Watchmende are asleep............Good People ! Saidia Tafadhali............

Good people !!!

These are rollercoaster of politics from Kenya Politicians fleecing Taxpayers..........After they Invite China and Pakistan to help them to rape and steal from Kenya, they jointly loot to export stolen Public wealth and resources to China and Pakistan leaving Kenya empty debes.......

My goodness, Kenya is getting finished.........but only fools whose spears are on sale, and have been (lunywad or dondwad) who have no energy to stand have allowed this to happen.

God forbid.......!!! How many men can stand????? If there are no men left with energy, I say........If brains are affected from the “Cut” which have direct linkages, then an alternative must be sought while reparation for the “cut” is sought, since it was a taboo. It is a sign of trouble if watchman is not awake. Watchman cannot sleep when on duty….

Women, wake up .......It is time for recal...........Those political suspects whose cases are still investigated including court pending cases, must resign or recalled immediately until their cases are finalized.

The Judiciary is sleeping.........The people must wake them up….

There is no way China Government should run their monitory financial administration for Clearing House inside Kenya........it is trespassing....and something is not right........

How can Pakistan deal in illegal car sale inside Kenya??? Then MPs are sold cars in Billions, where is justification??? What happens to public mandate in service to the people......??? Have the Doctors been paid???

Have Teachers demands been settled??? Have jobs for the youth been created???

If there is money to buy MPs cars in Billions, why solicit for money to pay public servants salaries???

Isnt something seriously wrong with budgetting?????? How do you spend money you do not have??? How do Politicians expect to indebt and demand payments from Citizens who have no means of income, does it make any sense???............

Where is the balance people ?????..........Is the Government leadership legitimate if they are not doing service to the people according to public mandate??????

Good People, the truth is that, you cannot hire an irresponsible thief to look after you valuable matters. You also cannot keep a hen with a lion in the same den and expect to find the hen alive the next day........it is also true that, you cannot give a cow grass to eat and expect the cow to save it without it being consumed in no time.

These are very serious mistakes Kenyans are doing........sitting pretty and watching without putting stiff demands for things to be done rightly......

Judy Miriga

Diaspora Spokesperson &

Executive Director for

Confederation Council Foundation for Africa

USA

http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

email: jbatec@yahoo.com

Choices have consequences; UHURU/RUTO’s friend, China refuses to give them money to pay civil servants.

Saturday August 3, 2013- The Chinese Government, which President Uhuru Kenyattand his Deputy William Ruto have relied on so much after their relationship with the West especially, US and UK went sour, due to the ICC cases facing the two at The Hague, has turned down the Government’s request for funds.

This is after the President made a request for funds, through the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi, to pay civil servants including Members of Parliament, who are now threatening to go on strike due to their delayed salaries.

In response, the Government of China expressed its apologies saying it may not meet the request and therefore will not release the money but may do so in future provided that its relationship with Kenya remains unshaken.

Just a few days ago, word went round that the Jubilee Government was broke after spending taxpayers' money in the campaigns to ensure victory for Uhuru/Ruto, and now it can't pay civil servants among them; tteachers, doctors, lecturers and MPs, whose July salaries have not been paid up to now.

 

 

Kenya to hand over Kismayu to Somalia Govt

President Museveni meeting with Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta during Amison Troop contributing countries to Somalia at Munyonyo Speke Resort on 4th August 2013.

            

By RISDEL KASASIRA Rkasasira@ug.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, August 4 2013 at 18:54

In Summary

• But sources that attended the meeting told Daily Monitor the Somali delegation was accusing Kenyan forces operating in Kisimayu of meddling in the Somalia’s political affairs and handpicking local leaders in the south of Somalia.

 

Kampala
 

Regional leaders meeting in Kampala Sunday resolved to hand over the control of the controversial Kismayu sea and airport to the Federal Republic of Somalia.

In a joint communiqué issued Sunday evening, the resolution follows a long running dispute for the facility between the government of Somalia and the Kenya forces. The leaders also banned Somalia from exporting charcoal to Asia with immediate effect.

Before the beginning of the second phase of the war against al shabaab, Somalia was divided into four sectors.

Sector one, which includes Middle Shebelle, Lower Shebelle, and Banadir (with the capital of Mogadishu), is under Uganda.

Sector two is under Kenya and it comprises of Middle and Lower Jubba with Kismayu as its capital. Sector three is under Burundians while sector four is for Djiboutian forces.

The Kampala meeting was attended by presidents: Museveni, (the host) Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, Somalia's Sheik Hassan Sheik Mahmood, (Ethiopian PM) Hailemariam Desalegn and Andrew Bagali who represented Sierra Leone.

Meanwhile, African Union mission in Somalia wants the number of peacekeepers increased from 17,730 to over 20,000 to beef up troop presence in different parts of the country.

Uganda's Foreign Affairs minister, Sam Kutesa told Journalists in Munyonyo on Saturday that the current African Union force is over stretched and thin on ground.

The creation of zonal forces, Mr Kutesa said would exert pressure on al shabaab fighters who resorted to asymmetrical war after losing most of their main tactical and strategic bases in Somalia to AU forces.

“The force is smaller and over stretched because the area under AMISOM control has been enlarging. The lack of enablers, force multipliers and resourcing constraints threatens the long-term success. This situation requires a deeper assessment by us all,” he said

Uganda, which was the first country to deploy troops in Somalia in 2007, has the highest number of troops. Other countries include Kenya, Djibouti, Sierra Leon and Burundi.

