SOUTHERN SUDAN’S CAPITAL JUBA PREPARES FOR JULY 9th INDEPENDENCE

BY Paul Ndiho
JUNE 30, 2011

On July 9, Juba will become the capital city of the world's newest nation, the Republic of South Sudan. Residents of Juba, fondly known by locals as the world's largest village, are working improve their city as South Sudan's Independence Day draws near.
Ravaged by 22 years of civil war with the north that ended with the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, Juba has seen little development.
Nevertheless, since the peace deal, the city has been growing rapidly but analysts say it has expanded without planning.
Many southern Sudanese say Juba is not fit to be the capital. Some have gone as far as to suggest building an entirely new capital elsewhere. Now a cleaning and beautification surge is underway in Juba.
"Surely, Juba is changing for the better because, as you move around, you can see how people are feeling free and how people are enjoying being a citizen of this area."
Locals and officials want a city worthy of their new nation, and to proudly welcome visiting heads of state and dignitaries to Juba in July.


Juba's cleanup started six weeks ago and government officials say the process will continue after Independence.
"I think it's not only geared towards independence but setting up a system that will continue. I think that is the most important."
The city cleaning is carried out mostly by volunteers who are paid $7 dollars a day.
The project's main goals are to clean the streets of rubbish and dust, plant trees and paint the roads, demolish structures, install solar street lamps and set up a sustainable system of keeping Juba clean.
The landmark John Garang memorial site is also undergoing a facelift as it will be the focus of independence celebrations.
But authorities say they are hard pressed to have the renovations ready for Independence Day, now just weeks away. Jokmadut Jok is an Undersecretary at the Ministry of culture.
"The narrow timeframe and the urgency of the situation, some companies have hired hundreds of people so that they can accomplish the work in the course of a few weeks. We began this process about six weeks ago."
A South Sudan government official says millions of dollars have been dedicated for Juba's cleaning. But authorities also say that once the July 9 Independence Day celebrations are over; the real work of building the new country begins.

New Cell phone software to help Kenyan displaced refugees reunite

By Paul Ndiho
June 23, 2011
Monday, June 20, was World Refugee Day, a day to focus global attention on the most marginalized of populations, those who have been driven from their homes by violence and disaster. Communications and information technology is helping some of these refugees, and refugee agencies have developed new software to help displaced families find their loved ones using a mobile phone application.

There are over 11 million refugees in the world today, and conflict has created some 26 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). In Africa, many of them don't know where their loved ones are.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, together with other partners, has launched a program to help refugees find their families and friends again.
In Kenya, mobile phone service provider, Safaricom has started a new service in Nairobi. Sanda Ojiambo, is the head Corporate responsibility at Safari com.
"Today Safaricom has launched in partnership with Ericsson, UNHCR and Refugees United a mobile phone based WAP internet based system whereby refugees can log on, register in an anonymous database, provide relevant information that will help them track, as well as be found by their family and friends. This is for refugees and displaced persons." The program will enable millions of refugees to use S-M-S, mobile enabled browsing and the Android cell phone market to find relatives and friends. Refugees will be able to register and search for lost relatives through a database. Okoyi Ojulo is a refugee Ethiopia.
"Yeah, it's a good service, because I can be able to get a chance to meet with my families who I have lost for a very long time, yeah almost for seven years now, yeah."
Dagabrel Okoth, a Sudanese refugee, says the refugee registry is perhaps the best thing that can happen to a refugee camp:
"It is a good thing because if we are today talking of, saying that, we will find your friends we will find your families who are lost I think that is great I can also contribute I can inform my friends to actually come and register. I have friends and many other colleagues especially in south Sudan also Rwanda, Somali guys, I can also inform them especially those who have not heard of this information, I can personally go and tell them UNHCR has done this and this, can you guys come and register."
The refugee registration service that was launched in Uganda in September 2010 has already registered some 41,000 refugees.

