East Africa

Details: East Africa; 21 October 2021; 833

Activist Boniface Mwangi. Image: COURTESY

Claims home which was under construction was bombed by unknown people.

In Summary

• Mwangi says the house was destroyed after unknown people attacked it and robbed his workers who were present.

• The workers say the attackers also shot at the scene but no injury was reported.

He said if those behind the incident are not caught they shall survive to hunt him and hurt others.

“Four years ago they shot me. Yesterday they bombed my family home. Everything l do and say is protected by the constitution. They can take away my everything but l will never stop speaking truth to power. I need your solidarity, demand answers from the police,” he said.

“All l ask is an open and transparent investigation. If speaking the truth will get me killed, I’m ready to die."

Mwangi had been in Nairobi Wednesday evening attending a concert at the Alliance Française when he received the news.

Mwangi had for the better part of the past week been on social media engaging Kenyans on various issues.

Police say they are investigating the incident.

Machakos police boss Issa Mohamed said they are yet to know the motive and those behind it.

“The complainant is already dropping names of the possible people who did this and I don’t think this is helpful as it is affecting investigations,” he said.

He said experts had visited the scene as part of efforts to know those behind the said attack.

He asked for more time and patience for the investigations to be completed and action to be taken.

In the video shared on Social media, there are some bullets that could be seen.

“I’m not a criminal. I don’t do deals. I have never comprised my values. The state has blown up the house my family was building. The bullets, the explosives they used are on the scene. So what kind of a country are we living in?" he posed.

Mwangi said he is hurting but his spirit is not broken.

"Even this will pass. In a few hours, the day will break and it will be the work of the police to open investigations," he said.

"If the government doesn’t go after the culprits, they shall survive to hunt me and hurt others." Edited by D Tarus, by NANCY AGUTU AND CYRUS OMBATI, The Star

Details: East Africa; 21 October 2021; 814

Agency Helps Kenya’s Returning Abused Workers Reintegrate

Laborers from Kenya say they have endured abuse in the Middle East, often at the hands of their employers. But an aid agency is offering them a chance to rebuild their lives in Kenya. Hundreds of survivors of forced labour are now able to access support offered by a group that offers a soft landing for those in need.

Faith Murunga’s store on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital is open for business. It has been barely six months old in operation, helping her put food on her family’s table.

It isn’t what she had anticipated when she left Kenya in 2019 for work in Saudi Arabia, a popular work destination for those unable to find jobs in Kenya. She says what she was promised as she emigrated and what she found there were worlds apart.

She says, the boss came and told me that as long as I agreed to travel to their country, I must do each and every chore. He said, I would not have the right to complain. They had paid a lot of money to buy me. I was therefore their property,” Murunga said.

During her two years of service in Saudi Arabia, Murunga suffered both emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her employer, until a good Samaritan came to her aid and facilitated her return to Kenya.

Back home, she received help from Haart Kenya, an organization that fights human trafficking and helps people like Faith.

Since Haart Kenya was formed in 2010, the organization has helped more than 700 survivors of forced labour who have come home scarred.

Mercy Atieno, the organization’s outreach manager, says the survivors, 80% of them women, have varying degrees of trauma when they seek help.

“When a survivor comes to us, they are distressed. Some of them appear abused. They don’t know what to do next and you find someone who does not know where to start, they do not have a house, they don’t want to go back home because everyone knows they went abroad, so they are expecting they will come with something,” Atieno said.

The organization takes in survivors of forced labor and other work-related abuses and helps them rebuild their lives through counselling, training, and supporting their ability to make a living. Mercy Atieno explains.

“This process is a very participatory process, where together with the case worker and the survivor, charting ways through which they are going to work together for proper rehabilitation, so the survivor has a voice and they actually say no to a service, because our services are individualized, and they are survivor-centered,” Atieno said.

The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers, or KUDHEIHA, the union that fights for the rights of workers, says the migration of workers to the Middle East is likely to continue as long as Kenya’s 10% unemployment rate stays as high as it is.

Albert Njeru, the union’s general secretary, advises those seeking work as unskilled labour abroad to be extra vigilant.

“Seek for proper information, consult widely, and before you go get it right, don’t go where you can see black spots,” Njeru said.

