04:54 GMT 26th January 2012
NORTH AFRICA
AS YOUNG PEOPLE in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya gathered in public squares to welcome the New Year of 2011 , few- if anyone at all - could have imagined the scale of the upheavals ahead and how profoundly different the political landscape of their countries would look by year's end. writes Tamam Ahmed Jama.
The torchbearer of what came to be known as the Arab Spring uprisings, in which ordinary citizens across the region rose up to challenge their leaders, was Tunisia. In December, 2010, after officials prevented him from setting up a fruit and vegetables stall without a permit, a young unemployed man set himself on fire in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid. Mohamed Bouazizi died of his burns the following month, oblivious to the political storm that his untimely death would spark in his country.
Bouazizi's tragic death hit a raw nerve among many Tunisians and protesters took to the streets demanding that Zine alAbidine Ben Ali, who had ruled Tunisia with an iron fist for 23 years, step down immediately. A harsh response from the security forces, causing the deaths of 78 demonstrators, only strengthened the resolve of the protesters, whose number kept growing.
Ben Ali initially attempted to hold on to power, announcing a list of political reforms, including the holding of free and fair elections and a promise not to seek re-election. He then fled into exile in Saudi Arabia after the proposed concessions failed to placate the protesters.
The prime minister formed an interim national unity government until elections were held. Tunisians finally went to the polls in October in the first free election resulting from the Arab Spring. A dizzying array of political parties emerged to contest the elections and the voter turnout was equally remarkable as more than 90 per cent of voters came out to cast their ballots.
Winning 41 per cent of the ballots to take 89 seats of the 217-member assembly, the moderate Tslamist party Ennahda emerged as victor. Tunisian voters were electing a 217-member constituent assembly that will oversee the drafting of a new constitution and govern the country until general elections are held next year.
Tunisia is the second most-industrialised nation on the continent, after South Africa, and has a large educated, urban middle class who have a firm grasp of the democratic process. With its relatively small, educated and homogenous population, it is believed to have the best chance, among the countries swept up in the Arab Spring, of establishing a genuinely pluralistic form of government.
The country still faces great challenges in its quest for democracy and development and achieving the lofty ideals of the 'Jasmine Revolution' will take time. But Tunisians can be justly proud to have ignited the revolutionary spark that is reshaping the region.
In late November, 10 months after Hosni Mubarak stepped down in the face of unprecedented pro-democracy demonstrations after almost 30 years of autocratic rule, a new wave of protests hit Egypt. When the military took power as caretaker government in the aftermath of Mubarak's resignation in February, most Egyptians seemed to have welcomed the move. Discontent with military rule grew steadily in the succeeding months in the face ofthe slow pace of political and economic reform.
Protesters returned to Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the symbolic heart of the protest movement that deposed Mubarak indicating that they no longer had confidence in the generals overseeing Egypt's rocky transition to democracy and demanding an immediate handover of power to a civilian administration.
Confrontation between security forces and protesters has intensified in recent weeks, resulting in deadly clashes. The Egyptian military has received widespread condemnations, both at home and abroad, for its harsh crackdown on the largely peaceful protesters. But the ruling military council denied use of disproportionate force, saying in a recent statement, 'We have never and we will never target the revolutionaries of Egypt.'
A series of constitutional changes have been approved since Mubarak was ousted, but the military has failed to meet one of the pro-democracy movement's central demands- the lifting of emergency measures put in place in the aftermath of the 1981 assassination of Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat. The current military leadership has also been accused ofperpetuating trials of civilians in military courts as well as widespread torture of detainees.
In this tense atmosphere, Egypt's first postMubarak elections began on November 28. Despite the continued turmoil, people turned up in large numbers to cast their votes. The Muslim Brotherhood's newly created Freedom and Justice Party was leading in the polls in the first two rounds of voting.
As 2012loomed, clashes between protesters and security forces continued. There were also signs that many ordinary Egyptians were growing impatient with the incessant street protests which were causing serious disruptions to daily life.
