US reviews Harare sanctions

 Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (C) with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (L) after signing a power-sharing deal at Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare. A Bill seeks among other things to a create a statement of US policy towards Zimbabwe, provide for technical assistance to the unity government, support land reforms and take action to stop illegal diamond deals. Photo/FILE

The United States is reviewing the decade old sanctions against Zimbabwe. But the measures are unlikely to end the travel restrictions and asset freeze imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle for alleged human rights violations.

A bill that seeks to amend the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) of 2001, which introduced wide ranging sanctions on the southern African country, was introduced in the US Senate on Tuesday.

Sponsored by Senator Feingold along with Republican Senator Johny Isakson and fellow Democrat Senator John Kerry, the proposed Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act will seek to direct new US policy towards Zimbabwe.

The Bill seeks among other things to a create a statement of US policy towards Zimbabwe, provide for technical assistance to the unity government, support land reforms and take action to stop illegal diamond deals.

The US and its European Union counterparts have maintained sanctions on Zimbabwe despite the formation of the unity government between Mr Mugabe and his former arch rival and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

“The bill states that the US should continue to provide humanitarian assistance, promote trade between US companies and Zimbabwe push for the implementation of the power sharing agreement,” said a summary of the debate on the bill.

ZDERA is being amended to reward the transitional government and allows for debt relief and multilateral financing.

However, the senators also want US president Barack Obama to be able to push for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the Kimberley Process.

IIEC extends Kenya voter registration

 interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan during a press conference May 5, 2010 where he announced the deadline for voter registration has been extended to Sunday. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI

Voter registration has been extended by four days giving a chance to millions of people who missed Wednesday’s deadline.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission said the extension had been requested by organisations such as the Federation of Women Lawyers- Kenya chapter.

“All our staff have been asked to open the centres tomorrow (Thursday). Our programme is congested and we will not extend the deadline again,” said chairman Issack Hassan at a press conference on Wednesday night.

The registration will now end on May 9, 2010.

A meeting between Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Attorney General Amos Wako agreed to give the process more funds.

The commission is on Thursday morning expected to send a team to Treasury for the release of the extra funds.

It costs Sh52 million a day to register voters countrywide and the total cost of the extension will be Sh208 million.

Mr Hassan said about 1.5 million extra voters are expected to enter the voters’ roll in the four extra days.

The chairman said the commission will now spend longer compiling the final register because of the time it takes scanning the information from the forms before transferring it to computers for compilation.

Queues at registration centres lengthened on Wednesday as the commission announced that it had surpassed its 10 million target.

By last Friday, 10,036,415 voters had enrolled, an increase of two million in a week.

Zimbabwe slowly returning to normalcy

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe welcomes his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Harare International Airport, on April 22. Ahmadinejad was in Zimbabwe for a two-day visit condemned by Mugabe’s opponents as a meeting of despots which could further isolate Harare. Photo/REUTERS 


The hordes of black-market currency traders in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare have gone out of business.

Just over a year ago, Zimbabwe had the world’s worst modern-day hyperinflation and the national currency was worthless.

AG given go-ahead to publish draft

Attorney General Amos Wako was on Tuesday given the go-ahead to publish the draft constitution after scrutiny by a parliamentary committee confirmed that no major changes had been made to the document endorsed by MPs.

Accidents kill 170 in one month

 Three people died instantly and 12 others were seriously injured when the matatu they were travelling in collided with a truck on the Mombasa-Nairobi highway on Tuesday. Photo/ANTHONY OMUYA 


Road accidents killed 170 people in the last one month.

This is is fewer than in 2008 when 224 people died. In the previous year, 266 people were killed over the same period.

Nineteen of the 170 died between Monday night and Tuesday afternoon, according to the traffic commandant Joseph ole Tito.