Ms Josphine Kulea, a child activist, talks to girls aged between 4 and 12 years old after they were rescued from FGM and early marriage in Samburu recently. Photo/ JOSEPH KANYI

By HASSAN HUKA and MUCHIRI KARANJA

In a remote part of Samburu, four-year-olds are neither attending school nor have they an inkling of video and computer games that their urban counterparts take so much for granted.

In the villages of Kipsing location, Ol Donyiro Division, 100 kilometres from Isiolo Town, four-year-old Itoms is on the run; first from her own parents, who want her circumcised before marrying her off for 10 cattle, and from Samburu morans (Maasai warriors), who for a beaded necklace called saen, are free to have sex with a girl barely out of her diapers.

Itoms turns five this year. Yet, according to Samburu tradition, she is old enough to fetch bride-price for her father and become a wife to a man seven times her age. She had already been booked for sex and eventual marriage to a 27-year-old Moran, in a common ritual called Aisho saen (wearing a necklace).

But a local child rights activist got wind of it thanks to local assistant chief, Henry Lesokoyo, and whisked her away from home. Little Itoms has no idea what the man who “booked” her looks like, and is crying to go back home.

Samburu moran

In the beading ritual, Samburu morans identify little girls as brides by making them wear a beaded necklace. Child rights activists in Samburu say that beading can happen any time a moran meets a girl, irrespective of her age. “If he meets the girl out in the field tending animals, and decides, ‘this one will be my bride’, all a moran has to do is put the necklace on her,” says Ms Josephine Kulea, a child rights activist in Isiolo.

The morans do not even have to consult the girl’s parents, Ms Kulea says. Once the girl wears the first bead, she is as good as married to the moran. Her parents, on noticing the necklace, immediately start making preparations to have her circumcised, in readiness for marriage.

During beading, morans are free to have sex with the innocent girls, many of whom are too young to recognise their supposed husbands, let alone attend to affairs of their matrimonial duties. And once the moran graduates to an age-group that allows him to marry, he simply pays 10 cattle to the girl’s father, before whisking the girl away to the marriage bed, no matter her age.

Child activists say this tradition has ruined the lives of many girls in Samburu, where decision-making is vested in elders. Girls, unlike boys, do not attend school, despite free primary education. “He is free to do with her as he wills, she belongs to him, and him alone,” Ms Kulea says.

As a result, an unknown number of girls end up getting pregnant as early as 12 years. Many die in the process, Ms Kulea says. “Last year we lost a 12-year-old who was forced out of school to get married, but she was too young to deliver her baby. She died together with the baby.”

Although there are no official figures, officers in the region say the number of children being rescued from early marriages and female genital mutilation is huge. This is mostly between November and January, the early marriage and FGM season among the Samburu, according to Children’s Department officers. Children’s homes in Isiolo and Nanyuki, which serve Samburu and Maasai, are packed with fleeing children at this time.

“Even as we speak, it (FGM and early marriages) is still going on,’’ says Mr Enock Manua, a children’s officer in Nanyuki. At one station alone, officers have been rescuing at least 10 girls a month since November. But rescuing them is one thing, and finding a place for them is quite another. By the time of going to press, 10 girls aged four to 12 years had been rescued from the heartland of Samburu and were stranded in Nanyuki, almost 100km away from their home village, Kipsing.

There is no children’s home to shelter them in Isiolo and the local officer had to refer them to Nanyuki. Officials made frantic calls to Nyeri and Meru, to get any children’s home with vacancies for the 10, to no avail. “They are telling us that they are packed,” said Mr Enoch Manua, a children’s officer in Nanyuki. Meanwhile, little Itoms, too young to understand what’s going on in her life, sobs quietly, wondering why she cannot go back home.

Cursed for fighting circumcision

Locals like Ms Josephine Kulea, who joined the war against underage marriage and female circumcision risk being cursed by conservative village elders, who view them as enemies of culture. For three years now, many villagers at Kipsing, have been waiting for Ms Kulea to drop dead any time, after elders invoked the Ldeketa, a terrible curse reserved for cultural outlaws.

“They told my mother to get ready to bury me, that after the curse I was as good as dead,” says the 28-year-old registered nurse. But the nurse says she does not mind being cursed. Not as long as she snatches as many little girls as possible from the tight grip of harmful traditions like FGM and early marriages.

