From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org
AANA - BULLETIN No. 32/02 August 19, 2002 (b)
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Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date
Tue, 20 Aug 2002 09:40:46 -0700
AANA Bulletin is an ecumenical initiative to highlight all endeavours and
experiences of Christians and the people of Africa. AANA Bulletin is
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Acting Editor - Mitch Odero Acting Editor - Silvie Alemba
Anglican Church Of Kenya Elects A New Archbishop
NAIROBI (AANA) August 19 -The Right Reverend Benjamin Paul Mwanzia Nzimbi
was on Friday (August 16) declared the new head of Anglican Church of Kenya.
A 58 year old Bishop of Kitui diocese in Eastern Province contested the
position against another candidate Bishop Joseph Otieno Wasonga of the
diocese of Maseno West in Western Kenya. He garnered a two third majority
vote in an election which took place at the Nairobi's All Saints Cathedral.
The new Archbishop becomes the fourth head of the Anglican Church in Kenya
and will be enthroned on 22nd September when the incumbent Right Reverend
David Gitari formally retires. The elections were presided over by the
Anglican Church of Kenya chancellor Tom Onyango.
The new Archbishop said his immediate priorities would be to promote voter
education in the Church in view of the imminent Kenya's general elections.
The New Anglican head, who is married with five children, was first
ordained in 1985 as the Bishop of Machakos, before moving to Kitui after it
was split into two.
He replaces the outspoken Archbishop David Gitari who has been at the helm
since taking over from Right Reverend Manasses Kuria in1996.
Some 134 delegates from all 28 diocese of Kenya took part in the election.
Scores of members of the Church thronged the election venue patiently
waiting for the election results. Nzimbi's supporters soon burst into
singing, dancing and ululation upon learning of the results.
Reported By Herman Kasili
War In Congo Blamed For Rise In AIDS Incidences
BRAZZAVILLE (AANA) August 19 - Congolese government has been blamed for
persistent increase in HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country. While infection
rates ranged between 7 percent and 10 percent of the 2.5 million population
in the 1990s, today the figures stand at 12 percent in the capital city
(Brazzaville) alone and 20 percent in Pointe-Noire, the second largest city
in Congo.
The country's First Lady, Madam Antoinette Sassou Nguesso said at a press
conference here recently (July 31) that lack of effective national
programme to combat the spread of the scourge was responsible for the
rising numbers of HIV/AIDS cases.
She said that the government had promised to finance a programme worth 584
million Fcfa (about US$ 779,000) which did not materialise because of
war. "The absence of peace justifies non-implementation of government
programmes," she pointed out. The proposed programme would have been
assisting an estimated 1,000 people per year.
"Today there are more than 100,000 HIV-positive people within the country's
estimated 2.5 million people," she noted. She added that initiatives taken
by a council of ministers on November 16, last year have not been executed
or implemented.
However, there could be some hope. The government plans to reduce the
price of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). Treatment with ARVs per person per
month is currently estimated at between 21,000 Fcfa (about US$ 28) and
56,000 Fcfa (about US$ 75). This, reasoned Madam Nguesso, has also
contributed to the rising cases of HIV/AIDS.
According to Madam Nguesso, many Congolese women became HIV-positive after
being raped during war in the country.
Reported by Bitemo Raymond
Lutheran World Federation Launches Assembly Website
Geneva (AANA) August 19 - Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has launched its
Assembly website. The Tenth Assembly, which is a major international
gathering of Lutherans will be held in Winnipeg, Canada, 21-31 July next year.
The web site is in four LWF working languages - English, German, French and
Spanish. The address of the English entry portal is
http://www.lwf-assembly.org.
The site was prepared with assistance from the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) Department for Communication, which is also hosting the
Assembly Web site.
ELCA Web Manager, Rex Paisley, worked closely with the LWF German Language
Editor, Dirk-Michael Grvtzsch, and the Assembly Coordinator, Rev. Arthur
Leichnitz, to design a site which is attractive and easy to use. The site
will be maintained by the LWF Office for Communication Services (OCS) in
Geneva.
LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, expressed great appreciation
for the assistance provided by the ELCA. "The contributions made by the
member churches make the work of the LWF and the Assembly accessible to
many people," said Noko. "I am very pleased to acknowledge the contribution
of the ELCA in helping to provide an Assembly Web site which will be a
resource throughout the communion, and indeed, throughout the world."
Leichnitz hailed the launch as an important step in Assembly preparations.
"This dedicated Web site will provide timely and comprehensive information
for participants and the LWF member churches as they prepare for the
Assembly," said Leichnitz. "The site will be updated frequently and it will
be the focal point for sharing information, and also for continuing to
develop the theme and issues for the Assembly."
All important Assembly documents will be available on the Assembly web
site. This includes the Assembly Study Book with theological reflections on
the Assembly theme "For the Healing of the World" as well as bible studies,
and the development of issues which will be addressed by the Assembly.
The website will also feature a Six-Year Report with a comprehensive
summary of work undertaken by the LWF since the Ninth Assembly in 1997 in
Hong Kong. Most documents will be available later this year.
The "News and Media" section of the site includes current Assembly-related
news releases in English and German. During the Assembly, it will provide
news releases in four languages, the Assembly newspaper, audio and video
news reports as well as a photo library.
Source: Lutheran World Information
Tanzanian Livestock Sector Is Facing A Decline Trend
MOROGORO (AANA) August 19 - Poor livestock breeds and outdated production
systems coupled with inadequate research mechanism, low quality of animal
feeds including unimproved pastures and rangelands, animal diseases,
marketing and processing hamper livestock industry in Tanzania.
A survey conducted by Sokoine University of Agriculture, SUA, Morogoro,
noted lack of adequate processing capacity, operational constraints
including poor policy institutional structure, inadequate human resources
and training opportunities as factors which still obscure contribution of
livestock industry to Tanzania's economy.
A survey of several development programmes involving livestock indicate
that livestock contribution to poverty alleviation may range from USD 92 to
200 per annum from dairy goats farmers and from USD 208 to USD 486 from
dairy cattle farmers.
It is postulated however, that if each of the three million households
keeping local breeds of poultry were to increase their flock through better
husbandry, income per household could be increased to USD 600 per annum.
According to Tanzania's Bureau of Statistics data for 1998/99, there were
4, 620,000 livestock households in Tanzania of which 17,820 were
patoralists and 1,426,000 were agro-pastoralists.
Of the households keeping livestock 1, 606,000 households kept 16,395,000
cattle, 1, 742, 000 had 11,643,000 goats, and 628,300 households had about
3.5 million sheep while 3,353,000 households kept 27 million chickens.
The breakdown of these figures mean there were 10 herd of cattle for each
household, seven goats almost a similar number for sheep and eight chicken
per household for livestock keeping families.
Recent and available data estimate livestock population in Tanzania as
follows: 16.4 million cattle , 11.6 million goats , 3.5 million sheep ,
0.82 million pigs , 27 million chicken and about1.2 million ducks.
Economists say the contribution of the livestock sub-sector to the GDP is
estimated at 18 percent while its contribution to the agricultural GDP is
estimated at 30 percent.
Industry sources indicate however that the picture is not rosy as would
have otherwise been. Despite the rich resources per capita consumption of
the livestock products in Tanzania was only seven kilograms of meat, 20
litres of milk and eleven eggs per annum.
This is against the recommended figures by the UN FAO for normal human
health, which are 50Kg of meat and 200 litres of milk per annum per person.
From the livestock sub-sector, Tanzania currently is exporting only some
hides and skins while in the past, it used to export canned beef, live
animals and large volumes of hides and skins.
