Calls for beneficial inclusion into partnerships within the extractive industry echoed by different stakeholders as many believe this will move citizens from being spectators to beneficiaries
Dar es Salaam. As Tanzania is witnessing increased discoveries of natural resources, stakeholders in the extractive industry have cautioned the government to ensure inked contracts benefit the general public.
They are of the view that partnerships and investment contracts should increase efficiency and benefit both sides; investors and the government on behalf of its people.
Their caution comes following reports that many countries blessed with abundant natural resources including oil and gas as well as minerals have failed to benefit its people due to poor supervision.
They said most countries have ultimately ended up plunging into civil war as well as endless conflicts in what is referred as resource curse.
Extractive industry stakeholders shared the caution during a workshop gathering experts in the sector organised by the Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI).
Repoa Executive Director, Donald Mmari said investment capital required for extraction activities is extremely huge to be afforded by most countries without involving investors.
“Investors bring in capital, while countries offer resources. We are therefore required to be careful when striking the deals in order to benefit both sides involved in the contract,” said Dr Mmari.
He said the country should see how the sector is interconnected with others and ensure investment multiple effects is realised in many other sectors.
Furthermore, he said Tanzania needs to see how to strengthen its economy using resources harvested in the extraction industry.
“There are resources that are depleted after a few years of extraction meaning that they should be converted to other resources that will significantly contribute to the country’s economic growth before depletion,” he said.
“There are countries that have failed to properly use such resources while others have benefited, which should be a lesson to Tanzania,” he cautioned.
Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI) manager for East Africa, Moses Kulaba said there was a need for proper supervision of tax collection in the extractive industry.
“The sector is rapidly growing making it important for the country to increase its revenue collection in order to benefit its people,” he said.
“Climate change could adversely affect the sector’s growth, therefore placing the need for government’s preparation that will guarantee its growth and prosperity for the benefit of general public,” he added.
For his part, assistant mineral commissioner Ally Samaji said the government was putting in effort to increase citizen participation in the extractive industry.
“The move will place generated revenues in the hands of citizens instead of making them observers. We want more Tanzanians recruited in the sector and increase their understanding of what happens in order to improve efficiency,” he said. By Elizabeth Edward, The Citizen
Cambodian financial industry players are working to enhance cross-border payments with the landlocked African country of Rwanda, as well as promote the blockchain-based Bakong system and strengthen international digital and fintech (financial technology) partnerships in general.
A local delegation joined a fintech event in Rwanda from June 20-26 with the goal of showcasing the envisioned revolutionary potential of Cambodian fintech innovations, encouraging cross-border collaboration, and elevating the Kingdom’s fintech scene to new heights.
The team was led by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and co-organised by the Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology (CAFT) and the Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC).
At the event, CAFT chairman Remi Pell discussed how dominant he believed mobile wallets and payment firms have grown in the Kingdom, as well as the anticipated entry of new regulatory technology (regtech) and insurance tech (insurtech) players as well as digital-only banking platforms known as “neobanks” into the market.
“Notably, the exponential growth of e-commerce and contactless transactions has significantly fostered the widespread adoption of digital payment solutions between merchants and consumers,” he said.
Pell stressed the importance of blockchain technology and smart contracts to financial development in Cambodia, but conceded that the Kingdom lacks many of the required resources, including specialists, innovators, solution providers, entrepreneurs and investors.
There are “immense opportunities” in blockchain solutions, “including upskilling and training programmes, the development of transparent smart-contract solutions, and their application across various sectors such as finance, accounting and communication”, he added.
Meanwhile, NBC deputy governor Chea Serey at a seminar in western Kampong Thom province’s Stoung district last month revealed that the central bank has been working with Asian, African, Latin American and European nations to increase the scope of payment systems that are regarded as quick, secure and low-cost to promote cross-border economic activities.
Cambodia has been linked with Thailand and Malaysia through Bakong, with connections to Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, China and India still in the works, she said.
Serey explained that the platform enables Cambodians in Thailand to scan and pay using riel-denominated accounts as well as Thais in Cambodia to scan and pay in the local currency, which she said would promote use of the riel.
She boasted that Bakong has made it possible for less-affluent rural residents to access and benefit from formal financial services.
Bakong has received several awards, with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in May hailing the system as an example of “model” international cooperation, namely between the Cambodian central bank and a Japanese tech firm, she added.
