wfn.org | ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY 09/03 March 10, 2003 (b)

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

ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY 09/03 March 10, 2003 (b)

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

Special Envoy Urges Leaders To Take Peace Issues Seriously

NAIROBI (AANA) March 10 - Leaders in Somalia have been challenged to 
reciprocate efforts of frontline states on Somalia peace negotiations 
(Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya), to bring harmony to their troubled country.

Addressing a plenary session at a Somalia Peace and Reconciliation 
Conference held here on February 25, Kenya's Special Envoy for Somalia 
peace talks, Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat, said the Kenya Government and 
IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development) front-line states have 
remained steadfastly committed to the search for peace and reconciliation 
in Somalia.

The move to establish a government of national unity in Somalia is now 
stronger than ever, Mr. Kiplagat said, stressing that "the momentum, 
created in Eldoret town (Kenya) in October last year, when the talks 
started, will continue to be maintained".

The conference was convened to set pace for further peace talks, following 
relocation of the negotiations from Eldoret in Rift Valley Province, to 
Nairobi.

Mr. Kiplagat disclosed that a committee had been set up to monitor 
implementation of a cessation of hostilities agreement signed last October.

Violations of the agreement, he stressed, are now being viewed with 
increased seriousness, and appropriate action will be enforced on violators.

The committee comprises representatives of the United Nations (UN), African 
Union  (AU), European Union (EU), the Arab League, United States of America 
(USA) and IGAD.

According to Mr. Kiplagat, the committee is set to meet soon to review the 
current situation in Somalia, in regard to the agreement.

Meanwhile, Somali human rights activists from 23 organisations, who met in 
Hargesia (in Somalia) from February 10-18, declared that they would 
"increase the struggle against human rights abuses, such as arbitrary 
killings, torture, arbitrary detention and kidnappings," according to a 
February 21 press release from Amnesty International.

The human rights defenders stated that conflict-stricken central and 
southern Somalia faced daily dangers of arbitrary killings, detention by 
faction militias and ransom kidnapping by gunmen, which faction leaders 
have done little or nothing to suppress in the areas they claim to control.

Observed the press release: "In Puntland, civil society organisations 
documenting abuses receive little tolerance from political authorities, and 
are at risk as a result of the unresolved armed conflict"

Reported by Osman Njuguna

Hair-Raising Statistics Of AIDS Epidemic In Botswana

MAUN, Botswana (AANA) March 10 - A 15-year-old boy living in Botswana has a 
90 percent chance of dying of HIV/AIDS during his lifetime, according to 
latest analysis of World Health Organisation.

"This is a chilling statistic," Professor Rodney Philips of Oxford 
University in Britain, who carried out the analysis, told AANA last week on 
e-mail communication.

Professor Philips said hopes of finding a vaccine in the near future were 
fading, and that the solution was only in radical change in sexual behaviour.

"Even a reduction in the cost of drugs could prove a mixed blessing." If a 
patient stopped taking the drugs because he or she felt better, the results 
could be devastating. "The virus could develop a resistance to the drugs, 
making the infection worse," he said.

"This virus develops resistance with immense speed.  The drug-resistant HIV 
could become a very severe problem for Africa," said Professor Philips.  He 
added that the scale of the AIDS epidemic in southern Africa was hard to 
comprehend, and fighting it would take all the resources and political will 
that could be mustered.

Botswana has the highest infection rate in the world, with one in every 
three people infected.

Reported by Rodrick Mukumbira

Media Told To Be Wary Of Expanding Democratic Space

NAIROBI (AANA) March 10 -The media in Kenya have been warned against being 
duped by the expanding democratic space in the country, so much as to take 
a lull on matters concerning human rights.

The call was made at a consultative workshop between journalists and human 
rights activists, held in Kericho town, about 300 km north-west of Nairobi, 
from February 19 to 21.

The workshop, whose theme was Scaling up the Role of the Media in Enriching 
Democracy in Kenya, was co-hosted by Amnesty International, Kenya Section 
and the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (CHRD).

