Thursday, March 24, 2011

Police officers beat up prison warders, soldiers mercilessly



BOXING

Dec 13, 2009
By EUGENE OMILO
Kenya police scooped 125 points to defend their title in the just concluded fifth and final boxing league in Mombasa over the weekend.
The policemen took home the coveted Yamashita trophy for the second year in a row in a battle that saw giants Armed Forces Amateur boxing Association (Afaba) placed in the third position with 93 points.
Assistant Commissioner of sports Dickson Indakwa was the chief guest at the tournament also attended by top national amateur boxing officials.
Afaba coach Augustine Mutuku said their dismal performance was as a result of missing out on the Second leg as the team was participating in the Commonwealth games in Rwanda making them lose crucial points.
 Runners up Kenya Prisons carried the John Okulu trophy with 96 points.
The prison squad lost important points when its most trusted players James Otieno retired in the first round in the super heavy weight category in a match officiated by veteran Olympic gold medalist Patrick Waweru.
Another prisons player Jacob Kimanthi of middle weight category also retired in the second round after succumbing to mighty blows from Afaba’s Dick Ombaka.
The other participating teams were Administration police who came fourth with32 points, Coast ABA and Nakuru ABA who tied at position five with 24 points and Nyanza who came at the seventh position with 16 points.
Nyanza missed out most of the legs including the final one held at Mombasa Sai resort.
Others were Dallas, Nairobi, Meru, Central and Nanyuki.
The tournaments’ officer in charge Albert Matito said poor performance of most of the teams was as a result of their failure to participate in all the five legs due to financial constraints.
Matito said all the categories were represented in the tournament including youth and lady boxers.
During the finals played on Saturday, Mary Muthoni of Nakuru ABA won the ladies title easily after AP’s Rebah Matanda failed to show up in the ring at the last minute.
 
Muthoni was given a special present from Leah Gerenge who is the only female boxing official.
In the youth category, Coast’s Hassan Ali beat Issa Mwangi 9 -7 while Kibaki Tabitha of Coast lost to Dallas’ Paul Njika 5-4. 
ENDS.

Kajembe supports devolution, Kadhi courts


Jamuhuri Day Celebrations
Dec 12, 2009

By EUGENE OMILO

Coast leaders have called on local residents to make use of the remaining days to read the harmonized constitutional draft and give their views to the committee of experts.

Led by Changamwe MP Ramadhan Kajembe, the leaders called on Coastal people to support the devolution of powers and the inclusion of the Kadhis courts in the new constitution.

“Say what you think is right for you. Don’t just sit there and wait to complain that your views have not been considered,” said Kajembe.

Kajembe said the pre independence Lancaster constitution is slowly making its way back claiming that amendments were done immediately after independence to remove the land policy and Majimboism.

“Those who initiated the amendments had ill motives; they wanted to grab land in other areas. That is why we are telling you now to be on thelookout and ensure we are in control of our resources,” cautioned Kajembe.

Kajembe thanked Lands minister James Orengo for his efforts in initiating the  Lands policy which he believes will solve land issues in the country.

Mombasa Mayor Ahmed Mondhar said Muslims were grateful for the adoption of Kadhis’ courts and warned those opposed to it that there would be no compromise.

He cautioned local leaders against speaking on behalf of the Muslim community while they are not the official spokesmen saying they should not use the faith to fight their personal wars.

Nominated MP Sheikh Mohammed Dor echoed the mayor’s calls   and advised Kenyans to be patriotic.

Coast PC Ernest Munyi who was the chief guest at the function said security will be enhanced in the region to curb the rising levels of crime.

Munyi added that a total of 12,521 youths in Mombasa benefited in the first phase of the Kazi Kwa Vijana initiative.

The province had received Ksh 237 million for the initiative.

ENDS

Dock workers down tools over acrued allowances

Dec 14, 2009    

N- DOCK WORKERS 

BY EUGENE OMILO 

Dock workers  have threatened to go on strike should the Port management fail to honour an increament in house allowance awarded to them two years ago.

The workers made the resolve during a special confrence convened by Union officials on Sunday evenning.

The union’s general secretary Simon Sang accused the ports’ CEO James Mulewa of fighting the union instead of coopertaing with it and for going against the industrial charter.

Sang said the 60 per cent house allowance increament was supposed to take effect in January 2008 but Mulewa has been slow in implementing the agreement arrived at after a one year battle between the port and the union settled by the industrial court.

“We had consulted and agred on the 60 per cent  but today,the MD wants to fix me and the union because he wants to sell the port,I say no way.Employees will infact fix him,” said Sang.

The union’s   chairman Jeffa Kiti said the union is strongly opposed to the port privatization  as the move is not justifiable.

“The port can still perform effectively even when owned by the public, we are ready to sign performance contracts but the management has been reluctant since 2005 because their motive is to ensure the port operates below par so that it can be privatised,” said Kiti.

He gave examples of the ports of Singapore and Durban which are top ten ports in the World and Africa respectively but are public owned.

The other declarations made during the meeting included having the Ports board of directors and the MD replaced as well as the tranfer of a senior NSIS official due to conflict of interest.