Libya experienced the most dramatic and costly - both in human life and material destruction - of the Arab Spring revolts to date. Emboldened by events in Tunisia and Egypt, Libyans started taking to the streets of major cities in February, demanding an end to more than four decades of Gaddafi rule. But the Libyan uprising quickly degenerated into an armed rebellion, determined to remove Muanunar Gaddafi from power at any cost.
Early on, the rebels took control of Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, in the east of the country. The rebel leadership put together in Benghazi a provisional administration, the National Transitional Council (NTC), which it declared to be the legitimate government of Libya. The ragtag rebel army, patched together from defected government soldiers as well as civilian volunteers had initial successes, capturing many cities and towns from pro-government forces.
Then the Gaddafi war machine reacted, retaking town after town until loyalist troops were at the gate of Benghazi. With wild rumours circulated in the western press of a possible massacre, the UN Security Council passed a no-fly zone over Libya, authorising 'all necessary measures' to protect the civilian population against attacks from government troops. Britain and the US commenced airstrikes on targets in Libya, mainly in and around the capital. Nato took control of the bombing campaign soon afterwards.
Backed by Nato airpower, the eastern rebels re-launched their armed struggle. After a prolonged stalemate in which the battle lines moved very little one way or the other, came a dramatic development as the rebels helped by Nato firepower, finally broke through Gaddafi 's defences and entered Tripoli on the night of August 21.
After consolidating their control of the capital, previously bombarded by Nato sorties, the rebels started advancing towards a few cities that were still in loyalist hands. Gaddafi was eventually captured and gruesomely killed on October 20 as he tried to escape from his hometown and final stronghold of Sirte.
The jubilation ofGaddafi's death was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding his extrajudicial killing and the brutality, captured in mobile images, meted out to the former leader in his final moments.
The NTC leadership declared Libya 'liberated' and announced that elections for a Public National Conference will be held by June. Perhaps the biggest danger to Libya's stability is the fact that the country is awash with weapons. Various militia groups have recently reneged on earlier pledges to disarm and there have also been reports of human rights abuses on a scale, according to some, not seen under the Gaddafi regime. The armed militias, which the interim administration seems unable to exercise any meaningful control over, are accused of widespread summary executions, arbitrary detention and torture of prisoners - as well as the looting and destruction of loyalist homes and properties.
With Gaddafi's death Libya drew the curtain on a long, tumultuous period in which politics in the nation was synonymous with the enigmatic figure who preferred being addressed as 'Brother Leader' rather than president and who - despite his personal eccentricities and the excesses of his regime - poured his heart and soul into developing Libya. The loose coalition of cities, tribes and militia groups that came together to dismantle the Gaddafi regime are now finding it increasingly difficult to come up with a power sharing deal that is acceptable to all.
The kingdom of Morocco has so far evaded the pro-democracy tumult that has been sweeping the region over the past year. Following sporadic demonstrations in February, King Mohammed VI proposed constitutional reforms that reduced his power and gave parliament more control over the apparatus of government.
Endorsed by all major political parties as well as trade unions and civil society organisations, the changes were approved in a popular referendum in July.
Under the new constitution, the country's prime minister has to be appointed from the party with the most seats in parliament; previously, the king could pick anyone of his choosing. Also, the prime minister has the power to appoint government officials and dissolve parliament. Previously a council headed by the king approved the appointment of all judges, but the judiciary will now be a fully independent branch.
Genuine affection for their monarch probably played a non-negligible role in sparing the king the type of anger that has been unleashed against many leaders in the region.
Like Morocco, Algeria has also avoided political upheaval, perhaps because it is still recovering from a devastating civil war that broke out following the annulment of election results and military takeover in 1992. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people lost their lives in more than a decade of bloodshed that brought the nation to its knees.
With the trauma of that bloody conflict still fresh in their minds, most Algerians apparently do not have the stomach for another dramatic political upheaval and the country has so far been largely unaffected by the tumult in the region.
