NEAR ISIOLO, Kenya — After a century of broken promises, a paved road linking Kenya to Ethiopia is no longer a mirage for a desert region choked by remoteness.
Hurling up a cloud of blinding white dust, Chinese road engineers are helping to lay down the first kilometres of tarmac to replace a 530-km (330-mile) forbidding rock track that joins Kenya’s farms and port to landlocked Ethiopia.
The stretch of road from Isiolo to Moyale on the border is one of the last unpaved sections of the Great North Road, a British colonial dream to connect Cape Town to Cairo.
But where Britain and post-independence Kenyan governments failed, China is leading the way: helping to build a major trade route that will open up the northern half of Kenya, a region that has been effectively sealed off for 100 years.
In what is a now familiar sight across Africa, China’s drive to secure minerals, oil, and a place for its workers and industries to thrive is converging with Kenyan government plans to tap the potential of undeveloped regions.
The road could turn promises of oil into reality and increase tourism and trade in a starkly beautiful land where, until now, only banditry, desolation and poverty had flourished.
“This progress is going to benefit the whole area for tourism. Once it is finished, we can already see more trade,” said Wu Yi Bao, project manager for the state-owned construction company China Wu Yi (Kenya) Co.
China Wu Yi is building the road with 4.3 billion Kenya shillings (34.1 million pounds) from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Kenyan government.
According to AfDB estimates, paving the road between Isiolo, 340 km (211 miles) north of the capital Nairobi, and Moyale could boost trade between Kenya and Ethiopia along that corridor fivefold to $175 million from the present $35 million annually.
Trade between China and Kenya last year was worth $959 million, a 48 percent rise over 2006, according to the Chinese embassy in Kenya.
‘NOT PART OF KENYA’
The tarmac of the Cape-to-Cairo road goes missing at the squared-off edge of pavement at the end of Isiolo.
Here one finds all the restless bustle of a quintessential border town because residents say it’s the frontier between the “Kenya Mbili” — Swahili for the two Kenyas.
“People in the north feel like they are not part of the country,” said Hussein Sasura, assistant minister for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands. “When someone leaves for Nairobi, people say he has gone to Kenya.”
Hopes are high that the revamped road will draw more tourists and create more revenue for the people living here.
But some people are suspicious of China’s motives, mirroring the ambivalence towards the Asian giant’s investment push felt by many Africans.
Residents of some African nations, like Zambia, complain that China is undertaking a second colonization by focusing on Africa’s resources and dumping its cheapest goods here. China denies this, and has a 50-year history of bilateral trade and cooperation with Kenya.
The Chinese have an immediate interest in rebuilding the first stretch of the Isiolo-Moyale road, so that it can move heavy equipment into Merti, roughly 80 km (50 miles) east of the end of the 136 km (84.5 miles) it has committed to build.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum AB are carrying out seismic tests for oil in Merti in preparation for drilling next year.
Residents in Isiolo have been suspicious of oil exploration since a 1980s venture yielded nothing amid murky circumstances.
There are other signs of simmering resentment.
One Chinese engineer was shot and killed near the Merille River by shiftas — or bandits — on April 21. Tribal elders say he was targeted because of a feeling that not enough men from the area had been employed by the Chinese.
Wu said at least 150 of the nearly 200 people on the project were Kenyans and all the day labourers were locals.
After the shooting, the Kenyan government sent its elite paramilitary General Service Unit to the Merille River area to disarm youths and provide a security presence.
HIDDEN GEMS
There is little doubt the road will offer a lifeline to northern Kenya and could signal an end to years of neglect.
Under colonial rule, Isiolo was an outpost at the edge of the closed Northern Frontier District, which spanned the top half of Kenya from Uganda and Sudan in the west, across Ethiopia to Somalia in the east.
“In those days, Europeans were not allowed to stay there because it was too dangerous and the climate was too harsh. You had to have a permit,” said George Cardovillis, a Kenyan descended from Greek traders who wanted to set up shop at the Ethiopia-Kenya border in 1914.
