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How peaceful is the world? The 2021 Global Peace Index has dropped by 0.06 per cent, making this the 9th time that global peace has deteriorated. The index by the Institute for economics and peace says the economic impact of violence cost the global economy $14.96 trillion . Joining CNBC Africa for more is Serge Stroobants, Director of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa at the Institute for Economics and Peace.

IEP: Here’s how much violence

IEP: Here’s how much violence, terrorism cost SSA economies in the past year

<div id="attachment_304820" style="width: 1060px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-304820" class="wp-image-304820 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/mahikeng1.png" alt="" width="1050" height="576" />Picture: CNBC Africa</div>
By Unathi Sonwabile Henama
Violent and deadly protests occurring in Mahikeng last week have captured national attention. President Cyril Ramaphosa cut short the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting in London, to attend to the protests that had engulfed the North West Province.
President Ramaphosa was leading Invest SA to London, to woo investors and sell South Africa as an investment destination. Foreign direct investment is important as a driver of economic growth. The absence of Cyril Ramaphosa would be felt in London, as the global media followed his hurried departure back to South Africa.
Protesters have clashed with police, participated in public violence, looted shops and disturbed traffic on major highways. There was the destruction of public property, which has become institutionalised within the protest culture in South Africa. This led to the torching of the Mmabana Cultural Centre, which showcases the arts and cultural practices of the Batswana.
Mahikeng, which is the provincial capital city, has been at the epicentre of the protests, with sporadic disruptions also occurring in Klerksdorp.
Police dispersed protestors with rubber bullets. There were several arrests and two fatalities have been reported. Police resources were stretched to the limit, as the number of protestors far outnumber police personnel.
Tensions remain high as the top 6 of the African National Congress (ANC) on the 20th of April 2018 met Premier Supra Mahumapelo. The protestors have demanded that Premier Mahumapelo, should resign as Premier.
The ANC found itself in a tight corner, as the protestors happened to be voters who might dump the ANC in the general elections in 2019, should a resolution remain deferred.
The ANC would recall that residents in Tshwane voted against the ANC. This led to the ANC not achieving more than 50% in the local government elections for the first time, and the ANC was dislodged after opposition parties formed a coalition government.
The violence in Mahikeng led to neighbouring country Botswana closing its border with South Africa. This might negatively affect religious tourism to Tshwane, as thousands of Batswana regularly cross the border to attend church services at Enlightened Christian Gathering, hosted by Prophet Bushiri. Botswana has declared Bushiri as an undesired visitor to Botswana.
The closure of the border must be one of the reasons that led President Cyril Ramaphosa to become pro-active in trying to resolve the issue in Mahikeng, by returning home from an international commitment. The unrest in Mahikeng occurred concurrently with the World Travel Market (WTM) Africa hosted in Cape Town from 18-20 April 2018. This trade show is important to exhibit travel products and is a marketing platform for travel destinations.
The events in Mahikeng have done a disservice to brand South Africa generally, and the North West specifically. Tourism is very sensitive to external events and shocks such as protests, crime, acts of terror and political unrest. The violence that is associated with service delivery strikes in South Africa can be regarded as a form of home-grown terrorism.
South Africa already suffers from a poor image because of low levels of personal safety and security. In the tourism industry, perceptions and image trump reality. Tourism requires a favourable destination image, in order to grow. South Africa has capitalised on the successful hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and this reality must be replicated daily in South Africa.
Tourism is the new gold and it must become everyone’s business if it is to succeed. Tourism growth in the past 24 years has surpassed the national growth rate, which has been pedestrian. The ability of tourism to grow with jobs is unparalleled, due to its labour intensive nature.
For many localities, tourism has emerged as the only economic sector that can restore human dignity through jobs and entrepreneurial activities. Because almost all countries have jumped onto the tourism bandwagon, this has meant that competition amongst destinations has increased.  South Africa must improve its tourism competitiveness.
This, therefore, means anything negative that occurs in South Africa might have an impact on tourism. This makes the business of tourism everyone’s business. Tourism more than any other sector demands a responsible and responsive public service. If tourism can ensure that the public service is more responsive to the needs of the citizens, then tourism will continue its human rights dividend.
I wish President Ramaphosa well in trying to find a resolution to the crisis in the North West. A speedy resolution could be the best dividend for his Presidency, that he is a pro-active President that is Mr. Fix-It.
Unathi Sonwabile Henama teaches tourism at the Tshwane University of Technology and writes in his personal capacity

Op-Ed: #Mahikeng – a tourism perspective

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Ahead of Nigeria&#8217;s 2019 elections, United Nations says the process will be largely free of violence. But as the political actors take position, Manji Cheto, Vice President of Teneo Intelligence joins CNBC Africa to analyse some possible risk themes.

Ahead of Nigeria’s 2019 elections: Expert predicts what will happen

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There&#8217;s a spate of violence across South Africa&#8217;s platinum belt where several miners have died. This is of course a grave concern, notwithstanding the other challenges facing the mining sector.