WEST AFRICA
THE OUTCOME of the conflict in Cote d'lvoire over the disputed presidential election result reflected the changing dynamics of western policy in Africa, writes Angela Cobbinah.
As the standoff between the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara sparked a full scale civil w~r, .forme~ col.onial power France stepped m m Apnl with an air assault on forces loyal to Gbagbo, which were also coming under fire from UN peacekeepers.
The intervention had always been on the cards since both France and the UN declared early on that Ouattara was the rightful winner of the poll and that Gbagbo should step down. They were suppo~ed by Nato, an organisation set up to pohce the north Atlantic but increasingly seen as the US' roving military wing.
The AU despatched mediators to the warring parties but seemed flatfooted as others made the running.
While there was genuine confusion about events in Cote d'Ivoire that threatened to bring this one time haven of prosperity and stability on its knees once again, as well as deep regret about the bloodshed that. claimed more than 3,000 lives, there was httle surprise that Ouattara, a former seni?r IMF official, should receive western backmg, and Gbagbo, a self-styled socialist who had extended his mandate by repeatedly postponing elections since 2000, should not.
The western media portrayed Gbagbo's capture and arrest as a victory for democracy when it was the result of French frrepower. Many felt that western governments did not intervene on Ouattara's behalf to see justice done, but to safeguard the ~nancial interests of multinational corporatiOns and reassert France's control over the country.
The military excursion into Cote d'Tvoire was certainly emboldened by Nato's bombardment of Libya, which has opened the doors to the US' Africa Command base, Africom, which has, until now, found itself unwelcome on African soil and been forced to operate from Germany. Now both France and the US are backing Kenya's incursion into Somalia and Uganda has invited US special forces to sort out the remnants of the Lord's Resistance Army.
Gbagbo may have believed his final humiliation was to be arrested wild eyed, unshaven and dressed in a grubby white singlet before the world's press. But last month his ordeal continued when he appeared before the International Criminal Court charged as an 'indirect perpetrator' in a carefully orchestrated campaign of violence against Ouattara supporters.
He blamed France for his arrest by proOuattara forces: 'I was arrested under French bombs. It was the French army that did the job. ' Many believe Ouattara to be equally responsible for the atrocities that took place and wonder why only African leaders have appeared at The Hague on war crime charges.
While Nigeria appears to have successfully dealt with the insurgency in the Niger Delta region with its weapons amnesty and ambitious retraining programme for former militants whose scaled up attacks were harming the country's oil industry, it continues to struggle to contain a campaign of violence by Boko Haram lslamists that reached its climax last year with a series of Christmas Day bombings that killed at least 39 people (See story, Around Africa P6).
The group first came to prominence in 2009 when hundreds of its followers were killed when they attacked police stations in the northeastern state of Borno.
Its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was arrested but died in police custody. A year later, Boko Haram resumed its attacks - mostly in the Borno State capital Maiduguri - and has since staged deadly raids across the Muslim north, as well as central areas such as Jos and Abuja. Church bombings and drive-by shootings of civilians are part of the group's chilling modus operandi.
Early last year as the presidential election campaign kicked off, the violence was stepped up as part of what many considered to be a destabilisation campaign orchestrated by those opposed to Good luck Jonathan, a Southern Christian, from being elected.
In an incident in January, the Borno state candidate of the opposition All Nigeria People's Party for the gubernatorial elections, who had spoken against Boko Haram, was assassinated, along with his brother four police officers and a 12-year old boy. In another, in April, a polling station in Maiduguri was bombed.
Jonathan was sworn in in May following an election seen as the fairest in nearly two decades in Africa's most populous nation, pledging in his inaugural address to transform a divided country. He may have been overly optimistic.
Although he comfortably beat his main opponent, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, in the April 16 vote, the poll was followed by three days of deadly rioting in which more than 800 people were killed.
