Daniel’s Blog

BY INVESTIGATIVE WRITER.

The ministry of immigration is once again on the spotlight over how senior officers at its Nyayo house offices in Nairobi handled a controversial deportation saga involving three Chinese nationals who were found to be in the country illegally and ordered back to their country 3 months ago.

The 3 Chinese ,according to documents availed to us by our sources were ordered to leave the country immediately in August this year by a Kisumu court after they were found to have violated various immigration rules and regulations regarding aliens.

According to our sources the court issued the deportation orders after the immigration officers responsible for handling prosecution matters in the department successfully provided evidence in court against the Chinese prompting the magistrate to pass a verdict.

The trio had faced various charges ranging from being in Kenya illegally to engaging in employment without obtaining a work permit and failure to register as aliens all of which were considered as violations of the Country’s immigration laws .

They are understood to have pleaded guilty to all the charges brought against them in court and the trial magistrate ordered them to be deported immediately back to China.

According to the documents in our possession,the court also ordered them to pay shs. 10,000 each or go to prison for a period of six months for each of the three counts they faced.

However they opted to pay the fines and were handed back to the immigration officers in Kisumu who were to facilitate the deportation arrangements in coordination with their Nairobi office.

But in what appears to be a high level corruption syndicate some unscrupulous immigration officers based in Nyayo house,the ministry’s headquarters allowed the deportees to slip away in their hands.

Three months down the line the court’s directive to the ministry to have the Chinese deported is yet to be effected and nobody is explaining why it was defied.

Revelation that might shock even the magistrate who gave the orders is the fact that the Chinese found their way back to Nakuru where they continue with their daily activities without any hitch or fear of being arrested.

This is the town where only three months ago they had been nabbed by the immigration officers from Kisumu who took them to court but whom they no longer have the need to hide
from any more.

Nakuru town is under the jurisdiction of the western Kenya region immigration office whose principal immigration officer sits in Kisumu.

Kisumu’s immigration office whose officers effected the arrests that saw the chinese arraigned in court are now a dejected and a frustrated lot.

After several weeks of investigations they pounced on some three Chinese nationals whom they had enough grounds to suspect had been flouting the rules of the land being foreigners and they chose to act.

But the manner in which the immigration office in Nairobi handled the deportation case against the Chinese has left a bitter rivalry between its officers who were involved in the case in Kisumu.

While the officers in Kisumu immigration office want the court order obeyed and the Chinese thrown out of the country, those in the Nyayo house office want the issue abandoned and forgotten.

The matter has left a division amongst the officers who now feels they are not being appreciated for implementing the law by colleagues whose sole aim is to make a kill out of
foreigners who brake the law but get away with it after parting with bribes.

In an interview with this journalist an officer who wished not to be named said they want the minister to per-sue the case.He said this was not the first case where they are ignored by their superiors in Nairobi.

He said the Kisumu office risk becoming irrelevant because it was not allowed to perform its mandates effectively as demanded.

”We did our best according to what is required of us and we want the court order obeyed.we have realised that some officers in our Nairobi office are interested in defying the order and we suspect money exchanged hands otherwise why would they fail to act as directed by the court.” posed an officer in a Kisumu office.

Another officer at the office also informed this writer that they did what was required of them but now little can be expected from them because they are not allowed to follow up matters once it is forwarded to headquarters for action.

”We even have been warned by our seniors in Nyayo house to forget about this matter and not talk about it.”he said.

The officer confirmed that he was involved fully in making arrangements to ferry the Chinese from Kisumu to Nairobi so that ministry headquarters could facilitate how the deportees were to eventually exit the country.

”I personally gave out night out to our officers who were detailed to escort these people to Nairobi and did confirm also that they took the Chinese up-to our offices at Nyayo house so it was not the mistake of this office that the Chinese are still around.” he said.

The Chinese whose details including passport numbers we have obtained, first came to Kenya as tourists but soon began working for a Chinese investor whose firm is engaged in sale of motorcycles,fittings, maintenance services and sale of accessories.

The company which has also employed a few Kenyans is situated in Nakuru along the busy Kenyatta avenue.

