospital.

On Friday, a police watchdog said it was investigating allegations that a 29-year-old man was shot by officers in Nairobi after the demonstrations.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) said it had “documented the death… allegedly as a result of police shooting” on Thursday.

Several organisations, including Amnesty International Kenya, said that at least 200 people were injured in the protests in Nairobi, as thousands of people take to the streets across the country.

Cash-strapped government

Ruto’s administration has defended the proposed levies as necessary for filling its coffers and cutting reliance on external borrowing.

Following smaller-scale demonstrations on Tuesday, the cash-strapped government agreed to roll back several tax hikes laid out in a new bill.

But Ruto’s administration still intends to increase some taxes, defending the proposed levies as necessary to raise money.

Kenya has a debt mountain, and servicing costs have ballooned due to a fall in the value of the local currency over the last two years, leaving Ruto with few options.

The tax hikes will pile further pressure on Kenyans, with many already struggling as the cost of living surges and well-paid jobs remain out of reach for young people.

“Tuesday 25th June: #OccupyParliament and Total Shutdown Kenya. A national strike,” read a poster shared widely online, adding that “Gen Z are granting all hard working Kenyans a day off. Parents keep your children at home in solidarity.”

After the government agreed to scrap levies on bread purchases, car ownership as well as financial and mobile services, the treasury warned of a 200-billion-shilling ($1.5-billion) shortfall.

The government has now targeted an increase in fuel prices and export taxes to fill the void left by the changes, a move critics say will make life more expensive in a country already saddled with high inflation.

Kenya is one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa but a third of its 51.5 million people live in poverty.
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ABUJA, Nigeria — A China-backed pipeline that would make Niger an oil-exporting country is being threatened by an internal security crisis and a diplomatic dispute with neighboring Benin, both a result of last year’s coup that toppled the West African nation’s democratic government.

The 1,930-kilometer pipeline runs from Niger’s Chinese-built Agadem oil field to the port of Cotonou in Benin. It was designed to help the oil-rich but landlocked Niger achieve an almost fivefold increase in oil production through a $400 million deal signed in April with China’s state-run national petroleum company.

But it has been stalled by several challenges, including the diplomatic disagreement with Benin that led to the pipeline’s closure last week. There also has been an attack this week by the local Patriotic Liberation Front rebel group, which claimed to have disabled a part of the pipeline and is threatening more attacks if the $400 million deal with China isn’t canceled.

The group, led by Salah Mahmoud, a former rebel leader, took up arms after Niger’s junta came to power, posing further security threats to the country, which is already struggling with a deadly security crisis.

Analysts say the crises could further hurt Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries which funds most of its budget with now-withheld external support in the aftermath of the coup.

Niger currently has a local refining capacity of only 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) for local demands while the pipeline is to export up to 90,000 barrels daily — a feat officials and analysts have said would help the country shore up its revenue and emerge from the coup sanctions that had isolated it from regional neighbors and hurt its economy and people.

“It is a completely messy situation and the only way for a resolution is if both administrations directly engage and resolve issues,” said Ryan Cummings, director of Africa-focused security consulting company Signal Risk.

One major concern is how the stalled pipeline operation might impact Niger’s overall economic growth. The World Bank had projected that the West African nation’s economy would rebound and grow the fastest in Africa this year at a rate of 6.9%, with oil exports as a key boost.

The diplomatic tensions with Benin date back to July when Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, was deposed in a coup, resulting in West African neighbors closing their borders with Niger, and in the formation of the so-called local liberation group now threatening more attacks on the oil project.

Benin, alongside other neighbors, has reopened its border with Niger, but Nigerien officials have refused to open theirs, accusing Benin of hosting French troops that pose a threat to the country after Niger severed military ties with France. That has led Benin’s president, Patrice Talon, to make the oil exportation through its port conditional on the reopening of the border.

Both countries are losing out economically, with Benin also being deprived of millions of dollars in transit fees. Observers say the impasse is worsening regional tensions since the coup, which came after a string of other military takeovers. It has pitched Niger against the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, which usually mediates on such issues.

With Niger tilting towards Russia in its diplomatic shift and Benin aligned with France and the West African bloc, China has tried to step in and resolve the impasse and benefit from its investment in the project.

But even Beijing’s efforts, which resulted in the first lifting of oil from the Agadem field in May, collapsed as the diplomatic spat escalated further.

Benin this week convicted and imprisoned three of five Nigerien oil workers it recently arrested at the Beninise port after they crossed from the border and were accused of “use of falsified computer data.” Their arrests prompted Niger to shut the pipeline last week, with a senior government official alleging that their oil is being “stolen by other people.”

A big concern for Niger’s military government at this stage is “whether they have the requisite fiscal capacity to keep paying for public services” following the coup, which has made it unable to meet some of its financial obligations such as debt repayment and infrastructural funding, Cummings said.

The junta in Niger “definitely have to be more cautious in handling the financial position of the country” amid the ongoing crises, he said.
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