wfn.org | All Africa News Agency March 3, 2003 (b)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

AANA BULLETIN No. 08/03 March 3, 2003 (b)

ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
P. O Box, 66878, 00800 Westlands, NAIROBI, Kenya
Tel: 254-2-4442215, 4440224
Fax: 254-2-4445847, 4443241
Email: aanaapta@insightkenya.com , aanaapta@hotmail.com
AANA Bulletin	-  Acting  Editor -Elly Wamari				     
  
Bulletin APTA -  Acting Editor - Silvie Alemba

SPECIAL  REPORT

Nairobi, once known as "green city in the sun", owing to its beauty and 
serenity, has evolved over the years into a new look, but, an unpleasant 
one.  Apart from dilapidated roads and heaps of garbage, the city centre is 
now splattered with day-time prostitutes, careless hawkers and menacing 
street children.  In this special report AANA Contributors Lizzie Njeri and 
Olive Sifuna, give insight into a culture that residents of Nairobi have 
had to contend with.

Competition Forces Commercial Sex Workers To Go Day-time

Open, day-time prostitution has become a common sight on the streets of 
Nairobi.

Commercial sex workers (CSWs) here, now operate in broad daylight, unlike a 
few years ago, when prostitution was a highly secretive trade because of 
stigma attached to it.	Of concern too, is the apparent increase in the 
number of young girls in this trade.

Emma Kantai, who works with the Kenya Voluntary Women's Rehabilitation 
Centre	(K-VOWRC) in Nairobi, says as more women go in for rehabilitation, 
so do more young girls join the trade. It is some kind of a cycle.

Residential areas are not spared either. Martin Azenga, a resident in a 
suburb estate wonders why the authorities do not seem to be doing anything 
about the now too common trade. "It is so easy to pick one up, you only 
need to board a matatu (a commuter service vehicle) at six-thirty in the 
evening and you meet one," he says.

Within the city centre, Koinange Street is a known spot for CSWs.  Some 
operate part-time while others are full-time. The part-timers operate from 
five-thirty in the evening and 'close shop' at midnight.  Full-timers swing 
into action at 7.00 P.M, and usually leave at about seven the following 
morning.

Other streets frequented by commercial sex workers, include downtown areas 
around Matatu terminuses. Girls and women can be spotted waiting at street 
corners and in public telephone booths, for clients who will pay for a 
daytime 'treat'.

Night-time clients on Koinange Street are mostly foreigners, Kenyans of 
Asian origin, as well as well-to-do indigenous Kenyans, who can afford to 
pay "service fees" of not less than Ksh 1000 (about US$ 13). Most of the 
girls operating on this street go home having pocketed not less than Ksh 
3000 (about US $50).

Mercy, a commercial sex worker says: "Most of us are desperate, be it for 
money, a little fun or for a better life, hoping to be married by one of 
the foreigners." She adds that once someone joins the trade, "It is hard to 
stop because the money comes in every day and you cannot compare the job 
with office work, where you get paid monthly wages."

Day-time clients are mostly the common man. At this time, services cost 
much less. In areas of high competition, a client can be asked to pay as 
little as Ksh 30 (US$ 0.4) for a rendezvous.

Joyce Kathambi, a counsellor with the Coalition of Violence Against Women 
(COVAW) says that some of these women seek counsel when they want to change 
their lifestyles. Some succeed in pulling out of the trade, while others 
get hooked for life.

Emma Kantai associates the rise in the number of commercial sex workers to 
the desperate times in Kenya, where the level of poverty is increasing. She 
says that the commercial sex workers need economic empowerment to enable 
them try out decent alternatives of earning livelihood "The community also 
needs to help and stop stigmatising these people," she says.

Pastor Kato Lafont, of Christ Co-workers Fellowship Church (CHRISCO) says, 
these girls are lacking spiritual guidance, and as a result, coupled with 
declining morals and rising poverty, they find that they have no choice.

He says the infiltration of western culture has also been a contributing 
factor adding to girls falling into this trade. "The church should play a 
more active role in the rehabilitation of these ladies," he observes.

Pastor Kato says churches in Kenya need to incorporate programmes that 
could help CSWs turn their lives around without pointing fingers. "Whether 
or not they (CSWs) change their habits, the church should be a place they 
can seek refuge," he points out.  He suggests the only way the trade can be 
reduced is to give the CSWs an alternative for what they do.

