After a stop-start journey in the last five years, the big players have arrived: BG group, KPMG, Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko, Tullow, Petrobras, Ophir, Origin Oil, Total, BP and Aminex. Even the ‘security firms’ such as Cenkos, which previously regarded East Africa (and the Congo) as too swamped in piracy, conflict and uncertainty, said in November last year “East Africa is high risk and hugely expensive. It is also exceptionally rewarding if exploration is successful.” With only 500 oil wells drilled so far (compared to West and North Africa’s 35,000), the estimated value of the gas reserves alone are 100 trillion cubic feet. Petroleum reserves are estimated at 600,000 barrels a day. The factors that have tipped East Africa into the big game, are these.

Ease of Business and smoother democracies

First of all the creation of the East African Community has theoretically opened up trade borders and lessened tariffs. Secondly there have been technological advances both in mapping seismic faults and geographical areas that were previously unreachable, the economic risks of drilling have reduced. Thirdly, there is a concerted and obvious effort by East and Central African governments to sort out internal conflicts and engage more rigorously with the West, whose escalating oil prices have forced them to be more compliant. For the Mozamibiquan, Kenyan, Tanzanian, Sudanese, Somali, Puntland and Ugandan governments, the potential gains from oil, gas and mineral exploration are huge incentives to come to the table.

Wads of Cash

But most importantly, there is cash. US$ 2.1 trillion is needed for investment in African oil and gas supply infrastructure (refineries, roads, whole towns, ports,) between 2010-2035. This is where Africa’s burgeoning love affair with China becomes important. Previously smaller ‘wildcat’ oil explorers had the skills, but not the funds to take it to the next stage. Since the Africa Oil Week in South Africa in November last year, there have been a succession of buyouts of these smaller firms. China has proved its technical expertise in major projects all over Africa, from airports to the recent The Lamu Port and Lamu Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET) developments, and has proved itself cheap, fast, reliable. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)has pledged to invest, although exact figures are impossible to locate. As establishment and US darling Oxford economist Professor Paul Collier remarks: “Future discoveries and resulting exports of resources including oil and gas will be around five times their current levels, based on what remains unexplored in Africa versus currently known sub-soil assets.” His sentiments are echoed by Adrian Heavey, CEO of Tullow, a prominent name in West and East African exploration: “This is a vital step towards the development of the Lake Albert Rift Basin and the oil and gas industry in Uganda and East Africa. I look forward to working in partnership with the Government of Uganda and CNOOC and Total as we progress this world-class asset.”

MYOPIA: People, Resources and Marine Ecosystems

Yet there is a staggering amount of myopia and short-sightedness. Have we learnt nothing from Ghana, Angola and Nigeria, where bitter battles, inconsistent petroleum regulation, weak civil society, existing conflicts exacerbated by oil, and deaths (and losses to shareholders) have shown it’s impossible to invest in oil/gas/mineral exploitation without ‘exploring local capacity’ as the jargon goes? In other words making sure the people that already live in the area are consulted, and have a share in decision making and profits. And being mindful of existing conservation stresses, and potential ecological problems.

It’s hard to know where to start. Most of East Africa has no regulatory frameworks in place for oil and mineral resources exploitation. Or if they have, there is an abject lack of willpower to implement them. Selous in Tanzania, the Albertine Rift and Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda, and Virunga National Park in Rwanda have all had Environmental Assessments or management plans which have not been adhered to or implemented. This is something which international marine organizations Ocean Conservation Group ( OCEANA) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) would like to rectify. So at the moment, unlike USA, Europe and some of the Pacific countries, there is no obligation to implement detailed environmental impact surveys.

The coastal regions (from Somaliland in the North to Mozambique) are acknowledged to be some of the most vulnerable sea areas in the world. WWF and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) are already concerned about myriad of issues: from coastal mangroves, to turtles, whale sharks, torpoises, dolphins, rays, over 400 types of corals, seagrass, to overfishing. Says Dr Amani Ngusaru of the WWF “The resources of coastal East Africa are coming more and more under threat from rapid population growth, increased resource exploitation, unplanned development and climate change, burgeoning cities such as Mombasa, Dar es Salaam are threatening the very resource base that sustains them.”