Jonathan took the oath amid extremely tight security, with some I 0,000 security personnel deployed, mobile phone services cut and helicopters flying overhead. But within hours of his swearing in a series of explosions ripped through the cities of Bauchi and Zaria, the hometown of Vice-President N amadi Sambo.
In June, the group carried out what was the first suicide bombing in Nigeria when police headquarters inAbuja were bombed.
In August it claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of the UN headquarters in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, which killed at least 23 people.
Boko Haram seeks to set up an lslamist state but its genesis is rooted more in poverty and political corruption than religion. Suspicions that renegade politicians are behind the sect appeared to be confirmed when Brigadier-General Jeremiah Useni, former deputy chair of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, said in August that Boko Haram originated from a militia group set up by the ruling party in Borno State to intimidate political opponents and rig elections and then got out of control like a 'Frankenstein monster'.
A similar accusation was made in December when Babangida Aliyu, governor of Niger State, said that Boko Haram was made up of unemployed youths brought together by politicians to help them during elections, only to abandon them afterwards. 'These thugs, having nothing to do, resort to perpetrating violence,' he stated.
Jonathan may well have successfully seen off a challenge from the so-called northern mafia, who were furious that he sought election after stepping in to take over at Aso Rock following the death in office of President Umaru Yar' Adua in May 2010, but there are clearly other forces at work in Nigeria aimed at preserving a status quo that many are only too happy to see dispatched to history.
'Lucky Joe's' election was largely welcomed as a fresh start for the country as well as a consolidation of civilian rule, which was ushered in 1999 but had failed to radically alter the country's fortunes in terms of average living standards.
Although he enjoys moderate international standing thanks to his enthusiastic embrace of neo-liberalism - witness the proposed withdrawal of fuel subsidy - the failure to get to grips with the bloody sectarian divide, will likely lead to calls for outside assistance, given the instability a collapsed Nigeria would create in the rest of the region in addition to the threat to oil supplies this would pose. Indeed, in November France's foreign minister pledged to help Abuja combat Boko Haram.
News in October that Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, had been named as one of three women to share the Nobel Peace Prize was greeted with both pride and consternation in Liberia. Johnson-Sirleaf was coming to the end of a heated election campaign and her opponents claimed the award had been made to give her an unfair advantage in the poll. They went on to accuse Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist and former UN and the World Bank official, of courting international favour at the expense of ordinary Liberians.
It is true that unemployment and poverty continue to blight the country but JohnsonSirleaf's nine years in office have managed to keep the peace in Liberia. In a nation wrecked by a bloody 14-year civil war that is something of an achievement.
In November she went on to win a second term in office following a landslide victory in the run off poll after her main opponent Winston Tubman withdrew from the race claiming that there was fraud in the first round. This was dismissed by independent election observers and Tubman was widely seen to have scored an own goal as well as helping to create unnecessary tensions in the country. But Johnson-Sirleaf did not get this far without guile and determination and she will no doubt summon these qualities in the months to come to steer a steady if slow course for her country.
In Ghana oil dominated much of the conversation last year after it made its momentous entry into the league of oil producing nations at the end of20 10. Vast offshore oil deposits had been discovered three years earlier promising the nation previously unimagined riches.
In 2011 Ghana's economy was judged to be the fastest growing in the world at a time when the global economy was said to be on the verge of another slump. The Oil Revenue Management law was passed and transparency legislation expanded to ensure that the country's blessing would not tum into a curse, as elsewhere.
But in November, there came sobering news that output from Ghana's oil fields had yet to gain momentum, with unexpected shortfalls in production putting a dampener on revenue projections for 2012.
Moreover, concerns were raised that Ghana had not taken steps to increase technical expertise required for the oil and gas industry; consequently it is being largely run by expatriates. As it is, Ghana only owns 10 percent of the Jubilee Field, which was discovered and developed by the Ireland-based Tullow Oil.