Though there are no recorded statistics on CSWs, Jane Thiga of the women's 
desk at culture and social services ministry is convinced that their 
numbers are increasing at an alarming rate.  She says that as the level of 
poverty increases, so will the trade thrive.

Reported by Lizzie Njeri

Street Hawkers Entrench Themselves In City Center

Hawking business in Kenya has never been as pronounced as it is today. In 
Nairobi, Kenya's capital, hawkers have strewn themselves on the streets, 
selling all kinds of merchandise ranging from household appliances to food 
and clothing, including underwear.

The number of hawkers on the streets of Nairobi started increasing in 
2001.  Latest statistics (January 2003) from the department of social 
services at Nairobi's City Hall indicate that there are an estimated 13,000 
hawkers on the streets in Nairobi's Central Business District (city Centre).

The street hawkers have become a nuisance, creating insecurity, noise, 
confusion and congestion on the streets.

They nevertheless, have their story to tell.  They say they prefer selling 
on streets within the city centre because of its good business potential.

One of them, a single mother says: "It has enabled me to take my children 
to school, to pay my house rent and to put food on the table.  This is a 
very good business".

A young secondary school leaver selling underwears says he makes at least 
Ksh 500 (about 6.5 US$) every day. He adds smiling, "which is more than 
what many people get in office jobs".

Most of the women street hawkers are old and feel this is the only job that 
can sustain them. "We do not have husbands, therefore, this is what we have 
to do in order to survive.  It is better than prostitution or stealing," 
says an elderly lady hawker.

What would happen if they were sent away from the streets?  Many hawkers 
still do not know their fate and are apprehensive about the future.  The 
government is making plans to have them relocated from main streets.

Mary, a mother of four says: "I know it's just a matter of time before we 
are forced out of the streets.	I don't think that this government will be 
much of a difference because they are already making plans to relocate us 
away from the city centre.  If that happens, we will suffer."

Nairobi-based business consultant Mrs. Rosemary Namusonge told AANA that 
the hawkers business does contribute positively to the Kenyan economy in 
many ways.

She said small businesses, like the hawker's enterprises, are likely to 
improve the purchasing power of many buyers.

According to the business consultant, such businesses ease circulation and 
distribution of goods, because the goods are brought close to potential 
buyers.  Buyers are exposed to different types of products and have a 
variety to choose from.

A 1999 survey by MicroSave-Africa (a non-governmental organisation) to 
promote the savings agenda for poor people in Africa, recommended that 
informal financial institutions should have credit associations that work 
in ways that incorporate the circumstances of poor people in a given 
community.

They could promote schemes that can allow small savings for them and let 
them have access to lump-sum credit when they need it, not only for 
business but also for other needs such as funerals and weddings.

Hawkers have personal resources such as aptitude, passion and belief in 
business and self-employment.  These are essential resources in fighting 
poverty and the beginning of viable businesses that can build up any economy.

Reported by Olive Sifuna

Numbers Of Streets Urchins Swell To Unbearable Levels

A research carried out by Kenya Medical Women's Association (KMWA) 
indicates that, the problem of street children in Kenya is likely to worsen 
if the government does not quickly institute workable programmes to curtail 
their rising numbers.

Statistics from UNICEF indicate that, there were 10,000 street children in 
Nairobi in 1998.  Information from Christ Our Refuge Children's home 
(CRCH), indicate the number has more than doubled in less than five years 
to about 25,000 at present.

The number of street children has increased mainly due to poverty and the 
disintegration of the extended family unit.

In traditional African society, people lived in a communal setting in which 
children belonged to the entire community.  It was the social 
responsibility of the community to take care of them.  Children were then a 
sign of prosperity.

But with the dawn of urbanisation, the family unit disintegrated and 
children lost the support they enjoyed from the extended family.

Research has indicated that the declining role of the extended family has 
resulted in abandonment of children in the city.

According to a source from CRCH, most of the children on the streets run 
away from home because their parents cannot afford to fulfil their basic 
needs.	They sometimes stay for days without food.

Others go to the streets due to cultural stigma.  There are cultures that 
do not accept children born out of wedlock.  In such cases, the mother has 
no choice but to abandon the child.

