Tanzania, South Africa joint for research

Tanzania and South Africa will co-operate to make scientific research to promote science and technology sectors in Africa.

Speaking at a meeting between the two countries held yesterday in the city, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Professor Patrick Makungu said among the things that will undergo research include transplantation of animal embriyo.

"A team of scientists from Tanzania and South Africa will participate to make a detailed study about the ways in which new technologies can create medicine, energy, electronics and used in research," said

He said the partnership will help to explore natural medicine treatments are suitable for agriculture and the use of large computers (super computer).

He said the 'Super Computer' is a key technology beyond which is used in weather forecasting, research of weather, oil and discoveries of gas 
Professor Makungu said the purpose of the meeting held yesterday is to support and develop cooperation in science and technology between the two countries.

This is the second meeting, the first was held in April last year in South Africa where countries agreed to various factors, including an analysis of the problems facing science and technology sectors in the two countries.

"Tanzania and South Africa will co-operate to do many things, including a detailed study of the science," said Professor Makungu 
also Professor Makungu said that cooperation Scientific will enable there to document the changes in the science industry. 
"But also this partnership will help the two Governments of Tanzania South Africa is the law of Sciences and Technology Creative "he said.

And Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Science and Technology of South Africa, Mmboneni Muofhe said this partnership will help raise the level of research in African countries.

"Past to the African country to make research then you should ask help and cooperate with European countries but now we want Africa to do research for themselves," he said Muofhe 
said this cooperation will assist the two countries to know the problems faced when doing research alongside and sharing knowledge.

"Through this partnership we can lead the world in the sectors of science instead of leaving whites were tuburuza for all ages" said

THESE THREE Errors of Godbless Lema yesterday evening

Things yaliyomfanya Arusha MP Godbless Lema was arrested and denied bail yesterday evening following after talking to a lawyer's lawyer Humphrey Ahmadu Lema

i) first offense is telling college students in accounting when he appeared calm that 'sin biggest is fear.' rights be sought and to be fought if it is defended it is the primary and appropriate to be fought (Worth Fighting for)

ii) second offense is there spoke that '' Tumemtafuta governor on Problems of you and you have witnessed here has taken a long time to enter as he entered the send-off. these are our leaders who do not care about the concerns of citizens'' So it is inflammatory iii) third offense is there spoke tell students that '' I Member you I am corresponding with you so that you may right for you and if the governor does not come here as chairman of the committee on the protection of the region will lead to his office to find the answers to your righteousness because it is right for you based on in accordance with the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania which I swore to defend the Parliament and also permitted in accordance with regulatory and philosophical in the implementation of good governance democracy whose foundation is unheard of and protect human rights''This too is called that is inflammatory. words above that led police raided his home at midnight .... That is called provocation after the governor sending messages via mobile phone via its number 075296027

President Kikwete forgive PRISONERS 40000

President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday led thousands of Tanzanians in celebration of 49 years of the association held at the Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam and later forgive prisoners 4180.

A large number of Tanzanians participated in that celebration which started at 2:30 am and adorned with the parade officially organized by the various forces of defense and security and kupendezeshwa a multitude of students 2695 from Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar who performs a wide range of marking the celebration of the union.

Various officials, including retired from Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar took part in these celebrations as a mark of cherish and protect the union.

These leaders include the President of Zanzibar, Dr Mohamed Shein, Vice President of Tanzania, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, First Vice-President of Zanzibar, Maalim Seif Sharrif Hamad and second Vice-President of Zanzibar, Ambassador Seif Idd.

Others who attended the celebration that is the retired President of Zanzibar Aman Abeid Karume, former President of the second phase, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, former President of the third phase of the United Republic of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa and prime ministers retired, Edward Lowassa and Frederick Sumaye .

After officials sit in their positions, the official parade passed practically a ten GAD and pay their respects in front of the President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Thereafter mass youth expressed different shapes to indicate the progress made in the 49 years since the nation of Tanzania established consisting official before Wanahalaiki organize and display different images to encourage singing coalition.

However, some opposition leaders were not able to participate in this exhibition.

