U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 424
15 - 21 March 2008


CONTENTS:

KENYA: State failed to protect citizens during unrest - UN report
KENYA: Census plans on track despite displacement
KENYA: Tension high as hundreds flee clash-torn Laikipia
KENYA: Human Rights Watch urges inquiry into post-election violence
UGANDA: "Survival of the fittest" as food crisis bites Karamoja region
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Small steps to rebuilding lives
DRC: "Majority of rapists go unpunished"
DRC-RWANDA: Kinshasa unable to disarm FDLR rebels - analysts

Also see:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Too many enemies at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77312

HORN OF AFRICA: Funds to help cushion 12 million against drought at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77345

KENYA: Teresia Wamwitha: "We fled our home with only the clothes we had
on" at: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77315

AFRICA: AFRICOM to focus on military, not humanitarian role at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77283



KENYA: State failed to protect citizens during unrest - UN report

Kenyan authorities failed in their responsibility to protect citizens
when violence erupted after disputed presidential elections in December
2007, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR).

"The scale of the violence and destruction indicates the failure of the
Kenyan State to protect its citizens' right to life, security and
property during these events," a report by an OHCHR fact-finding mission
stated.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77360]


KENYA: Census plans on track despite displacement

The political crisis in Kenya caused major population movements that may
require a repeat of cartographic mapping in some areas before the 2009
census, but plans for the official count are on track, a government
official told IRIN.

"We are revising our work plan and looking at areas where we might have
to repeat cartographic mapping but we expect to hold the census on 25
August 2009 as planned," said Chris Omolo, the census manager and
principal economist at the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77359]


KENYA: Tension high as hundreds flee clash-torn Laikipia

Hundreds of civilians have fled Kenya's Rift Valley district of
Laikipia, where fighting between two communities has resulted in deaths
and at least 300 houses being burnt.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said reinforcements and an investigating
team of officers had been sent to the scene. According to him, the death
toll was 14.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77323]


KENYA: Human Rights Watch urges inquiry into post-election violence

Kenyan authorities should investigate and bring to justice people
suspected of instigating violence following the country's disputed
presidential elections in December, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on 17
March.

"In many cases the chief architects of post-election violence were
prominent and well-known individuals," stated HRW in a report entitled
Ballots to Bullets: Organized Political Violence and Kenya's Crisis of
Governance.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77321]


UGANDA: "Survival of the fittest" as food crisis bites Karamoja region

The food crisis in northeastern Uganda's Karamoja region has reached
such a dire level that more than one million people are in need of
emergency food aid, a government minister in charge of relief has said.

"The entire Karamoja population of one million is food insecure as we
talk now, while another 500,000 in Lango [northern region] in the areas
of Otuke and the flood-affected areas of Teso [eastern] need emergency
food," Musa Ecweru, Uganda's minister for disaster preparedness, told
IRIN.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77378]


CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Small steps to rebuilding lives

After hiding in the bush for more than a year, families in the northern
Central African Republic (CAR) regions of Ouaham and Nana Grebizi are
starting to return to their roadside villages.

Clashes between government forces and the Armee Populaire pour la
Restauration de la Democratie (APRD, People's Army for the Restoration
of Democracy) rebel movement towards the end of 2006 led to the exodus
of tens of thousands of people from dozens of villages along the road
linking the towns of Kabo and Kaga Bandoro, about 100km to the
southeast.

Such sudden large-scale population movements took place across huge
swathes of the north, with almost 200,000 civilians fleeing their homes.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77369]


DRC: "Majority of rapists go unpunished"

Sexual violence against women is rampant in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) but the majority of perpetrators, especially in "no-law"
zones, go unpunished, according to a UN independent human rights expert.

In South Kivu Province, for example, 14,200 rape cases were registered
between 2005 and 2007 but only 287 were taken to court, Titinga Frederic
Pacere, the UN Human Rights Council's independent expert on the state of
human rights in the DRC, told reporters on 14 March.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) had urged the Council to intensify its
engagement on "the neglected human rights crisis" in countries such as
the DRC.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77340]


DRC-RWANDA: Kinshasa unable to disarm FDLR rebels - analysts

The deadline for Rwandan Hutu fighters in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) to voluntarily disarm has expired without guns being handed
in, because Kinshasa lacks the capacity to resolve the problem, analysts
said.

The 15 January ultimatum was issued to the Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) by the DRC government. It was based on an
accord reached in November 2007 in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, between
Rwanda and the Kinshasa government.

According to the DRC Defence Minister, Chikez Diemu, the period 1
January to 15 March should have been sufficient to persuade the FDLR
fighters to lay down their arms and be repatriated if they so wished.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77320]


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