Africa
Environment
African
environment ministers reach significant climate change accord
- 1 June
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced a
landmark agreement reached by over 30 African ministers to
mainstream climate change adaptation measures into national and
regional development plans, policies and strategies. The Nairobi
Declaration adopted at the Special Session of the African
Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) aims to ensure
adequate adaptation to climate change in the areas of water
resources, agriculture, health, infrastructure, biodiversity and
ecosystems, forest, urban management, tourism, food and energy
security and management of coastal and marine resources. - 2711
website
Kenya
New way of dealing with minors who break the law - 4 May
It is rare to see a minor charged in court without representation
by an advocate, thanks to the Juvenile Justice Project. The pilot
project began in Nakuru in 2005, with children in conflict with
the law getting legal representation for free. Under the unique
project, lawyers take up cases involving minors. Co-ordinator
Sandra Ntabo said the project provides free legal aid to minors
who are vulnerable. Since it started, it has seen more than 1
000 children represented. It is a joint venture between
Law Society of Kenya
(LSK) Rift Valley branch, and Newcastle Law Society
in the United Kingdom. -
The
Standard website
Kenyan
MPs' fury over island row - 13 May
Kenyan MPs have expressed fury over remarks made by Uganda's
president about ownership of the Migingo islands. Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni sparked fury on Monday when he said the
islands belonged to Kenya but the water around the one-acre rock
was Ugandan. He suggested that no Kenyans should be allowed to
fish off the Migingos under existing boundaries drawn up in 1926.
Parliamentarians in Nairobi want the African Union and the United
Nations Security Council to resolve the row. -
BBC News website
Court convicts Kenyan aristocrat in poacher death - 8 May
Trial
dredged up colonial legacy, racial inequality. The heir to Kenya's
most famous white settler family was convicted yesterday of
shooting a black poacher on his estate in a case highlighting the
east African nation's delicate colonial legacy. The High Court
acquitted Thomas Cholmondeley, a descendant of Lord Delamere, who
came to Kenya from Britain a century ago, of murder but found him
guilty of manslaughter in the 2006 death of Robert Njoya on the
family's 22 000-hectare ranch. -
The National Post
website
Kenya's slow path to justice - 9 May
Following the conviction of Thomas Cholmondeley for the
manslaughter of stonemason Robert Njoya, Adam Mynott considers why
the trial took 30 months to reach a conclusion. -
BBC News website
Thomas Cholmondeley offers compensation for
his freedom - 12 May
Thomas Cholmondeley, the white Kenyan aristocrat convicted of
killing a black poacher on his father's ranch, has offered to pay
compensation to his victim's widow in return for his freedom. This
would be enough to allow the interests of justice to be served
even though the maximum penalty is life imprisonment, his lawyer
told a packed sentencing hearing at Nairobi High Court. -
Telegraph website
Thomas Cholmondeley manslaughter sentence to
run for further 8 months - 16 May
It had measured barely six feet by nine, and was infested with
rats and crawling with lice. But for the Honorable Thomas
Cholmondeley, the cell he occupied for three years while on remand
was a haven of tranquillity compared to his new quarters as a
convicted prisoner. Found guilty of the manslaughter of Robert
Njoya, the black poacher whom he shot dead on his family's vast
Kenyan estate, 40-year-old Cholmondeley was sentenced on Thursday
to eight further months behind bars at Nairobi's maximum security
Kamiti Prison. Under Kenya's remission system, however,
Cholmondeley may serve as few as five months of his sentence. -
Telegraph website
Colonial inheritances : the trial was about
murder, but the issue is power - 27 May
In post-colonial Kenya, advocates and judges still don the attire
of their English progenitors. Curtseying and bowing before the
bench is de rigueur when entering or exiting. Lawyers preen over
their accents, getting the vowels of the Queen's
English just so. And there is an almost Victorian obsequiousness
in the air. Attorneys do not "move for a
dismissal", they "pray
your Lordship's weighty consideration in
this matter". The judiciary has been all
but untouched by reform in the 46 years since independence from
Britain. And so there was a dose of irony, a certain
otherworldliness, to the murder trial of Tom Cholmondeley, a white
Kenyan and aristocrat whose ancestors did more than anyone to
forge the Kenya Colony and Protectorate in the image of Britain.
