Succession star Brian Cox and television presenter Gary Lineker are among high-profile signatories to a letter calling for the Government to scrap its Rwanda scheme and for political leaders to come up with a “fair new plan for refugees”.
They branded Britain’s refugee system “ever-more uncaring, chaotic and costly”, and said asylum policies are not working.
The correspondence, also signed by women’s rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst, Hotel Rwanda star Sophie Okonedo and television chef Big Zuu, who is the son of a refugee from Sierra Leone, comes in the week MPs will debate and vote on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.
The Government hopes to rush emergency legislation through Parliament declaring Rwanda a safe destination for asylum seekers, after the Supreme Court last month ruled against the scheme.
The letter, co-ordinated by campaign coalition Together With Refugees, stated: “Our Government is still trying to banish people fleeing persecution to Rwanda despite the highest court in the land ruling the scheme unlawful.
“Tens of thousands of people are stuck in limbo waiting for their refugee protection to be processed, separated from their families and barred from working.
“These policies aren’t working for refugees and they aren’t working for local communities.
“That’s why we have come together to say we’ve had enough. Enough of the division. Enough of the short-term thinking. Enough of the wasted human potential. And it’s why we now call for something better.”
We need a new system that reflects the will of the British people who have opened their homes, donated and volunteered in their local communities
Gary Lineker
Signatories said they are “calling on you, our political leaders of all parties, to commit to a fair new plan for refugees” which includes upholding the UK’s commitment under international law to the right to claim asylum and scrapping the Rwanda scheme.
The letter, marking the launch of the coalition’s Fair Begins Here campaign, also urged a “proper strategy for welcoming and integrating refugees” through “fair, rapid decisions on their application for asylum” and stronger global co-operation “to tackle the root causes that force people to flee their homes and provides positive solutions when they do, including through safe routes to refugee protection”.
Together With Refugees said polling has shown less than a fifth (18%) of people think the Government’s approach to the asylum system is working well, rising to just over a quarter (28%) of respondents who intend to vote Conservative at the next election.
Overall, 83% of the 1,014 adult respondents to the Focaldata polling from last week said they want an asylum system that is well managed, fair and compassionate.
Former England footballer Lineker, who has been outspoken on the issue of the Government’s attitude to refugees, said: “We need a new system that reflects the will of the British people who have opened their homes, donated and volunteered in their local communities.
“That’s why I’m backing this new campaign – because fair really can begin here.”
Another signatory, former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt, said the “dogged pursuit of the unpopular plan to send people seeking protection to Rwanda is astonishing” and described a “failure to fully support Afghans fleeing the Taliban” as “shameful”.
Big Zuu said his personal experience makes the issue especially important to him.
He said: “I know what it’s like to be a child in the asylum system in the UK. Me and my mum had some good support when we were first here, but it wasn’t easy.
“I know it’s even tougher today, being a refugee in this country now is almost impossible. But it doesn’t have to be like this.
“Being part of this campaign is so important to me and many of the people I grew up with. We experienced the reality and we know politicians can do better.” By Aine Fox ,Evening Standard
The authority added that the synchronization is anchored on preparedness for instant backup support in the event of any power interruption going into the future/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 11-Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) has once again experienced another blackout after generators failed to immediately pick up during the Nationwide power outage.
According to a statement by the Kenya Airports Authority(KAA) yesterday, terminals 1A and 1E experienced a blackout after two of the four generators serving this particular section failed to activate.
“Over the past few weeks, our generator system at JKIA has undergone rigorous testing to ensure continuous and reliable power supply. Despite these efforts, during tonight’s power outage, two of our four generators specifically serving Terminal 1A and 1E, failed to immediately activate,” highlighted the statement.
This is the 3rd time the airport has experienced a power blackout on its premises over the past three months.
The authority has stated that the situation was acted upon immediately and power was fully restored to the affected terminals.
“Our technical team responded swiftly to the situation, and we are pleased to report that the fault has been rectified quickly. Power was fully restored to the affected terminals,” they noted.
However, the authority has said that apart from the two terminals, no other areas in the airport was affected by the outage.
“We would like to assure the public that the rest of the airport, including the JKIA tower and the runway, remained fully operational and was not impacted by this incident,” the authority spotlighted. By Kevin Muthomi, Capital News
TEHRAN, Dec. 10 (MNA) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed Saturday to continue efforts to achieve a cease-ire in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Sisi received a call from Putin following the failure of the UN Security Council to pass a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Egyptian President and his Russian counterpart agreed to continue efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu News Agency reported.
It came during a telephone call from Putin, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency, following the failure of the UN Security Council to pass a resolution Friday for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, due to opposition from Washington.
The two leaders discussed the regional situation, particularly in the Gaza Strip, in light of the political and humanitarian complex situation.
Al-Sisi reviewed “Egyptian efforts and communications to push for a ceasefire to protect civilians and to facilitate the entry of the necessary humanitarian aid for the sustenance and relief of the innocent civilians in Gaza.”
It added that the two presidents agreed to continue serious efforts to achieve a ceasefire, emphasizing the international community's responsibility.
Both sides stressed the importance of international efforts coming together to reach a fair and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian issue. SD/PR MEHR News Agency
Four nations’ armies from the East African Community Regional Force (EAC-RF) on Friday announced an exit plan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after nearly a year of deployment in the country's east.
