Conservative rebels who are pushing for a tougher immigration policy will this week open talks with ministers which will decide whether they continue their revolt.
MPs including Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick have pledged to strengthen the Safety of Rwanda Bill which is designed to ensure the Government’s flagship asylum scheme can no longer be blocked by the courts.
But first the rebels will meet with the Government this week to discuss whether they can reach a compromise, a source told i.
If there is no agreement they will seek to amend the bill when it returns to Parliament – although centrist Conservatives have warned they could vote the legislation down altogether if it goes too far in setting aside human rights laws.
Mr Jenrick told the Sunday Times: “The Prime Minister is saying that he will not allow a foreign court to block removals to Rwanda when the Government’s stated legal position today is that to do so would be a clear breach of international law.
“Why would you bring forward a bill which your own legal advice – which has proven to be wrong and optimistic in the past – is saying has a 50 per cent chance, at best, of getting a single flight off to Rwanda? That’s an act of self-harm. We’re running out of road, and at the end of the road, there’s a precipice.”
Rishi Sunak attempts to deny his doubts on Rwanda plan after leaked No 10 documents. He said he was seeking to write into the law the principle that ministers can ignore injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights, and prevent migrants from appealing against any decision to send them to Rwanda.
When the bill was first debated by the Commons last month, around two dozen rebels refused to vote for it. They said they would reserve the right to vote against at the next stage, which would put Rishi Sunak in danger of defeat.
The Prime Minister has been forced to deny that he had fought with Boris Johnson over the principle of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda as a means of deterring them from crossing the English Channel to reach Britain in the first place.
Leaked documents revealed that when he was Chancellor, he refused to commit the funding requested by the then-Prime Minister and Priti Patel, who was Home Secretary.
Mr Sunak told the BBC on Sunday: “I discussed it with the Prime Minister and ultimately funded the plans and the scheme, and my job now as Prime Minister is to get it up and running and I believe that it’s really important because it’s about deterrence.”
Pressed on why he had fought other ministers over the scheme, he said: “As Chancellor, my job is to scrutinise and ask tough questions of every single proposal that crosses my desk. I mean that’s my job, or was when I was Chancellor… ultimately this is all taxpayers’ money and just because someone’s asking tough questions doesn’t mean that they don’t believe in the proposal.” By Hugo Gye, The i
Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (Sudanese Sovereignty Council)
Sudanese army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan unequivocally dismissed an agreement signed between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and associated political groups, vowing to continue the war that has been going on for nine months.
In a speech delivered to forces in Jebit in eastern Sudan, Burhan stressed that there is no room for reconciliation or agreement with the RSF, indicating that the army is continuing its battle to recover all of Sudan.
"We have no reconciliation with them. We have no agreement with them," he said. "Our battle continues until every site in Sudan is restored."
Burhan stated that the RSF committed "war crimes," vowing that the army would deal with them "in the field."
"We will fight until the enemy is gone."
The army chief called for arming citizens to defend themselves, advocating for them to acquire weapons or enlist in the armed forces.
He regretted that some politicians are praising RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti," despite all the murders he has committed, criticizing neighbouring countries that welcomed him.
Dagalo is on a tour across Africa with stops in South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti.
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned its ambassadors in Kampala and Nairobi to protest the formal receptions offered to the RSF commander.
According to a statement by the Foreign Minister-designate, Ali al-Sadiq, the Ministry summoned its ambassadors for "consultations" in response to the official welcome extended to the "militia" leader.
Hemedti's tour will extend to other African and Arab countries, and some unconfirmed reports suggest he will visit Egypt, among other Arab and regional states. Asharq Al-Awsat
President William Ruto (left) speaks to Interior CS Kithure Kindiki at State House in November 2022.
The Ministry of Interior has issued an update on the development of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to facilitate visa-free visits as directed by President William Ruto.
In a statement dated Sunday, January 7, the authority highlighted a number of changes introduced to the ETA which has received a total of 9,787 applications.
For instance, all travellers to Kenya will enjoy reduced fees from Ksh7,756 ($50) charged as part of visa application to just Ksh4,653 ($30). Only travellers from the East African Community (EAC) countries will be exempted from the fee.
The country will also benefit from the collection of advanced data from all travellers to ringfence Kenya’s security and other strategic interests.
"Previously, travellers from 51 countries were not required to fill out any forms on personal and relevant travel details. There was therefore no means of obtaining data to inform critical decisions and plans around security, infrastructure and insurance needs," read the statement in part.
"With the introduction of the ETA, we now have comprehensive data on all visitors, significantly improving our ability to ensure the safety and well-being of both our visitors and citizens."
Interior Principal Secretary Julius Bitok also revealed that the ETA reduces the application wait time from 14 days for visas to just 72 hours for the ETA.
From the 9,787 applications, officials managing the authorisation have already processed 4,046 while the others are undergoing review on a priority basis.
