THE RAILA ODINGA SECRETARIAT
Monday, March 12, 2012
Press Release on the Coming General Election
1. The next General Election in Kenya will be a referendum on the rule of law – the chance to choose between the rule of law and impunity, between reform and reversal of the gains of the past two decades, between anarchy and order.
2. Kenyans participated in a democratic election on 27 December 2007. The election was subsequently compromised.
3. Some forces with a selfish agenda of their own, which included settling scores that had nothing to do with the elections, took advantage of the ensuing protest against this disenfranchisement of the Kenyan electorate. This was a repeat of similar events in 1991-92 and in 1997. In 2008, more than 1,300 Kenyans were killed, hundreds of thousands were forcefully renditioned and thousands suffered all manner of indignity, classified in the international system as crimes against humanity.
4. The victims were Kenyan citizens. They were not occupying forces from some foreign country, whose killing and eviction might have been cause for heroism and celebration. The matter was then supposed to pass quietly away, as in 1992 and 1997, and to wait for another election and another wave of crimes against innocent citizens.
5. The Grand Coalition Government was established to restore the country to normalcy and shepherd institutional reforms. Everyone said, “Never again.” But not everyone has been co-operative. The beneficiaries of the 2008 injustice have shown they will stop at nothing to frustrate reform and justice.
6. It is this spirit of impunity that frustrated efforts to establish a local tribunal to deal with post-election violence. Parliament was mobilised to defeat the Constitutional amendment that sought to do this, with the main perpetrators cunningly creating the false impression that they sought real justice, and could only achieve it through the ICC. The reality is that they did not wish the matter to be addressed at all – locally or otherwise.
7. The same people shouting then, “Don’t be vague, let us go to The Hague,” are the ones now demonising the ICC. They seek to kill two birds with one stone – dragging the Prime Minister and other innocent parties into their self-inflicted woes, and at the same time making political capital out of the ICC matter.
8. The ICC has unfortunately now become an election issue. But since it IS an election issue, let it now be known that the coming elections will also be a referendum on impunity. The time has come when every one of us must stand up to be counted. Either you are for the rule of law, or you are for impunity. It can’t be both. A choice must be made.
9. The cases before the ICC did not arise out of thin air. They are the outcome of circumstances where Kenyans were killed, forcefully evicted and otherwise dehumanised. They are also the outcome of a systematic and lawful investigation, which the Republic of Kenya is lawfully party to. At the end of that investigation and subsequent court hearings, charges have been raised against those the ICC considers should be called upon to answer for the lowest moment in Kenya’s national history.
10. A lawful process having thus been followed, the Kenyan citizens before the ICC should respect the rule of law. They should seek to defend themselves in the impending trial. If they are innocent, as they have frequently professed at charged public rallies, the court will no doubt acquit them. No public petulance on their part can substitute for the court process. Nor can forged documents and the besmirching of innocent persons’ reputations assist them.
11. It is clear that the present posturing against the ICC, complete with the weaving in of the PM’s name and that of the British Government, is a dress rehearsal for non-cooperation with the ICC. It is clear that the foundation is being laid for the accused to refuse to attend trials of the cases against them.
12. In the past, election-time atrocities have gone unaddressed. People are therefore angry that, this time, things are different. They cannot understand why it should not be business as usual. To try to change that, they are feverishly mobilising people to stand on the side of impunity. They have put impunity on the election agenda. It appears they would like to see Kenya burn again.
13. It is up to each Kenyan, therefore, to search his or her soul and decide where they stand. The choice is between the law and impunity.
14. Finally, the lie is being sold that the Prime Minister is a beneficiary of post-election violence. In fact he was the greatest loser. In the interests of peace, he accepted being denied his rightful position as the elected President of Kenya.
15. The real beneficiaries of post-election violence are only too evident. They include those currently in the process of returning property acquired in areas where post-election violence victims were known to have been dispossessed of their land. Now these beneficiaries are rushing to return the land, in order to evade court processes. What greater admission of guilt could there be?