Now that the champagne has been drunk, it is clear that it will take a lot more than oil to significantly raise the fortunes of a country where aid accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the annual budget resources and 10 percent of GDP.
A new exploration ground off the country 's western coast promises an additional $1 bn a year in revenue but the fly in the ointment is the ongoing maritime boundary dispute with Cote d'Ivoire, which claims the oil lies in its territorial waters.
With elections due this year, the main political parties will be keen to present a measured and detailed appraisal of the oil bonanza and how it is to be utilised in the decades to come.
SOUTHERN AFRICA
ALTHOUGH THE world's media was firmly focused on events in Europe, North Africa and the Arab world for much of 20 II , a number of significant political and social developments also unfolded in Africa's southern region last year, writes Bill Corcoran.
The continent's economic powerhouse, South Africa, witnessed the African National Congress (ANC) led government finally get tough with high level official corruption after two damning reports were leaked to the media at the start of the year.
Initially South Africa's President Jacob Zuma was heavily criticised for failing to act on the reports compiled by public protector Thuli Madonsela, as they accused two cabinet ministers and the chief of police of engaging in unlawful activity.
But in September Zuma eventually responded to critics who said he was soft on corruption by sacking both ANC officials involved: public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Sicelo Shiceka. He also announced that chief of police, General Bheki Cele, had been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into the police lease agreements scrutinised by the public protector for one of the two reports.
Madonsela found Mahlangu-Nkabinde's decision to approve a number of multimillion euro leases for police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban amounted to maladministration, as she had been legally advised to the contrary. She also found that Shiceka had spent taxpayers' money in travel costs on himself, his staff and friends, which violated the executive ethics code. This included a trip to see a girlfriend in a Swiss jail on drug-related charges.
Another senior ANC politician who found himself firmly on the fringes of the political spectrum was ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who was removed from his post and suspended from the ruling party for a period of five years by the ANC's disciplinary committee.
The charges against Malema, which many say were politically motivated, related to him deliberately disrupting a meeting of ANC officials along with four other youth league leaders in August, and to comments made about former president Thabo Mbeki and bringing about regime change in Botswana.
Malema was a close ally ofZuma's, who he helped become the country's leader in 2009, for most of his time as youth league leader. But recently the 3 !-year-old has become one of his strongest critics, accusing him of ignoring poor South Africans. He has openly called for Zuma to be replaced as party leader ahead of the 2014 presidential elections, so analysts believe the disciplinary verdict will boost the latter's re-election chances.
While Zuma was applauded for his stance against high level corruption and Malema, he and the ANC were widely criticised for pushing the controversial secrecy bill through parliament in November using their party majority.
Opponents of the bi II that gives the state power to classify government documents as secret in the national interest have slammed the legislation for a number of reasons. They say it amounts to state censorship because the bill has no "public interest" clause and contains jail terms of up to 25 years for anyone found in possession of classified information.
The notion of"national interest" in the legislation is also too broad, they say, as it can include reports pertaining to government corruption and human rights abuses. There is a widely held belief amongst those opposed to the bill that the ANC is pushing it through parliament in its present form as part of a bid to gag a local media that has published numerous stories on government corruption with the aid ofwhistleblowers.
However, the bill in its present form also affects ordinary people, as they will find it difficult to access information and reports pertaining to what government bodies are doing in their area. Although adopted by an ANC dominated parliament, there is a strong likelihood the bill will be challenged in the constitutional court before it can officially be made law.
In neighbouring Zimbabwe, the arguments over who will replace the aging President Robert Mugabe as head ofZanuPF were laid to rest for the short term when party members agreed the 87-year-old should be their presidential candidate in the next poll.
For much of the year there had been widespread speculation over who the next party leader would be due to Mugabe's age, and persistent rumours of ill health that were flamed by his monthly visits to see a medical specialist in Malaysia.