In 1983, the government attempted unsuccessfully to set up a range
development unit in order to sensitise livestock keepers to establish
ranching associations, co-operative societies and village ranches. It was
also aimed at encouraging range development
However, according to Prof., Lusato Kurwijila, the Dean of Faculty of
science at Sokoine University of Agriculture, range development plan was
not effective mainly due to lack of trained manpower and low budgetary
allocation to cover development and operational costs.
To sustain livestock research, analysts' say that efforts must be made to
organise the stakeholders to form associations and boards that would source
and fund livestock research.
Reported by Henry Neondo
Janda Recovering In Hospital
NAIROBI (AANA) August 19 - Rev. Canon Clemet Janda, immediate former
general secretary of the all Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), who was
admitted at Nairobi Hospital on August 5 with acute spinal pain, was
successfully operated last Friday.
He is still hospitalised but recuperating well and progressively after the
delicate operation.
His family expressed appreciation to all who offered prayers for quick
recovery. The spinal pains had subsided.
Reported by Osman Njuguna
Riddles Of Bunia Conflicts
KAMPALA (AANA) August 19 - The ethnic violence that has erupted in
North-eastern Congo has prompted a rethinking in Kampala.
Uganda has supported five factions and attempted to create an umbrella
organisation for them as part of its control strategy. However, it is
increasingly problematic.
RCD-L (Rally for Congo Democracy-Liberation), which is led by Mbusa
Nyamwisi, lost control of Bunia to Hema militia with Ugandan army support.
Besides, RCD-National led by Rogers Lumbala also considers Mbusa Nyamwisi
as attempting to undermine it along with the MLC (Movement for Liberation
of Congo) led by Jean Pierre Bemba. Lumbala has resolved to uproot Mbusa
Nyamwisi from the territory Uganda curved out for him.
This wrangling is responsible for the violence, which is increasingly
widespread and has worried UN.
Amos Ngango, the UN secretary general's special representative has already
been dispatched to Kampala to ask authorities here to give an account of
the Bunia events in which UN has discovered two mass graves.
Besieged by civil war in his own country, Yoweri Museveni, Ugandan
president, has ordered the two remaining battalions in Congo to withdraw.
UN entrusted Uganda the responsibility of keeping peace in the region where
it has sphere of influence. However, even some of its supported factions,
accuse Uganda of not being an honest broker and reportedly siding with one
faction against the other.
Mbusa Nyamwisi, whose group was aligned with Lendu community in Bunia, has
long been fighting against perceived uprooting from their land by the Hema.
The conflict is further complicating a peace deal that was signed recently
in South Africa in which Mbusa was also a signatory in a power sharing deal.
RCD-L has lost ground to Hema militia and is besieged by another faction of
Rogers Lumbala-the RCD-Nationale.
Lumbala told journalists in Kampala that his strategy is to uproot Mbusa
from his territory, and accused him of plotting with Kinsasha authority to
attack MLC, RCD-N positions with help of ex-Rwandese military.
Nevertheless, these developments come amidst renewed moves by the Kinshasa
authorities to reach an understanding with her neighbours.DRC has already
signed a bilateral peace deal with Rwanda and Kabila has expressed his
intention of having the same with Burundi and Uganda.
Apparently, DRC strategy underlines already held view that those countries
that supported rebel factions matter more. Besides, Uganda is increasingly
suscipicious of factions' moves.
The military and political cooperation treaty between Jean Pierre Bemba and
Onusumba raised concern in Ugandan circles. Both Bemba and Mbusa ties with
some Mai Mai - who also have ties with Ugandan rebels - is another source
of concern.
Lumbala criticised Uganda for helping Mbusa whom he considers
unreliable.Wamba Dia Wamba thinks Uganda was mistaken when it created
warlords. Commentators say that Ugandan strategy was to avoid dominant
groups while increasing political stakes in future government of national
unity in DRC.
Nevertheless, there is speculation that business interests are responsible
for re-alignment in Bunia, which is a mineral rich area with gold, diamond
and oil. In fact, Heritage Oil, which is engaged in oil exploration in
Uganda, has extended exploration to this area.
Reported by Crespo Sebunya
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