The perils of oil spills are visible and high profile, in fact it is the planned building around the ports, which will cause the most damage. Oil spills upon marine environments are dwarfed by those of pollutants introduced from other sources (including domestic sewage, industrial discharges, leakages from waste tips, urban and industrial run-off, accidents, spillage, explosions, sea dumping operations, oil production, mining, agriculture nutrients and pesticides, waste heat sources, and radioactive discharges). Land based sources are estimated to account for around 44 percent of the pollutants entering the sea and atmospheric inputs account for an estimated 33 percent. By contrast, maritime transport accounts only for around 12 percent .

Accidents will Happen

In Jan 2012 Exxon Mobile – announced its staggering annual profits of $41.1 billion, yet no plans are in place to either enforce action plans or responses for oil spills, in any of the areas allocated for deep or shallow water drilling. Yet just recently, the oil giant BP agreed to pay $7.8bn to settle claims from an estimated 110,000 victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In the last six years there have been four major oil spills, resulting in an estimated 100 billion gallons of oil into the sea.

Oceana, the largest international global ocean advocacy group says that currently, as well as relying on financial insurances, companies can pass along much of their cleanup costs to the domestic taxpayer when faced with disaster. Talking about the recent BP spill, Jacqueline Savitz, senior campaign director at Oceana says: “Taking the lives of 11 people, injuring many more, destroying tourism and fisheries industries, spilling 200 million gallons of oil and killing hundreds of turtles, dolphins and other ocean life is not, and should never be, considered a normal cost of doing business. It is bad business, and not what was intended when the tax write-off was established.” Given the poor record of citizen engagement in African countries, and the dubious taxing situation (allegedly 85% of Africa’s taxes remain unpaid) and the sometimes weak and collaborative media, it is highly unlikely the mechanisms will be in place to protect the populations of the coastal regions, who are already politically, economically and socially marginalised.

Even when data is forthcoming, it is so daunting, it is a huge task to tackle it. According to the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA)/UNEP ‘Science 2008 Marine Survey.’ 40% is the amount of the ocean heavily affected by environmental mismanagement, 50% Amount of coral reefs heavily damaged, and 0.5% (850,000 square miles) of the ocean floor are very heavily affected. Only 4% of the entire ocean shows no traces of human impact.”

On Shakey Ground

On terra firma there are also problems. In Uganda three British firms, Tullow, Tower and Dominion are all exploring the Albertine Rift, a lake area.2- 2.5 billion barrels of oil have already been discovered. This is a vulnerable area of skirmishes with DRC rebels: over 100 people have been kidnapped in this area in attacks linked to fights over ransoms, minerals and oil. The most recent attack on the border town Mutungo on 2 August 2011 by the Mai-Mai militia displaced 70,000 residents. At a local level, villagers are concerned. Florence Landsberg of the World Resources Institute explains: “The fish stock is already at risk, because there is more catching of fish that are not mature. The upgrade of the roads has allowed for more fish to be exported. The restocking of the fish is not going to happen if there is no intervention”. Says Peter Viet, also of WRI “ Many scientists will tell you that the Albertine Rift is the most biologically diverse area in all of Africa. There are national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, forest reserves, and there already is some impact on these protected areas. For example, there is drilling in Murchison Falls National Park, even though many public interest environmental lawyers in Uganda will tell you that the law does not allow that. Kenneth Kakuru of Greenwatch filed a pleading in the High Court over extractive resource industries in national parks. (His case was rejected). There have been discussions on de-gazetting one of the parks to make way for an oil refinery. There is also talk of a pipeline that would take the oil to Mombassa that would have effects on biodiversity. And there is evidence oil workers are poaching inside protected areas. He adds that Achioli and Bunyoro people, local to the area, are selling up fast, at below market prices, scared that the government will not recompense them adequately.