The government ordered them to keep going more than 600 km (373 miles) south to Maralal.
North of Isiolo to Ethiopia, not much has changed across desolate stretches of black volcanic stones and reddish sands since Cardovillis’ forebears trekked south in a donkey train.
The sun still blasts shimmering heat waves down from an enveloping sky. Mountains loom in a gunmetal haze across the plains. Water is scarce. Electricity, telephone lines and most other services barely exist.
Amid this desolate beauty are some of Kenya’s most unspoiled national parks, rarely visited because of their remoteness.
Barely 50 km (31 miles) past Isiolo lie three game reserves that rival the famed Maasai Mara for the volume and variety of animals. This is where “Born Free” author and naturalist Joy Adamson settled to raise leopards until her murder.
“We think our occupancies will double when the road is finished,” said Jayne Nguatah, manager of the Sarova Shaba lodge in Shaba park. “It will be a Christmas gift to us.”
The Sarova Shaba is built on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro river, where crocodiles feed and Samburu and Borana herdsmen water their animals. Baboons and monkeys roam the main lodge, which is built like a treehouse and straddles a natural spring.
But infrastructure is not the only problem for those seeking to build a viable tourism industry in northern Kenya.
Banditry and tribal clashes are common here, thanks to weapons flowing in from past and present conflicts in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. And security forces are spread thin.
Nomadic herders roam for pasture and water for their sheep, cows, goats and camels, as they have for centuries. But today, some carry AK-47 assault rifles, while others brandish Sterling-Enfield rifles from colonial times.
And despite the Chinese engineers’ industry near Isiolo, far to the north in Moyale, some people doubt the road will ever reach them. Plans to extend the tarmac beyond the stretch being reworked by the Chinese are still on the drawing board.
“For 45 years they have been promising us that road,” trader Gumucha Gisiko said, waving his hand dismissively as a frown rose above his red henna beard.
Olympic return
Sileshi Sihine of Ethiopia will make his second career Olympic appearance in Beijing this summer, where he figures to contend for gold medals in both distance races. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Sihine won a silver medal in the men’s 10,000m.
Building toward Beijing
Sihine had a strong showing during 2007 and appears primed for the Olympic year. He won two of his three starts at 5,000m, taking gold at the Rome Grand Prix and the Brussels Grand Prix, where he ran a season-best 12 minutes, 50.16 seconds, the second-fastest time in the world. At the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, Sihine took silver in the 10,000m behind fellow Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele. Bekele won in 27:05.90 and Sihine ran 27:09.03.
Athens ascent
The strength of the Ethiopian distance squad was on full display at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, with Kenenisa Bekele winning gold in the 10,000m in an Olympic-record 27:05.10 and Sihine taking silver in 27:09.39. It marked the first time that runners from the same country finished 1-2 in the event since the Berlin Games in 1936, when Ilmari Salminen, Aryo Askola and Volmari Iso Hollo of Finland swept the medals.
Clean sweep
Sihine burst onto the international track scene at the 2003 World Championships in Paris. There, he earned the 10,000m bronze medal, completing an Ethiopian sweep along with gold-medalist Bekele and silver-medalist Haile Gebrselassie. It was the first sweep of the event by one country at an international competition since the trio of Finns did it at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Breakthrough year
In 2003, Sihine won national titles in the 5,000m and 10,000m, setting championship records in both events. In his 5,000m victory, he defeated Bekele, the current world-record holder in the event. In the 10,000m, Sihine finished behind Bekele and Gebrselassie. He was then named to the world championship team, setting the stage for the historic sweep at the 2003 Worlds.
No shame in second
Sileshi’s talent is unquestioned, but he has earned the moniker “Mr. Silver” because he has run in the shadow of countryman Bekele, perhaps the greatest distance runner of all-time, throughout his career. With some of the fastest times in history and a stockpile of international medals — most of them silver — it could be argued that Sileshi’s legacy might be that of the most underrated runner in history.
