Life

11, May 2018

Nigeria, Kenya screen travelers at airports, border posts after Ebola outbreak in DR Congo ⁰

Nigeria has increased screening tests at airports and other points of entry as a precautionary measure following an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the immigration service said on Thursday.

At least 17 people have died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, two years after the worst ever outbreak of the virus ended in West Africa after killing more than 11,300 people and infecting some 28,600, mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Nigeria was hailed as having contained the virus in 2014, with 8 deaths, following fears that it could spread through the commercial capital of some 20 million inhabitants and across Africa’s most populous country of around 180 million people.

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) said thermometers had been used to monitor some entrants into the country since the virus last hit the region. Screening had been stepped up since the latest outbreak in Congo.

“We are using all the facilities available to detect the virus. That means extra use of thermometers,” said NIS spokesman Sunday James, speaking via phone.

“We must take extra measures to make sure people are screened at all the entry points into the country,” he said.

Ebola spread to Nigeria in 2014 when Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American diplomat, flew into the country from Liberia and collapsed at the main international airport in Lagos.

Kenya screens travelers at airports, border posts

Authorities in Kenya have also beefed up efforts to screening travelers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the border posts of Busia and Malaba.

Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki told journalists that thermal guns had been installed at these points to detect persons with elevated temperatures.

A National Health Emergencies Council has also been established to act expeditiously to prevent any importation of Ebola.

Culled from Africa News

10, May 2018

Congo-Kinshasa officials confirm Ebola outbreak after 17 dead ⁰

Cases of hemorrhagic fever were reported in an area of Congo that is facing an Ebola epidemic as far back as December and the first deaths were ported in January, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said in capital Kinshasa on Thursday.

The health ministry said on Tuesday that at least 17 people had died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo where health officials have now confirmed an outbreak of Ebola, but did not give a time frame. Only two cases have been confirmed as Ebola, by a laboratory in Kinshasa.

A time span as long as five months since the first infection would be alarming, since it gives the virus a head start in infecting lots of people before action was taken to contain it.

This is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the vast, forested central African nation since it was first identified near the eastern Ebola river in the 1970s. It comes less than a year after an outbreak killed eight people in Congo’s remote northeastern forests.

“According to our early information, the cases have been reported since December and the first deaths were reported in January, but the link between the deaths and the epidemic has not yet been established,” WHO Congo spokesman Eugene Kabambi told Reuters.

The health ministry said on Thursday it had dispatched a team of 12 experts to the area to try to trace new contacts of the disease, identify the epicenter and all affected villages and provide resources.

The epidemic so far appears to be centered around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro, where local health officials had reported 21 patients showing signs of hemorrhagic fever, of whom all but four of whom had died.

“This advance team brought the first batches of equipment, mostly containing rapid diagnostic tests for the Ebola virus and laser thermometers,” the health ministry statement said.

It added that they had already arrived in the regional capital Mbandaka, about 150 km away from the affected area.

Ebola is best known and most feared for the internal and external bleeding it can cause in its victims, owing to damage done to blood vessels. Victims often die of shock but symptoms can be vague, including fever, muscle pain, diarrhea and nausea.

The worst Ebola epidemic in history ended in West Africa just two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people and infecting 28,600 in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

A woman looks for discarded bottles and scrap metal in a dump in Freetown, Sierra Leone, March 28, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Congo’s long experience of the disease and its vast, remote geography mean outbreaks are often localized and relatively easy to isolate and snuff out.

But Ikoko Impenge and Bikoro lie not far from the banks of the Congo River, an essential waterway for transport and commerce, downstream of which lie both Kinshasa and Brazzaville, capital of neighboring Congo Republic. Between them, the two cities have a population of more than 12 million.

(Source: Reuters)

5, May 2018

Southern Cameroons in Crisis: Barrister Tambe Tiku speaks of the academic Lilliput running the Buea Council ⁰

Following a Fako High Court ruling, restraining the University of Buea, UB, from revoking the Degrees awarded Buea Mayor, Patrick Ekema Esunge, the Southwest Regional Secretary of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, Christopher Tambe Tiku, (seen here with our senior political man Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai) has asserted to The Post newspaper that the Court erred. According to Tambe Tiku, the Court, presided over by Justice Kenneth Ako Tanyi, was misled, because, Ekema did not seek equity with clean hands. Tambe Tiku asserts that Ekema is playing for time, by seeking the court to protect him, due to the case against him for fraudulently gaining admission into UB. “How do you skip the GCE Advanced Level to go to the University,” Tambe quipped?

