3 May 2009
By Citizen correspondents, Nairobi
The divide within the Kenyan coalition government over the control of the National Assembly widened further yesterday when Prime Minister Raila Odinga demanded fresh elections.
Mr Odinga's demand came as President Kibaki's PNU arm of government accused ODM of trying to mount a coup.
Speaking in his Lang'ata constituency, Mr Odinga said ODM will not retreat on its push to take the two positions of Leader of Government Business and chair of the House Business Committee held in the last session of Parliament by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Mr Odinga led the crowds in his constituency in showing support for fresh elections through a show of hands.
"We shall not relent in our quest. We have had enough. Therefore, if this issue cannot be resolved and our partners see the sense, we should go back to the ballot for an election. That's our message," he declared.
The PM, who was accompanied to the rally by Higher Education minister Dr Sally Kosgei and MPs Yusuf Chanzu (Vihiga) and Rachael Shebesh (Nominated) scoffed at claims that his party was out to wrestle power from President Kibaki.
Mr Odinga spoke just a day after the President wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende, informing him that there was nothing new to consult about since he had appointed Mr Musyoka as the Leader of Government Business and also nominated him to chair the House Business Committee as required by the relevant Standing Orders.
President Kibaki said he had fulfilled his constitutional duty and would not be available for any other consultations.
When the matter came to a deadlock in Parliament last Thursday, the Speaker announced that he would seek the audience of both the President and the Prime Minister in an effort resolve the situation.
Mr Marende is expected to make a ruling in the matter on Tuesday, but has already warned Parliament that the Chair cannot adjudicate on political disputes within the government or between political parties.
Even as Mr Odinga spoke on Sunday at a rally at the Kamukunji grounds in the sprawling Kibera slums, Mr Musyoka led a group of 20 PNU MPs in dismissing his quest for the seat of Leader fof Government Business, saying that it was "illegal, unconstitutional and unacceptable."
And later, while addressing a rally in Lari constituency, Mr Musyoka said the President's word on who should be the Leader of Government Business in Parliament "was final."
His views were shared by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta who said the PM was greedy for power.
The divide within the Kenyan coalition government over the control of the National Assembly widened further yesterday when Prime Minister Raila Odinga demanded fresh elections.
Mr Odinga's demand came as President Kibaki's PNU arm of government accused ODM of trying to mount a coup.
Speaking in his Lang'ata constituency, Mr Odinga said ODM will not retreat on its push to take the two positions of Leader of Government Business and chair of the House Business Committee held in the last session of Parliament by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Mr Odinga led the crowds in his constituency in showing support for fresh elections through a show of hands.
"We shall not relent in our quest. We have had enough. Therefore, if this issue cannot be resolved and our partners see the sense, we should go back to the ballot for an election. That's our message," he declared.
The PM, who was accompanied to the rally by Higher Education minister Dr Sally Kosgei and MPs Yusuf Chanzu (Vihiga) and Rachael Shebesh (Nominated) scoffed at claims that his party was out to wrestle power from President Kibaki.
Mr Odinga spoke just a day after the President wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende, informing him that there was nothing new to consult about since he had appointed Mr Musyoka as the Leader of Government Business and also nominated him to chair the House Business Committee as required by the relevant Standing Orders.
President Kibaki said he had fulfilled his constitutional duty and would not be available for any other consultations.
When the matter came to a deadlock in Parliament last Thursday, the Speaker announced that he would seek the audience of both the President and the Prime Minister in an effort resolve the situation.
Mr Marende is expected to make a ruling in the matter on Tuesday, but has already warned Parliament that the Chair cannot adjudicate on political disputes within the government or between political parties.
Even as Mr Odinga spoke on Sunday at a rally at the Kamukunji grounds in the sprawling Kibera slums, Mr Musyoka led a group of 20 PNU MPs in dismissing his quest for the seat of Leader fof Government Business, saying that it was "illegal, unconstitutional and unacceptable."
And later, while addressing a rally in Lari constituency, Mr Musyoka said the President's word on who should be the Leader of Government Business in Parliament "was final."
His views were shared by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta who said the PM was greedy for power.
SOURCE: The Citizen
A paratrooper who underwent a sex-change operation has been accepted by the police as a trainee woman constable.Jan Hamilton, formerly Captain Ian Hamilton, quit the Army in 2007 after 20 years’ decorated service and embarked on a full gender reassignment programme...continue
1 May 2009
1.5.09
Evarist Chahali
WEIRD NEWS
No comments
A woman who twisted her knee while playing the children's game of 'stuck in the mud' has been left in constant pain and paralysed for life. Devastated Hannah Boyle, 20, thought she had suffered only a minor injury when she jarred her knee while 'messing around' with youngsters at a martial arts class...continue
A man who slept with his gun may have to rethink that particular life strategy, after he shot himself while sleeping. The 24-year man, of Northport, Alabama, told police that he must have accidentally let off the .40-caliber pistol by knocking it with his hand.