Early inspiration
Gebrselassie inspired Sihine to start running seriously. “Whenever I saw Haile win races, I would feel like standing up and running,” Sihine said. Sihine enjoyed significant success as a junior. At the 2002 World Junior Championships, he took silver in the 10,000m behind teammate Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam, and finished sixth at the 2002 World Cross-Country championships.
BEIJING (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s Olympic champion distance runner Kenenisa Bekele has left his actress wife at home to avoid any distractions as he seeks double gold in Beijing.
Bekele, who generated one of the biggest roars yet in the Bird’s Nest after holding on to his 10,000 metre Olympic title, said at a race in Scotland earlier this year that having his wife of a few months watching was stressful.
In Beijing, where he is bidding for a second gold in the 5,000 metre race on Saturday, Bekele will be running with wife Danawit Gebregziabher’s name printed on his shoes but he left her behind in Ethiopia to watch the race on television.
“This competition is very tough. I should concentrate on the race,” Bekele told Reuters. “If she had come maybe she would have wanted to visit around. I would have had to give her time.
“I didn’t (need to) tell her,” he added. “She knows everything before I tell her. She can understand. I have to do my best and concentrate on the race.”
Bekele, who has eclipsed fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie to lead the field in long-distance and cross-country, said he was working on getting as much rest as possible between races.
He ran the first round of the 5,000 metres on Wednesday and has the final on Saturday, competing against America’s Bernard Lagat, less than a week after last Sunday’s 10,000 metre final. “It’s not easy after the 10,000 metres. It’s very tough. It’s too many races in one week. It will be tough, I think, the 5,000 metres,” Bekele said, after a meal of steak and pasta.
“I’m okay. I’m a little bit tired but I’ve recovered a bit. I still have two days more,” he said.
The small, slender Bekele would not name a vegetable, like Usain Bolt’s much-talked-about yam, as being behind Ethiopia’s string of world-class runners. Instead he put it down to the east African nation’s inspiring landscapes and all-natural diet.
“We are gifted from God,” he said, solemnly.
Kenyan-born Lagat also has some motivational decoration on his running shoes for Saturday — a picture of his toddler son, who he says is his biggest fan.
“My son has been the one that motivates me every time so I wanted to give him something to remember,” Lagat told Reuters. “He’ll always remember that Daddy really had him in mind running at the Olympics.”
LINCOLN CENTER, NEW YORK — Well, we here at the station are still riding on the high of WFMU’s broadcast from Damrosch Park last night, really one spectacular show all around. Hope you all caught it either in person or on the air/netwaves. Perfect weather, fantastic, grooving crowd of five or six thousand, and a stellar night with the Ex, Getatchew, Mahmoud & company. Trent and I each put somesets up on Flickr more to follow on FMU’s page later I am sure. It’s been a summer to remember in terms of live music in NYC, that’s for sure. [WFMU]
Gétatchèw Mèkurya with The Ex @ Damrosch Park, Aug 20, 2008
(civicus.org) — Under a draft law, Ethiopia could see severe restrictions on civil society and even closures of organisations working on contentious issues, such as human rights and governance, cautions CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation in a recent analysis.
“We appeal to the government to stop the introduction of the bill in its current form. If enacted, many organisations will be forced to choose between stopping their work on vital issues or facing closure and possible imprisonment,” said Ingrid Srinath, CIVICUS Secretary General.
The government has released three consecutive drafts of the Charities and Societies Proclamation over the last few months. While the recent draft, due to be introduced to Parliament in October, makes some improvement on the last two, it retains many draconian provisions.
The government has stated that the intention of the bill is to increase civil society organisations’ (CSOs) transparency and accountability to stakeholders, but local and international groups have expressed concern that it will instead serve to silence dissent.
CIVICUS’ report lists a number of concerns regarding the law, including:
· The Proclamation prevents CSOs that receive more than 10% of their income from foreign sources from working on issues of public importance, including human rights, gender and religious equality, children’s rights, the rights of the disabled, conflict resolution and judicial reform. Given the lack of domestic fundraising opportunities, most organisations rely on funds from abroad.
