TEHRAN, Jan. 15 (MNA) – At least people 5 have lost their lives and 15 were injured in a bomb attack at a church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Sunday.
At least five people were killed and 15 wounded in a suspected militant bomb on a church in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Sunday, DW News reported.
Congolese military spokesman Antony Mualushayi said the "terrorist act" occurred at a church in the town of Kasindi, which lies on the border with neighboring Uganda.
Videos posted on social media showed bodies in the pews and blood on the floor. Another showed bloodied victims being carried and treated by bystanders outside the church.
Meanwhile, some Arabic sources reported that 17 people were killed and 20 were injured in this explosion.
So far, no more details have been published and no group has taken responsibility for it. MEHR Agency
Aurelia Cheruto from Kartur Village in Elgeiyo Marakwet rescued from Saudi Arabia. Image:HANDOUT
Cheruto claimed that she had not taken a meal since January 4, 2023.
In Summary
Cheruto claimed that she had not taken a meal since January 4 2023 and her health was deteriorating.
Her efforts to link up with her agent failed to bear fruit as she was not responding.
A Kenyan worker in Saudi Arabia Aurelia Cheruto from Kartur Village in Elgeyo Marakwet has been rescued.
In a statement on Saturday, Elgeiyo Marakwet governor Wisley Rotich confirmed that efforts from Labour CS Florence Bore and Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen helped to rescue her.
"I wish to confirm that Aurelia Cheruto has been successfully rescued in Saudi Arabia. Thanks to the swift intervention by Bore and Murkomen immediately we brought this to their attention," he said.
The development came after Cheruto pleaded for urgent help to be evacuated from Saudi Arabia and be repatriated home.
Cheruto claimed that she had not taken a meal since January 4, 2023, and her health was deteriorating.
Her efforts to link up with her agent failed to bear fruit as she was not responding.
Cheruto pleaded with Kenyans to help because her employer was threatening to shoot her.
The governor urged youths in the county who are seeking to fly to Saudi Arabia for school and opportunities to consult PEPEA office in Elgeiyo Marakwet for suitable destinations.
Reports about Kenyans who are mistreated in the Gulf countries by their employers have continued to surface.
The Gulf countries, for instance, rely on millions of foreign workers such as housemaids, fitness instructors, metro-train employees, hotel cleaners and waiters, caregivers, nannies, drivers, and security guards.
They work for long hours for wages far below the minimum rate and in some instances, suffer physical and sexual violence. By PERPETUA ETYANG, The Star
The parliament’s committee on defence and internal affairs on Friday turned away officials from the ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs from a meeting to scrutinize their budget framework paper following a mismatch of figures.
The unceremonious sendoff marked the second time in two days that the ministry of Defence officials were being sent away over the same national budget framework paper for the FY 2023/2024.
Initially, on Thursday, the same officials led by Defense minister Vincent Ssempijja were turned away for not availing copies of their documents on time for the committee MPs led by Rosemary Nyakikongoro to review.
Their initial documents indicated that the ministry was in need of Shs 6.515 trillion out of which only Shs 3.560 trillion had been availed in the coming FY 2023/2024. However, soon Ssempijja amended the figure revealing that the ministry was in need of Shs 8.769 trillion and that only Shs 3.545 trillion had been approved by the ministry of Finance, creating a deficit of Shs 5.356 trillion
Drama ensued when Nyakikongoro, discovered that scrutiny between the committee and parliament technical team unearthed inconsistencies in the budget for the ministry. Consequently, Nyakikongoro tasked Edith Buturo, the Defense ministry’s undersecretary to explain the inconsistencies.
Later, this prompted the legislators on the Committee to ask the ministry of Defence to vacate their room and first harmonise their figures before rescheduling another a third meeting in the afternoon.
Minister Ssempijja had listed a number of unfunded items that included; wages that require Shs 1.579 trillion, yet only Shs 617.9 billion has been availed, creating a shortfall of Shs 961.9 billion for the army to grapple with.
The minister also pointed out that army is seeking Shs 314.1 billion for domestic arrears, Shs 21.5 billion for operation Shujja in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Shs 27.5 billion for the pacification of Karamoja region but no allocations were made.
Also, medical services remained unfunded to a tune of Shs 39.2 billion which the ministry hasn’t paid to private hospitals yet Shs 54.7 billion is needed for the purpose but only Shs 15.5 billion was availed. The ministry is also seeking Shs 3.441 trillion in classified expenditure, but only Shs 2.158 trillion was availed, leaving another unplugged gap of Shs 1.282 trillion.
