Dynamic Africa
Formerly, "This is Africa/fyeahAfrica".
(Profile Photo by Mama Casset)
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I do not endorse any of the products or opinions shared on this site, nor do I claim any of the work posted here to be my own - except where stated. All posts originally made by me are credited. If no credit is given then the work is either my own/written by me or reblogged from another source.
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(since Oct. 21th 2012)
“The failure to address conflict situations effectively is creating a global underclass,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s Secretary General.
“The rights of those fleeing conflict are unprotected. Too many governments are abusing human rights in the name of immigration control - going well beyond legitimate border control measures.”
He added: “These measures not only affect people fleeing conflict. Millions of migrants are being driven into abusive situations, including forced labour and sexual abuse, because of anti-immigration policies which means they can be exploited with impunity. Much of this is fuelled by populist rhetoric that targets refugees and migrants for governments’ domestic difficulties.”
Al Jazeera South2North host Redi Tlhabi interviews some of Africa’s most influential and powerful women, including Malawian President Joyce Banda - Africa’s second woman president, and South Africa medical doctor, business woman, activist and politician Dr Mamphela Ramphele about their transformative and historical roles.
Powerful and interesting commentary.
Pro-independence rallies held in Western Sahara
Hundreds of pro-independence Sahrawi activists have marched in Laayoune, the Western Sahara’s largest city, over the weekend in the region’s biggest protest in several decades, according to Moroccan media reports.
About 500 people marched peacefully late on Saturday afternoon, but violence broke out in the evening after the protest, wounding 21 policemen, several newspapers reported on Monday.
The clashes also wounded an unknown number of activists, Hamoud Iguilid, the local representative of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency.
Mohamed Salem Charkaoui from Morocco’s official National Human Rights Council, cited by the news website Lakome, said 2,000 people took part in the Laayoune protest.
Protests took place in other Western Saharan towns on Sunday, including in Smara, where 17 members of the security forces were wounded trying to disperse protesters who had set up barricades in the streets, the official MAP news agency reported.
It gave no information on injuries sustained by the protesters, who it said tried “to occupy the street and block traffic, creating a chaotic situation”.
Cecile Kyenge, Italyâs first black government minister, proposes a law that would give citizenship to the children of immigrants if they are born on Italian soil.
Born in the Congo, Kyenge moved to Italy in the 1980s to study medicine in Rome, before obtaining a position in a hospital in Modena. She met her husband, a native Italian with whom she has two children, after he underwent surgery in her department. Kyenge was at the forefront of a dramatic demographic shift in Italy. As recently as 1991, just 1 in 100 residents held a foreign passport. Today, it’s 1 out of every 12. For every five children delivered in the country, one is born to a foreign parent. Unlike Kyenge, most of Italy’s recent arrivals are poor and employed in jobs that Italians refuse: construction workers, maids, caregivers for the elderly. The foreign-born middle class has yet to establish itself, while the first generation of immigrant children born and educated in the country is just moving into the workforce.
While Italians don’t like to think of their country as racist, the experience of non-white Italians and resident immigrants illustrates a culture that has found it hard to welcome increasing diversity. “How many times have I been told, ‘You’re so beautiful, you don’t even seem truly black?’” says Medhin Paolos, 23, an Italian of Eritrean descent and a member of Rete G2, a group campaigning for a reform of Italy’s citizenship laws. “Where I come from, this is not a compliment.”
A study by the University of Messina and the anti-discrimination group ARCI found that a substantial majority of the children of immigrants reported being insulted on the streets, talked down to by teachers, watched with suspicion in shops, turned away from restaurants and treated rudely by immigration officials. In 2002, the Italian government passed a law requiring all non-Italian residents to have their fingerprints taken, as part of the process for applying for residency.