Signed
The Raila Odinga Secretariat
12 march 2012
Read more: http://jukwaa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=6700&page=1#ixzz1ovdu6ibl
Monday, March 12, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Maryland Governor to sign gay marriage legislation
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gov. Martin O'Malley will make Maryland the eighth state to legalize gay marriage when he signs a bill passed by the General Assembly.
O'Malley is expected to sign the legislation, which he sponsored, Thursday, though same-sex ceremonies cannot be performed until January 2013.
Gay marriage supporters assume they'll have another hurdle to jump as the law is expected to be petitioned to referendum in November.
Gay marriage opponents are prepared to collect the nearly 56,000 signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot and are expected to rely heavily on churchgoers who oppose same-sex marriage as a matter of faith, to reach that goal.
Organizers say they hope to collect nearly double the required number of signatures to ensure enough are validated by the state elections board.
O'Malley is expected to sign the legislation, which he sponsored, Thursday, though same-sex ceremonies cannot be performed until January 2013.
Gay marriage supporters assume they'll have another hurdle to jump as the law is expected to be petitioned to referendum in November.
Gay marriage opponents are prepared to collect the nearly 56,000 signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot and are expected to rely heavily on churchgoers who oppose same-sex marriage as a matter of faith, to reach that goal.
Organizers say they hope to collect nearly double the required number of signatures to ensure enough are validated by the state elections board.
Gays flee as irate residents storm Likoni seminar
A mob on Thursday stormed the venue of a meeting of homosexuals, scattering the delegates.
About 30 participants scampered from the Likoni CDF Youth Empowerment and Library Centre through the back when about 100 youth led by religious leaders and village elders forced their into the venue.
Five Coast gay leaders, however, were not so lucky as the youths blocked the escape route and seized them.
They were held captive in the building for three hours as residents bayed for their blood.
The five were saved by Likoni police boss Abagarro Guyo and district officer Moses Ouma who ordered the seminar closed.
The five were bundled into a private car and whisked away under tight security.
“Everybody is ordered to vacate these premises. The seminar is terminated immediately and the place closed,” said Mr Guyo.
Sheikh Amir Zani of the Muzadhalfa mosque described the seminar as illegal, ungodly and unacceptable. He threatened to mobilise the community to cane the gays if they organised such a meeting again.
“The government should stop this or we will act as a community,” Sheikh Zani declared.
Mombasa Network for Human Rights organising secretary Ali Kigarimbwe accused the organisers of denigrating the youth centre.
Sauti ya Likoni lobby group chairman Hamisi Hassan Ng’anzi said residents were shocked that such a seminar could be held in their midst.
“Many workshops of this kind have been held, purportedly to impact safe sex skills to the youth but they are actually business ventures.
“Why is drug abuse on the rise? These workshops don’t have any meaning,” he said.
A village elder, Mr Daniel Baridi, said all seminars at the centre should be vetted and approved by community leaders.
“We established this centre to help our youth but it is being abused. We will not allow such activities,” he said.
But the Ministry of Youth and Sports district officer, Mr David Ogal, defended the organisers of the seminar and accused residents of misunderstanding their aims.
“Here we are dealing with very vital education to vulnerable groups, including drug users, commercial sex workers, gays and others.
“We are offering peer and HIV/Aids education to the youth because they are at the highest risk of infection,” he told the press.
Mr Ogal said the ministry’s job was to help impart life skills to the youth and vulnerable groups whose HIV infection is twice that of other groups.
“I am a youth officer and charged with this responsibility. The gay community, like other groups, approached us and requested to be educated on safe sex.
“They have a right to safe sex. By doing this, we are not promoting homosexuality but imparting knowledge.
“There is a lot of social discrimination and stigma about the issue and we as a society must fight it,” he said.
The seminar participants were aged between 20 and 30, said the officer, adding that his ministry would make youth funds available to all groups as they had a right.
The seminar was organised and sponsored by the Kenya NGO Consortium and Constitutional Aids Control Council, which Mr Ogal said paid them a daily allowance of Sh1,000 “for lunch and transport” for each participant.
