August 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm | posted by Chris.Scott
News of a great development in Kenya ran on the BBC.com and in other media outlets earlier this week. On Wednesday, anti-corruption czar John Githongo returned to Kenya after four years of self-exile. During his tenure as Kenya’s secretary for ethics and governance, Githongo earned the reputation for being tough on corruption— in 2005, one of his investigations forced the resignation of several ministers over a scandal that involved state contracts worth more than $1 billion being secretly awarded to non-existent firms. After exposing the scam, Githongo fled to the UK because of threats to his life.
Githongo’s return is an important step forward for Kenya’s new coalition government, which was put in place after controversial elections set off two months of violence earlier this year. He is back for only two weeks, but his return (at the invitation of the new government) is hopefully a sign that Kenya’s new government is serious about tackling corruption and addressing some of the underlying issues that caused the election crisis. Speaking to the Kenya Human Rights Commission on Wednesday, Githongo submitted the controversial proposal of offering amnesty as a means of closing old corruption cases and moving Kenya forward.
Whistle-blowers like Githongo are vital to beating poverty in Africa and across the world. The fight against corruption and efforts to promote transparency and good governance help ensure that aid is spent well and channeled to the people who need it most. ONE is also proud to note that John Githongo currently sits on our Policy Advisory Board and serves as an important advisor on issues of accountability and governance.
Addressing a public forum on fighting graft in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Mr Githongo said economic crimes must be resolved quickly and transparently. “The temptation to subject economic crimes to prolonged processes and the deliberation of committees not only delays justice but makes ultimate accountability less likely,” he said. Mr Githongo noted that there was a myth that corruption does not really matter as long as the economy is growing. “If you have high economic growth [and] a high level of corruption… then corruption causes political contradictions that leads to the kind of difficulties we had in Kenya at the end of last year,” he said.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:54 pm | posted by Betsy Avila
A waitress in Kenya won a landmark case against her former employer and doctor last week on the grounds that she was wrongfully terminated and her medical records released without consent.
“Mrs Ongur says she filed the case to focus attention on the rights of people living with HIV/Aids. She says she has endured hardship since she was sacked [fired] and has not been able to get another job. Her lawyer said the case had been very challenging as Kenya’s constitution does not expressly prohibit discrimination on grounds of HIV.”
As HIV/AIDS activist Inviolata Mbwavi puts it, “it’s a message to employers that people living with HIV and AIDS have got rights like any other person to work.”
The court’s decision is the first ruling of its kind in Kenya.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:14 pm | posted by Nora Coghlan
New statistics from the GSM Association reveal that cell phone usage is taking off across Africa. The GSMA reported that African cell operators added 70-million users in the past year (a growth rate of 33%) and expanded cell phone coverage by an area the size of France. Around 66% of Africa’s population is now reached by a mobile phone signal, up from 62% in 2007. Some African countries, such as Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, already have coverage rates well above 90%.
Cell technology has enabled poor African countries to bypass the messy infrastructure and expensive start-up costs of setting up fixed-line systems. As a result, wireless technology is reaching isolated rural areas where fixed lines were never able to penetrate: while the number of African cell phone users reached 282 million in 2008, there are still only 35 million fixed lines on the continent.
For Africa, these new connections have the potential to reap widespread development benefits. Where roads are bad, fixed lines nonexistent and email rare, cell phones are forging communications links that are vital to economic and social progress. Everyone from farmers to health ministers to market vendors is coming up with innovative ways to harness cell technology. In Kenya, for example, the Kenyan Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE) linked up with Safaricom, the country’s largest cell phone company, to help farmers access market prices over their phones. For about 20 cents, farmers can use text messaging to get current prices for goods at markets throughout Kenya, allowing them to reduce transaction costs and bypass middlemen, who often charge below-market rates.
Donors are getting the hint that cell phones can help overcome deficits in Africa’s health infrastructure. PEPFAR, for example, is working with African health ministries and the private sector to set up the Phones for Health program, a $10 million initiative that will allow health workers to use cell phones from the field to input health information to a central database. The program is modeled after TRACnet (http://www.pepfar.gov/pepfar/press/84654.htm), an impressive web-based system in Rwanda that collects and disseminates antiretroviral treatment program reporting, drug shortages and CD-4 tests across the country.
