KIIR CALLS ON SPLA TO DEFEND SOUTH SUDAN BEFORE LEAVING FOR BASHIR SUMMIT

South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit told his security officials on Friday to prepare to defend the country from aggression from neighbouring Sudan, shortly before heading to a summit in Ethiopia with his Sudanese counterpart, according to sources at the meetings.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir

Kiir called on the country’s citizens to mobilise against the ground and air attacks carried out against strategic border territories of Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal states over the past few days.

A senior government source told Sudan Tribune that Kiir gave the briefing before heading to the scheduled meeting with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir in Addis Ababa later on Friday in an internationally-backed summit aiming to end the stalemate over creating a buffer zone to prevent a repeat of the conflict in April last year.

Implementation of the security elements of a Cooperation Agreement signed in September could unlock other parts of the deal, such as allowing southern oil exports to resume, which is desperately needed for both economies.

However, following the recent border attacks over the past two weeks, the atmosphere of mistrust that so often scuppers these meetings is likely to persist, despite both sides indicating that they could make compromises.

Having fought for two decades against Bashir’s government - until a 2005 peace deal secured a self determination vote for South Sudan in 2011 - Kiir said that he believed his nation would "never be scared" of the Sudanese military "building troops and huge movement of weapons along the contested areas".

Over the past weeks, South Sudan’s army (SPLA) has accused the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) of attacking its territory and attempting to occupy contested areas along the largely un-demarcated, oil-rich and fertile border.

South Sudan has complained to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over a series of bombings and ground clashes, which culminated on Wednesday with an SAF attack on Western Bahr el Ghazal. Military sources have told Sudan Tribune that over 32 soldiers and civilians were killed in the coordinated air and ground raid.

Kiir described the attack on Kitkit military base, 119km north of Raja town, as part of continued aggression by the Sudanese government. The border attacks were an attempt by Sudan to give Bashir a better bargaining position at the talks, Kiir said in comments on Wednesday.

The South Sudanese military say the 2 January attack followed a clash with the Sudanese Armed Forces - aided by the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) a Sudanese paramilitary and armed tribesmen on horseback - on Saturday 29 December in the Sirmalaka area of Western Bahr el Ghazal’s Raja County.

South Sudan also claimed at least five people were killed by SAF air and ground attacks on a contested border area between Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Sudan’s western Darfur region on 26 December.

The Sudanese army has denied attacking the Kiir Adem area of Mile 14, but admitted that clashes occurred between the SPLA and Al-Rizigat tribesmen in the disputed region.

Khartoum routinely denies bombing southern territory often blaming tribal clashes or saying that it only attacks rebels moving across the border into Sudan from South Sudan. Juba also denies hosting or aiding Sudanese rebels and, conversely, accuses Sudan of supporting South Sudanese rebel groups in its territory.

"We will keep talking with Sudan and we will also have the right to protect our territories. The SPLA will do this. It is your duty”, Kiir told high level security officers on Friday.

The president reportedly assured South Sudan’s security organs that his negotiating team in Addis Ababa was capable of representing the country on “all fronts” and that citizens should not have doubts about their ability to do what was is in the country’s best interest.

Pagan Amum, South Sudan’s lead negotiator arrived in the Ethiopian capital ahead of Kiir to prepare the ground for discussions on the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in September under mediation from the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP).

“They are capable on all three fronts. We have made progress on diplomatic, political and military and we will continue our efforts unabated until there is victory and definitive and durable peace for us," Kiir said.

The South Sudan leader also added that South Sudan wishes to find peaceful solutions for the issues between the two countries and implement the Cooperation Agreement signed in September, which covers many of the outstanding issues between the two nations.

The September deal had appeared to make progress on oil, citizenship and border security but it has not been implemented due to differences over security issues - both sides accuse the other of backing the other’s rebels. South Sudan has accused Sudan of adding "impossible’ new demands to the security deal, including disarming rebels north of the border that fought with the south during the 1983-2005 civil war.

"We have shown the whole world that we are peace loving people, but I know there are people who have taken it as our weakness. It has been misunderstood to extent that the attitude and actions of those who repeatedly make war prove that only a strong army will keep our dignity and safeguards the territorial integrity of our country," Kiir reportedly told members of his security team.

REFORM TO DIFFUSE SOUTH SUDAN’S DISSENTING VOICES

The South Sudan leader has vowed to implement reforms to unify the country and to diffuse internal tensions and growing criticisms of his government.

He said the vision of his government for the year 2013 is to “reform institutions” and that he expects security organs to do a lot to restore trust and public confidence in their daily activities in the country.

The former-rebel-movement-turned-ruling-party the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has governed South Sudan as an autonomous region of Sudan since a 2005 peace deal was signed with Khartoum, but has struggled to bring the security, development and peace dividends many South Sudanese were hoping for.

Facing the daunting challenge of building the infrastructure of a nation almost from scratch, and with a population where less the 30% of adults are literate, developing the country was always going to prove difficult.