At the beginning of the year, the Ministry postponed President William Ruto’s directive on Visa-free entries to Kenya pending the development of the ETA.
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), at the time, explained that the system was yet to be finalised. The Head of State had directed that the visa-free entry process kick off in January 2024.
For now, a majority of travellers to Kenya will still be required to apply for a Visa through Kenyan embassies, as has been the norm.
The first batch of Visa-free foreigners, however, landed in Kenya four days after the programme was scheduled to start. By Derrick Okubasu, Kenyans.co.ke
Arianna received the call when she was out shopping. Her neighbour had seen a TikTok video falsely alleging that Arianna, a transgender woman, was forcing young men to take hormones and demanded an explanation.
She came home a few hours later to find an angry mob gathered outside her front door. “When they saw me, they started grabbing me and shouting that I needed to die,” said Arianna. “The only thing I remember next was waking up in hospital.”
Arianna still has bruises on her legs and body from the attack in October. She was beaten so badly she spent two weeks in a coma. Now she is staying at a safehouse with 20 other transgender people on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda’s capital.
It is a cramped space with mattresses spread out over the bedroom floors and tattered pictures of happier times decorating the walls. The residents avoid the garden and talk in hushed voices to not arouse the suspicion of their neighbours, whose homes overlook the safehouse compound.
“We have no freedom,” said Arianna. “I can’t go to the market, I can’t work, because if I go out, I will be a target.”
The LGBTQ+ community has long faced abuse and attacks in Uganda, a deeply religious country with a history of passing homophobic legislation. But LGBTQ+ people and activists say the level of harassment has soared since the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, signed a new draconian anti-gay bill in May.
The US State Department has described the bill, which received strong backing from church groups, as “one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the world”. In addition to imposing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, the legalisation includes a provision for life imprisonment and requires citizens to inform the police if they suspect someone “intends to commit the offence of homosexuality”.
We are being beaten and chased out of our homes. If they see you wearing a rainbow bracelet, the police will arrest you
Ruthra
Not only has the law emboldened homophobic vigilantes, who feel free to attack LGBTQ+ people with impunity, it also means members of the LGBTQ+ community with HIV and other conditions no longer access healthcare because doctors are too scared to treat them, said Ruthra, a transgender man who runs the shelter.
“We are being beaten, we are being chased out of our houses.” Pointing to the rainbow bracelet on his wrist, Ruthra said: “If they see even this, the police will arrest you.”
The Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), a civil society group, says landlords have evicted hundreds of LGBTQ+ tenants since the bill was signed. HRAPF has also recorded over 140 attacks and threats against LGBTQ+ people over the same period.
“LGBT persons have never been at peace in Uganda, but the act has given the green light for attacks by homophobic people,” said Saida Nakilima, a lawyer with HRAPF.
The latest came last Wednesday when a young, openly gay activist named Steven Kabuye was attacked with a knife by motorbike-riding assailants. Before he was rushed to the hospital, Kabuye recorded a video of himself lying on the street, his forearm slashed wide open and the blade still lodged in his abdomen.
The bill has drawn sharp international condemnation. The US has imposed visa restrictions on Ugandan officials and the World Bank stopped all finance to the country. But it has found support elsewhere in Africa, where several countries are weighing up similar pieces of anti-gay legislation. There was a spike in violent rhetoric, police harassment and attacks targeting LGBTQ+ people across the continent in 2023, which activists say Uganda’s bill helped to fuel.
Last month, Burundi’s president, Évariste Ndayishimiye, said gay people should be rounded up and stoned in sports stadiums. Ghana’s parliament is debating a bill that carries 10-year jail terms for LGBTQ+ rights activists. In Kenya, the president, William Ruto, is embroiled in a row with his supreme court over a ruling allowing activists to legally register LGBTQ+ groups.
Last year, police arrested activists in Zambia for promoting LGBTQ+ rights, while gay men in Ethiopia faced violent attacks amid a torrent of abusive videos on TikTok calling for homosexuals to be stripped naked, publicly whipped and burned.
African political and religious leaders have repeatedly branded homosexuality a western import that does not align with their traditional values. Yet activists allege that American evangelical Christian groups are playing a prominent role in fanning anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment on the continent, where many countries still have colonial-era laws against sodomy.
In 2020 an investigation by the media outlet OpenDemocracy found that US Christian organisations spent at least $54m influencing laws against LGBTQ+ rights, access to contraceptives and sex education across Africa over 13 years.
In Uganda, several religious American groups have set up and provided funding to local Christian organisations “to carry their message” against LGBTQ+ rights, said Nicholas Opiyo of Chapter Four, a Ugandan civil rights group. Family Watch International, an Arizona-based organisation, has faced accusations it has helped influence and even draft Uganda’s bill, as well as homophobic legislation in Kenya, which it denies. The organisation’s founder, Sharon Slater, is thought to be close to Uganda’s President Museveni.