“There’s the idea that black people stink,” says Jean Zongo, 28, the son of African immigrants. There was a period when he was younger, Zongo was afraid to take the bus at night, for fear of encountering racial violence. More than once, he has climbed aboard to hear a group of young men grunting like monkeys. It’s a charmless display of racism that has migrated from Italy’s soccer stadiums — where Mario Balotelli, the Italian football star of Ghanaian heritage, has famously faced chants of “There’s no such thing as a black Italian” — to youth culture at large. Zongo has traveled to France, Spain and England. Only in his own country, he says, is he made to feel second class. “[Discrimination] is present in just about every aspect of life, in every circumstance,” he says.
Early this month, leaders of five leading emerging economies made a revolutionary decision that will have a significant impact on developing world economies.
At a summit in Durban, South Africa, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (collectively known as BRICS) unanimously decided to set up a development bank that will finance development and infrastructure, not just in emerging economies, but in what is known as the Global South.
The leaders also endorsed a $100-billion contingency reserve that can be deployed to bail out a crisis-ridden BRICS country. This decision represents a significant move by emerging economies to break away from the traditional donor-recipient model advocated by Western nations for more than six decades.
The BRICS countries – which account for more than a quarter of the global GDP – are asserting their clout by showing that they are willing to bankroll projects in poor countries and to help each other to avert financial crises, without resorting to traditional development banks such as the World Bank and the IMF.
What remains to be seen, however, is what conditionalities the BRICS Bank will impose on countries and whether the loans extended will be on more favourable terms. Nonetheless, the bank will impact the way international lending agencies conduct their business.
This good news comes in the wake of several articles in the international press that have dubbed Africa as the “rising” or “aspiring” continent.
Journalists have suddenly switched from being Afro-pessimists to Afro-optimists as African economies take off in places such as Angola and Ethiopia, once written off as hopeless countries that suffered from endemic poverty and conflict.
About a year ago, Time magazine, in a cover story titled Africa Rising, attributed Africa’s phenomenal economic growth to aid-effectiveness. The Economist (which once dubbed Africa as “The Hopeless Continent”), is more realistic in its assessment of why Africa’s economies are growing while those in the rest of the world are stagnating: it attributes growth to the continent’s commodities-led economies and its “demographic dividend” i.e. the rising proportion of working-age people.
Financial analysts underscore the role played by non-traditional donors, such as India and China, and the prevalence of mobile telephony, which has had a marked impact on the economies of countries such as Kenya.
In March, in a special report titled A Hopeful Continent, the Economist stated that Kenya’s economic growth was significantly boosted by modern technology, particularly mobile banking and money-transfer services.
However, even in Kenya, political tensions, poor governance and greed often get in the way of sound economic policies and innovations.
Already, legislators are demanding the disbanding of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission which finally put a much-needed cap on what they could earn while in office.
The avarice displayed by Kenya’s political elite has been a stain on Kenya’s reputation since the 9th and 10th parliaments awarded MPs exorbitant salaries. These recent demands, if met, will not only drain the country’s resources, it will further dent the country’s image.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said his government will not entertain such demands. This and other sensible decisions he might make in the coming weeks may assuage some of the fears sceptics have about his commitment to implementing the Constitution.
It is also not lost on Kenyans that after threatening “consequences” and sanctions against Kenya if International Criminal Court indictees form the next government, Western countries and the UN are now revising their policies to accommodate the Kenyatta government.
The UN has issued new guidelines that state that its officials need not avoid contact with people facing charges at the ICC as long as they cooperate with the court.
Meanwhile, Uhuru’s Obama-like sleeves-up-touchy-feely-hand-holding-first-name-calling informal style is making people wonder whether this new look is mere PR or whether he is setting an example on how government should interact with citizens. Let us hope it is the latter.
Morocco has AU aspiration: Morocco is keep to rejoin the African Union, but South Africa and other members could block its bid over the vexed issue of Sahrawi autonomy.
Trade can be an important catalyst to poverty eradication. However, this has not been true in the African story, especially trade within the continent. Worldwide, Africa contributes only three per cent to world trade. This is insignificant and telling of the poverty levels in the continent.
