It’s a Baby Girl for Daisy!
KSB takes this opportunity to congratulate Daisy following the delivery of her baby girl. It is a moment that many Kenyans have been waiting for and now, it has come. The baby is yet another addition to the growing number of bouncing babies born to Kenyan parents. At the Apostle Karanja Conference, a total of 27 children were blessed by the Apostle, a sign that not all Kenyan couples are just spreading hot gossip around. They get busy until late into the night as evidenced by the impressive result of their work.
Okoth Osewe
John Githongo Lecture at Nordic Africa Institute
Public lecture: Tuesday 24 November 2009, 16:00 – 17:30
John Githongo
Venue: The Nordic Africa Institute, Kungsgatan 38, Uppsala
Governance Reform from Below
John Githongo
Zinduko Trust, Kenya
Chair: Carin Norberg, Director, The Nordic Africa Institute
The struggle against corruption in Africa has come to rest partly on the initiatives of individuals of great convictions. However, the struggle for a fair, just and equitable humanity risks losing direction if it relies primarily on individual initiative at the expense of collective action and on modernizing institutions at the expense of transforming their internal work cultures for better state-society relations. John Githongo’s presentation will reflect on the essentials to transforming institutions and the role local level ideas and participation can play. He will illustrate this using the Zinduko and Twaweza initiatives that he currently co-ordinates.
John Githongo is a Kenyan civil society luminary best known for his role in investigating and exposing the Anglo-Leasing corruption scandal in the country. But, in fact, Mr. Githongo combines in his impressive professional work numerous attributes. These include his extended work in the field of journalism for which he took the third prize of the CNN African Journalist of the Year in 1995, several engagements as a consultant and advisor to international organizations, enormous interests in research and publishing and also serving as Trustee on many local and international organizations. Githongo has been Director, Transparency International (Berlin and Kenya) from 1999 to 2002. He is the founding Trustee of Zinduka Trust, an organization that focuses on governance reforms from below.
The lecture is open to all interested.
Welcome!
Susanne Linderos
Information Manager
The Nordic Africa Institute
P O Box 1703, SE-75147 Uppsala, Sweden
Phone: +46 18 56 22 06 (direct)
Phone: +46 18 56 22 00 (exchange)
Fax: +46 18 56 22 90
Visitiors’ Address: Kungsgatan 38, 753 21 Uppsala
Download: Draft Harmonized Constitution of Kenya
Dual citizenship is here to stay for Kenyans
The draft harmonized Kenya Constitution appears to be here after twenty years of struggle. Wananchi are supposed to study the document and make further recommendations to the Committee of Experts (CoE). Today, the Kenyan government circulated a copy of the Constitution to Kenyans at home and abroad.
KSB was not left behind and our readers have the opportunity of downloading a pdf version of this all important document. If adopted, the document will put to an end governance in Kenya under a Constitution which was designed under conditions of colonialism and which did not put into consideration numerous aspects of Kenyan life that were bound to change with time.
For example, the Colonial style Constitution did not envisage a situation where Kenyans would leave the country in large numbers to become known as “Kenyans in Diaspora”. An estimated 2 million Kenyans in Diaspora have been putting their case since the struggle for a new constitution began and these efforts seem to be on the verge of producing results.
Although an amendment was made on the colonial style Constitution to accommodate the new political situation that introduced the post of Prime Minister after the PEV, the harmonized draft takes the matter a notch higher and entrenches the PMs Office in the Constitution. It also introduces rules and guidelines for the PMs Office, a good move forward in Kenya’s democratization process.
Another new item in the draft is the recognition of political parties together with a line-up of rules for setting up parties. For Kenyans in Diaspora, there is one important entry.
The issue of dual citizenship is well taken care of and if nothing is changed after the draft goes through a National Referendum, Kenyans will be able to enjoy the privileges of dual citizenship. Those who took up other citizenships before the new Constitution was crafted will have an opportunity to reclaim their Kenyan citizenship, a welcome news for Kenyans in Diaspora. Read more about the Draft by downloading it HERE.
Okoth Osewe
ALTERNATIVE DOWNLOAD LINK:
Letters from Shiku: Walk the Talk and Save Mau Forest
Real destruction of Mau is in tea plantations by fat land grabbers
One of Kenya’s most powerful men has just been in Stockholm. Apart from being powerful and famous, Prime Minister Raila Odinga is one of the leaders who has taken a passionate stand to save the Mau forest. Already millions of Kenyans are starving, rivers have dried up and thousands of animals have perished in drought.
Currently the settlers are in a mad rush to squeeze the last penny from the forest before they are evicted or re-located. This has resulted in aggressive felling of trees. The trees are then sold off as logs in a bid to maximize their profit out of the forest before the government takes a stern move. Thus Mau forest is drying with every click of a second.
The Prime minister should not be shuddered by a selfish slice of Rift Valley MPs who are busy antagonizing his efforts to conserve Mau. These politicians shouting loudest own huge chunks of land which they acquired illegally. These are the same guys who sold part of `their’ land to innocent poor farmers. The list which was tabled in Parliament by the Prime Minister revealed that the beneficiaries of Mau forest are rich and politically connected individuals. Why then should they be compensated?
Noble Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai recently requested the government to consider the plight of the millions of Kenyans at stake but should not be cowed by the few self-seekers who fail to see the importance of conserving Mau forest and see voters instead of destruction.
Mau forest is Kenya’s biggest catchment area. The rivers that flow from it feed savannah of Maasai Mara as well as four other national parks. The famous “Pink Lake” is in danger because all the rivers that feed it have dried up.
The outcome of Mau destruction has been felt far and wide. The Mara river, which is fed from the Mau forest, is having low water which is threatening to dry up any time soon. The recent wild beast migration from Mara to Serengeti was not spectacular as it has been in the past. No hunting by crocodiles as the beasts leisurely walk in and out.
If evictions are implemented immediately, the forest could be re-stored within the desired time frame of three years. Kenyans need to do whatever it takes to ensure that the Mau catchment is preserved.
Steve Shiku
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