Month: July 2024

Yaounde — Condemnation is widespread in Cameroon following government threats to arrest civilians who criticize the country’s president.  The threats increased after Cameroon’s political opposition accused President Paul Biya of postponing elections. In a release Tuesday, Human Rights Watch described the threats as censorship of free speech.

Cameroon’s opposition says it is not intimidated by threats from officials who are warning them to stop saying negative things about President Biya.  

This week, government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi said it was unacceptable for people to use irreverent language about the 91-year-old president. 

Before Sadi’s statement, Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, a top local government officer in the unit where Yaounde is located, announced he would expel anyone from the capital who insults Biya or state institutions. 

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said Djikdent’s announcement should be revoked to ensure the right to freedom of expression. The rights group says it is becoming increasingly difficult to speak freely in Cameroon. 

Paul Atanga Nji, Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, says he is surprised that the opposition criticizes Biya, whom he says is the architect of Cameroon’s democracy. 

Nji says democracy given to Cameroonians freely by Biya must be constructively used to build and not to destroy. He says all government and administrative officials should be firm in punishing opposition and civil society members why defy and insult state authority. 

Nji told state TV on Tuesday that opposition parties that call for protests against state officials will be arrested for rebellion, insurrection and treason. 

Cameron’s opposition accuses Biya of ruling with an iron fist and says he is not showing signs he is ready to relinquish power. 

Ndah Grimbald, assistant secretary-general of the opposition Social Democratic Front Party, says Biya should emulate the example of U.S. President Joe Biden and hand over leadership to a dynamic civilian. 

“Our president, Paul Biya, is 10 years older than Biden. He is 91 years [old] and instead of thinking [of] how to hand over power to the younger generation, his regime is doing everything to impede the rights, the fundamental rights of Cameroonians from assembling and discussing the affairs of their country,” said Grimbald.

Supporters of Biya say he is a democrat and has won all elections since the return of multiparty politics in Cameroon in 1990.  

Biya has not said if he will be a candidate in the next presidential polls, but his party supporters have been organizing regular political rallies to urge him to run for re-election. 

Opposition groups were angered earlier this month when Biya ordered his majority Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement or CPDM party to pass a government bill extending terms for all 180 lawmakers by 12 months, into 2026. 

The law makes it hard for main opposition leaders, including Maurice Kamto, to gain the legislative seats they need to be eligible to run against Biya in the next presidential election.  

Kamto says he won the 2018 presidential election but lost it to Biya through fraud.  Kamto then boycotted Cameroon’s 2020 local council and parliamentary elections. 

Cameroon’s laws make it possible for presidential aspirants who do not have legislative seats to submit 300 signatures from influential politicians, including former ministers, traditional rulers and religious leaders, to secure a spot on the presidential ballot.  

But the opposition and civil society say getting the signatures is highly difficult because the leaders are either scared of Biya or are his political partners. 

Biya is Africa’s second-longest serving leader after the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has been in power since 1979.  
…

NAIROBI, Kenya — Anti-government protesters in Kenya’s capital clashed with an emerging pro-government group on Tuesday, with hundreds swarming and burning a motorcycle belonging to people who expressed support for the country’s president. The military made a rare deployment as the protests focused on the country’s main airport. 

The weeks of turmoil in East Africa’s economic hub have led to dozens of deaths, the firing of most Cabinet members and calls for President William Ruto’s resignation. Protests began with Kenyans’ rejecting a proposed bill to impose more taxes as millions in the country barely get by amid rising prices. 

The pro-government movement has emerged to counter the youth-led anti-government one. In Nairobi on Tuesday, the pro-government group took to the streets ahead of the latest anti-government demonstration. 

One protester, Charles Onyango, questioned why police were not confronting the pro-government demonstrators yet again dispersed those calling for change. 

“Police are just standing by and letting these [suspected] hired goons to disrupt our protests and cause chaos,” Onyango said. 

It was not immediately clear who was behind the pro-government movement. 

Kenya’s main airport was meant to be the site of the latest protest, and anti-government demonstrators lit bonfires in a suburb along the highway that leads to it. Airport officials asked travelers to arrive early, and flights continued. 

Police hurled tear-gas canisters at hundreds of protesters who blocked another road that leads to the airport, and the military was deployed to the Pipeline area east of the capital. 

Protests also were reported in Kenya’s second largest city, the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, as well as the city of Kisumu on Lake Victoria and Migori. 