The gun discharged, hitting the man in the shoulder. (Source)
Richard Ford and Sean O’Neill Black people are almost eight times as likely as whites to be stopped and searched a decade after the Stephen Lawrence inquiry branded the police “institutionally racist”.
Use of ordinary stop and search tactics in England and Wales rose sharply to more than one million in 2007-08, the highest figure since 1998.
The rise has had a disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities. When Stephen Lawrence was murdered in 1993 black people were six times as likely to be stopped and searched as whites. By 2006/7, that had risen to seven times.
Figures published by the Ministry of Justice yesterday for stops and searches in 2007/08 under Section 44 counter-terror laws were even starker. The number of people stopped and searched tripled in a year to 117,000 but fewer than1 per cent were arrested for alleged terrorism-related offences.
There was a 322 per cent rise in black people stopped and searched, 277 per cent in Asians and 185 per cent in white people under anti-terror laws.
Civil liberty campaigners and politicians accused police of heavy-handedness and said that vastly increased use of their powers threatened to alienate large sections of the community.
Cindy Butts, who is leading the Metropolitan Police Authority’s race and faith inquiry, said that she was concerned about the “huge disproportionality” revealed by the figures.
She said: “One could argue there is a pressure-cooker situation developing. There is a sense of a number of issues that all have the potential to impact on the same groups in our community, young males from black and Asian communities — the very people who we cannot afford to switch off from the police, the very people we need to feel confident in the police.”
Stephen Lawrence’s mother, Doreen, said that she would rate progress since the inquiry report a decade ago as “work in progress, five out of ten”. She told MPs this week: “Officers do not understand the powers they have and misuse them. I don’t feel there is much accountability.”
The report comes as police struggle to retain public confidence after the G20 protests, the Damian Green affair and the resignation of the anti-terror chief Bob Quick. Last night the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced a fourth investigation linked to the G20 protests — a woman alleging that she was assaulted by officers. The commission has received 256 complaints, including 121 about the use of force by officers.
The official figures on race and the criminal justice system revealed increases in police stops and searches in relation to both ordinary and terrorist crimes. Black people were nearly eight times as likely to be stopped and searched per head of population as whites. Asians were twice as likely to be searched.
Nearly 90 per cent of the searches under counter-terror powers were carried out in London by the Metropolitan Police. Vernon Coaker, the Police Minister, said that the increase in anti-terror stops and searches was in part linked to the failed bombings in Haymarket. London, in 2007.
Civil liberties campaigners accused the police of abusing the counter- terror law because they do not need to have “reasonable suspicion” before stopping a person.
Corinna Ferguson, a barrister with the campaign group Liberty, said: “A threefold increase in anti-terror stop and search is the clearest signal that these powers are being misused.”
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said that the figures accent- uated concerns that the powers disproportionately affect members of the minority ethnic community.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said that the use of Section 44 was under review and stressed that people from ethnic minority groups were not a focus of stop and search operations. “Terrorists can come from all backgrounds,” he said.
SOURCE: The Times
30 Apr 2009
- 30.4.09
- Evarist Chahali
- EINSTEIN, ELISE TAN ROBERTS, I.Q, MENSA
- No comments
The front door has barely opened before she comes running towards me beaming.
'What's this?' she asks, forming fingers and thumbs into a pointy shape and peering through the gap. Before I can answer she declares: 'Equilateral triangle. Three sides the same.'
Of course it is. I should have known. But then I'm not a child genius with a startlingly high IQ.
And Elise Tan-Roberts - aged two years, four months and two weeks - is. She has just become the youngest member of Mensa, with an estimated IQ of 156. That puts her two points higher on the scoreboard than Carol Vorderman, and comfortably in the top 0.2 per cent of children her age.
Here's the best bit, though. She seems to be a sweet little girl with charming parents who simply want her to be happy. Elise was little more than five months when she looked her father Edward in the eyes and called him Dada.
She was walking three months later and running two months after that.
Before her first birthday she could recognise her written name and by 16 months she could count to ten. Yesterday she did it again - in Spanish. 'What's the capital of Russia?' asks her mother Louise, 28. 'Moscow!' comes the instant reply. Indonesia? 'Jakarta!' It is tempting for outsiders to speculate whether this is a well-rehearsed performance instilled by pushy parents to show off their daughter's extraordinary talent.
'What's this?' she asks, forming fingers and thumbs into a pointy shape and peering through the gap. Before I can answer she declares: 'Equilateral triangle. Three sides the same.'
Of course it is. I should have known. But then I'm not a child genius with a startlingly high IQ.
And Elise Tan-Roberts - aged two years, four months and two weeks - is. She has just become the youngest member of Mensa, with an estimated IQ of 156. That puts her two points higher on the scoreboard than Carol Vorderman, and comfortably in the top 0.2 per cent of children her age.
