Arjen Westra’s African Weblog

Human Rights Watch: Government, Donors Should Support Commission’s Findings on Election Violence

[inspic=143,left,,thumb](New York, October 15, 2008) – The Kenyan government and international partners should strongly support the call by the Waki commission investigating post-election violence to create a special tribunal to end Kenya’s cycle of impunity, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The Waki commission has done an admirable job describing the causes of the violence and assembling evidence,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Now the politicians need to set up the special tribunal it recommends. Justice is crucial for Kenya’s stability.”

The report of the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence, headed by Justice Philip Waki, was published on October 15, 2008. The commission concluded that politicians on all sides had organized and funded attacks on supporters of their opponents. The inquiry also found that security forces responded inappropriately, using excessive force against civilians, intervening to have allies released from custody and failing to investigate individuals responsible for the violence. Human Rights Watch said that a complete overhaul of Kenya’s corrupt and abusive police force, as recommended by the Waki commission, is long overdue….

Been a kind of offline (moving in and out almost every country between Kenya and South Africa)in the past months, collecting stories from Africans telling about their lives, their frustrations and most of all: their dreams. I met fishermen on the Cape who are not allowed to fish and had to flee into crime and drugs, I met beachboys in Mombasa who in order to be more succesfull with a muzungu lady, are planning to visit a witch doctor ‘before the season starts’ to get a black magic battery in their wallet, and i talked to Tanzanians being frustrated about the fact that the country’s mining profits are disappearing abroad, other Tanzanians who believe that they can make a difference by starting a business and treating their employees in a human way by paying them a normal salary and treating them as human beings (soemthing you could not always say about so called decent companies in Africa., On the road i talked to Zambians that use chili to keep away the elephants from their village, to Kenians that keep hope for a better future although the new Grand Coalition Government cannot take away the impression that they are as clean as they pretent to be and to Namibians that are happy that there is no solution in Zimabwe ‘The money used to go to Zimbabwe but now the countries around (Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia) get some investment too… Look: none of the neighbouring countries are doing bad, in fact they are very fine.’ Stories will be available for my appreciated customers in Netherlands and Belgium.

Shortly you will find more grassroot audio and pictures online. Owners of an iPod: since a few months you can subscribe to the Official Africareporter.net Audiopodcast. Please subscribe by clicking this link iTunes users can go to the Itunes StorePodcast directory. Search for “Africareporter” and subscribe. Alernatively, you could visit this website: Podcast Directory But the best option for anybody is this link: Africareporter.net Podcast Enjoy. Comments and request are welcome! See you on the road!
Ok, enjoy your day, full of nice audio and pictures!
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Just back from the opening of Parliament. Quit hectic. Noit enough room for the press, so I had to improvise a bit to get some pictures. A warm thank you to the dilpmats from Greece and Cyprus who were very friendly indeed. One of the agenda points was the election of the speaker. The pictures are a quick impression. One of them shows president Mwai Kibaki bringing out his vote. Meeting is still going on. Nairobi downtown seems to be quiet at the moment (17.15 local time). Pictures are clickable.

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All pictures were taken this afternoon. Audio available shortly. Enjoy the day!

Because they are nomads, it was easy for them to accept the Camel Library in their life, according to Faraah Noor Farah. Head of the camel division of the Garissa Camel Library. The majority of the people in the outback around regional capital Garissa in Eastern Kenya are illiterate and/or don’t have the money to afford books. Four times a week Garissa regional library visits schools in the region, with camels loaded with books. Today, we visit a school on 2.5 hours walk (we took 200 books). Please enjoy the short report and also check out the pictures I took on the trip by clicking here

Enjoy!

I am in Dar es Salaam at the moment. Four million people of which 70 percent in informal settlements but huray, they can enjoy these views, for free and almost daily! This one is for Dar Dreamers!

Half May I travelled to Garissa for a report on the Camel Library. Audio will available soon…

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Dar es Salaam at the moment: enjoy your day!

Finally some pictures from Lamu.

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Have a nice day!

Just back from Chogoria area for reports on community tourism, the coffee- and tea industry. Coffee dioes not bring enough income, farmers don’t want to change, or are not able to change their business. Now, locals are becoming share holders in a tourist lodge and getting the profit. More pictures available soon.

Enjoy!

Comin’ up: more (audio-)postings. Among them: The meeting with one of the last relatives of Idi Ami, How the Kenyan Government is trying to give their people history and: Party time at the Roadblock. Thanks for coming (back) and for your warming emails. Meanwhile, please enjoy some of the pictures I took in Arua/Koboko/Entebbe/Nairobi.

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Finally after a while of to Uganda again. Usual mode of transport: the Yellow Glory of Kenya (at least that what is used to be): the Akamba bus. Started the 13 hour trip more than one day ago in Antonio’s Bar: 24 hours open. That’s where I took the picture and recorded some atmosphere (sorry partly in Dutch). Main goal: Arua, the hometown of Idi Amin.

The sound impression starts in the restaurant with the ongoing announcement well…. it must be something like… ehhh  a lot of destinations. Kampala is one of them… and I’m about to leave.

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See you on the road!