When we visited the company recently to investigate the authenticity of the facts we had about the presence of the Chinese we found them working without fear of being apprehended.

Our probe reveals that one of the Chinese who were ordered to leave the country by the courts is now heading a branch newly opened by his employer in Eldoret town along the Uganda road.

Our crew posed as clients who wanted to buy a motorcycle and pretended to even know one of the Chinese whose name had been picked from the court documents.

He emerged from his office after the Kenyan staff working as a salesman told him that he had friends who wished to be served personally by him.Little did he realise that the scheme was intended to smoke him out.

The three according to our source at the firm have been working as supervisors and middle level managers even though they don’t possess any special skill to work in the country
since what they do can also be done by locals.

Kenya, just like any other country has its strict rules and regulations governing employment when it comes foreigners.Those who want to work must only be expatriates whose skills may not be sourced locally or where locals who posses the skills are inadequate .

Allowing foreigners to take up jobs which can be done by locals has been condemned by leaders who feel the government is not doing enough to ensure the Kenyan jobless are not
subjected to unfair competition by these people.

When we reached the immigration minister Otieno Kajwan’g said the issue was never brought to his attention by the officers who handled it.

He however promised that action will be taken against officers from the ministry who flouted the law.

” We are definitely going to investigate the matter seriously because we don’t want to encourage corruption in this ministry and any officer who was compromised will answer for his mistakes accordingly” said the minister.

(majimbokenya)

Alfred Ngotezi,

One Netanyahu, the famous Israel officer who led the successful raid at the Entebbe Airport to free captured Jews in 1976 left behind an impressive tale. It is said that he was such a terrifying fighter that to kill him, Idd Amin’s soldiers had to shoot him from behind. That is exactly what Germany’s recent abduction of Rwanda’s Director of Protocol, Rose Kabuye, boils down to.

It is a test of wits not only against Rwanda but also against all Africans, not least because the African Union had earlier on rejected Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere’s November 2006 indictments against Rwanda’s leaders. Kabuye’s arrest came under a controversial French universal jurisdiction clause, the equivalent of the US’s interventionist law that for more than twenty years has held behind the bars Panama’s former President Manuel Noriega.

Of course this is nothing but jungle justice, which must be fought by all civilized humanity. I have argued before that such unwarranted actions against African leaders are a clear testimony of disunity among them. One would have expected that after the AU’s strong statement at Sharm el Sheik, against wild indictments and especially the noise against Rwanda’s leadership, Africa would fiercely fight against attempts to execute Judge Bruguiere’s claims.

After all, Kabuye’s charges cannot be proved in a French court because prosecutors will need to do more investigations in the locus of the 1994 genocide that is Rwanda, as well as bring witnesses. But the country is a no go-area for them now. Surprisingly, the East African Community and the AU, to which Rwanda is affiliated, have not strongly condemned or taken visible measures against Rose’s kidnappers.

On the one hand this could be construed as a muted support for Germany’s bullish act, while on the other it could simply disclose the continent’s total impotence at world politics. How many times must we invoke Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s past deeds to guide our political path? We should learn from Mwalimu’s maximum exploitation of his membership, first to the threesome Mulungushi Club and then to the Frontline States, of how weak Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia and later Mozambique clobbered colonialism and racism in southern Africa.

It was a gigantic piece of work that could not have been accomplished by a single country, however powerful. Mwalimu and company’s blitzing diplomatic onslaught pushed forward Africa’s interests by bringing down entrenched colonialists and rabid racists in Portugal, apartheid South Africa, former Rhodesia, Mozambique and elsewhere. That is exactly what this continent needs today, not passive leaders who bask in the molestation of their own colleagues, thinking they are safe.

Unfortunately, the West, as it were, cannot guarantee the safety of our leaders for long. They can only do it as long as we defend their interests, but as soon as they feel we are useless they will come after our neck. Didn’t they do that with former Zaire strongman Mobutu Sese Seko and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein? That should explain Rwanda’s present ordeal apparently because of her unfinished business with France.

In the last few days, for example, the Central African country ditched the French language, putting the last nail in the coffin of their relations with her former colonial masters. Weak Africa should stop behaving like a monkey who saw his burning bush and broke down laughing, forgetting that he had become homeless. Today they indict al Bashir and Rwanda’s leadership; tomorrow it could be our turn.