SENEGAL'S YOUTH MOVEMENT TAKE ON PRESIDENT WADE

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
June 20, 2011

Ahead of elections next year, there is a youth movement in Senegal which is drawing inspiration and energy from a popular hip hop group.
"Enough is enough" is spearheaded by two popular rappers from the group, Keurgi Crew, and a journalist who say they are fed up with Senegal's current leadership. The group says that it believes the government is actively seeking to discourage young people from voting in the country's elections early next year. One of their slogans is "My card is my weapon":

"We thought it was time to find a voluntary popular movement for the citizens that above all have had enough, in which people who are fed-up with everything that has happened here for the last 50 years, with this system, can come together, get involved and find the cure needed to improve their lives."
Using a mix of concerts, demonstrations and civic education, the group says it is fighting to prevent the exclusion of Senegal's burgeoning youth from February's presidential election.
Barro says ahead of the poll, the group will analyze potential candidates and, perhaps endorse one, but not the incumbent, octogenarian Abdoulaye Wade, whom they say must not be allowed a third term in power.
"Enough is enough will not vote for one man, enough is enough will put together a program and after the elections, will oversee the implementation of this program. The candidate who would have been elected based on our criteria, enough will supervise and will make sure the program for which he (the candidate) was elected will be fully implemented.”
Analysts say that the movement could have a great influence in Senegal's upcoming vote. Keurgi Crew draw thousands of people to concerts to spread their message about the power of the vote:
"It is true that there is a cocktail that can explode anytime and ''enough is enough” understands this and has tried from the very beginning to turn those frustrations, those negative energies that can blow off and set ablaze the whole country. “enough is enough” is trying to take all the negatives energies and turn them into positive energy by telling people: '' Your weapon is your voting card."
Some members of “Enough is Enough” were arrested in March this year as they called for protests which gathered some 5000 people.
February's vote will take place amid simmering social tension. Daily power cuts, a high cost of living, and rocketing youth unemployment clash with grandiose government projects, such as a 28 million dollar statue of President Wade unveiled last year.

UGANDA'S OPPOSITION LEADER SAYS PROTESTS WILL CONTINUE

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC.
June 13, 2011

Uganda’s leading opposition figure, Dr. Kizza Besigye, says the “Walk to Work" protests will continue despite a government crackdown. Besigye was recently here in the United States seeking medical treatment for his eyes, which were temporarily blinded when police detained his vehicle, smashed its windows, and fired pepper spray inside.
Uganda’s main opposition leader recently made international headlines after he was shot and arrested by the Ugandan military and police during a modest street demonstration over rising commodity prices. He says the broad based “Walk to Work” protests are a civil movement for change, and dismisses claims that the protests have died down.

“The protest and what drives the protest suddenly has not died, and will not die. That is the injustice that I was talking about. As you realize, indeed the whole protest was met with unprecedented brutality…. But the protest will not die and for sure, we shall continue protesting. I’ll continue participating in all the protest. It is our fundamental right to show dissatisfaction, to demonstrate against what we don't want, and we should exercise it until we get the results that we deserve.”
Kizza Besigye - one of East Africa's most popular politicians - has become the face of the protests that take place twice a week which have urged people to leave their cars at home to highlight soaring fuel and food prices. The protests started small, but were boosted by the violent arrest of Besigye. Besigye says that he was not surprised by the way the government unleashed this terror on him and his supporters.
"I mean it would be, deceitful to say I am happy about what has been going on. It is not fun to be treated the way I was treated. But, I fully know that there are even many more people who have undergone much worse than I have. I am actually among the lucky ones. And I also recognize all of this is happening in the process of struggle for the people of Uganda to assert themselves so that they have a government that they control that works for them. And I am very alive to the fact that no freedom, no positive changes come without a cost."
Besigye was President Yoweri Museveni’s personal doctor during Museveni's days as a bush rebel, and now Besigye has lost three elections against his former friend, including the latest presidential vote in February, which opposition leaders say was rigged. General Museveni’s critics argue that images of security personnel smashing car windows with guns or pointing weapons at people is something that reminds Ugandans of previous brutal regimes. Besigye says that he fell out with Museveni after they disagreed on which the direction the country was moving.
“Our meeting point was to work on an agenda for democratic change in our country, to have a government that would precisely be best for the people's will and to work for the common good. The moment he veered away from that, I expressed my opposition to him and I think that's where the contradiction begun. You may remember that even before I came to the public elective arena, I simply penned a critical document which was explaining out what had gone wrong, and he responded to it violently saying I should be court marshaled and no one should discuss what I had written and that's where the whole thing started.”
General Museveni has been in power in Uganda for 25 years, and until recently was respected internationally for his handling of the economy, for stabilizing a once chaotic country and for intervening in regional hotspots such as Somalia. But critics are growing in number and say he marries these achievements with domestic repression.
Museveni accuses Besigye and other opposition figures of trying to start another Arab spring-type of uprising in Uganda, and vows to crush the protests, blaming rising food and fuel costs on drought and global increases in oil prices.

