Members of a ‘stateless’ community in Kenya known as the Shona have received digital ID cards from the Kenyan government, ending approximately five decades of their statelessness.
Kenyan outlet The Star, in a feature report, chronicles the ordeal that many of the Shona community members have gone through over the years, living without an official identification.
They are reported to have received their digital ID cards on July 28, to the excitement of many.
According to the report, the Shona, who are descendants of missionaries of the Church of God, came into Kenya from then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). They have either found it difficult seeking medical attention in hospital or have faced arrest and other forms of molestation from security officers for lack of an ID card.
There are an estimated 2,600 Shona people living in about 900 households in Kenya as children of missionaries who came into the country in the 1960s, The Star writes. They held Rhodesian passports when they came, but when Kenya gain independence in 1963, the Shona were given a two-year period to establish Kenyan IDs, the media states. But many of them missed the opportunity to do so for various reasons. Many of them have since lived without official identification, although they have made some efforts since then, still without success.
Some of them told The Star they lived without legal ID for years because their parents were never identified. They said in order to have access to certain public services such getting their children enrolled for school, seeking medical attention in hospital, carrying out certain business transactions or having access to other public services, they were forced to borrow ID cards from those who possessed them.
The Star mentions a report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission confirming cases of ordeal by many Shona women after giving birth in hospitals. It also alludes to the Commission as saying that many Shona children actually attend primary school but are unable to take the First School Leaving Certificate examination because this requires birth certificates – which they do not have.
A 2018 World Bank analysis found that a birth certificate is required to enroll in school and write examinations, and the national ID is required for “virtually all government services,” as well as mobile phone and financial services accounts.
Kenya is implementing a digital ID scheme dubbed the Huduma Namba, but there are many concerns from rights groups around the project including the fact that it could exclude millions of people, especially in minority communities.
Recently, a publication by Research ICT Africa suggested that Kenya focuses registration for the digital identity project among poor and marginalized people who are said to constitute the largest percentage of those who lack legal identification documents in the country. - Ayang Macdonald, Biometric Update
Members of South Sudan National Police Service gesture as they gather ahead of patrolling the streets of Juba to enforce a coronavirus curfew, South Sudan on April 9, 2020. Photo Alex McBride/AFP
Two employees of a South Sudan pro-democracy group were arrested on Wednesday, the non-profit’s chief said, warning of a widening crackdown on rights activists in the conflict-wracked country.
The world’s newest nation has suffered from chronic instability since independence in 2011, with a coalition of civil society groups urging the government to step down, saying they have “had enough.”
The authorities have taken a tough line against such demands, arresting at least eight activists and detaining three journalists last month, according to rights groups, while five people who had planned to join an anti-government protest on Monday have gone into hiding.
On Wednesday, police arrested two people working for the Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance (FODAG), the organization’s executive director Jame David Kolok told AFP.
Kolok said many activists fear for their lives as the government clamps down on freedoms following last month’s call by the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) urging a peaceful public uprising.
“Since the declaration by the PCCA the authorities have been suspicious of some of us as activists and this is being taken as an opportunity to literally kill activism in South Sudan,” he said.
“We are in a very serious stage of dealing away with freedoms, dealing away with activism and dealing away with people who speak out on issues of national importance,” he added.
Efforts to reach the police and government spokespersons for comments were unsuccessful.
Organizers had urged the public to come out in force for Monday’s protests in the capital Juba, but the city’s streets fell silent as heavily-armed security forces patrolled usually busy neighborhoods and activists fled into hiding.
The demonstration was set to take place the same day as President Salva Kiir inaugurated a newly-created national parliament, a key condition of a 2018 peace deal that ended the country’s brutal civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people.
The peace process has suffered from years of drift and bickering following the ceasefire and power-sharing deal between Kiir and his former foe Vice President Riek Machar.
The PCCA – a broad-based coalition of activists, academics, lawyers and former government officials – has described the current regime as “a bankrupt political system that has become so dangerous and has subjected our people to immense suffering.” - AFP/Al Arabiya News
Russia's President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari during a meeting on the sidelines of the Russia–Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia on October 23, 2019. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via Reuters
A legal framework agreement between Russia and Nigeria is likely to be primarily transactional in nature, with any political influence seen by Moscow as a secondary benefit.The Nigerian Embassy in Moscow announced last week the signing of a legal framework agreement that would provide for Russia to supply Nigeria with military equipment and training.
The Agreement on Military-Technical Cooperation also provides for “after-sales services, training of personnel in respective educational establishments, and technology transfer.” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly raised the possibility of such an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019.