There were two competing factions jostling to take over from Mugabe when his era comes to an end. One was led by defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the other by retired army chief Solomon Mujuru. But Mujuru died suspiciously in a fire at his farm house in August, and allegations that he was murdered have surfaced repeatedly.
Aside from succession battles the country's transitional government stumbled on, with both Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) unable to agree on much when it came to how the country should be run. One of their big disagreements centred on a Zanu-PF directive in March saying nearly all foreign owned mining companies in the country would be required to sell a majority stake to indigenous locals by the end of September.
The unexpected publication of the rules in the government gazette was an expansion of Mugabe's controversiallndigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, which was passed in 2007 amid widespread international condemnation, and it sent shock waves through the local mineral resources sector.
Under the original Act all foreign and white-owned companies in Zimbabwe valued at more than £298,000 had to sell a majority stake to indigenous locals.
Inspired by the protestors who took to the streets in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya seeking regime change, demonstrators also came out in force in Malawi and Swaziland calling for their leaders to stand down and a more democratic approach to governance to be introduced.
In July tens of thousands ofMalawians in the country's urban centres began protesting against rising prices. These protests then evolved into calls for president Bingu wa Mutharika to stand down, a man who won close to 65 percent of the vote in general elections in May 2009.
However, the anti-government demonstrations were met with an unprecedented crackdown by the authorities, and the security forces were blamed for killing at least 19 people during clashes with protestors that turned violent. The deaths heaped more pressure on to wa Mutharika who earlier in the year clashed with a number of countries that provide direct budgetary support in the form of donor aid.
In April Mutharika expelled Britain's High Commissioner to Malawi, after he was quoted in a local newspaper expressing concern about the president's intolerance of criticism and about deteriorating human rights. Britain subsequently indefinitely suspended aid to Malawi, while the European Union, Germany and Norway also halted assistance to Malawi for similar reasons.
A development that further ostracised wa Mutharika from the west unfolded in December when the International Criminal Court (ICC) referred Malawi to the UN Security Council for refusing to arrest Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. Malawi hosted Bashir in October in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant for him on charges of genocide in Darfur, saying he enjoyed presidential immunity under the AU policy.
More than 8,000 people took to the streets to protest against a government decision to slash civil servant salaries, and Mswati 's insistence on leading an opulent lifestyle even though the vast majority of his subjects live in poverty, but they were met by security forces firing tear gas and water cannons.
Armed police also stormed the teachers union offices in Manzini, firing teargas and using batons to beat a crowd of 1 ,000 teachers who had been blocked from attending the pro-democracy protest, Simantele Mmema, spokeswoman for the Swaziland National Association of Teachers told local reporters.
In total dozens of people were arrested and the anti-government protests were stopped in their tracks. The Swazi authorities had known for a number of weeks about the planned demonstrations, as they had been made aware by an online campaign that had been rallying support for the protests since early March.
While many of the big stories emanating from Southern Africa in 2011 revolved around political power plays and public protests, two events that unfolded in Zambia and South Africa offered the region's citizens a glimpse of a continent in which race is no longer a defining factor.
In September a white man was appointed vice-president of Zambia for the first time since the country gained independence from Britain 47 years ago. The appointment of Guy Scott by newly elected Zambian president, Michael Sata, was hailed as a development that was powerfully symbolic in post-colonial Africa.
A month later in South Africa a black woman, Lindiwe Mazibuko, was voted by her peers to the role of parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance, the old white liberal party.
EAST AFRICA
THERE IS NO denying that 2011 presented a mixed bag of fortunes for the East Africa region. It began in Sudan when the south of the country voted in an historic referendum to decide whether to secede or remain as a united Sudan in January, writes Zachary Ochieng.
As expected, more than 99 per cent of voters opted for separation, which in July culminated in the declaration of independence of South Sudan, making it Africa's 54th and the world's 193rd nation. It was sweet victory for the South which had known no peace for almost 50 years.
