PEOPLES DAILY, TUESday, DECEMBER 29, 2015
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News From Africa Kenyan FA boss Sam Nyamweya being investigated
Ethiopian journalists should be freed, says CPJ
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he president of Football Kenya Federation (FKF), Sam Nyamweya, and two other officials are being investigated for “conspiracy to defraud”. Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) are looking into the case following a recommendation from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). The case centres on how almost US$170,000, set aside for Kenya’s trip to Cape Verde for a 2018 World Cup qualifier in November, was actually used. A statement from the ODPP says that Michael Esakwa the federation’s secretary general and Samson Cherop the acting finance manager are also being investigated. The ODPP says the police and DCI have recommended the trio “be charged with offences of conspiracy to defraud, stealing by agent and fraudulent false accounting.” The case is now being “independently reviewed and decisions thereon made shortly based on evidence and the law.” The Kenyan football team were delayed in Nairobi for several hours and eventually left less than 24 hours before the second leg of their World Cup qualifier in Cape Verde, which they lost 2-0.
At least five people have been killed in clashes in Oromia region in recent weeks
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wo journalists arrested in Ethiopia this month should be freed, an international press freedom group says. The detentions come amid deadly protests over a plan to expand the capital’s administrative control into the Oromia region, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. The government has accused Oromo protesters of links with terror groups. The country criminalises any reporting that authorities consider an encouragement to such groups. The CPJ said two journalists were detained within a week of each other. Getachew Shiferaw, who edits the online paper Negere Ethiopia, was arrested on Friday and the next
day a court granted permission for him to be held for 28 days for interrogation, the CPJ said in a statement. On 19 December, Fikadu Mirkana, a news anchor at the state-run broadcaster Oromia Radio and TV, who also was arrested at his home in the capital, Addis Ababa, the press watchdog said. “Ethiopia prides itself on development, but economic growth is a hollow achievement if the public does not enjoy fundamental human rights such as the right to receive and share information and divergent viewpoints,” said Sue Valentine, the CPJ’s Africa programme coordinator. The CPJ added that four
Ethiopian bloggers cleared of terrorism charges in October have been summoned to appear in court on Wednesday as the prosecution is appealing their acquittal. They were part of a group know the Zone 9 bloggers and their case inspired a sustained online campaign for their release by activists in Ethiopia and beyond. Oromia is Ethiopia’s largest region, surrounding Addis Ababa. Protesters say they fear losing their land and cultural persecution if what has been dubbed a “master plan” to integrate parts of Oromia into Addis Ababa go ahead. The government says other views are being taken into consideration. Officials say five people and an
undisclosed number of security personnel have died in the latest protests. But US-based Human Rights Watch says activists say the security forces have fired on the demonstrations, killing at least 75 protesters. The BBC’s Africa correspondent Alistair Leithhead says demonstrations are rare in Ethiopia and the current Oromo anger over urban planning is an expression of much older complaints over a lack of political and economic inclusion. At the last census in 2007, the Oromo made up Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, at about 25 million people out of a population at the time of nearly 74 million.
Burundi opponents meet for talks in Uganda
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gandan mediators launched talks between Burundi’s government and the opposition on Monday to halt a spiral of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months. Representatives from both sides met in the Ugandan capital Kampala on the initiative of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the East African Community’s mediator in the Burundi conflict, presidential press secretary Lindal Nabusayi said. “If you are only looking out for power, then you are an enemy to the people of Burundi,” Museveni said at the meeting. Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement in April that he would seek a third term in office - despite the constitutional two-term limit - sparked violent protests. Nkurunziza then went on to win a July election boycotted by the opposition. The UN says at least 400 people have been killed and tens of
Police and soldiers guard a voting station in Bujumbura during the controversial July elections [Mike Hutchings/Reuters]
thousands have fled the country. The violence has unnerved a region that remains volatile two decades after the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.
Police and the youth wing of the ruling party stand accused of killing suspected government opponents, while armed groups - including renegade soldiers - are trying to
topple Nkurunziza. Nearly 90 people were killed in several simultaneous attacks against military installations earlier this month.
“East Africa will not tolerate violence of this nature,” Museveni said. Getting both sides to talk for the first time in months was regarded as an achievement in itself. Reporting from Uganda, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb noted the two sides have serious disagreements to overcome. “The government delegation said it’s not willing to negotiate with anyone who tried to overthrow the government - a reference to a coup attempt staged in May. “For its part, the opposition delegation said the July election was not valid and went against the constitution. They say there should be new elections in a safe environment. It’s hard to see how these two sides can be reconciled,” said Webb. Concerns have been raised that the conflict could take an ethnic turn, pitting the majority Hutus against the minority Tutsis.