Category Archives: Crises

someone should pay for this and pay dearly

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The pictures say it all. King Leopold’s ghost never left the vast central African country that is the DRC. In the East, a man by the name of Nkunda is waging a war against the Kinshasa government for God knows what reason. I don’t buy the story that he is protecting Tutsis from Hutus. If the rumors are true, Rwanda is in this for the minerals. Nkunda is an accomplice. Since when did an African warlord care about the people? This man thinks that the lives of Eastern Congolese people are expendable. He does not care about the people. I say he gets captured and taken through a public trial and then offered as an example to all future rebels.

In Kinshasa, Kabila is just as guilty. He is responsible for the power vacuum in the East that lets lunatics like Nkunda run around killing innocent women and children. His own soldiers, according to the NY Times, are killing people. Shooting the very civilians they are supposed to protect in the back.

It is time to stop pretending. Rwanda, if it supporting Nkunda should stop immediately. I am a fan of Kagame and I’d hate to see him tarnish his legacy this easily. Kagame, you saw it happen in your country, do not let the madness continue in the DRC. Kinshasa should be given an ultimatum: win the East or give it up. Fair and square. If Kabila’s forces cannot impose his will in the region, he should cede authority to the only force that currently seems to have the power to do so – that of the rebels led by Nkunda.

4 million human beings have died already. How many more can we let die before something gets done? I want to see people getting tried and punished for war crimes. I want to see Kabila out of power. I want to see Nkunda jailed or neutralised for his crimes. I want retribution. I want peace for the people of the DCR. If they can’t be a rational-legal state I want to see it split up. And my only reason is pure and simple: Enough is enough.

this is total bull, and we should not be scared by it

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I just read a BBC piece that the Islamist terrorists in Somalia are threatening to attack Kenya if it goes ahead with plans to train about 10,000 Somali soldiers. Really? Seriously? Are we supposed to be scared by this?

Somalia has been a mess since Siad Barre was deposed in the early 90s. Thugs and war lords have made normal life impossible for millions of Somali from all walks of life. For well over a decade the country has not had a functional government. While I opposed the Somali invasion to ged rid of the Islamic Courts union government, I think that that is all water under the bridge now. And quite frankly in retrospect that might have been a good idea. There is heavy Western investment in Kenya and the last thing we needed was a government that pals around with terrorists, to borrow from that now famous Alaskan.

Training these soldiers, is a good idea. It is time Somalia had a government to impose peace and stability. Due to the rampant clanism in the country, democracy will not work. At least not in the short term. The best thing to do is have a functional government that is moderately legitimate and have it use all human-rights-respecting means to quell the violence and bring some order and civility to Somali life.

Now, these thugs might carry out their threat and kill Kenyans. And I would find it hard to justify sacrificing Kenyan lives on behalf of Somalis – or vise versa. But sometimes we have to stand up for what is right. Kenya should not feel threatened by pirates and common thugs with kalashnikovs. We are stronger and braver than that. I say let’s go ahead and train these Somalis and if these thugs attack us we shall take it to them. We can do it.

the 2008 world hunger index: it is not pretty

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So the 2008 world hunger index (WHI) published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) from the US and Welthungerhilfe from Germany is out and it is ugly. No, I am not talking about the horrible pictures of African children covered in ashes or an emaciated South Asian woman and her child which are prominently displayed in the report. I am talking about the fact that Sub-Saharan Africa still remains the hungriest part of the world. The DRC, Eritrea, Burundi and Niger are among the worst performing countries in Africa and in the world.

Kenya (55th out of 88) is hungrier than Mauritania, a desert country. The least hungry continental Sub-Saharan African country is South Africa.

It is embarrassing that over 10,000 years after humans invented agriculture over 900 million people still go hungry worldwide (South Asia and Africa being the worst affected areas). It is sad that many African countries still cannot feed their own people. A combination of wars, bad politics and a dearth of planning has ensured that millions of Africans continue to go hungry. When are we going to start thinking seriously about agriculture, population control and food stability?

isn’t it time we split this country up?