If some of us think Africa’s interests are secondary, they should see why the US has so far refused to ratify her membership to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Because they know their past war-monger leaders could face the music in The Hague. Yet, as earlier suggested, this is not an effort to exonerate the leadership in Kigali. Far from it, I believe there are problems in Rwanda, like elsewhere, but certainly it is neither for the Bruguieres nor the Fuhrer’s descendants to dictate how to sort them out.

Africans have the capacity to put their house in order. It recently happened in Kenya, Burundi, and the Comoros and seems to be succeeding in Zimbabwe, why not in Rwanda and elsewhere? I know someone will picket me for mentioning Africa’s seemingly failure in Zimbabwe.

Doubtlessly, our leaders owe us a reason for protecting President Robert Mugabe’s intransigence. But again we don’t need the Bruguieres or Adolf Hitler’s offspring to sort it out because the SADC and the AU and even the international community, for that matter, have the diplomatic and military muscle to untangle the situation there.

Clearly though, we are not against the person of Judge Bruguiere or the ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. To the contrary, we are opposed to setting a dangerous precedent that could allow foreigners to abduct our leaders at will. In this case, therefore, African leaders should do a stitch in time to save nine.

(habarileo)

The construction of an eight-lane highway on Thika Road begins on Monday. This follows the Government’s signing of a Sh27 billion contract with three Chinese road construction firms.

Acting Roads Minister Chris Obure, yesterday said the construction of the first modern highway in East and Central Africa will take 30 months to complete.

Obure said the 50.4km highway expansion project would open a new chapter in the construction of roads.

Chinese firms, China Wu Yi Company, Synohydro Corporation Ltd and Shengli Engineering Construction, have been contracted for the project.

“Thika highway has been made possible today, with the support of African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Kenya, we envisage the completion of a model road in the region in 30 months,” Obure said.

He said the highway will have all the T-junctions done away with, and extra features such as flyovers, underpasses, interchanges, pedestrian grade separators, cross drainage system and modern street lighting to Thika town, introduced.

It will also have a well-lit underpass and a flyover between Uhuru Highway and Muthaiga, and Kenyatta University.

The highway starts at Globe Cinema roundabout. Highway designers have proposed the construction of four major interchanges between Globe Cinema and Ruiru and three underpasses between Globe Cinema and Kasarani.

The interchanges will replace the roundabouts, blamed for unwinding traffic jams.

Incidents of pedestrians being knocked by speeding vehicles have also been addressed. Pedestrian separators will be built along the highway.

Parking Yards

The minister also said his ministry would work with that of the Nairobi Metropolitan Development to re-plan roads in the city to ensure parking yards are outside the central business district.

Obure also cautioned the three contractors, saying the Government would not tolerate unnecessary delays.

He said plans to expand major roads across the country were underway and warned wananchi against building on the road reserves.

He said the Government was also planning a major expansion of the Outering Road, which connects Mombasa Road and Uhuru Highway to Thika Road.

Kangundo Road, Bomas–Ongata Rongai, Langata, Jogoo, Juja, Kiambu, Limuru, Waiyaki Way and Mbagathi/Valley roads are among those whose expansion programmes the minister said donors have agreed to fund.

Obure said studies are being conducted on a proposal to introduce a Light Rail transport and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) within Nairobi to decongest the city.

“There is a study going on under the Nairobi-Thika highway improvement project to look into how we can make this a reality, I want Kenyans to know we are not just talking, we are going to make it happen,” he said.

He said once the proposed city by-passes covering 110km are built, access to the city centre would be easier and wastages resulting from congestion minimised.

Funds for the construction of the Northern, Eastern and Southern by-passes have been set aside.

He said the European Community and the African Development Bank are among the main donors.

“I hate seeing damages associated with demolitions when we are preparing to start a road project, but I want Kenyans to know roads cannot be built on air, we shall demolish encroaching structures because we want to build roads,” Obure said.

Agencies

The Government has now put more emphasis on road constructions and three state agencies have been created to handle the planning and building of various roads.

Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) will now take charge of various clusters of roads after they were created a few months ago.

On Thursday, the Government appointed Meshack Otieno, Joseph ole Nkadayo and Mwangi Maingi as Director Generals of the road authorities.

(eastandard)

A major boost was given to Nigeria’s quest for foreign investment inflow at the weekend as the country was named the least vulnerable economy in the world, according to a report, Global Economics, compiled by a team of experts from Merrill Lynch.
Merrill Lynch is one of the world’s leading financial management and advisory companies, providing financial advice and investment banking services.
The report, a copy of which was made available to THISDAY at the weekend, was compiled following several data requests from clients of the investment bank for key risk indicators for all major economies including Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
According to the statistics, the world’s 10 least vulnerable economies are Nigeria, Mexico, Phili-ppines, Colombia, Egypt, Oman, Indonesia, Peru, China and Russia.
Also, the report identified Australia, Switzerland, Korea, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, Bulgaria, Euro area, United Kingdom and the United States of America as the highest risk economies in the world.
The risk ranking was based on seven indicators and they are - current account financing gap, foreign exchange reser-ves/short-term external debt ratio, private credit-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio, and private credit growth, loans to deposits and banks capital-to-assets ratio. Merrill Lynch said the report also addressed all the requests in 62 indicators of the 60 world economies.
According to the report, Nigeria, with a population of 141.41million, was able to record a 7.3 per cent growth in GDP, with its Consumer Price Index hovering at 11.5 per cent, its current account balance, fiscal balance and public debt at 6 per cent, 6.3 and 10.4 percentage respectively.
To determine its external vulnerability, Nigeria’s external debt position was put at 12.9 per cent of the GDP, while external debt /exports ratio was put at 9 per cent. Her forex reserves totalled $60.8billion.
The percentage of Nigeria’s total external debt in relation to the GDP was put at two per cent, total foreign claims is $15.3billion while international claims stood at $13.1billion.
The report stated that the percentage of Current Account Balance plus net Foreign Direct Investment of the Nigerian GDP was 34, Forex reserves/short-term external debt totalled 41, while percentage of export of the GDP was 38 point.
The percentage of private credit of GDP was 43, while the percentage of bank capital to assets, according to Merrill Lynch was 41.
The 10 most vulnerable countries, which are mostly European countries, were said to have exhibited worse balance of payments positions, stretched external debt service ratios and overleveraged financial systems.
“Many of the economies that top our risk ranking have been identified by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as those that have experienced capital flow bonanzas in the past five years and hence exhibit higher likelihood of economic crisis,” the report explained.
Explaining further on how it put the report together, Merrill Lynch states that: “While we believe that our country risk ranking produces plausible results, one needs to be aware that, as any ranking of that type, it is highly sensitive to the selection of indicators employed. For example, developed countries can probably sustain higher external vulnerability indicators than emerging markets; some Euro area country statistics are possibly misleading given there is a monetary union.”
In their reactions, the leadership of the Nigerian organised private sector said the various investment-friendly programmes put in place especially in the past five years largely gave Nigeria a pride of place in the ranking.
Immediate past Director-General of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Dr. Mansur Ahmed said the latest ranking has confirmed that Nigeria is indeed an investors-haven. The feat, he said, should be traced to a regime of consistent and sustained improvement in the nation’s fiscal management.
Speaking with THISDAY in a telephone interview yesterday, Ahmed acknowledged that Nigeria has been able to maintain a healthy foreign exchange management, low budget deficit and heavily low external indebtedness, which he said have combined to grossly reduce the nation’s level of risk. He said those indices have also endeared the nation’s economy to foreign investors.
However, the incumbent DG of NESG, Mazi Sam Ohuanbuwa said the investment community would not be surprised at the latest ranking by Merrill Lynch.
According to him, the key indicator to the safety of investment in Nigeria is the freedom to invest in any part of the country without government’s intervention.
He maintained that issues like hostile acquisitions, or government take-over is not common in Nigeria, explaining that even in cases where government reversed policies, it is always limited to government investments.
“In Nigeria, people can invest anywhere without hindrance.  Other important considerations are the sheer size of the Nigerian market and underlying macro-economic issues,” Ohuanbuwa said.
He noted that although investors in Nigeria are still complaining of high cost of doing business, the level of risk is far lower than what obtains some other economies of the world.
On measures to improve on the latest ranking, the experts were unanimous in their call for the sustenance of investor-friendly policies by the government.
Ahmed emphasised the need for effective management of the nation’s foreign asset especially in the face of the dwindling prices of crude oil at the international market.
Ohuanbuwa charged the government to liberalise the economy by removing all hindrances to the economy.