Source: Daily Nation
About 30 participants scampered from the Likoni CDF Youth Empowerment and Library Centre through the back when about 100 youth led by religious leaders and village elders forced their into the venue.
Five Coast gay leaders, however, were not so lucky as the youths blocked the escape route and seized them.
They were held captive in the building for three hours as residents bayed for their blood.
The five were saved by Likoni police boss Abagarro Guyo and district officer Moses Ouma who ordered the seminar closed.
The five were bundled into a private car and whisked away under tight security.
“Everybody is ordered to vacate these premises. The seminar is terminated immediately and the place closed,” said Mr Guyo.
Sheikh Amir Zani of the Muzadhalfa mosque described the seminar as illegal, ungodly and unacceptable. He threatened to mobilise the community to cane the gays if they organised such a meeting again.
“The government should stop this or we will act as a community,” Sheikh Zani declared.
Mombasa Network for Human Rights organising secretary Ali Kigarimbwe accused the organisers of denigrating the youth centre.
Sauti ya Likoni lobby group chairman Hamisi Hassan Ng’anzi said residents were shocked that such a seminar could be held in their midst.
“Many workshops of this kind have been held, purportedly to impact safe sex skills to the youth but they are actually business ventures.
“Why is drug abuse on the rise? These workshops don’t have any meaning,” he said.
A village elder, Mr Daniel Baridi, said all seminars at the centre should be vetted and approved by community leaders.
“We established this centre to help our youth but it is being abused. We will not allow such activities,” he said.
But the Ministry of Youth and Sports district officer, Mr David Ogal, defended the organisers of the seminar and accused residents of misunderstanding their aims.
“Here we are dealing with very vital education to vulnerable groups, including drug users, commercial sex workers, gays and others.
“We are offering peer and HIV/Aids education to the youth because they are at the highest risk of infection,” he told the press.
Mr Ogal said the ministry’s job was to help impart life skills to the youth and vulnerable groups whose HIV infection is twice that of other groups.
“I am a youth officer and charged with this responsibility. The gay community, like other groups, approached us and requested to be educated on safe sex.
“They have a right to safe sex. By doing this, we are not promoting homosexuality but imparting knowledge.
“There is a lot of social discrimination and stigma about the issue and we as a society must fight it,” he said.
The seminar participants were aged between 20 and 30, said the officer, adding that his ministry would make youth funds available to all groups as they had a right.
The seminar was organised and sponsored by the Kenya NGO Consortium and Constitutional Aids Control Council, which Mr Ogal said paid them a daily allowance of Sh1,000 “for lunch and transport” for each participant.
Source: Daily Nation
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Chinese condoms too small for South Africans
JOHANNESBURG, Sep 16 – A South African court has blocked the government from buying 11 million Chinese condoms, saying they are too small, a newspaper reported on Friday.
The finance ministry had awarded a contract to a firm called Siqamba Medical, which planned to buy the Phoenurse condoms from China, the Beeld newspaper said.
A rival firm, Sekunjalo Investments Corporation, turned to the High Court in Pretoria after losing the bid, arguing that their condoms were 20 percent larger than the Chinese ones.
Judge Sulet Potterill blocked the deal with Siqamba, ruling that the condoms were too small, made from the wrong material, and were not approved by the World Health Organisation, the paper said.
South Africa has more HIV infections than any country in the world, with 5.38 million of its 50 million people carrying the virus.
Read More here
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Statement of the Prosecutor on the Situation in Kenya
Luis Moreno‐Ocampo
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
On Monday (31st May, 2011) a team from the Office of the Prosecutor will be in Kenya to discuss protection of witnesses with Kenyan authorities.
We will asses not just the specific protection program, but will also want to
understand the current position of the Government in relation with the Post Electoral
Violence.
On 5 November 2009, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga stated their commitment to cooperate with the Court. We received strong cooperation, but
since we announced the names of the 6 suspects we have seen a shift in position:
high ranking members of the government are misrepresenting ICC efforts to do
justice for the victims as an attack against Kenyan sovereignty.
