She told Parliament SA was under increasing pressure from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to send soldiers to reinforce an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Ms Sisulu told the defence and military veterans’ portfolio committee it was precisely for this security reason that the question of SA’s involvement could be raised only after the soccer event was over.

The European Union has also asked SA to get involved. The Cabinet had to decide soon whether it would send forces to protect sea lanes from pirates, and land forces to bring stability.

SA already has a battalion in the Democratic Republic of Congo and one in Darfur and has a detachment in the Central African Republic. Furthermore, lives would probably be lost, Deputy Defence Minister Thabang Makwetla said.

On the other hand, not sending forces to Somalia would undermine SA’s political standing on the continent, to which it had a responsibility, he said.

 Ms Sisulu insisted that if South African forces went to Somalia, it would be for a limited period and only as part of a broad, shared African mission.

Sadc has sent a task team to the Horn of Africa to investigate how to protect Sadc waters from pirates who are moving further and further south along the east African coast. Ms Sisulu said SA was ready to deploy forces to Somali waters.

At home SA faces claims of appalling service conditions in the defence force with a Defence Amendment Bill proposing the establishment of a permanent defence force service commission in the pipeline.

The recent AU summit in Uganda resolved to send more troops to war-ravage Somalia and expand the mandate of AMISOM to include military attacks euphemized as peace enforcement.

Somali based al-Qaeda wing Alshabab rebels on 11 July claimed responsibility for the bombings in Uganda which killed more than 80 people throwing the continent into reflection over the foreign forces behind Islamist insurgents who do not value African lives.

-Additional Source: Business Day

In a statement released on Wednesday, the congressmen described the involvement of foreign organisations and American lawmakers in the referendum campaigns in Kenya as “shameful” and “harmful”.

It says the critics had misconstrued both the nature of the Obama Administration’s support for constitutional reform and the content of the draft constitution.

Kenya’s profile in the US has risen since Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan, became president. Mr Obama’s conservative critics have accused him of using American tax payers’ money to finance the ‘Yes’ campaign. Some of them have responded by working to frustrate the passage of the new laws.

The Black Caucus specifically attacked “American pro-life groups [who] have financed several Kenyan churches to defeat the proposed constitution because of a provision on abortion.” The pro- life group is predominantly white and has backing from republicans, opponents of Obama’s Democratic Party.

The Black Caucus was responding to claims by three Republican congressmen who have accused President Obama’s administration of spending at least Sh1.8 billion to support the ‘Yes’ side.

Congressman Chris Smith has been behind a campaign to question the use of US taxpayers money on the Kenyan constitution stating that even though Washington had pledged to give $2 million (Sh160 million) to support civic education, the figure had risen to $23 million (Sh1.8 billion).

“There is no doubt that the Obama Administration is funding the ‘Yes’ campaign in Kenya,” he said. “By funding NGOs backing the ‘Yes’ votes, the administration has crossed the line,” he said.

The republican congressmen argue that by  directly supporting efforts to register ‘Yes’ voters and ‘get out the Yes vote’ means the US Government is running a political campaign in Kenya.

 “US taxes should not be used to support one side,” Republican congressmen affirmed.

Congressman Smith provided a list of organisations that had benefited from the money channelled through the United States Agency for International Development (USAid). Vice-President Joe Biden and the US embassy in Nairobi have refuted the claims.

Three weeks ago, an American-based group told Kenya’s Sunday Nation that it was working through its office in Nairobi to tell Kenyans that the proposed constitution would allow abortion on demand.

US ambassador in Kenya  Michael Ranneberger has come under intense criticism from the NO camp that has accused him of bribing leaders to support the proposed constitution especially when he stage- managed alleged ‘defections’ reminiscence of the former ruling party’s KANU tact of buy-to-defect.

The victim claims Thompson approached him as he was getting into his car, and asked him if he was Somalian. The victim confirmed that he was of Somalian descent – which he claims prompted Thompson to chase and threaten him.

Officers witnessed the suspect shouting obscenities and threatening to kill the victim.

 The victim a man of Somali descent was fleeing from the suspect and he ran up to arriving police officers who he informed of the assault claiming he did not know the man or his motive for the threat.