More documents scrutinized by URN further reveal that the army is in need of Shs 280.2 billion for food, whereas only Shs 130.6 billion was availed, leaving a funding gap of Shs 149.6 billion, as well as Shs 106.7 billion needed for fuel storage facilities but no funds were allocated.
On December 23, 2022, the ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development tabled before parliament the national budget framework paper totaling up Shs 49.9 trillion. As required by the Public Finance Management Act of 2015, parliament is bound to approve the budgets for different Ministries, Departments and Agencies by February 1. By URN, The Observer
Standard gauge railway (SGR) cargo train makes its way to the Mombasa Port from Nairobi on December 14, 2021. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
Uganda this week formally terminated the contract of China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to build the country’s first phase of the standard gauge railway (SGR), a 273-km line from Malaba to Kampala, almost eight years after the project was launched.
The Chinese firm failed to convince Beijing to finance it so Kampala terminated the contract in November 2022, and has now opted for a different financing model with Yapi Merkezi of Turkey. The Turkish firm which, incidentally, is building part of the Tanzanian SGR network, is expected to submit a response to government’s request for construction in the next few weeks, paving the way for procurement, said Uganda SGR Project Coordinator Perez Wamburu.
In June 2022, Uganda’s Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka started to review CHEC’s contract after it became apparent that China Exim Bank – Kampala’s main infrastructure projects financier of the past decade – had grown cold feet on bankrolling the SGR.
“We read between the lines when China’s Ambassador to Uganda said that after the Covid-19 pandemic, China has become more cautious on financing big infrastructure projects in Africa. We all know that Covid didn’t leave economies of the world the same,” Wamburu said.
He explained that Uganda was forced to rethink its options and cast its net wider for other financiers when its last submission for financing to the Exim Bank went unanswered for nearly two years – a departure from the earlier practice when the Chinese responded to Kampala’s proposals within weeks.
“From the time of our last submission for financing in February 2021, we have heard only silence. After submission, we wanted for a few months, it was silence, and up to now, it’s still silence from Exim Bank,” he said.
Uganda’s SGR first phase, initially awarded to CHEC in 2015, starts from the Malaba border post, and was expected to cost $2.2 billion – 85 percent of which was to be borrowed from Exim Bank – but the lender held back funding and repeatedly asked Kampala to table new requests for financing.
At the back of the Chinese reluctance was doubt that Kenya would build its SGR – also funded by the Exim Bank – all the way from Mombasa to Nairobi, Naivasha, Kisumu and through to Malaba, to link with Uganda’s in order to make the project viable.
Uganda’s decision to ditch the Chinese changes the realignment of the region’s project financing to Western financiers, raising the question of whether Beijing’s Africa juggernaut – using infrastructure-led diplomacy to win over the continent against its Western rivals – is finally losing steam.
After hitting a dead end with China Exim Bank, Uganda is now in discussions with several Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) to bankroll its SGR project, with officials suggesting that Kenya will go the same route.
Tanzania’s project is bankrolled by Western lenders.
Positive stage
Ugandan Finance Minister Matia Kasaija told The EastAfrican that Kampala has had “productive discussions with some friends” and that some are already “at a very positive stage” but which he is not at liberty to disclose until formal agreements are signed.
Sources indicate that one of the reasons Yapi Merkezi was invited is that the company, which is already in Tanzania, has experience with the financing model Uganda is taking, and can tap into its network to bring on board ECAs that will avail funds and breathe life into the moribund project.
But The EastAfrican has seen correspondence of proposals between Uganda government officials and potential financiers, including UK Export Fund (UKEF), which last September was said to be interested in bankrolling the SGR to the tune of £1.5 billion ($1.82 billion).
Frustrated by lack of progress with China Exim Bank, President Museveni last year directed his officials to open up the financing of the SGR to the world’s financial capitals, with London and UKEF as the first call in September 2022, to attract new investors, sources familiar with the project said.
Financing footprint
Contacted, UKEF did not deny nor confirm bankrolling Uganda’s SGR.
“It would be premature to discuss whether UKEF could provide financial support for the project at this early stage,” the agency’s media relations manager told The EastAfrican.
But sources close to the discussions say the UK agency is keen on the project as a means to grow its financing footprint in Uganda’s infrastructure developments, having already financed projects in the country, including the Kampala Industrial Business Park and Kabaale International Airport.