(thisdayonline)

Nigeria’s government said on Wednesday that its $340 million communications satellite was not lost in space, as reported by the local media, but that it was simply suffering from a flat battery.

The Nigerian Communication Satellite, or NIGCOMSAT-1, blasted off from a launch pad in China in May 2007 to great fanfare, with Nigeria hoping it would offer advanced telecoms, broadcasting and broadband multimedia services for 15 years.

Minister of state for Science and Technology Alhassan Zaku said engineers at ground stations in Abuja and China had noticed the satellite’s solar-powered battery was not recharging and feared it could smash into other satellites if left unrepaired.

“After looking at the options we decided that the best thing to do was to park it, like you park a car,” Zaku said.

“If it wasn’t parked and it lost all its power there would be no energy to even move it … and it would be like a loose cannon and would keep rolling about and hit other satellites in the orbit,” he told reporters.

Nigerian newspapers had reported NIGCOMSAT-1 was missing from orbit.

The satellite was supposed to make Africa’s most populous nation a technological hub, saving broadband users and phone users hundreds of millions of dollars a year and enabling Internet access to remote rural villages.

Critics say the project, estimated to have cost the government 40 billion naira ($340 million), has done little to improve communications, with Internet connections notoriously unreliable and among the most expensive in the region.

Zaku said the satellite was insured and that it would be replaced if it could not be repaired. He said customers had been assured that television, radio and Internet services affected by the problem would be re-routed.

Nigerian Internet users have already been battling with service problems after damage to the South Atlantic Terminal III (SAT-3) underwater cable, the main gateway to the country for international calls and Internet connections.

Nigeria’s formerly state-owned telecoms firm Nitel said last month it had invited foreign firms to help it fix the cable.

(reuters)

The Nigeria Communication Satellite Ltd. refuted Wednesday in Abuja that allegations that NigComsat-1, Africa’s first communication satellite, was missing in orbit, according to the official News Agency of Nigeria.

Ahmed Rufai, managing director of NigComsat Ltd. told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the satellite was powered down after some technical problems were identified on Sunday night.

He said that the satellite was fully insured against any unforeseen damage, destruction or any problem capable of incapacitating its operations.

“In the event of any destruction, including loss of the satellite, it will be replaced as it is 100 per cent insured,” he said.

The satellite was designed to serve as the strategic backbone for the nation’s communication industry.

It was also meant to provide the much-needed bridge to close the digital divide being experienced by African nations and provide the enabling platform for Africa to be relevant in today’s information age and digital economy.

NIGCOMSAT-1 project was to cover services requirements in the intelligence, security and surveillance sectors.

It was also designed to cover the agriculture, environment, banking, oil and gas, education, telecommunication, Internet services, broadcasting and navigation sectors among others.

Some Nigerian local media quoted unnamed sources as saying on Tuesday that the satellite was “missing” in its launch position in orbit.
(XINHUA)

MORE than 50 million African workers are to be invited to Europe in a far-reaching secretive migration deal, the Daily Express can reveal today.

A controversial taxpayer-funded “job centre” opened in Mali this week is just the first step towards promoting “free movement of people in Africa and the EU”.

Brussels economists claim Britain and other EU states will “need” 56 million immigrant workers between them by 2050 to make up for the “demographic decline” due to falling birth rates and rising death rates across Europe.

The report, by the EU statistical agency Eurostat, warns that vast numbers of migrants could be needed to meet the shortfall in two years if Europe is to have a hope of funding the pension and health needs of its growing elderly population.

It states: “Countries with low fertility rates could require a significant number of immigrants over the coming dec­ades if they want to maintain the existing number of people of working age.