There is further controversy in the area, according to a recent article on Pambazuka; “ A vicious land grab,’ Allimadi writes, ‘is being carried out in Uganda, pairing the country’s leader with an ‘investor,’ and the targets are the Acholi, genocide survivors who live in the northern part of the East African country, on abundant, fertile and mineral-rich land.’

Existing Lack of Resources for Citizens:

None of the existing plans to extract oil, gas and petroleum come with concrete systematic plans to provide for the communities in the area, beyond some references to providing local jobs in some cases. The threats to forests (due to charcoal and firewood exploitation) and erratic provision of electricity are well known in East Africa. Drilling down to basics, Erica Mackey, Co-Founder of Off-Grid Electric in Tanznia, says “Generally, people in Africa suffer from an expensive electrical grid, an unreliable grid, or have no electrical grid at all. Increasing the amount of raw materials extracted from the continent is not going to automatically increase infrastructure access, decrease transportation costs or ultimately extend the electrical grid to the 90% of East Africans who live without a connection.” She goes onto add: “If the goal of energy exploration is to actually increase energy access in Africa rather than the developed world, then the focus has to shift to include renewables. In addition to exploring the continent for oil, gas and coal, international investors should look at ways to finance business models that provide clean power as a key component to the future of Africa’s power provision”.

(Mostly) Angry locals- lack of consultation

Despite high tech imaging of geological deposits, pictures of the sea from space, the reality is we don’t have an accurate record of the approximately 50 million pastoralists and 200 million who depend on the sea and land for their livelihoods in Africa. There is no documented record of contacting these communities in the regions mentioned for their views on oil and gas exploration.

Thousands of miles away, on the Kenya coast of Mombassa, tucked between the new port of Lamu and Tanga, there is considerable trouble brewing: The Mombassa Republican Council, a secessionist movement, wants autonomy from Kenya. They are popular in the area, where there is high illiteracy rates, the presence of Al Shabaab, low rates of enrolment in schools and universities, and a sense they have been abandoned by Nairobi. Land tenure is ambiguous or is not officially recognised. More than 60 per cent of indigenous coastal people do not possess title deeds to their land. Others have entered into a kind of quasi squatter-tenant agreement with land owners. The problems of local fishermen and farmers have been well documented by local NGO’s, as they compete with trawler fishing, and larger super-boats that can pinpoint shoals, leaving fishermen with paddles in dugout canoes, floundering.

Their situation, despite riots and four deaths in December 2011, goes unreported in national media. Ditto the situation in North Kenya: hours away from the capital Nairobi, where news editors and reporters, constrained by tiny budgets and tight deadlines, are unable to go and see for themselves. There are rumours presently circulating that valuable archaeological deposits in Turkana, North Kenya, have been already destroyed through oil exploration. However no organisations want to be identified with ‘squealing’ so the situation remains unreported in local press: a local journalist was murdered in Loliondo, reporting on land grabs two years ago.

A glimmer of hope

Many of the issues these people in the East African Coastal regions face are similar to those in Puntland, Somalia, where resources are seized upon, in a dearth of opportunities.

In Puntland, local leaders under the Transitional Government are bucking the trend. Aware that no mechanisms exist to make sure money flows into the region, they are however, in an optimistic mood. Farah Hassan Atosh, a traditional elder and resident of Armo town, 28km northwest of an oil field, said: “We are expecting great things. It will change our lives for the better. Insh’Allah [God willing] we will never depend on others to give us food again.” He said that change was already happening in Armo town (population 25,000). “You can see many more people arriving every day and it can only add to the development of the town.” Drilling for oil began in January 2012. Said Atosh,”We not only support it, we will defend it from anyone who wants to stop it.” He said the project was also contributing to peace-building in the area. “They are employing many young men who would have been idle and easy prey for recruitment into militias.”

Lack of Financial accountability: have we learned nothing?