Due to the harsh street life and lack of parental guidance, children living 
on the streets of Nairobi often get involved in crime, such as drug 
trafficking, pick-pocketing and purse-snatching.

The boys become a serious threat to security, while girls, often sexually 
abused, eventually end up in commercial sex work.

Residents of Nairobi are quite familiar with the scenario of a 
mean-looking, faeces-wielding street urchin demanding for money or a 
cell-phone handset.

A 1998 survey by UNICEF on the status of women and children in Kenya, 
indicated that the government needed to support comprehensive policies on 
child welfare.

Reported by Olive Sifuna

(A report on current government efforts to rehabilitate street families 
will be published soon - Editor)

FEATURES  SECTION

Proposed Fisheries Deal Worry Conservationists

Conservationists have expressed fear that European Union's intended 
renegotiations of fisheries agreements with developing countries, could 
lead to an expansion of fishing deals that the declining global stocks may 
not sustain. They warn that the deal could make cash-strapped African 
countries fall prey to monetary gifts at the expense of environmental 
conservation, reports Pedro Shipepechero.

T
he Wild Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) Fisheries Campaign Co-ordinator, Julie 
Cator, says until the European Commission backs up its proposals with 
concrete implementation  plan of the new agreement (Fisheries Partnership 
Agreements), developing countries should be wary of the initiative that 
could result in further depletion of existing stocks.

Cator says, "WWF supports any ideas to make fishing agreements with 
developing countries more sustainable, and welcomes commitment to carry out 
impact assessments for new [deals]. But in the absence of an implementation 
plan, it is hard to be sure how and when concrete improvements will be 
effected."

The scramble for fisheries in development countries follows a long-standing 
tussle over marine resources with East Asian countries, in which Japan has 
major influence on how fishing should be regulated.

The tussle for control of the resources saw European countries, except 
Norway, vote solidly against Japan's campaign to unban whaling, at last 
year's 12th Conference of Parties on Convention on International Trade in 
Endangered Species (CITES), held in Santiago, Chile.

According to WWF, the renegotiations of the fisheries agreements is likely 
to trigger "over-fishing or overcapacity" in some regions.

In welcoming the European Union's (EU) new spirit, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the 
WWF International President, said, "There should be no new or renewed 
access agreement without sustainability impact assessment."

The new fisheries partnership agreements EU is seeking, affect mainly 
countries that border oceans and seas. In Africa, EU's leading suppliers of 
fish are Angola and Senegal, with which it has comprehensive Commercial 
Fisheries agreements.

The partnerships pact is an initiative of six European countries calling 
themselves Friends of Fishing Group of Governments. They are Spain, France, 
Italy Portugal, Greece and Ireland.

The six are major consumers of fish caught in waters under jurisdiction of 
developing countries.

The WWF is worried that the intended change in agreement is old wine in new 
sheepskin. "The European Commision needs to demonstrate that this is a 
genuine move towards sustainability and not just a re-branding exercise to 
justify an expansion of overseas fishing," WWF says.

The present EU fishing agreements (Commercial Fisheries) cover 15 countries 
in Africa, Pacific and Indian Ocean, which earn between 400,000 and 80 
million Euros per year. In total, the agreements cost EU 137 million Euros 
in 2000.

However, Kenya's director of fisheries department, Ms Nancy Gitonga says 
the trickle down effect of the earnings has not benefited developing 
countries.  "Foolproof agreements are required in order to ensure that 
coastal states reap from the marine resources," she says.

Kenya currently exports about Ksh 4 billion (about US$ 53 million) worth of 
fish, mainly the Nile perch from Lake Victoria, to EU annually.

"The Kenyan coast is still largely unexploited.  However, long distance 
fishermen from EU have capitalised on inadequate monitoring and 
surveillance in exclusive economic zones (about 12 nautical kilometres), to 
illegally harvest marine resources along the East African coast," says
Gitonga.

Lack of expertise, equipment and funding have made fisheries in the region 
vulnerable to foreign fleets, which sneak into unsecured waters to 
fish.  In Africa, only Namibia, South Africa and Maghreb states have in 
place surveillance machinery.