The Presidents of countries contributing troops held a meeting chaired by President Museveni and discussed the mission and need to have force multipliers like helicopters.

But sources that attended the meeting told Daily Monitor the Somali delegation was accusing Kenyan forces operating in Kisimayu of meddling in the Somalia’s political affairs and handpicking local leaders in the south of Somalia.

The Somali Deputy Prime minister, Fowzio Aden reportedly told the meeting that the Kenya’s meddling into the affairs of running the town of Kisamayu had caused clashes between the rival groups.

But Mr Kutesa denied the issue had been discussed. “AMISOM is doing well and there are no such allegations,” he said.

 

Anti-graft body probes illegal car import racket

Updated Saturday, August 3rd 2013 at 21:36 GMT +3

By Cyrus Ombati
An international motor vehicle inspection company is on the spot for allowing importation of prohibited vehicles.

The Ethics Anti-Corruption Commission ( EACC) and Kenya Revenue Authority have launched an investigation into how Japan Export Vehicle Inspection Centre Company Limited (JEVIC) approved the importation of more than 60 vehicles against the Kenyan laws.

Jevic has been contracted by the Kenya Bureau of Standards ( KEBS) to conduct pre-shipment inspection to ensure compliance to Kenyan standards.

“It appears they have all along duped Kenyans and the taxman into thinking that they are dealing with duly inspected cars that meet the set requirement,” said a senior KRA officer in Mombasa.

The company conducts the pre-export Roadworthiness Inspection (RWI) of used motor vehicles from Japan and Dubai, destined for use within Kenya.

EACC and KRA have so far seized 29 over-age luxury vehicles at the Port of Mombasa, as it intensifies the search of hundreds of vehicles suspected to have been irregularly shipped into the country.
Revenue loss

Officials said 33 other cars are at the port awaiting clearance amid information that they had their importation documents falsified.

“Our officers are monitoring the cars. Once the claims are launched, we will act,” said EACC’s spokesman Yassin Ayila. Officials said the importation could have led to the loss of hundreds of millions of shillings in revenue.

The law bars Kenyans from importing vehicles whose first year of registration is over eight years. The year of first registration is used to determine the depreciation when computing duty. The depreciation is based on the recommended retail prices of new cars provided by local dealers.

For example, a car that is seven to eight years old will be depreciated by 70 per cent, one that is six to seven years by 60 per cent, while one that is five to six years will be depreciated by 50 per cent.

That means the detained cars evaded paying tax. Those caught will attract a penalty of 15 per cent of their value.

A Certificate of Compliance ( CoC) is issued and makes up the documents that must be presented to KRA on importation.

The inspection by Jevic was initiated by KEBS to minimise the risk of unsafe and substandard vehicles entering the Kenyan market, thus ensuring health, safety and environmental protection for Kenyans.

All used vehicles must meet the KEBS requirement. They must be less than eight years of age, be right-hand drive, pass a safety and mechanical inspection and its odometer reading must be consistent with the documented mileage. Jevic charges a Sh14,447 fee per vehicle inspected.

Yesterday, EACC officials said they had detained the cars and were probing the importers. EACC vice-chair Irene Keino said they had set up a team to investigate the scam.

Officials said the seizure was prompted by a tip-off by insiders at the port, who wrote to the EACC and KRA over two over-age vehicles that had been cleared after importers falsified their age.

Irene Keino said they had set up a team to investigate the scam.

Tax evasion

Officials Cases of tax evasion are rampant and officials say they are a result of collusion between dealers and government officials.

According to KRA officials, the first assumption was that the importer was falsifying both the CoC and the export certificate.

“We checked the pre-shipment inspector’s website and confirmed that the importers information tallied with what was issued by the pre-shipment inspector,” says a brief from KRA.

The brief added that this opened up the possibility that the issue was being perpetrated with the complicity of the pre-shipment inspector.

For the importer (usually a car dealer), there is a clear incentive to import over-age vehicles. A simple search of Japanese vehicles will show a drop in price of up to 40 per cent for vehicles over eight years old.

Once they purchase these vehicles, they must show that they comply with the eight-year rule, and once the document shows a vehicle as first registered in 2006, all documents including the bill of lading issued by the shipping line, to the import entry and logbook both issued by KRA, will do so.

“There is a possibility that we may need to go back one or two years to see the full extent of the scam,” concludes the report.

COMMENTS:

mohammed04 August 2013 8:25 A

Mmost of the dealers are pakistani.. on work permit in mombasa. do think about it...........what wil you get

Page04 August 2013 1:18 AM

Despite importation of less than 8 years old vehicles. Kenya still leads in the number of accidents compared to Tanzania which does not have strict rules on age limit. Age limit is a racket by the rich in to dominate in owning expensive vehicles which the poor can not afford. By allowing more than 8 years vehicles they see that their pride will wither and loose meaning and sense of admiration to the public who define their status by the car which they drive. Its high time Kenyans realised this and called it bluff! Let us give Kenyans a break and stop living in a capitalistic country where the rich want to be seen as rich and worshipped.

National treasury releases Sh2bn for Members of Parliament car grants

Updated Sunday, August 4th 2013 at 09:21 GMT +3

By Jacob Ng’etich

Legislators will be laughing all the way to the bank tomorrow after the Government completed the transfer of over Sh2 billion free cash for cars.

The grant, alongside their salaries, are gains made by legislators — both members of the National Assembly and the Senate — from a pay deal struck with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission ( SRC) after a protracted war early this year.