The suspect, George Loren Thompson, then proceeded into the nearby Nomad World Pub, where he was arrested by officers. He was in possession of two loaded firearms, said police, though he does have a permit to carry firearms.

Thompson remains in custody of Minneapolis police and faces a felony charge of making Terroristic Threats – which holds a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment and $10,000 in fines.

This comes at a time when Africans of Somali extract are facing xenophobic attacks and discrimination both abroad and in Africa following terror bombings perpetrated by Somalia based Alshabab terror group linked to al-Qaeda international terror network.

Source: FOX9 News

The Malta-flagged cargo ship, Frigia, was set free early on Thursday, Turkey’s maritime authority also confirmed, after negotiations paid-off between the Izmir-based Karya Maritime Co. and the pirates, who have been holding the ship and its 21-member crew hostage for 128 days since March 23.

There is no mention of any ransom having been paid but as is the practice the pirates are in risky business because of the huge amounts of money they get in the form of ransom.

The crew was reported to be in good condition and the ship was expected to meet shortly with the Turkish frigate Gelibolu, serving as part of an international task force to prevent piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

The vessel was carrying fertilizer from Israel to Thailand. The crew includes a Turkish captain, 19 Turkish and two Ukrainian sailors.

The vessel was hijacked by Somalia pirates in March off the coast of the troubled Horn of Africa state.

The gynaecologists and obstetricians said Article 26 (4) is “more restrictive” on abortion.

“The focus should be on what to do to prevent early sexual activity and unwanted pregnancy,” Dr Koki Muli-Kinangwa, a member of the Kenya Medical Women Association, said. “We are not proponents of abortion.”

Speaking at a news conference at Nairobi’s Laico Regency Hotel, Prof Joseph Karanja and Dr Kizito Lubano said they were relieved when the clause that “life begins at conception” was inserted.

They said that the proposed constitution provides a good chance of reducing the 900 abortions that occur daily.

“The spirit (to prohibit abortion and still protect a woman’s health) is the same,” said Dr Boaz Otieno-Nyunya, the vice chairman of the National Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The Church has been opposed to the proposed law mainly because of the clause which permits abortion under certain circumstances.

 The AU agreed this week to strengthen its peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Two thousand troops from Guinea and Djibouti are to be made “immediately” available, bolstering the 6,000 plus peacekeepers under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) from Uganda and Burundi already defending Somalia’s beleaguered capital, Mogadishu.

The mandate of AMISOM is supposed to change too, from merely providing protection for Somalia’s weak transitional government to becoming a fighting force in the war against terrorism.

This military stand follows the July 11th bombings in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, which killed more than 80 Ugandans and foreigners and was perpetrated by suicide-bombers sent by Somalia’s rebels of Alshabab group, which is a wing of international terrorists al-Qaeda.

Conflict analysts in the Norn of Africa say Alshabab’s strategy is to provoke Uganda and others into sending more soldiers so as to provide fodder for the Islamists to have reason to sustain the war and also elicit ordinary Somalis’ mistrust of foreigners, especially armed ones by making civilians view the new AU arrivals as occupiers rather than liberators.

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, is obliging them by angrily going for after Alshabab with all guns blazing. If Uganda had a border with Somalia, he says he would already have invaded. Indeed, he is calling for a still larger African force of 30,000. As well as arguing for more troops, he has also persuaded the AU to let its force react more robustly; troops may now fire first if they think they face imminent attack.

The United States approves of Mr Museveni’s moves and will cover the extra cost of the AU mission.

Johnnie Carson, America’s top diplomat for Africa says Alshabab is “a threat to all of Somalia’s regional neighbours”. And many veteran Somali-watchers are sceptical of Mr Museveni’s America-backed approach.

A bigger foreign presence means uplifting a Somali government widely derided for corruption, uncordination and infighting. The Americans lament that they have given guns and training to thousands of troops under command of the transitional government yet they have failed to project power beyond a few heavily fortified streets in Mogadishu.

