The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kenya

  • A ‘Marshall Plan’ for Africa’s employment challenge

    Unemployment, independent of any other factor, threatens to derail the economic promise that Africa deserves. It’s a time bomb with no geographical boundaries: Economists expect Africa to create 54 million new jobs by 2020, but 122 million Africans will enter the labor force during that time frame. Adding to this shortfall are tens of millions currently unemployed or underemployed, making the human and economic consequences nearly too large to imagine.

    Thus, even with the strong economic growth we have seen over the past decade, job creation in Africa remains much too slow. Africa needs a comprehensive, coordinated approach akin to America’s “Marshall Plan” in Europe after World War Two. That effort focused on building infrastructure, modernizing the business sector, and improving trade. By the end of the four-year programme, Europe surpassed its pre-war economic output.

    We can, and must, do the same for Africa. Entrepreneurs, politicians, philanthropic foundations, and development organizations — such as the World Bank, International Finance Corporation and USAID — must all work together to solve the unemployment crisis and make Africa an engine of growth. If we are outrun by the employment challenge, Africa will be a drag on global growth and resources for generations to come.

    Africa’s Marshall Plan should prioritize three interdependent “pillars” of development, which all work together to form a virtuous cycle of growth: policy reform and a commitment to the rule of law; investment in infrastructure, and a commitment to developing Africa’s manufacturing and processing industries. This virtuous cycle forms the heart of Africapitalism: the public, private, and development sectors all coming together, united in a single objective of creating jobs and social wealth.

    First, we need enlightened government policies that help reduce administrative and operating costs for investors and businesses. We must streamline licensing and permitting processes, reduce import duties and tariffs and ease visa restrictions, among other reforms. Such policies would do much to attract investment, increase entrepreneurship and ultimately generate jobs.

    Enlightened government policy in Kenya and Nigeria has already helped to advance the information technology and financial services sectors. Microsoft’s pilot project to expand broadband access in Africa depends on government policy that frees up unused “white space” in the TV and radio broadcast spectrum. Financial services reform across several African nations, starting with Nigeria, enabled United Bank for Africa to grow into a pan-African financial institution. The government’s privatization programme has attracted billions of dollars of private investment to develop Nigeria’s power infrastructure.

    Governments and the private sector must also commit to strong, transparent institutions to help boost confidence in Africa’s business climate. African nations such as Botswana, Rwanda and Liberia have made tremendous progress in this area, though in some countries, war and civil unrest continue to take a toll. Sustained economic and job growth requires creating a safe and reliable environment for capital — including strong civil and legal institutions, corporate financial transparency (such as efforts by the Nigerian Stock Exchange to improve the quality of financial reporting for listed companies), accountable, democratically-elected politicians, and modern, open and transparent markets (like the new commodities exchanges that Heirs Holdings, Berggruen Holdings and 50 Ventures and its partners are creating at African Exchange Holdings). Aggressive advances on such policy fronts will help support the development pillars of infrastructure investment and industrialization — both of which are vital to creating employment on the continent.

    The second pillar of Africa’s development programme must be infrastructure investment, particularly in power and transportation, without which business cannot function. Today, more than 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to electricity and every one percent increase in electricity outages reduces Africa’s per-capita GDP by approximately three percent. Access to affordable electricity is essential to unlocking the continent’s growth potential — reducing costs and enabling business growth, including home-grown businesses that create jobs and sustainable local economies.

    Transportation infrastructure promises to have an equally transformative impact: roads, railways, waterways and airways are the backbone of a thriving commercial economy. The African Union should encourage and embrace transportation projects that first connect African nations to each other, and then to our global trading partners. Projects like the toll road between Entebbe and Kampala, and the Kenya-Tanzania highway will facilitate greater trade of agricultural and manufactured goods within Africa. Consider that today in Nigeria, 65 percent of our produce spoils for lack of storage infrastructure, and is difficult to export to other African markets for lack of rail and road infrastructure.

    Major multinationals like Diageo, Wal-Mart, Barclays, and Microsoft are ramping up African operations in spite of infrastructure challenges. In some cases, they even build their own infrastructure. Stronger policy and physical infrastructure would bring more investment from those who cannot or refuse to bootstrap it. It would also help small and mid-sized enterprises grow faster, and these companies are the engines of job growth in any economy.

    Africa’s third development pillar must be building our manufacturing and processing industries. Africa lacks the capacity to process and refine its own natural resources. Raw materials such as oil, cocoa and gold are shipped overseas, where they are processed into high-margin products and often re-imported into Africa — costing both jobs and hard currency. For example, Nigeria exports raw crude oil and then imports expensive gasoline, when the country should be able to refine the oil itself, supplying not just its own market, but also other markets across Africa. This inability to create finished goods at home, and trade them with other African nations, drastically limits the continent’s growth potential, and thus its ability to create businesses, jobs and wealth within Africa’s own domestic economies.