Last week, Members of the National Assembly declined to take their recess, that was to start on Friday, until the car grant, July salaries and mileage claims were channeled to their personal accounts.

“MPs said they required the money to go to their constituencies,” said a source at Parliament Buildings.

Yesterday, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich told The Standard On Sunday that his ministry had transferred the remaining over Sh1 billion for the final 206 members.

“For the MPs, we paid them on Friday. Any payment has a process — from our ministry the papers go to the Controller of Budget, who passes them on to the Central Bank of Kenya, which will transfer the money to the relevant office,” said Rotich. The Cabinet Secretary explained the late payment, saying the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) had delayed in making the requisition for the amount, and only made it on Thursday.

“We have given them their salaries and over Sh1 billion car grant for the remaining 206 MPs. We had earlier taken care of some legislators and the Senators,” said Rotich.

Old payroll

The money was paid alongside salaries of civil servants and teachers, after the Government reverted to the old payroll of 44 ministries.

At the height of the MPs’ salary demand in June, the SRC settled on a car loan arrangement as a way of saving the taxpayers money, at a period when the Government was struggling with a crippling wage bill.

But they later agreed to a car grant with the PSC.

Aside from the car grant, the MPs are also entitled to an optional car loan facility of upto Sh7 million repayable at an interest rate of three per cent per annum for a maximum of five years.

The legislators also receive more than Sh40 million every month to fuel their cars while discharging their duties, including visiting their constituents.

The Legislature is composed of 418 members — made up of 67 Senators and 349 members of the National Assembly and the two Speakers for both Houses.

The Sh5 million grant is an increase over what lawmakers in the 10th Parliament got — Sh3.3 million — for their cars.

Under the deal brokered by Deputy President William Ruto, the MPs take home slightly over Sh1 million in gross pay a month, inclusive of allowances.

Other benefits won by MPs in the deal include subsidised mortgage, tax-free pension and unlimited committee sittings that allow them to make huge amounts of money.

Committee sittings

While the MPs are entitled to a taxable Sh532,500 salary, with an annual increment of eight per cent or Sh44,000, the actual amount at the end of the month is higher from earnings in committee sessions given that every MP and Senator is a member of a committee.

Initially, the SRC had capped the committee meetings at 16 per month, which would see lawmakers earn a maximum sitting allowance of Sh80,000.

Yesterday, Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi confirmed to The Standard On Sunday that all the MPs had received their car grants after the Treasury transferred the remaining amount.

“All the MPs, including the Senators, have received their share after the transfer on Friday. As chairman of the Parliamentary Service Commission, I am the one responsible for their payments and I can confirm that,” said Muturi.

Parliament last week published a Bill seeking to amend the Constitution to remove Members of the National Assembly from the list of State officers, a move that will allow the lawmakers to adjust their salaries and allowances.

The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2013 proposes to amend Article 260 of the Constitution to free three groups from the auspices of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission ( SRC), which has a mandate to set and regularly review the remuneration and benefits of all State officers.

Also to benefit from this amendment are members of the county assemblies, judges and magistrates.

The driving force of the Bill, according to its proponents, is so as to uphold the doctrine of separation of powers between Executive.

Whereas judges and magistrates will fall under the Judicial Service Commission, it is not yet clear where the Members of the County Assembly will fall.

Nahason Nyashinyangwivi04 August 2013 2:40 AM

In a country where the few available hospitals are overcrowded with patients sleeping on the floor, hospitals have no equipment, no beds no X-ray machines, no medicine. A country where dialysis patients have to pay Kshs 5,000 to clean their blood every week and have to travel to major cities to access the handful of working machines; a country where there are no ambulances, and the only machines and equipment available where donated decades ago from Europe; how can somebody in their right mind take Kshs 5,000,000 from wananchi to buy himself a useless car? MPigs, please build more hospitals, equip the existing hospitals, buy enough beds and dialysis machines, chemotherapy machines, ultra sound machines, MRI machines, CT Scan Machines etc. Taking 5million grant from wananchi is both insane and immoral. Kenyans can afford these machines only if we stop these madness of outrageous salaries and allowances to MPigs. Even an 8 year old child knows that taking money from the poor is evil. This is real 'Mpigs blood money' ...I now know why the protesters brought in pigs and blood.

CBK deputy boss grilled over

Sh1bn tender scandal

PHOTO | FILE The Central Bank of Kenya is seeking to upgrade its security systems after suffering a string of thefts. NATION MEDIA GROUP

By FRED MUKINDA fmukinda@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, August 3 2013 at 23:30

Anti-graft investigators have interrogated Central Bank of Kenya deputy governor Haron Sirima over infighting by senior officials which is feared could compromise a Sh1.2 billion security tender.

The controversy pits the bank’s tender committee against the evaluation committee after it emerged that bidders may have paid bribes to influence the award.

Dr Sirima heads the tender committee while the other is chaired by P.K. Wanyagi, who is CBK’s assistant director in charge of currency operations and bank administration.

On Thursday, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission grilled Dr Sirima at Integrity Centre. The deputy governor was questioned two weeks after EACC recorded statements from six other senior bank officials.

Unlike Dr Sirima, the six were interrogated at the Central Bank’s premises on July 16.

At stake is the installation of a state-of-the-art security system designed to introduce controls to save the institution from perennial losses in which millions of shillings are spirited out of the bank’s vaults by employees.

Horsebridge Network Systems East Africa, a British company, and Orad East Africa, an Israeli company, are the two bidders at the centre of the tender dispute.