WWF argues that unless there is a deliberate and demonstrable attempt by 
European countries to improve terms for developing countries, the existing 
fisheries agreements  "represent an unfair competition to local fishermen 
as they do not offer a fair price to fish caught in developing countries, 
and are in conflict with EU development policies."

However, the statement does not elaborate how the agreements are 
inconsistent with EU policies. But Gitonga observes that subsidies extended 
to fishing firms from EU offer unfair competition to those from developing 
countries.

She says there must be a level playing ground if the coastal states with 
rich marine resources have to benefit from their wealth.

According to Anyaoku, if Africa were to benefit from the new agreements, 
"the EU should assist partner countries to develop national or regional 
management policies that include the ecosystem as a whole, not just 
individual commercial blocks."

Were this to happen, East African countries would benefit a great deal. 
They have been victims of stringent sanitary regulations that denied fish 
caught from Lake Victoria access to EU markets, due to a ban imposed by EU 
in 1999.

The ban, which was only lifted last year,  led to loss of nearly 150,000 
jobs in East Africa. The fish industry supports about three million people 
in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, who live within Lake 
Victoria basin.

Although there is no concrete data on value of fish exports to EU markets, 
it is estimated that about Ksh11 billion (about US$ 142 million) is 
generated in revenue of such exports from the region.

In order to circumvent some of the factors that led EU to impose a ban on 
East African products, WWF calls for coherent policies towards Third World 
countries, that take into account environmental and development policies.

Never before has Lake Victoria faced serious environmental problems as has 
been the case in the past 10 years. The invasion of the lake by water 
hyacinth, in addition to increased industrial effluents from factories 
around the lake, have been a major cause of concern to conservationists.

Also, high population growth around the lake has led to increased 
deposition of human waste in the waters, while industrial effluents 
containing harmful substances such as mercury and DDT, have been cited in 
fish caught in the lake.

The East African coast, however, will have to be protected from oil 
spillage, which has in the past been blamed for marine deaths. Equally 
dangerous for the fisheries along the coast are nuclear material from 
industrialised nations, that are deposited in Somalia and Djibouti waters.

Gitonga is wary, however, that cash-strapped countries in Africa could fall 
prey to monetary gifts and fail to press for stricter regimes to safeguard 
their environment against abuse by multinational firms.

Torture: Church Leaders Prefer Reconciliation

Recent exposure of torture chambers secretly constructed by the past 
government in Kenya, has elicited calls by church leaders, for a truth and 
reconciliation commission. According to them, this would be the best way to 
heal wounds, and not revenge. AANA Correspondent Muuna Wamuli and writer 
Lizzie Njeri, while projecting views of the Church, present graphic 
accounts of ordeals experienced by surviving victims of a government 
sponsored torture programme.

T
he small chambers secretly concealed from the public eye smell of death. 
They are 12 of them, constructed at the basement of Nyayo House, a 
skyscraper building at the centre of Nairobi. And their sizes, 8ft by 10ft 
and 7ft, only accommodated men after they were crushed to size, following 
days of torture. This is where terror reigned for years.

In mid February, human rights activists and survivors of these torture 
chambers forced open a grey steel door that once locked victims into a 
world of pain, torment and sometimes death. The door leads to an 
underground car park, where another steel door, followed by one more, open 
to reveal scary cells.

The death cells are now dark and desolate, but signs that people were 
tortured in them, are still alive. The walls are painted black.  On them, 
are some telling red spots - blood of victims. There are also bullet holes.

Following the exposure of these secret cells, the Church has mounted a call 
for establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission that will 
redress the abuses committed by former President Daniel arap Moi's
government.

"We want to know the truth. We have speculated on many issues," says 
Venerable Cannon Peter Machira of the Anglican Church of Kenya. "There have 
also been claims of abuse of offices... People want the truth."

Two weeks ago, the Catholic Church, while supporting the call for the 
commission, warned against revenge. According to leading bishops, this may 
reduce the confidence people have in the new government.

The head of Catholic Church in Kenya, Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Mwana a' 
Nzeki, said such a commission should only investigate, and recommend 
compensation for genuine cases.

"The commission should be a way of helping the new government against a 
repeat of the mistakes committed by the last one," he said.

Disturbed by the discovery of the torture chambers, Archbishop Ndingi said 
the Church was eager to know who was behind them.