In the long term, coverage and usage must expand significantly if African countries are to realize the full economic potential of cell technology. Evidence indicates that high levels of cell phone usage can fuel economic growth and even attract foreign investment. One widely-cited study found that a developing country with an average of 10 more cell phones per 100 people has 0.59% higher GDP growth than an otherwise identical country. Seizing upon this opportunity will require prioritization by both the international community and African governments, who must continue to combat regulatory bottlenecks that constrain the competitiveness of cell operators across the continent.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:15 am | posted by Chandler.Smith
Britain and France will today announce a joint initiative to help send 16 million African children to school in the next two years, in partnership with international football authorities.
At the East African Health and Scientific Conference in Kenya on Wednesday, experts testified that constraints in the health sector are exacerbating health problems in rural communities. Some blamed conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund in the early 1990s.
An editorial by Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, appeared in today’s Washington Times. The piece praises President Bush’s work in Africa, noting that this story hasn’t made headlines in the United States but is making headlines around the world.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:54 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
‘Sons of Lwala’ will debut in Nashville on March 27.
The film follows the life of two brothers from a Kenyan village, Milton and Fred, who were sent to American to become doctors. When they finally return, their parents have died of AIDS and they must find the resources to finish the health clinic that their father had begun to build before he fell ill.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:59 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
Our own former Online Organizer Alan Boswell is now studying in Kenya and published an article in his local Illinois newspaper.
Best yet, he sent us the link to the piece via Facebook:
“here it is up finally. although it was actually published jan. 23, not the 30, which is important considering things keep on changing. they want me to do this every two weeks, so i guess i will have my own little column.”
Alan’s piece in the Aledo Times Record :
Not Just another “African” Storyline; By Alan Boswell/Foreign Correspondent
A few years ago growing up in Aledo, Kenya was nowhere on my radar. That this equatorial East African nation would soon become my home for a year’s time would have come as a definite surprise. That this place I have come to love suddenly became much less hospitable has come as even more of one.
Unfortunately, friends and family, who knew as much about Kenya as I did just a short time ago (very little) have watched as a flawed democratic election launched the country into the front of the world news’ headlines these last few weeks amid rioting, violence and political instability.
To many, another headline of death and instability stemming from “Africa” probably does not even justify a raise of an eyebrow. However, to international observers and Kenyans, myself included, the rigging and post-election turmoil came as a complete shock….
January 30th, 2008 at 12:20 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
A guest post from Rye Barcott and Emily Reynolds Pierce of the ONE Partner organization Carolina for Kibera.
The recent post-election violence in Kenya has stunned nonprofit organizations fighting to end poverty in the country, including Carolina for Kibera (CFK), an international NGO with institutional roots at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a partner organization of the ONE Campaign. Our work with youth at CFK centers on promoting ethnic reconciliation through sports, fighting gender-based discrimination, and providing primary health care in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. The past month in Kibera has been frightening, and we are heartbroken to see the hard work of our young CFK staff and volunteers, as well as that of many other community-based organizations in Kibera, unravel so quickly at the hands of feuding politicians.
People of Kenya’s six major ethnic groups live together in Kibera – east Africa’s largest slum with nearly 1 million residents. Although ethnic divisiveness is no stranger to Kenyan politics, no one anticipated the level of violence that has engulfed Kibera and much of Kenya. Swaths of Kibera have been burned to the ground. Many of our staff and volunteers have had their homes looted and burned. Our office and community medical clinic are located in the thick of the ethnic fighting in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, and are two of the few structures left standing. CFK member Fatuma Roba, 23, is a Digital Diarist for UNICEF Radio and Voices of Youth. Ms. Roba reported on the situation from Kibera for on Jan. 2 and Jan. 11.
We at CFK sensed in mid-January that the situation was likely to get worse before it got better. Security felt tenuous at best. Then yesterday, on Jan. 29, Kenyan parliamentary member Mugabe Were, 39, was gunned down and killed in Kibera. Mr. Were was a member of the opposition party and vocal supporter of CFK. When word of Mr. Were’s death spread throughout the slum, violence erupted yet again.