Trade among African countries accounts for 10 per cent of the continent’s total trade balance and it’s the least compared to trade between the continent and markets like Europe, America and Asia. Trade among African countries has been low and not highly regarded. There are reasons to this state of affairs.
First, colonialism played a key role in ensuring that Africa was used as a source of raw materials and not an industrial hub. The countries focus too much on primary goods, mostly agricultural and mineral.
Second, the intra-African infrastructure is minimal and in a poor state. Take the example of Kenya. It is cheaper to call the US or the UK than to do so in the East Africa. Further, Kenya has Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somali as neighbours. For all those years, there are no major roads linking Kenya to Sudan or Ethiopia or Somali, limiting trade.
Trading blocs like the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), and East Africa Community seek to improve trade among member states. In the past, Kenyan traders have benefited from Comesa as little or no duty was charged for imports or exports within the bloc.
Beyond the efforts by governments to boost trade, there are many opportunities for entrepreneurs to provide a solutions and create a robust business.
First, it is important to shift from primary products to serious value addition. Africa remains low on the value chain yet it has rich resources. We should invest in industries and factories to add value, create employment and produce finished products, not raw materials. Wealth creation comes from value addition.
Further, with infrastructure development, I can’t help but think about a Kenya with a complete Lamu port and a road to Khartoum or Addis Ababa. The opportunities are vast.
Days when international traders used to depend on buyers in Europe are long gone. Europe has its own share of problems. Your buyer might be right next door in Arusha.
Mr Odhiambo is the managing consultant of Elim Consulting.
NOTABLE AFRICANS: Houari Boumedienne
A member of Algeria’s National Liberation Front (FLN) who later served as the Chairman of Algeria’s Revolutionary Council between 1965 and 1976, born Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukharouba in Guelma, Houari Boumediene was Algeria’s second president. Boumediene’s presidency lasted a little over a year as after assuming office in December, 1977, following a 39-day coma, he passed away on December 27th, 1978, from a Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia, a rare blood disease. He was 46.
Educated at the Islamic Institute in Constantine, Algeria, Boumediene became a soldier in the FLN during Algeria’s War of Independence against France in 1955 where he rose to the ranks of Colonel. It was during this time that he adopted his nom de guerre ‘Houari Boumedien’, from Sidi Boumediène, the name of the patron saint of the city of Tlemcen in western Algeria, where he served as an officer during the war, and Sidi El Houari, the patron saint of nearby Oran.
From Wikipedia:
In 1961, after its vote of self-determination, Algerians declared independence and the French announced it was independent. Boumedienne headed a powerful military faction within the government, and was made defence minister by the Algerian leader Ahmed Ben Bella, whose ascent to power he had assisted as chief of staff. He grew increasingly distrustful of Ben Bella’s erratic style of government and ideological puritanism, and in June 1965, Boumédienne seized power in a bloodless coup.
The country’s constitution and political institutions were abolished, and he ruled through a Revolutionary Council of his own mostly military supporters. Many of them had been his companions during the war years, when he was based around the Moroccan border town of Oujda, which caused analysts to speak of the “Oujda Group”. (One prominent member of this circle was Boumédienne’s long-time foreign minister, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who, since 1999, has been Algeria’s president.)
Initially, he was seen as potentially a weak ruler, with no significant power base except inside the army, and it was not known to what extent he controlled the officer corps. But after a botched coup against him by military officers in 1967 he tightened his rule. He then remained Algeria’s undisputed ruler until his death in 1978, as all potential rivals within the regime were gradually purged or relegated to symbolic posts, including several of his former allies from the Oujda era. No significant internal challenges emerged from inside the regime after the 1967 coup attempt.
Africans on TIME Magazines 2013 100 Most Influential People in the World List:
Joyce Banda, President of Malawi
Joyce Banda, Malawi’s first and Africa’s second female President, could not have come onto the stage at a better time, particularly since the African Union declared 2010 to 2020 African Women’s Decade. Together, she and I can talk about the situation in Africa and what can be done by all our countries, working together in strong partnership, to build bridges and democracies and get our institutions and economies strong again.