The development in Kampala comes as Tanzania prepares to launch its inaugural trains on its SGR and Kenya continues to struggle to find funds to connect its line that terminates in Naivasha to the Malaba border to make sense to the Ugandan transporters.
In Dodoma, all indications have been that the trains will set off this month, but the launch has been shrouded in PR and less detail. Sources say the locomotives from South Korea are yet to be delivered. There has been concern over the proposed passenger fares and the Tanzania Railways Corporation is yet to settle the matter.
Mid last year, Tanzania tested the electric SGR line between Dar es Salaam and Morogoro, raising hopes of cheaper and faster transport. Once commissioned, the trains, running at an average speed of 160kph, are expected to cut the travel time between Dar and Morogoro to about two hours from four by bus and five by train on the metre gauge railway.
The 300km Dar-Morogoro line is the first phase of the SGR project, which is expected to run up to Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria and Kigoma on the northeastern shores of Lake Tanganyika in five phases. There are plans to add connections to Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of the East African Railway Master Plan.
Indeed, last August, Dodoma invited bids for the construction of the 367km Uvinza-Gitega line that will extend the SGR to Burundi. The project will involve 282km of the main line and 85km of siding/passing loops. Lot 1 will cover 180km from Uvinza to Malagarasi within Tanzania, and Lot 2 187km across the border to Musongati and then Gitega.
The project has been in the pipeline since January 2022, when the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on initial cost estimates of $900 million.
Dream deferred
Uganda, which had deferred its SGR project for seven years, seems ready to roll this time round. Sources told The EastAfrican that despite terminating its contract, CHEC is seeking another role as one of the financiers for the Malaba-Kampala project, through an ECA arrangement with a Chinese agency.
The Chinese firm is also seeking deals to construct other phases of Uganda’s total 1,742km SGR network, which includes the western and southern lines, expected to link with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and the northern line that will link with South Sudan and Congo.
Uganda’s late entry is partly blamed on Kenya’s failure to see its line go all the way to Malaba. Kenya built its first phase from Mombasa to Nairobi before embarking on the Nairobi-Naivasha line, which all cost $3.7 billion. Then China turned off the funding tap, as Nairobi sought an extra $3.6 billion for the third phase — a critical segment of the Northern Corridor project – due to fears of financial distress on Kenya’s part.
In 2019, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta visited Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, hoping to secure funding but returned with some $400 million to upgrade the 120-year-old metre gauge railway to Malaba.
President Kenyatta had hoped to get $3.68 billion—in loans and grant—to take the SGR from Naivasha to Kisumu, and on to Malaba.
Beijing’s assessment was that without Uganda, whose participation is key to connecting South Sudan, Rwanda and DRC to the port of Mombasa, the SGR’s viability is grossly undermined.
The cost factor
Then in December last year Museveni lifted the SGR hopes.
“We’re going to build a brand new [SGR line] from Kampala to Kasese. Later on, we will [extend it] from Kampala to the border of Kenya and then to South Sudan,” he told the third biannual meeting of private sector chief executive officers in Karuma. “We want [to lower the] cost of transport [and] improve our competitiveness.”
This marked a major shift because Uganda, in May 2021, had signed a deal with a Chinese firm to revamp its century-old metre gauge line between Malaba and Kampala to create seamless travel from the Mombasa port.
According to the deal, the 260-km Kampala line would be linked to the SGR track through the Naivasha-Malaba old railway, which Kenya is upgrading.
Kenya’s earlier priority seemed to have been to take the SGR line to Kisumu port as part of a plan to have Uganda and Rwanda evacuate their goods via Lake Victoria. The Kisumu port is a critical hub for trade with neighbouring countries. It has undergone major upgrades since 2019, with works including concreting of the port yard, construction of the quayside, repairs of the linkspan, revamping the dry dock, and rehabilitation of all buildings to boost efficiency.
Applecart upset
Then the new William Ruto administration oversaw a policy shift that gives importers the liberty to choose the mode of transport other than the SGR, a move that seemed to slow down the regional project. The introduction of SGR passenger train in 2017 and a freight one the following year was part of a wider regional network connecting Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
The government made it mandatory to haul cargo from the Mombasa port to Nairobi and Naivasha using the SGR, locking out truckers. To entice East African countries, Kenya allocated each country using the port 10 acres to establish dry ports in Naivasha.
The move giving importers and truckers leeway on the choice of transport means has potentially put Nairobi on a collision course with China – going against the agreement between Kenya and Beijing on a pick-or-pay deal to ensure traders use the SGR and use the guaranteed business to repay the $3.7 billion loan taken to finance the project.