The General Secretary of the Kenya Union Journalists (KUJ), Mr. Ezekiel 
Mutua, observed that past experiences had demonstrated that in the absence 
of vibrant opposition, any government was capable of degenerating into 
autocracy, and that the present NARC (National Rainbow Coalition) 
government would be no exception.

He therefore urged the media to be proactive in order to pre-empt any 
possibility of human rights violation.

The Executive Director of CHRD, Mr. Ken Wafula, echoed the same sentiments 
by observing that the government, being a creation of human beings, could 
easily degenerate into a rogue machine and trample on the rights of Kenyans.

He said that when people were vested with certain powers, they tended to 
abuse them at some stage.

He told journalists that challenges facing the media and human rights lobby 
groups were enormous.  He explained that the potential of NARC becoming 
autocratic was real, unless mechanisms to bend it towards justice, human 
rights, respect for constitutional freedoms and other human moralities were 
in place.

The meeting was critical of the police, singling it out as the centre-bolt 
of human rights abuses by the state.

The media was asked to network with human rights institutions to develop 
early warning systems to avert violations before they take place. 
Journalists were thus asked not to overlook anything that smacked of human 
rights abuse, as doing so would entrench the tendency.

Areas identified for attention by the media were prisons, human rights in 
courts, women and children's rights.

Reported by Joseph K'Amolo

FOCUS  ON  WOMEN

'Women's Reproductive Health Not Yet Fully Addressed'

NAIROBI (AANA) March 10 - 360 million women around the world lack access to 
reliable contraceptives. 600,000 others die every year due to complications 
arising from pregnancy, said the Director General of International Planned 
Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Dr. Steven Sinding.

He further noted that while today, nearly 60 percent of women in 
reproductive age were using contraception, 40 percent had little or no 
access to reproductive health services.

Dr. Sinding was speaking here on March 4, during an IPPF Africa Region 
(IPPFAR) open forum to discuss achievements and challenges of reproductive 
health in Africa.

The discussions mainly focussed on the extent of implementation of 
recommendations made during an International Conference on Population and 
Development in Cairo in 1994.  A Cairo Programme of Action was then adopted 
by 180 world nations.  It recognised that health rights and well-being of 
individuals lied at the core of sustainable development.

Dr Sinding, however, regretted that even though most countries had agreed 
to the Cairo consensus, women's reproductive health had not been adequately 
addressed, especially in developing countries, where majority were denied 
access to free choice regarding their fertility.

"[There is need to change laws that infringe on women sexual rights], 
empower them and influence men to participate more fully in programmes of 
sexual and reproductive health," he observed.

Addressing the over 100 participants, Kenya's health minister, Charity 
Ngilu, underscored the importance of African governments to respect the 
rights of women and ensure that they take charge of their own sexuality. 
"Reproductive health is a human rights issue, which should be prioritised 
since it affects most child-bearing women," she said.

Her Cabinet counterpart, Prof Peter Anyang Nyong'o, Minister for Planning 
and National Development, pointed out that reproductive health issues were 
multi-dimensional in nature, and required efforts of various sectors to 
tackle related matters, especially HIV/AIDS.

Presenting a paper on reproductive health agenda in the context of New 
Partnerships for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Prof Nyong'o said the East 
African Reproductive Health Network was appealing to NEPAD to put 
reproductive health issues high on its agenda.

The East African Health Network is responsible for co-ordinating and 
facilitating the sharing of critical information and experience in sexual 
and reproductive health, in the region.

"I assure you that we will ensure that this happens, as Kenya is a member 
of the NEPAD Implementation Committee," he asserted.

The discussions were crowned by the launch of an IPPFAR four-year strategic 
plan (2002-2005), which outlines new approaches for promoting safe 
motherhood and for improving the availability and accessibility of family 
planning services and curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Reported by Joyce Mulama

Women In Kenya Launch Caucus To Fight Drug Use

NAIROBI (AANA) March 10 - A caucus of women organisations and individuals 
seeking to advocate against drug abuse has been launched.

Mothers Against Drug Abuse Caucus  (MADAC), launched here on March 3, will 
also act as a consumer watchdog.

