News 2005

Kenya: Police brutally thwart anti-globalisation protest

Update on arrests of anti-WTO protesters in Kenya:

Delegates follow the proceedings during the WTO mini-ministerial meeting at the Leisure Lodge Beach and Golf Resort in Ukunda, Kwale district. Photo by Gideon Maundu

According to local reports a total of 53 people had been arrested in connection with a legal and notified, peaceful protest against the so called "mini-ministerial" meeting of the WTO in Diani, Kenya. 43 people were kept in the police cells overnight and 39 people, who appeared in front of the Magistrate judge this morning, were given bail under the condition of a bond of 10.000 Kenya Shilling. In a statement, faxed to the press, the 5 lawyers, Mr. Justus Munyithya, Mr. Yusuf M. Abubakar, Mr. Jayant Shah, Mrs. Jackline Muthee and Mr. Mulwa Nduya of the legal defence team for the 43 accused persons, declared: We are baffled at the Government's decision to charge the accused persons with charges which contradict the constitutional guarantees provided for

in our constitution, particularly chapter V sections 78, 79, 80 and 81 thereto. The said sections guarantee freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association.

Further, the said charges are a demonstration of the Government's unwillingness to give room to the rising democratic culture in the Nation.

We have therefore decided to challenge the constitutionality of the charges before a constitutional court and we will be seeking a declaration that the particular sections of the penal code used to charge the accused persons with, are unconstitutional and therefore inoperative in the current legal regime.

However, just with the bail for the arrested protesters the Kenyan governance made a quick 430.000.- KSh. Such are the economic miracles in Kenya today.

Meanwhile it has transpired that the mini-ministerial meeting of the WTO at the Kenya Coast, which was held after the guests had been visiting the world famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve, is closing without any tangible results. The sole decision of any possible significance of this meeting was that the massive cotton subsidies, which the US Governance pays to its farmers, are illegal in WTO terms. However the US representative remained also non-committal concerning this point.

It thereby has become clear that the mini-ministerial meeting, which mainly hosted participants from the North and the West, while only 6 African Nations participated, was more or less a holiday treat to the members of this club, which, however, is paid for by the taxpayers. While Kenya sees such events as a boost to its slumbering tourism industry and wants to use this WTO meeting to uplift the present adversary travel advisories, especially that of the US, several international NGOs already have declared that they will through their nation states' governments seek the abolishment of such holiday trips for their WTO trade negotiators.

To jail local people for peaceful protest against the World Trade Organization and their dealings certainly can not be the way in which the Kenya Government can lure more tourists to Kenya and already Kenya Human Rights groups have demanded the resignation of Trade Minister Kituyi, who instigated this apparently unconstitutional police crack-down against Kenyan citizens.

China's Hongkong will be the next police-state stop-over for the WTO meeting sams in December, which will be crucial for the Doha Round trade talks on agriculture, which are dragging on since the 2001 Qatar meeting

European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who otherwixse seemed to be pretty unimpressed by the fact that also due to his presence human rights violations were triggered in Kenya, moved to mollify less developed countries by pitching for swift implementation of preferential market access for poor countries. He ran, though, immediately into fire from lobbyissts.

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Kenya: Police brutally thwart anti-globalisation protest

After arrests of peaceful protesters trade ministers begin WTO talks

and Police thwart anti-globalisation protest

Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 04 March 2005

Police officers arrest one of the demonstrators protesting against the WTO mini-ministerial meeting at the Leisure Lodge and Golf Resort in Ukunda, Kwale district yesterday. Up to 60 demonstrators were arrested. Photo by Gideon Maundu

Police yesterday rounded up some 60 anti-globalisation demonstrators as the World Trade Organisation conference got underway in the coastal town of Mombasa.

The conference which is being attended by ministers from 33 countries, is aimed at kick-starting the Doha Round of global trade talks and is taking place at the Leisure Lodge Beach and Golf Resort, South Coast.