AMCU deeply concerned by spike in violence within the platinum belt

By Unathi Sonwabile Henama
On the 17 July 2017, an Uber partner driver in Pretoria died after his car had been set alight five weeks earlier outside Loftus Versveld. The driver suffered severe burn wounds. Metered taxi drivers are suspected because of the turf war between Uber and the meter taxi drivers. Uber has asked for a meeting with the Minister of Police to discuss the challenges faced by the Uber partner drivers and their passengers.
In a journal article titled ‘’Uber: The South Africa Experience’’ the challenge of Uber Xenophobia is raised, where Uber experiences discrimination. The death of the Uber driver is a turning point in South Africa, indicating the failure of the state to fulfil its responsibility to create safety and security for the Uber partner drivers and their Uber passengers.
On the other side, the meter taxi industry accused Uber drivers of stealing their business, calling the ride-hailing service illegal.  Earlier this year, on the 10 March, the metered taxi drivers blocked major highways towards OR Tambo International Airport, a protest that did much to contribute to them losing more business.
<h4>Drivers and passengers attached through a syndicate</h4>
Uber partner drivers and passengers are also attacked through a syndicate of metered taxi drivers and car parking guards who attack Uber drivers because they are seen as easy targets for opportunistic crimes associated with robbery. The transient nature of Uber means that the drivers do not form the relationships that metered taxi drivers would have with the car guards in areas where they operate from.
This opportunistic crime is a classical South African challenge, institutionalised by the service delivery strikes that are associated with the looting of stores. Gautrain stations have become the turf war where the metered taxi drivers are the instigators of violence, and police vehicles have been dispatched to Gautrain stations.
Instead of focusing on their declining businesses, the violence that metered taxi drivers are using has done more to dampen customer appetite to use metered taxi than driving them away from Uber partner drivers. The world-class convenience that Uber provides has meant that insurance companies encourage their clients to use Uber instead of driving under the influence of alcohol. This has benefited the night time economy with more patrons encouraged relying on the safe transport provided by Uber.
<h4>Model of disruptive entrepreneurship</h4>
Uber is part of disruptive entrepreneurship, where humans become co-producers in providing services for consumption in the economy. It has created a whole new market that does not compete with the metered taxis and has managed to encourage those that own cars to use Uber instead and reduce their cost of living by reducing wear and tear on their cars, and the e-toll bills that harass Gauteng residents.
Uber has also been used as an alternative means of scholar transportation by thousands of parents who want a transport system that is safe, reliable and transparent. It has reduced the need for car ownership, by acting as the invisible second car for many households, which means fewer cars on the road and less pollution. Uber matches supply and demand more efficiently and does not occupy valuable parking space like the metered taxis.
An attack on Uber remains an attack on the fundamental principles of democracy, the right to choice and liberty. Metered taxi drivers display a sickening mentality that citizens have an obligation to use their metered taxis, even though they often deliver abysmal levels of service.
<h4>A form of homegrown terrorism</h4>
Instead of adapting their offerings because of increased competition from Uber, the metered taxi drivers response has been violence. This is a form of homegrown terrorism. These taxi drivers are specialists in terror. No-one has a monopoly on violence, and the meter taxi drivers must understand that acts of violence are not their exclusive preserve.
What stops the Uber partner drivers from arming themselves and responding with violence to the meter taxi drivers? This is a situation that I hope will be averted. If it is not, it will mean that South Africa will become a failed state, the Wild West in the south of Africa. An attack on Uber remains an attack on the tourism economy because tourists use Uber disproportionately. An attack on the tourism economy is an attack on South Africa, as tourism is the leading job creating sector that grew by 13% last year.
By extension, any crime against Uber is a form of treason. South Africa must ask the Minister of Transportation when the National Land Transport Amendment Bill will be enacted as law, which would legalise e-haling services provided by Uber.
&nbsp;
Author: Unathi Sonwabile Henama teaches tourism at the Tshwane University of Technology and writes in his personal capacity.

Op-Ed: Uber deaths – home grown terrorism?

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The taxi wars have landed in Africa&#8217;s richest square mile. The most recent incident resulted in an assault of a police officer who was trying to resolve a confrontation between metre taxi drivers and Uber taxi drivers.

Uber taxi war hits the streets, SAPS officer assaulted

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A police officer was assaulted in Sandton in an confrontation between Uber and metered taxi drivers. Abner Mashikinya, spokesperson for the Johannesburg Metered taxi association joined CNBC Africa for more.