In her Samburu community, elders wield enormous power over the lives of ordinary villagers — from deciding who marries who, to quietly settling life and death disputes like rape, defilement and incest. In their court, many young men get away with rape and defilement for as little as one cow.

Ms Mulea says the old men remain the greatest enemy of the Samburu child. “Even as we speak it is going on. Right now there is a 10-year-old girl Class Four girl who the elders want married; they (the elders) do not seem to have realised that it is illegal,” says Ms Mulea.

The police and some provincial administrators, who have failed to act on reported cases of FGM and early marriages are another impediment to the children’s welfare. Gender minister Esther Murugi says her office is extremely understaffed and ill-equipped. The Children’s Department, she says, is operating with half the required staff and intervening in cases such as Itoms is an uphill task.

-Daily Nation

NEW DELHI: India has asked Kenya to make changes in its anti-counterfeit law passed last year that could label generic drugs exported by Indian

companies to the country illegal, arguing that such laws could be counter-productive as it would affect supply of cheap but high quality medicines to the African people , a government  official has said.

The Kenyan legislation lays down that all generics will be treated as counterfeits and rejected in case a patent holder in a third country files a dispute.

The commerce department has also recently held meetings with senior officials from other African countries that import medicines from India such as Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania which are, reportedly , contemplating passing similar legislations. “The commerce department has written a letter to the Kenyan government asking for an amendment of the legislation,” an official, who requested not to be named, told ET.

Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar also held meetings with officials from African countries last month in Geneva who have assured that they would not take any step that could affect supply of generics from India, the official added.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry , which supplies nearly 15% of its total exports of more than Rs 30,000 crore annually to Africa, is understandably concerned about the developments in the continent and blames global pharma biggies for it.

According to Cipla, one of the largest exporter of drugs in the African market, global innovator companies were attempting to stop export of legitimate Indian drugs to Africa through a smear campaign. “Kenya is a fairly large market for us,” Amar Lulla joint MD, Cipla, said pointing out that if similar legislation was adopted by other African countries under the influence of global MNCs, export of India’s drugs to African countries will be under threat.

Sharing similar concerns, Ramesh Adige, president, corporate affairs & global corporate communications at Ranbaxy, said the new anti-counterfeit act in Kenya can be used to outlaw generics at the whim of patent-holders , thereby depriving the Kenyan population access to affordable generic medicines.

 Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Nairobi — Two companies linked to two former aides of retired President Moi caused a diplomatic row between Kenya and Britain when they froze accounts and assets belonging to Kenya in the United Kingdom three weeks ago.

The two pre-shipment companies – Swipco and Inspection Control Services (ICS) – obtained court orders on December 1, freezing accounts and assets belonging to the government including the Kenyan High Commission in London to recover more than Sh750 million owed to them by the government for clearing and forwarding services rendered.

According to multiple sources in Nairobi and London, 10 bank accounts are said to have been attached through an order which was quietly effected around Christmas time.

The ruling made it difficult for the government to pay salaries for embassy staff and generally transact any business in UK.

Apart from accounts belonging to the Embassy, the rest of the accounts are used by the government to receive donor funds and pay British pensioners.

Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi confirmed receiving the fresh orders issued by a London court but said there was no reason to panic.

“This issue happened and has been resolved,” said the PS without offering more details.

The two companies offered the Ministry of Finance pre-shipment services in 1998.

The firm was to inspect goods imported into the country and verify prices, quality and quantities and tariff classification.

A dispute over money owed at the end of the contract was settled in arbitration the previous year.

The government agreed to pay the money in a settlement reached the previous year but failed to do so.

Two years ago, finance ministry stopped payment to ICS then went to the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration which ruled that the Kenyan government had breached the contract between them and should therefore pay all unpaid invoices plus interest accrued.

The two companies belong to two aides of the retired President. The aides, a politician while the other, an aide cum former business associate, fell out with Moi in 2002, when retired.

According to the Daily Nation of November 14, The two aides had nominated two principals, a brother of one of them and an Asian, to look after their interests in Nairobi while they served in the retired president’s administration.

Before the fallout the two had sought payment of about $1 million from the government for pre-shipment inspection.

The two companies went to court in London on 23rd October where they obtained orders to attach the government’s accounts and assets.

The high court in London then made the controversial ruling on 1st December that was quietly effected around Christmas time last year.