    I believe we can solve Africa’s employment challenge, but only if we focus on these three development pillars with great urgency, and accelerate current investment and business trends. Many of Africa’s stock markets are delivering stellar returns, while institutional, retail mutual fund and private equity capital is flowing rapidly into African markets. Many multinationals and African conglomerates are investing heavily in Africa. Despite such investment and economic growth, however, Africa is not creating nearly enough jobs. According to demographics, time is not on our side. But with a coordinated jobs plan for Africa, we can secure a productive, economically independent future for the continent and its people.

  • Spreading the free market gospel

    Spreading the free market gospel

    For two weeks, more than 30 students from Kenya and Uganda moved across the East African countries to liberate youths from the shackles of poverty.

    Tagged East African liberty road caravan, the event was devoted to promote entrepreneurship, civil liberties and free market across universities in the sub-continent.

    Organised by the African Liberty Students Organisation in Uganda Martyrs University, supported by the AfricanLiberty.org and powered by Atlas Network and Students For Liberty, the move was aimed at telling youngsters how they could use their talents to achieve prosperity and liberate Africa from poverty.

    The East African Liberty Bus Caravan, which moved from Uganda to Kenya, was a project of African Liberty Students’ Organisation (ALSO) chapter in the Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi. The students moved in a carnival-like road campaign to change the thinking of the youth through the use of various approaches, including seminars, one-on-one discussion and games to promote libertarian ideas.

    It was taken to students of selected institutions, while materials such as books and compact discs were freely distributed to people on the streets as the caravan moved from one city to another.

    ALSO is the students’ arm of AfricanLiberty.org, a network of youths and professionals whose mission is to promote student-driven platform to promote the principles of economic liberty. The organisation also empowers students to become leaders and agents of change in their communities, particularly on campuses.

    The universities visited included Uganda Martyrs University, Uganda Christian University, Makarere University Business School, Kyambogo University and St. Lawrence University. Others are Maseno University, Marist International University and South Eastern University in Kitui, Kenya.

    The volunteers began the outreach in Mbarara University, Uganda, with a football match between Liberty Boys of Kenya and Liberty Girls of Uganda. The comic match, who had not referee, was used to demonstrate the peace and exchange of love without government intervention. The game ended in 2-1 against the Liberty Boys.

    The students left the football field and engaged in one-on-one discussion on entrepreneurship with youths around the university.

    The ALSO team, in a nine-hour journey, left for Uganda Christian University in Mukono, where they met over 2,000 students for discussion on economic freedom. After the lecture, some motivated students showed interest to be part of the ALSO network.

    At the Kyambogo University, one-on-one conversation was held with students, who were visited in their hostels. Afterwards, a seminar was held in the department of Business Administration on ways to make societies free of poverty.

    To round off the tour, Kyambogo University and Makarere University hosted the ALSO team in an induction ceremony to welcome new members. The programme was attended by presidents of all Uganda universities in the caravan programme. The inducted members took the oath with copies of abridged version of Road to Serfdom, a book detailing how a nation can achieve economic prosperity.

    In his address, Adedayo Thomas, Director of Outreach, Africanliberty.org, said the Caravan of Liberty programme was the start of good things to happen in Africa, urging students to stand for freedom and challenge the status quo, which he said gave rise to injustice, tyranny, oppression, and economic backwardness in Africa.

    In a chat with CAMPUSLIFE, Salwa Kavuka, a student of the University of Nairobi School of Law, who was part of the programme, said he had opportunity to share her passion on how to liberate Africa from economic quagmire. She said: “Many of us have the idea on how to solve Africa’s socio-economic problem, but we did not have platform to express such view. This Caravan of Liberty programme afforded us the platform to air our views and tell our leaders the truth about our socio-economic wellbeing.”

     

  • After Westgate, Al Shabab targets Kenya high schools

    After Westgate, Al Shabab targets Kenya high schools

    Leaked intelligence reports in Nairobi say the Somali terror group is finding an audience even in prominent prep schools and academies.

    But new leaks in Nairobi suggest the radical jihadi message of the Somali-based group is being promulgated much closer to home: In local madrassas and even in some prominent mainstream Kenyan high schools.

    The revelations of jihadi recruitment in Kenyan schools adds to a picture – weeks after nearly 70 people were shot and killed at Westgate – of a more extensive underground network of Al Shabab in Kenya than had been understood by the public. And it partly centers on well-known mosques.