Joburg Metered Taxi Association speaks out on Uber taxi war

Kieran Guilbert
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Activists behind an app designed to assist doctors document evidence of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo aim to go beyond obtaining justice for rape victims and collect data which could help secure prosecutions for war crimes.
Developed by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), MediCapt allows clinicians to record medical examination results digitally and photograph victims&#8217; injuries, store them online and send them directly to law enforcement officials and lawyers.
In a vast nation plagued by militant violence and poor roads that restrict access to remote areas, PHR hopes the mobile app will lead to more convictions for sexual violence and help Congo to shake off its tag as &#8220;rape capital of the world.&#8221;
By recording data about both victims and assailants, the app &#8211; which is currently in field testing &#8211; could also be used to detect mass violence and crimes against humanity and provide evidence for war crimes investigators, according to PHR.
&#8220;It has the power to be used as an early warning system or rapid response tool, as the data could show patterns of abuses and violence,&#8221; said Karen Naimer, director of the U.S.-based PHR&#8217;s programme on sexual violence in conflict zones.
MediCapt could help prosecutors map trends or patterns of locations attacked, victims targeted and languages spoken and the uniform worn by assailants, Naimer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
&#8220;The app may also be used to push for war crime prosecutions with evidence of crimes that are widespread or systematic,&#8221; she said.
Ethnic violence in Congo, Africa&#8217;s second-largest nation, has spread and worsened since December when President Joseph Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate.
Recent acts of violence between local militia and Congolese forces in central Congo, including the killing of civilians and foreign U.N. experts, could constitute war crimes, the International Criminal Court&#8217;s prosecutor said in April.
Yet the priority for PHR with MediCapt &#8211; which will be rolled out for use by doctors in eastern Congo this summer &#8211; is to ensure that it gives victims of sexual violence the security and confidence to come forward and speak out, said Naimer.
Sexual violence is often seen as a by-product of years of fighting in Congo, where atrocities were blamed on soldiers and armed groups, but rape is also rife beyond the conflict zones.
&#8220;While the app has the potential to highlight mass violence and human rights violations, protecting victims of sexual violence has to come first,&#8221; Naimer said.
(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/">news.trust.org</a>)

Medical app aims to tackle rape, flag war crimes in conflict-torn Congo

George Obulutsa | NAIROBI
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta kicked off his official campaign for reelection with a rally in Nairobi on Monday, echoing a call by main challenger Raila Odinga to avoid the violence that followed voting a decade ago.
Kenyatta led a lively procession of luxury sports utility vehicles around the city to reach the rally held after the electoral board cleared his candidacy for the August poll.
<blockquote>&#8220;We are determined to ensure that we conduct our elections peacefully,&#8221; the president told the crowd. &#8220;We have no intention to insult, obstruct, abuse our opponents &#8230; Peace now, peace during and peace after the election.&#8221;</blockquote>
Odinga, the veteran opposition leader who held a similar rally on Sunday after his fourth run for the presidency was officially approved, also said in a talk with journalists that the campaign and voting would be orderly.
&#8220;The campaigns are going to be very peaceful, and at the end of the day we expect it is going to be a fair contest,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In any contest there will be winners and there will be losers.&#8221;
Many Kenyans are concerned about possible election-linked violence. More than 1,200 people were killed in 2007 after Odinga called for protests following the vote that year and later degenerated into ethnic based violence.
Electoral authorities had abruptly stopped tallying votes and announced the incumbent president Mwai Kibaki the winner.
Odinga narrowly lost the 2013 elections to Kenyatta and challenged the result in court. He did not call for protests that time and a judge upheld the result, handing Kenyatta a five-year term.
Kenyatta, the wealthy 55-year-old son of the country&#8217;s first president, is running on what he presents as his record of aggressive economic development drive, citing new roads, expansion of the electricity grid and a new Chinese-built railway linking the port of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi.
The head of the Jubilee party says he has strengthened the judiciary, reformed the electoral commission and overseen the devolution of power.
But his government has also been rocked by scandals and strikes by doctors and university lecturers, and has not convicted any senior officials of corruption.
Odinga, 72, also comes from a powerful political family &#8211; his father was Kenya&#8217;s first vice-president. He has pledged to lower rocketing food prices, tackle corruption, reform the public sector and strengthen local government.
Jailed for eight years in 1982 after a failed coup, the self-declared leftist was one of Kenya&#8217;s longest serving political prisoners. He ran for president in 1997 but lost. After the violence following the 2007 vote, he served as prime minister from 2008-2013 in a power-sharing government.
The opposition National Super Alliance, known by its acronym NASA, nominated him as its candidate in April.
Seven other presidential candidates have been cleared to run for president.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Tom Heneghan)

Kenya President Kenyatta launches campaign amid concern over violence

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday that a spate of violent attacks against women and children represented a national &#8220;crisis&#8221; as he visited the family of a three-year old girl who was raped and killed.
South Africa has one of the world&#8217;s highest rates of violent crime but a string of grisly murders of women and children has sparked widespread outrage, with Zuma&#8217;s visit underscoring the growing political significance of the issue.
&#8220;We as the citizens of this country must say enough is enough,&#8221; Zuma said in televised remarks after visiting the family of toddler Courtney Pieters, who went missing from her Cape Town home on May 4. Her body was found over a week later buried in a shallow grave.
&#8220;This is one of the saddest incidents I&#8217;ve come across. It&#8217;s a crisis in the country, the manner in which women and children are being killed,&#8221; Zuma said, adding that 19 children had been murdered so far this year in the Western Cape province which includes Cape Town.
Local media reported that a 40-year-old boarder in the child&#8217;s home had been arrested for her rape and murder.
Elsewhere, the bodies of four murdered women were discovered at the weekend in and around Soweto, the sprawling black township near Johannesburg, local media reported.
South Africa&#8217;s murder rate is 34 per 100,000 people, according to data released by police last year, almost seven times the rate in the United States.
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard)
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South Africa’s Zuma says spate of women and child murders “a crisis”