It is understood that the Kenyan embassy in London almost ground to a halt during Christmas time because it did not have money to do anything including paying staff salaries.

Because of the crisis that was unfolding, the government summoned the British High Commissioner to Kenya Rob Maccaire just before new year and handed him a protest note with a threat that it was going to also freeze the UK high commission’s accounts in Nairobi.

“Yes our high commissioner was summoned round about the same time to be told that if the UK does not reopen the frozen accounts within 24 hours then our accounts in Kenya will also be shut as well,” said a senior official at the UK embassy in Nairobi who asked not to be named because he is no authorized to speak to the media.

The Kenyan government argued that the UK had violated international diplomatic regulations that required that it protects Kenyan property.

“Although those involved ensured that it did not leak to the media, it was a huge crisis and the Kenyan government was determined to freeze UK accounts in retaliation because we had been paralysed.

“It was only after Nairobi issued the threat that our accounts were re-opened hours later,” said an official in the Kenyan embassy in London.

When Nairobi learned that her accounts had been frozen senior government officials including those from foreign affairs and the office of the President and a number of ministers went into a flurry of meetings to discuss the way out a crisis.

When the protest note was issued to the UK High Commissioner, The head of central bank Professor Njuguna Ndung’u was immediately instructed to start the process of freezing the UK accounts just in case London refused to release the account within the 24-hour ultimatum that had been issued.

There are also an unknown number of other accounts in Kenya’s name controlled by foreign donors. There is a dispute over whether the court order applies to these special accounts, in which billions more are parked.

Documents at the Registrar of companies show that Swipco’s offices are in Lausanne, Switzerland. ICS file is not available at the Registrar of companies at Sheria House.

According to records Philippe Jaccard is listed as chairman, Enrique Segura is the general manager and Jean-Claude Roch is a member.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201001251478.html

By Margaret Kalekye

KRCS Secretary General Abbas Gullet expressed shock at the incident and appealed to the Internal Security Minister to investigate the matter.

A Kenya Red Cross employee was Tuesday night shot dead by police in Bungoma as he administered first aid to victims of a road accident that killed five people.

The 28 year old officer was shot alongside his colleague who is admitted at Bungoma district hospital with serious gun shot wounds.

Eyewitnesses said the police officer who arrived at the scene of the accident shot the two who were wearing a Red Cross bib as they helped the casualties.

The accident, involving a saloon car and a petrol tanker, occurred at Sikata area along Malaba-Eldoret highway, barely a kilometer from Bungoma town and claimed five lives with two of the victims dying on the spot.

Confirming the incident Bungoma District Medical Superintendent Dr. Mulianga Ekesa said the Red Cross employee died while receiving treatment. 

He however maintained that the surviving victim who was shot in the chest was out of danger and was in a stable condition.

Nine other victims involved in the accident are also admitted in the same hospital with minor injuries. 

The tanker was headed to Uganda from Eldoret. Although the motive of the shooting was not immediately established, the officer is said to have fired in the air to stop the surging crowd from siphoning fuel.

Tension is high in the area with senior police officers from the region holed up in a meeting discussing the matter.

KRCS Secretary General Abbas Gullet expressed shock at the incident and appealed to the Internal Security Minister to investigate the matter and take appropriate action against the police officer.

Gulet said “we ask the government to ensure security and safety of our staff and volunteers while rendering humanitarian services to Kenyans”.

Source: KBC

THE government has applied to have claims by Kenyan victims of alleged British colonial torture thrown out of court.
The allegations relate to the Mau Mau rebellion, a Kenyan insurgency which took place in the 1950s against British colonial rule.

Leigh Day & Co solicitors, instructed by the Kenya Human Rights Commission to represent some of those who were allegedly tortured, said the government had applied to strike out the case.

The hearing is due to take place in the High Court in the spring.

Leigh Day lawyers said the government’s legal team would argue that the liabilities of the Kenyan colonial administration were passed on to the new Kenyan government at independence in 1963.

The implication is that the current Kenyan government is liable for the alleged torture committed by the colonial regime.

Martyn Day, senior partner at Leigh Day & Co, said: “It is deeply disappointing that the British government is refusing to deal with the substance of this case.

“Our concern is that many of these elderly victims will die while this arcane legal point is being argued in the courts.”

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The UK intends to fully defend these cases.”

Source: www.news.scottsman.com