Haart Kenya’s leadership says it is ready to handle cases like Faith’s as they appear. For now, Faith says she is grateful for another chance at life, away from the abuse she suffered in a foreign land. Brenda Mulinya, VOA

Details: East Africa; 20 October 2021; 929

An aerial view shows the central business district in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye/File Photo

As part of a new series on procurement in Africa, together with Open Contracting Partnership, we have profiled some of the pioneers pushing open data and participation in public contracting. In this first part of a two-part series, we feature some of the key figures advocating for a more transparent and participatory procurement ecosystem in South Africa, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

This is part 1 of a 2-part series

Even for people in countries where corruption has long been widespread, the revelations on the extent of fraud in emergency procurement in countries like Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa have come as a shock. They triggered renewed commitments by leaders including from South Africa and Kenya to advance procurement reforms joining others who have commited to more transparency or are modernizing their public procurement systems through e-procurement.

Open contracting is a critical element to building a more just, inclusive and equitable economy. With an over-reliance on paper-based and outdated systems, opacity and a lack of information continue to undermine the efforts of activists, journalists, monitors and disruptors who continue to push for reforms and businesses who could benefit from a competitive marketplace.

The monitor: Zukiswa Kota (South Africa)

Zukiswa Kota is a Programme Head at the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM). The PSAM promotes social accountability in Africa with a particular focus on South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.

“Meaningful reform in procurement has to be matched by public service reform,” Kota tells The Africa Report. “Both have been arguably slow, long-awaited processes,” adds Kota, citing delays to the 2020 Procurement Bill in South Africa as an example of the inertia holding back the procurement landscape in Africa’s largest economy. Corruption linked to emergency procurement procedures during the pandemic has added urgency to the need for reform.

“Some of the work we’ve championed has involved entrenching open government principles in the way departments respond to their mandates – including introducing open, transparent and responsive systems,” says Kota. “For several years, we’ve contributed to the Open Government Partnership work [most recent National Action Plan in which we sought to include open contracting], the Open Budget Survey and entrenching accessible, transparent budget processes. This has been a major ‘win’ in the sense that it has shown not only the possibility of civil society–government partnerships, but also really made a difference in fiscal transparency reform.”

Open procurement reforms began in South Africa in 1995 after the fall of apartheid. The website Vulekamali – which publishes budget data related to various government departments – is one of civil society’s biggest successes to date, says Kota. Other important reforms include:

Major challenges remain, however.

One of the key issues is that opening up procurement represents a threat to institutionalised corruption within the establishment. “Procurement is by its nature a political beast,” says Kota. “This is likely a significant barrier all on its own and may serve to hinder meaningful progress at the expense of public funds, people’s lives and access to much needed public services. To some extent – recent revelations from the State Capture Commission of Enquiry as well as procurement corruption cases involving high ranking politicians and public officials is an indication that there are many who stand to benefit from slow or ineffective.”

The digital disruptor: Victor Vincent (Tanzania)

Victor Vincent, 30, is the founder of Zabuni, an app that links government and private sector contractors with suppliers throughout Tanzania.

Information about government procurement was previously spread across several platforms and hard to access. Zabuni fills the information gap by providing new suppliers with access to government and private sector tenders. More than 4,000 suppliers had registered with Zabuni as of late April 2021. That number has grown 50% in the last six months to more than 6,000 suppliers, according to Zabuni’s founder and CEO Vincent.

Since its inception in late 2019, Zabuni has published 8716 tenders. Most of these are in English; a handful are also in Swahili. As of 2021, suppliers pay a small “maintenance” membership fee, Vincent tells The Africa Report.

More than 650 procurement entities use or have used the Zabuni app to search for the right suppliers in the last two years. In 2020, the app started publishing Open Contracting Standard Data with support from Dutch foundation HIVOS.

The supplier: Cecilia Kavura (Tanzania)

Cecilia Kavura, 33, works for CK Safety Solutions, a company based in Dar es Salaam that supplies safety materials in real estate, manufacturing, oil and gas, and the mining and construction industries.

Cecilia has used digital tools like Zabuni to compete for tenders in her sector. “Zabuni has given me a platform where I can view and apply for different job contracts,” Kavura tells The Africa Report by email. She argues that technology has played a “pivotal role” in helping women integrate into the business and procurement landscapes in Tanzania.