Documents in Sunday Nation’s possession show that the evaluation committee supports the Horsebridge bid, but the tender committee is opposed to it.

Before the EACC entered the fray, the matter had been adjudicated by the Public Procurement Oversight Authority on two different occasions, after which the decision of the evaluation committee was upheld.

The tender committee emerged from the PPOA hearings scathed, having being compared to “an unruly horse that has to be tamed and calmed”.

The Authority’s tribunal, which ruled on January 4, 2013, said: “Tender committee has acted in excess of its powers disregarding the recommendations of the evaluation committee and the orders issued by the board (tribunal).”

It added: “The entire tender process was carried out in accordance with the Act and the applicant (Horsebridge) emerged as the lowest bidder on two occasions but the tender committee has refused to award the tender citing different reasons on two different occasions.”

This means the Authority’s tribunal adjudicated the differences on two occasions, and the tender committee lost both arguments.

The two sessions cost the taxpayer a staggering Sh19 million, paid in legal fees to Ngatia and Associates, the firm which was retained by CBK for the hearing.

CBK Governor Njuguna Ndung’u directed the tender to be awarded to Horsebridge.

He said: “Under the circumstances, the CEO must take responsibility in line with PPOA tribunal decision to award. This resolves the apparent conflict between the committees. I’ve directed Mr Nyanjwa to dispatch letters for award and inform the losers (Orad) so that the bank can commence negotiations with the winning bidder.”

In his comments, Prof Ndung’u has shown intention to take disciplinary action against those suspected of foul play.

The discourse further stated: “I requested legal opinion as advised by legal department, not for purpose of awarding because PPOA had already awarded. An opinion was written. But we knew someone was trying to change that opinion. So we waited. And just like night follows day, the opinion changed. This I will deal with administratively.”

This is in reference to opposing opinions by CBK’s advocates that were noted by the Authority and are believed to have been influenced from within CBK.

Ngatia Advocates had advised CBK to appeal and challenge the board’s decision at the High Court, just weeks after the same law firm had described as “favourable decision,” when the Authority ruled that “the tender committee erred.” Prof Ndung’u added that the bank was ready to defend the final decision in court, rather than engage the Authority in a judicial review before a Judge.

Fifty-eight companies had collected bidding papers, but only six returned them and after a rigorous process, all were rejected but the Israeli and the British firms.

In the tender process, Horsebridge scored an accumulative 93.5 per cent against Orad’s 84.5 per cent, and their bids were Sh1.2 billion and Sh1.56 billion respectively.

The plan to install the hi-tech security system started in 2008 when International Security Consultancy, another Israeli firm, was engaged by CBK to carry out an assessment of the security around the institution, a survey that revealed a situation susceptible to the simplest of thefts.

The tender committee punched holes in Horsebridge’s tender documents.

“The technical capability to install and maintain the ISMS as quoted was poorly crafted and was not used well by the evaluation team. Evaluation criteria revealed inconsistencies among the individual scores,” state the tender committee minutes.

Othere tender committee officials questioned are vice-chairperson A.J.K. Bett and secretary C.J. Nyanjwa; evaluation committee members Mr Wanyagi and secretary H.K. Mutende were grilled as were National Payment Systems manager R.K. Kiptepkut and security chief George Kinoti.

 

Boni Khalwale wants CBK Governor Njuguna Ndung’u sacked over old notes saga

Updated Sunday, August 4th 2013 at 14:26 GMT +3

 

CBK Governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u. (Photo:File/Standard)

By Luke Anami

Kakamega, Kenya: Kakamega Senator Dr Bonny Khalwale wants Central Bank of Kenya Governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u sacked.

Reacting to a story by The Standard that rogue employees of CBK are believed to have stolen millions of shillings in currency notes earmarked for destruction, Dr Khalalwe blamed the Governor for failing to stop the theft.

“Prof Ndungu has now been caught sleeping on the job with the issue of defaced currency. I got him sleeping on the job on the issue of generating new currencies; we got him sleeping on the job on the issue of exchange rates of Kenya shilling. With these three issues, the President should fire him,” Dr Khalwale said.

This follows a discovery of major lapses in security procedures thought to be part of a well planned conspiracy that has been at work for a long time.

“Prof Ndungu is not fit to serve as the boss at the Central bank of Kenya. The National Assembly and the senate reserve the power of removing a state officer from the office. Therefore this is not a small issue,” he said.

Dr Khalwale said in the event that he is not sacked, it will only confirm that the president is not ready to sack people from his community.

“If he doesn’t fire him, the economy will fire him. If the economy chooses to fire Prof Ndungu, it will also fire the President. This is because if the economy is not performing, the whole country will collapse. People will not get salaries and children will not go to school. The cost of food will have gone up,” Khalwale spoke moments after attending a burial for the late former Malava ODM chairman.

“Already as you are aware the rate of the Kenya shilling to the dollar is going down. From the time we came out of the election, the Kenyan shilling has dropped to the extent today it is now exchanging at Sh 87.4 to US 1 dollar. That drop is a sign of bad things to happen,” added Khalwale.

This is not the first time the former Ikolomani MP and now Senator is calling for Prof Ndungu’s sacking.

In September 2012, former cabinet Minister Amos Kimunya and Prof Ndung’u survived an attempt to have them sacked over the controversial De La Rue tender.

This followed the rejection of a report by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee that recommended their sacking over the multi billion tender pending further investigations.