The leaders include Chairman of NCCR-Reform Party, James J. Mbatia, Chairman of the Association for Democracy and Development (Chadema), Freeman Mbowe and Chairman of the Association of Citizens (CUF), Professor Ibrahim Lipumba.

 Speaking to journalists after the end of the activities of that celebration, a member of the Central Committee Chadema who is also a member of the Commission on the Reform of the Constitution, Professor Nesiga Baregu said that Tanzanians should be proud of the United fit because it has lasted for 49 years, pointing out that it is very rare to see a country in Africa or Europe to develop a coalition with such a large age of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, then they should cherish and protect the interest of peace at hand.

Meanwhile, President Jakaya Kikwete has given amnesty to 4,180 prisoners who were serving their sentences in various prisons in the country in celebrating 49 years of integration.

Prisoners were pardoned is serving imprisonment not exceeding five years, where until the day of forgiveness that is April 26, will have served a quarter of their sentences, prisoners suffering from AIDS, tuberculosis and cancer which are confirmed by a panel of doctors.

  

Also people aged seventy years or more, female inmates who enter prison pregnant, who came to exploit children and who do not suck, they are disabled.

Presidential pardon for prisoners may also have physical and mental disabilities and prisoners who until the last day they had languished in prison for five years and have shown good behavior.

Dutch court hands Basebya six years for Genocide

Basebya (seated) during one of the court hearings. Net photo.

A Rwandan-born Dutch citizen has been sentenced to six years and eight months in jail for inciting genocide.

Yvonne Basebya, 66, was convicted of inciting genocide against her ethnic Tutsi neighbours before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, before moving to the Netherlands in 1998.

She was cleared of other charges, including perpetrating Genocide, murder and war crimes.

More than one million people were killed during the genocide.

The case made Basebya the first Dutch citizen to be convicted of crimes related to the Genocide.

Basebya wore a pink jacket, black trousers and sat impassively during the sentencing, the AFP news agency reported.

“She incited unfortunate youngsters to commit murder against Tutsis during meetings, as evidenced by the song she sang, ‘Tuba Tsembe Tsembe’, which means ‘let’s exterminate them all’,” Judge Rene Elkerbout said.

The wife of a former Rwandan government minister, Augustin Basebya, she immigrated to the Netherlands in 1998 – before her crimes were known.

She was prosecuted as a Dutch citizen.

Thijs Berger, the Dutch national prosecutor told The New Times earlier this week that in the trial they had demanded the court to hand Basebya life sentence. 

Basebya is the second Rwandan to be tried by courts in the Netherlands over Genocide charges.

In July, 2011, a Dutch appeals court sentenced Joseph Mpambara to life in prison.

John Bosco Siboyintore, the head of the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit, told this paper in an earlier interview that they trusted justice in the Netherlands.

Years ago, a Gacaca court in Gikondo, Kigali, found Basebya guilty of genocide crimes and sentenced her, in absentia, to life in prison.

In Basebya’s trial, 70 witnesses for the prosecution ,mostly from Rwanda were interrogated from the ground of the offence, according to Thijs Berger, prosecutor.

Kibaki assures Rwanda of trade flow ahead of polls

President Kagame with Nyagah (2L), Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, Chief Economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Transport, George Ndegwa (2R), and Kenyan Deputy High Commissioner, Kennedy Mokaya after the meeting yesterday. . 

 

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has re-assured Rwandans, especially the business community, that the upcoming presidential elections will not interfere with the trade flow from Kenya to Rwanda.

Kibaki’s message was delivered to President Paul Kagame yesterday afternoon by the former’s special envoy, Joseph Nyagah, also the Minister for Cooperative Development.

The last Kenyan election violence in 2007 left over 600,000 people displaced following a disputed presidential poll and more than 1,200 people were killed.

Ugandan and Rwandan businesses lost their properties worth US$47.5 million in the violence, and are still awaiting compensation.

Most products to and from regional countries go through Mombasa port, the biggest port in the region. Rwanda mainly relies on Northern Corridor that also serves other countries like Uganda, (Northern) Tanzania, DR Congo and South Sudan, which highlights Kenya’s significance in regional trade.

