Uganda Rural Community Support USA

Ghana is to cease importation of second-hand clothing, tyres and items described as “red and brown wastes” from European Union countries with effect from January 1, 1998.

Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology Lee Ocran said Wednesday that Ghana has refused a request by the EU for the wholesale importation of green waste some of which are considered environmentally hazardous to the country.

Some of the items which have come under the ban are iron and steel scrap, aluminum waste and scrap, leather waste, tin waste and scrap, synthetic fibres waste, waste paper and paperback and used iron and steel railway track.

However, the same items could be imported from countries which are not members of European such as the United States and Japan.

Giving a background to the EU decision, Ocran said in 1993 his ministry received a request from the EU asking Ghana to indicate whether it would allow “green, red and brown wastes” to be brought into the country.

This was rejected because red and brown wastes contain hazardous and radioactive materials. The ministry wanted to import only items under “green waste” such as used clothing and used tyres but this was rejected by the EU as member countries favour wholesale exportation of second-hand goods to
Ghana.

“Whilst Ghana’s position on the wholesale importation of items listed under ‘green waste’ has since remained the same, the stance of the European Union has also not changed, hence the ban”, Ocran said.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Used Clothes Dealers Association has expressed concern about the ban, saying it is expensive to import used clothing from non-European Union countries.

The benevolent fund soccer match between All Stars and the Rest will now be played on Sunday,
national team assistant coach George Mungwa has confirmed.

Mungwa in an interview yesterday disclosed the Football Association of Zambia had informed him the game
will be played on Sunday before the team flies out to West Africa a day later.

“The All Stars game is certainly on this Sunday although the venue has not been communicated to us yet,”
explained Mungwa.

Efforts to get FAZ general secretary James Mazumba failed as he was reported to be shuttling between
Anchor House and Rothmans of Pall Mall, the sponsors of the annual competition making final arrangements.

The All Stars team to be featured against the Rest awaits the arrival of coach Bukhard Ziese from his one
week Christmas holiday in Germany.

Mungwa hopes Ziese would allow him to use the Confederation of Southern Africa Football Association squad
which is preparing for the first leg encounter against Malawi on January 10, 1998.

“The composition of the team will be dependent on the coaching staff decision when Bukhard arrives,”
Mungwa said in an interview yesterday.

“I however, would have loved to use the Cosafa Cup squad so that they are afforded a chance of playing
together.”

The game was initially supposed to be played on November 29, but Ziese refused saying it was going to
disturb his training programme which included two friendlies against Burkina Faso and Nigeria. Both games
were played two weeks ago.

Mungwa together with one of the goalkeepers from the main team is expected to join the Burkina Faso bound
squad in Gambia after the Cosafa encounter in Malawi.

“We need an experienced goalkeeper to go with the Cosafa Cup team to Malawi and will later join the rest
of his friends in Gambia,” Mungwa said.

The national team will camp for about a month in Gambia before moving to Burkina Faso for the 16-nations
competition.

The government Kenyans are electing this Monday - will take us into the 21st century. It may be
the poll for a new millennium but little excitement has attended to it because not many citizens seem
convinced that it will make a significant difference to the way they live their lives.

Indeed, the vast majority of Kenyans have seen themselves become poorer over the last five years and they
have a sneaking suspicion that the same is going to happen over the next five years.

The fact that the government has largely been an observer of the recent cholera outbreak in the Nairobi
slums while it is NGOs that have been at the forefront of trying to save people’s lives, demonstrates how
the state’s capacity to deliver to us has been undermined so that even if there was a real change of will,
the government would have a pretty hard time getting its act together sufficiently to do so. The government
that’s due to be sworn in early in the new year, therefore, will be a weaker and less effective one, no
matter who leads it.

Thus 1998 is likely to see an increasing number of private sector and civil society solutions to problems
of security, basic health care and so on.

The state will also find itself weakened by political and economic reforms and general structural changes
taking place in Kenyan society; some of these changes are simply in the way people think. For example,
during 1997, we’ve had more Kenyans going on strike than ever before. Just before Christmas, police used
tear gas to disperse smallholders from the tea sector in city streets. For me, this was an alarming
development because these tough people are among the country’s major producers and in many ways, they are
also the backbone of the most productive part of the rural economy.