-The Economist

The Chairman of the NCIC Mzalendo Kibunjia said the recent war of words between President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Moi undermines national cohesion, integration and re-conciliation efforts they are aiming to achieve.

Mr Kibunjia said at a media briefing on Thursday that the two leaders should refrain from statements that will bring tension in the ongoing referendum campaigns.

The former President on Wednesday hit back at his successor President Kibaki over the ongoing referendum campaigns telling the President that he has no moral authority to criticise the No campaign against the proposed Constitution since he failed to deliver a new law within 100 days of coming into power.

The elder statesman was responding to President Kibaki’s criticism on Tuesday where he accused Mr Moi of frustrating the course for a new Constitution yet he failed to deliver one during his 24-year reign.

The referendum campaigns have entered the homestretch with President Kibaki taking the Yes campaigns to Western and later expected to straddle Rift Valley province believed to be Moi’s home turf.

The President will address a rally at the controversial Suswa grounds where Yes hirelings made it difficult for Moi to address No supporters.

The NCIC has come under criticism for failing to reign in inciters from the government- backed Yes camp but moving with lightening speed to arrest and arraign in court those in the No camp. To date the goons who invaded the No rally at Suswa on the urging of Heritage Minister William ole Ntimama are yet to be arraigned in court.

The 30-year-old man Stephen Kipkemoi Rono pleaded guilty to having an unnatural act with the beast of burden when he appeared before Principal magistrate Alfred Kabiru.

He was charged that on July 22 at Tebeswet village of Narok South district, he had carnal knowledge of an animal, namely donkey, which is against the order of nature.

In mitigation, Mr Rono pleaded for leniency claiming that he had been deceived by the devil. He told the court that his wife had left him and married another man. He was therefore deprived of sex, leading him to the act.

Mr Rono said he was remorseful of the act. The father of two now has 14 days to appeal against the sentence

Source: capital news Kenya

“The media war faced by the Mujahideen is of the heaviest and most important front in our war with infidel in Somalia, which makes us caretakers of the gaps in the media jihad. This pushes us to the battleground on the media jihad on the bigger Somalia front,” the site www.atahadi.com said.

The international terror group has a wing in Somalia in the name of Alshabab militants.

Meanwhile, local residents in Puntland region said the rebels had been recruiting militia fighters in the area and were camped out in the hills outside the port city Bosasso.

“Sheikh Mohamed Saiid Atom has been recruiting Islamists in those hilly areas since 2005,” said resident Hussein Ali.

“He has indoctrinated the youth using three means: a huge amount of money from the sales of weapons, sharia law and convincing his clan they have little political influence on Puntland’s administration,” Ali added.

The July 11 attack was the first foreign strike by Somali militants, and analysts say their ability to launch attacks abroad has been helped by an influx of foreign jihadists especially al-Qaeda and Taliban.

Of late there have been indications that the insurgents were establishing sanctuary in the tricky terrain bordering Puntland and Somaliland.

Therefore the agreement by African leaders to send an extra 4,000 peacekeepers to Somalia is likely to have little impact in Puntland because the force is based in the capital Mogadishu.

The African Union force, AMISOM, is stretched as it is to shield the president’s residence and guard the port and airport. Alshabab and a second rival militia group, Hizbul Islam, control much of central and southern Somalia parts.

 The spokesman of Al-shabab said that those who are fighting in Puntland were Muslim people against the infidel administration of Puntland denying that they had any relations with the leaders of the insurgents.

Sheik Ali Dhere warned journalists against linking the clashes at Galgala and Karin villages of Puntland to Al-shabab group.

“If people oppose intimidations and something against the Shari law, it does not mean they are Alshabab,” said Sheik Ali Mohamud Raghe

The statement of Alshabab comes after the fierce fight between the militias led by Mohamed Atom and the security forces of Puntland administration in parts of Bari region in north Somalia left various people killed with the authorities claiming they had killed 13 Alshabab militants and arrested one of their commanders.

Mohamed Atom is on the UN and US black list of violators of arms’ embargoes and treaties by importing ammunition into Somalia from mainly Yemen and Middle East.

Alshabab is a Somalia wing of international terrorists al-Qaeda.