“Having sufficient people of working age is vital for the economy and for tax revenue.”

The report, by French MEP Francoise Castex, calls for immigrants to be given legal rights and access to social welfare provision such as benefits.

Ms Castex said: “It is urgent that member states have a calm approach to immigration. To say ‘yes’, we need immigration … itis not a new development, we must accept it.”

The proposals include the creation of a “blue card” system, based on the American green card, that provides full working and welfare rights.

Blue card holders would be entitled to move freely across the EU, setting up home in any of the 27 member states.

Last night Sir Andrew Green, of Mig­rationWatchUK said: “Eng­land, with Holland, is al­ready the most crowded country in Europe.

“As it is, we have to build the equivalent of seven cities the size of Birmingham over 25 years for the immigrants the Government already expects.

“Yet again the ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy of the EU produces absurd results. These would be ridiculous proposals if they were applied to the Britain.

“The Government must ensure that these work permits are not valid for the UK.

“Higher levels of immigration are the last thing we need with a recession approaching.”

And Shadow Home Sec­retary Dominic Grieve said: “When ministers are talking tough about efforts to control immigration, they need to provide a clear explanation that national policy is not being undermined through the backdoor in Brussels.”

The UK Indepen­dence Party leader Nigel Farage attacked the move as “an outrage”. He said: “The sooner Britain gets back control of immigration policy, the better.”

The proposals – part of the Africa-EU Partnership signed in Portugal last December – also warns of the negative effects of mass immigration and calls for “better integration of African migrants”.

It calls too for a compassionate approach to the eight million illegal immigrants already living in the EU.

It states: “Irregular migrants must not be treated like criminals. Many risk their lives seeking freedom or the means of subsistence in Europe. As long as the EU has a higher standard of living than those countries to its south and east, the temptation to come will exist – especially if there are jobs to be had.”

The declaration calls on the EU to assist African governments to set up migration information centres “to better manage labour mobility bet­ween Africa and the EU”.

The first was the job centre opened in Bamako, capital of Mali, on Monday. Other centres are expected to open soon in other west African states and later in north Africa.

Yesterday the Daily Express revealed that, in an apparent contradiction of immigration policy, thousands of migrants – like Kanoute Tieny from Mali – are being given up to £5,500 in grants by the EU to return home to Africa.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to implement an EU-wide immigration plan by the end of the year when he stands down as head of the Council of the European Union.

This body implements policy proposed by the European Commission and discussed by the European Parliament.

French immigration minis­ter Brice Hortefeux has represented all the 27 EU states, including Britain, in a succession of whirlwind tours through west Africa to help create a strategy.

Last night the Home Office said the UK had nothing to do with this EU plan.

A Border Agency spokesperson said the initiative is aimed at promoting legal migration routes in the Schengen area of the EU which the UK opted out of. The area includes most but not all member states.

“We therefore retain full control of our own borders and our asylum system.”

(southafrica-pig)

The Chinese government needs to intervene to ensure that its mining firms behave responsibly at their projects in Africa, according to an expert in the sector.

Martyn Davies, the chief executive officer of the South Africa-based Frontier Advisory Ltd, said at an industry conference that China needs to do as much as it can to ensure that its role in developing the continent’s vast and largely untapped mineral reserves is not affected by political issues both in Africa itself and in the west.

“There are 60 to 70 downstream Chinese smelters in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone that aren’t upholding certain developmental and social standards,” Davies said.

“The Chinese and African governments need to force better operational practices on the ground in those countries.”

China is learning quickly when it comes to Africa, and its efforts to tie long-term commodity and energy deals with social and infrastructural investments on the continent are “rewriting the rules of the global commodity game,” said Davies.

China is expected to become Africa’s second biggest trading partner behind the US by the end of this year, despite having virtually no business at all on the continent only 15 years ago.

Around 80 pct of its total trade with Africa consists of just four commodities, including crude oil, copper, iron ore and cobalt.

China’s growing presence in Africa has drawn criticism from western governments, and the Chinese government has sought to allay the concerns by setting up aid and investment funds, building infrastructure and establishing several “special economic zones” aimed at improving local manufacturing capacity.