They are pursuing regional and political campaigns to stop the case. Not only is
this sending the wrong signal, but it is also promoting a growing climate of fear
that is intimidating potential witnesses and ultimately undermining national and
international investigations.
Our Office is doing what we promised to do: Justice for the victims. It was in the
point 4 of the Agenda. Everyone agreed on the need to clarify the problem before the
next election.
My question to the Kenyan government is this: does the government of Kenya
want justice for the victims? We need an unequivocal answer, an answer that
Kenyans and the world could understand. Is the government of Kenya
protecting witnesses or protecting the suspects from investigation?
That is the question.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
On Monday (31st May, 2011) a team from the Office of the Prosecutor will be in Kenya to discuss protection of witnesses with Kenyan authorities.
We will asses not just the specific protection program, but will also want to
understand the current position of the Government in relation with the Post Electoral
Violence.
On 5 November 2009, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga stated their commitment to cooperate with the Court. We received strong cooperation, but
since we announced the names of the 6 suspects we have seen a shift in position:
high ranking members of the government are misrepresenting ICC efforts to do
justice for the victims as an attack against Kenyan sovereignty.
They are pursuing regional and political campaigns to stop the case. Not only is
this sending the wrong signal, but it is also promoting a growing climate of fear
that is intimidating potential witnesses and ultimately undermining national and
international investigations.
Our Office is doing what we promised to do: Justice for the victims. It was in the
point 4 of the Agenda. Everyone agreed on the need to clarify the problem before the
next election.
My question to the Kenyan government is this: does the government of Kenya
want justice for the victims? We need an unequivocal answer, an answer that
Kenyans and the world could understand. Is the government of Kenya
protecting witnesses or protecting the suspects from investigation?
That is the question.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Harold Camping reschedules "rapture" for October
California preacher says his apocalyptic prophecy was misunderstood, not wrong, and the end is coming in 5 months.
As crestfallen followers of a California preacher who foresaw the world's end strained to find meaning in their lives, Harold Camping revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.
Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before global cataclysm struck the planet, said Monday that he felt so terrible when his doomsday message did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions — some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 recreational vehicles plastered with the Judgment Day message.
Follower Jeff Hopkins also spent a good deal of his own retirement savings on gas money to power his car so people would see its ominous lighted sign showcasing Camping's May 21 warning. As the appointed day drew nearer, Hopkins started making the 100-mile round trip from Long Island to New York City twice a day, spending at least $15 on gas each trip.
"I've been mocked and scoffed and cursed at and I've been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of my car," said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in Great River, New York. "I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face."
Camping, who made a special appearance before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire Monday evening, apologized for not having the dates "worked out as accurately as I could have." Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, the light dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a "spiritual" Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ's judgment, he said.
The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God's judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there's no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on Oct. 21.
"We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said. "The fact is there is only one kind of people who will ascend into heaven ... if God has saved them they're going to be caught up."
It's not the first time the 89-year-old retired civil engineer has been dismissed by the Christian mainstream and has been forced to explain when his prediction didn't come to pass. Camping also prophesized the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but said later that didn't happen then because of a mathematical error.
Monday, rather than give his normal daily broadcast, Camping took questions as a part of his show, "Open Forum," which transmits his biblical interpretations via the group's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website.
Camping's hands shook slightly as he pinned his microphone to his lapel, and as he clutched a worn Bible he spoke in a quivery monotone about some listeners' earthly concerns after giving away possessions in expectation of the Rapture.
Family Radio would never tell anyone what they should do with their belongings, and those who had fewer would cope, Camping said.
"We're not in the business of financial advice," he said. "We're in the business of telling people there's someone who you can maybe talk to, maybe pray to, and that's God."
But he also said that he wouldn't give away all his possessions ahead of Oct 21.
"I still have to live in a house, I still have to drive a car," he said. "What would be the value of that? If it is Judgment Day why would I give it away?"
Apocalyptic thinking has always been part of American religious life and popular culture. Teachings about the end of the world vary dramatically — even within faith traditions — about how they will occur.
Still, the overwhelming majority of Christians reject the idea that the exact date or time of Jesus' return can be predicted.
Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels about the end times, recently called Camping's prediction "not only bizarre but 100 percent wrong!" He cited the Bible verse Matthew 24:36, "but about that day or hour no one knows" except God.
"While it may be in the near future, many signs of our times certainly indicate so, but anyone who thinks they `know' the day and the hour is flat out wrong," LaHaye wrote on his website, leftbehind.com.
Signs of disappointment also were evident online, where groups that had confidently predicted the Rapture — and, in some cases, had spent money to help spread the word through advertisements — took tentative steps to re-establish Internet presences in the face of widespread mockery.
The Pennsylvania-based group eBible Fellowship still has a website with images of May 21 billboards all over the world, but its Twitter feed has changed over from the increasingly confident predictions before the date to circumspect Bible verses that seem to speak to the confusion and hurt many members likely feel.
Camping offered no clues about Family Radio's finances Monday, saying he could not estimate how much had been spent on getting out his prediction nor how much money the nonprofit had taken in as a result. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.
Josh Ocasion, who works the teleprompter during Camping's live broadcasts in the group's threadbare studio sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader's business, said he enjoyed the production work but he had never fully believed the May 21 prophecy would come true.
"I thought he would show some more human decency in admitting he made a mistake," he said. "We didn't really see that."
Source: CBS
As crestfallen followers of a California preacher who foresaw the world's end strained to find meaning in their lives, Harold Camping revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.
Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before global cataclysm struck the planet, said Monday that he felt so terrible when his doomsday message did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions — some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 recreational vehicles plastered with the Judgment Day message.
Follower Jeff Hopkins also spent a good deal of his own retirement savings on gas money to power his car so people would see its ominous lighted sign showcasing Camping's May 21 warning. As the appointed day drew nearer, Hopkins started making the 100-mile round trip from Long Island to New York City twice a day, spending at least $15 on gas each trip.
"I've been mocked and scoffed and cursed at and I've been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of my car," said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in Great River, New York. "I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face."
Camping, who made a special appearance before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire Monday evening, apologized for not having the dates "worked out as accurately as I could have." Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, the light dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a "spiritual" Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ's judgment, he said.
The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God's judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there's no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on Oct. 21.
"We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said. "The fact is there is only one kind of people who will ascend into heaven ... if God has saved them they're going to be caught up."
It's not the first time the 89-year-old retired civil engineer has been dismissed by the Christian mainstream and has been forced to explain when his prediction didn't come to pass. Camping also prophesized the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but said later that didn't happen then because of a mathematical error.
Monday, rather than give his normal daily broadcast, Camping took questions as a part of his show, "Open Forum," which transmits his biblical interpretations via the group's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website.
Camping's hands shook slightly as he pinned his microphone to his lapel, and as he clutched a worn Bible he spoke in a quivery monotone about some listeners' earthly concerns after giving away possessions in expectation of the Rapture.
Family Radio would never tell anyone what they should do with their belongings, and those who had fewer would cope, Camping said.
"We're not in the business of financial advice," he said. "We're in the business of telling people there's someone who you can maybe talk to, maybe pray to, and that's God."
But he also said that he wouldn't give away all his possessions ahead of Oct 21.
"I still have to live in a house, I still have to drive a car," he said. "What would be the value of that? If it is Judgment Day why would I give it away?"
Apocalyptic thinking has always been part of American religious life and popular culture. Teachings about the end of the world vary dramatically — even within faith traditions — about how they will occur.
Still, the overwhelming majority of Christians reject the idea that the exact date or time of Jesus' return can be predicted.
Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels about the end times, recently called Camping's prediction "not only bizarre but 100 percent wrong!" He cited the Bible verse Matthew 24:36, "but about that day or hour no one knows" except God.
"While it may be in the near future, many signs of our times certainly indicate so, but anyone who thinks they `know' the day and the hour is flat out wrong," LaHaye wrote on his website, leftbehind.com.
Signs of disappointment also were evident online, where groups that had confidently predicted the Rapture — and, in some cases, had spent money to help spread the word through advertisements — took tentative steps to re-establish Internet presences in the face of widespread mockery.