Fifty-three of the protesters were arrested at Kombani trading centre as they made their way to Ukunda show ground the planned venue of a protest rally. Thirteen others, four of them women, were arrested at Ukunda town while marching from a local mosque to the meeting's venue.

Police had earlier declared the planned rally illegal.

The demonstrators carried banners that read; Africa sio ya kunadiwa (Africa is not for sale), and Coast women not involved in WTO resolution making. Others read WTO you are killing our farmers, and Protect us from cheap and subsidised agricultural imports.

However, members of the civil society defied the Government order, and converged at the Markaz Mosque at Ukunda where, after a brief discussion, started marching to the showground about a kilometre away.

Those arrested outside the Markaz mosque included top officials of Oxfam, Elizabeth Mueni, members of the Chemichemi and Coast NGOs Forum.

The chairman of the Coast Lobby Development group, Mr Athman Said Kibada was among those arrested at Kombani trading centre.

Kwale police station chief, Richard Masinde said his office was under firm instructions to arrest anyone headed for the rally.

Meanwhile, Kenyan Trade and industry minister Dr Mukhisa Kituyi said the difficult part of the long negotiations had started.

"In the last 24 hours, we have set the tempo. Now the hard bit begins," conceded Dr Kituyi during a press conference at Leisure Lodge, in Mombasa's South Coast. 

The 33 Ministers had been flown in from the world-famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve, and in the afternoon went into closed-door sessions lasting late into the night.

Ironically, Dr Kituyi who last year hosted a similar forum in Mombasa, attracted a ringing endorsement from other world officials, even as the meeting provoked the wrath of assorted anti-globalisation lobbyists. 

The ministers are expected to offer the political commitment needed to push through the global trade agenda during the 148-member World Trade Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong December. 

However, no final deals are expected at the forum. 

But Dr Kituyi told Nation that concrete commitment from the ministers attending the mini-ministerial meeting was expected.

"We do not want this to be a talk shop. We are not interested in mere tokenism," he said.

The minister concurred with WTO outgoing director-general, Supachai Panitchpakdi, that no deals were set to be cut at the meeting.

He explained that only US trade representative, Peter Allgeier, and European trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, had the mandate to make major decisions on the issue under discussion.

Others, including major developing country players like Brazil, South Africa and India, had to submit their findings first for concrete decisions to be made.

Dr Kituyi asked the participants to offer the requisite political leadership, set goals and show the right commitment to the process.

Players in the WTO are hoping the Doha Round can be concluded next year. Among the issues under discussion include liberalisation of global trade and competition, agriculture and services. Developing countries since the Round kicked off in Doha, Qatar at the end of 2001 have resisted attempts to fully liberalise the multilateral trade system before rich countries can particularly eliminate farm subsidies.

Some commitment to reduce part of the subsidies, running into billions of dollars, has been made by the US.

Yesterday, Dr Kituyi said the participants were at least seeking basic consensus, ahead of the Hong Kong forum, slated to come up with a draft agreement. "We want something concrete to be put on the table," he said. "I hope we are capable of rising above what has divided us."

Yesterday, the WTO director-general lauded Dr Kituyi for his part in pushing the process. "Kenya has played key role in maintaining the tempo," he said also in reference to the earlier Mombasa meeting.

He expressed optimism that constructive outcome would especially emerge on the controversial issues referred to as Singapore Issues.

... there are two differnt sides to the story !

Thirty-one trade ministers converge at the Leisure Lodge Beach and Golf Resort in South Coast for crucial World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.

Today's mini-ministerial meeting - ahead of another conference scheduled for Hong Kong in December - will seek a common ground in global free trade. 

Poor countries have demanded that their agricultural produce be given more access to developed world markets.

Also on the agenda is the removal of subsidies to ensure the free flow of goods to the rich countries.

Countries invited from Africa include Morocco, Egypt, Togo, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania.