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One of the defining characteristics of a legitimate state is that it ought to have a monopoly over the use of violence. The army, the police and all physical security apparatus belong to the state. When a state cannot command enough authority and support to have this monopoly – for more than a decade – then the question of whether such a state is legitimate ought to be seriously considered.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is such a state. This central African country is the size of Western Europe but with an infrastructure that is probably worse than the Persians’ during the reign of Xerxes. Strictly speaking, the DRC has never been a cohesive nation-state. It began with Katanga secessonists right after independence. Mobutu’s kleptocracy barely held it together with an iron feast and bribes. With Kabila I came the chaos in the Kivus. Kabila II keeps losing battles to ethnic Rwandese rebels. Kinshasa’s control and political legitimacy does not extend to the Eastern region of the country.

So the big question is: Is the keeping of the territorial integrity of the DRC worth the 4 million lives and counting it has cost thus far? I say no. If Southern Sudan is anything to go by, sometimes partition can be the answer. It is almost certain that Southern Sudan will vote to secede in the forthcoming referendum. May be Eastern Congolese ought to be given this option as well. Kinshasa is very far from the Kivus – both literally and figuratively. The Easterners are closer (culturally and economically) to the Swahili speaking East Africans than the inhabitants of the Western parts of the country. It is and will always be very hard to forge a cohesive nation-state out of the mess that is the DRC.

So as I have stated before, Kabila II has two options. Either declare an all out war and defeat the rebels once and for all (I am no fan of rebel movements, regardless of their cause, and never will be) or agree to lose the Eastern part of the DRC. Eastern Congolese have had enough of this war of attrition. News that Gen. Nkunda has captured yet another vital army base just serve to confirm how weak Kinshasa is.  If you cannot fight for the East let it go, Kabila. Let it go!

equatorial guinea; a glaring symbol of stupidity on steroids

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Last year alone, according to the Bank of Cenral African States, Equatorial Guinea earned 4.3 billion dollars in oil revenue. This was about 90% of the country’s GDP.  This in a country of just over 600,000 souls. Last year’s World Bank estimates put the country’s per capita income at about 20,000 dollars. But don’t be fooled by this figure, more than 60% of the citizens of this tiny Central African country live on less than a dollar a day. It is estimated that the government has stashed more than 2 billion dollars in foreign accounts. Mr. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president since 1979, is one very wealthy man.

Whenever I think about this country – among many other equally wealthy African countries – I ask myself: How hard can it be? How hard can it be to provide education for your people? How hard can it be to provide decent housing? How hard can it be to ensure that people are not starving? And all this while your treasuries are overflowing with cash. Of what use are the billions to Obiang and his friends if his country-people are starving? Don’t these men have a scintilla of pride? Doesn’t Mr. Obiang feel even a tinge of shame when he sees pictures of fly-infested faces of emaciated African children in the front pages of major world newspapers or book covers?

It is very frustrating. It is inexplicable. It makes you wonder whether these people are grown up men or children. It seems almost commonsensical that a country like Equatorial Guinea – small in size and with an abundance of oil – should never wallow in want. It takes a great deal of stupidity to plunge a whole 60% of the population in abject poverty with this much wealth. 600,000 Obiang. Just 600,000. You can keep track of every one of your citizens, providing for their basic needs and granting them a decent education, healthcare, housing and what not. Seriously. It is not rocket science.

these somali pirates must be stopped now

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As I whined about the resignation of Mbeki and the ineluctable ascendance of one Jacob Zuma to the most powerful position on the continent, the story of Somali pirates seizing a ship with militray cargo destined for Kenya made me even more worried. 33 tanks, among other military hardware, were on the Ukranian ship that was hijacked by pirates from Somalia while on international waters off the coast of the failed state in the horn of Africa.