· The Proclamation permits excessive government interference in the functioning of CSOs, through the power to carry out random investigations at will. Among other requirements, CSOs must provide the government with seven days notice of any general meeting.
· By creating a web of exhaustive reporting procedures, the Proclamation gives the government a convenient way to intimidate CSOs. Mandatory annual reporting, requirements to keep meticulous financial records as well as re-registration every three years, leaves ample room for possible procedural delays and intimidation by the authorities.
· Once a CSO is denied registration, or fails to apply, the organisation is then declared unlawful. If members and supporters continue their involvement with the CSO, they risk severe punishments, including three to fifteen years in prison. According to international standards, the decision to officially register should be voluntary not imposed by the government. Such harsh repercussions for breaching the provisions of the law could deter the free participation of individuals in civil society activities.
· CSOs have limited rights to appeal against decisions taken under the Proclamation. For example, if a CSO is denied registration, it will not be able to ask for a judicial review of the facts on which the government has based its assessment. Aside from amounting to a denial of justice, it could also allow authorities to arbitrarily silence independent groups and individuals.
If the current draft of the Proclamation is passed, the already narrow space for civil society in Ethiopia could be even further restricted. In recent years, political opposition, media and civil society activists have been systematically harassed and even imprisoned because of their criticism of the government.
“The government must listen to the concerns of the country’s civil society. Their activities contribute immensely to the people of Ethiopia. But, sadly, rather than promote this vital work, this bill threatens to criminalise it,” says Srinath.
The Proclamation, if permitted to pass, would violate Ethiopia’s commitments to international and regional human rights agreements, as well as its own constitution. Article 31 of the Constitution specifically guarantees, “Every person has the right to freedom of association for any cause or purpose”.
An analysis of the Proclamation is available here.
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For more information, visit www.civicus.org or contact Julie Middleton at +27 82 403 6040 or [email protected].
Julie Middleton, Acting Manager, Civil Society Watch
Tel: 27 11 833-5959, ext. 139
Skype: juliejmiddleton [email protected]
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
PO BOX 933, Southdale, 2135, Johannesburg, South Africa
www.civicus.org
BEIJING (Reuters) — Defending champion Meseret Defar, 10,000 metres winner Tirunesh Dibaba and African champion Meselech Melkamu are bidding for an Ethiopian sweep of the medals in the Olympic women’s 5000 final tomorrow.
”We’ve done good preparation and we came to win,” Melkamu told Reuters.
The trio were part of Ethiopia’s sweep of the first four places at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, where Dibaba, her elder sister Ejegayehu and Defar earned medals, and Melkamu fell just short.
World 10,000 champion Dibaba won the Olympic 10,000 tomorrow in 29:54.66, the second-fastest time ever.
”It was really very tough,” said Dibaba, who was pushed hard by Ethiopian-born Turk Elvan Abeylegesse who is also running the 5000.
In Helsinki, Dibaba led Ethiopian sweeps in both distance races when she became the first woman to take double gold in the events at the world championships.
”We have trained hard as a team and we expect to record good results for our country,” she said.
She slashed Defar’s world 5000 record by over five seconds in Oslo in June, running 14:11.15, and is well set to repeat the double, a feat also being attempted by compatriot and fellow 10,000 gold medallist Kenenisa Bekele in the men’s events.
Defar, 5000 world champion, lost her African title to Melkamu in May, but ran 14:12.88 in Stockholm last month.
”The race in Stockholm was one in which I demonstrated my form and it gave me a wonderful vision for Beijing,” Defar said.
She has been pleasantly surprised by the climate of China’s capital, which had been expected to be oppressively hot and humid.
”The weather is fine,” she said before the 5000 heats in which the trio sailed through comfortably.
Olympic return
BEIJING (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s Olympic champion distance runner Kenenisa Bekele has left his actress wife at home to avoid any distractions as he seeks double gold in Beijing.
“I didn’t (need to) tell her,” he added. “She knows everything before I tell her. She can understand. I have to do my best and concentrate on the race.”