Further, the elevation of Kenya to a middle-income country saw China lock it out of a new list of African nations that will receive debt relief under a plan to help 17 poor nations saddled with its huge loans. The deal will see Beijing forgive 23 matured interest-free loans for 17 African countries, which are classified as least developed.
Young Kenyans have given President Ruto’s first 100 days in office a dismal rating of 4/10 after interviews from a sample of different university students. Many of the interviewed said that Ruto’s government was a continuation of the same Jubilee regime of former President Kenyatta’s government, with most of the government promises and projects being more PR than development. They also decried the high rate of government borrowing continuing in the same footsteps as the Uhuru Kenyatta presidency.
Hustler fund
They said that government projects such as the ‘Hustler Fund’ initiative was unrealistic claiming that most people cannot launch a business with less than 50,000 Ksh and pay back the government loan within 2 weeks. But other’s lauded the ‘Hustler Fund’ scheme to be beneficial to small businesses such as roadside vendors. It is also accessible to people who have been blacklisted by various credit rating agencies such as the CRB (Credit Reference Bureau).
The ‘Hustler Fund’ is a first of its kind initiative in Kenya with borrowers being able to access small loans of up to 50,000 Ksh through their mobile phones via the USSD code number *254# or via a mobile application, making it widely accessible to majority of Kenyans.
Jeremy, a student at The Catholic University of Eastern Africa said, “I don’t know how I can start a business with such a small loan and be able to pay it back in 14 days, but I know it is meaningful to people with small businesses such as ‘smokie’ and ‘mayai’ vendors.”
Continued borrowing
The youth criticized the new government over continued borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after 55.1 billion shillings (447 million dollars) was wired to Kenya in December, adding to the country’s existing debt of 8.4 trillion Shillings.
President Ruto had said that he was not part of the Jubilee government’s second term borrowing of 4.2 trillion Shillings, claiming he was sidelined after Raila Odinga’s ‘handshake’ deal with President Uhuru Kenyatta. The President has sought to assure Kenyans that he does not intend to borrow much and will shun loans at more than 10%, terming those types of rates as ‘unacceptable’.
Rising Cost of living
University students also said they felt the pressure of the rising cost of living due to the hike in fuel prices last year as well as the rising cost of food, while wages remained the same and unemployment levels remained high. According to the World Bank, Kenya’s unemployment rate stands at 5.7%, up from 2.8% in 2013 when the Jubilee government took over power.
Kenya’s food shortage following the worst drought in decades has also led the government to resort to importing GMOs from overseas. According to young people GMO’s are potentially a health risk to consumers and a threat to the agricultural industry’s fair-play due to the draconian GMO patenting laws that prevent farmers from growing their own seeds every season, and also the fact that GMO cultivation in the country will potentially contaminate non-GMO produce in the country.
The president however defended his government’s position on the issue, claiming that no-one has mutated or developed adverse health reactions to GMOs in countries where they eat GMOs. Several university Professors have however stated that although GMOs may not pose a health risk, they pose a threat to farmers who will no longer have ownership of re-cultivatable seeds due to patenting of such seeds as intellectual property of the creators.
Scrapping of HELB
Nairobi’s university youth are also eagerly awaiting the Presidents announced plan to scrap the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
“The government will establish the National Skill and Funding Council that amalgamates HELB, TVET, and University Funding Board," Ruto said while ushering in the New Year in Mombasa. Ruto added that this plan will double the current HELB funding from Sh11billion to Sh22 billion and even eliminate HELB loan interests.
Abdi, who is in his last year of studies at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, said this could be a positive move due to the elimination of interests on student loans.
"While this may look attractive at face value, this is the easiest way to disenfranchise students of this fund," University of Nairobi Student Association (UNSA) chairperson Melvin Thogo said. "Amalgamating the funds means the university administration will directly receive the money and then disburse them to students," he added.
Lecturers also opposed the move saying it will compromise the transparency of the disbursement of funds.
Rise in insecurity
Lastly, the rise in cases of insecurity in the country immediately after the September 2022 election has left the country’s youth feeling more unsafe with increasing muggings and killings in major cities.
After the rise in robberies and muggings around Nairobi CBD, University of Nairobi students say they are living in constant fear of being robbed of their belongings by thugs riding on boda-bodas who regularly rob students of their phones and bags.
The government’s Interior Ministry has responded saying they are dealing with the rise in insecurity calling on citizens to help them in their efforts.
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