In Tanzania, there are mechanisms in place to regulate, but according to regional environmental consultants, (who prefer to remain unnamed) there is little will power to implement them and ministers rapidly forget about their commitments. Track records of environmental investigations in Selous, Stiegler’s Gorge dam, Kidunda dam and Mkuju River uranium mine and oil exploration do not bode well: they are dusty reports on shelves somewhere. Pweza, Chewa and Chaza wells have been drilled in deepwater in the northern part of the Ruvuma Basin and the Mafia Deep Offshore Basin held by BG and Ophir Energy. The Chinese government is providing Tanzania with a $1.06-billion loan to construct new infrastructure, which includes a new gas pipeline, feeder roads and telecoms. All these areas are deemed ecologically vulnerable, and there is no public record of community consultation or mechanisms to ensure profits flow back into community development.

One of the main problems is tracking the money: the investments, and ways to prevent a small elite benefiting. Again, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda have poor records. In East Africa, only companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (in the USA) are required to submit financial reports. Even then as in Uganda, local ministers and judges ensure disclosure of documents relating to oil is kept out of the public sphere.

Meanwhile, the Mara River is an international river, shared between Kenya and Tanzania. The mining areas will impinge upon the dwindling Mara River Basin and draw valuable and scarce water. The basin is about 13,750 km2, of which about 65% is located in Kenya and 35% in Tanzania. The Mara River runs through the Masai Mara Game Reserve on the Kenyan side and the Serengeti National Park on the Tanzanian side, both of global conservation significance and of great economic importance for tourism. “Over 80% of Africa’s lions have been displaced due to environmental changes” says Richard Anderson in an article on the BBC in November 2010.

A recent, (Oct 2010) UNEP report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), put the damage done to the natural world by human activity in 2008 at between $2tn (£1.3tn) and $4.5tn. A second study, for the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), puts the costs at $6.6tn, or 11% of global economic output.

It looks like we are no way reversing the trend.

Thembi Mutch

The countries include South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, DRC Congo, Ghana (all Vodafone), Kenya (Safaricom), Rwanda, Uganda (MTN), Uganda (UTL) and Burundi (UCOM).

The company annunced today that customers travelling to these countries can now receive free incoming calls and SMS, lower calls and data rates while roaming on the Vodacom Lesotho, Vodacom Mozambique, Vodacom South Africa, Vodacom DRC, Vodafone Ghana and Safaricom Kenya, MTN Rwanda, MTN Uganda, UTL Uganda, and UCOM Burundi networks.

Commenting on the new Africa roaming service, Rene Meza, Managing Director at Vodacom Tanzania says, ‘We know that people want to remain connected at an affordable rate whether they are at home or on holiday in South Africa or travelling for work in Ghana and that nobody likes the headache of worrying about roaming bills.

‘What we’re launching today is a solution to give our customers peace of mind when travelling’. Data roaming has been and still is an expensive affair for most operators and today we are so proud to reduce substantially together with voice and SMS our data roaming charges for our customers travelling in any of our African family added Meza.

This and the many products and services we have launched lately at Vodacom Tanzania are in keeping with our promise to stay the best, with the most value network in Tanzania. More should be expected from us in the coming weeks and months concluded Rene Meza, the managing Director of Vodacom in Tanzania.

Vodacom Tanzania Limited is the country’s leading cellular network offering state-of-the-art GSM communication services to more than 9 million customers across the nation. Vodacom Tanzania is a subsidiary company of Vodacom Group (Pty) Limited, South Africa.

Last month, on World Malaria Day, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, spoke enthusiastically about the continuing global campaign to combat the disease. “Our goal is to reach close to zero deaths from malaria by 2015,” said Mr. Chambers, Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria. “There is much work to be done – many hurdles – but we are optimistic that we can achieve that goal,” he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York. Malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes, kills nearly 800,000 people around the world every year with most of the deaths occurring in Africa. Chambers said the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar reported no deaths from malaria when he visited there last year.

Indeed, Tanzania and Zanzibar have done remarkably well in the battle against malaria as a result of a pioneering initiative undertaken by Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company, which many in the international development community are holding up as an ideal example of how a company in a developed country can collaborate with another in a developing country.