Part of the reason that the state’s ability to deliver services can be expected to decline yet further in
1998 is that the government has been getting a declining bang for every buck it spends. In order to keep
spending, for example, it continues to maintain a huge and expensive budget deficit that is financed in part
by a Treasury Bill - TBill - stock of over Ksh118 billion. When this is combined with overseas debt, it
means the government is paying out staggering amounts to service its debt.

The local TBill debt is money that is to a considerable extent borrowed from Kenyans because we deposit
our cash in our banks and they promptly rush out and stand in line to buy TBills which they see as a much
more secure investment than lending to Kenyans.

The bottom line in all this is the government’s insatiable appetite for funds which in turn leads to the
question where it is spending these funds, because plainly they are not making a difference on the ground.

The government is borrowing more, but services are declining - indeed, it is almost as if they are
pouring funds down a black hole. The most audacious aspect of all the political campaigns was Kanu’s
impressive media blitz. The way the ruling party campaigned on an anti-corruption platform struck me like
the World Party of Butchers seeking the vegetarian vote. Is there a connection between how people vote and
how politicians have performed? On what basis do Kenyans make their decisions? The truth is that Kanu can
expect to find its most loyal supporters in Kenya’s poorest and most marginalised districts where it has
broken the most promises and where people will certainly be poorer in 2002 than they are now.

Partly the reason for continued support for Kanu is that the disunited opposition does not form a
credible alternative in many eyes. What’s more, politics has been transformed for many into do-or-die ethnic
competition, and so a substantial percentage will go out and vote today and make their c
hoice, at least at the presidential level, not on who will bring development but how to lock another community out of power.

This logic is demonstrated by the MP who wins and spitefully abandons his predecessor’s development effort. It is a logic that leads to accusations of fraud and rigging by losers, come January. Since these are the patterns by which we vote, the government we get will be the one we deserve.

John Githongo is a director of the African Strategic Research Institute. His e-mail: asri@africaonline.co.ke

The Election Commission of Kenya decided Monday to extend voting until 15h00 GMT
Tuesday, following extra-ordinary mix-up of ballot papers and delivery to the wrong parts of the country.

Delayed opening of many stations, lack of ballot papers, missing names from registers and heavy rains in
some parts of the country were also contributing factors.

There were bitter protests from several candidates. There were violent confrontations in a number of
constituencies.

The worst hit areas included the north, eastern, central and Nairobi provinces and Kajiado North in
Rift-Valley Province, home to Vice-President George Saitoti.

Various groups and individuals blamed the confusion and disorganisation of the poll on the Commission,
accusing it of complacency and outright conspiracy to rig the poll through external pressure.

The Commission could not immediately explain the circumstances which lead to the mix-up of ballot boxes
but said it duly received some 14 million ballot papers meant for the presidential, parliamentary and civic
polls.

Announcing the extension, the Chairman of the Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, noted that certain conditions
affecting Monday’s poll such as the severe weather conditions in many parts of the country and lateness in
opening due to logistical problems had forced the exercise to continue Tuesday.

“Due to these reasons, the Commission has decided to extend polling to 6 pm (15h00 GMT) on December 30.
Those areas which are not affected by these conditions will close polling at the normal time, that is 6 pm
(15h00 GMT) today (Monday),” he said.

Kivuitu also said that counting of votes countrywide had been suspended until further notice from his
commission, but media reports Tuesday morning indicated that counting was to commence as soon as the ballot
boxes were delivered to the respective counting halls.

“Candidates and/or their agents are advised to keep vigilance on the voting materials in the custody and
security of the election officials,” said Kivuitu.

He further instructed the police to keep maximum security throughout the night over the ballot papers and
boxes and other election materials to ensure there will be no interference.

Monday’s poll will be the second time elections have been conducted over two days, the first being the
May 1963 pre-independence poll.

Like Monday’s, the election was fought by several political parties the major two being the Kenya African
National Union led by the late President Jomo Kenyatta, and the Kenya African Democratic Union chaired by
incumbent President Daniel Arap Moi.