The US government has castigated China for failing to play by the rules of the international commodity market. Instead of buying resources on the open market, China has sought long-term purchase or off-take agreements backed by the country’s policy banks and linked to massive investment programs in roads, railways, ports and power stations throughout Africa.

And the scale and speed with which China has strengthened its grip on Africa’s oil and minerals have led critics to suggest that they are taking advantage of institutional and regulatory gaps across the continent.

Furthermore, investments in schools and hospitals in Congo and Gabon could be overshadowed by how private Chinese miners operate in those countries, Davies said.

While Africa is generally very positive about what China is bringing to the continent, Chinese companies need to improve their image, he said.

African suspicions of Chinese mining activities came to a head in 2006, when Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata narrowly lost an election campaign built around local hostility to the activities of Chinese copper firms in the country.

China has subsequently sought to emphasize that its dealings with Africa are based on “mutual benefit”, but accusations of “colonialism” have continued.

“The c-word gets bandied about a lot,” said Davies. “Is China a progressive development partner or does it have a colonialist, exploitative intent? Perhaps we in Africa are more sensitive to this issue.”

He pointed out that despite the concerns about Chinese firms eating up African resources, there were only around 1,000 Chinese enterprises doing business in a continent of 53 nations.

“People are constantly looking for ulterior motives, but the only motive is to look for capital,” he said.

Nevertheless, Chinese companies need to be careful about their corporate practices because “Chinese activities in Africa have been exaggerated and highly politicized,” said Davies.

“This can be countered by good news stories, and developmentally-inclined CSR (corporate and social responsibility) programs.”

(XFN-ASIA )

The illegal trade in elephant tusks is thriving in Chinese markets and upscale hotels although there are signs the problem could be on the decline, an environmental group said Wednesday.

Ivory continues to be smuggled into China despite a ban on imports that dates back to 1991, with the tusks mainly being sourced from Africa, according to the report released by TRAFFIC, a wildlife monitoring organisation.

Nevertheless, it said increased enforcement of regulations in China had led to some improvements, with surveys of markets showing that fewer illegal products were on sale.

“However, an illegal ivory trade continues to thrive at curio markets and in hotel shops,” the report said.

“There is hope that this trade can be better controlled, however, since the market surveys show there may be a decrease in illegal ivory trade at these venues.”

It said upscale hotels in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, had been found to be selling illegal ivory.

The report, entitled: “The State of Wildlife Trade in China”, said the main factories for processing illegally-imported ivory were in the nation’s southern and southeastern provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangsu.

China is one of the world’s biggest markets for ivory, which is traditionally used to make family seals to stamp documents as well as decorative antiques.

Chinese traders were the biggest buyers at a controversial series of auctions in four southern African countries recently in which 102 tonnes of government-owned ivory stocks were sold for just over 15 million dollars.

The legal sale, the first since 1999, came from elephants who died of natural causes or were culled to control their population, and funds will be used for elephant conservation and community development projects.

As the African ivory sale, in late October and early this month, was conducted through legal channels, the tusks can be imported into China without violating the 1991 ban.

(AFP)

Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana(R) meets with Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress(NPC), the country’s top legislature, in Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar, Nov. 11, 2008. (Xinhua Photo/Liu Weibing) Photo Gallery>>>

ANTANANARIVO, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) — Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo and Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana said here on Tuesday that they will do their utmost to boost ties between the two countries.

The commitment was made during their talks in the presidential palace during Wu’s first ever visit to the African country.

Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) said “Over recent years, relations between China and Madagascar have developed very rapidly thanks to efforts made by both sides. Now, our two countries have enjoyed frequent high-level exchanges and mutual understanding and trust has been built and promoted. Bilateral trade and economic cooperation has witnessed a vigorous boost.”

“My visit to your country is designed to enhance cooperation with your country, materialize the ideas shared by leaders of our two countries and to promote further bilateral ties,” Wu said.

In this aspect, Wu also made a three-point proposal including strengthening cooperation between the two governments, ruling parties and two legislatures, and the cooperation in agriculture especially in rice growing technology, as well as between the enterprises of the two countries.