The Pennsylvania-based group eBible Fellowship still has a website with images of May 21 billboards all over the world, but its Twitter feed has changed over from the increasingly confident predictions before the date to circumspect Bible verses that seem to speak to the confusion and hurt many members likely feel.
Camping offered no clues about Family Radio's finances Monday, saying he could not estimate how much had been spent on getting out his prediction nor how much money the nonprofit had taken in as a result. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.
Josh Ocasion, who works the teleprompter during Camping's live broadcasts in the group's threadbare studio sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader's business, said he enjoyed the production work but he had never fully believed the May 21 prophecy would come true.
"I thought he would show some more human decency in admitting he made a mistake," he said. "We didn't really see that."
Source: CBS
Thursday, May 12, 2011
One in three Africans is now middle class, report finds
Findings challenge view of continent as a place of famine and poverty
One in three Africans is middle class, a rising group of consumers to rival those of China and India, researchers have found (pdf).
Record numbers of people in Africa own houses and cars, use mobile phones and the internet and send their children to private schools and foreign universities, according to the African Development Bank.
Mthuli Ncube, the bank's chief economist, said the findings should challenge long-held perceptions of Africa as a continent of famine, poverty and hopelessness.
"Hey you know what, the world please wake up, this is a phenomenon in Africa that we've not spent a lot of time thinking about," Ncube said. "There is a middle class that is driven by specific factors such as education and we should change our view and work with this group to create a new Africa and make sure Africa realises its full potential."
Ncube said the study used an absolute definition of middle class, meaning people who spend between $2 and $20 a day, which he believed was appropriate given the cost of living for Africa's nearly 1 billion people.
The study found that, by last year, Africa's middle class had risen to about 34% of the continent's population, or about 313m people – up from around 111m (26%) in 1980 and 196m (27%) in 2000.
The growth rate of the middle class over the past 30 years was about 3.1%, slightly faster than that of the total population. Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt had proportionately the biggest middle classes in Africa, while Liberia, Burundi and Rwanda had the smallest.
The Africa middle classes are more likely to have salaried jobs or own small businesses. They tend not to rely entirely on public health services, seeking more expensive medical care. The middle classes tend to have fewer children and spend more on their nutrition and schooling.
Sales of fridges, TVs and mobile phones have surged in virtually every African country in recent years, the report said. Possession of cars and motorcycles in Ghana, for example, has gone up by 81% in the past five years.
"They own houses and they account for the bulk of housing ownership," Ncube said. "They own cars – people are driving cars in Lagos, in Kampala, in Harare, in Ouagadougou – it's the same middle class. You can even see it in the consumption of petrol. The bulk of them are consuming ICT services and mobile telephony, although the poor are also consumers of mobile telephone services.. They would also send their children to school, preferably private schools, but also schools outside the continent. The same class is sending their children to universities outside their home country, in South Africa, in Australia, in Canada, naturally Europe – France is a bigger absorber from the French-speaking countries – and the US."
The middle class was responsible for at least half of Africa's GDP of $1.6tn, he added. The trend reflected years of sustained economic growth, with sub-Saharan Africa projected at 5.5% this year.
"This has implications," Ncube said. "How should the rest of the world engage with Africa, given this middle class? I think it means that those who want to invest should take the opportunity and look for partners within Africa to invest jointly with."
The focus of aid and development assistance would also have to change in the next 10 to 15 years, he argued. "It will have to concentrate less on the bottom of the pyramid and move to the middle, which means it has to be supportive of private sector initiatives, which then are the way middle class people conduct their lives."
Africa has a relatively young population and has seen millions migrate from rural areas to cities, where shopping malls with designer labels and smart coffee shops are springing up across the continent. Ncube acknowledged that a widening, internet-literate middle class could pose a threat to autocratic leaders, as seen in Egypt and Tunisia.
"The middle class is a source of democracy in Africa in a sense that they are custodians of democracy. They are the people who are educated, they know how to vote, they know what they want, they've got interests to protect. Supporting this class in a way also helps institution building in Africa.