President Banda possesses the traits needed during this period of great challenges in Malawi’s, and Africa’s, history. Before her active career in politics, Joyce Banda established several nongovernmental and charitable foundations, all geared toward improving the lives of her compatriots, particularly women. Today Joyce and I have a collaborative program that focuses on improving the working conditions of market women. There have already been exchange visits between market women of our two countries.
President Banda is committed to using her position to improve the lives of women across the continent, not just in Malawi. She has great strength. I am delighted that I’m not alone in Africa anymore.
Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Actor, singer, philanthropist
The world’s most productive English-language film industry is not Hollywood but Nollywood. The teeming Nigerian cinema grinds out some 2,500 movies a year, mostly direct-to-DVD quickies mixing melodrama, music and an evangelical Christian spin. (Think Bollywood via Tyler Perry.) Employing a million Nigerians, Nollywood enthralls millions more who come for the thrills, the uplift and the artful agitations of Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde — the Queen of Nollywood.
Called OmoSexy by her fans, she has made 300 or so features, from the 1996 Mortal Inheritance to the 2010 superproduction Ijé, shot partly on location in Los Angeles. Married to an airline pilot she wed on a flight from Lagos to Benin, Jalade-Ekeinde brings a juggler’s grace to her roles as actress, singer, reality-show star, mother of four and philanthropist (the Omotola Youth Empowerment Programme).
Success hasn’t spoiled Africa’s most renowned leading lady. Rather than going Hollywood, Omotola wants to stay Nollywood.
Moncef Marzouki, President of Tunisia
His power stems not from what he is — his office is ceremonial — but from who and where he is: a leftist liberal President appointed by an Islamist-dominated assembly in the nation where the Arab Spring first flowered. All the countries that followed Tunisia’s lead now face identical challenges. Marzouki recognizes that there are two Tunisias: one religiously conservative and anxious for socioeconomic improvement, the other secular and progressive and terrified of losing its freedoms. Marzouki’s job, he says, is to reassure both that they can coexist, by writing a new constitution that enshrines human rights while respecting Islam and ensuring that both Tunisias have a voice in the political process.
The best reassurance may be Marzouki himself: if he thrives, it will demonstrate that the Arab Spring states can build a pluralistic political environment.
My job is hard. I have to sift through pages of political- and media-themed satirical material from exceptional writers and figure out what amusing face I can make to accompany each jab. Then I must perform them, 22 minutes a day, four days a week, with only our caterer’s spread to sustain me. Bassem Youssef does my job in Egypt. The only real difference between him and me is that he performs his satire in a country still testing the limits of its hard-earned freedom, where those who speak out against the powerful still have much to fear. Yet even under these difficult circumstances, he manages to produce an incredible show: a hilarious blend of mimicry, confusion, outrage and bemusement, highlighting the absurdities and hypocrisies of his country’s rebirth, all wielded with the precision of a scalpel, which, by the way, he should know how to wield because he’s a former heart surgeon. Yeah. And his family is beautiful and he’s a kind and generous friend. I am an American satirist, and Bassem Youssef is my hero.
Nineteen years after the end of apartheid, South Africans are still passionately divided over whether Margaret Thatcher helped or hindered the cruel system of white rule and prolonged the incarceration of Nelson Mandela.
The heated discussions triggered by Thatcher’s death show how influential South Africans believe she was on the fate of the last bastion of white-minority rule in Africa.
The former British leader supported the apartheid government when it was at its deadliest, killing many in the late 1980s in state terrorism at home and abroad in bombings and cross-border raids on neighboring states accused of harboring guerrilla fighters, said Pallo Jordan, a former Cabinet minister and stalwart of the governing African National Congress.