What Sumitomo did in Tanzania was to begin in 2003 a pilot Olyset Net manufacturing project with A to Z Textile Mills based In Arusha. In 2005 the project was taken further with the formation of a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between the two companies to produce the World Health Organisation recommended malaria bed nets, The joint venture is backed by the Acumen Fund, a US-based non-profit organisation that helps businesses to become financially sustainable and to deliver affordable critical goods and services that improve the lives of the poor. Other backers are the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Population Services International.

In order to decrease these figures, the global humanitarian service organisation, the Rotary Foundation, will provide grants to Rotary clubs in the region so that they can form volunteer teams to support the professional development of nursing faculties at Aga Khan University’s East Africa campuses in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The Aga Khan University, a private research institution promoting humanitarian welfare and development, will work together with the teams and the local Rotary clubs to carry out community service projects. This will link the classroom lessons to existing clinics and health care programs in order to provide and more effective learning progress.

Grants will also be offered to students admitted to Aga Khan University’s Advanced Nursing Studies program. The students will then be given the opportunity to be guided though their studies by the local Rotary associations. It was claimed by the University that through its education programs, graduates will be able to provide better quality health care services in their communities as well as lead policy development at the national level. This can result in more qualified healthcare professionals who are helping to build accessible, responsive and sustainable healthcare systems in East Africa. The head of Aga Khan University, Firoz Rasul, stated: ‘This partnership will enable a greater number of qualified students from poor communities to benefit from our programs.’

He continued: ‘Partnerships such as this one build much needed capacity in the developing world, but more importantly, they enable innovation and the creation of knowledge to address local health problems.’ The United Nations Milliennium Goals call for a 75 per cent reduction in maternal deaths and a reduction of two thirds in the death rate of children under the age of five years old. The Chair of Rotary Foundation, Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar stated that the partnership between the two organisations ‘is an important step toward meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health.’ The program has been given a warm welcome in the Sub Saharan nations and was described as ‘an immense contribution to the health and well-being of families throughout our region,’ by Ugandan Samuel F. Owori, a member of the Rotary International Board of Directors.

He added: ‘Our Rotary clubs in East Africa are eager to partner with thetop-notch professionals at Aga Khan University to help ensure that mothers and their infants receive the best health care possible.’ Aga Khan University operates in eight countries across East Africa, the Middle East, South and Central Asia and Europe. The University’s curricula in nursing, medicine and educational development reflect the unique needs of the communities and countries where they are based. It provides students and graduates with knowledge which they can immediately apply where it will have the most impact.

There were several reasons why the many medicines sampled failed the testing. They included; insufficient active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), an excess level of degradation substances and poor dissolution. Across the countries surveyed the quality in anti-malarial drugs varied greatly. Nigeria had the highest rate of drugs that failed the testing, at 64%. Cameroon and Ghana fared much better with 37% and 39% of the drugs failing the testing. Yet eastern Africa told a different story. In both Kenya and Tanzania the quality of medicine appeared ‘reasonably well assured’ and in Ethiopia ‘no samples failed quality testing.’

Results also showed that ‘failure rates were higher for countries where many products from many different manufacturers are sold.’ They were also higher amongst domestically manufactured products compared to imported ones. Imported products from well established global manufacturers had significantly lower failure rates. Added to this, results for samples from medicines that had been WHO pre-qualified had less than 4% failure rate. And all of this was just minor deviation.

With regard to the results in east Africa, WHO praised recent efforts made by Tanzania and Kenya, in collaboration with the world health body, to improve their medicine regulatory process. Due to this they have concluded that the results show ‘better regulation means better medicines.’

A second report by the organisation agrees with this conclusion. In that report medicine regulation was assessed in 26 sub-Saharan African countries. It showed that despite being committed to regulating medicines effectively, complex frameworks as well as unclear delineation of the regulatory process are prohibiting regulatory efforts. A severe lack of sustainable funding and qualified staff further exacerbate these problems. Other conclusions drawn by the organisation were that post-marketing surveillance amongst drugs manufacturers also need to be increased.

