Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Kenya
Newsline: U.S. Embassy Warns of Nairobi Terror Plot
The US Embassy in Nairobi has warned of impending terror attacks targeting hotels in Nairobi and government buildings. An advisory from the embassy said the timing of the attacks was unclear, but intelligence information showed the planning was in the final stages. American nationals have been cautioned to remain aware of their surroundings at all and be vigilant of their personal security. “The Embassy informs US citizens residing in or visiting Kenya that the US Embassy in Nairobi has received credible information regarding a possible attack on Nairobi hotels and prominent Kenyan government buildings,” the statement advised. Kenya has continuously been on high alert since defence forces launched an offensive against Somalia’s militia group, Al Shabaab, which has been blamed for a series of cross-border attacks. The Al Shabaab has however on several occasions circumvented police intelligence to launch grenade attacks in Nairobi, Mombasa and parts of northern Kenya. In the latest attack on April 1, one person was killed and 18 others wounded when explosives went off in the coastal city of Mombasa and a nearby town.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201204240139.html
Newsline: Kenya to reopen their embassy in Mogadishu
A high level delegation from the neighboring Kenya has on Sunday visited Somali capital, Mogadishu, a move that Nairobi wants to accelerate its military operations against Al shabab militants. The visiting delegation is led by the Kenya’s deputy foreign minter Richard Onyango has received at Mogadishu airport a cordial welcome from Somali officials and held talks at the state house, Villa Somalia with President Sharif Sheik Ahmed and other senior TFG authorities. Sources said Both Somali and Kenya officials discussed more range of issues including bilateral relationship between the two neighbouring countries and the battle against Al-Shabaab militant.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=23910&tirsan=3
Newsline: How embassy staff collude with cartels to con Kenyans
The cartel lures Kenyans by placing advertisements of well-paying job opportunities in United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Kuwait in local newspapers. Desperate young men and women, some of them university graduates, apply for the jobs, pay travel and contract processing fees only to end up as domestic workers and labourers. The racketeers alternatively use their local agents to convince jobless youths to sign up for jobs abroad without following the required procedure. All foreign employers are supposed to inform the Ministries of Labour and Foreign Affairs of vacancies in their countries before seeking applications from Kenyans. In the recent past, scores of Kenyans have fallen prey to these crooks. Now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is warning jobseekers to beware of fake employment agencies. The ministry wants all Kenyans seeking employment abroad to ensure their contracts are scrutinised by the Ministry of Labour and approved before taking up any offers. It has also established a diaspora desk and wants Kenyans seeking jobs outside the country to register with it. Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula, told Parliament early this month that some employees at the Saudi Arabia embassy were working with unlicensed recruitment agents to traffic Kenyans into forced labour. The minister said most of the victims were from Mombasa, Kilifi, Lamu and Kinoo near Nairobi. “They recruit young Kenyans, mainly girls, and collect very heavy commissions, take them to Saudi Arabia and dump them there in the hands of equally crooked employers who abuse those young Kenyans.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/How+embassy+staff+collude+with+cartels+to+con+Kenyans+/-/1056/1373646/-/go15qcz/-/
Newsline: Belgian Embassy in Kenya Protests Arrest of Its National
The Belgian Embassy in Nairobi has sent a protest letter to the Kenyan government, demanding an investigation into circumstances that led to the arrest of one of its nationals Fabian Thierry Ghislain Philippart who works in Nairobi. Philippart who is the General Manager of Kofinaf Company Limited was arrested on Saturday and arraigned in a Thika court on Monday where he was charged with wrongfully confining a director of the firm, Stephen Mbugua Mwagiru. “Ordinarily, the embassy will not interfere with the country’s judicial processes but we strongly feel that this particular incident raises serious concerns on the fair administration of justice and the blatant violation of Mr Philippart’s rights,” a letter sent by the embassy to Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula said. The letter dated March 12, 2012 signed by the embassy’s head of consular section Jan Desmadril was also copied to Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo, Attorney General Githu Muigai and Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko. “We therefore, write to request your urgent intervention in this matter and in particular an inquiry as to the circumstances that led to Mr Philippart’s tragic arrest and arraignment in court,” the letter states in part. The embassy said it was surprised to learn that Philippart had been arrested and prosecuted yet he was the one who had initially lodged a complaint at the Ruiru police station against Mwagiru. In his statement at the police station, Philippart had complained that Mwagiru had stormed his residence within the company premises on February 12 and banged the door several times while hurling insults at him. “Mr Philippart refused to open for him and he left after 30 minutes having broken a window pane in the kitchen. The police were alerted immediately and they carried investigations,” the letter from the embassy said. A week later on February 18, Mwagiru was arrested and released on bail and was scheduled to appear in court on February 23 to face charges of malicious damage to property and creating disturbance, according to the Embassy’s protest letter. When police failed to arraign him in court, Philippart took it upon himself and wrote to Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere, complaining of the apparent failure to bring Mwagiru to justice. As he waited for a reply from the police boss, Philippart was arrested by a contingent of police officers who picked him up from his residence within Kofinaf premises. The embassy said it does not understand why the Provincial State Counsel at Nyeri decided to exonerate Mwagiru of the unlawful offences and instead recommended the prosecution of Philippart who has since faced charges of wrongful confinement of the Kofinaf director.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201203140077.html
Newsline: Saudi envoy warns Kenyans about bogus jobs agents
Kenyans seeking employment in Saudi Arabia should only accept job offers from accredited employment agencies, officials have warned. The Saudi ambassador to Kenya Ghorm Malhan said some workers seeking employment in the Kingdom fall prey to brokers, making it difficult to trace them when they run into trouble at their working stations as well in apprehending their employers. He said reports of cases of domestic workers abuses are ”unfortunate” and should not be used to ruin the cordial relations between the two countries. “Though they are isolated cases of crime just like any other form of human right abuse that happens anywhere in the world, the stories are mostly blown out of proportion. In most of the cases, we only read about them in the papers and no formal complaints are filed so that we can as well intervene through the right channels,” Malhan said adding that there more than 40,000 Kenyans working in his country. He said their embassy in Nairobi was in contact with Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia with his government’s officials in pursuing investigations on already reported cases.