These developments raise a very serious question. For how long will the world sit back and watch as a few greedy men with guns terrorize an entire country, killing innocent women and children and depriving them of a decent livelihood? So far the consensus has been that as long as the mess is confined within Somalia then everyone (save for Ethiopia and the CIA) would pretend that nothing is going on. But now there is an overflow. Tired of the boredom of pillaging within their borders the rag-tag bandits of Somalia have decided to extend their activities to the sea, routinely hijacking ships for ransome and booty. They need to be stopped.

These 21st century pirates need to be stopped not just in the sea but also within the borders of Somalia. It is imperative that countries within the wider East African region come up with a plan of solving Somalia’s problem once and for all instead of merely containing it, as seems to be the policy of the regional military powerhouse Ethiopia and the United States. Somalis are people too – just like the Kenyans or Ivorians who elicited much international sucpport in their times of crises – and need to be allowed to have an existence worthy of human beings. The last eighteen years have shown us that Somalis, on their own, cannot rid themselves of the dystopia that they’ve made of their country. The international community should – in a Rousseauian sense – impose peace and set in motion a more transparent re-education on government and institutions instead of the current puppet government arrangement. Sounds too optimistic to you? To the gainsayers I say it can be done. It can be done because the vast majority of Somalis want it to be done. An international intervention will not be an Iraq, not even a Somalia-’93.

zambian president dies in france

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Levy Mwanawasa, the president of Zambia, has died in a French hospital. Mwanawasa was admitted in the hospital after he suffered a stroke several weeks ago. The country’s vice president, Rupiah Banda, has assumed the position of acting president, at least until new elections are held.

Mwanawasa became president in 2001 and has been a darling of the West particularly due to his distaste for corruption and love of free markets. In the last election, his opposition opponent accused him of selling his country to the two Asian giants; china and India.

It is important to note that Mwanawasa along with Kagame, Khama and Wade are the only African presidents who came out to forcefully criticize the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. He will be missed for his honesty and love of straight talk.

army takes over mauritanian government in a coup

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Well, if you thought the era of coups was gone, think again. The Mauritanian army has ousted the country’s president, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, in a bloodless coup. The army has cited the president’s overtures to Islamic fundamentalists and his recent sacking of four of the country’s top military commanders as the reason for his ouster. The president has apparently been getting too close to Islamic fundamentalists and supposedly planned to build a mosque within the presidential compounds.

He and his wife have also been accused of corruption. Earlier in the year the president narrowly avoided a vote of no confidence in the nation’s parliament. The EU has threatened to withhold aid the Mauritanian if the president and his prime minister – both detained by the coup leaders – are not reinstated soon.

The leader of the coup, Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, has instituted a state council in place of the presidency. It is unclear how long he plans to rule the country.

Mauritania, a former French colony, is a vast country in West Africa with a population of 3.4 million. It is predominantly Arab and is a member of the Arab league. The country has large deposits of iron ore and in 2006 struck oil, making it one of Africa’s newest oil producers.

al-Bashir accused of war crimes and genocide in Darfur

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At last there is some international organisation with some spine. Although the practicality of this accusation is doubtful – nobody even dreams that al-Bashir, the genocidal president of Northern Sudan will ever appear in court for his crimes in Darfur and beyond – the symbolism behind it is powerful. It is powerful because it says it like it is. President al-Bashir’s mission in Darfur is genocidal and utterly criminal. Yes, he is is fighting rebels intent on dislodging him from power (and as I have stated before I am no sympathizer of rebel movements) but the way he is doing it in Darfur is not the right way.

The prosecutor of the international criminal court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, brought the case against al-Bashir on account of the more than 300,000 deaths in Darfur over the last five years.

Again, al-Bashir may never see the inside of a cell in the Hague but it is a triumph for justice, or more appropriately, the quest for justice. Almost half a million have died and millions displaced while the international community ‘dillies and dallies’ about Sudan’s sovereignty. A nation forfeits its sovereignty the moment it starts butchering its own people. Period.

Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir and his kind throughout Africa and the world should be made aware of the fact that there are people out there who are dedicated to bringing them to justice. As usual, I am disappointed by the AU’s reaction to all this. I am kind of curious as to how the more outspoken (radical) presidents on the continent – Senegal’s Wade, Botswana’s Khama and Rwanda’s Kagame – will react to this. I hope that they will continue in their commitment to telling it like it is, unlike their more defensive counterparts.