But the research found that poverty remains deeply entrenched, with 61% of Africa's population living on less than $2 a day. An estimated 21% earn only enough to spend $2 to $4 a day, leaving about 180 million people vulnerable to economic shocks that could knock them out of the new middle class.
At the top of the pyramid, an elite of about 100,000 Africans had a collective net worth of 60% of the continent's gross domestic product in 2008, the report said.
Source: The Guardian
One in three Africans is middle class, a rising group of consumers to rival those of China and India, researchers have found (pdf).
Record numbers of people in Africa own houses and cars, use mobile phones and the internet and send their children to private schools and foreign universities, according to the African Development Bank.
Mthuli Ncube, the bank's chief economist, said the findings should challenge long-held perceptions of Africa as a continent of famine, poverty and hopelessness.
"Hey you know what, the world please wake up, this is a phenomenon in Africa that we've not spent a lot of time thinking about," Ncube said. "There is a middle class that is driven by specific factors such as education and we should change our view and work with this group to create a new Africa and make sure Africa realises its full potential."
Ncube said the study used an absolute definition of middle class, meaning people who spend between $2 and $20 a day, which he believed was appropriate given the cost of living for Africa's nearly 1 billion people.
The study found that, by last year, Africa's middle class had risen to about 34% of the continent's population, or about 313m people – up from around 111m (26%) in 1980 and 196m (27%) in 2000.
The growth rate of the middle class over the past 30 years was about 3.1%, slightly faster than that of the total population. Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt had proportionately the biggest middle classes in Africa, while Liberia, Burundi and Rwanda had the smallest.
The Africa middle classes are more likely to have salaried jobs or own small businesses. They tend not to rely entirely on public health services, seeking more expensive medical care. The middle classes tend to have fewer children and spend more on their nutrition and schooling.
Sales of fridges, TVs and mobile phones have surged in virtually every African country in recent years, the report said. Possession of cars and motorcycles in Ghana, for example, has gone up by 81% in the past five years.
"They own houses and they account for the bulk of housing ownership," Ncube said. "They own cars – people are driving cars in Lagos, in Kampala, in Harare, in Ouagadougou – it's the same middle class. You can even see it in the consumption of petrol. The bulk of them are consuming ICT services and mobile telephony, although the poor are also consumers of mobile telephone services.. They would also send their children to school, preferably private schools, but also schools outside the continent. The same class is sending their children to universities outside their home country, in South Africa, in Australia, in Canada, naturally Europe – France is a bigger absorber from the French-speaking countries – and the US."
The middle class was responsible for at least half of Africa's GDP of $1.6tn, he added. The trend reflected years of sustained economic growth, with sub-Saharan Africa projected at 5.5% this year.
"This has implications," Ncube said. "How should the rest of the world engage with Africa, given this middle class? I think it means that those who want to invest should take the opportunity and look for partners within Africa to invest jointly with."
The focus of aid and development assistance would also have to change in the next 10 to 15 years, he argued. "It will have to concentrate less on the bottom of the pyramid and move to the middle, which means it has to be supportive of private sector initiatives, which then are the way middle class people conduct their lives."
Africa has a relatively young population and has seen millions migrate from rural areas to cities, where shopping malls with designer labels and smart coffee shops are springing up across the continent. Ncube acknowledged that a widening, internet-literate middle class could pose a threat to autocratic leaders, as seen in Egypt and Tunisia.
"The middle class is a source of democracy in Africa in a sense that they are custodians of democracy. They are the people who are educated, they know how to vote, they know what they want, they've got interests to protect. Supporting this class in a way also helps institution building in Africa.
But the research found that poverty remains deeply entrenched, with 61% of Africa's population living on less than $2 a day. An estimated 21% earn only enough to spend $2 to $4 a day, leaving about 180 million people vulnerable to economic shocks that could knock them out of the new middle class.
At the top of the pyramid, an elite of about 100,000 Africans had a collective net worth of 60% of the continent's gross domestic product in 2008, the report said.
Source: The Guardian
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)