The union also proposed that the Prime minister intervenes by  appointing mediators   to make a final and binding determination in the stand offs between the port management and the union.

ENDS.

Million Shilling a day convention submits views on constitution


Coast Constitutional convention.

DEC 15, 2009 

BY EUGENE OMILO    

With two days left to beat the deadline, coastal people yesterday submitted their views to the committee of experts giving their stand on various matters that affect the region directly for consideration in the final draft.

The views were arrived at after a day long forum attended by over 200 participants from all constituencies in the province.

Top on the list was the proposal to have an appellate Kadhi’s court established alongside the Kadhi’s court to give Muslims a chance to fair trial as well as giving the voters power to directly vote for their leaders including governors and mayors.

The delegates feel the current state where parties who do not feel satisfied with judgment given by the Kadhi courts have to go to magistrates’ courts to have their cases heard afresh is not fair enough.

Another of the issues the participants agreed on was to give the regional governments more powers to have a say in their resources and property including land and inclusion of a clause that allows for secession of the protectorate from the former colony shopuld discripancies arise between the two.

The delegates want the region to retain up to 80 per cent of their financial resources and submit 20 per cent to the central government.

Public land like fish landing sites and beach access be left to the control of the communities around them as opposed to the central government. 

The delegates also want proceeds from game parks also be the preserve of the local community. 

The views which will be published in local dailies also include proposals to have the functions of the Teacher’s service Commission to be devolved so that each region has the final say on recruitment of teachers.

Likewise, they want functions of the National land commission be devolved to ensure the regional government has the final say on all land issues affecting the region.

The delegates also want the period of land lease to non citizens be reduced from the current proposal of 99 years to 49 years.

On the Executive, the forum passed that all presidential appointees including ministers be first approved by Parliament.

At the same time, they wanted the recall clause that many MPs have been opposing to apply not only to members of the national assembly but all elected leaders from councilors to the head of state.

The resolutions were arrived at during a meeting dubbed Coast Constitutional Convention organized by Muslims for Human Rights at the Whitesands hotel on Monday. 

Muhuri’s executive director Khalid Hussein said various community leaders from all constituencies in the province had been invited to seek consensus on various contentious issues in the harmonized draft directly affecting the coastal region.

Khalid said legal experts  Yusuf Abubakar and Dr Mohammed Swazuri who were moderators at the forum prepared the final draft of the views to presented to the committee of experts.

The participants included religious leaders, women and youth leaders and representatives of special groups and political parties.

ENDS.

Midzichenda political nymphites want powerful regional governments


Constitution   
         
DEC  16,2009

By EUGENE OMILO

The Midzichenda Youth Association has endorsed the views presented by the Coast Constitutional Convention to the Committee of Experts (C o E).

The association’s chairman Patrick Birya said they support the demand to have more powerful regional governments terming the current provisions regarding devolution as mere ‘plastic surgery’. 

He said all national institutions including the police service should be regionalized so that each region hires their own force according to the region’s demand.

“We want the provincial administration to be scrapped so that governors can be the sole links between the regions and the central government,” said Birya during a press conference in Mombasa yesterday.

On land the association proposed that only indigenous people of a region be issued with freehold title deeds while residents who originated from other regions be given lease holds for up to 40 years.

He said the National land commission be replaced with regional land commissions to give the regions complete authority over their land.

ENDS.

The Sarajevo declaration


N- Disaster Management

DEC  17,2009

BY EUGENE OMILO
Kisauni DC Tom Anjere has asked the Municipal council to demolish structures built on all road reserves in the district by January next year.

The DC said the rate at which developers are putting up buildings is alarming and that there is need to re- plan the residential areas for accessibility.

His sentiments were echoed by Deputy Mayor and area councilor John Mcharo who said public utility land is being misused in the area. 

Mcharo decried of rising insecurity in the area and asked the DC to increase the number of officers patrolling the area.

The leaders were speaking during a public baraza in Bakarani yesterday after touring various projects initiated by local disaster management committees in partnership with the German Red Cross Society which is funding the project.

An official from the German RCS in Eastern Africa Moses Mungoni said his society saw the need to support coastal communities after the coastline was hit by a Tsunami in 2004.

“These communities need to be trained on how to be prepared to face such disasters and others that they are prone to. This way we save up to Sh 8,000 for every Sh 1000 spent on preparedness,” said Mungoni.

He disclosed that the society will spend Sh 80 million for the training programmes which started in 2005 and expected to end in 2010. 

KRCS Disaster Response Manager Davis Okoko said the training will be expanded to other areas in Kilifi, Kwale, Tana River and Malindi districts.

Okoko said the activities undertaken included awareness creation on the need for having active disaster management committees, strengthening the existing committee to expand their roles in combating disasters as well as training the members in general disaster management and fire response.

The society has also trained life guards and provided first aid equipment and other rescue facilities at the Jomo Kenyatta public beach.

“We build the local committees’ capacity by first identifying the potential hazards then strengthen the modes used to combat them or come up with new ones,” said Okoko.

He said most residents in Kisauni are prone to floods due to poor drainage systems in the residential areas.

ENDS.