Media sees the agreement as related to U.S. congressional hesitancy to authorize the sale to Nigeria of certain military equipment because of human rights concerns. Indeed, Nigerian desire to buy such materiel—and American reluctance to sell, often on human rights grounds—is a perennial irritant to the bilateral relationship. Nigeria already uses military equipment from Russia and other military suppliers as well as the United States.
The just-signed agreement is a legal framework only; Nigeria has not entered into a new agreement actually to make new purchases. With respect to Nigeria, Russia is likely to be “transactional”—can its companies make money? Any accompanying increase in political influence Moscow will regard as a secondary dividend. Council Foreign Relations
The Government of Tanzania has reiterated its commitment to giving more attention to technology and innovations through the Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET), with allocation of 43 billion, approximately $19 million, for setting up new incubators and hubs.
Opening the training on importance of technology and innovation for community development officers from different municipalities, Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Joyce Ndalichako said the funds will be channeled to seven higher learning institutions.
Prof. Ndalichako named the institutions which will benefit from the recently signed World Bank HEET project as the University of Dar es Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Mbeya University of Science and technology, Mzumbe University, Open University of Tanzania, Ardhi University, Nelson Mandela University and Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH).
She said the training was meant to build capacity for the community development officers so that they become part of the mission to identify talents and innovations for bringing economic impact.
Moreover, she said, the institutions have been earmarked for innovation spaces and hubs to support innovators to have their technologies improved so that they become matured and commercialized.
The training, which was attended by 184 community development officers from countrywide, is expected to put them at a better chance to identify, recognize and bring the young innovators to the incubators. "Technology, if well utilized, would be catalyst to economic development activities in various sectors," she said. The Government in 2019 launched the National Science, Technology and Innovation Competition (MAKISATU) to identify young innovators as one of the Ministry's strategies to identify and develop innovations made by Tanzanians and encourage the use of science technology and innovation in social and economic activities that will support the development of the industrial economy.
She explained that in the last three years of MAKISATU, a total of 1,782 innovators have been identified and recognized by the Ministry and 130 talented innovators are being developed by the government through the National Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) so that their innovations are marketed and thus increase employment opportunities for the youth. ABC
President Salva Kiir addresses the National prayer day at the John Garang's Mausoleum in the capital Juba, March 10, 2017. Photo Reuters
August 30, 2021 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has downplayed citizens’ demand for him to step down, urging the population to prepare for general elections at the end of the transition period.
"Our final mandate in this process is to hold free, fair and credible democratic elections at the end of the transitional period," he said, while opening the country’s national assembly on Monday.
Kiir was referring to long-awaited polls expected to be held in 2023.
The South Sudanese leaders told members of the new parliament to place the people of South Sudan above their party’s interests.
Kiir, looking exhausted, said those calling for his exit are “ill” advised.
One of the notable provisions in the revitalized peace agreement is the security arrangement that advocates reunification of command of forces as an institutional attempt to reform the army in a way reflecting all faces of ethnic groups and regions making up the country.
Kiir, however, wants a 60% representation in the command of the unified forces, leaving the remaining 40% to other stakeholders in the agreement, an arrangement the parties, including the main opposition party under Riek Machar’s leadership has rejected.
The stalemate has resulted in the delay to graduate troops from the cantonment sites and splitting in Opposition leadership.
Activists say the two leaders are unwilling to work together and will never work together even if they are allowed to stay in office for life. They are people with totally different political ambitions and ideologies with little interest in preserving greater good. Machar advocates democracy while Kiir oscillates between dictatorship and maintaining the status quo, causing brinkmanship and misery.
“These people [Kiir and Machar], even if they are allowed to stay together in power for life, which is what some of them want, and which is what others do not want because they also want to sit on that chair, they will never get together and work together. The only way is to force them out of the chair. They are a pure liability to the country”, a civil rights activist told Sudan Tribune on Monday.
“They were together in power for eight (8) years, what have they done to show that they prioritize the wellbeing of the people? They should just accept they have failed and go,” he added.
The activist said government is responsible for disruption of social media services and deployment of huge security forces to patrol all streets after calls for mass protests against bad governance.
“The continued intimidation and regular arrest of civil right activists, political opponents, and journalists is a clear and obvious proof of the government determined to stay in power”, he stressed.
Meanwhile, Stephan Lual Ngor, a leading member of the South Sudan Patriotic Movement (SSPM) has rejected calls to topple the transitional government and voiced his support for President Kiir.
"President Kiir is the best choice for peace and stability in South Sudan," he told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday, adding that a few numbers of youth-based outside the country and without real political support use social media to disturb the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement. - Sudan Tribune
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