On a related note. I wish more Darfuri rebels and Janjaweed militia alike could also be brought to book because all three parties (the JEM rebels, janjaweed and the government of Northern Sudan) are causing untold suffering to innocent civilians in this war.

Un shame, shame shame

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The news reports are shocking and disgusting. In a report published by Save the Children, a British charity, it has emerged that UN peacekeepers in conflict zones have been abusing children as young as six. Yes six years old! After interviewing about 250 boys and girls, Save the Children found that UN peacekeepers were in the habit of exchanging soap, money, food and sometimes cell phones for sex. The interviews were conducted in Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti and Southern Sudan. The UN chief Ban Ki-Moon promised that an investigation will be conducted and that those found guilty will be punished.

What a shocker. The thought that the people entrusted with the task of bringing hope and peace to these regions are the very ones causing physical and psychological harm to children is simply despicable. This scandal also exposes the UN for the opaque bureaucracy that it is. How could this have gone on without the knowledge of New York? Don’t they have independent observers monitoring their aid missions to ensure that staff stick to the code of conduct?

If the investigation takes place as has been promised by Ban and these peacekeepers are found guilty, their punishment alone won’t be enough. The UN should compensate the families of the children that were abused. And in the future New York should keep a closer eye on its staff on peace keeping missions.

Finally, in order to avoid the mess all together, African and other similarly backward and inept governments should get their act together. It is the shocking inability of these governments to run their countries that necessitates the presence of UN peacekeepers in the first place. Perhaps the UN should have a clause stating that once a country has had peacekeepers for more than a given period of time then it should be put under a sort of “receivership.” It wouldn’t be re-colonization – as many nationalists in these countries would be quick to point out. It would be an attempt at bringing normal lives to people who’ve not lived normal lives for decades and who shouldn’t go hungry, remain ignorant and finally die because of the greed of some pin-head War Lords.

time to do away with weak african governments

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Northern Sudan’s government just got its nose bloodied bad. And this by a bunch of rag tag rebels from the dusty deserts out West fighting with machine guns mounted on the back of pick up trucks. These rebels, previously confined to Darfur and other hot spots finally made an attempted march to the seat of power in Khartoum. Sudan’s skirmishes with its rebel movements brought memories of yet another African government that was nearly toppled by a bunch of bandits on pick up trucks – Chad. In Chad’s case France came to the rescue. Sudan seems to have taken care of the rebels using its own helicopter gunships and other weapons bought from the Chinese in exchange for oil.

As I have stated before, I have no sympathies for rebel movements, regardless of what their cause might be. It is in a large part because of these movements that most of Africa has remained underdeveloped because resources were shifted to fighting useless wars instead of focusing on the advancement of African people. Violent uprising will never solve any problem. Somalia, the DRC, Burundi and many others are testaments to this fact.

That said, I also think that certain African governments that are too weak to hold their own against rebels and other armed groups should be allowed to die a Darwinian death. When rebels drive for miles to the capital without being stopped by the existing government, you know there is a problem. Why did Khartoum wait for the rebels to reach Omdurman before doing anything?

Khartoum’s genocidal strongman ought to be embarrassed enough to realise that he cannot stop the insurgency in Darfur by killing the rebels and dropping bombs on innocent women and children. This week’s incident has proven that there cannot be a military solution to the rebel problem. The government of Sudan has been exposed as unable to hold its own against these rebels and therefore they have to negotiate with them and perhaps even meet some of the demands of the JEM led rebels.

world food shortages, is it time to rethink ethanol use?

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Africa’s food security is under threat; and this time it is not the usual threat caused by poor planning and the use of pre-modern agrarian technologies. This new threat is a result of the continuing rise in world food prices. Already the world food program (WFP) is predicting that this year it will be US $ 500 million short in trying to meet the needs of tens of millions worldwide who depend on it for food. These new developments are especially bad for Africa.

