NAIROBI, 10 March 2010 (PlusNews) – Violet Tinah, 40, a resident of Korogocho slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is living with HIV and was recently diagnosed with tuberculosis, but her biggest problem today is not disease – but hunger.

“When I went for the results that informed me that I had TB, I was very hungry; I’d had no breakfast and lunch and could barely walk,” she told IRIN/PlusNews. “I had to be supported and put in a wheelchair to collect the drugs.

“Often I go without food and during such times I feel dizzy and nauseous after swallowing the [TB and HIV] drugs,” the formerly prosperous carpenter added. “Putting food on the table is like a dream.”

On the day she spoke to IRIN/PlusNews, Tinah had had only a cup of black tea for breakfast and no lunch; a concerned neighbour has brought her some porridge “to help me swallow my drugs”. Tinah was hoping her unemployed nephew would pass by later with a little food.

Many of the slum’s residents live on food salvaged from a nearby rubbish dump and sold on the streets of Korogocho.

According to a 2009 World Bank poverty assessment, the poor in Kenya spend 70 percent of their income on food on average – those in the poorest 20 percent of the population spend 77 percent. Sharp increases in the price of staples in 2008 – maize flour rose by as much as 130 percent between 2008 and 2009 – and a national food crisis in 2009 mean poverty has been on the rise.

The urban poor, most of whom do not farm, have been particularly hard hit.

Korogocho location chief Rebecca Balongo told IRIN/PlusNews that many programmes supporting HIV-affected households had collapsed. “It is not unusual to have a family share only a plate of food in a day,” he said.

Little help

The Kenya Network of Women with AIDS, which until 2009 provided food assistance to about 4,000 HIV-positive people in slums in central Kenya, has had to shut down its feeding programme due to lack of funding.

“We are no longer giving food at our drop-in centres in Korogocho, Kiambiu, Soweto and Mathare slums in Nairobi, Kiandutu slums in Thika and Kiawara slums in Nyeri town,” said KENWA advocacy programme officer James Ndung’u.

“KENWA is only providing highly nutritious porridge to the very weak and bedridden clients.

“The slums have high HIV prevalence rates and without food there are challenges; our nurse has reported clients failing to collect ARVs on schedule – they say they are busy looking for work to buy food,” he added. “ARVs require one to have a proper diet, but on an empty stomach, there is a tendency to default and consequent risk of drug resistance.”

A few programmes continue to provide support in the form of food or cash transfers. Concern Worldwide has started a cash transfer programme in Korogocho to provide food subsidies of about US$20 per month to 2,000 extremely vulnerable households, including bed-ridden HIV-positive people.
However, Concern’s programme is due to end in June, after which the government is expected to take it over. Slum residents and officials are not optimistic; chief Balongo says the government did not send any food support to her area in 2009.

Employment is scarce for the slum’s residents, especially if they are weak. Frederick Egesa works as a watchman, earning about $47 a month. He walks to work, has no days off and is docked two-and-a-half days’ pay for every day he misses work.

“Look at my many dependents – I spend 1,000 shillings [$13] on rent and have 200 shillings [$2.60] daily for food, so we have to skip eating at times,” he said. “When I collect my ARVs I am advised to eat well, but how do I manage a balanced diet?”

wm/kr/mw

A court on Friday declined to issue restraining orders against former TV presenter Esther Adongo Arunga’s parents. Ms Arunga had sued her parents, claiming that they were interfering with her personal life.

Lady Justice Jeanne Gacheche of the constitutional and judicial review division declined to issue the restraining orders, saying the matter was between parents and their daughter.

Instead, she ordered that the parties appear in court on April 26, when the case will be heard. In her suit papers, Ms Arunga accused her parents of detaining her in their house without her consent.

Apart from her parents, Ms Arunga also sued a doctor who performed psychiatric tests on her and police officers who she claimed arrested and released her without pressing charges.

She said the police officers abused their power through arbitrary arrest and detention. She said that the officers and the doctor were working under the influence of her parents.

Ms Arunga said she had to sneak out of her parents’ house to regain her freedom and was seeking security from the court.

She wanted the court to restrain her parents, Dr Robert Arunga and Mrs Petoline Arunga, from interfering with her rights and freedom.

She also wanted the court to stop her parents from having physical control over her.

According to Ms Arunga, her personal belongings, including her mobile phone, national identity card and passport, were confiscated by police acting on her parents’ instructions.

Her lawyer, Mr Edward Oonge, said his client was worried that she might be arrested any time and taken back to her parents’ house.

He said Ms Arunga’s detention at her parents’ house was illegal and a breach of her constitutional rights and freedom.

-Daily NATION

Photo: Cathy Majtenyi

Cathy Majtenyi

Medical and human rights groups in Kenya are reporting an increase in cases of domestic violence. Experts say the increase could be due to a rise in violence, more reporting of domestic violence or both. Life with an abuser can mean frequent batterings and persistent fear.

Florence Wanjiku lived that life for 10 years with her husband, an alcoholic. She describes one drunken night. “He went to the kitchen, grabbed the wooden spoon, came with it, started beating me up the way you beat a little child, using a stick or something. But unfortunately he hit me so hard it broke on my scalp and my scalp got a cut. It was so deep that I had to be stitched eight stitches around here,” she says.