    But their alleged presence in schools is a new wrinkle: In an unusual National Intelligence Service report, apparently written in late September and leaked to the Kenyan media last week, Al Shabab and other radical actors are described as lecturing and recruiting in schools, mosques, and in “slums” around the Eastleigh area of Nairobi that is often called “Little Mogadishu,” where Somali refugees gather and live.

     

    • Source: Google

  • Terror attack: I was not in Kenya, Soyinka

    Terror attack: I was not in Kenya, Soyinka

    NOBEL laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has objected to the headline of yesterday’s front page story in The Nation newspapers titled “How I escaped Nairobi attack, Soyinka”.

    Calling the headline sensationalist, disrespectful and reductionist, he said it left a false impression on the minds of casual readers, and banalised both the purpose and tenor of the memorial reading session held in honour of the late Ghanaian poet, Kofi Awoonor.

    His statement:

    How disappointing and distressful to encounter in The Nation newspapers your sensationalist headline “HOW I ESCAPED KENYA TERRORIST ATTACK” – Saturday Sept 28th.

    This purports to be an extract or summation of my contribution to the event dedicated to the passing of our colleague, Kofi Awoonor! To have that headline framed in a way that attributed such a sentiment to me is an additional affront – disrespectful and reductionist.

    The circumstances of the Nairobi outrage, the grave issues surrounding this pattern of human negativity, and the stature of Kofi Awoonor in whose honour we were gathered – which constituted the core of my address – deserve worthier treatment than this.

    You extended the same attention-grabbing headline into page 59, even though the now transmitted remarks cannot, by any standard of journalism, be held to justify such a lurid bunting. “Escaped attack!” – your journal is entitled to your own deductions, but it is highly immoral and unprincipled to attempt to attribute such sentiments to me.

    Writers, and the cause of literature, especially at such an occasion, deserve better than this. The full text of my address easily indicts your choice – on whatever level – and with any reader of average literacy. However, you will have left a false impression on the minds of casual readers, and banalised both the purpose and tenor of that gathering. You will have sold a few extra copies of your paper but – is this all that journalism is about? Have we now abandoned all notion of ‘responsible journalism’ on the altar of sales figures?

     

  • Terror attack on Kenya

    Terror attack on Kenya

    The September 21 attacks on the Westgate Shopping Mall, Nairobi, Kenya, by Somali Al-Shabaab terrorists left the world gaping. By the time President Uhuru Kenyatta who led the country’s response to the challenge declared the siege over, not less than 130 were presumed dead. The East African country promptly declared a three-day mourning period.

    In many ways, Kenya had always been a candidate for such attacks since the current tempo of terror attacks picked up with the September 11, 2001 attack in the United States of America. As the economic hub in East Africa and a prominent actor in the anti-terrorism fight, Kenya had been marked as a likely target by militants from the region. Its multicultural setting, too, makes it open to such an assault.

    The Al-Shabaab militants who took responsibility for the attack said it was in response to the country’s participation in the international efforts to smoke out Islamists from Somalia. The October 2011 Linda Nchi Operation in Southern Somalia involving troops from France, Israel, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, in particular, was said to have rankled the terrorists who have since made efforts to destabilise Kenya.

    Immediately the terrorists announced their mission with staccato shootings at the five-storey shopping mall, the Kenyan Defence Forces cordoned off the area and professionally moved to dislodge them without giving any impression that the Kenyan state was in panic. At the end of the operation, all six militants were reported killed and many of those declared missing were probably buried in the rubble of the three-storey building that collapsed during the attack.

    One lesson from the attack and the Kenyan response is that security forces in Africa should update their training to combat the scourge. Terrorism is now a global disease that has put the world on notice that it could go on the rampage anywhere, anytime. The Kenyan Defence Forces would not have performed so creditably if the authorities had not envisaged the possibility of such a situation arising. It is a beacon to other countries on the continent to perfect their tactics, to rise to such challenges whenever they arise.

    In Nigeria, similar attacks in the past had caught the security forces napping. Such high-profile targets as the United Nations House in Abuja and the Police Headquarters in the nation’s capital caused much panic among the security men and civilians. Such was the disgust that the entire nation felt at the mediocre response of the security forces to the challenge that the National Security Adviser had to be relieved of his appointment.

    Nigeria’s political leadership and the men in uniform need to rise up to fresh challenges to sovereignty  by reviewing the training and retraining requirements of the men in uniform, as well as the equipment needed to combat the plague.