For context, Bakong, a quasi-central bank digital currency (CBDC) launched on October 28, 2020, was developed by Japanese blockchain company Soramitsu Co Ltd.
According to the NBC, by end-2022, “the number of registered e-wallet account[s] increased to 19.5 million and the total number of transactions jumped from 708 million to one billion with a total amount of $272.8 billion (increased by 34 per cent), approximately nine times the [GDP]”. By May Kunmakara, The Phnom Penh Post
The death toll in the Londiani junction road accident has risen to 51 after two more bodies were retrieved from under the wreckage of the trailer.
Kericho County Health CEC says a total of 51 bodies have been received at the Kericho County Hospital and Londiani Sub-county hospital mortuaries, as of Saturday morning.
At least twenty-one (21) people sustained severe injuries and are receiving treatment at the Kericho County Hospital.
Authorities have commenced a search for the driver of the truck that rammed into seven vehicles at the Londiani junction along Kericho-Nakuru Road.
Rift Valley Regional Police Commander told The Standard that the fatal accident involved at least ten vehicles.
Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen is expected to lead a government delegation to the accident scene and also visit the injured in the hospital.
Earlier, we reported that Kericho Police Commander Geoffrey Mayek confirmed the rise in the number of fatalities.
According to witnesses, a trailer lost control and rammed into six public service vehicles before landing in a ditch on the roadside.
Heavy rains hindered rescue operations which were being carried out by Police and Kenya Red Cross volunteers.
Peter Ochieng, a driver, told The Standard that the trailer which was heading to Kericho lost control and was about to hit the vehicle he was driving head-on but he was able to evade.
The trailer ended up ramming into six vehicles before landing on a ditch where it claimed the lives of traders and their customers who were by the roadside.
“It was around 6:30 pm when the driver of the trailer hit my truck and lost control, ramming into the matatus,” Otieno said.
Londiani Sub County Police Commander Agnes Kunga, who was among the first people at the scene, said the trailer was heading towards Kericho Town from Nakuru when the accident occurred.
“Rescue operation is underway; a number of people are trapped in the wreckages. We are working hard to remove them despite the rains,” she said.
She said Police could not immediately establish the cause of the tragic accident but said the number of dead could rise because most of those taken to the hospital were in serious conditions.
“We wish those injured a speedy recovery as we try to rescue those trapped in the vehicles. It is a bad crash.”
Eyewitnesses at the scene told The Standard that the incident occurred when a lorry driver lost control and collided with several vehicles, including Public Service Vehicles (PSVs).
The survivors of the Friday evening accident have been taken to the Kericho County Hospital and other health facilities within the County.
Kericho Governor Eric Mutai mourned the deceased saying the county had mobilized ambulances and gotten all health facilities on standby.
“My heart is crushed. It is a dark moment for the people of Kericho. My heart goes out to the families who have just lost their loved one in a worst road carnage at Londiani junction,” he wrote on Facebook.
“May God give us grace and strength at this difficult time.”
Kericho Women Representative Beatrice Kemei said that she had contacted emergency response teams in the country to help with the rescue operation.
“I send my commiserations to families who have lost their loved ones and healing prayers to those injured,” she said. - Nikko Tanui, The Standard
She died on Friday aged 81, after a long battle with cancer
In Summary
• She also did collaborative work with Ngugi aa Thiongó in the country who was also a professor at Irvine University in California, US west Coast.
• She disclosed that she was a two-time cancer survivor. For a long time, she battled cancer of the bone marrow.
Micere Githae Mugo was born with a creative and unrestrained mind that often brought fortune her way and a good measure of trouble.
In past interviews, she constantly recounted that her “unrestrained mind has given me losses at times, but countless times victories”.
When she was the dean of the faculty of arts and social sciences at the University of Nairobi in 1982, a play she co-authored with Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o landed her in trouble.
The play, titled 'The trial of Dedan Kimathi', was among her works that riled then President Daniel Moi’s administration, leading to her forced exile.
She was stripped of her Kenyan citizenship by the government. This was despite being born in Baricho, Ndia constituency, in Kirinyaga county.
Leaving the country at the time, she once said in an interview, was a painful experience though a part of her welcomed the move.
“It was painful for me to leave a country I’m deeply connected with. At the time, I was sick and had two little children, five and six and half years old,” she said.
She taught at the university of Zimbabwe in Harare, becoming a citizen of the South African country. She later became a citizen of Nigeria and later of the United States.