Ravalomanna made it clear that he agreed with Wu’s comments on bilateral ties and his proposals on further developing the partnership, saying that his ruling party has prioritized its relationship with China and that China’s experience in party management is of high reference value for his party.

“The practical cooperation between our two countries has grown to a relatively high level, but there is still much room for further cooperation,” he said.

The Madagascan president said that the more important thing now is that the mutual trust has already been established between the ruling parties of the two countries, which promises a bright future for their cooperation in years to come.

Wu arrived in Madagascar on Monday for a two-day official visit, the fourth leg of his five-nation African tour.

Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana(L) shakes hands with Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress(NPC), the country’s top legislature, in Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar, Nov. 11, 2008.(Xinhua Photo/Liu Weibing) Photo Gallery>>> (XINHUA)

The Nigerian Commun-ications Satellite (NigComSat), which was launched into orbit over 18 months ago, is said to be missing.
THISDAY gathered last night that with the satellite missing from orbit, the huge amount spent by the Nigerian government, about N40 billion may have gone down the drain.
The satellite was found to have run into a technical hitch for some weeks now, according to a source, when it was discovered that it was using a technological standard that was not meant for Africa but Asia.
The materials used in the building of the satellite by the Chinese that built it were said to have also been in question.
The solar panel was said to be faulty and not working. All this was being battled with while, the Managing Director of NigComSat, Ahmed Rufai, was said to be angling for the launch of the second satellite.
The contract for the NigComSat project which was signed on December 15, 2004 in Abuja between China Great Wall Industry Corporation and the National Space Research and Development Agency was said to have cost the Federal Government over N40 billion. China was awarded the deal after it outbid 21 international.
The cost of the satellite include items such as construction, insurance, value added tax as well as the price for building one ground control station in Abuja and a backup control station in Kashi, China.
The satellite has four gateways said to be located in South Africa, China, Italy and Northern Nigeria.
The satellite, which has a lifespan of 15 years, is being monitored and tracked by a ground station built in Abuja while the Chinese firm, Great Wall Industry Corporation, has a ground station in Kashgar, in northwest China ’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
It will be recalled that NigComSat which is 100 per cent owned by the Federal Government, was recently given a 15 per cent stake from the Federal Government’s 49 per cent stake in NITEL.
Nigeria in May 2007 launched NigComSat into orbit with expectations of tremendous gains to the nation’s telecoms sector.
The NigComSat is a super hybrid geo-stationary satellite designed to operate in Africa, parts of the Middle East and southern Europe and was expected to digitalise the Nigerian economy and promote technological advancement in Nigeria and Africa.
The expectation from many quarters was that NigComSat’s carrier rocket, Long March 3-B, which blasted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province and entered the orbit accurately on May 14, would set the stage for Nigeria to consolidate on its growing profile as the technological hub of Africa and an emerging player in the global terrain.
The satellite project was supposed to enable Internet access to even the remotest rural villages, a major quest of stakeholders in recent times. It was also expected to enhance government’s economic reforms, particularly in the areas of e-learning, e-commerce, tele-medicine, tele-education, and rural telephony.
The project, according to experts, was expected to help African users save more than $900 million spent for telephony trunking and data transport services, $660 million in phone call charges and broadband access which is more than $95 million spent each year, as well as create more than 150, 000 jobs for Nigerians.
Rufai had before the launch disclosed that Nigeria would earn about $1.05billion which is N128billion yearly from NigComSat. A major part of the earnings was expected to come in from the sale and leasing of transponders from NigComSat.
Rufai had stated that each transponder, forty in all will be sold for between $60-70 million. NigComSat currently has forty transponders, with 28 active and 12 inactive.
However despite the huge expectations of Nigerians, NigComSat has not performed to expectations. Rufai at a recent media interaction agreed that NigComSat had not been able to capture the market principally because of the challenges it faced from the regulatory authority.
Government sources confirmed to THISDAY the failure of the satellite in orbit. While admitting that the level the failure has gone is mindboggling, the source disclosed that the Federal Executive Council will meet today on the matter and issue a statement on how the failure will be addressed.
(thisdayonline)