Human Rights Watch say's the Ugandan Government Used Lethal force

Human Rights Watch is calling on the Ugandan government to conduct a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation into the use of lethal force by security forces to counter recent demonstrations and rioting throughout the country. The violence took place over several days in April and May when demonstrators protested against wasteful government spending and rising commodity prices

Gabon will play a leading role at the UN Security Council

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC.
June 8, 2011
Gabon's President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba says his country has a key role to play on the world stage as that central African country assumes the presidency of the U.N. Security Council. And Mr. Ondimba says that Gabon will stand with NATO on Libya, because of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi's continued refusal to step down.
In a keynote speech on U.S.-Africa relations at the United Nations, President Ondimba said that Africa is becoming more active on the world stage and with regard to Libya.
"As a member of the United Nations Security Council and surest chairman of the rotational presidency, Gabon has a key role to play. The Arab Spring and in particular the events in Libya have demonstrated clearly the developmental challenge that faces Africa as a whole. The obvious failures of governments to deliver a true social contract for their people are the root cause of the events we have witnessed."
President Ondimba says that Africans expect their leaders to govern with a vision and to understand that democracy today is not about just having elections but about building democratic institutions. But he says the full realization of this democratic ideal can be sometimes difficult.

"You should encourage and support those of us who generally respect democratic principles and rule of law. Respect for national institutional principles cannot be separated from the respect for individuals. While we leaders are expected to govern with vision our respect for institutions is the ultimate safeguard for stable and strong democracies and the ultimate security for citizens to know that their collective will is taken into account. "
Historically, Gabon has depended on timber and manganese until oil was discovered offshore in the early 1970s. Gabon is trying to diversify its economy amid declining oil production.
President Ondimba said that the telecommunications industry in Africa is more important than ever before.
"Telecommunications is probably the most widely known success story on the African continent and at the same time directly contributed to the revolution in N. Africa. Today a rural farmer or herder can use his mobile phone to call ahead to market towns and find out where he can find the best price for his goods. He can leverage this information to bargain with buyers. In the same way social activists can communicate and coordinate dissent circumventing the requirement for physical contact and making it difficult for governments to quell opposition."
Gabon has long been dependent on oil and gas as its main source of income. The Central African country is ranked third largest producer of oil in Africa but the country's petroleum output has been declining for years.
On paper, Gabon enjoys a per capita income four times that of most sub-Saharan African nations, but because of income inequality, a large proportion of the population remains poor, and President Ondimba acknowledges that the development of Gabon still has a long way to go.

Protecting Chimpanzees in Uganda

By Paul Ndiho
June 1, 2011
The population of Africa has grown exponentially over the past century, and United Nations figures indicate that Africa’s population is likely to double by 2050. This growth can take a big toll on wildlife, and chimpanzees are no exception. Founded in 1977, the Jane Goodall Institute is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. It is widely recognized for establishing innovative community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa. At one point, chimpanzees lived in 25 African countries. Due to the loss of habitat, chimpanzees are now found in 21 African countries. In Uganda, the Jane Goodall Institute, or JGI, is conducting extensive chimpanzee conservation awareness campaigns in communities surrounding the forest. Veterinarian Peter Apell runs the program.
“So the Jane Goodall Institute is focusing on trying to protect the chimps in their habitat and also to make the population much more aware on how they can live sustainably with these endangered species.”

Mr. Apell says chimps are threatened in Africa because the people often cut down forests to make way for crops, and forests are critical habitat for chimpanzees. He says that chimpanzees also are accidentally trapped:
“Chimps have been incidental victims of traps that have been laid by the communities. The traps have not been laid specifically for catching the chimps, but for catching wild pigs and other bush meat to supplement the protein diet of the communities that live adjacent to the forest. But unfortunately chimpanzees are also caught in these traps.”
With a grant from the U.S. government, JGI has developed an ecotourism site in Budongo Forest Reserve that promotes and provides alternative livelihoods for rural communities.
“The thing about this ecotourism site is that it employs people from the local communities. We trained them, we employed them, so they are earning a living directly from the ecotourism site. But the revenue that is generated from tourists coming to this ecotourism site is then put back towards three main activities.”
Peter Apell says that Chimpanzees are closest species to humans and protecting them is at the heart of Jane Goodall’s historic legacy.
“Chimpanzees have a hierarchy in their communities. They have a leader who is an alpha male who oversees all the functions within the communities. They live in groups in communities in families, they pretty much communicate both vocally and using signs.”
Mr. Apell says that this year, the Jane Goodall Institute in Uganda was nominated by the World Tourism Council for an award that recognizes innovative approaches for sustainable tourism and conservation.