South Sudan gained full independence in July 2011, but has had to contend with rebellions, cattle raids between ethnic groups and the threat of a return to war with Sudan over outstanding issues from their divorce.

Sudan Tribune 

AID TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Minister for Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi gave instructions to the Italian Cooperation to increase attention to the dramatic humanitarian emergency involving the populations affected by civil war in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Cooperation today dispatched several tonnes of World Health Care supplies, along with five electrical units donated by the Don Bosco Ngangi mission located near the city of Goma, which has been working for years in this area whose serious humanitarian emergencies have been further aggravated by the recent outbreak of armed conflict.

A direct flight took off today from the Brindisi aid depot and will land this evening to Goma as part of a joint emergency operation carried out with the World Health Organization. The Italian Cooperation has carried out a series of aid initiatives in North Kivu in recent weeks, valued at approximately €700,000 and mainly concentrated in the healthcare sector, in support of women victims and for the treatment and reintegration of child soldiers.

During the Christmas festivities, in collaboration with the Goma Caritas, 1000 food kits were distributed to 919 families(4500 persons) identified by UN agencies as in extreme need and living in precarious conditions in the three refugee camps set up around the Goma city schools.

ESTERI 

WORKPLACE LESSONS TO CONSIDER IN 2013

Do you have a smartphone? Does it enable you to read and respond to office mail? Does that impress you? Have you, as a manager, fallen into the habit of sending official communication to staff through their mobile gadgets even after work hours?

As you resume duty in the New Year, think about the new labour law in Brazil that classified responding to office e-mail after official work hours as overtime. It took effect around this time of the year.

The proliferation of smartphones in Brazil had resulted in a habit by managers to engage staff on work issues even after they had gone home, making a joke of the highly recommended work-life balance.

Concerned, authorities decided to act through legislation before the habit could grow out of hand.

Word about the law quickly sparked a worldwide discussion. It emerged that some companies in Europe had come up with policies to block the office system from routing official communication to employees’ mobile phones unless they were on duty or on emergency calls.

In Kenya, thanks to increasing affordability of smartphones, a craze similar to what Brazil moved to contain is catching on.

Human resource management consultant Samuel Gichuki made this revelation in February last year. He had himself experienced the practice in one of the places he had worked.

“I don’t think I will ever forget the pressure,” he declared, naming telecom companies and organisations with international links as some of the environments that the smartphone bug had penetrated.

He offered a suggestion that workplace managers might need to think about seriously this year.

He said: “The best way for employers who provide [smartphones], which in many cases are necessary for the proper performance of the recipients’ work, is to craft policies that will clearly specify the circumstances under which the facilities are provided, the limits within which they may be used, under what circumstances the employee cannot be at fault for not using them, and what compensation, if any, the employee may receive if they are asked to use the facilities outside of the policy guidelines.”

And it would be important that such guidelines are not breached or overlooked by the managers. Employees are increasingly aware of their rights and they are not hesitating to take matters to the Industrial Court if they feel aggrieved.

This is courtesy of the Industrial Court Act 2011, which accords the Industrial Court powers similar to that of the High Court, and makes it more accessible to employees.

Commercial law advocate Geoffrey Odongo said in February last year that with just about Sh1,000 as filing fee, an aggrieved individual – and not necessarily through a trade union as before in the case of a unionisable staff member – could be granted a hearing.

Kenya Airways tasted the powers of the reconstituted Industrial Court in December when the court asked it to unconditionally reinstate retrenched staff. The company had laid off some 447 employees, citing hard economic times.

The affected staff went to court through their union, alleging that their retrenchment had not been carried out in good faith.

Industrial Court judge James Rika agreed with them, and ruled that the act had indeed been “substantively without justification and procedurally wrong, amounting to unfair termination of employment”.

Therein lies a lesson for human resources managers to avoid being caught up in similar predicament this year.

And speaking of lessons, American author, professor, speaker and management consultant Dave Ulrich, known for his many books on HR, leadership and management, made a stop-over in Nairobi for a half-day lecture at Safari Park Hotel before proceeding to South Africa. That was in June.

Prof Ulrich’s talk was hinged on the future of human resource management. The most striking message was that time had come for HR managers to start going out there to interact regularly with the company’s key external clients if they wanted to design HR policies that truly responded to the needs of customers.

The professor recommended that half a day each month for such an interaction would make a difference and take HR practice to the next level.

A reminder to give the suggestion some consideration this year isn’t a bad idea, is it?

The government must also be reminded of the series of intense industrial action that embarrassed it last year, especially in the ministries of medical services and of education.

The authoritarian manner by which these arms of government responded to the strikes backfired a number of times.

Threats about sacking were not working any more, prompting messages suggesting that times had changed and the government needed to approach the management of its human capital more professionally.

Speaking at a conference hosted by the Institute of Human Resource Management and relevantly titled “Raising the Bar in HR Practice”, the managing director of Unilever East and Southern Africa Yaw Nsarkoh argued that the public service should be the first place where the best human resource management practices were exercised.