At the launch MADAC chairperson, Evelyn Mandela, observed that it was women 
who bore the brunt of drug abuse, hence her organisation's objective to get 
to the root of the problem by lobbying the government to formulate policies 
to stamp out drug abuse.

"We are targeting the whole society, and using women to penetrate to the 
core of the problem, owing to the fact that they interact more with their 
youth," she observed.

Mandela added that her organisation will identify addicts, especially 
youth, and train counsellors and peer educators, who will then go through 
recovery processes with victims.

MADAC's long-term plan is to build a rehabilitation centre in Nairobi, 
where drug-addicts will be referred to on fairly affordable terms.

"The present centres are too costly for a patient who must go through many 
sessions. This in turn discourages any addict who may be willing to quit 
drug use," noted Mandela. Rehabilitation centres charge an average of Ksh 
4,500 (US $ 58) per session.

The launch of MADAC was one of several activities preceding celebrations of 
International Women's Day on March 8.  It was organised by the Association 
of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK).

HelpAge International, an non-governmental organisation sympathetic to the 
needs of the aged, dedicated the day to older women, saying they had been 
neglected, yet they played a significant role in society.

A press release from the organisation noted that older women were now care 
givers of their adult children who succumb to AIDS, and orphans left behind 
by the pandemic, with no financial or material assistance. "Older women are 
struggling to cope with this disaster without interventions to support 
them," said part of the statement.

Reported by Joyce Mulama

Rightists Highlight Concerns Over Women Property Rights

NAIROBI (AANA) March 10 - Kenya's constitutional laws on women property 
rights are flawed, making it difficult for them to inherit property upon 
divorce, separation or widowhood.

According to Human Rights Watch, these discriminatory laws and traditional 
customs have paved way for property rights violations, causing women to 
loose possessions when separated from their husbands.

Speaking here last week during the launch of a report "Double Standards: 
Women's property Rights Violations in Kenya", Human Rights Watch, Women's 
Rights Division deputy director, Janet Walsh, observed that infringement on 
property rights had devastating effects such as poverty, disease, violence 
and homelessness to women and their children.

Walsh, who is the author of the report, noted that many widows in Kenya 
were excluded from inheriting from their husbands. "When men die, the 
in-laws of the widows often evict them from their lands and homes and take 
other property such as livestock and household goods," she said.

The report, which was written after interviews with affected women from 
across the country, and after consultation with women organisations, 
outlines the way women are stripped off their belongings, and forced into 
risky sexual behaviours (wife inheritance and ritual 'cleansing'), in order 
to keep their property.

"Women who fight back are often beaten, raped or ostracised ..Women's 
insecure property rights also hinder development by contributing to low 
agricultural production, food shortages, unemployment and poverty," says 
part of the report.

Biased attitudes, where officials and traditional leaders are against 
women, contribute to women rights abuses. "Some say that women are 
untrustworthy or do not deserve equal property rights. Many have ideas that 
"a woman and cows are a man's property", adds the report.

"This underscores the women's low place in Kenyan society," said Walsh.

Unresponsive government and traditional authorities have also added to 
mistreatment of women, by turning them away whenever they report of 
property problems, saying family matters are not worthy of their 
(authorities) attention. Walsh, in her research, revealed that chiefs, 
elders and police admitted openly that women's property rights are not a 
priority.

Experts and women rights activists maintain that there are no government 
programs specifically aimed at preventing and remedying such violations.

The chairperson of Centre for Rehabilitation of Abused Women (CREAW), Judy 
Thongori pointed out that the Law on Succession Act is prejudiced. She 
said, "it provides that a widow loses property inherited from her husband 
on re-marriage, but a widower does not lose his rights on re-marriage."

The law, she said, also provides that a person may distribute their 
property through a will, and in writing, the will may make reference to any 
secular or religious law that one chooses. "That clause is worrying because 
the distribution is likely to favour men," she observed.

The report calls upon the government to take "immediate" steps to put in 
place laws that clearly protect women's property rights, and remove 
obstacles that hinder their realisation.

In the same view, Thongori, underscored the need to create laws against 
culture, saying "we need to legislate against culture that is not dynamic 
and that still poses discrimination to women or any section of the society."

Reported by Joyce Mulama