Ed Stoddard | BOTHAVILLE, South Africa
South Africa&#8217;s ruling African National Congress (ANC) is not likely to approve any expropriation of land from white farmers without paying compensation, the agriculture minister said on Tuesday after President Jacob Zuma mooted such an idea.
Faced with opposition mainly from ANC&#8217;s urban base, Zuma appealed to the rural poor in February with promises to seize land without paying the owners and then handing it out.
Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana said the ANC was unlikely to back such a policy at a party conference in June and July, particularly given government efforts to attract investment.
&#8220;I don’t think so,&#8221; he told Reuters on the sidelines of an agricultural conference and exhibition when asked about the possibility of seizures. &#8220;It will be challenged in the courts. You would need to first amend the constitution to do that.&#8221;
<blockquote>&#8220;The issue is that to attract investors in any industry you need policy certainty. If you are not sure whether you will find your farm tomorrow or you will find shacks around it, you will not invest in that land,&#8221; he added.</blockquote>
Analysts have said they did not expect farm seizures in South Africa, where most agricultural land is still owned by whites more than two decades after the end of white rule.
Violent seizures in Zimbabwe sent its economy into tailspin. But analysts said that even talking about the idea of expropriations in South Africa unnerved investors.
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform says only 8 million hectares of arable land has been transferred to black people since 1994, less than 10 percent of the 82 million hectares available and a third of the ANC&#8217;s 30 percent target.
On a government proposal to establish a strategic grain reserve, Zokwana said one of the aims was to have enough maize to satisfy domestic demand for 120 days, which equates to about 3.5 million tonnes at current consumption rates.
&#8220;If you can have a cushion of 120 days, then you won&#8217;t have a situation where you have no maize at all,&#8221; Zokwana said, although he said commercial farmers with whom he discussed the idea opposed it, saying it risked distorting the market.
Zokwana said one proposal involved buying surplus maize from smallholders who lacked storage facilities but were producing more than needed, as yields rose with the use of genetically modified (GMO) crops and improved farming techniques.
Neighbouring Zimbabwe and Zambia both hold such reserves. But it would require a major policy shift in South Africa, where agriculture is driven by market forces not state purchases.
A strategic grain reserve usually requires a government to buy and store crops, releasing them at times of need.
Zokwana said private business could have a role in setting up the strategic reserves, but did not give details.
South Africa was set to reap 14.54 million tonnes of maize in 2017, almost double last year&#8217;s harvest and its second largest ever due to good rains, the government&#8217;s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said last month.
Industry body Grain SA said on Tuesday it expected a surplus of 3.5 million tonnes this season and aimed to export all of it. [L8N1II45X]
(Editing by Edmund Blair)