In January, the Rwanda Long Distance Trucks Drivers Association had asked for assurance from the Kenyan government that their goods would be secure as they are being ferried from Mombasa.

“President Kibaki asked me to come and explain to President Kagame what we have done this time in order to ensure that the flow of trade will continue irrespective of what happens in Kenya. I was able to explain to President Kagame that unlike last time in 2007 when the security forces were caught unaware by the situation, this time our security system is ready. We also have major changes in the Judiciary and other institutions,” Nyaga told The New Times in an interview.

Mombasa is Rwanda’s main exit and entry port through Uganda. The port handled over 260,238 tonnes of Rwanda-bound goods last year, up from 226,093 tonnes in the previous year. The Northern corridor is shorter and les costly compared to ferrying goods through Dar-es-Salaam.

Nyaga pointed out that, “As far as the flow of trade is concerned we confirm there is peace at the port of Mombasa for the goods of the neighbouring countries and we also assured the President that we have security arrangements in case of chaos which we do not anticipate this time.”

President Kibaki, who has led the country since 2002, will step down after the March 4, 2013 general election.

According to Nyaga, “there will be a special escort for consignments from the port all the way to Malaba Kenya border.

“We have helicopters surveying and controlling the route, we have security personnel every few kilometres all the way because we are committed as a country to ensuring Rwandans do not suffer,” he said.

He added that President Kibaki felt it was fair to explain to his Rwandan counterpart about the measures taken to ensure safety of trade flow during this period.

“President Kagame understood and appreciated the concerns that Kenya has. There are more measures that have been put in place and we expect that what happened would not happen again,” said Nyaga.

During the 2007/o8 post election violence, President Kagame proposed that a stable institution in Kenya could have saved the situation.

Kenya has since undertaken sweeping reforms. Parts ammendments in the reforms in the Constitution and changes in the police, army and Judiciary.

Over 600 Kenyans  in Rwanda have registered to participate in the election and they will, for the first time, cast their votes at the Kenyan High Commission in Kigali.

The candidates in the race for Kenya’s top office include Uhuru Kenyatta (Jubilee Coalition), Raila Odinga (Cord), Mohamed Abduba Dida and Martha Wangari Karua. Others are Peter Kenneth, Prof James ole Kiyiapi, Paul Muite and Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi.

In a related development, President Kibaki, yesterday called for calmness during the elections.

He said, “I make a passionate plea for all of us to vote peacefully. Indeed, peace is the cornerstone of our development. As a country, we must consolidate the development strides we have made by ensuring a free, fair, just and peaceful election. Let us send a clear message to the world, that our democracy has come of age. A peaceful vote is a vote for a secure, prosperous and stable Kenya.”