    We join the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IAD) in commending the efficient and prompt response of the Kenyan Defence Forces to the confrontation. President Kenyatta gave leadership by rallying the country to speak with one voice despite the wound opened by the last presidential election. He spoke as a leader who knew what to do at such a time and left no one in doubt that the Kenyan nation could handle its own affairs when the occasion calls for it.

    The institutions involved, too, showed they had not been left to decay over the years. Each responded as it ought and politicians were given no room to play their divisive roles in such circumstances. Nigeria could learn good lessons from the episode

  • al-Shabab…The terrorists ‘killing’ Kenya

    al-Shabab…The terrorists ‘killing’ Kenya

    al-Shabab, the terrorist organisation holding a Kenyan mall after seizing it at the weekend, is an enemy well-known to the Kenyan government and the international comunity.  

     

    With as many as 9,000 fighters, al-Shabab has since fought a succession of foreign forces in Somalia from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

    The attack in Nairobi is one of the biggest al-Shabab has carried out outside Somalia. It could not have come at a more improbable time as the territory al-Shabab controls in Somalia is shrinking.

    The group has also just emerged from a leadership struggle. Al-Shabab’s shadowy leader Ahmed Abdi Godane managed to re-align the group’s leadership and consolidate his power by killing some of his main opponents.

    Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that the country had “overcome terrorist attacks before” and vowed to “hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to”.

    “In fact, we have fought courageously and defeated them within and outside our borders – we will defeat them again,” he added.

    So-called militant groups have been expanding their reach across the Sahel and the Sahara over the last decade.

    Most of them operate under the umbrella of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) which has its reach in Mali, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. Another organisation gaining traction is Boko Haram. Based mainly in northern Nigeria they are determined to bring Islamic law to the region. And there is al-Shabab who wants the removal of all foreign forces from Somalia.

    So how will the Kenyan government respond to the latest al-Shabab attack? Will it mean more involvement in Somalia? And what are the regional implications?

    Inside Story, with presenter Jane Dutton, discusses with guests: Hamza Mohamed, a British-Somali journalist; Ambassador David Shinn, a former US ambassador to Ethiopia and former state department coordinator for the intervention in Somalia in the 1990s; and Miguna Miguna, a Kenyan barrister and former adviser to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

    “We need to go back before Kenyan troops went into Somalia …. Al-Shabab commanders were really angry at what they see as a broken … relation between them and the Kenyan government. Before 2011, before the Kenyan forces went into Somalia, al-Shabab controlled almost all the towns bordering Kenya and Somalia, and at that time that region of Kenya was very peaceful … what al-Shabab commanders says [is that] Kenya was at the same time planning to attack them … [and] at the same time telling them that everything was ok. As long as you don’t interfere or do anything in Kenya borders we would not attack, so al-Shabab see this as a reaction to what they see as a Kenyan action, Kenyan forces invading Somalia.”

    Somalia’s al-Shabab is linked with al-Qaeda. It has been pushed out of all of the main towns it once controlled in southern and central parts of Somalia, but still remains a potent threat.

    Al-Shabab means The Youth in Arabic. It emerged as the radical youth wing of Somalia’s now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts in 2006, as it fought Ethiopian forces who had entered Somalia to back the weak interim government.

    Although it has lost control of the towns and cities, its writ still runs in many rural areas.

    It was forced out of the capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011 and left the vital port of Kismayo in September 2012.

    Kismayo had been a key asset for the militants, allowing supplies to reach areas under their control and providing taxes for their operations.

    Analysts believe al-Shabab is increasingly focusing on guerrilla warfare to counter the firepower of AU forces.

    Who is al-Shabab’s leader?

     

    Ahmed Abdi Godane is the head of the group. Known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, he comes from the northern breakaway region of Somaliland.

    Mr Godane is rarely seen in public. His predecessor, Moalim Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a US airstrike in 2008.

    Mr Godane, who was behind the group’s tie-up with al-Qaeda and has a hardline, international agenda has recently emerged victorious from an internal power-struggle.

    His rival, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is more focussed on the struggle within Somalia. He is now in government custody, while several of his allies have been killed.

    What are al-Shabab’s foreign links?

     

    Al-Shabab joined al-Qaeda in February 2012. In a joint video, al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane said he “pledged obedience” to al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri.

    The two groups have long worked together and foreigners are known to fight alongside Somali militants.

    There have also been numerous reports that al-Shabab may have formed some links with other militants groups in Africa, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

    Has al-Shabab carried out attacks outside Somalia?

     

    Al-Shabab has said it carried out the deadly assault on a shopping centre in Nairobi on 21 September, in which at least 68 people were killed.

    It was responsible for a double suicide bombing in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, which killed 76 people watching the 2010 football World Cup final on television.