Kenya’s anti-government protests are in their fifth week. Under pressure, Ruto declined to sign the bill imposing new taxes and dismissed almost all Cabinet ministers, but protesters continue to call for his resignation. 

At least 50 people have died and 413 others have been injured in the protests since June 18, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. The political opposition is demanding that families of those killed be compensated and that charges against those arrested during protests be dropped. 

Police have stopped saying how many arrests they make in the protests. Rights groups, opposition figures and family members for weeks have expressed concern about alleged abductions by officers. 

Police last week banned protests in Nairobi, citing the movement’s lack of clear leadership to coordinate with authorities to ensure safety and security. But the high court issued an order suspending the ban on protests. Kenya’s constitution guarantees the right to peaceful protest. 

Still, the acting police head, Douglas Kanja, on Tuesday asserted that Kenya’s main airport was a “protected area” and “out of bounds to unauthorized persons.” 

Police in Kenya — hundreds of them newly deployed in Haiti to lead a United Nations-based multinational force to curb deadly gang violence — have long been accused by activists and civil society groups of violence toward demonstrators. 

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who earlier called for talks to calm the unrest, denied allegations that he had been bribed to join Ruto in forming a broad-based government and expressed his support to protesters. 

Some protesters on Tuesday vowed to keep at it. 

“[Everything] that is happening in our day will continue happening,” Julius Kamau Kimani said.
…

…

Kampala, Uganda — Police were out in force on the empty streets of the Ugandan capital Kampala on Tuesday ahead of a planned anti-corruption rally that has been banned by the authorities.

President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist for almost four decades, had warned the demonstrators at the weekend they were “playing with fire.”

Three opposition lawmakers were remanded in custody late Monday, police said, after opposition leader Bobi Wine said his National Unity Platform (NUP) headquarters was “under siege” by police and army officers.

The call to action over corruption has been organized online, drawing inspiration from the mostly Gen-Z led anti-government protests in neighboring Kenya that have roiled the country for a month.

“We are the youths and heart of our country and we are not letting down our country,” leading Ugandan protester Shamim Nambasa told AFP on Monday.

Posters shared online ahead of the rallies urged demonstrators to “march on parliament.”

But police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said the authorities will “not allow a demonstration that will risk peace and security of the country.”

In the capital, AFP journalists said there were roadblocks on mostly quiet streets, especially near Kampala’s business district, heavily manned by officers in anti-riot gear with some wearing camouflage uniforms.

A heavy police presence also remained in place around the NUP headquarters, an AFP journalist said.

On Monday three lawmakers with the opposition group were detained by police on “various offenses and remanded to prison,” according to the police spokesperson who did not give further details on the charges.

Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, had made calls on Monday to support the rallies.

“We want a country where we all belong not for the few in power,” he said.

A NUP spokesperson confirmed three legislators, named as Francis Zaake, Charles Tebandeke and Hassan Kirumira, along with seven others connected to the party, had been detained.

Tuesday’s march has been organized on social media by young Ugandans with the hashtag #StopCorruption.

Graft is a major issue in Uganda, with several major scandals involving public officials, and the country is ranked a lowly 141 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s corruption index.
…

Johannesburg — Some members of the U.S. Congress have called for South Africa to be excluded from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a U.S. program that grants duty-free access to the enormous U.S. market for many South African exports. South Africa presses to remain eligible for the trade program and its evolving relationship with the U.S.

Sonwabile Ndamase remembers when U.S. President Bill Clinton came to Soweto in 1998. Ndamase, a fashion designer who created the iconic “Madiba” shirts worn by then-South African President Nelson Mandela, got a last-minute request from Mandela’s office.

“[T]hey wanted to give something as a gesture and as a gift to President Bill Clinton and then they called me. They said, listen, you need to do something — the president, Bill Clinton, would be coming in. So I had to go to the house of late President Nelson Mandela and deliver the shirt,” he said.

That was during a period of good relations between the U.S. and Africa as a whole and the U.S. and South Africa in particular. In 2000, Clinton initiated the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, allowing duty-free access to the U.S. market for most agricultural and manufactured products from eligible African countries.

But times have changed. As U.S. lawmakers consider whether to extend AGOA past its September 2025 expiration date, there are calls in Washington to exclude South Africa due to its geopolitical stance on key issues, such as its refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.