South Africa farm minister sees no land expropriation without payment

Party primaries ahead of the August elections have been disrupted due to poor preparation, accusations of rigging and violence. Both the ruling Jubilee Party (JPK) and the main opposition party in the National Super Alliance (Nasa), the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), have been affected.
The results of JPK’s primaries held on Friday, April 21, were annulled due to the chaos caused by logistical delays and under-preparedness (President Uhuru Kenyatta emphasised that they were under-prepared rather than unprepared in a desperate attempt to save face).
The ODM’s primaries, meanwhile, were also characterised by poor planning and incidents of violence – particularly in its strongholds (such as Homa Bay, Migori, Kisii, Kwale and Busia, among others).
Parties have until May 1 to conclude their nomination processes. This delay puts further pressure on the electoral commission which is already struggling to keep to its preparation schedule.
The fear, as in 2013, is that the violence displayed portends further violence in August, but this does not necessarily follow.
Primaries in 2013 were also characterised by poor planning and violence and the same fear arose; however, the January primaries of that year were the high point for conflict and the elections passed in relative peace.
The chaos was largely expected at the most recent primaries. JPK had asked the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to conduct its primaries in order to ensure that they went smoothly and were accepted by aspirants to be free and fair (critics claimed that they also just wanted the government to foot the bill).
The opposition protested that taxpayer money should not be used for party primaries and threatened to oppose the idea in court. Their critics, meanwhile, said that opposition parties just wanted to use the primaries to raise money off of aspirants and as a way for the leaders within the party to manipulate the outcomes.
It is interesting to note that in 2013 the Wiper Democratic Movement (part of Nasa) had supported the idea of the IEBC conducting party primaries.
“All political parties will agree with me that going forward, we will have to have better ways of nominations and my observation is that they be IEBC-led because the polls body is the only institution that has the wherewithal to conduct the exercise,” Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka said in January 2013.
In the end, the IEBC stated that it already has enough on its plate with the task of organising the general elections. Hopefully the chaos of the primaries will cause them to double their efforts to ensure that August’s polls go off without a hitch.
Next time calls for the IEBC to be involved may have more support.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-121190" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Protest_Riots-Graph-300x200.png" alt="" width="300" height="200" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-121243" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Violence_Civilians-Graph-300x200.png" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
As we can see from the graphs, conflict during the 2013 election season peaked around the primaries and then tapered off significantly. It is likely that this year will see the same pattern.
Levels of protests and riots, as recorded by the Armed Conflict Location &amp; Event Data Project (Acled), are much the same as they were in 2013 while the data on violence against civilians (by government security forces) indicates that tensions are markedly lower this time around.
Obviously, the 2013 elections were significantly tenser due to them being the first elections since the 2007/08 violence that killed over 1,200 people and caused hundreds of thousands to be displaced.
Are the fears of significant violence and instability warranted?
Analysis of the 2013 elections by Nic Cheeseman, Gabrielle Lynch and Justin Willis identified four reasons why the polls were more peaceful than previous ones: 1) the alliance between Mr Kenyatta and William Ruto (now deputy president) defused ethnic tensions between Kikuyus and Kalenjin’s (the main groups involved in the 2007/08 violence), 2) a pervasive peace narrative carried by all main contenders and the media, 3) democratic reforms instituted after the adoption of a new constitution, and 4) devolution and the creation of 47 new counties which allowed the opposition to win locally even though it lost nationally.
As these factors are still largely in play in the current situation, we can perhaps expect a similar level of conflict to characterise this election.
However, there are obviously new factors to consider.
The peace narrative is not as strong this time around – although Mr Kenyatta has lately been calling for cool heads to prevail – and rising inflation and food scarcity due to the drought has affected many.
Meanwhile, questions over the IEBC and the electoral process have been raised by the opposition, which raises the risk of challenges to the results.
Should Nasa break up before the election, this could bring new reasons to worry.
Dynamics in the Rift Valley, where Isaac Ruto of the Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) party has joined Nasa, also need to be watched. Both he and Deputy President Ruto (no relation) have one eye on the 2022 election (along with Gideon Moi of the Kenya African National Union, Kanu) and this could see the fight for the Kalenjin vote turn violent.
On the positive side (with regard to risk) the opposition is in disarray and a JPK win in the presidential race would surprise few – meaning challenges to the result will not hold much sway and this could reduce the chances of post-election violence.
The chaotic primaries, then, do not necessarily portend violence in August. The factors that made 2013 far more peaceful than 2007/08 (not to mention elections in the early 1990s) are still largely in play.
New dynamics are ambiguous, with some likely to increase tensions (such as those in the Rift Valley) while others could further decrease the likelihood of violence (such as the slow start to the Nasa campaign and widely held expectations of a Jubilee win).
What we have learnt from the chaotic primaries is that there may in future be more support for the IEBC conducting them (which would add to the costs of elections for the government) and party politics in Kenya remains under-developed (Mr Kenyatta would perhaps prefer that description).
The effects of devolution are also once again evident, but while they may have helped spur the establishing of JPK as a national party, they have not brought about a similar national opposition party.
This may only occur in 2022 – which should be a more interesting election altogether.
Nasa is scheduled to announce its presidential candidate on April 27. It is expected that Raila Odinga (ODM) will once again be put forward with Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Party) as his running mate.

Kenya – Chaotic primaries and the threat of election violence – just like in 2013

George Obulutsa | NAIROBI
Kenya&#8217;s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Thursday his government would not tolerate violence between rival camps of supporters in party primaries before a national election in August.
Two parliamentary candidates have been treated in hospital after being caught up in such a clash &#8211; a decade after an eruption of ethnic violence, in which more than 1,200 people were killed, following a disputed presidential poll.
<blockquote>&#8220;A culture of hooliganism during the electoral process must not and will not be allowed to gain currency and acceptance,&#8221; Kenyatta told a news conference at the main State House.</blockquote>
Kenyatta, the wealthy son of the country&#8217;s first president, is running for a second and final five-year term in the Aug. 8 vote.
The 2013 election passed off fairly peacefully, after opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is seen as Kenyatta&#8217;s main rival, challenged Kenyatta&#8217;s election in court. The court upheld the result.
Kenyatta&#8217;s Jubilee Party and dozens of others are nominating their candidates, to beat the April 26 deadline, and hand over nominees to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) by May 10 as required by law.
The main opposition coalition, the National Super Alliance of Kenya (Nasa), has yet to name its presidential candidate from among its top leaders, who include Odinga, and his 2013 running mate, Kalonzo Musyoka.
Millions of voters will also pick a new parliament and local authorities when they cast their ballots in August.
Contests to lead the country&#8217;s 47 local authorities are expected to be hard-fought affairs due to their budgets of billions of shillings.
Kenyatta said that all political parties taking part in the nominations had been given police protection to stem any acts of violence or hooliganism.
&#8220;Anybody who engages in acts of violence will be dealt with in accordance with the law, irrespective of who they are,&#8221; he said.
(Editing by Duncan Miriri and Alison Williams)