“Maggie Thatcher and Britain were important figures … they were defending (apartheid) South Africa, they were preventing international sanctions,” said Jordan to The Associated Press.
“Many lives were lost (as a result of the apartheid regime). I don’t think it’s a great loss to the world,” Jordan said of Thatcher’s death. She died after a stroke Monday at the age of 87.
“I say good riddance,” he said Tuesday on South Africa’s Talk Radio 702.
Thatcher branded Mandela and his ANC movement “terrorist,” amid concerns that they received backing from the former Soviet Union during the Cold War era and because of their guerrilla war for democracy.
Jordan was at Mandela’s first meeting with Thatcher after his release from 27 years in jail, at Downing Street in London in 1990.
“What amused the old man (Mandela) more than anything else was that here she was engaging in a conversation with this man that she thought an arch-terrorist.” He said Mandela’s inherent charm disarmed “the Iron Lady,” and the meeting passed without confrontation.
Thatcher’s spokesman said in 1987 that anyone who thought the ANC, then the leading anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, would govern South Africa was “living in cloud cuckoo-land.”
But others argue that Thatcher was strongly opposed to apartheid and racism and helped influence the white government to free Mandela.
“Thatcher did more to release Nelson Mandela out of prison than any of the other hundreds of anti-apartheid committees in Europe,” Pik Botha, the last foreign minister of the apartheid regime, said Tuesday on Talk Radio 702 in Johannesburg.
F.W. de Klerk, the last apartheid-era president of South Africa, said in a statement that Thatcher, whom he called a friend, was “a steadfast critic of apartheid.” He said she had a better grasp of the complexities and realities of South Africa than many of her contemporaries.
“She exerted more influence in what happened in South Africa than any other political leader,” de Klerk said. He said Thatcher “correctly believed” that more could be achieved through constructive engagement with his government than international sanctions and isolation of the South African government.
Thatcher argued that sanctions were immoral because they would throw thousands of South African blacks out of work. Her stance allowed British companies to continue operating in apartheid South Africa, where the United Kingdom was the biggest trading partner and foreign investor.
Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda berated Thatcher bitterly at a 1986 Commonwealth conference where she refused to join six nations including Australia and Canada in imposing a package of sanctions against South Africa.
Kaunda told reporters Thatcher cut a “very pathetic picture indeed” and accused her of “worshipping gold, platinum and the rest” on offer from South Africa.
It was a far cry from his amused references to Thatcher as “my dancing partner” after the two famously waltzed at a 1979 Commonwealth summit of Britain and its former colonies in Livingstone, Zambia.
The rapport engendered there led Thatcher to help resolve the impasse in Rhodesia’s 7-year war. With Australian negotiators, she persuaded the warring parties to sign a peace settlement that ended that country’s white-minority rule and installed Robert Mugabe as leader of a democratic Zimbabwe in 1980.
Mugabe, now derided for destroying the economy of his country through violent and illegal grabs of white-owned farmlands, always enjoyed a collegial relationship with Thatcher. He said he admired her and that she was easier to deal with than Tony Blair who later became prime minister for Labour Party.
But Britain’s government under Thatcher ignored the killings of an estimated 20,000 Zimbabwean civilians of the minority Ndebele tribe, prompted by an uprising of dissidents, that lasted from 1982 to 1987. Queen Elizabeth II even gave Mugabe a knighthood after the massacres. Donald Trelford, editor of The Observer newspaper in London, later charged that Thatcher and her Foreign Office were more concerned about their relations with Mugabe than with human rights.
Only after thousands of white farmers were driven off their land and more than a dozen killed did the queen strip Mugabe of his knighthood in 2008.
Thatcher finally was forced to impose sanctions against South Africa by following the lead of the U.S. Congress, which in 1986 passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, overriding Reagan’s presidential veto after South Africa attacked Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana on the same day, recalled Pallo Jordan.
The official ANC statement on Thatcher’s passing was surprisingly restrained, perhaps reflecting an African tradition of respect for the dead.