He (Ekema) has nothing in front of the court. He says he genuinely earned the 1st and 2nd Degrees; you cannot look at the qualification without looking at the entry requirement.” Tambe Tiku says the court erred because: “You cannot say that the University be put on notice and you go further to grant the prayers of the applicant in the ex parte motion,” Tambe Tiku holds, regarding the ruling in suit No. HCF/015/WOS/18/1M/18 of April 16, 2018. He further states that Ekema used the court to deceive the public that injustice was meted on him. Ekema’s Lawyer, had, in the ex parte motion, prayed the court for: “An Order of Interim Injunction, restraining the Respondents [UB and the State of Cameroon] jointly and severally, their servants, agents and workmen from making any public statement and or holding any meetings touching on purported revocation of, and or any interference with, the Academic Degrees awarded the Applicant by the University of Buea pending the hearing and determination of the Suit now pending between the parties before this Honourable Court.” “And for such further order or orders that this Honourable Court may deem fit and proper to make in the circumstances.” Tambe Tiku, in the following interview, explains his arguments.

Excerpts:

The Post: How would you react to the Fako High Court ruling in the case pitting Ekema vs the University of Buea and the State of Cameroon?

Tambe Tiku: I am scandalised by the genre of the ruling granted by Justice Kenneth Ako Tanyi. He erred in several instances. Firstly, in his ruling he granted all the prayers of the applicant without giving the University and the Sate of Cameroon the opportunity to be heard.

The Post: What then is an “ex parte” motion, or a motion ex parte?

Tambe Tiku: An application is made to the court ex parte when one party is present and the other has not been informed that the court case is taking place. This can only be done in cases of emergency where there is no time to contact the other side or in cases where it is feared that the other side would do something such as leave the country or destroy evidence if they know about the court case. Additionally, an ex parte motion can be allowed by the Judge where the applicant is about to suffer prejudice if the court does not act. From the foregoing, it is important to emphasise the concept of urgency. In the case pitting Ekema Patrick Esunge vs the University of Buea and the State of Cameroon as respondents, one fails to understand how the Judge arrived or construed the concept of urgency before granting such a ruling.

The Post: You said the Judge failed in several instances. After explaining the instance of urgency, what other instances do you mean?

Tambe Tiku: In the first place, the applicant (Ekema) was never served with any decision from the Senate of the University of Buea. The Judge failed in ruling on a newspaper publication whose content had nothing with the official stand of the University of Buea. No official in the University or Senate gave his view on the purported article which the court ruled on. The court again erred in assuming jurisdiction in a matter which is purely administrative in character. The proper thing to do was to decline jurisdiction and advise the applicant to file an action at the Administrative Court. It is also disturbing to note that, nowhere in the applicant’s founding papers or exhibits, is he admitting that he has an Advanced Level pass which is the crux of the matter. It is sad to know that the Judge did not bother to take that into consideration. The applicant misled the court and the public into thinking that injustice has been done against him. It is a ruse to mislead the public into thinking that he passed the GCE Advanced Level GCE examination. The case before the court is one of declaratory order in which the applicant is praying the court in recognising his Bachelors and Masters Degree, respectively. It is again interesting to note that the applicant is not alleging that he fulfilled the entry requirement to gain a place in the University of Buea. The High Court has no jurisdiction over the University pertaining to matters of an administrative character.

The Post: Why do you think he didn’t seize but the Administrative Court?

Tambe Tiku: The applicant is avoiding the Administrative Court because of the overwhelming evidence the University has against him. All these judicial irregularities masterminded by the applicant are intended to obstruct justice, especially with the criminal investigation hanging over his head.

The Post:But he is alleging that he was not served when the University setup a commission to establish if he had GCE Advanced Level…?