Budget row: Why we’re angry with Jonathan – Senate

Following the controversy that trailed the passage of 2013 budget, Senate has decided to take on the Presidency by effecting changes in the budgeting process and national planning. The Upper Legislative Chamber is also set to enact a law that would discard the ‘envelope’ system practised by the executive in the budgeting process.
Senators lampooned a system when the Presidency, through the Budget Office and the Finance Ministry would restrict ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) from fixing recurrent and capital expenditure in a financial year. The National Assembly has always been at loggerheads with the Presidency over the ‘envelope’ system.
These resolutions emerged from a motion on the call for a review of national planning and budgeting process sponsored by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi and 46 other Senators including Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), Minority Whip Ganiyu Solomon, Smart Adeyemi, Kabiru Gaya and Uche Chukwumerije. Adetunmbi noted that the “current national budgeting process makes the legislature less involved and at best, reactive; relying solely on the information provided by the executive.
“Under the current arrangement, there is an absence of a coherent and systematic means of exerting legislative control over the fiscal priorities of the Federal Government,” He also expressed concern that “current annual incremental ‘envelope’-based budgeting being used by the Federal Ministry of Finance is arbitrary and not pro-growth and is one of the factors responsible for the slow shift from recurrent to capital-led annual budget in Nigeria.” Contributing to the debate, Ndoma-Egba reiterated that “whatever comes from the executive is not a Bible or Qu’ran that cannot be reviewed. Now, they know they are wrong.
“The annual budget, as I know it, is just a segment of a national plan…There’s a disconnect between the body that has the ultimate power for appropriation and the body that makes plans.” Speaking on the ‘envelope’ system, Ndoma-Egba urged the chamber to take a close, second look at a system alien to the 1999 Constitution.
“The envelope system of budgeting makes no meaning to me. We must take a second look at this envelope system…recurrent budget doesn’t deliver dividends of democracy for the people; capital budget does. In a system where recurrent expenditure is bigger than capital expenditure, we are only developing poverty.” His deputy, Sen. Abdul Ningi, asked the Senate to “amend the National Planning Act.” Solomon agreed with Ningi on the need to amend the national planning department and wondered why Nigeria no longer operates a balanced budgeting system. “We no longer talk of balanced national budgets anymore.
It seems we’ve accepted that anytime they bring a budget here, it must come with deficit. There have been reports of recovery of funds from the late Gen. Sani Abacha but it’s never reflected in the budget. What’s happening? “In fact, there’s no criterion for budget performance!” Rounding off the debate, Senate President David Mark bemoaned the fact that past national budgets had failed as they had not contributed to the country’s economic growth.
“While the debate was going on, I decided to read up the National Planning Commission Act and everything we said is contained in that Act…The problem is that people have failed to do what they are supposed to do. Some others have become too powerful and hijacked other people’s work and refused to allow those who have been charged with specific responsibility to do what they are supposed to do. “If you go through the National Planning Commission Act, the objectives and the functions of the commission are precisely what we have said here.
A system that has not worked, people who are operating it resist changes, they do not want to change the system because changing the system means that they will lose some authority that they have arrogated for themselves. I think that is not in the best interest of Nigeria.
Our budgets over the years have not brought growth, it has not improved employment rate, it has not brought dividends of democracy as far as they have expected it. “I think that there is basically a problem with the ‘envelope’ system and that has to change. Our committees would take full responsibility if in the 2014 budget, they are not able to effect changes…” Mark said.

Ambulance shortage now at crisis levels

 

With the Ministry of Health facing a crisis as a result of a shortage of ambulances, the Assistant Minister of Health, Gaotlhaetse Mathabaphiri, has told parliament that his ministry has engaged the Central Transport Organisation to make an exception and allow the ministry to take charge of its fleet.

Currently, the CTO is responsible for buying, maintenance and repairing of all government vehicles.

Responding to a question by Okavango MP, Bagalatia Arone, during the minister’s question time on Friday, Matlhabaphiri acknowledged that the ministry is faced with a crisis owing to a shortage of vehicles.

Many patients across Botswana, especially in rural areas, are unable to access health facilities because of the unavailability of ambulances.

Matlhabaphiri said that out of a total of 577 vehicles, 130 had been declared unusable by CTO. He also said a total of 193 vehicles were currently at different CTO depots awaiting service and tyre changes.

“We are in talks with CTO to see if we cannot manage and fix our own fleet,” he said.

The minister said that it could expeditiously fix some of their vehicles by outsourcing to reputable garages, adding that recently the ministry distributed a number of vehicles to be used across the country in primary hospitals. He said that a total of 6 vehicles were distributed across the Okavango region.

However, subsequent to that, five vehicles broke down and were taken to CTO for repair.
“The only solution is to outsource,” added Matlhabaphiri.

“In other places, we have directed district primary health centres to seek assistance from the district offices,” he said.

Matlhabaphiri said this while responding to a follow up question by MP Reggie Reatile, who had wanted to find out what the ministry is doing as a temporary measure to remedy the state of affairs.

The minister was unable to give a time frame as to when government hopes to have addressed the transport crisis within government hospitals and clinics.

Meanwhile, MP Kentse Rammidi has expressed concern that the Ministry of Health’s proposal to take over its fleet from CTO could affect the ministry’s budget and lead it away from its core business.