Following the DR Congo government's decision not to extend the current mandate of the force, which is set to expire on Friday, the East African Community (EAC) Chiefs of Defense Forces/Staff decided to discuss the modalities of the exit during an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday in Arusha, Tanzania, the military bloc said in a statement.
For nearly three decades, the eastern part of DR Congo has been plagued by violence from several armed groups, with thousands of people living in camps in the two most conflict-affected provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
To support the restoration of peace and stability, military personnel from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and South Sudan were deployed in Nov. 2022 as part of the multinational EAC-RF force in the eastern DR Congo.
However, the deployment's future was later called into question after the country’s President Felix Thisekedi accused the force of cohabiting with the rebels rather than forcing them to lay down their arms.
The government in Kinshasa said the troops' mandate would not be extended beyond Dec. 8, 2023.
Earlier on Nov. 25, the East African Community announced that the DR Congo "would not renew the mandate of the regional force beyond December 8, 2023.”
The military chiefs upheld the decision of the government and “recommended to the EAC defence ministers that EAC-RF officially ceases its operations in eastern DR Congo with effect from Dec.8,” the statement said.
“Troop contributing countries are to commence the withdrawal of their forces from eastern Congo in line with the adopted exit plan,” it said.
Kenya has withdrawn 300 personnel and South Sudan will withdraw 287 by late Friday, according to the exit plan.
Burundi and Uganda will withdraw their forces and backload their equipment by road and air between Dec.8 and Jan.7, 2024.
Amid ongoing clashes between government forces and rebels in eastern DR Congo, the military chiefs urged the warring factions to cease hostilities so that peace talks could continue.
Besides the regional force, the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) has been deployed in eastern DR Congo since 1999.
However, President Tshisekedi has also expressed disappointment with the effectiveness of the heavily funded UN mission of about 15,000 peacekeepers in stemming violence.
The UN in 2020 also announced a phased withdrawal of its largest mission to begin in 2024. Anadolu Agency
Judiciary and IEBC officials inspect a ballot box at a Milimani court on August 31, 2022.[Collins Kweyu, Standard]
Sixty years ago, a young nation was founded with so much optimism and much more promise. Poverty, disease and ignorance were declared our cardinal enemies.
We sang songs of freedom before cynicism and doubt crept in. As we reflect on the journey left by the past, we must also look hard into the future and ask ourselves, what should we do to prepare for a better future?
A country is as good as the institutions it erects and the leadership it bequeaths itself. This very moment presents us with an opportunity to genuinely and creatively forge a new republic out of the beautifully ragged mosaic that we have carved out of the last 60 years
For starters, I will dive headlong into our politics as the harbinger of the leadership we have and why we have every reason to be hopeful.
The Kenyan nationalist movement suffered a massive blow when they started to view one another with suspicion on account of ethnicity and nothing else. Ethnic elites from smaller tribes allowed themselves to 'buy' the fear-peddling that the majority tribes would dominate them and even extinguish them.
The collapse of the nationalist consensus remains the original sin for it is the basis upon which all other sins are built. The ethnic suspicion drove ideology and intellectualism out of the window. Leaders then mustered how to fuel ethnic nationalism as a ticket to the hallowed office of the people’s representative.
We then turned our elections into an ethnic census, conveniently changing ethnic elites without changing fundamental values that would guide us to solve some of the big challenges impacting the lives of our people such as maternal health, teenage pregnancy, alcohol and substance use and radicalism, among others.
For example, the ODM ran on the platform of commitment to a new constitutional order in 2007. It branded itself the party of change. It bashed its opponents as anti-reformists. Then in 2022, the same party joined hands with the very core of what was its opposition in the 2007 elections but still ran largely on the same promises it peddled in 2007. Of greater interest is that ethnic elite alliances don’t last more than one electoral term.
For those who may be privileged to listen to vernacular political songs, the heroes we praise in one song in one electoral season become the villains in the next. For example, those who jammed to 'Uhuru ni witu', a popular kikuyu song by Kamande wa Kioi in 2013, must have turned green with embarrassment during Uhuru’s second term when the Sagana series of meetings were being convened to ostracise the very man who had helped the community regain uthamaki after Kibaki’s 10 years.
So, essentially, the more things change, the more they remain the same. If you look at the 2007 elections and their dark undertones of 41 against one, then look at 2022 elections and the crème de la crème of ethnic elite mobilisation on one side of the political divide, then you begin to appreciate that, sometimes, it’s all a zero-sum game.
The refusal by the Opposition to congratulate the winners of the last election stems from the shock that someone who was out-mobilised on the ethnic elite front could build a massive grassroots support that could overrun the incumbency and all its privileges.
It underscores a very pertinent point. The hunger for leadership that appreciates the attendant human cost to its decisions.
After years of conflation of private interests and public interests, something had to give in. The difficult task of rebuilding the economy requires a concerted effort and politics that appreciates what is at stake. I will dare say here that the disruptive demos earlier in the year achieved nothing more than raising negotiation stakes. If anything, they only added to the list of fatalities that the Uhuru-era inflicted on the people during the days of 'No Reform, No Election'.
To de-ethicise our civil service, we must de-ethicise our politics. That is the roadmap to a better future.By Kidi Mwaga, The Standard
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