She regained her Kenyan citizenship in 2009.
“I’m a border crosser, defying geographical containments, above labels and beyond definitions. [I] have far too many identities to bow to [any form of] containment,” she said in another interview appearance.
Mugo’s literary and activism philosophy perfected the Africanist principle of Utu and Ubuntu, at one point saying that what intrigued her in Zimbabwe was the Shona tribe greeting that embodied the principle.
“You ask me ‘how are you?’ and I answer you ‘I am well if you are well’,” she said.
In the US, she taught for a long time at the Syracuse university in New York where her literary footprints live on.
In a 2015 TV interview, she described how the play, which had been condemned in Kenya, was acclaimed globally and got re-enacted numerous times in various countries by non-Kenyans.
She retired from Syracuse in 2015 and the university hosted an event in which then Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and then Senator Anyang' Nyongó gave key note addresses at various symposia in her honour.
She also did collaborative work with Ngugi Wa Thiongó in the country who was also a professor at Irvine University in California, US West Coast.
The playwright, essayist, poet and novelist died on Friday, June 30, aged 81.
She was a mother of two, Mumbi and Njeri. However, Njeri died in 2012.
On her name Micere, what does it mean?
She would answer the question without taking offense, explaining that “I’m Micere, not that of rice, but one connected to Njeri, one of the nine daughters of Mumbi.”
“I’m a mother of Mumbi and the late Njeri, daughter of the Githae family and by former marriage, from the Mugo family.”
“I’m an internationalist, a global citizen and have no less than eight children named after me all over the world, and so I have been reborn many times,” she would proudly say.
She disclosed that she was a two-time cancer survivor. For a long time, she battled cancer of the bone marrow.
Micere straddled the academic like a colossus, earning countless accolades in her wake.
Among them include the title of Distinguished Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Lecturer, a title reserved for intellectuals who have contributed to social justice.
She was awarded the accolade in 2012 and gave a public lecture in Tanzania attended by former president Benjamin Mkapa, among others dignitaries.
Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o said on Sunday that he had spoken with Dr Ibbo Mandaza, the executive director the Southern African Political Economy series in Harare and Godwin Murunga of the Council for Development of Social Sciences in Africa, to rally Micere’s long time allies to pull together a symposium in her honour.
Micere's husband Dr John Mugo passed on in February 2020. By Gordon Osen, The Star
Mercy Chepkurui at Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital in Nakuru on July 1, 2023. She is among the survivors of the Londiani Junction Hospital [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]
At the funeral parlour of the Kericho County Hospital mortuary, Betty Cherono welled up with tears as she pleaded for news regarding her husband, Samuel Kimgetich, aged 54, who had a regular habit of lingering around the roadside market at Londiani junction every evening.
The horrifying road accident occurred on Friday evening at Londiani junction, resulting in the tragic deaths of at least 55 individuals, including roadside traders and their customers.
The incident involved a trailer colliding with eight matatus and two private vehicles.
According to the police, 27 bodies have been identified by their respective relatives, and the process of identifying additional bodies is currently underway at both the Kericho County Hospital mortuary and the Londiani sub-county facility.
“Several families have successfully identified their loved ones, and this agonising process is ongoing within the mortuaries. We will persist until every family member is reunited with their kin,” said Geoffrey Mayek, the Kericho police commander.
Cherono, who displayed a photograph of her husband on her mobile phone, was still awaiting the opportunity to view his body.
“My husband was travelling from Bomet town. We had spoken on the phone, and he had informed me to wait for him at the bus stop so that we could return home together,” said the tearful mother of two.
She recounted that when she dialed his cellphone at 7pm, it was switched off. “I started making inquiries, and it wasn’t until around 10pm that I received the devastating news of his death from individuals who knew him,” Cherono tearfully said.
The Londiani Junction centre presented a terrifying scene, with the wailing sirens of ambulances and police cars resounding in every direction. People screamed as they received assistance from compassionate strangers.
As shocked residents grappled with disbelief, personal belongings and groceries lay scattered across the area, remnants of the horrific accident. A truck collided with at least 10 vehicles, resulting in the tragic loss of a minimum of 50 lives and leaving several others injured.
Residents expressed that the events they witnessed on Friday night would be etched into their memories indefinitely. Eight matatus were mangled and transformed into mere wreckage, leaving one unable to fathom that these remnants were once functional vehicles.