“She was one of the strong leaders in Britain and Europe, to an extent that some of her policies dominate discourse in the public service structures of the world,” said ANC national spokesman Jackson Mthembu, referring to her view that the apartheid regime was a bulwark against communism. “Her passing signals the end of a generation of leaders that ruled during a very difficult period characterized by the dynamics of the Cold War.”
bolding mine.
South African President Jacob Zuma, facing a firestorm over the deaths of 13 soldiers in a coup in the Central African Republic, said Thursday he was withdrawing troops from the restive nation.
Zuma is facing thorny questions over why South Africa had troops in the country in the first place, amid accusations of dodgy deals with ousted president Francois Bozize.
“We have taken a decision to withdraw our soldiers,” Zuma said as pressure rose over South Africa’s biggest military loss since the end of apartheid.
Thirteen troops died and 27 were wounded on March 23 when they came under fire from around 3,000 Seleka rebel fighters near the capital Bangui.
Zuma said the decision to pull out remaining troops was made because the overthrow of Francois Bozize’s government effectively ended a bilateral military deal.
“Our mission was to help train the soldiers, since the coup and the self-appointment of rebels, it was clear that the government is no longer there,” Zuma said, according to state broadcaster SABC.
As the situation in Central Africa deteriorated last year, South Africa had 26 soldiers on the ground to help with military training in the troubled nation, which has suffered repeated coups since independence in 1960.
In December a decision was taken to send around 200 more South African troops to protect the trainers and military equipment.
It emerged that there was a mandate to protect Bozize, who himself seized power in a coup in 2003, and later won a flawed presidential election.
With the South African government offering few details about the mission, accusations have swirled that it had morphed to match business interests of the ruling ANC.
Allegations also surfaced in Bangui that Zuma and Bozize had signed accords giving South African businesses access to oil, diamond and gold riches in exchange for protection.
A member of the House of Lords, Lord Lea, has written to the London Review of Books saying that shortly before she died, fellow peer and former MI6 officer Daphne Park told him Britain had been involved in the death of Patrice Lumumba, the elected leader of the Congo, in 1961.
Uhuru Kenyatta, indicted for crimes against humanity, was declared winner of Kenya’s presidential election on Saturday, but rival Raila Odinga said he would challenge the outcome in court and asked supporters to avoid violence.
Kenyatta, Kenya’s richest man and son of Kenya’s founding president, faces trial after the disputed 2007 presidential vote that unleashed a wave of tribal killings. His win avoided what could have been a divisive a run-off penciled in for April.
With 51-year-old Kenyatta in the top job, Kenya will become the second African country after Sudan to have a sitting president indicted by the International Criminal Court.
The United States and other Western powers, big donors to the east African nation, said before the vote that a Kenyatta win would complicate diplomatic ties with a nation viewed as a vital ally in the regional battle against militant Islam.
Kenyatta said in his acceptance speech that he and his team would cooperate with international institutions and that he expected the international community to respect Kenya’s sovereignty.
“We recognize and accept our international obligations and we will continue to co-operate with all nations and international institutions - in line with those obligations,” he said.
After saying Kenyatta secured 50.07 percent of the vote, edging over the 50 percent needed to avoid a second round, the chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Issack Hassan, announced: “I therefore declare Uhuru Kenyatta the duly elected president of the Republic of Kenya.”
Shortly afterwards, Hassan handed a certificate of the results to Kenyatta, who had arrived after the declaration. Kenyatta thanked him and went to a nearby university campus in the capital where delivered his acceptance speech.
Many in the election center cheered, although celebrations started in the early hours of Saturday after provisional results indicated Kenyatta’s victory. Supporters thronged the streets of Nairobi and his tribal strongholds, lighting fluorescent flares and waving tree branches and chanting “Uhuru, Uhuru”.
Violence flared briefly in Odinga’s heartlands where police fired teargas at supporters of the defeated candidate who were throwing stones. “No Raila, no peace,” they chanted at the scene near the western city of Kisumu, which was devastated by violence after the 2007 vote.