Millions of Africans depend on food aid. And this is not restricted to areas of conflict like Somalia, Sudan and Chad. Even relatively stable countries like Kenya and Zambia regularly need international donors to fill the gap left by ever-declining national agricultural output. As food prices go up and the international donors cut budgets, these countries will be in for even greater shortages.

Which brings me to the topic of this post. It is apparent that the world’s obsession with ethanol might be driving up food prices. This situation has been exacerbated by the rising oil prices due to Chinese and Indian demand and middle Eastern politics. The end result is that expensive grain (brought about by the fact that stomachs are competing with fuel tanks) has become even more expensive due to high transportation costs.

While controlling the price of oil might be difficult (middle eastern politics remain as muddy as ever), I believe the world can control how much food is diverted to the production of fuels. I understand the noble objective of saving the planet through the use of green energy. But I am totally against the idea that this can be done at the expense of developing nations and their millions of hungry people.

It is common knowledge that food deficiency causes stuntedness – both physical and mental – in children and that this persists into adulthood. This is what we shall be doing to humanity if we do not prioritise between endangered animals and humans.

Therefore, before we go all out on ethanol, we should make sure that humans are fed and healthy. For what is the use of saving the planet only to leave it to stunted offspring whom we failed to feed when they were young? Also, I think that WFP should aim at coordinating world food production so that nations like the US which perennially produce excess food can sell grain, at subsidized prices, to poorer, less advanced nations instead of destroying it to keep prices steady.

Most importantly, African agriculture should be pushed into the 21st century. Food production in most of Africa remains pre-10,000 BC. Farmers depend on rain even in places with giant perennial rivers that could be harnessed for iriigation. While appreciating the value of metis and fork knowledge, I believe that more science is needed to improve food production.  Simple scientific agriculture is not rocket science and the knowledge can be disseminated at a reasonable cost in order to improve agricultural output on the continent.

Food production was one of the main drivers of human civilisation. We are thus only as civilised as we are able to feed ourselves.

do we really need this circus?

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The back and forth tussle that has become of the negotiations between Kibaki and Raila over a coalition cabinet is very unseemly. More than twice, the two men have met and agreed on a deal only to have their mouthpieces issue statements on the contrary.

What surprises me is how PNU is acting like they did not know what they were getting into by signing the Feb. 28th agreement. By agreeing to share power with ODM, they essentially admitted guilt to the shady mess that was the previous December’s general election and thereby allowed ODM to put one foot into government. If PNU thought that ODM would be contented with the ministry of fisheries and such then they were way off the mark. Like any political party these people want power and they will not settle for less.

What Kibaki ought to do now is just give them what they want and then control them via the Finance Ministry. The two most contentious posts seem to be Foreign and Local Government Ministries. Kenya’s foreign ministry is not that big of a deal. Who cares about summits and talk shops around the world? Plus it’s not like the country has any coherent foreign policy that would be severely changed by an ODM apparatchik in the post. And with the ministry of Local Government, I say give it to ODM. It’s not like the major towns and cities – outside of the wider Central region – are not pro-ODM already. Having to fight councils and city residents selling tomatoes in the streets might even make them unpopular come 2012.

My two cents on this is that the tussle is about nothing really. The president can continue to run the entire cabinet through control of the treasury and concentrate power in the hands of the Finance minister. Kenyan ministers are not an ambitious lot so I don’t think any of them will want to do anything revolutionary simply because they are now in charge of local councils or the ministry of heavy industry (I can’t believe they are actually creating these superfluous ministries).

So save us the drama Mr. President and name a cabinet already. Your government will be a joke anyway, with its 40 cabinet posts. Kenyans will pay over 500 million Shillings every year paying for the bloated cabinet and expect and get absolutely nothing in return. Shame shame shame.

I put it to you that what really matters to Kenyans is not what post some fat cat gets in your government but the stuff that increases the number of sufurias of ugali in their homes : equitable economic development.