In order to target these problems, WHO has subsequently agreed strategies to strengthen medicine regulation in the participating countries. This will include supervising manufacturers and improving their adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices. The organisation also wishes to provide technical assistance to aid these countries improve market surveillance, enhance the quality assurance systems of their pharmaceutical sectors and regularly and systematically assess their regulatory systems.

The exhibition hosted by Thomas Reuters in Canary Wharf displayed images capturing the spirit of Tanzania as seen through the eyes of CPA volunteers. The photographs on display were compiled from hundreds taken over the last five years taken by aspiring amateurs and professionals alike. All of whom have share a common passion for helping others and for Tanzania. In the end 26 photos from 8 different photographers, all of whom had volunteered with CPA in education projects, were chosen for the auction.

Their photos generally focused on the people of Tanzania, with Maasai communities and Choba villagers photographed against the backdrop of Tanzania’s breathtaking scenery. An embrace of traditional culture as well as youth were common themes throughout these photos. Many saw traditional Maasai clothing and tribal dances or simply cheerful children, excited by the presence of a camera, in their schools and villages.

It contrasted well with the six images on wildlife that were also featured at the exhibit and auction by award winning photographer Alwyn R Coates. They formed part of a special preview collection from his upcoming first solo exhibition and were taken during his time in neighbouring Kenya. Alywn was there to capture images of the animals there struggle with the country’s worst ever draught and hopes his haunting images will raise awareness of the problem as part of his work with the Born Free Foundation. He may be more widely known for photographing celebrities, but it is clear that this is something much closer to his heart. Prints of one of his images of a lion were on sale along with a limited edition selection of images signed by Virginia McKenna. The actress come founder of the Born Free Foundation is most famous for her role in the film of the same name alongside her late husband Bill Travers.

50% of profits from the sale of Alwyn Coates’s prints and everything made from the auction will support the vital work of Community Projects Africa. In total the event raised £4000 for the charity on the night. The money is to be spent on various projects run by CPA such as the vocational training centre in Arusha which runs tailoring courses and English language programmes as well as providing backup medical care to people affected by or caring for someone with HIV/AIDS.

There were several reasons why the many medicines sampled failed the testing. They included; insufficient active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), an excess level of degradation substances and poor dissolution. Across the countries surveyed the quality in anti-malarial drugs varied greatly. Nigeria had the highest rate of drugs that failed the testing, at 64%. Cameroon and Ghana fared much better with 37% and 39% of the drugs failing the testing. Yet eastern Africa told a different story. In both Kenya and Tanzania the quality of medicine appeared ‘reasonably well assured’ and in Ethiopia ‘no samples failed quality testing.’

Results also showed that ‘failure rates were higher for countries where many products from many different manufacturers are sold.’ They were also higher amongst domestically manufactured products compared to imported ones. Imported products from well established global manufacturers had significantly lower failure rates. Added to this, results for samples from medicines that had been WHO pre-qualified had less than 4% failure rate. And all of this was just minor deviation.

With regard to the results in east Africa the WHO praised recent efforts have been made by Tanzania and Kenya, along with the WHO, to improve their medicine regulatory process. Due to this they have concluded that the results show ‘better regulation means better medicines.’

A second report by the organisation agrees with this conclusion. In that report medicine regulation was assessed in 26 sub-Saharan African countries. It showed that despite being committed to regulating medicines effectively, complex frameworks as well as unclear delineation of the regulatory process are prohibiting regulatory efforts. A severe lack of sustainable funding and qualified staff further exacerbate these problems. Other conclusions drawn by the organisation were that post-marketing surveillance amongst drugs manufacturers also need to be increased.

In order to target these problems the WHO has subsequently agreed strategies to strengthen medicine regulation in the participating countries. This will include supervising manufacturers and improving their adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices. The organisation also wishes to provide technical assistance to aid these countries improve market surveillance, enhance the quality assurance systems of their pharmaceutical sectors and regularly and systematically assess their regulatory systems.