Reported cases, like Wanjiku’s, are on the rise in Kenya, medical and human rights groups say.

Teresa Omondi is program manager at the Gender Violence Recovery Center in Nairobi Women’s Hospital. It treats victims of domestic violence. “We have had a drastic increase of numbers. We started from around 299 in 2006, then we moved to 412 in 2007, then in 2008 we had another 400 and over,” she says.

Domestic violence has been a long-standing problem in Kenya, particularly in rural areas.  Deeply engrained beliefs about gender roles and marriage have encouraged the practice, says Ann Njogu, executive director of the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW).  “In a patriarchal society, domestic violence is actually recognized as one way of disciplining one’s wife. In fact, even the society socializes you as a woman to anticipate this discipline. It is so deeply inculcated in many peoples’ minds. We have women who say, when they have not been beaten, their husbands have stopped loving them,” she says.

Experts are divided over statistics that show domestic violence is on the rise – and what they mean.   

According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, 39 percent of the women surveyed said they were abused by a husband or partner.
 
But a 2008 report by the Federation of Women Lawyers of Kenya, or FIDA, says  almost 75 percent of women they surveyed reported being abused.

FIDA executive director Patricia Nyaundi explains. “The rate of domestic violence is higher than what is reported. Based on our own experience, if you ask a woman, ‘Have you ever been beaten,’ she will say ‘No.’ (But) if you ask, ‘Have you ever been verbally abused,’ she will say, ‘Yes, occasionally.’ We had a study that also dealt with issues around frequency. Some women will say, ‘I’ve just been slapped once, so I don’t know about domestic violence.’”

Experts also disagree on the reasons for the recent increase in reported cases.    

FIDA’s Nyaundi says more women are coming forward because more are aware that violence is wrong and that it’s more than just physical, and more believe that it is acceptable to walk away from an abusive situation.

But other experts say domestic violence is occurring in more households because poverty and alcoholism are increasing.

Teresa Omondi of The Gender Violence Recovery Centre. “Every single day our statistics show a minimum of eight new cases – not that someone was sitting in their homes and then they heard about this centre and they thought of something that happened to them two years ago and they think, ‘now I should report.’ It means it happens on a daily basis,” she says.

Ann Njogu of CREAW says her organization encourages men to tell each other that domestic violence is wrong and must stop.

-Voice of America

President Mwai Kibaki inspects the guard of honor during the opening of Parliament last month in Nairobi. The U.S. is increasingly impatient for the government to fight corruption.

NAIROBI, Kenya—The U.S. stepped up its harsh criticism of Kenya, raising again the threat of sanctions against a longtime east African ally that has become riddled with infighting and allegations of corruption.

“Nothing’s off the table,” said Karl Wycoff, the deputy assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, referring to steps Washington is willing to take as it urges Kenya to crack down on political violence and root out corruption.

Washington’s hard line against Kenya began building after the disputed 2007 presidential elections sparked ethnic clashes that killed more than 1,300 people and displaced tens of thousands more. Rivals Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga agreed to a internationally brokered power-sharing deal that made them president and prime minister, respectively. They pledged to work together to end ethnic disputes and overhaul the country’s colonial-holdover constitution.

Two years later, however, their coalition government reamains shaky and the country is on edge. The U.S. is increasingly impatient for the government to take steps to punish those responsible for the postelection violence, crack down on corruption and amend the constitution.

“We will not hesitate to give our opinions when we feel that’s what needs to be done,” Mr. Wycoff said. “We will take strong actions when we think that’s what needs to be done to move the reform process forward.”

View Full Image

Associated PressAn anticorruption protester last month in Nairobi.

Kenyan officials have bristled at U.S. pressure. Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua called the pattern of U.S. criticism and threats condescending. “Their policy is playing to the [Kenyan public] gallery, which we call activism diplomacy,” he said, calling the warnings on travel bans part of “a big bully blackmail system.”

The U.S. believes now is the time to push, a senior U.S. official said, in part because the U.S. enjoys wide support among Kenyans that deepened with the election of Barack Obama. Washington also sees a grass-roots move toward change among Kenyans weary of backbiting politics and scandals. And officials want to move before politicians turn back to campaigning ahead of elections in 2012.

The U.S. push in Kenya—a bastion of stability in an east Africa region that includes the war-torn states of Somalia and Sudan—contrasts with its more subtle approach toward neighbors including Ethiopia, an ally of the U.S. in its fight against terrorism that has been accused of human-rights abuses related to political violence.

“There may or may not be such windows of opportunity in other countries,” the U.S. official said. “But Washington is looking at this particularly as a very unique, historic opportunity to bring about real change.”

In October, Washington banned U.S. entry to Kenya’s attorney general, who it said had obstructed anticorruption efforts. It has issued letters to several other officials threatening similar action.

The most recent clash between Kenya’s top leaders followed two corruption scandals over the past several months. In one, an independent auditor alleged the Agriculture Ministry had sold its reserve grain to shell companies that marked it up, raising market prices as people went hungry in rural areas. In another case, about $1 million in funds disappeared from a fund for free primary education.