Kenya sees HIV prevalence rate drop, more needs to be done

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The government has announced a drop in the HIV prevalence rate in Kenya from a high 14% to a relatively low 5%. These figures were announced by Prof. Were, the chairperson of the National Aids Control Council. Prof. Were also added that the number of people on ARVs had increased from a paltry 2000 five years ago to 150,000 in 2007.

This is good news. However, a lot more needs to be done. West African countries like Senegal have showed that with government commitment and cultural changes the scourge of AIDS can be kept at bay.

Among things that ought to change are traditional practices that belong in the pre-AIDS era. I am talking about wife inheritance in my home province of Nyanza and sharing of material during communal circumcisions across the country. Other areas to be looked at are religious practices and teachings that may encourage the spread of the disease. Being a Catholic, I am embarrassed by my church’s insistence that people should not use condoms even as they die like flies from this terrible malady. The government should talk straight with the church on this issue and require them not to preach from the pulpits anything that might jeopardize the success of the national anti-AIDS campaign.

Kenyans also need to change certain social practices. A friend of mine told me that when she visited Africa – South Africa and Swaziland – she was struck by the utter lack of faithfulness among couples. This might explain the high AIDS prevalence rates in Southern Africa and is also true in East Africa. Kenyans need to be more responsible with their sexuality by planning well with regards to matters sexual. The government and interested groups ought to be more aggressive in their family planning and sexual education initiatives in order to ensure that the gains that have been made in the last six years are improved upon.

I believe that with a concerted effort from the government, churches and cultural icons – like the Ker in Luo Nyanza for instance – Kenya can achieve a prevalence rate of less than 1% in the not so distant future. The majority Muslim countries of West Africa have managed to have low infection rates with little resources and so can we in the East, and possibly lend our ideas to the Southerners who are the worst affected by this scourge.

Anjouan attack a real test for the AU

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The African Union is finally flexing some muscles. It is now certain that an AU backed force is set to attack the renegade Comoros island of Anjouan in an attempt to bring it back to the fold of the islands that form the Comoros. So far, South Africa and some reports say France are against the move but the rest of the continent, very wary of secessionists, seem to be OK with the idea of invading the island and doing all that is necessary, including killing the renegade leader of Anjouan – Mohamed Bacar – to restore Moroni’s rule on the island.

As I have written many times before, I have no love for secessionists. I believe that it is partly because of African dissenters’ (most of whom were opportunist egg heads) love for the gun that most of the continent remains in pre-modern times due to the ravages of civil wars and their aftermath. African maps were drawn arbitrarily by some old Europeans, but so what? In any case the Berlin conference saved the continent from going through bloody wars of nation creation like Europe did through most of the middle ages until and in some cases beyond the 1648 treaty of Westphalia that established the nation-state as we know it. That said, I think the problem of rival “nations” being forced into one state is a legitimate problem. However, current global trends can take care of this. As the salience of national boundaries continue to diminish, Africa should take advantage of this and open up its borders to allow free flow of people and capital. This will reduce the continent’s persistent internal feuds and will also be good for the continental economy. Intra-continental should more than the paltry 11% that it is right now.

Going back to Anjouan and the AU. I think it is commendable that this talk shop that we call the AU is finally doing something meaningful. I wish they could do more, especially in cases like Darfur, Somalia and the DRC. A lot of African armies sit in their barracks doing absolutely nothing. Why can’t they form a force and then solicit international funding and go ahead and restore order in Somalia and the DRC? Sudan is a more complex issue, but if there is a will I think it’s case can be resolved too. The proxy US involvement in Somalia through Ethiopia could have been more successful if many other African countries were involved and not just Ethiopia, given the two countries’ bad history over the Ogaden.

So as we wait to see how Mr. Bacar goes down, let’s hope that the AU casualty count will not be high enough to discourage such involvements in the future and that a success in Anjouan will make Addis even more bold in the future and possibly give it the will to have a firmer hand in reigning in on wayward African leaders like Mugabe, Al-Bashir, Biya, Obiang……. .. (I can easily reach the high forties with this).