Trade and Industry minister Mukhisa Kituyi will chair the three-day meeting.

Security has been beefed up around the hotel as local anti-globalisation groups have threatened to hold a demonstration against the conference.

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Statement from Kenyan civil society in relation to the WTO mini Ministerial in Kenya 2^nd – 4^th March 2005
 
As the power games of the World Trade Organization (WTO) move to Kenya for a few days, hundreds of workers, farmers, consumers, students and other representatives from civil society are gathering at a public meeting in Nairobi on 1^st March and a public rally in Mombasa on 3^rd March to raise their demands on the key issues in the WTO negotiations.

The following are our positions and demands on some of the contentious issues in the current negotiations that will be on the table in Mombasa.

Agriculture: livelihoods for millions of African farmers at stake 

The major subsidy powers, the EU and US, continue to distort world agriculture trade through the massive support to their farmers and dumping of cheap agriculture products in developing countries.

At the WTO Ministerial in Doha in 2001, WTO members agreed that export subsidies should be phased out and domestic support should be substantially reduced.  Again in July last year the developed countries committed themselves to eliminate export subsidies.  But so far we have seen nothing of that.  There is still no end date for the elimination of the subsidies and developed countries have just kept shuffling around their domestic support measures to boxes that are supposedly non-trade distorting.  African farmers are still suffering from dumping of agricultural products from the North. 

In Mombasa, the rich countries will try to keep certain high tariffs and find all kinds of loopholes to be able to keep protecting their own agriculture.  At the same time they are asking African countries to further open up their agricultural markets.  African and other developing countries must have the right to protect their local production – particularly since it is obvious that dumping from the rich countries will continue.

NAMA – the death nail to our local industries
 
Kenya and other African countries have suffered from collapse of domestic indusiness resulting in closure of local factories and massive job losses, due to trade liberalization enforced by the IMF and the World Bank under the Structural Adjustment Programmes.

In the WTO negotiations on industrial tariffs (NAMA), the rich countries are pushing developing countries to further open up their industrial markets through drastic tariff reductions, and even elimination of tariffs in certain sectors, such as textiles, leather and foot wear.  This would mean the death nail to already fragile and vulnerable local industries in African countries with increased unemployment as a result.

Tariff revenues in Kenya account for around 20% of the local government revenue.  A drastic reduction of tariffs on manufactured goods would also mean a serious loss of government revenue for Kenya and other African countries, which would threaten governments’ spending on basic social sectors. 
 
Trading away basic services and governments’ policy space
 
It is the developed countries that are the ones benefiting from WTO rules on trade in services.  Their powerful service corporations are already on the doorsteps in many Africa countries, looking for investment and market opportunities once service sectors are liberalized.
 
The rich countries keep pushing developing countries to open up their service sectors, even sensitive sectors like water, waste management, and also sectors that are critical for the local economy, such as financial services, banking and insurance.
 
At the moment, the pressure is high on developing countries to submit offers of which service sectors they are willing to liberalize.  The rich countries want to speed up the negotiations and see a critical mass of offers on the table, while developing countries are arguing that they do not have accurate analysis of their service sectors and are not yet ready to make offers.
 
Development must be put at the forefront!
 
Although the Doha Round was supposed to be a ‘Development Round’, development issues in WTO have been put on the backburner for the last couple of years.  It is of extreme urgency that all outstanding issues related to Special and Differential Treatment and Implementation are resolved – if the WTO rules will at all serve the interests of African and other developing countries.
 
We call on Ministers, Trade Representatives and the WTO Secretariat present at the Mini Ministerial in Mombasa to: 

• Put development in the “Development Round”
• Ensure that developing countries have the right to protect their local agriculture production
• Ensure that export subsidies are eliminated through an early end date and that trade distorting domestic support by developed countries is effectively and rapidly being reduced
• Ensure that developing countries have the right to determine their own rate of tariff reductions and tariff bindings on industrial products
• Ensure that elimination of tariffs on certain industrial sectors is strictly voluntary
• Ensure that there is no pressure on developing countries to submit offers in the services negotiations – developing countries need sufficient time to carefully analyse their service sectors before they can make any king of offers.