Tambe Tiku: Again, that is not true. He approached the court in bad faith knowing fully well that he was served twice in his office personally. The University has the evidence. It is common knowledge that he was being investigated by the University and the judicial police about his certificates. It was his duty to report to the University accompanied by his GCE Advanced Level to allay all doubts surrounding his certificates. That he did not do because he had nothing to show or prove. Even with the papers before the court, he has still failed to disclose to the court how he got to the University. He is merely floating and buying time. It beats one’s imagination why the applicant would sue the State of Cameroon after having earned fictitiously salaries as Category 8 (which is salary earned only by staff with Advanced Level.

The Post: Is it a crime to sue the State?

You cannot bring an ex parte motion against the State.

The Post: The High Court, in its ruling, has ordered the University to stop any action towards withdrawing the Degrees which it awarded the applicant. Should the University not respect the High Court ruling?

Tambe Tiku: That is another fatal error. The Senate is the highest authority as far as academic affairs of the University are concerned. The Senate had already thrashed the issue by virtue of the report of the commission that was put in place by the Vice Chancellor of UB. At that point, the University had already finished with its job. The Minister of Higher Education who is the supervisory authority over universities in Cameroon is the only authority to endorse the proposal of the Senate of UB. Hence the ruling of Justice Kenneth Ako Tanyi was ill-conceived and of no consequence. There is nothing to stop the Minister to revoke or not to revoke. This is true, regarding the fact that the Minister is not party to the suit before the honourable court. Once the University took the decision to propose to the Minister to revoke the degrees awarded Ekema, it became functus officio.

Source: The Postline Newspaper

4, May 2018

‘Black Panther’ leads MTV Movie and TV Award nods ⁰

Black Panther, the breakthrough superhero film that has become one of the highest-grossing motion pictures of all time, on Thursday led nominations for the MTV Movie and TV Awards.

The action movie about the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda led with seven nominations including Best Movie for the June 18 awards, which will be decided by public voting.

Placing second with six nominations is “Stranger Things,” the Netflix series about supernatural occurrences in a small town in Indiana.

The MTV Movie and TV Awards, like the channel’s signature MTV Video Music Awards, celebrate pop culture moments and pride themselves on being less stuffy than the industry’s benchmark Oscars and Emmys.

Categories include “Best Kiss” and “Most Frightened Performance.” In another contrast with the industry-led awards, the MTV prizes for the second year will be gender neutral with no separate competitions for men and women.

“Black Panther,” a rare action film to celebrate black culture, has already become the third highest-grossing movie ever in North America since its release in January.

Comedian Tiffany Haddish will serve as the host of the MTV Movie and TV Awards, which hands out statuettes shaped like popcorn boxes.

Haddish stars in the comedy “Girls Trip” which is also up for Best Picture, along with the action flicks “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Wonder Woman” and horror adaptation “It.”

Culled from Africa News

28, April 2018

Kenya bans lesbian love story set to premiere at Cannes ⁰

Kenya has banned its first feature film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, accusing it of having “clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya, contrary to the law”.

Director Wanuri Kahiu said she is “incredibly sorry” to confirm the ban of “Rafiki” (or “Friend” in Kiswahili) by the Kenya Film Classification Board. Her film depicts a love story between two women.

“We believe adult Kenyans are mature and discerning enough to watch local content but their right has been denied,” she said Friday on Twitter. The director has said in interviews that she had been nervous about the film’s reception in Kenya, but had received some support. In a strange twist, just days prior, the head of the Kenya Film Classification Board [KFCB], Ezekiel Mutua, had praised her work in an interview with a local radio station.

But on Friday, the KFCB said in a statement that the film “contains homosexual scenes that run counter to the law, the culture and the moral values of the Kenyan people”. The board also accused producers of changing the original script that was licensed for production, which they say didn’t have romantic scenes between the female actors.

The board said it met with the director earlier this month and asked her to edit out the film’s “offensive” parts. On Wednesday, the director instead told the board to go ahead and make a ruling, it said.

Moralising the arts

Under British colonial-era laws, homosexuality remains illegal in Kenya. A person caught in the act can face up to 14 years in prison, though activists say that it is rare for people to be prosecuted. Many members of the LGBTI community do face severe harassment and physical threats.