http://www.the-star.co.ke/national/national/61921-saudi-envoy-warns-kenyans-about-bogus-jobs-agents
Newsline: U.S. Embassy Unveils Campaign Against Fake Goods in Kenya
The US Embassy in Nairobi, the Anti-Counterfeit Agency and other development partners have launched a campaign to fight trading in counterfeit goods. Dubbed Fagia Bandia, the campaign is aimed at curbing smuggling of counterfeit goods into the country through porous border points. Addressing a one-day workshop, the US economic officer in Nairobi Alexander Hall said his country has planned “an ambitious programme” that will entail holding a series of meetings and other events to raise public awareness on the dangers posed by counterfeit goods. “There is an urgent need on the part of the stakeholders, especially the revenue officers and the Kenya Bureau Standards officials from the respective border points, to embark on a serious scrutiny of goods on transit in order to curb counterfeit products which have become a major threat to manufacturers,” said Hall. “Fake products such as cosmetics, batteries, car pads as well as electrical components, among other products, are made from dangerous compounds,” he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201202020094.html
Newsline: Sudan expels Kenyan ambassador after court ruling
Sudan has ordered Kenya’s ambassador to leave Khartoum and pulled its own envoy out of Nairobi after a Kenyan court ordered the government to arrest Sudan’s president, Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesman said. “Sudan has informed the ambassador of Kenya in Khartoumof a 72-hour deadline to leave the country,” Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesman El-Obeid Morawah told Reuters.
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E7MS4MG20111128
Newsline: Portugal to Temporarily Close Embassy in Estonia
To ease the Eurozone debt crisis impact, Portugal has decided to temporarily close down several of its foreign embassies next year, including the one in Tallinn. The Portuguese Embassy in Helsinki will take over the functions of the office in Estonia. In addition, embassies in Kenya, Malta, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other two Baltic nations will also be temporarily closed and their jurisdiction passed on to nearest delegations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal said in a statement. With cutting back on staff numbers and merging embassies, Portugal hopes to save around 12 million euros next year.
http://news.err.ee/politics/e2a2c190-62f3-44ad-bf4d-d89936e2e897
Newsline: Eriterian envoy blames Ethiopia for diplomatic row
Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations is expected to seek audience with the President of the UN Security Council regarding Nairobi’s military intervention in Somalia. At the same time, the UN’s top body is considering a request by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to address the full council. Mr Afwerki is believed to be eager to head off additional UN sanctions against Eritrea related in part to his country’s alleged involvement inSomalia’s civil war. Kenya has accused Eritrea of supplying arms to the Al-Shabaab militants that Kenyan forces are now battling in southern Somalia. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has remained silent on Kenya’s intervention inSomalia. Portuguese UN ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral told reporters that he will be meeting “at the beginning of next week” with Kenya’s ambassador, Mr Macharia Kamau. Mr Kamau wrote to the Security Council last month to explain why its forces have entered Somalia. He said then thatKenya’s action was being coordinated with Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government.
http://mobile.nation.co.ke/News/-/1290/1267924/-/format/xhtml/-/lf5v8dz/-/
Newsline: U.S. Embassy in Kenya warns citizens of ‘imminent threat’
The U.S. Embassy in Kenya warned American citizens Saturday of an “imminent threat of terrorist attacks” after Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia to pursue suspected Islamic militants from Al-Shabaab. “This is to informU.S.citizens residing in or visitingKenyathat the U.S. Embassy inKenyahas received credible information of an imminent threat of terrorist attacks directed at prominent Kenyan facilities and areas where foreigners are known to congregate, such as malls and night clubs,” the U.S. Embassy said in an emergency message. It added that it has taken measures to limit officialU.S.government visits and that citizens should consider deferring travel to Kenya. Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al Qaeda and has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, is fighting to impose its own interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on Somalia. The group has said it considers the Kenyan forces crossing the border as “an affront to Somalia’s territorial sovereignty.” It previously threatened to “come into Kenya” if Kenyan forces did not leave Somalia. Recent abductions of tourists and aid workers inKenyahave heightened tensions. On September 11, armed bandits broke into a beachfront cottage where Britons Judith and David Tebbutt, both in their 50s, were staying. David Tebbutt was shot dead while trying to resist the attack. His wife was grabbed and spirited away on a speedboat, and is believed to have been taken into Somalia. On October 1, pirates made another cross-border raid, this time snatching a French woman in her 60s, who used a wheelchair and was believed to be in bad health, from a holiday home on Manda Island where she lived part of the year. She later died, likely because of the kidnappers’ refusal to give her medicine, according to the French Foreign Ministry. Al-Shabaab has denied responsibility for the abductions.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/22/world/africa/kenya-us-warning/