CHALLENGE
Odinga, 68, said he would have conceded if the vote was fair, adding that there was “rampant illegality” in the electoral process and that “democracy was on trial in Kenya” and he would challenge it in court.
“Any violence now could destroy this nation forever, but it would not serve anyone’s interests,” he said.
Odinga, who secured 43.3 percent of the vote, had also questioned the election process before the vote and during the count his party officials had called for tallying to stop.
The election commission, plagued by technical problems that slowed the count, took five days to announce the result. It dismissed accusations of irregularities.
International observers broadly said the vote and count had been transparent so far and the electoral commission, which replaced a discredited body, said it delivered a credible vote.
Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister, climbed above 50 percent by just 8,400 of the more than 12.3 million votes cast.
Both sides relied heavily on their ethnic groups in a nation where tribal loyalties mostly trump ideology at the ballot box. Kenyatta is a Kikuyu, the biggest of Kenya’s many tribes, Odinga is a Luo. Both had running mates from other tribes.
John Githongo, a former senior government official-turned-whistleblower, urged the rival coalitions, Odinga’s CORD and Kenyatta’s Jubilee, to ensure calm. “Jubilee and CORD, what you and your supporters say now determines continued peace and stability in Kenya. We are watching you!” he said on Twitter.
How Western capitals deal with Kenya under Kenyatta and his government will depend on whether Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto, who is also indicted, work with the tribunal.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said America had longstanding ties with Kenya, and “will continue to be a strong friend and ally of the Kenyan people”, and congratulated the people of the east African country for holding peaceful vote.
CALL FOR COOPERATION
Both Kenyatta and Ruto deny the charges and have said they will work to clear their names, though Kenyatta had to fend off jibes during the campaign by Odinga that he would have to run government by Skype from The Hague.
“Until now, Kenyatta has been cooperating with the court and we do hope this will continue,” said Fadi El-Abdallah, spokesman for the Hague-based court. “This is part of Kenya respecting its legal obligations under international law.”
Kenyans hope the vote, which has so far passed off with only pockets of unrest on voting day, would restore their nation’s reputation as one of Africa’s most stable democracies after killings last time left more than 1,200 dead.
Many Kenyans have said they are determined to avoid a repeat of the post-2007 chaos that brought the economy to a halt.
Church leaders in Kisumu sought to defuse tension this time and some Odinga supporters said it was time to move on. “I urge our candidate to forget the presidency and let the will of God prevail,” cloth vendor Diana Ndonga said.
Many shops stayed closed as a precaution in the port city of Mombasa, another Odinga stronghold, but streets were calm.
“We are heading for a bleak future where the economy goes down and international relation sour because of the ICC case,” said Athumani Yeya, 45, a teacher in the city.
Others were hopeful that Kenyatta could bring change.
“We are celebrating. Even with the ICC case in Holland, the people of Kenya still have faith in him,” said Thomas Gitau, 25, a bare-foot car washer on a main Mombasa street. “We hope he can fix infrastructure and security so we have more jobs.”
Odinga’s camp had said even before the result that they were considering a court challenge. In 2007, he said the courts could not be trusted to handle the case. Kenyatta’s camp had also complained about counting delays and other aspects of the vote.
But many Kenyans said this race was more transparent. Turnout reached 86 percent of the 14.3 million eligible voters.
(Additional reporting by James Macharia, Beatrice Gachenge and George Obulutsa in Nairobi, Hezron Ochiel in Kisumu, Drazen Jorgic in Mombasa and Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam; Writing by Richard Lough, Edmund Blair and James Macharia)
Ni Sisi is S.A.F.E.’s new movie, featuring all your favourite S.A.F.E. actors. The film promote peace and a unified Kenyan identity and spreads the message of personal accountability and strength through a gripping story and humour!
Check www.facebook.com/nisisifilm to find out more about where it is showing and times