Mr. Odinga, the prime minister, suspended the two ministers. Mr. Kibaki reinstated them. The dispute threatened to inflame ethnic tensions: After Mr. Odinga’s announcement, makeshift roadblocks—often a precursor to ethnic violence—sprang up in Eldoret, which saw some of the worst violence in 2008.

The two leaders met Sunday and said they repaired their rift, adding they remain committed to their partnership.

The government spokesman said the government is expected to hold a referendum on the new constitution by the year’s end, a move toward spreading power beyond the president and establishing a more accountable system of government. “We are progressing very well,” he said. “But it is not because of the U.S.’s so-called interference.”

-Wall Street Journal

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga signed a power sharing agreement on February 28, 2008. Photo/FILE

Peter Leftie,

A powerful lobby within the government has hatched an elaborate plan aimed at pushing the African Union (AU) to end chief mediator Kofi Annan’s mandate in Kenya, according to well-placed sources.

The carefully calculated plan involves top government officials and Foreign Affairs people who want the AU to stop Mr Annan’s involvement in the country’s reform agenda, citing “undue intrusion”.

One of the options being explored by the architects of the plot is to push the AU to censure the former United Nations secretary-general for allegedly overstepping his mandate while overseeing Kenya’s reform process.

A consultant attached to the Cabinet Office at the Office of the President, Prof Peter Kagwanja, confirmed that the government was determined to seek the termination of Mr Annan’s mandate. Prof Kagwanja, who is also a political strategist for the Party of National Unity (PNU), told the Sunday Nation:

“Kenya is seeking, at the minimum, that the AU censures him. Their lobbying will get very good reception at the AU because members feel he overstepped his mandate on the ICC issue at a time when members are already dealing with the Sudan crisis.”

A senior official at the Foreign Affairs ministry, who cannot be quoted discussing confidential matters, confirmed that the government was determined to push Mr Annan out of the Kenyan process.

“We are going to push for an end to his engagement in Kenya because we feel he is taking it too far. He is almost micro-managing Kenya, and people like Raila (Odinga) think he is our headmaster. We can handle our own problems,” the official said.

But Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula adopted a diplomatic approach to the issue when contacted. “As far as the government is concerned, (Mr) Annan was sent here by the African Union, alongside President Mkapa and Graca Machel by the then AU chairman John Kufuor.

They were obviously inherited by the subsequent AU leadership of President (Jakaya) Kikwete. As a government we are very grateful and appreciate their efforts in ending the turmoil that rocked our country.”

He added that it was only the AU which could end Mr Annan’s mandate. “I’m in constant communication with the African Union and, as far as I know, they are yet to communicate to us any intention of disengaging Mr Annan because they are the only ones who can do so. When they do, I’m sure they will communicate the decision to us,” he said.

Mr Wetang’ula welcomed President Kibaki’s opening of the fourth session of the Tenth Parliament on February 23 when he urged Kenyans to resolve their own problems instead of turning to “outsiders” for help. This was a thinly veiled reference to recent calls by Prime Minister Raila Odinga for Mr Annan’s urgent intervention to resolve the dispute between the coalition partners.

Mr Wetang’ula added: “We must have confidence in ourselves. While we welcome Mr Annan’s assistance in the past, we should not keep on running to outsiders to help us sort out even small differences because we emerge more respectable in the eyes of the international community when we handle our own problems.”

But ODM’s second in command, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, warned that Kenya risked international isolation if it dares push for Mr Annan’s disengagement. “We should not even contemplate it. We risk burning bridges with our international friends because of that single move. Our friendship with the international community should not be one of convenience. When we were in a crisis, they came to our rescue, so we should not start rubbishing them simply because we now have relative tranquillity,” Mr Mudavadi warned. 

As a first move towards achieving their goal, the anti-Annan group pushed for Kenya to join the AU Peace and Security Council during the recent AU summit in Addis Ababa. It is from this position that they intend to lobby for Mr Annan’s censure, a move they hope will culminate in the termination of his mandate.

The new countries elected for three-year terms to the crucial AU organ include Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Countries elected for two years include Burundi, Chad, Djibouti, Rwanda, Mauritania, Namibia, South Africa, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali.

The outgoing AU Peace and Security Council played a major role in ending the bloodbath that rocked Kenya in the aftermath of the 2007 General Election and which saw Mr Kufuor summon Mr Annan and his team of eminent personalities to mediate between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga.

But there are those within government who feel that the new AU Peace and Security Council ought to remain focused on the Kenyan situation and that the mediation panel led by Mr Annan should remain in place since there is still some distance to be covered to full implementation of the mediation agreement and entrenchment of the reforms. Part of Mr Annan’s mandate is to ensure that the reform process initiated under Agenda 4 of the National Accord is fully implemented.

The Agenda 4 reforms include establishing a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), electoral reforms and the successful prosecution of those who planned and carried out the post-election violence that left more than 1,300 people dead and thousands displaced. Those pushing for the termination of Mr Annan’s mandate argue that Kenya has stabilised and no longer needs Mr Annan’s involvement.

-Daily Nation