Businesses, he explained, relied on the services offered by the public sector as the regulatory and facilitative arm of the nation.

It follows therefore that the public sector should have the best talent serving in it for good delivery of service to the private and other sectors.

But for the public sector to attract the best talent, it has to first put in place attractive and motivating working conditions.

“A country that wants to compete in the world needs the best talent in the public sector,” suggested Mr Nsarkoh. “There is no other way,” he stressed and gave the example of Singapore, whose rapid development had been made possible by a public service represented by highly motivated and attractively compensated human capital.

If this argument is to be followed, it means that the success of the Kenya’s ambitious Vision 2030 to become a middle-income industrialising state is hinged on an efficient public sector.

The Public Service Commission, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and any other relevant authority might want to bear this in mind as a new team assumes leadership of the government after the general elections in March.

Daliy Nation 

TWO ABDUCTED UN PEACEKEEPERS FREED IN DARFUR

Two Jordanian peacekeepers working for the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) have been freed, after nearly four and half months in captivity, the mission’s spokesperson said Wednesday.

Hasan Al-Mazawdeh and Qasim Al-Sarhan, the mission said, were abducted in August last year by an armed group while on patrol in Kebkabiya town, about 140 kilometres west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

The UN had prior to the incident, reportedly warned of rising insecurity in the troubled region.

“The two Jordanian officers working for UNAMID in North Darfur State have been released after being kidnapped by an armed group in the region, since August last year,” Aicha Elbasri, the UNAMID spokesperson said in a statement.

“They were medically checked and they appear to be unharmed and in good health,” she added.

They two officers will be flown to Khartoum and back to their home country as soon as possible, the mission said in a statement.

Their release, sources say, followed sustained efforts by the mission, the Sudanese authorities and the Jordanian government.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General has commended the efforts of UNAMID, the Government of Sudan and the Government of Jordan in securing the release of the abductees.

The UN chief, in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune, underscored the importance of the peacekeeping and humanitarian work in Darfur, calling on the Sudanese government to fully investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible.

He however emphasized that the primary responsibility for the safety and security of all peacekeeping personnel in UNAMID and the humanitarian community lies with the host government.

Aichatou Mindaoudou, the UNAMID Acting Joint Special Representative on Wednesday expressed the mission’s thanks to the Government of Sudan, the Governor of North Darfur, and the Government of Jordan for their valuable assistance in the safe release of the peacekeepers.

Jordan’s police directorate on Wednesday also welcomed the release the two peacekeepers.

“Police corporals Hassan Mazawdeh and Qasem Sarhan are now at the Jordanian mission, enjoying good health,” a statement from the Jordanian Kingdom’s Public Security Directorate partly reads.

"We thank the Sudanese government and the United Nations for their help, support and coordination," it adds.

Jordanian authorities, according to the statement, are in contact with the Sudanese government as well as the UN to ensure the immediate and safe return of the two officers.

WAVE OF KIDNAPPINGS

In May last year, unknown people freed a Briton working for the UN World Food Program (WFP) in Darfur, after nearly three months in captivity.

Earlier on in February, rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) reportedly freed five Turks they had held captive for several months.

FOUR YEAR OLD GIRL RAPED, STRANGLED BY NEIGHBOURS

A family in Mombasa is struggling to come to terms with the loss of their four year old daughter who was raped and strangled to death on Sunday evening by her two neighbours.

Family members said the girl was raped at a nearby house that is usually used a restaurant. The girl had gone missing while playing with her friends.

According to the father of the deceased, family members mobilised a search party for their missing daughter, only to find her in the restaurant sandwiched between the two defilers.

Eyewitnesses said one suspect strangled the girl from the back, as his accomplice engaged in the act.

One of the suspects managed to escape. Angry residents attempted to lynch the suspect who was caught but the police intervened.

The incident occurred in Kizingo estate, a short distance from the Mombasa law court.

“It was around six in the evening when we discovered that our daughter was missing and decided to look for her at neighbouring houses. That is when we found her at the restaurant,” narrated the father of the deceased, Bashir Abdi, as he fought back tears.

"She was bleeding from all her body openings and her neck was swollen.”

He said that they later took the girl to Coast General hospital where she was confirmed dead.

“This was a neighbour well known to the child and has even been present since her birth. We are still shocked at what amde him to do such a thing,” said Mr Abdi.

When the Nation visited the scene of the crime on Monday, chairs and tables were still scattered on the floor. Dried blood stains were spattered in a section of the eating area where family members claimed they found their daughter.

The girl’s eight year old brother described her as ‘cheerful’ person.

The mother was overwhelmed and could not talk to the media. Relatives said she was too distressed to speak to anyone including her own family.

Mombasa police boss Kipkemboi Rop confirmed that they are currently holding the suspect and that he will be arraigned in court later in the week.

He also confirmed that they are looking for the second suspect who managed to escape.

“We have arrested the suspect and are still undertaking investigations and he will appear in court on Wednesday or Thursday. It is very unfortunate that the child was found to have been defiled before being murdered,” said Mr Rop.

NATION