-------------------------------------------

Quo vadis ?

It is common practise since a couple of years that the G8, the UN, the WTO and other shakers of the taker societies only hold talks in countries, which either are outright police states, have military dictators running the country or show at least very dubious human rights records.

Kenya, which two years ago actually made positive headlines with more or less free and fair elections, seems to be on the brink of sliding back into a situation, which is worst than it was during the reign of the Moi regime over the past 20 years. Already Kenya's present record of  assassinations, at least partly politically motivated murders, violent attacks and the criminal statistics (partly due to the declining economic situation of the impoverished majority) etc. is in the moment worst than e.g. of Somalia (in absolute terms and in relative terms - per capita - as well).

While there is already a high security tract in the country (built by UNEPs Klaus Toepfer in Nairobi ), where the top-outlaws of the regular society can meet without being shouted down by the people, now the Kenya Government apparently starts to declare certain areas of its own hospitality and tourist zones to be off limits for the common men and women.

Quo vadis - Kenya?

What ordinary Kenyans need is international solidarity to uplift their struggle against poverty, hunger and disease - and, if that programmes would be designed in a way that they would work for people, the plans and actions will be welcomed by the people, whereby self-regulating mechanisms curb insecurity. Then there would be no need for electrocuting fences and no-go zones.

But, if continuously secluded and not transparent decision making processes sell out the people merely as part of a global work- or slave-force, spoil their home-lands or evict them from there and robb them of their resources for the benefit of a few bloodsuckers, war is in the making and then no high-security fences will stop the tide.

Peaceloving Kenyans will not allow these floodgates to open within their own country and will be steadfast in their right to speak out and if necessary to demonstrate wherever it is - at least within their own country - unimpressed by police-threats or calculating if the WTO and a few ministers will like it or not what has to be said.

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Anti-globalisation activists told to keep off WTO talks

By NGUMBAO KITHI
01. March 2005

The Kenya Government has warned protesters and activists to keep off the venue of the World Trade Organisation conference which will take place in Kenya from Thursday.

Trade and Industry minister Mukhisa Kituyi said the meeting at Leisure Lodge Beach and Golf Resort, South Coast, was crucial and a test case for the country’s ability to host similar meetings and show the world that it was a safe destination for tourists.

But as the minister gave the warning, Kenya Social Forum, which has members from several civil society organisations, said they would hold a rally at Ukunda showground on Thursday over the WTO meeting.

A member of the organisation, Mr Elkana Odembo of Ufadhili Trust, said the forum would present a memorandum to the mini-ministerial meeting protesting at the move by rich countries to create trade barriers.

The minister, however, said just as the meeting would be purely a forum to negotiate issues affecting both the developed and developing countries, civil society should also embrace dialogue instead of demonstrations.

Dr Kituyi directed the Coast provincial commissioner, Mr Cyrus Maina, to deal with any individuals or groups who may wish to disrupt the meeting.

We are not going to allow the so-called anti-globalisation activists to mess around with this important meeting. 

"If they attempt to do so, they will be taken to where they are supposed to be," he warned. 

Mr Maina said his office took the minister’s order seriously and would seal off the south Coast hotel until the meeting is over.

"As you are aware, we are good at taking orders. If the minister has said that the hotel would be a no-go zone, it will be so unless otherwise," he said.

The main agenda of the WTO mini-ministerial conference would be to demand that the developed world listens to concerns of the developing countries, Dr Kituyi said. 

The minister was speaking yesterday morning during a courtesy call on Mr Maina. He said the meeting would review progress in the farm and industrial negotiations, development and moves to cut red tape in trade.
DAILY NATION

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