Anthrax and yellow fever are suspected to be the cause of the more-than-250 deaths in North
Eastern Kenya over the past two weeks, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

The head of the emergent diseases division in Geneva, Mr David Heymann, said researchers were testing
samples in laboratories to establish the cause of the deaths but the results were not yet known.

If the tests for either of the suspected killers proved negative, tests on diseases with similar symptoms
- such as diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding - would be carried out, Dr Heymann added. Initial tests ruled out
Ebola fever, the WHO doctor stated.

Ebola, which leads to similar symptoms and kills through massive internal haemorrhaging, was first
identified in Sudan in the 1970s. It drew global attention in 1995 when it hit Kikwit in the northwest of
the former Zaire, killing 245 of the 350 people infected. There is no known medical cure.

A mysterious disease has killed 24 people in Merti Division, Isiolo District, over the past three days.
At the same time, medical experts will today release their findings on the disease that has struck people
and hundreds of livestock in North Eastern Province.

Reports from Merti indicate that symptoms include vomiting, severe diarrhoea and headache.

The ActionAid regional co-ordinator, Mr Jarso Mokku, said in Isiolo Town yesterday that the deaths had
been reported at Merti, Korobesa, Fadachabasa and Malkagalla trading centres.

He described the situation as “very worrying” and said residents desperately needed medical and food
assistance. However, Mr Mokku could not confirm whether some of the victims died due to starvation.

“At the moment, we have only airlifted food and medicine that will last five days and we are uncertain
whether we will get the means to transport stocks that will meet the demands of the area residents.” He said
there was surplus food lying in Isiolo Town which could not be delivered due to transport problems.

Meanwhile, a Ford Kenya official, Mr Mohammed Wario, yesterday appealed to NGOs to urgently intervene to
control the disease.

The director of medical services, Dr James Mwanzia, said local medical experts expected to receive
findings on the disease from the US and South Africa.

He said two leading virologists, Dr Peter Tukei and Prof Nyagah, who are analysing specimens at the Kenya
Medical Research Institute and African Medical Research Foundation, yesterday received six specimens from
sick and dying livestock.

Meanwhile, Dr Saad Abdalla of the International Federation of Red Cross yesterday sent 33 samples to
Kemri and Amref laboratories for further analysis.

Out of the samples, Dr Abdalla said, 16 were obtained from infected herdsmen who had fever, bleeding,
jaundice, diarrhoea and vomiting. On Saturday, Dr Tukei hinted that the disease could be anthrax. However,
he said this was “mere speculation” since he had not concluded his analysis.

Anthrax afflicts livestock and can easily be transferred from an infected carcass to human beings.

On Sunday, a Nyeri-based veterinarian, Dr Paul Ndung’u, attributed the outbreak to sharing of water sources by people and livestock.

Dr Paul Ndung’u of Nyeri Veterinary Department said investigations conducted at the Karatina Veterinary Investigations Laboratories indicated that the disease was caused by pasteuvella organisms as a result of stress following the prevailing weather conditions.

Dr Ndung’u said the sick animals were responding positively to sulphadimine and anti-histamines treatment.

Notwithstanding the extension of voting for another day, the chaotic incompetence that attended
yesterday’s excercise was a national disgrace and an insult to voters who queued from as early as 5 am to
cast their ballots.

While it would be irresponsible at this stage to impute the disorganisation to anything more sinister
than administrative ineptness, the failures were so widespread and so varied as to raise profound suspicions
concerning the honesty of the exercise in the minds of many impatient voters. Unless a marked improvement in
performance is evident in the areas where voting has been extended, such suspicions can only spread and the
reactions of angry Kenyans will clearly pose a serious threat to law and order.

On the eve of the election, in a briefing to the media, the Electoral Commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu
dismissed fears of any problems with the printing and packaging of ballot papers and said a commissioner had
been sent to London to make a thorough check on names, symbols and packaging. Back home, polling machinery
was fully in place, with contingency arrangements for the flood areas, he said.

