President Mwai Kibaki told visiting United Kingdom Minister for Africa and Commonwealth Office Hon. Henry Bellingham that delayed resourses and commitments including that of his government were contributing to the instability in Somalia.

Kibaki said, ” the issue of Somali remains a great challenge to us and the region we cannot be comfortable with Somali increasingly growing as a security threat.”

On his part Hon Bellingham avoided the Somali issue, but said that the new UK government was keen on intensifying existing warm bilateral ties as well as increase the trade volume between the two countries.

He noted that the UK government was also keen on resuming the funding of the Free Primary Education that continue benefiting millions of school-going children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Kenya has been on a diplomatic offensive demanding that Western governments honour their part of the deal on Somalia.

The former Archbishop of Cape Town and one of the most important public figures in South Africa has announced that he is stepping down from public life after decades of tireless work as a churchman and as the conscience of South Africa.

I say this is a personal review as I think it is important to get across the all important humanity of the man rather than just go over the public image.

I’m not religious and as a journalist for three decades have developed a certain cynicism.  But meeting Father Desmond, as he asked me to call him rather than Archbishop or Your Grace, was a deeply affecting experience.

However, the growth of the ailment is being stunted through work by the development NGO Sightsavers. It claims to have already distributed 150million of treatments and in the last year has apparently distributed 25 million in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali and Nigeria, ensuring that people can continue to live in their river-side communities.

Although the disease threatens people worldwide 99 per cent of those at risk live in Africa, particularly in the West.

Pharmaceutical Merck & Co., Inc. has been donating Mectizan since 1987 and has been working in partnership with Sightsavers for over 20 years to ensure that the treatment reaches the populations at risk of developing River Blindness.

Transmitted through the bite of the black simulium fly which breeds in fast-flowing water, river blindness can lead to permanent loss of vision. The onset of river blindness tends to affect people in their thirties and forties, which not only impairs them but also their children who often have to miss out on education to become full-time carers for their older relatives.

New evidence from the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) has found that transmission of the disease can be stopped and the cycle of infection broken if Mectizan (ivermectin) is taken annually for 15-17 years. This is promising evidence that indicates that River Blindness could be eliminated in the future. In the interim, the drugs donated free of charge by Merck & Co., Inc. allow the disease to be treated and controlled.

Deepak Khanna, Managing Director of Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited (MSD) commented that: ‘the Program is recognised as a model of a successful and sustainable developing world health initiative’.

One of the main challenges in fighting this disease is getting the treatment to remote communities. Sightsavers has helped to introduce the community-based distribution system which uses trained village volunteers to hand out the drugs at a local level. This approach has been adapted to other healthcare activities all over Africa such as Vitamin A distribution, mosquito net distribution, cataract identification, and management of other parasitic diseases.

Nigeria is the nation that suffers most from this NTD, with approximately 27 million needing treatment. In Kaduna state everyone understands the importance of taking the drug annually.

The NTD department of the World Health Organisation identifies 13 NTDs that are believed to affect up to a billion of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. Together, these NTDs cause severe disability, which results in billions of dollars of lost productivity. Treating such diseases is therefore a way in which poverty can be alleviated in some of the world’s poorest communities. Merck & Co., Ltd have already made leaps and bounds in making this happen and have brought to the world stage ailments that are little catered for in the current day.

Let’s hope their care and good work spreads to enable Africans to work toward a better future for themselves.

In the strongest message ever to the state on the dangers of violating constitutional rights of citizens, the Court ordered immediate payment of KES40 Million (US$533,000) to compensate 21 victims of the infamous Nyayo Torture Chambers.

The victims made sworn statements in court where they recounted some of the physical and psychological atrocities they had experienced. High Judge Hannah Okwengu ruled that the government had failed to defend itself on the accusations leveled against it by the victims and touched on the violations of their fundamental rights. In her 55 page verdict Justice Okwengu observed that the 21 victims had convinced the court that they deserved the compensation.

These developments show that the country has recognized its previous faults and has overcome them successfully in order to show that she is progressing and stabilizing and that her justice system is working effectively.

Land and airborne police patrols combed the entire jungle hideout of the criminals that was located deep inside the forested part of Obingwa local government area of Abia State in South East Nigeria. This put much pressure on the kidnappers who, apparently disturbed by the imminent final assault into their hideout, finally capitulated and freed their victims. They vanished soon after.

Officers of the State Security Service had supplied intelligence to the Nigeria Police and used tracking equipment to locate the area of forest the journalists were being held.

A day before the journalists were freed, I drove with the Police in one of their Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) into the jungle to observe their operations. We drove for an hour from the capital city of Umuahia through the old Aba road to a junction town called Ohanze where all the different personnel and equipment for the operation were assembled.

The commission has consequently asked the head of public service Francis Muthaura to immediately withdraw permanent secretaries (PSs) and senior government officials from campaigns.

Chairman Issack Hassan told journalists on Thursday 22nd July 2010, that PSs and the provincial administrators should stop taking sides in the debate and instead ensure peace and sobriety. Hassan said the public officers ethics Act prohibits civil servants from participating in politics.

‘I know there might be different justification by the government but we think they should not participate in any electoral process or in the referendum campaigns,’ he said adding that the officers should stick to their core mandate. ‘They should continue offering services to Kenyans across the board irrespective of which camp they belong to.’