Bank of China comes to Kenya

Posted by MARGARET WAHITO on July 3, 2012

BOC is substantially owned by a Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund, which holds majority of the bank’s equity/AFP

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 3 – The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has granted authority to Bank of China Limited (BOC) to open a Representative Office in Kenya.

The authority, issued pursuant to Section 43 of the Banking Act (Cap 488), makes Bank of China Limited the fifth foreign bank to be authorised by the Central Bank to establish such an office in Kenya.

BOC is substantially owned by a Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund, which holds majority of the bank’s equity.

BOC is headquartered in Beijing and operates both in China and internationally, including in South Africa and Zambia. The bank is primarily engaged in providing corporate and personal banking, investment banking, treasury and asset financing services.

In a statement from the Central Bank, The newly authorised Representative Office will be BOC’s first in East Africa.

BOC’s Representative Office will market the products and services of Bank of China to existing and prospective customers in Kenya and the East African region conduct market research and act as a liaison between the Bank of China Limited’s head office and its customers.

Under the Banking Act, a representative office of a foreign bank in Kenya is not permitted to engage in banking business as defined in the Act but can only engage in marketing and liaison roles in connection with the activities of its parent bank and affiliates.

Through the Representative Office in Kenya, Bank of China Ltd seeks to explore potential business opportunities in the country with a view to evaluating the prospects of a long-term presence in Kenya and the wider East African region.

Kenya continues to attract growing international interest from renowned international financial institutions as a preferred base for their regional operations.
This presents unique opportunities for the Kenyan economy to be part of increasingly global financial markets.
With more foreign institutions choosing Kenya as their regional base, the country draws closer to realising its aspirations of being a regional financial hub as envisaged under the Government’s economic blueprint, Vision 2030.

China rights scenario deteriorating, says United States

22 hours ago PoliticsChinaUnited States

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States got few answers to questions about detained activists during its annual rights dialogue with China, and believes the situation in the country continues to deteriorate, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

Uzra Zeya, Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, said she raised specific cases during the talks, including that of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, as well as his wife Liu Xia, now under extra-judicial house arrest.

"Regrettably yes, I think we've continued to see a deterioration in the overall human rights situation in China," Zeya said, pointing to growing harassment of family members, such as that of the relatives of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, now living in the United States.

"The targeting of family members is one reason for that assessment ... This is a worrisome trend and one which we have raised at senior levels with the Chinese government," Zeya added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping's appointment as Communist Party chief in a once-in-a-decade leadership change last November had inspired many Chinese with hope for political reform.

But rights groups say there has been no let up in the pressure on activists, dissidents and other groups, such as Tibetans, who have been pushing for reforms and more freedom.

China contested the U.S. version of events, saying it punishes criminal offenders justly and that the U.S. is interfering with its judicial sovereignty.

"Rights and freedoms must be exercised within the framework of the law, and China's judicial organs punish criminal offenders accordingly," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on its website. "We hope the U.S. side will respect China's judicial sovereignty and stop its approach of becoming entangled with any individual cases."

China said it also raised what it sees as U.S. human rights problems in the dialogue, including discrimination against racial minorities, insufficient protection of indigenous peoples' rights, poor prison conditions and the use of torture in the fight against terrorism.

"We certainly did raise a number of specific cases ... In some cases we were able to receive some information. I would say overall it fell short of our expectations," Zeya said.

Since Xi became president in March, police have detained around 30 of those campaigning for officials to reveal their wealth, say rights groups. Among them is well-known legal activist Xu Zhiyong, whose case Zeya said she also raised.

She said the rights situation in the restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang were also mentioned, besides the issue of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, who is reviled by Beijing as a separatist.
Speculation surfaced this year that China might take a softer line towards the Dalai Lama, partly due to an article by a scholar from the Central Party School, which trains rising officials, who said that China could take some steps to resume talks with the Dalai Lama's representatives that broke down in 2010.
"We did discuss our concerns in depth with respect to controls in place in Tibet," Zeya said. "I would say that we did not come away with an impression of a shift in policy."

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jeremy Laurence)

Deadly alert as criminals buy viruses from mortuaries

Updated Sunday, August 4th 2013 at 08:46 GMT +3

Police officers guard a body at the Chiromo Mortuary. [PHOTOS: FILE/STANDARD]

By Paul Wafula
Kenya: Criminals are now buying deadly viruses from mortuaries in what brings a new dimension to the underground body parts business thriving inside Kenya’s funeral homes.

Highly infectious human tissue, body fluids and used bath water are eclipsing human organs as the hottest selling products.

Morgue staff drawn from Nairobi’s three largest mortuaries interviewed for this story reveal how lack of regulation and weak enforcement has seen players in the sector break ethics of last respects to make an extra coin.

Attendants are earning between Sh5,000 to Sh100,000 to smuggle out pieces of the dead, wrapped in specimen bags, briefcases and envelopes.
They also swap specimen to tilt police investigations from those seeking to change evidence of a case.
“The common ones are blood samples for people who die in road accidents under the influence of alcohol and their lawyers or relatives don’t want this to affect their insurance claim,” an attendant said.

“We just swap blood samples with someone else who did not die while drunk. We can get the blood from the heart and label it, then hand it to the police,” he added.

Swap samples
Multiple sources within Nairobi’s biggest public morgues told how a combination of poor pay and laxity in monitoring has pushed the morgue attendants to go to deadly lengths to earn illegal cash.

Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), City Mortuary and Mbagathi District Hospital have mortuaries located within a 300 metres radius that arguably host Kenya’s largest concentration of unburied bodies.