Two weeks ago, Justice Apondi brought to an end Cholmondeley's
three-year legal saga - the trial of the
century as far as Kenyans were concerned. The judge stated his
belief that "the process has humbled the
accused person" and, therefore, Apondi
said he wished "to impose only a light
sentence" on Cholmondeley
: eight months, on a reduced charge of manslaughter. And
then, a great commotion. A group of Masai, some in traditional
dress and others in well-worn suits, stood up in the courtroom. -
National Review Online website
See :
High Court at Nairobi
7 May 2009
Criminal Case 55 of 2006
Republic v Thomas Gilbert Cholmondeley [2009]eKLR
Criminal Law
- murder
- elements of the offence of
murder -
malice aforethought -
need for the prosecution to prove that the act occasioning
death was preceeded by malice aforethought
- consequenses of lack of prove
of malice aforethought -
manslaughter -
when offence of murder can be substituted with one of
manslaughter
Land Affairs
Africa
gears up for radical land laws - 17 May
Prof Hastings Okoth-Ogendo died last month hours after his
groundbreaking draft, 'Frame Work and Guidelines on Land Policy in
Africa', was approved by a conference of African Union ministers of
Land and Agriculture. Ogendo was the chairman of the African Union
Commission taskforce established in 2006 to develop land policy
guidelines. Hours before he fell ill and died in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, Ogendo had just presented the draft policy to a joint
conference of AU ministers of Agriculture, Land and Livestock. The
draft will be presented to the AU Assembly of Heads of State for
approval in July. - The
Standard website
Mozambique
Mozambique
arrests 'dam plotters' - 5 May
Four people who were plotting to sabotage one of the largest
hydro-electric dams in Africa have been arrested in Mozambique,
police say. The detained were foreigners caught with materials
designed to damage the Cahora Bassa dam in north-western Mozambique,
according to state media. The suspects were from South Africa,
Botswana, Germany and Portugual, police reportedly said. The accused
allegedly tried to put a corrosive chemical in the dam turbines. -
BBC News website
Dam plot in
Mozambique denied - 8 May
One of four people held in Mozambique on suspicion of sabotaging the
hydro-electric Cahora Bassa dam has said they did not intend to
destroy it. The foreigners are accused of putting a corrosive
chemical in the turbines. "We were throwing into the water what we
believe could bring positive energy to the region," Carlos da Silva
said. -
BBC News website
Bad
vibes sink energy crusaders - 10 May
Mission
to save Africa from cellphone rays and space invaders ends in jail.
The plan was to 'lay out a grid of tower busters, neutralising
entropy transmitters and other obvious sources of negative energy
like battlefields and Masonic lodges'. Four men had some explaining
to do when they were caught dumping lumps of metal and rock into
Mozambique's most important dam. Friederike Ritschl said her husband
had been jailed on a previous trip to Zimbabwe, where baffled police
could only come up with a charge of littering in response to Ritschl
“gifting” the devices around the countryside. -
The Times website
Keyphrases :
Carlos da Silva
Georg Ritsch
Joseph Ngwato
Orgone cult
Tino Phuthego
Sierra Leone
Taylor
acquittal request rejected - 4 May
War crimes judges have rejected a request to acquit Liberia's
former President Charles Taylor on charges of crimes against
humanity. Mr Taylor's defence team argued that there was not
enough evidence for the trial to proceed. The decision by the
Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague means that Mr Taylor,
who has pleaded not guilty, must now present his defence. Tens of
thousands of people died in Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war.
-
BBC News website
Zimbabwe
Mining firms in Zimbabwe challenge ownership law - 8 May
Zimbabwe should consider scrapping provisions compelling foreign
mines to sell majority stakes to locals and instead allow miners
to set their own empowerment targets, an industry official said.
Foreign investors are concerned by the government's indeginisation
laws, which has led to many companies witholding investment needed
to raise mining production after a slump in the past seven years.
The southern African country has enacted a law which forces
foreign companies, including mines and banks, to sell 51 percent
ownership to local blacks while allowing the government to seize
25 percent of shares in some mines without paying. -
Creamer Media's Mining
Weekly website
Zimbabwe
activists jailed again - 5 May
Zimbabwe human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko has been ordered
back to jail for plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe, her
lawyer said. Ms Mukoko is among 18 leading activists to be
detained, a move likely to spark new tensions in the unity
government. -
BBC News
website
Zimbabwe court revokes bail on terror charges activist - 5 May
A leading human rights activist and 15 other suspects were sent
back to prison in Zimbabwe today on what are widely seen as
trumped up charges of terrorism. Jestina Mukoko appeared stunned
at the ruling and stared from the dock at the magistrate,
Catherine Chimanda. Mukoko's supporters burst into tears. They had
been free on bail for two months. Chimanda said today that she was
sending them back to prison because a formal indictment had been
filed a day earlier. A lawyer for the defence, Charles Kwaramba,
said the suspects would file new bail applications. -
The Guardian website
Africans
give $400m to Zimbabwe - 30 April
Zimbabwe has received $400m (£270m) in credit from African
governments, says Finance Minister Tendai Biti. The funds are
aimed at helping pay civil servants and regenerating the country's
economy, he said. Botswana provided $70m (£47m) and South Africa
$50m (£34m), with the rest coming from the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa. -
BBC News website
EU
gives thumps up to new Zimbabwe govt - 29 May
The European Union has expressed satisfaction with the progress
that Zimbabwe's inclusive government has made so far in addressing
challenges facing the country. The Head of the European Commission
(EC) delegation to Zimbabwe, Ambassador Xavier Marchal, told
journalists after paying a courtesy call on Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara on Thursday that a lot of ground had been covered
by the political parties in the coalition. - BuaNews
Online website
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