Here's the best bit, though. She seems to be a sweet little girl with charming parents who simply want her to be happy. Elise was little more than five months when she looked her father Edward in the eyes and called him Dada.
She was walking three months later and running two months after that.
Before her first birthday she could recognise her written name and by 16 months she could count to ten. Yesterday she did it again - in Spanish. 'What's the capital of Russia?' asks her mother Louise, 28. 'Moscow!' comes the instant reply. Indonesia? 'Jakarta!' It is tempting for outsiders to speculate whether this is a well-rehearsed performance instilled by pushy parents to show off their daughter's extraordinary talent.
But it seems to have taken Louise and Edward, from North London, as much by surprise as anyone else. Until she started to communicate, all they noticed was a tendency for her to stare at things and at people, as if soaking up information.
Later, at her playgroup, a mother gave her a toy animal and told her it was a rhinoceros. 'That's not a rhinoceros,' said Elise. It's a triceratops.' Other parents convinced Louise and Edward they should have Elise's intelligence assessed. Inspired by the story of Georgia Brown, who also joined Mensa when she was two, they took her last month to see Professor Joan Freeman, a specialist education psychologist.
After subjecting her to a complex, 45-minute IQ test, she concluded in a written report that Elise was 'more than very bright and capable - she is gifted'. She was recommended for Mensa and accepted. Only those with an IQ of 148 and above - the top two percent - qualify. The average IQ is 100.
Professor Freeman concluded that Elise's 'superb memory' was the source for her 'excellent learning and progress'. Reassuringly for mum and dad, she added that they were doing everything right.
Yesterday as Elise danced happily in the sunshine at her local park, Edward, a 34-year-old motor consultant and car-buyer, told me: 'Our main aim is to make sure she keeps learning at an advanced pace.
'We don't want to make her have to dumb down and stop learning just to fit in. But she's still my baby. I just want her to be happy and enjoy herself.'
So what's next - quantum physics maybe? 'Give her another couple of weeks.'
Elise was born in London in December 2006 and can boast influences from England, Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sierra Leone in her background. There are doctors and lawyers in the couple's extended family but none was a child genius, as far as anyone knows.
Louise works part time as an account manager for Pickfords removals. Elise's love of music and dance has encouraged the couple to put her name down for education in that area.
They have added her to the long waiting list for the Young Actors' Theatre, formerly the Anna Scher school, which produced a string of celebrated actors; and for Chickenshed, which specialises in music, ballet, mime and dance.
Their major disappointment has been that none of the local state schools they contacted wanted anything to do with Elise until she reaches four and a half.
So what might the future hold? Carol Vorderman told me: 'If she's lucky enough to go to a school where she's encouraged and stretched, she'll continue to enjoy learning and she'll have a fantastic time.
Later, at her playgroup, a mother gave her a toy animal and told her it was a rhinoceros. 'That's not a rhinoceros,' said Elise. It's a triceratops.' Other parents convinced Louise and Edward they should have Elise's intelligence assessed. Inspired by the story of Georgia Brown, who also joined Mensa when she was two, they took her last month to see Professor Joan Freeman, a specialist education psychologist.
After subjecting her to a complex, 45-minute IQ test, she concluded in a written report that Elise was 'more than very bright and capable - she is gifted'. She was recommended for Mensa and accepted. Only those with an IQ of 148 and above - the top two percent - qualify. The average IQ is 100.
Professor Freeman concluded that Elise's 'superb memory' was the source for her 'excellent learning and progress'. Reassuringly for mum and dad, she added that they were doing everything right.
Yesterday as Elise danced happily in the sunshine at her local park, Edward, a 34-year-old motor consultant and car-buyer, told me: 'Our main aim is to make sure she keeps learning at an advanced pace.
'We don't want to make her have to dumb down and stop learning just to fit in. But she's still my baby. I just want her to be happy and enjoy herself.'
So what's next - quantum physics maybe? 'Give her another couple of weeks.'
Elise was born in London in December 2006 and can boast influences from England, Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sierra Leone in her background. There are doctors and lawyers in the couple's extended family but none was a child genius, as far as anyone knows.
Louise works part time as an account manager for Pickfords removals. Elise's love of music and dance has encouraged the couple to put her name down for education in that area.
They have added her to the long waiting list for the Young Actors' Theatre, formerly the Anna Scher school, which produced a string of celebrated actors; and for Chickenshed, which specialises in music, ballet, mime and dance.
Their major disappointment has been that none of the local state schools they contacted wanted anything to do with Elise until she reaches four and a half.
So what might the future hold? Carol Vorderman told me: 'If she's lucky enough to go to a school where she's encouraged and stretched, she'll continue to enjoy learning and she'll have a fantastic time.
SOURCE: The Daily Mail
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