The practice they say is fueled by poor pay on one hand and a growing underground market drawn mainly from witchdoctors and their followers. “Most of my clients are just ordinary men and women on the street. But I have also sold some items to members of the military and police,” an attendant at KNH, who previously worked at City Mortuary told in confidence. But what is likely to worry policy makers is the revelation that some of their clients are specifically asking for specimen from victims of highly infectious diseases including Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis.

We need a policy to address our ethnic diversity in public sectors

Updated Saturday, August 3rd 2013 at 19:02 GMT +3

By Anyang Nyongo

On Thursday August 1st, a debate erupted in the Senate regarding ethnic representation in the government. Making a contribution to a Motion I had moved on reforms in the police service and proposals to amend the Police Service Commission Act as well as the Police Service Act, Senator Bony Khalwale alleged that three ethnic groups received more than their fair share in the composition of the current government in the Cabinet and at the level of Principal Secretaries. He further went on to say that the same is true with the Police Service. Asked to substantiate he produced a report from the National Cohesion and Integration Commission showing that two communities dominate the police service.

Without going into the details regarding the discussions that ensued in the Senate, their merits and demerits, it was the proposal advanced by Senator Kiraitu Murungi that recognised the gravity of the issue at hand and offered a practical and concrete solution that can help Kenya get out of the dangers of the politics of ethnic domination that has been our bane since independence. Kiraitu, subsequently supported by Senators Chris Obure and Moses Wetang’ula, gave the example of Singapore-- and Malaysia--where ethnic diversity has been creatively used to enhance national integration and nationhood.

Malaysia became independent in 1965. It had more or less the same level of development as Kenya. In a society that comprised diverse ethnic communities: Malays being 60 per cent of the population, Chinese 25 per cent, Indians 10 per cent and the rest 5 per cent, the Malaysian elites decided to strike what they called “the bargain” in constituting their government and initiating national development. The idea behind “the bargain” was that each community would get their fair share of the “national cake” in proportion to their numbers so as to promote national integration and nationhood.

In 1969, however, there was a terrible outbreak of urban violence in Kuala Lumpur, the national capital that unleashed vicious ethnic conflict among the Malaysian people. For two years Parliament was suspended while the ruling class searched for a long lasting national solution. In the end a policy was adopted to increase more fairness and equity in development, job creation, use of national and ethnic symbols and so on. In other words, the ethnic problem was not pushed under the rug; instead it was exposed for what it was, confronted, a formula found for dealing with it and the formula implemented transparently.

In the 1990s a campaign called “Bangsa Malaysia” was launched: this was to drum up ideological and cultural support for Malaysian national integration and nationhood.

That, of course, is not to say that everything is rosy in Malaysia. Dr Mahathir Mohammed, the legendary Prime Minister that was behind the great Malaysian achievements since independence, had a tinge of authoritarianism in his politics. But it was a brand of authoritarianism that shunned crony ethnic capitalism while creating a national developmental and democratic state. It is no wonder therefore that Malaysia has gone much further than Kenya in terms of socio-economic development since independence.

But it is never too late to learn. In fact were we a people who are prepared to learn positive lessons from our history we should have learnt a thing or two from 2003 and 2008. But unfortunately we did not.

Following the elections of December 2002, Kenya produced a government that was perhaps the most legitimate and most representative since the first government of 1963. Kenyans were immediately rated the happiest people on earth and we embarked on an economic recovery strategy that was widely embraced and accepted by Kenyans, hence its resounding success within a very short time. We did not, however, seize that opportunity to discuss a policy to deal with our ethnic diversity nor did we pay close attention to national integration as part and parcel of dismantling the presidential authoritarian regime.

Soon the fantastic Narc government initiatives started to be drowned in ethnic turf wars as elites sought to use their proximity to the Presidency to enhance politics of exclusion rather than inclusion. It was the primacy given to exclusion politics that messed up the referendum of October 2005, leading to the collapse of the Narc government and the end of “the honeymoon with happiness”. Kenyans immediately became the most ethnically divided nation on earth.

It was under that atmosphere of ethnic tension and the tension between inclusion/exclusion politics that we went to the elections of December 2007. The results and the violence that ensued should have radically changed our perception on how we run our politics but they did not. The Grand Coalition Government provided yet another window of opportunity for us to use that experience for future political engineering but we have not done so notwithstanding the useful framework provided by the present Constitution. Although the Grand Coalition Government was big and unwieldy it provided the widest representation of ethnic diversity in our republic. It was perhaps the most inclusive government without necessarily being more effective than the Narc government of 2003-2005. The lessons we should have learnt from it was how to use that experience to do another Malaysia-like political project in Kenya.

But Kiraitu now seems to have hit the nail on the head and woken us up from our stupid slumber. Rather than wait to have exclusive elections from one year to the other, forming semi-inclusive governments from one year to the other, fighting each other from one election to the other, let us take the bull by the horn and answer this question: how do we create a government, a cabinet, a police service, an army, an education system: in short a nation where ALL Kenyans feel at home? How do we deal with the elephant in the room: our growing ethnic alienation from each other? How do we learn a thing or two from Singapore, Malaysia and perhaps Belgium?

MPs’ probe finds shocking details on NHIF scheme

Minister for Medical Services, Prof Anyang Nyongo with PS Mary Ngare before the House Committee probing the NHIF saga on May 15, 2012. Photo/SALATON NJAU

By CAROLINE WAFULA cwafula@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, May 16 2012 at 22:30

A parliamentary committee investigating the national health insurer’s medical scheme scandal starts compiling its report on Thursday with indications that senior government officials will be linked to questionable dealings in the Sh4.2 billion controversy.