“It’s part of their culture war,” said Opiyo. “They’re losing the debate in the US and they are looking for fertile ground where they can reignite this debate. Uganda is the perfect place because the evangelical movement is very strong here.”
Chapter Four and HRAPF launched a legal challenge against Uganda’s anti-gay law last month. In 2014, the country’s courts overturned a previous piece of homophobic legislation on procedural grounds. This time the lawyers are arguing the law violates constitutional rights to equality, dignity and privacy.
A ruling is expected soon. Even if the law is overturned, conditions for LGBTQ+ people are unlikely to improve, said Opiyo. “The damage has been done. People have been militarised against the LGBTQ+ community. There is complete social terror. So whether the law is upheld or nullified by the courts, that will do very little to change the now deeply-rooted exclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals in Uganda.”
At the safehouse in Kampala, the residents shared stories of relationships breaking under the strain of living under the bill and of endless police harassment. “The police officers treat you like a bank – they know they can take money from you and you can do nothing,” said one.
Vinka, a transgender woman, described how she was beaten by her neighbours in July after they had seen a video on social media “outing” her. She fled to another safe house in August, leaving behind her belongings.
But a mob of about 20 people discovered the safe house in September and turned up with ropes and cans of petrol. They burned the place down and marched the residents to a police station. Vinka subsequently spent a month in jail, where she was gang-raped several times by other inmates. It was her seventh stint in prison.
She fears another raid. She is scared to go outside but sometimes ventures out to do sex work, the only way she can pay for the hormones she needs to transition, a process she is undertaking with no medical guidance.
At 23 years old, her dream is to finish school and then study psychology at university. Instead, she is trapped inside, dogged by suicidal thoughts. “We are treated like we are nothing,” Vinka said. “But I am human. I have blood.” By Nicholas Opiyo, Human Rights Activist, Uganda, Guardian/Yahoo News
A woman crushing stones at a quarry in Jaribuni, Kilifi County.[Maureen Ongala, Standard]
Season’s Greetings from the Land of the Bold and the Beautiful. Emanyulia was the place to be in the ended festive season. Leafy, serene and salubrious.
Above all, it’s my peaceful and indomitable repository of world literature. I have now returned to noisy necessity. The City of Nairobi. Sirens, screeching brakes and rude motorists.
Uber and boda boda drivers are the pick of the basket. They are graduates of the School of Scandal. They have never heard of manners, courtesy or common decency.
You have your usual rotting garbage, burst sewers and odoriferous emissions. But there is so much other din. Political hullabaloo. It sends me to make a modest proposal.
I admit that the notion of a modest proposal is not original. I have borrowed it from Irishman Jonathan Swift (1667 and 1754). Swift is famous for Gulliver’s Travels, in which he shewed up English customs and politics of the day.
Yet, A Modest Proposal stands out in its own special way. A year before Dean Swift was born, another great European artist, Jean-Batiste Moliere of France, died in 1753.
Both writers hoped they could correct extravagant misconduct in individuals and society through satire. These satirists could be mistaken for haters of humankind, as has been Alceste in Moliere’s famous play titled, The Misanthrope (1666). Are they? I leave that to you.
Swift famously advised England to eat up children of the poor, as a way of stopping them from being burdens to their parents and countries. Poor people and nations may want to borrow from Swift.
They could ease their economic troubles by selling themselves and their children to the rich, as food. You see, there are all these starving beggars, poor slum families and sundry mendicants. They cause the wealthy to quarrel all the time, about the economy, roads, taxes, judges and stuff.
Just now Nairobi is on fire over taxes, cost of living, affordable housing, roads and the Judiciary. Can’t Nairobi solve all that just by abolishing poverty?
If Nairobi cannot end poverty by making poor people rich, she may wish to consider just eating them. You see, there will be no need for more houses, or roads. The poor are the majority.
When you have eaten them up, the remaining rich can all choose to live in one place. They will have the finest roads in that small rich man’s neighbourhood. They will have superb houses and other modern conveniences.
There will be no need to take one another to court, and to quarrel over things like corruption in the Judiciary. In fact, courts should be abolished altogether. When you abolish courts, there will be no orders to be disobeyed. Nor will there be corrupt judges to stall government projects.
But, you see, there will also be no projects, because projects are for poor people. There will also be no need for taxation, or need to call anyone pejorative names like “Zakayo.”
Anyone who wants an extra road can build it for himself, without being taxed. So, let us abolish all these things that make us quarrel. Let us abolish schools and examinations.
What do we need schools for? The remaining rich population can just live happily, eating everyday what it has worked for.
This is how we are going to build a paradise; the Kenya we want. There will be no thieves, because rich people do not steal from one another. There will be no need for the police. What would be their role?
No need for all these things we call independent authorities and commissions. No auditors, no controllers of budgets, no Parliament, no political power and elections to fight over. There will be just pure joy. Abolishing the poor is my modest proposal. - Dr Muluka is a strategic communications advisor
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