Kenya’s president warns against violence during party nominations

In 2010 police in Johannesburg shot Justin Ejimkonye, a Nigerian migrant, in the leg. The reason why is unclear: It took the police 18 months to charge Ejimkonye with any crime. When they did bring a charge, saying he was carrying cannabis, a public prosecutor decided not to pursue the case for lack of evidence.
The Nigerian says police shot him because he refused to pay them bribes.
Similar claims of police corruption are echoed by hundreds of immigrants in South Africa. Some are resigned to paying out so they can stay in the country. Others feel powerless to act. But over the past seven years, Ejimkonye, who says he is in the country legally, has refused to keep quiet. Now he is pursuing a civil claim for damages. He says law enforcement and immigration officials have continued to brutalise and wrongfully detain him. A high court has twice ordered the police to set him free.
&#8220;I still think every day they will come for me,&#8221; said Ejimkonye, 31. &#8220;I&#8217;m fighting for my life.&#8221;
The Nigerian, who walks with a limp, is suing South Africa&#8217;s minister of home affairs, the local government, a police officer and an official at the Department for Home Affairs for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages as a result of this alleged maltreatment. His case has been filed at a Johannesburg high court and is due to be heard in August. It is a fresh challenge to the misrule and abuse that even the government sees in South Africa&#8217;s immigration system.
&#8220;This is an important case and the evidence is extensive and conclusive,&#8221; said Bulelani Mzamo, Ejimkonye&#8217;s attorney. &#8220;A lot of people in authority are in deep trouble.&#8221;
National police declined to comment on the case; the police investigatory body said it had not been informed about it. Told of the case by Reuters, Mayihlome Tshwete, a spokesman for Home Affairs, said he would look into it. Tshwete said the problems it highlights were &#8220;systemic&#8221; in the past but are improving under Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, who was appointed in 2014 and has launched a drive against corruption, arresting tens of officials in his department on corruption charges.
South Africans worry that foreigners are taking their jobs and creating crime, and migrants say the immigration system is failing. The same forces that send West Africans to Italy are driving sub-Saharan Africans – nearly half of them from Zimbabwe – into the continent&#8217;s richest state. South Africa rejects 95 percent of asylum applications as unjustified. But so far, it has been unwilling to deport those migrants. It houses more than a million people with temporary residence permits who are unsure what is going to happen to them.
That has fostered extortion. More than 20 refugees or migrants interviewed by Reuters said they had suffered corruption and worse at the hands of police and immigration officers. A 2015 report by Lawyers for Human Rights and the African Centre for Migration and Society, two NGOs, found one-third of immigrants experience corruption at South African refugee registration offices. Another report, published last November by NGO Corruption Watch, found more than 300 foreigners complained of extortion, threats and solicitation from government officials. President Jacob Zuma said last month a system of &#8220;bribes for permits&#8221; poses a serious security risk for the country.
A spate of attacks against Nigerians in Johannesburg sparked protests in February and revenge attacks against South African businesses in Nigeria. This month South Africa&#8217;s Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, after meeting the Nigerian foreign minister, said she would launch a scheme to track and deter xenophobic attacks. At least 66 foreign Africans in South Africa were killed in xenophobic attacks between January 2015 and January 2017, according to the African Centre for Migration and Society.
The chaos has its roots in the end of apartheid in 1994, when Nelson Mandela helped draw up a constitution with some of the world&#8217;s most generous human rights laws, in a bid to redress the divides under white-minority rule. The constitution grants people seeking asylum many of the same rights as South Africans. Now Gigaba wants to change the law to crack down on so-called &#8220;economic migrants&#8221; by reducing asylum-seekers&#8217; rights and introducing a quota system.
&#8220;Unfortunately we fear a large-scale flare-up of xenophobic violence is just around the corner,&#8221; said Wayne Ncube, an attorney at the Johannesburg Law Clinic. &#8220;It just takes a spark.&#8221;
&#8220;SPECIAL DUTIES&#8221;
Almost all the African immigrants Reuters spoke to said corruption and violence were part of their daily lives. A group of Zimbabweans living in Yeoville, a Johannesburg suburb popular with African migrants, described a well-organised system established by the police.
Officers in their area came to collect money each week, the migrants said. Those who didn&#8217;t pay were arrested, they said, and eventually sent to a Johannesburg migrant detention centre, Lindela, where thousands of people are still awaiting a decision on their asylum applications.
&#8220;If you pay, you&#8217;re fine. If you don&#8217;t have money then you&#8217;re arrested or beaten up until you can pay,&#8221; said 28-year-old taxi driver Thando Banda, from Zimbabwe.
Yeoville police declined to comment.
Ejimkonye, the Nigerian, says he arrived in South Africa in October 2005 and was issued with various permits until 2007 when he married a South African, which entitled him to stay permanently on a spousal visa. He had dreamed of a future as a soccer player, but by early February 2010 was running a hair salon in Germiston, a suburb of Johannesburg.
One day, he says, police stopped him as he was driving his Toyota truck. They demanded 900 rand ($70), which he refused to pay. The police impounded his vehicle and charged him a fine to recover it.
A few weeks later, on Feb. 25, the same police officers stopped him again, documents drawn up by both Ejimkonye and the police show. Ejimkonye says he told them he would not pay any bribes. At that, he says, police officer John Kichener Johnstone removed his police issue Beretta revolver from its holster and fired a 9 millimetre round into the back of Ejimkonye&#8217;s leg.
The Germiston police station did not respond to requests for comment, or to contact Johnstone. Savage Jooste and Adams, the law firm representing the local government and officer Johnstone, declined to comment. The firm has submitted a defence in Ejimkonye&#8217;s case, Ejimkonye&#8217;s lawyers said.