While access opens, challenges remain. Kavura laments that procurement entities do not often provide feedback to suppliers. “Local banks are also absolutely not supportive of startups,” says Kavura. “Usually they have very difficult requirements for financing. We usually get support from regional banks.”

The investigative journalists: Dataphyte (Nigeria)

Dataphyte’s investigations into corruption in the procurement landscape in Nigeria have forced government agencies to issue retractions and have been a foundation of the push for procurement reform in Nigeria. The Dataphyte editorial trust includes a lawyer, an economist, a human rights activist, a lecturer and the director of the Centre for Democracy and Development.

Since the inception of emergency procurement procedures in April 2021, Dataphyte has revealed several bombshell irregularities across a number of Nigerian procurement entities. One Dataphyte investigation revealed inflated prices and nebulous details in a contract to supply masks to a ministry. The Federal Ministry of Water Resources allegedly tampered with a published contract worth 325 million Naira (approximately US$850,000) on the NOCOPO website following an information request from Dataphyte, according to the latter. Another Dataphyte investigation reportedly found that more than 1,000 payments by state-affiliated organizations failed to provide a simple payment description, amounting to 173 billion Naira (approximately US$450 million) worth of payments between January and April 2020.

Alex Macbeth writes about global procurement for Open Contracting Partnership, a US-based organization that promotes open data and transparency in public procurement. The Africa Report

Details: East Africa; 21 October 2021; 881

EALA Speaker Martin Ngoga from Rwanda. Photo The Chronicles

The East African Community (EAC) Secretariat has called off the controversial job interviews in which Uganda felt it was unfairly edged out of the process by some of the partners states.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Secretariat’s media unit said the interviews that had been scheduled to start on Monday this week could not take off due to lack of quorum.

“Following successful profiling and shortlisting, the interviews were set to commence from October 18 to November 2. The Secretariat made all the arrangements for the shortlisted candidates to participate in the interviews through the video conferencing facilities at the ministries of EAC Affairs in the partner states,” the statement reads in part.

“The interviews could not commence as scheduled due to quorum. The interviews have, therefore, been postponed to a later date that will be communicated accordingly. The EAC is committed to providing an equal opportunity for all East Africans,” the statement adds.

The 42nd extra-ordinary meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers in May approved the filling of the vacant positions in the EAC organs and institutions through competitive recruitment.

In compliance with the directive of the extra-ordinary council meeting, the Secretariat advertised the vacant positions.

More than 15,000 applications were received from all the six partner states.

However, last week, Ugandan MPs claimed their citizens had been side-lined, especially for the job of the clerk.

The Speaker of East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Mr Martin Ngoga who ia from Rwanda, was accused of bias by side-lining Uganda for the job of EALA Clerk and instead gave it to a Tanzanian national.

Ugandan lawmakers moved a motion, seeking to block the exercise, claiming it was full of fraud. South Sudan and Burundi backed Uganda’s concerns.

“The republic of Burundi took the decision of not attending the planned panels for the following reasons; the ongoing recruitment process does not guaranty the implementation of the quota system within the EAC since this has not been clarified before the said process begins,” Burundi stated.

The Minister for East African Affairs, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, also wrote a protest letter over the recruitment.

EAC recruitment guidelines

The recruitment is premised on the principle that citizens from all partner states should enjoy the same rights to employment opportunities accruing from the integration process.

Equally, the staff rules and regulations require that the recruitment will be done on a quota system, which provides that partner states must have points for its citizens to be considered as eligible candidates.

The rules provide that a country must have a minimum of 14 points. This, according to the Ugandan EALA MPs, makes Tanzania and Kenya ineligible to front candidates for the clerk position. - Daily Monitor/The Chronicles

Details: East Africa; 20 October 2021; 1074

Prominent Ugandan activist Stella Nyanzi has paid a high price for her willingness to challenge authority. Her sexually explicit protests have been likened to pornography, but Ugandan activist and writer Stella Nyanzi says sex is the most effective -- and entertaining -- way to shake people out of their apathy.

"I learnt very early that there are some topics in Uganda that are tired and... the only way to capture attention is to introduce some shock value," the 47-year-old told AFP in an interview in Kampala.