Details of the one-month Health parliamentary committee hearings appeared to question the roles of Medical Services Minister Anyang’ Nyong’o, and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) board and chief executive officer Richard Kerich.

There were massive questions raised over the Clinix Healthcare Ltd, Meridian Medical Group that were allocated a combined Sh318 million compared to the two referral hospitals, Kenyatta and Moi Referral, that were allocated only Sh7 million.

The investigations also revealed that the owner of Clinix Healthcare Ltd, Mr Jayesh Saini, is also the managing director of Gesto Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which has previously been accused of supplying fake drugs to the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency.

Majority shareholder

Prof Nyong’o is on the spot with the committee having grilled him on his association with Mr Saini, the owner of Pharma Investment Holdings, the 99 per cent majority shareholder in Clinix.

Pharma is registered in British Virgin Islands, a leading offshore tax haven where some of the country’s major scandals have been traced.

Clinix which secured Sh202 million in the first three months of the scheme’s roll-out is one of the private health providers picked by NHIF and the committee believes it enjoyed undue favour owing to connections enjoyed by Mr Saini.

It has been a month of interesting, yet rather shocking revelations as the Health Parliamentary Committee delved into the chronology of events that culminated in the implementation of the scheme, pointing to a possible rip-off of taxpayer money.

All who have taken part in the investigation have said that in all ways, the scheme meant to provide a comprehensive medical cover to 216,789 civil servants and the disciplined forces was a noble idea and should not be scrapped.

However, its roll out has turned out to be something close to a mega scandal, with committee members equating it to the Goldenberg, Anglo-Leasing and Mobitelea-type scandals, with some describing Mr Saini as “another Kamlesh Pattni”.

The committee is likely to fault Prof Nyong’o and his Public Service counterpart Dalmas Otieno in their role in the scheme, having concluded on Tuesday that they were both running away from responsibility.

“Why is everybody now running away from any association with a scheme which you were all very keen and excited to roll out?” committee chairman Dr Robert Monda asked at the end of the session with Prof Nyong’o.

Prof Nyong’o was on the spot over his ministry’s role in jump-starting investigation into the matter, having failed to convince the committee that he instructed relevant authorities to move in and take action.

The committee also questioned his links with a city businessman at the centre of the messy NHIF scheme, citing occasions where they had met and interacted before the scheme’s roll-out.

The committee observes that Mr Saini, the owner of Clinix Healthcare Ltd is said to be known to the minister and a frequent visitor at the Medical Services Ministry corridors, although the minister describes him as a businessman like other businessmen who have sought to do business with the ministry.

“They come asking to do business with the ministry and I have referred them to relevant departments, some to procurement and others to Kemsa,” he stated at the Tuesday meeting with the committee.

Apart from Clinix, Mr Saini also runs Nairobi West Hospital and Gesto Pharmaceuticals — as chairman and director in charge of international business in the first and as managing directors in the others.

Prof Nyong’o found himself in a tight position when he was required to explain how Mr Saini managed to land the NHIF deal despite the negative records that Gesto Pharmaceuticals holds at the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

The firm had been contracted to supply drugs by the Kenya Medical and Supplies Agency.

Before Mr Saini’s appearance, the Registrar of Companies had indicated that her office didn’t have details on the owner of Pharma Investment Holdings.

First to raise eyebrows in the investigations was the unearthing of non-existent facilities that had been accredited by the NHIF for public servants, a majority of them belonging to Clinix.

Clinix, whose vision is to expand and have over 300 facilities countrywide, according to its proprietor, has rapidly expanded during 2012 acquiring 50 licences for new facilities from sub-committee of the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board.

Operating illegally

Shockingly, the board is yet to sit down, scrutinise the facilities and endorse the licences, which in essence means all are operating illegally since the board may, upon inspection, cancel the licences.

It also means the lives of Kenyans have been put at risk by exposing them to facilities and services whose standards are yet to be confirmed by the body charged with the responsibility.

In total, 1,053 licences have been released by the board registrar to various clinics across the sector, without following due procedure.

The procedure is that the facilities should have first been inspected and endorsed before licences are issued.

This has led to a key question of whether the board is more concerned about allowing business in the health sector to thrive or safeguarding quality of healthcare service provision.

A key observation by the committee now winding up the crucial investigation is that most health facilities taking part in the scheme were ill-prepared for the roll-out, with regard to equipment, staff and accessibility.

Of the 50 Clinix facilities that have become operational this year, 21 were licensed in April, 11 in March, 12 in February and 6 in January. Meridian acquired a licence for one facility this year.

President Mwai Kibaki has since sacked the NHIF board following a boardroom drama on the fate of NHIF chief executive officer, Mr Richard Kerich.

The new board inaugurated on Monday has assured NHIF contributors that their money is safe after freezing the NHIF accounts of Clinix and Meridian hospitals.

However, new CEO Adan A. Adan said the institutions will continue to provide services to civil servants until investigations are completed in the next three months and pleaded with contributors for patience.

Prof Nyong’o’s autocracy, intolerance and lack of tact in handling industrial unrest may be his undoing

Added by Vulture Hunteron 2013-03-20

Once hailed as a progressive Young Turk, Nyong’o now embodies such high-handedness that, as a minister, he may be ranked far worse than the semi-literate Nyayo-era Cabinet

Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o

The outgoing Kisumu Rural MP, Prof Peter Anyang Nyong’o, is a man of contradictions. A political scientist with apparent socialist leanings, he was a Young Turk of the 1990s who has aged rather sadly.