Muthaura had written to the PSs and accounting officers requesting them to head to their home districts and campaign for the draft. District commissioners had been given the task of convening meetings of opinion leaders.

The letter dated July 15 read in part: ‘Following the decision of the meeting of permanent secretaries which was approved by both his Excellency the President and the Rt. Hon, Prime Minister, you are authorized to travel to your respective regions between 12th July and 3rd August 2010 to participate in civic education and mobilising support for the new Constitution before the referendum.’

The letter asked district commissioners to invite at least 200 leaders to the PSs’ meetings. ‘Permanent secretaries may be accompanied by senior government officials and high ranking private professionals from their respective areas to strengthen presence.’

The head of the civil service also led a delegation of permanent secretaries to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s home recently, where they were told not to fear publicly backing support for the draft law.

‘We met this morning and the resolution of the commission is that the officers should not be involved in the campaigns,’ said the IIEC Chairman. ‘This involvement of government officers can be used by the No camp to contest the outcome of the results,’ said Hassan.

In Kenya a General Service Unit Para Military officer was wounded by suspected Al-Shabaab invaders on the North Eastern Liboi border. Police later arrested a suspect in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe and military spokesman Bogita Ongeri said, ‘we are in charge we have sent more officers at the border and we will not allow such violations of our sovereignty anymore.’

In Burundi Thursday 22nd July, Police said they had unearthed an arms trafficking ring after a shootout with gang members in the capital Bujumbura.

Regional police commander David Nikiza said two people arrested after the gunfight earlier on Wednesday led them to a depot near Lake Tanganyika in the east of the country where they found guns, grenades, army uniforms and several utensils.

‘These criminals said they were going to supply a rebel group led by a Tutsi man called Bosco who operates from the Rukoko marsh,’ Nikiza said.

The Rukoko marsh near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was a rear base of Burundi’s National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels who signed a peace deal and joined the government last year. ‘Security forces are at the moment trying to verify if all this is true,’ Nikiza added.

The FNL leader Agathon Rwasa, who was seen as a key challenger to President Pierre Nkurunziza in a marathon electoral process that kicked off in May, went into hiding last month, sparking fears of renewed violence in the war-scarred central African nation.

The main opposition parties are boycotting the elections, on the grounds that there was massive fraud in the opening local council polls.

Today, Friday 23rd July, Burundians will vote in legislative elections, the last major step in the series of polls that have been marred by vote-rigging allegations, violence and arrests. In Kenya a referendum on anew Constitution is set for August 4.

YES’s objectively increases access to short-term employment opportunities and improved employability of targeted youth. The project will be closely co-ordinated with the supports provided by other development partners in the area of youth employment.

The US$20million is set to be divided in the following ways:

1) US$10million towards a Cash for Works
This component will build on the existing cash for works program implemented by the National Commission for Social Action (NaSCA) and will provide support to a nationwide labour intensive public works program which will allow young people to gain short term employment. It will expand coverage and improve the design features of the current NaSCA program; geographic targeting and beneficiary selection will occur in the poorest communities, which will be identified based on an objective poverty index. There are many activities that will be supported under this component, including the rehabilitation and improvement of priory infrastructure chosen from amongst three areas: agriculture; feeder road rehabilitation and maintenance; and renewable energy/environmental management.

2) US$7.5million for Skills Development and Employment Support
This area aims to scale up and text approaches to support young individuals and youth groups who either have established businesses or are interested in pursuing business/employment opportunities through a package of technical assistance which will consist of technical training through apprenticeship schemes in the formal and informal sectors, business development support and coaching, and other life skills.

3) US$2.5million will provide Institutional Support, Policy Development, and Impact Evaluation
This component consists of two sub-components: the first will provide financial and technical support to help the National Youth Commission to fulfil its mandated role; the second sub-component on Impact Evaluation will support the impact evaluations of activities under the first two components.

“The World Bank President Robert Zoellick had committed to supporting youth employment during his visit to the country last January”, says Vijay Pillai, Country Manager of the World Bank in Sierra Leone. Pillai says he is pleased that the World Bank “could deliver the project approval under six months” adding that “the challenge now is to ensure effective implementation”. Pillai now looks forward “to supporting the government in providing leadership to help achieve the project objectives. Youth are a vital asset to any country’s development efforts. I am confident that the project will help unleash the potentials of the youth of Sierra Leone”.

The project is financed under the Crisis Response Window of the Bank designed to assist countries cope with the effects of the global economic downturn.

For more information about the Sierra Leone Youth and Employment Support (YES) project and other World Bank supported projects in Sierra Leone please visit the web site http://www.worldbank.org/sierraleone

Dispatches

In a recent episode entitled ‘Africa’s Last Taboo’,  filmmaker and reporter Sorious Samura travels to a couple of countries in the continent in an effort to highlight the persecution of gay people in Africa, which is a major but little reported human rights issue.. He discovers the shocking levels of hate and prejudice that are driven not only by communities, but also religious organisations and governments, and meets some of the young men who have suffered because of their lifestyle.

Dispatches shows that homosexuality is not an African freedom as gay people live in constant fear of rejection by their communities, physical and verbal abuse, and even imprisonment.