And plenty of people have been shocked by Nyanzi's methods, which range from calling President Yoweri Museveni "a pair of buttocks" to baring her breasts during a court hearing.

But the former university researcher, who holds a doctorate on sexuality in Africa and boasts nearly 300,000 followers on Facebook, is unrepentant.

"We don't see or we pretend we don't see what's happening in society especially the excesses and the violations" under Museveni's decades-long authoritarian rule, she said.

"To say to a violent, militant, brutal regime that you are violent, stop, does not (have) as much impact as to say... fuck the rapist, militant penis of the dictatorship."

Stella Nyanzi says her children keep her going

She has paid a high price of her willingness to challenge authority -- imprisoned for "cyber-harassment" in 2019 after she posted a profane poem on Facebook about Museveni and suffering a miscarriage after being beaten in jail.

Although she insists that her losses are "not worth writing home about", grief is at the heart of her quest to bring down Museveni.

After losing her parents in quick succession six years ago -- unable to find life-saving medicines or get an ambulance in time -- Nyanzi turned to humour, in part to escape the overwhelming sadness that engulfed her.

In her hands however, humour has also become a weapon to channel her rage against a government she blames for the deaths of her parents and thousands of Ugandans who lack access to reliable health care and other public services.

- 'Radical rudeness' -

A polarising figure, Nyanzi has drawn scorn from religious conservatives, and even from some feminists, who criticise her relentless focus on sex.

"I am tired of feminists telling me how I am wrong and how I can't do this and how this is anti-feminist," she said.

Nyanzi says Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is 'living on borrowed time'

"Just allow me to be free, to do my own thinking and my own protest," she said, pointing out that her no-holds-barred approach to sexuality is based in pre-Christian Ugandan culture and aimed at empowering women by encouraging them to discuss taboo subjects.

Her tactics also borrow from a political tradition of "radical rudeness", which has its roots in the country's anti-colonial struggle.

And while her blistering online diatribes comparing Museveni's regime to parasitic pubic lice have earned her the tag of "Uganda's rudest woman", the strategy has also made her a social media star outside the country.

Online threats from pro-government trolls don't faze her.

"I am not looking for love and hugs," she said.

"I go to social media very consciously and very purposefully to speak truth to power, truth which our traditional public media no longer speaks."

Furthermore, the toxic rhetoric she encounters pales in comparison to the very real risks faced by many activists in Uganda.

Nyanzi fled to Kenya earlier this year after her partner was allegedly abducted and tortured.

Although she has since returned to Kampala, she is contemplating the possibility of a life in exile to protect her three children.

- 'Hope keeps me going' -

But the self-described optimist, who contested parliamentary elections in January and lost, has no plans to throw in the towel.

"The hope that (Uganda) can change and may become better for the next generation keeps me going," she said.

With a median age that is less than 16, most Ugandans have no memory of life before Museveni. The former rebel seized power in 1986, after toppling two presidents.

Stella Nyanzi fled to Kenya earlier this year after her partner was allegedly abducted and tortured but has since returned to Uganda

At 77, he belongs firmly to her "father's generation", Nyanzi said.

"Museveni is living on borrowed time... his family and his system will one day be out of power."

When that happens, she hopes that her compulsion to protest will also become a thing of the past.

But until then, she stands ready and armed with an arsenal of explicit imagery designed to shock and provoke change.

"What I am doing is not erotica and it's not pornography. It's rage and the expression of rage using my body." Mail Online

Page 639 of 761

East Africa

Cops probe activist Boniface Mwangi's claim that his Machakos home was bombed

Activist Boniface Mwangi. Image: COURTESY

Claims home which was under construction was bombed by unknown people.

Agency Helps Kenya’s Returning Abused Workers Reintegrate

Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa…Reformers who are pushing for open procurement in Africa

The monitor: Zukiswa Kota (South Africa)

The digital disruptor: Victor Vincent (Tanzania)

The supplier: Cecilia Kavura (Tanzania)

The investigative journalists: Dataphyte (Nigeria)

Uganda, Burundi Accuse EALA Speaker of Bias in Staff Recruitment

Sex, hope and activism: meet 'Uganda's rudest woman'

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