Rev Mutava Musyimi , General  Secretary of the National Council of Churches 
of Kenya, suggests that the chambers should be turned into a museum and a 
national monument of shame. He also appeals to the government to explore 
ways of compensating victims of torture.

Father Emmanuel Ngugi, a priest at the Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi, 
urged Kenyans to understand that the new government was looking for truth, 
but not revenge. "We will ask those accused to accept their past mistakes 
and be forgiven," he said.

The government recently apologised to survivors of the torture, and 
promised to convert the area into a monument of shame. "The cells will be 
turned into a national monument of shame and will then be opened to the 
general public," said Justice Minister, Kirauti Murungi.

Visiting the chambers, in which he was once locked, Cabinet Minister Hon. 
Raila Odinga warned Kenyans against seeking revenge. He urged the culprits 
to accept a chance to confess and cleanse themselves in a truth and 
reconciliation commission.

"Solution lies in the future. Revenge, recrimination and retribution will 
not help this country," said Hon. Raila.

Every time surviving torture victims visit the chambers, most of them break 
into tears as they recall what they went through. The pain has been so much 
that songs of pity, which they break into spontaneously, could be the only 
thing to see them through the ordeals they are reliving.

They talk of how tormentors stripped them naked during interrogation, 
pierced their private parts, and pushed them onto red-hot metals.  Some 
said they would be forced to listen to audio tapes with sounds of screaming 
babies.  Their torturers would then tell them that those were their 
children crying.

The detainees would later be sprayed with hot dust-grained air, and kept in 
cold water-logged cells without food and water. So bad was the situation 
that many confess to having drank their own urine.

According to People Against Torture (PAT), a human rights pressure group, 
those who succumbed to death after being tormented would be flung from the 
top floors of Nyayo House, to give the impression that they had committed 
suicide.

Munyui wa Kahuha of PAT, while speaking to AANA, testifies to torture that 
altered his life: "They beat me on every part of my body until my thighs 
had holes on them," he says.

He narrates how he would be blindfolded before being taken to an 
interrogation room on some top floors, where he would be stripped naked 
before a panel of interrogators, then beaten up. "Then they let me out 
after two weeks of being immersed in water, naked," he concludes.

Munyi says he had been accused of being a member of Mwakenya, a mysterious 
group the government then, insisted was plotting a revolution.	He now has 
large, ugly scars that tell stories about his experience.  He describes his 
ordeal as an unforgettable experience that still gives him nightmares.

Evelyn Mutie, a counsellor with PAT, says victims of torture never totally 
recover from their ordeals.  Some develop permanent disabilities, physical, 
psychological, or both. She adds that severely tortured victims struggle to 
cope with life later on.

Some survivors say close to 2,000 people may have been tortured here. The 
real number is only known to the torturers. Out of this estimated number, 
about 250 are believed to have died.

Asked why they never spoke earlier, torture survivors explain that there 
was such a cold fear of being taken back to the chambers, that they opted 
to quietly let it go.

Many say the reason for their detention was imaginary.	"The last 
government perceived a 'threat' and went on to indiscriminately torture 
people to crush that threat," says Wafula Buke, one of the survivors of 
torture.

According to PAT, opposing a pro-government motion in parliament would earn 
one a night under the mercies of a torturer.  Munyui says, "then the only 
way was to be pro-government."

When Parental Responsibilities Knock Early In Life

Along the dusty road meandering through the Western Equatorial thickets of 
south Sudan, lies an isolated camp in a remote location. Excited half-nude 
children prance around and dash towards oncoming vehicles, quite oblivious 
of their predicament.  One of them though, is aware, for at a tender age, 
she already is confronted with the task of playing a parental role to her 
younger siblings, reports Oscar Obonyo.

F
ar off, leaning on a tree amidst the tiny grass thatched huts, Mercyline 
Santos is busy comforting her crying one-year-old sister.

Mercyline is eight years old. Unlike her age-mates, she is too preoccupied 
to hop around in fun or engage in child games.

For Mercyline, "motherhood" has come too early. She spends most of the day 
with Rosetha, her baby sister, on her back and looking for or preparing 
meals for her young family.  Her two brothers, Borlis and Fizo, aged five 
and three respectively, equally scramble for her attention.