In a separate statement prepared for a court hearing that in the end did not take place, Johnstone said he and his police colleagues were doing &#8220;special duties,&#8221; which he did not detail at the time. They went to question a group of men, including Ejimkonye, who were standing at a street corner. Johnstone saw the &#8220;bud of a fire-arm at the rear of his (Ejimkonye&#8217;s) pants,&#8221; said the statement, seen by Reuters.
Ejimkonye then tried to escape and a chase ensued, Johnstone said in the statement. Hurdling bushes, Johnstone said, he shouted warnings at Ejimkonye several times before opening fire as a last resort. A police crime docket drawn up by the Germiston police on the day of the shooting said Ejimkonye was guilty of &#8220;pointing (a gun) at an officer.&#8221;
Ejimkonye says he did not have a gun. He collected two witness statements which supported his version of events. Neither they nor Johnstone&#8217;s statement were submitted in court because the police did not actually bring charges against Ejimkonye at that time.
Instead, in April 2010 Ejimkonye launched his own lawsuit against the police. That grew into the claim that is due in court in August.
National police spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi said questions about Ejimkonye&#8217;s case against police would be dealt with by the internal Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID). The IPID spokesman said it would not have looked into it automatically because in 2010 it was &#8220;not obligated to investigate cases of shooting unless the shooting resulted in a death.&#8221;
Tshwete, the spokesman for the home affairs ministry, could not comment on Ejimkonye&#8217;s case but said there were some &#8220;rotten apples&#8221; in the police and home affairs ministry. &#8220;We are not saying all police and home affairs officers are saints.&#8221;
UNLAWFUL DETENTION
In Ejimkonye&#8217;s case, a court eventually found that law enforcement officials had broken the law.
In August 2011, 18 months after Ejimkonye was shot in the leg, police summoned him to face a charge of possession of &#8220;dagga,&#8221; or cannabis. The public prosecutor withdrew that charge due to lack of evidence, a Department of Justice document shows.
Ejimkonye said he subsequently faced more intimidation and physical attacks. On Oct. 14, 2013, according to documents submitted by Ejimkonye&#8217;s lawyers, Johnstone and colleagues raided the Nigerian&#8217;s home in the middle of the night and took him to the police station where he was kept for 36 days.
A month into his detention an immigration officer, Boitumelo Mokobi, revoked his visa, saying it had been illegally obtained. Mokobi could not be reached for comment.
With his visa revoked, Ejimkonye became an illegal immigrant. The immigration authority sent him to Lindela, the detention centre in Johannesburg. There he spent the next six months, court documents show &#8211; well beyond the maximum declared by law.
In April 2014, Judge Segopotje Mphahlele of the South Gauteng High Court ordered his release. The judge ruled that the police and the government had &#8220;dismally failed to comply with the applicable requirements of the Immigration Act&#8221; and Ejimkonye had been unlawfully detained.
The Nigerian thought he was free.
But on May 27, 2014, Ejimkonye says, Johnstone and his crew broke into his home, assaulted him and threw him into the boot of a car. They took him to another police station where, a June 2014 court ruling says, he was held on charges of being an illegal immigrant.
Again, his lawyer applied to the high court, which ordered his release. Judge Mphahlele found this second arrest and detention had also been unlawful, and ordered that police should not approach Ejimkonye until his immigration situation was clarified.
&#8220;BAD PEOPLE&#8221;
The Home Affairs department said last year that it had arrested more than 60 of its officials for offences including false documentation, bribery, aiding and abetting, impersonation, revenue theft and fraud. But migrants say brutality and demands for cash are still commonplace.
Faaruq Mohammed, a Somali who has a temporary residence permit while his application for asylum is considered, told Reuters he was beaten and refused legal representation at a police station. He has been waiting for a permanent decision on his application for more than two years.
&#8220;You worry each time you leave your house that the police will stop you. Sometimes they ignore your permit and you have to pay or be arrested,&#8221; Mohammed said. &#8220;Police stations and Lindela are not good places. Bad people there. You don&#8217;t know if you will come out alive.&#8221;
At the refugee registration centre in South Africa&#8217;s capital Pretoria, hundreds of immigrants press against fences hoping to get answers about their asylum applications as overrun officials shout orders and beat back the crowd with sticks.
Many have been coming for years and described how they had to pay to get a renewal of their refugee permit.
&#8220;No one really cares if you&#8217;re a real asylum-seeker or not,&#8221; said Paul Kazadi, a Democratic Republic of Congo national who admits he has been paying bribes to extend his stay in South Africa for three years. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t really benefit anyone to change things. Immigration officers and police get money and we don&#8217;t get deported. We work with the system we&#8217;ve got.&#8221;
Police declined to comment. Home Affairs spokesman Tshwete said there is corruption at South Africa&#8217;s refugee centres, but that they have improved and will be further reformed.
In February, President Zuma opened a renovated refugee centre in Pretoria equipped with new technology aimed at reducing corruption, overcrowding and the role of criminal syndicates. In his opening speech, he said, &#8220;Government will not tolerate corruption in the refugee reception centres as well as in the documentation process.&#8221;
Ejimkonye has gone into hiding. He is suing the local government for 2.5 million rand in damages for personal injury and the Home Affairs ministry for 2 million rand for illegal detention, his lawyers say.
He also hopes his civil suit can help reinstate his visa.
&#8220;The police and immigration officials always think they will get away with it,&#8221; said attorney Mzamo. &#8220;With Ejimkonye&#8217;s case, we want to send a clear message that it&#8217;s not business as usual.&#8221;
(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley and Kenichi Serino in Johannesburg; Edited by Sara Ledwith, Richard Woods and Janet McBride)
&nbsp;