Having had five years to prepare for this significant event, few doubted his assurances - which only
added to a sense of outrage yesterday as reports of irregularities poured in from constituency after
constituency. It seemed that just about anything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Among the reports reaching the Nation newsroom were these: Ballot boxes arrived late or were insufficient
and some were improperly secured; no ballot papers arrived, too few arrived, the wrong ones arrived (sending
papers to the wrong place seemed the commonest error), ballot papers had the wrong symbols or the wrong
names or no names at all; some polling stations couldn’t open because no security guards were on hand,
others because no officials turned up; a minority of returning officers had problems with staff who wanted
more money and/or a different ethnic breakdown; in some [...]; one polling station was relocated overnight
and early arrivals, reading a notice to this effect on the gate, declined to plough across muddy fields to
search out the new one.

While the organisers cannot be blamed for the serious floods that have spread havoc in some areas,
someone must take the blame for the failure of transport, helicopters, for instance, to arrive in sufficient
numbers to take ballot boxes to the voters. After all, the dreaded El Nino has been with us for many weeks
now!

The effect of this whole Chaplinesque performance was to delay the opening of many voting stations for
many hours, which was particularly ironic when all the signs were that the turnout would confound the
pessimists and be much larger than expected. The effect of the delay is hard to gauge.

Many Kenyans will be simply fed up and decide they have no intention of spending another three or four
hours will not try to vote again. Others may find themselves unable to. While employers were legally bound
to give their workers time off to vote on the official election day, for instance, a public holiday declared
for that purpose, many of them will feel no such compunction about being generous regarding an extension.

What must have exasperated many voters yesterday was to follow radio and television reports which
portrayed the exercise blandly as one of peaceful tranquility if, yes, perhaps a touch on the slow side!

However, it would be equally naive to embrace a conspiracy theory of rigging and disenfranchisement
without good evidence. Certainly when only 400 ballot papers arrive in an area with 3,000 registered voters,
the antennae of the average Kenyan, who has been cheated often in the past, will quiver alarmingly. It may
be that in this election, reports by newspeople and observers of just what irregularities happened where,
how often and in what form should provide a pattern to allay or sustain suspicions.

What seems immediately clear is that our General Election format is needlessly elaborate and provision
should be made to separate civic elections from parliamentary and presidential polls. The ballot papers
become too confusing and too complicated and few Kenyans know the names of their councillors anyway. By
putting a good distance in time between municipal and national elections would assist government at both
these levels as well as persuade Kenyans to take their local leaders more seriously.

Finally, the danger of violence is ever-present in Kenya at election time and if ordinary people feel
they have been cheated, the outbursts may not easily be contained. It is at times like this that the ruling
establishment may begin to regret not using competent personnel to run the Electoral Commission leaders
should do everything in their power to maintain calm among their supporters as a solution is sought to this
miasma.

Two people were killed and scores injured yesterday in violence-related to this year’s
trouble-plagued election.

A man died instantly in Alego/Usonga in Siaya District when a boulder crashed into his chest and another
was burnt to death in Shinyalu in Kakamega District.

The Alego man was killed when supporters of the National Development Party (NDP) encountered their Kanu
counterparts and fighting ensued. Both sides claimed they were attacked first and acted in defence.

Details of the Fight in Shinyalu were not available as we went to press, but initial reports said that
the deceased was set ablaze when Kanu and Ford-Kenya supporters encountered each other.

In Kisumu, a two-hour pitched battle between supporters of the NDP and Kanu saw one man shot with an
arrow and another stabbed several times and several suffer serious injuries.

In Mathioya, Muranga District, a candidate fled for his life and three cars were set ablaze when rival
supporters clashed.

Ford-People’s candidate for Mathioya constituency, Mr Maina Njakwe, had to run for dear life when his
supporters and those of Kanu’s Joseph Kamotho ran into each other. Mr Njakwe’s brand new Sh2 million Musso
car was burnt as were three other cars. Two people believed to be polling agents of an unidentified party
were stoned and stabbed in Kasipul Kabondo, Rachuonyo District, when voters accused them of dishing out
money to influence voters.