In mid-October, Kenya surprised both friend and foe when it sent its army into Somalia to flush out the notorious aiShabaab militia. Operation Linda Nchi (Kiswahili for 'protect the nation') followed a series of abductions along border towns. Although this has been happening as far back as 2009, Kenya only reacted when its flourishing tourism industry faced threat.
As the world marked the 1Oth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on September 11, British tourist David Tebutt was killed and his wife abducted in the Lamu archipelago, which borders Somalia on the coastal belt. Then on October 1, al-Shabab struck again this time kidnapping Marie Didieu, a wheelchair- bound French national. Didieu later died in captivity, her abductors having left behind her wheelchair and medication. Later the same month, two French aid workers with the relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres were abducted outside the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya.
The country's internal security minister, George Saitoti, and his defence counterpart, Yusuf Haji, said Kenya had no choice but to defend its territorial integrity. In early December, parliament voted to allow the Kenyan Defence Forces to join the AU mission in Somalia.
On September 25, Kenya was plunged into mourning when the environmental and human rights campaigner, Wangari Maathai, succumbed to ovarian cancer at the age of 71 . Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. In 2004, she was to add another feather to her cap when she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the sixth African to win the award.
Kenya was also plagued by a spate of industrial unrest, beginning in September with teachers striking for increased pay. University lecturers followed suit in October, paralysing the country's six public universities. But the worst of the strikes came in December when doctors and nurses in public hospitals downed their tools in protest against poor working conditions and pay. They demanded a 300 per cent pay rise Patients were turned away and forced to go to private hospitals, some of which are run by the same doctors who went on strike. Student doctors and nurses were asked to step in but were overwhelmed by the workload.
The strikes took place amidst the rising cost of living as the Kenya shilling went into free fall against the world's major currencies. In October, the local currency hit an all time low ofSh103 to the dollar, with analysts predicting that it could surpass the Sh 120 mark in the coming months if left unchecked. At the beginning of October, the shilling was exchanging at Shi55 to sterling and Sh135 to the euro. Only a belated move by the Central Bank saved it from a further beating, when the central bank rate was raised from 7 to 11 per cent and later to 16 per cent. However, the damage to the economy had already been done.
In Uganda, doctors, pharmacists and nurses at Jinja hospital went on strike, saying their salaries had not been paid. The hospital management had to hire replacement staff to help with emergencies. At least 20 student doctors went on a sit-down strike claiming non-payment of their internship allowance in October and November. The students also claimed the hospital administration had not paid accommodation and meals allowances for five interns since August.
In July, four octogenarian Kenyan Mau Mau war veterans filed a suit at the High Court in London, seeking compensation from the British government for the atrocities it is alleged to have perpetrated on the local population at the height of Kenya's independence struggle in the 1950s and early '60s.
In allowing the Kenyan victims to sue, Mr Justice McCombe ruled that they have 'arguable cases in law'. During the Mau Mau uprising, victims were beaten senseless, raped, castrated and starved for days by the British colonial authorities. As the liberation veterans await a trial date in 2012, Britain's other former colonial territories that witnessed similar atrocities during their independence struggle will be watching the outcome with keen interest.
Kenya also made a dubious distinction by being the first country in the region to have a number of its prominent citizens summoned to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer to charges of crimes against humanity. After their initial appearance in March and the confirmation of charges hearing in September and October, the suspects - deputy prime minister and finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, civil service chief Francis Muthaura, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey, former police commissioner Hussein Ali, and radio journalist Joshua Sang - will find out whether their cases will proceed to full trial or not this month. (See story P28-29.)
In 2011 , Kenyans began to enjoy the fruits of the new constitution promulgated in July 2010. Unlike in the past when the president made unilateral appointments to the judiciary, the new constitution provides for a transparent process in which the Judicial Service Commission interviews candidates in the full glare ofTV cameras. ChiefJustice Willy Mutunga, his deputy Nancy Baraza, Attorney General Githu Muigai and Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko were the first to go through the public interviews in which the panel asked them some very private questions. Mutunga and Baraza were both quizzed about their sexuality.
