Firstly, I take this opportunity on behalf of the Social Democratic Party of Kenya (SDP) and friends of Algeria in Kenya to convey greetings and best wishes to the President, Leadership and people of The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria as they celebrate 50 years of independence. As Africans and African friends gathered today in Nairobi, we are proud and happy to join you in the celebration. We have enough reasons to do that.
The liberation of Algeria was not a gift from French colonialism but it was won by long, determined, concerted and protracted revolutionary struggle that took place from November 1954 to 5th July 1962. The Algerian people led by National Liberation Front (FLN) won the freedom and independence of their country through armed struggle against the French colonial regime that committed acts of apartheid and fascism against the people of Algeria in order to impose its colonial will in the great country of Africa. More than one and a half million Algerian patriots died in the liberation war. The gross violations of human rights that were in fact crimes against humanity were similar to those committed by British colonialism against the Kenyan people during the armed liberation struggle led by the Land and Freedom Army, popularly known as Mau Mau, and that took place at the same period with that of Algeria. The Mau Mau armed liberation was from 1952 up to around 1959.
The Algerian and Kenyan armed national liberation struggles paved the way for the armed struggles in Africa that ultimately liberated Africa from European colonialism. For the Algerian revolutionary patriots who took over power after defeating French colonialism were determined to see colonialism rooted out of the entire African continent. Liberated Algeria is always counted in offering solidarity to all people struggling against imperialism and all forms of oppression. That is why soon after independence, Algeria became “the Meka of African revolution”, to quote Amilcar Cabral. Algeria supported the national liberation struggle of South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Guinea Bissau and Namibia. Algeria also supported the national liberation struggle of East Timor and Belize. In preparation for armed struggle against apartheid regime in South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo visited Algeria before Mandela was imprisoned. Samora Machel received military training in Algeria. Che Guevara too visited Algeria. Frantz Fanon, one of the greatest revolutionary intellectuals and pan – Africanist from Martinique – the psychiatrist who at one time worked at Mathare Mental Hospital in Nairobi – joined the Algerian revolutionary war and became a citizen of the country.
Today all Africa has been liberated from colonialism apart from Western Sahara that is colonised by the Kingdom of Morocco. Once more the people of Algeria, their Government and leaders are at the forefront in supporting the struggle of the people of Western Sahara for their inalienable right to national freedom, independence and self – determination. In this regard, as we celebrate 50 years of Algeria’s independence, Social Democratic Party of Kenya (SDP) calls upon all African Governments to join Algeria to play an active and militant role to end the last colony in Africa which is Western Sahara.
It is also important to mention the fact that Algeria that is in the northern part of our Continent continues to play a key role in the African Union and has made major contributions in the search for solutions to challenges facing Africa including the problems of poverty, underdevelopment and the search for democracy, human rights and peace. It is for this reason that the President of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika together with Former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa in conjunction with Former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria initiated The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) whose vision and strategic framework was adopted by African leaders to address poverty and underdevelopment throughout the African continent. Algeria played a key role in the conflict resolution between Ethiopia and Eritrea and also between Mali and Niger.
Algeria, like any other country in Africa and the World is still dealing with the challenges of poverty, governance and underdevelopment. Amidst all the challenges Algeria continues pursue the path of development, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Algeria practices a multiparty system of democracy and this year it conducted national elections under the system that international observers concluded were free and fair. It is also important to remember that Algeria has had seven successive Presidents and yet the country the country has remained cohesive.
By addressing the social problems facing its people by creating and implementing concrete policies and solutions for them, Algeria avoided the negative impacts of the recent conflicts, now known as the Arab Spring, that were experienced by several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. This is partly due to the fact that the Government of Algeria is not only practicing democracy but also utilising the rich oil and other mineral resources endowed to the country to fight poverty, underdevelopment and social exclusion in the country. In Algeria today there is free and universal education up to university level and higher institutes of learning. The country assures free health care to its citizens and is also constructing thousands of housing units every year to solve the housing problems of its people. Algeria has liberated itself from the debt bondage imposed against developing countries by neocolonialism. It is developing not by depending on external economic aid but by utilising its own resources and focusing on the needs of the majority of its population.
We thank the Government of the people of Algeria for continuing to support the liberation struggle of the people of Palestine. We congratulate them for their policy of seeking peaceful and just solutions to the problems confronting the destabilised countries of North Africa, the Middle East and Mali. We thank them for the scholarships they have offered and continue to offer Kenyan students. We wish them all the best in safeguarding and consolidating the gains of freedom and independence won 50 years ago, even as they continue to deal with the existing and emerging challenges and as they construct the largest country in Africa which is Algeria.
Long live Algerian independence!
Long live friendship between the people of Algeria and the people of Kenya!
Long live Africa liberation struggle!
Mwandawiro Mghanga
Chairman
Social Democratic Party (SDP)
5th July 2012
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cRussia’s genetic and beam weapons scare the West
Russia » Politics
Russia may come closer to obtaining the world reign. Experts do not even doubt that such weapons will be created sooner or later. The modern technological progress makes most unbelievable ideas real very quickly. Mankind has already reached the point, when some new “absolute weapon” lets its creator win absolute predominance over all other states
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MICHUKI WAS KILLED BY POLONIUM >>It was a scene that riveted the world for weeks: The ailing Yasser Arafat, first besieged by Israeli tanks in his Ramallah compound, then shuttled to Paris, where he spent his final days undergoing a barrage of medical tests in a French military hospital.
Eight years after his death, it remains a mystery exactly what killed the longtime Palestinian leader. Tests conducted in Paris found no obvious traces of poison in Arafat’s system. Rumors abound about what might have killed him – cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, even allegations that he was infected with HIV.
A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera has revealed that none of those rumors were true: Arafat was in good health until he suddenly fell ill on October 12, 2004.
Tests have revealed that Arafat’s final personal belongings – his clothes, his toothbrush, even his iconic kaffiyeh – contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. Those personal effects, which were analysed at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, were variously stained with Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine. The tests carried out on those samples suggested that there was a high level of polonium inside his body when he died.
The findings have led Suha Arafat, his widow, to ask the Palestinian Authority to exhume her late husband’s body from its grave in Ramallah.
But a conclusive finding that Arafat was poisoned with polonium would not explain who killed him. It is a difficult element to produce, though – it requires a nuclear reactor – and the signature of the polonium in Arafat’s bones could provide some insight about its origin.
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