[...] a man similarly accused of giving out money allegedly on behalf of Kanu by supporters of NDP, was
beaten up badly before he was rescued by police. Violence was also witnessed in Kirinyaga where a fierce
fight broke out between opposition supporters at Kiabarikiri polling station. Ten Kanu supporters and two
opposition activists were seriously injured.

Trouble started when a group of Kanu supporters alighted from a lorry to go and vote. Opposition
supporters claimed0they had been imported from Nairobi by a Kanu candidate to vote in the Kerugoya-Kutus
constituency.

If making movies and travel are things that excite you,
then you will be positively smitten with envy when you hear about the
ex-Cape Town boy who grew up in Green Point, went to Italy where he
helped make a movie, did another and has spent the last 18 years living
in Rome, hobnobbing with some of the most famous names in cinema,
designing wardrobes for movies and travelling “from Kirghizstan to
China, to Mongolia and back to Argentina”.

Despite what most people would regard as a prodigious success, Paolo
Scalabrino is surprisingly modest, quite nonchalant and matter-of-fact
about his work and his achievements.

“I’m just one of those who is working at the moment … perhaps a
little more than others and that’s all there is to it.

“As you can imagine, your best movie is your last one and whatever
came before it has very little importance.”

While his schoolmates at CBC were playing rugby, Paolo was already
showing his natural talent and prowess in clothing design, making all
the costumes for the supporters at inter-school matches.

When at the Cape Town School of Fashion and Design, Paolo won a
scholarship to study at the Italian National Academy of Fashion and Art.

During his apprenticeship years he worked for designers such as
Valentino, Lancetti and others, but he soon realised that this was not
exactly what he wanted to do, although he still had no clear idea of
where he saw his future.

It was then that he had an opportunity to be involved in a movie - a
film by Nina Wertmuller - in which he was a voluntary help.

“It turned into a great experience for me and I decided that this was
my way.

“I rather enjoyed the idea of a movie with a theme - something that
you worked on.

“As in this particular case, as a costume designer you were not
exactly someone who designed clothes only - you designed a character to
bring out the psychological background of a person, and you dressed him
or her from there, helping to create a personality, through clothes,
make-up and hairstyle, whatever the case might be.”

The Wertmuller film was the beginning of a burgeoning career.

Soon afterwards, he did the costume design for the movie, Bloodline,
starring Audrey Hepburn, James Mason and Omar Sharif.

He says that he thought he was “just lucky” and that it might have
been just a flash in the pan, but that it turned out to be only the
beginning.

As an assistant director, Paolo toured the world in making first this
film and, later, others, the only problem being that his South African
passport at the time prevented him from entering countries like
communist China.

“The last seven years have been fruitful. I have happily toured the
world, dressed big names and made nice movies.”

Paolo has just recently finished working in northern Morocco on a
Claude van Damme film called Legionnaire, a 1925 costume film, “one of
the few movies in which Van Damme doesn’t karate anyone down and
actually acts”.

Before that, he worked on the Jean-Jacques Annaud film, Seven Years
In Tibet, starring Brad Pitt and which is due to be released in South
Africa early next year.

Paolo’s old school friend Eddy Cassar phoned him from Cape Town one
evening and was told: “You won’t believe who has just left my
apartment!”

It was Liza Minnelli.

“Liza was doing a show in Munich - we were there and I had a large
apartment and we were going to have one helluva spaghetti party.

“Everyone was going to bring their own sauce and we had huge pots
with the basics …

“It wasn’t only Liza Minnelli, but everybody else I had met before as
well.

“And there I was, this little guy from Cape Town going ‘I don’t
believe it! I don’t believe what I am seeing!’ They were all there from
Audrey Hepburn onwards …

“There were three movies which I loved in my life - one was My Fair
Lady, which was very amusing. Zorba The Greek was another and Lawrence
Of Arabia was a great movie in which I worked with Audrey Hepburn, Irene
Papas and Omar Sharif … I didn’t know where I was!”

Paolo also worked with Robert de Niro on The Mission and the series,
Mama Lucia, with Sophia Loren.

One of his biggest projects was Cutthroat Island, a $110-million
movie with Geena Davis of which he says “although not a bad movie,
flopped all over the world”.