Earlier in the year, the judiciary flexed its muscles by throwing out a list of nominees that had been presented by Kibaki without consulting Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the constitution demands. A December ruling in support of an ICC arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar ai-Bashir further reinforced the independence of the judiciary. An angry Bashir, who was set to visit Kenya for an IGAD (InterGovernmental Authority on Development) Summit, gave Kenya's ambassador in Sudan 72 hours to leave the country and also recalled the Sudanese ambassador to Kenya.
Caught flat footed, the Kenyan government distanced itself from the ruling and immediately dispatched foreign minister Moses Wetangula and his defence counter part YusufHaji to Sudan to apologise to Bashir, who had threatened sanctions on Kenya, including banning flights to and from Kenya from overflying Sudan 's airspace. The diplomatic spat is yet to be fully resolved but the Chief Justice Willy Mutunga threw his weight behind the ruling, arguing that the era of impunity is over.
All was not well in Uganda where presidential elections were held in February. Having amended the constitution to remove presidential term limits, Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, won 68 per cent of the votes cast against his main opponent Kizza Besigye's 26 per cent. Besigye, who had unsuccessfully contested the election on two previous occasions, accused Museveni of rigging the poll and declared that Uganda was ripe for its own Arab Spring, Tunisia and Egypt having just got rid of its leaders.
In April, the opposition's Walk to Work Protest, fuelled by the spiraling cost of fuel and food, was nipped in the bud by a brutal security clampdown. Clashes between the demonstrators and police, left at least five people dead - including a two-year-old child who was shot in the head and chest dozens injured, including Besigye himself, and hundreds arrested.
In December, 100 US special forces sent by President Barack Obama in October to hunt down the Lord 's Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader Joseph Kony began their mission. The troops were deployed to Obo in the Central African Republic and Nzara in South Sudan, where Uganda's army has forward bases to battle the rebel group. However, it remains to be seen what impact the US forces will have. Numbering only a few hundred troops, the LRA is a fraction of its one time strength and also scattered in four countries. However, it still includes a core of hardened fighters infamous for committing atrocities against civilians. Even harder is the fact that the rebels are.
In October, in a rare occurrence, Ugandan ministers resigned over corruption allegations arising from the misuse of the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) funds. Foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa, chief whip John Nasasira and junior labour minister Mwesigwa Rukutana said they had stepped aside to clear their names in court.
The government allegedly lost some $150m in various scams during the 2007 Chogm in the capital, Kampala. Former Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya was charged in July. He denies that he benefited from a $3 .9m deal to supply cars used to transport dozens of heads of state during the summit.
In Tanzania, President Jakaya Kikwete signed the Constitutional Review Bill into law in November. The signing of the Bill paves the way for the formation of the Constitutional Review Commission, which will collect views on the envisaged constitution. But unlike in Kenya where the constitution was people-driven, the Tanzanian government has decided to control the process.
In Rwanda, the country's human rights record was put under the spotlight when Charles Ingabire, an online Rwandan journalist and genocide survivor, became the latest victim in a series of bloody attacks targeting Rwandanjournalists. lngabire was killed in apparent execution style outside a Kampala bar on November 30. Ingabire was the editor of the Kinyarwanda-language news website lnyenyeri News. Meanwhile it was reported that the convicted killer of another journalist, Charles Rugambgage, who was murdered in June 20 I 0, was released after serving less than a year of his 10 year sentence.
Burundi is also on the spot over insecurity and human rights violations. According to a US State Department report, violent crime and isolated incidents of targeted political violence remain pervasive. Poverty, lack of resources, and omnipresent corruption incubate criminality, which often occurs with impunity. Individuals wearing police or military uniforms commit many of the crimes in areas outside Bujumbura and sometimes within the city. Police, military, violent criminals, and numerous demobilized fighters make or supplement their living through robbing and extorting money from Burundi's population.
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