The children, virtually living alone, are part of a large group of orphaned 
and unaccompanied children separated from their parents following the hasty 
flight from war-torn Raga County.

They constitute about six percent of the 18,000-plus Internally Displaced 
Persons (IDPs) currently settled in Mabia, Tambura County in south Sudan.

Mercyline, her brothers and sister were rendered orphans by a single 
enemy's bullet. Their mother's body lay lifeless in broad daylight attack 
in a Catholic Church compound in Dem Zubeir town. Their father had died 
earlier of a natural cause.

The terrified children accordingly left on foot alongside other people, for 
a long trek to relatively safer zones in southern Sudan.

To date, over one million deaths, and the displacement of an additional 
three to four million persons, are attributed directly or indirectly to the 
ongoing bloody conflict that has split the country right in the middle.

Following the recapture of Raga County by Government of Sudan forces mid 
2001, and the subsequent murder of civilians, thousands of survivors fled 
the area northwards towards Awada and southwards towards Tambura County.

When whispers reached Tambura, CARE International mobilised its resources 
to lend a helping hand to the trekking party.

At that point in time, CARE was the only international NGO on the ground, 
and, accordingly, initiated immediate response to the crisis in 
collaboration with other Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) agencies.

Like everyone else, Mercyline and her brothers walked for nearly two months 
covering an estimated distance of 300 kilometres.

The young girl made the entire distance with Rosetha strapped on her back. 
It was a tedious and painful experience, they say.

"Our feet were painful and heavy. It is as if they were on fire," recalls 
Borlis, adding that they hardly had anything to eat on the way.

Rosetha was only six months old and crawling, by the time she left Raga. 
Before the mother died, her major source of food was breast milk. Tasks 
such as bathing, feeding and cleaning her have become young Mercyline's 
sole responsibility.

"I have brought my sister up by feeding her on porridge and honey. I thank 
God she is not the problematic type," she says.

However, Mercyline is clearly overwhelmed by the tasks she is confronted 
with. Torn in between taking care of baby Rosetha, Borlis, Fizo and 
herself, the poor girl has in the process neglected her own hygiene and 
health needs.

As the interview with her progresses, she hurls her protesting sister onto 
the ground mumbling something to the effect of boredom.

She is in utter discomfort. She has to keep repositioning her tattered 
skirt to cover a septic wound on one of her thighs to keep flies away.

Scratching her itchy hair violently and biting on her dirty nails, the 
eight-year-old suddenly stands up and announces her intention to depart.

"I have to find some food now for Rosetha, she has not taken anything 
today. We have run out of maize flour supply and so I must start doing 
rounds to borrow something right away," she says firmly.

Although she is not orphaned, seven-year-old Atima Michael equally has a 
heavy task to carry out.  Her blind parents fondly refer to her as "driver" 
- a most reliable one.

"If it were not for Atima, we would not have arrived in Mabia. We would all 
have been killed in Raga if not on the way," says her mother, Mrs Rosa Kamis.

Scores of other people numbering over 800 were not as lucky. They died on 
the way of hunger, sickness or drowned while crossing swamps and deep 
rivers. The IDPs were seeking refuge in the south, following an attack by 
government forces in Raga.

Atima is a charming smiling "machine". Although she only communicates in 
her local Azande language, she is at home with strangers and struggles to 
express herself through gesticulation. Her parents have enrolled her at a 
neighbouring school, recently erected for the IDPs.

When she is not attending school, the proclaimed "driver" is busy attending 
to her parents' needs. One will most likely trace her at their family's 
house seated next to her parents and not under the woods shouting or 
running with other children.

Mercyline is not as lucky. She is weighed down by domestic 
responsibilities. Her lot is largely made up of young girls of school going 
age.

Owing to her current responsibilities, she is unable to attend school. Her 
brothers, however, have enrolled at the next door learning institution for 
IDPs, courtesy of joint efforts by CARE and United Nations Children Fund 
(UNICEF).

And as evening approaches, the young "mother" gets restless, pondering 
where the next meal will come from.

Meanwhile, little Rosetha chuckles after sipping a mug-full of sugarless 
gruel as her brothers run around the village paths chanting songs with 
schoolmates. Mercyline ponders on.