In South Africa, immigration feeds corrupt officials and race hate

Guinea&#8217;s President Alpha Conde fired three ministers, according to a decree read on state television on Monday, following violent protests over a teachers&#8217; strike last week in which seven people were killed and dozens more were injured.
Ibrahima Kourouma, the minister of pre-university education, and Civil Service Minister Sekou Kourouma were removed along with Environment Minister Christine Sagno, the decree said.
Though the decree gave no reason for the dismissals, a senior government official, who asked not to be named, said the sackings of Ibrahima Kourouma and Sekou Kourouma were directly linked to the strike.
The government agreed to a deal to end the strike last week.
Teachers in Guinea walked out early this month over the government&#8217;s decision to dismiss or cut the salaries of many junior staff after the latest civil service exams. Their students then took to the streets to support them.
The protests turned violent when demonstrators clashed with gendarmes in several neighbourhoods of the capital Conarky.
 
(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Andrew Hay)﻿

Guinea president fires ministers after deadly protests

South Africa&#8217;s President Jacob Zuma has condemned acts of violence between citizens and non-nationals, his office said on Friday.
Anti-immigrant violence has flared sporadically in South Africa against a background of near-record unemployment, with foreigners being accused of taking jobs from citizens and getting involved in crime.
Citizens in Pretoria are set to march against foreigners on Friday and domestic media are reporting vandalism and acts of violence in the Atteridgeville area west of the capital.
At least 20 stores in Pretoria owned by foreigners were looted on Tuesday, but police could not confirm that the attacks had deliberately targeted foreigners.
&#8220;Many citizens of other countries living in South Africa are law abiding and contribute to the economy of the country positively. It is wrong to brandish all non-nationals as drug dealers or human traffickers,&#8221; Zuma said in a statement.
&#8220;The threats and counter-threats on social media must stop,&#8221; he added.
In Nigeria, protesters on Thursday demanded that South African citizens and businesses leave the country and vandalised the head office of mobile phone giant MTN in Abuja, in retaliation for anti-Nigerian violence in South Africa.
 
(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Joseph Radford)﻿

South Africa's Zuma condemns violence against foreigners

Thomson Reuters Foundation
Forced evictions of local communities from their lands by foreign companies fuel around two-thirds of land ownership disputes across Africa, often sparking strikes or violence which can prove costly to investors, activists said on Thursday.
Pushing people off their land drives more conflict over land rights on the continent than any other factor &#8211; such as damage to the environment and a lack of compensation &#8211; said the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and consultancy TMP Systems.
Around seven in 10 disputes over land deals in Africa lead to protests which hinder or delay operations, and hit companies&#8217; profits compared to a global average of 56 percent, according to a report published by RRI and TMP Systems.
Such clashes are common across the continent between international investors buying large tracts of agricultural land, and local communities who have cultivated the earth for generations, but lack legal rights and fear displacement.
&#8220;These findings challenge the traditional perspective, from a business viewpoint, that everything has a price, and that conflicts can be resolved by paying communities off,&#8221; RRI coordinator Andy White told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
&#8220;Communities across the continent are saying foreign companies cannot pay them enough, the land is their home and that they don&#8217;t want to give it up,&#8221; he said on the sidelines of a conference on land rights held in Senegal&#8217;s capital of Dakar.
Foreign companies are increasingly seeing these disputes as a major business risk, and respecting the rights of communities, aware that failing to do so may harm their profits, White said.
Yet progress is slow due to complex supply chains and partnerships with local companies who are disconnected from the shift in practice and have less reputational concerns, he added.
The research found that areas targeted by companies across Africa were more heavily populated than in other regions, thus causing greater displacement and social unrest for local people.
The average land-related dispute in Africa occurs near a country&#8217;s national borders, far from central government, and in areas with poor access to state services, little or no previous development, and a history of social conflict, the report said.
&#8220;This suggests that tenure dispute is much more likely in areas with low legal accountability and economic development,&#8221; said TMP Systems chief executive Lou Munden.
&#8220;Investors can be exposed to serious risk in these areas because local people will ensure their interests are heard.&#8221;
 (Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/">news.trust.org</a>)﻿

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