East Africa

Details: East Africa; 16 October 2021; 1088

Masten Wanjala was detained over the killing of a dozen children. Photo AP/Provided by PA Media

A Kenyan man who confessed to killing a dozen children has been beaten to death by a mob after escaping from a police station.

Area Assistant County Commissioner Cornelius Nyaribai said Masten Wanjala was killed near his home in Bungoma county, a day after he escaped from police cells in Nairobi.

Police authorities said Wanjala was identified after he played with locals in a football match. Some then trailed him and beat him to death.

“The law of the jungle as applied by irate villagers prevailed,” Kenyan police’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations said in a tweet on Friday.

Authorities have said Wanjala confessed to killing 12 children in Nairobi, Machakos and Bungoma counties when he was arrested in July. He reportedly posed as a football coach to lure victims.

So far, five bodies have been recovered. - Associated Press/PA Media

Details: East Africa; 15 October 2021; 969

Coinciding 22nd death anniversary of Nyerere, some hail him for anti-colonialism, pan-Africanism, others call him autocratic democrat

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania

Experts in Africa have asked leaders to revive the spirit of pan-Africanism as propagated by late Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere and avoid narrow nationalism being circulated under the guise of patriotism.

Coinciding the 22nd death anniversary of Nyerere -- the father of the pan-African struggle for independence -- Issa Shivji, the director of Dar es Salaam-based Nyerere Centre, told Anadolu Agency that there was a need to revisit the vision of the departed leader.

He said that Nyerere believed that collective freedom was the only legitimate cause for African nations to attain real democracy.

“African democracy is in prison, it has been taken hostage by party pundits, handcuffed by neo-liberal ideology, and mutilated by the barbaric capitalist system,” said Shivji.

He urged African countries to revive the spirit pan-Africanism and desist sinking into narrow nationalism propagated under the guise of patriotism.

“We need an ideology that transcends parochial nationalism,” he said.

Nyerere, who died of leukemia in London on Oct. 14, 1999, at the age of 77, was a leading figure of Africa’s struggle for independence who strongly advocated for political and economic emancipation.

According to Shivji, the insatiable hunger for material accumulation by western nations has devastated nature and decimated the ideals of people’s freedom that Nyerere stood for.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing is out of the reach of capital … capital respects nothing, least of all freedom and democracy,” he said.

As a charismatic leader of razor-sharp intellect and great personal integrity, Nyerere not only united Tanzania but also helped liberation struggles in southern African countries providing them politically, material, and moral support.

The expert, who is also a professor at the University of Dar es Salaam, said Nyerere felt it was an obligation to assist other African nations to achieve freedom from colonial rule.

"Our country offered itself as a base for those fighting for liberation, that was a great honour," he said.

Nyerere also promoted the Kiswahili language and wanted it to become Africa’s lingua franca.

Autocratic democrat

Nyerere who ruled from 1961-1985 is being hailed by some for his advocacy against colonialism and promoting African socialism. But many criticize him for being autocratic and the one who failed to bring prosperity to the continent.

“He was an advocate for democracy, but by reasoning that each country built its style of democracy, he built a one-party state that regularly violated democratic values,” said Paul Bjerk, a renowned author of African history.

But political commentator Jenerarali Ulimwengu described Nyerere as an ethical leader who will be remembered for his remarkable leadership skills, unity, tranquility that Tanzanians enjoy today.

Born in April 1922 at a village of Butiama on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria into a Zanaki tribe Nyerere was the architect of Tanzania’s independence and a key figure in the struggle against foreign domination.

He became the first Tanzanian to study at a British university when he went to Edinburgh on a government scholarship

He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961-1962 and then as president from 1963-1964. When the island of Zanzibar was unified with Tanganyika to form Tanzania, he served as president of the country from 1964-1985. Kizito Makoye, Anadolu Agency

Details: East Africa; 15 October 2021; 1048

Kenya's Agnes Tirop poses after winning the women's 1500m during the 2019 Diamond League at the Olympiastadion in Stockholm, Sweden, May 30, 2019. /CFP

Athletes, officials and other prominent figures in sports have paid tribute to Kenyan distance runner Agnes Tirop, who was found stabbed to death on Wednesday at her home in the western town of Iten, a training centre for top athletes.

A two-time world championships bronze medalist, the 25-year-old promising star just smashed the women-only 10km world record at the Road to Records Event in Germany last month and finished fourth in the 5,000m final during this summer's Tokyo Olympics.

As a mark of respect following Tirop's death, Athletics Kenya announced on Thursday that all athletics competitions in the country would be suspended for two weeks.

Global grief and loss

"We just lost a great talent. She was such a strong woman and committed to what she was doing," Julius Yego, Kenya's former athletics team captain was quoted as saying by BBC on Thursday.

"She was an amazing young girl who was really working hard to be one of the top athletes in the world. She wanted to be the best and it was only a few weeks ago that she broke the world record for the 10km. Her successful career was still being crafted but unfortunately, someone decided the whole story cannot be written," he added.

Kenya's Agnes Tirop (L) during the women's 5000m heats at the Tokyo Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan, July 30, 2021. /CFP

Yego said Tirop's sudden death hadn't really sunk in yet. "We had a difficult day yesterday, it is still shocking," he said. "When you check on social media or TV, it is the sad news of Agnes. We are still collecting ourselves."

The sentiment was echoed by Uganda's 800m world champion Halima Nakayi, who said on social media: "We are deeply shocked to hear the sudden death of our fellow athlete Tirop Agnes. I send my condolences to her family, friends and the Kenyan athletics community."