Although he is a mouthpiece of the Orange Democratic Movement, a party that is marketed on an agenda of reform and democracy, Nyong’o has confessed that he has no faith in democracy. The man, who has not won an unchallenged party nomination since 1997, was recently picked out for censure by ODM’s Director of Elections for his role in the bungled Cord primaries in Nyanza.

Perhaps voters’ discomfort with Nyong’o’s ideologies explains his disdain for universal suffrage when it comes to party primaries, as he elucidated in his weekly column in The Standard on Sunday on January 27, 2012.
In the article, headlined Let parties pick candidates instead of subjecting voters to two elections, Nyong’o argued: “Why perpetuate the fiction that parties can or should nominate their candidates through universal suffrage?” Political parties, he wrote, are clubs that “are governed by naïve laws and procedures for political competition.” This, he reasoned, is how parties fuel conflict.

He was writing only a few days after being awarded a direct nomination for the senatorial seat in Kisumu.

In 1997, as an official of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he failed to win a parliamentary seat in Kisumu owing to his perceived antagonism towards National Democratic Party leader, Raila Odinga. Nyong’o was salvaged by Charity Ngilu, then SDP’s presidential flag bearer.

He and the late Apollo Njonjo returned the favour by demanding that, in future, SPD’s presidential candidate would be a university graduate—a move that many saw as aimed at locking out Ngilu who, before last year, did not have a university degree. The animosity marked the beginning of the end of SDP.

On more than one occasion, Nyong’o has made some rather startling pronouncements. It was during the nurses’ and doctors’ strikes last year that Nyong’o came to be viewed by many as a callous leader. Trouble started on September 13, 2012, when doctors went on strike, demanding that privately sponsored doctors (known as “registrars”) at Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Referral Hospital be paid.

However, the minister would hear none of it. Instead, he announced that he would sack all striking doctors and replace them with 1,000 recruits. As the strike was set in motion and Kenyan hospitals became deathbeds for patients who could not afford treatment in private hospitals and clinics, one journalist sought the minister’s explanation.

Asked about how many Kenyans had lost their lives as a result of the stalemate, the minister cold-heartedly asked the journalist to go to the mortuary and conduct a body count.

Today, the doctors’ strike has fizzled out but the wave of industrial unrest still pervades the ministry. Last December, nurses too downed their tools, demanding, among other things, the registration of their union.

Rather than dialogue with the nurses, Nyong’o called for the arrest of those among them who were agitating for a union, terming the strike illegal. The minister accused leaders of the unregistered Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) and the National Nurses Association of Kenya (NNAK) of engaging in criminal activities, and dismissed the nurses as “zombies” whom he said had no respect for human life.

When his threats went unheeded, the minister declared that he would replace the 3,000 striking nurses with some of the 7,000 unemployed health workers.

His lack of foresight in resolving industrial unrest has earned him the foul reputation of a tactless manager. On his watch, pain and death continue to stalk all corners of the country as provision of health services in government institutions grounds to a halt.

One journalist wrote that despite Nyong’o’s lofty academic credentials, the political science professor had performed worse than the semi-literate Cabinet ministers of President Moi’s time. Never before have so many strikes been witnessed in so short a time in the Health docket.

Nyong’o will also be remembered as the minister who, against pleas from stakeholders, insisted that the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) premiums be increased. Asked about the impact of the move to the average Kenyan, he said he was headed to Serena Hotel for a lunch worth Sh2,500. This amount, he said, was much higher than Sh66—the equivalent daily increment on his NHIF contribution.

The move is reminiscent of French aristocrat, Marie Antoinette, who wondered why the French were protesting in the streets over increased price of bread. He asked: “Why don’t they eat cake instead?”

In May last year, Nyong’o was in the limelight after it emerged that NHIF had awarded some of the Sh4.2 billion health provision tenders to companies that lacked the capacity to offer quality healthcare. Interestingly, some of the outfits were said to exist only in name. One such entity was Clinix which, as investigations revealed, had only 22 outlets countrywide although, curiously, Clinix had been allocated Sh202 million to offer healthcare in 72 clinics across the country.

There was drama when Chairman of the NHIF board, Prof Richard Muga, “sacked” the chief executive officer Richard Kerich for his alleged role in the scandal. A few hours later, Muga too was sacked by an angry Nyong’o.
Fumed the minister: “The Board of NHIF has communicated to me that you unilaterally sacked the chief executive and four other managers. You have no mandate as the chairman. This is a breach of protocol and insubordination to me.”

Nyong’s handling of the ministry has fuelled speculation on social media that he had looted Sh900 million from NHIF and wired it to Jersey Island on March 12, a claim he has vehemently denied.

Although the saga of bogus health facilities was not resolved during the life of the 10th Parliament, Kerich remains in office.

Sadly, taxpayers will now have to pay more to NHIF, after a case filed by the Central Organisation of trade Unions (Cotu) on behalf of workers was dismissed by High Court judge Mohamed Warsame.

The new rates will see Kenyans who earn more than Sh100,000 a month paying a minimum of Sh2,000 per month; those earning Sh5,999 or less will pay Sh150. The self-employed will pay Sh500 per month.

According to NHIF, the increase is in line with the new Constitution, which guarantees every Kenyan a right to quality healthcare.