Mutua, the head of the KFCB and a self-described “fervent moral crusader”, has previously sought to ban films, ads and cartoons he deems immoral, often on the grounds that they promote homosexuality.

After the decision was announced, the KFCB Twitter account began to retweet homophobic tweets supporting the ban.

For activist Kevin Mwachiro, the author ofInvisible – Stories From Kenya’s Queer Community, the ban didn’t come as a surprise.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t be banned, but this does reflect what is happening in society,” Mwachiro told FRANCE 24. “There are moralists in positions of authority who have blurred the lines between what is faith-based and what isn’t. In a secular nation like ours, they are bringing in personal beliefs to something that shouldn’t be moralised.”

He cited other instances – such as the KFCB’s 2014 decision to ban the Kenyan-made film “Stories of Our Lives”. The film, which told five different stories about LGBTI Kenyans, was shown internationally, including at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“It’s terrible when content made by Kenyans for Kenyans is outlawed,” Mwachiro said. “Now ‘Rafiki’ will only be screened in Western capitals.But for LGBT people in Kenya, seeing these stories on the silver screen would help them in their own journeys.”

A prize-winning story

In Kenya, gay rights activists have quickly raised an outcry to the ban, while the Cannes Film Festival shared Kahiu’s comments on Twitter.

“Rafiki” will premiere at the French festival next month in the “Un Certain Regard” category, earmarked for films with unexpected or marginal themes by emerging directors.

The film is adapted from a story called “Jambula Tree” by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko, who now lives in Nairobi. The main characters, who live in a housing estate in Nairobi, are the daughters of rival politicians.

It won the 2007 Caine Prize, which is awarded to African writers of a short story published in English.

Legal challenges

In a recent interview with journalist Christiane Amanpour, President Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed gay rights as being “not of any major importance to the people and the Republic of Kenya”.

However, in reality, the ban on “Rafiki” occurs against a backdrop of a nation struggling to come to terms with the varied sexuality of its people.

Currently, Kenya’s High Court has begun hearing arguments in a case that challenges parts of the penal code seen as targeting the LGBTI community. The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission argues that the sections are in breach of the constitution and deny basic rights by criminalising consensual same-sex relations between adults. The court on Monday is expected to announce a date for its ruling.

This comes on the heels of another small victory for activists when a Court of Appeal in Mombasa ruled that conducting forced anal examinations of people accused of same-sex relations is unconstitutional.

Victories like this make Mwachiro hopeful.

“We aren’t out of the woods yet but a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes,” he said. “We live in a beautiful country with talented people.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)

18, April 2018

Zimbabwe dismisses thousands of striking nurses ⁰

Zimbabwe has fired all nurses who went on strike to demand higher salaries, in a hardline response by the country’s new leadership to growing labor arrest.

Several thousand nurses were sacked in a terse statement issued on Tuesday evening by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who accused the strikers of being “politically motivated.”

Patients were turned away from major hospitals after the nurses began their industrial action on Monday, shortly after doctors ended their own weeks-long strike earlier in the month.

“Government has decided in the interest of patients and of saving lives to discharge all the striking nurses with immediate effect,” Chiwenga said in a statement.

He said unemployed and retired nurses would be hired to replace those fired.

Chiwenga was the military general who led the ousting of Robert Mugabe in November when the army briefly took control and ushered Emmerson Mnangagwa into the presidency.

Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga

Chiwenga described the nurses’ strike as “deplorable and reprehensible” as the government had released $17 million (14 million euros) to boost their pay and allowances.

He said the funds would now be used to employ new nurses.

Zimbabwe’s nurses association said they “noted” Chiwenga’s statement but added that they remained on strike.

After Mugabe’s 37-year rule, Mnangagwa has vowed to revive the country’s moribund economy and attract foreign investment to fund better public services.

“Government has done everything to comply with the demands of the striking nurses,” Mnangagwa said, according to state-owned media. “This leaves us with no option but to dismiss them.”

More than 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s budget is spent on government wages.

Teachers at public schools have threatened to go on strike if their pay is not increased.

Zimbabwe is due to hold elections in July or August, the first since the shock fall of Mugabe, who ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.

Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former deputy, is a veteran loyalist in the ruling ZANU-PF party.

(Source: AFP)

14, April 2018

Koffi Olomide secures Kenya concert after 2016 deportation over assault ⁰

Congolese music star Koffi Olomide is due back in Kenya to perform for the first time in two years since he was deported from the country on the orders of the police chief Joseph Boinnet.

In July 2016, Kenya detained and subsequently deported the 61-year-old to his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he was slapped with assault charges.

On Friday, he announced that he will be back in Kenya to perform on April 24 at a devolution event, a national conference involving Kenya’s 47 county heads. The event is to be held at Kakamega, he thanked the organizers for inviting him to return to Kenya.

In a video announcing his return to Kenya Olomide said he loved his Kenyan fans so much and had missed them.

In the 2016 incident, a video of him kicking a female dancer in his group went viral on social media sparking outrage. He was at the time scheduled to hold a concert in Nairobi, but was arrested in front of television cameras outside the premises of a television station where he was granting an interview.

He was deported and the schow he was bill to attend went ahead without him. He initially denied the assualt claims and insisted that he was protecting his crew from an unspecified person who was threatening their security.

He has since apologized for the incident and even sang a song praising women and womanhood at a show in Congo Republic. Olomide in August 2012, was slapped with a three-month suspended prison sentence in Kinshasa for assaulting his producer.

Source: Africa News

8, April 2018

Nolly Nigeria: Brides abandon wedding reception to write final exams ⁰

Two Nigerian brides abandoned their respective wedding receptions in order to sit their final exams, a move that delighted their head of department, local news portals have reported.

The incident happened on Saturday at Makurdi in the Benue State University where the two identified only as Dorcas and Deborah, entered the exams hall with their gowns much to the surprise and delight of their colleagues.

They managed to get married and to complete their final paper “Com 402: Media Law and Ethics.” Speaking to the media about the incident, course lecturer Dr. Benjamin Ogbu described it as a double joy for the students and all involved.

“The timetable for the exam was earlier fixed before their weddings were fixed and interestingly, both were on April 7, 2018. Since the exam couldn’t be shifted, the two brides left their various reception venues for the examination hall to sit for the exams in their wedding gowns.

“I was with the deputy vice- chancellor (academic) when both women stormed the examination hall. It was a moment of joy for all of us as students and lecturers.

“We were happy that our students got married and they (students) were happy too that they got married and also took their last exams same day. It was a double joy for them.”

Source: Africa News

8, April 2018

Yaounde to host three pan-African institutions ⁰

The African Union (AU) and Cameroon have signed agreements for Cameroon to host three pan-African institutions.

The three institutions to be hosted in Yaounde include the Pan African University (PAU) Institute for Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences; the African Monetary Fund (AMF); and the AU Sport Council, according to an AU statement on Saturday.

Sarah Anyang Agbor, AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology (HRST), and Lejeune Mbella Mbella, Cameroon’s Minister of External Relations, signed the agreements on Friday in Cameroon.

It has taken over ten years of discussion to adopt the decision establishing the three AU institutions and over five years of negotiations to approve the host agreements, said the statement.

The signing of the agreements is significant as it took place barely a few days after the signing of relevant instruments for establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), said the AU Commissioner.

Cameroon said the agreements demonstrate its firm and unwavering commitment to the Africa integration, by hosting in its territory, the seats of three complementary institutions of the pan-African organization.

Culled from Xinhuanet

31, March 2018

Cameroon Responsible For Fake Penicillin In Circulation In Nigeria ⁰

The circulation of fake Penicillin –V tablets in South West Cameroon is responsible for the fake penicillin circulation in Nigeria, according to the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN).

The president of the society, Ahmed Yakasai, said it is alerting the general public to the threat posed by Nigeria’s close proximity to Cameroon.

“Nigerians, especially pharmacists and other health care professionals, should place precautions with a view to preventing the importation of the drug into Nigeria,” he said.

PSN is not the only group that is concerned about the development, Yakasai added that the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Federal Ministry of Health and office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation issued similar advisory in line with the report of the General Council of Medical Colleges, Spain in the January/February 2018 edition of its Journal of Tropical Medicine.

Source: Concise News