"It's not easy to say goodbye to your ever-smiling face," added Agnes' friend and fellow middle distance runner Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda. "I can't believe that you're no more - such a friendly soul. It's so painful."

Earlier in the day, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach hailed Tirop as an inspiration to all. "I'm deeply shocked by the tragic death of Agnes Tirop, a young and bright talent. Her performances at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 gave hope and inspiration to so many people," Bach said on Twitter.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe singled out Tirop as "one of the world's best female distance runners over the past six years." "Athletics has lost one of its brightest young stars in the most tragic circumstances," he said. "This is a terrible blow to the entire athletics community, but especially to her family, her friends and Athletics Kenya.

Agnes Tirop of Kenya celebrates winning bronze medal in the women's 10,000m final during the 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, September 28, 2019. /CFP

Tirop's husband arrested

Kenyan police said on Thursday they had arrested Tirop's husband Emmanuel Rotich in the coastal city of Mombasa. Local newspapers revealed that the couple had been having marital problems.

Kenya's National Police Service said on Wednesday that Tirop had been the victim of a "heinous crime" and promised "speedy and comprehensive investigations."

"When police went to Tirop's house, they found her in bed with blood under the bed and a lot of it on the floor," Tom Makori, one of the police officers who involved in the case was quoted as saying by CNN. "When police looked at the body, it looked like she had been stabbed on the neck with what we suspect to be a knife."

Makori also revealed that Rotich had made a call to Tirop's parents saying that he'd committed something wrong, "So we believe he knows what happened."CGTN

Details: East Africa; 15 October 2021; 981

Nigeria's military claimed Thursday that Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of an Islamic State-linked extremist group blamed for killing hundreds in the northeast, had died. There was no immediate confirmation from the militants.

At a news conference, Nigeria's chief of defense staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, told reporters: "I can authoritatively confirm to you that Abu Musab is dead." He gave no further information, and it was not possible to independently corroborate the claim.

The announcement came only five months after al-Barnawi and his forces claimed responsibility for killing rival extremist leader Abubakar Shekau.

Some reports said al-Barnawi had been fatally wounded during clashes with yet another rival extremist faction, but the military gave no details about how it had confirmed his death.

Al-Barnawi was a teenager when his father, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed by Nigerian security forces in 2009. The death of the founding Boko Haram leader has fueled a more than decade-long insurgency against the Nigerian government, ultimately expanding to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Shekau took command of the group after Yusuf's death but clashed frequently over the years with al-Barnawi, who reportedly at one point was picked instead by the Islamic State organization to lead Boko Haram. Instead, a breakaway faction was formed in 2016 that became known as the Islamic State in West Africa Province, or ISWAP.

Unlike Shekau's group, which often violently targeted civilian populations, ISWAP under al-Barnawi targeted the Nigerian military and those who aided the soldiers. But it drew heightened global concern when it began targeting civilians working for international aid organizations in the northeast in a series of kidnappings and killings.

The faction still led by Shekau, meanwhile, weakened in recent years and his death was announced in May. ISWAP then sought to expand its reach, but al-Barnawi failed to win over thousands of Shekau's followers and many surrendered to the Nigerian military instead.

The conflict in northeast Nigeria has directly caused the death of 36,000 people, according to U.N. officials, with more than 2.3 million people displaced. VOA

Details: East Africa; 14 October 2021; 964

A teller serves a woman at Kacyiru SACCO in Kigali. / Photo: File.

More Rwandans have embraced the concept and importance of saving thanks to the Covid-19 circumstances that have proved that relying on day-to-day income is untenable, especially in times of crisis.

According to the recent report of Rwanda Governance Scorecard (RGS), the saving rate as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 18.57 per cent from last year.

This is despite the fact that the Economic and Corporate Governance pillar, an indicator that gauges the state of the country in terms of economy, has declined by 3.49 per cent making it the lowest-performing pillar in the RGS.

Aimable Nkuranga, Executive Director of Association of Microfinance Institutions (AMIR), said people who managed to save before the pandemic coped better during lockdowns than those who didn’t.

“We expected that during this pandemic that has shaken the economy, savings from people would be disrupted but contrary, people understood the need to save money in ways that appreciate over time,” he said.

He explained that this also draws from the fact that some people who lost their jobs had to think and shift to other sources of income considering the responsibilities they carry.

This triggered the change in attitude towards the savings culture because they understood that any time, depending on circumstances, they might lose their jobs, he added.

Innocent Nkurunziza, a teacher at Groupe Scolaire Nyamugari in Nyamasheke District told The New Timers that during the period of lockdowns and other stringent measures, understandably there was no possibility of saving instead, heavy expenses with no revenue.

He, however, said, “when I discuss with my colleagues and friends in different fields, they resolved to have multiple sources of income and save part of the little they earn for any future crisis.”

According to the latest financial scope (2020) report from the central bank, 21 per cent of adult population save their money in banks, a rise from 13 per cent in 2016.

48 per cent of adult Rwandans have formal saving products in non-bank financial institutions such as credit and savings cooperatives and Mobile Money.

However, a large proportion of Rwandans, 64 per cent use informal saving mechanisms. By Alice Kagina, New Times

Page 734 of 853

East Africa

Escaped Kenyan child killer beaten to death by mob

Revive pan-African spirit of Julius Nyerere, say experts

Coinciding 22nd death anniversary of Nyerere, some hail him for anti-colonialism, pan-Africanism, others call him autocratic democrat

Sporting world mourns tragic death of Kenyan distance runner Agnes Tirop

Nigerian Military Says Leader of IS-linked Group is Dead

Covid-19 sparked a culture of saving among Rwandans, report shows

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