The wreckage was subsequently towed to Londiani Police Station, with the truck cabin and trailer being detached and treated as separate entities.
The incident has ignited anger among the local community, with the police attributing the crash to human error, while the government places blame on excessive speeding and the use of an unfit trailer.
Cause of accident
“My husband could have been alive were it not for reckless truck drivers. They are murderers, all of them,” Cherono screamed out loud.
There has been a bad habit of long-distance truck drivers free-wheeling that could have caused the grisly accident.
Although police are yet to fully establish the actual cause of the accident, sources within the Kericho Traffic Department said free-wheeling is still rampant on that section of the road.
An official of the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) and Kenya National Highways Authority (KENHA), who arrived at the scene yesterday, said the driver of the trailer resorted to free-wheeling (where you engage the neutral gear because you want to save fuel) while hurtling downslope at high speed, before losing control of the vehicle.
Mayek said a manhunt for the Rwandese driving the trailer was still on.
Caroline Cherutich, another of the Londiani residents who lost her cousin, Joan Chepchirchir, 38, said the deceased was roasting and hawking maize at the roadside market.
“Joan had just resumed her business after a short break, only to be among the victims of the crash. She wanted to use the school half-term break to raise some money for children’s school needs but ended up dying in the crash,” said Cherutich.
Her body is among those moved to Londiani sub-county hospital mortuary. Charles Koech said his brother, a driver, died in the accident. He said they could not have identified his body were it not for the clothes he was wearing.
Kenya Red Cross South Rift regional manager Jethro Koech said the agency was helping families in tracing their loved ones, and positively identifying their dead relatives.
“We have been around since Friday. We are doing the tracing, supporting families to identify the deceased, doing referrals of the injured to other hospitals, and offering psycho-social support to affected families,” Koech said.
However, 48-year-old Mary Chepkoech Maritim survived the Londiani road crash.
Recounting her ordeal from her hospital bed at Kericho County Hospital, Maritim, a matron at Kirobon Girls Secondary School in Nakuru county, expressed her gratitude for being one of the only two survivors among the eight passengers aboard the ill-fated matatu.
‘Loud bang’
Maritim, who was en route from Kericho to Nakuru, described the accident as an apocalyptic scene that unfolded in an instant, leaving her bewildered and traumatised.
“The accident happened within a twinkle of an eye. I just heard a loud bang and tyres screeching, and people screaming as the lorry rammed one car after another. I can’t recall anything else,” she said.
Despite the chaos and devastation, Maritim managed to escape with soft tissue injuries. She resorted to breaking the vehicle’s window and maneuvering over lifeless bodies in order to make her way out of the accident site.
Reflecting on her harrowing experience, she expressed her gratitude for surviving while so many others perished. “I thank God that I emerged alive in a situation where many people died,” she said.
Recounting the events leading up to the crash, the lucky survivor said the ill-fated Nanaki Sacco vehicle had come to a halt at the Londiani junction, as the conductor sought an alternative means of transportation for the six passengers in her vehicle.
However, tragedy struck before a replacement vehicle could be arranged. “The accident happened before the conductor could get us an alternative vehicle to transport us,” Maritim said.
Furthermore, Maritim said the four passengers from her vehicle, who tragically lost their lives in the incident, had already disembarked prior to the collision.
“They were knocked down just outside the car. An elderly man and I were still inside the vehicle, wondering how we would complete the rest of the journey when the accident occurred,” she said.
Challenges
As Maritim recovers from her injuries, she remains grateful for her survival, grappling with the memories of the catastrophic crash.
Yesterday, Kericho County Hospital’s Emergency Department saw an influx of survivors on Friday night, according to Alice Akoth, a nurse at the facility. She said 19 survivors had been admitted, shedding light on the severity of the accident.
Among the survivors, two victims required immediate surgical intervention. Tragically, one of them lost their lives while undergoing a medical operation in the theater, as shared by Akoth.
The incident highlights the challenges faced by the medical team as they battled to save lives in the midst of chaos and confusion.
Akoth said another survivor, who had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, succumbed to their injuries on Saturday morning.
Currently, three survivors remain under observation while four others are awaiting their reports in the Emergency department.
Akoth said despite the circumstances, all survivors are in stable condition.
Nakuru County Health executive Jacqueline Osoro said the nine survivors had been attended to. The county will waive all medical charges. By Julius Chepkwony and Niko Tanui, The Standard
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