The violence reminds us that development depends on good governance, local leadership, and effective security. Our own effectiveness, as CFK, also depends on our ability to read and respond to events, and that is why we are currently concentrating on a short-term feeding program and emergency medical assistance to meet the immediate needs of our friends and neighbors in Kibera. Additionally, (more…)
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm | posted by Nora Coghlan
ONE staffer Amanda Epstein updates us from the ground in Kenya, where controversial elections held on December 27th have led to widespread rioting and violence.
-Nora Coghlan
Kenya has been topping international headlines after disputed elections between incumbent president Mwai Kibaki and opposition candidate Raila Odinga. Although President Kibaki was declared the winner, Odinga rejected the results after allegations by observers and members of Kenya’s Election Commission that the election was deeply flawed. Though tensions are high across the country, the worst of the violence has been confined to specific regions such as Nairobi, Western, Central Kenya and the Coast region. The crisis has already left close to 600 Kenyans dead and an estimated 500,000 more internally displaced. Though the worst of the violence seems to be over, there has continued to be sporadic violence across the country since the election and tensions are still high. Both President Kibaki and Odinga are under significant pressure internally and externally to come up with a solution. An international mediation team, including former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former South African First Lady Graca Machel, and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa will begin meeting with both sides this week. Potential solutions include addressing the issue within the Kenyan court system, a new election or a power-sharing arrangement in addition to other options.
While the unrest began with the looting and burning of shops, the violence has increasingly taken on an ethnic dimension. Though most Kenyans live in harmony regardless of tribal affiliation, Kenya has endured isolated periods of violence and tribal identities continue to be very important. Historically, whichever tribe has held the presidency has enjoyed greater access to wealth, job opportunities and better regional development. As has happened elsewhere in Africa, tribal tensions in Kenya have been aggravated by socio-economic pressures such as scarcity of good land, jobs and food.
Kenya will experience huge economic losses as a result of the unrest. In the days immediately following the election, there were significant shortages of food, fuel and basic supplies and many people could not find food to eat for several days. On the South Coast of Kenya the price of potatoes and other basic foods quadrupled overnight—an unmanageable price increase for families that were already barely scraping by. Many small businesses, homes and livelihoods have been already been destroyed. Transport was brought to a standstill in the days immediately following the election and is only now slowly starting back up. The Kenyan tourism industry will be significantly affected by the crises, which will likely result in serious job losses across the country as tourism declines. The unrest in Kenya is having a ripple effect across East Africa. Kenya’s port city, Mombasa, plays a vital role in the region’s economy and transport disruptions in Kenya are affecting fuel prices in neighboring countries and shipment of relief supplies to places such as Darfur and Somalia. Refugees from Kenya are also moving to border areas, particularly in Uganda, which could have a potentially destabilizing effect.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:21 am | posted by Steve.Wilson
Think the epidemic of poverty and disease in Africa is just too huge to tackle? Think again.
Take a look at great news from Kenya the other day. During the past five years, child deaths from malaria were cut by more than 40 percent!
But what’s also astonishing is the way this result–which means millions of children saved–was achieved: by simply handing out mosquito nets. Kenya and international organizations gave out 13.5 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets, meaning that 52% of children in Kenya now sleep under nets, up from 5% in 2003.
When you hear the staggering figures (up to 2.7 million Africans die of malaria each year, 75 percent of them children, tens of millions suffer chronically from the disease) the problem can be overwhelming, too massive to relate.
But as the ONE Campaign is telling America’s leaders and the news from Kenya proves, there are effective and affordable solutions that we can take on right now that will literally mean the difference between life and death for the poorest people in the world. Yes, the problems are huge and ending them may sound like a dream. But when countries focus on proven solutions, like delivering mosquito nets, big things happen, like saving millions of children and ending a disease.
The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, volunteers, members and coalition partners.
The content of each post and each comment represent the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ONE Campaign or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any posts expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