Political analyst Daryl Glaser from the University of Witwatersrand said tension has existed between the United States and South Africa’s longtime ruling African National Congress party since 2000.

“Yeah, there has always been a tension at the heart of ANC foreign policy between, on the one hand, a kind of human rights focus and a desire to appear to the West a human rights and democracy champion, and on the other side what you might call anti-imperialism or anti-Western imperialism, in particular combined with a kind of loyalty to the countries that supported South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle,” he said.

Those countries include Soviet-era Russia.

Despite the tension, South Africa has sent a delegation to Washington to advocate for its continued participation in AGOA.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2020, South Africa has become America’s largest trading partner in Africa, with over $20 billion in two-way trade volume.

Economist Dawie Roodt said South Africa cannot afford to lose AGOA, given the country’s high unemployment rate and slow economic growth.

He thinks a new coalition government, the result of inconclusive May elections, will help the country’s cause.

“I think what is important, what happened in South Africa in the last couple of weeks, South Africa now has a national government of unity and that’s the message that we need to send. Basically, it’s a coalition between the ANC and the DA, a political party slightly to the right. We’ve got a government now that is not a left-leaning government — it’s a government that is forming a coalition with a more business-friendly alliance partner,” he said.

If its status in AGOA is revoked, South Africa can still trade with the United States, but it won’t receive the preferential rates enjoyed by other African nations.
…

Nairobi — Kenyans watching the U.S. presidential race say they agree with President Joe Biden’s decision to not seek a second term. But some say that choosing a replacement capable of defeating his opponent, former president Donald Trump, is going to be a big task for the Democratic Party.

On the streets of Nairobi, many people told VOA that while Joe Biden’s decision to step out of the race must not have been easy, it was the right decision for him to make.

James Owor said he was expecting Biden to step out of the race.

“A bit unsurprising just based on what I’ve seen in the news. He was obviously not very well. It might not be such a bad idea to take a back seat. He didn’t seem to have the energy he had,” he said.

Biden’s announcement Sunday followed a rising chorus within the Democratic Party urging him to “pass the torch” amid his declining national poll numbers and concerns raised by his shaky performance in the debate against Trump last month.

Brenda Okwaro said what President Biden has done is commendable because he put the needs of his country and party ahead of his need to retain power.

“This is a move that should be emulated by our African presidents. You don’t have to come to the race a second time and you know you are not going to deliver the expectations of the people who elected you. But if you feel you’ve done your best in your first term, you can just get out of the race, go home and rest and focus on other things. You can even give advice to people who are in leadership,” she said.

Africa is home to some of the longest-serving presidents in the world, several of whom, like Biden, are in their 80s. Cameroon’s Paul Biya is 91.

Martin Andati said he believes that if Biden had stayed in the race, it would’ve been difficult for him to beat Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“Biden had to drop out because all the odds are against him, he can’t beat Trump. So, to salvage the image and give the Democratic Party an opportunity, he had no choice but to exit the race,” he said.

President Biden’s announcement comes a little more than three months before the U.S. elections. Andati said he believes the Democrats still have a chance, but it all depends on who they pick to replace Biden, who has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.

“The only challenge is that he exited and endorsed Kamala Harris. The numbers are not in favor of Kamala Harris. The question is do they retain Harris or what happens, those are the issues the Democratic party will have to grapple with,” he said.

Macharia Munene, a professor of history and international relations at United States International University in Nairobi, said that while it took Biden a little longer to drop out of the race, it was expected. 

“The signs were that he was not up to par, and it took time before his friends and people he respects to come and tell him [it’s] in the best interest of the country and himself, his own image was to step aside so that he’s not embarrassed in November,” said Munene.

The friends who persuaded Biden to step aside reportedly included Kenya’s favorite former U.S. president, Barack Obama. Obama is not eligible for a comeback because of the two-term limit in the U.S. Constitution.

Munene said he believes Democrats will nominate Harris.

“The question will be who’ll be her running mate in the hope they will make a dent on Trump’s bandwagon. For Harris, it’s a good opportunity if she does not win, she will not lose very badly. Then, it’s a preparation for a future encounter in case she doesn’t make it, she would’ve created a base for herself for the next time to run, maybe in 2028,” said Munene.

Democratic lawmakers, governors and financial donors have already expressed their support for Harris, who says she will work to earn the trust and backing of democratic delegates. The party’s candidate will be formally approved late next month when the party hosts its national convention.
…

…