Projects like these take a year to 15 months at a time, says Paolo,
and from a costume point of view are incredibly demanding.

“You start off with basic white fabric and you have to make 2 500
costumes … you don’t find all the material on the market.

“You dye your fabrics, you age them, you re-dye them, you have them
cut, you make them up and then you re-take them in your hands, you re-
break them down and eventually they get onto some extra’s back after
they have been through 12 processes … and it has taken you six or
seven months to get there.

“When I come off a film like the last one, shot in the Moroccan
desert where it was 45 degrees most of the time, I dream of a movie on
the French Riviera, of a couple making love in a closed room.

“They have a sheet on them (and even that’s not my problem - that’s
props) and they open the window once and there are 18 passersby who are
in modern gear!

“That’s my dream! But it’s never gonna happen!”

Zambia Democratic Congress (ZDC) will only join the inter-party talks if opposition leaders detained by President Frederick Chiluba are released unconditionally, said ZDC vice-president for information and publicity Andrew Banda yesterday.

Banda, in an interview in Lusaka, maintained that ZDC won’t attend the inter-party talks until its demands were met.

“Who is Chiluba going to hold talks with when (Liberal Progressive Front (LPF) chairman) Rodger Chongwe is out of the country, (ZDC president Dean) Mung’omba and (UNIP leader and former Zambian president Kenneth) Kaunda are still in detention?” Banda asked.

“We can only join the talks if those detained are released unconditionally.”

He added, without elaboration, that the talks in Livingstone had been overtaken by events. Banda said ZDC has learnt a lot from its mistake of participating in last year’s elections.

“We’ll never make a mistake again like we did when we participated in the fraudulent elections.”

He took a swipe at President Chiluba’s public relations and press assistant for saying that Kaunda introduced the state of emergency laws which were being used against him.

“It is foolish and irresponsible for men like Richard Sakala to say that Kaunda is being detained because he’s the one who introduced them, two rights do not make a wrong. Those are stone age politics,” Banda charged. He said the MMD was voted into power because people wanted such bad laws to b
e done away with.

“Chiluba’s level of hatred for Kaunda is frightening,” Banda said.

Banda, in an interview in Lusaka, said Zambia will never develop as long as hatred exists. He urged Zambians to stand up and fight the injustices being perpetrated by the MMD government.

“People should stand up and show concern, even the so called political parties attending the talks are just wasting their time,” Banda said.” They’re attending the talks to benefit themselves, you can’t be good boys to the MMD.”

Only three out of the six miners trapped in last Saturday’s mine accident at Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines’ (ZCCM) Mufulira Division have been rescued, ZCCM management disclosed yesterday.

ZCCM’s Corporate Office, responding to a press query on the miner’s condition yesterday, disclosed that three other miners were still trapped in the Mufulira mine after an area covering 60 metres collapsed following underground rock movement (seismic event).

“Mufulira mine experienced a seismic event in the 59 block on 1,057 metre level which resulted in the fall of the ground in the C 59 East and West stope areas covering a span of 60 metres,” the statement read in part.

The condition of those rescued on Saturday is reported to be stable while a 24 hour search has continued for the other remaining miners.

ZCCM corporate office said the miners were charging the stopes in the area when the accident occurred on Saturday around 13:00 hours.

Mufulira Division mobilised a rescue team at 13:45 hours on Saturday and managed to rescue two miners - Jerry Ngulube and Felix Mwamba - at 19:45 hours the same day and were found with injuries.

The third, Beaten Mbambara was rescued on Sunday at 13:17 hours and was found without visible injuries except for complaints of stiffness because of staying cramped for a long period. The trio have all been admitted to ZCCM’s Ronald Ross Hospital for treatment and observation.

Among those still missing are Simon Mwila - miner -in-charge, Michael Kanyanta - blasting officer, both of ZCCM, including one Benson Mulewa - a UBST operator of Kafironda Explosives who was working in the mine at the time of the accident.

ZCCM has announced that the 24 hour search for missing miners has continued in an effort to quickly save the trapped personnel.

Further blasting has been temporarily halted following the seismic event while ground conditions in the accident area are reported to have sufficiently stabilised with little likelihood of further ground fall.