    The attack was carried out because Uganda – along with Burundi – provided the bulk of the AU troops in Somalia before the Kenyans went in.

    Analysts say the militants often enter and leave Kenya without being intercepted. Their fighters are said to even visit the capital, Nairobi, for medical treatment.

    The 2002 twin attacks on Israeli targets near the Kenyan resort of Mombasa were allegedly planned in Somalia by an al-Qaeda cell, while the US believes some of the al-Qaeda operatives who carried out the 1998 attacks on its embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam then fled to Somalia.

    Who are al-Shabab’s backers?

     

    Eritrea is its only regional ally. It denies claims it supplies arms to al-Shabab.

    Eritrea supports al-Shabab to counter the influence of Ethiopia, its bitter enemy.

    With the backing of the US, Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia in 2006 to defeat the Islamists. The Ethiopian forces withdrew in 2009 after suffering heavy casualties.

    After intervening again in 2011, it says it will hand over the territory it has seized to the AU.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Where water is gold

    Where water is gold

    Some rare good news has offset the usual grim predictions about the planet’s dwindling natural resources. Kenya, one of Africa’s most important countries, has uncovered a potentially huge new water source. Now comes the challenge of managing it fairly and transparently.

    The discovery, announced last week by Kenya and the United Nations, involves five aquifers in impoverished Turkana County that could mean a more secure future for the country as a whole. Of Kenya’s 41 million people, an estimated 17 million lack access to safe drinking water and 28 million are without adequate sanitation. The new underground sources, estimated to hold at least 66 trillion gallons, could be used for drinking, irrigating crops and watering livestock.

    The project shows what can be done when responsible authorities work together. Identifying the aquifers was a joint effort of the Kenyan government and Unesco, with financial support from Japan, a major donor of international development assistance. Advanced satellite equipment and expertise from Radar Technologies International helped provide technical breakthroughs. Radar Technologies, a natural resources exploration concern, has confirmed two of the five aquifers through drilling, but further exploration at the other three sites is needed before experts can determine more precisely how much water exists and what it will take to extract it.

    Kenya’s task is to figure out, with United Nations help, how to protect these supplies and tap them in ways that ensure they last for generations. Management needs to be fair and open, with clear limits on how much water can be extracted, how often and by whom. This may not be easy in a country with a history of corruption, and where the president and deputy president are facing trial by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity stemming from the 2007 presidential election.

    Water scarcity is a huge problem globally, fueling competition among states, regions and tribes and sometimes leading to bloodshed. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated that by 2030 nearly half the world’s population will live in areas with severe water stress. Kenya’s remarkable good fortune is a ray of hope in this otherwise gloomy picture.

    – New York Times

  • President Jonathan in Kenya

    President Jonathan in Kenya

  • Nigeria should evolve beyond oil, or perish – NGE president

    Nigeria should evolve beyond oil, or perish – NGE president

    The President, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr. Femi Adesina, on Thursday in Asaba said that Nigeria needed to envision and evolve a nation beyond oil or it could “perish.”

    In his address of welcome at the 9th All Nigerian Editors Conference, Adesina said “Nigeria must now diversify, or die. For well over four decades, we have run a mono-product economy.

    “Petroleum has been our mainstay, and we have allowed the easy money from oil to strangulate other cash cows like agriculture, solid minerals, tourism and many others.

    “But as they say, `everyday is not Christmas, and the Egungun (masquerade) festival must end one day. The honeymoon is about ending.’’

    Adesina also told the conference that “oil is fast becoming a vanishing source of easy revenue. Nigeria once had a pride of being one of the largest producers of petroleum on the continent, but not anymore.

    “Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroun, Chad and some others have also found oil. And much more contentious is the fact that America, our largest customer has discovered shale oil and so may not need to patronise us again.

    “I tell you doomsday is by the corner, except we become proactive and stave off the evil.’’

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that he argued that it was inconceivable that a country which could no longer fund its imports remained a consumer nation.

     

  • Ecobank expands to South Sudan

    Ecobank expands to South Sudan

    Ecobank Transnational Incorporated has announced the opening of its South Sudan banking affiliate. In a statement, the bank said the new banking affiliate, the 34th on the African continent, offers the opportunity to support the youngest African state in addressing the challenges in regards to its development.

    It said Ecobank South Sudan offers products and services of the Group to individuals, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), multinationals and institutions.

    The Group Chief Executive Thierry Tanoh said the bank is very excited to have obtained the authorisation of South Sudanese authorities to operate in this country which holds a huge potential for financial intermediation.

    “Our presence in four of its six bordering countries, namely Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, is a unique advantage to contribute to the development and integration of South Sudan young republic,” he said.