I am jotting these few lines from the offices of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy-Kenya here in Nairobi. It is almost 16:00 Kenyan time. I have just been informed by Mr. Omweri Angima the CMD-K Program Officer that the centre's Executive Director, Ms. Njeri Kabeberi and Mr. Cyprian Orina Nyamwamu, the Chief Executive Officer of NCEC are currently confined at the Lusaka Airport having been barred entry into Zambia where they were going to attend a conference/meeting convened by Freedom House on the Zimbabwean Crisis. Haron Ndobi the well known human rights lawyer walked into the office and briefed me further on the situation, revealing that he had spoken to Njeri over the phone. Mr. Ndobi in turn called up Kenya's Foreign Affairs minister, Mr Moses Wetangula who has since called the country's High Commissioner to Zambia to give the Kenyan government a full briefing. In the meantime, K24, the 24 hour Nairobi-based television station has carried a live telephone interview with Njeri Kabeberi who basically reiterated that they were barred from entering Zambia.
In terms of details, Njeri Kabeberi and Cyprian Nyamwamu were delegates to a meeting entitled "Civil Society Conference on Transitional Processes in Zimbabwe" organized by Freedom House Southern Africa slated to take place in Lusaka, Zambia from 7th to 9th August, 2008.
Among the participating organizations are the following:
Bulawayo Agenda (Zimbabwe) Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (Zimbabwe) Centre for Multiparty Democracy (Kenya) Christian Alliance (Zimbabwe) Combined Harare Residents Association (Zimbabwe) Community Action for Popular Participation/Transition Monitoring Group (Nigeria) CounselinG Services Unit (Zimbabwe) Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (Zimbabwe), Electoral Unit of Southern Africa (with a rep from Cameroon), Foundation for Democratic Process (Zambia), General Agriculture and Plantation (Zimbabwe), Insitute for Security Studies (reps from Zambia and South Africa), Institute for Democracy Assistance in Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), International Commission of Jurists (Zimbabwe) International Centre for Transitional Justice ( reps from Liberia and Sierra Leone)), Law Society (Zimbabwe), Lawyers for Human Rights (Zimbabwe), Lesotho Council Association of NGOs(Lesotho), Media Institute of Southern Afirca (Zimbabwe) Media Monitoring Project (Zimbabwe) National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (Zimbabwe) National Constitution Assembly ( Zimbabwe) NCA/NCEC (Kenya), Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Radio Dialogue (Zimbabwe), Student Solidarity Trust(Zimbabwe), The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, Trust Africa (Zimbabwe) University of Witwatersrand, WOZA, Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe, Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Human RIghts Association, Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, Zimbabwe Nationla Association of Student Unions, Zimbabwe Peace Project and the South African-based SADC Council of NGOs.
Topics of the sessions ranged from "Transitional Governments and Governments of National Unity-Lessons Learned", "Transitional Processes that bring healing to a Country-Can Zimbabwe Get There?" with case studies from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Cyprian was scheduled to present in this session; "Unpacking Technical Processes of Transition" and "Civil Society's Role in Catalyzing a Democratically Acceptable Transitional Process of Zimbabwe".
Given the above topics and the range of civil, peace,democratic, student, women's, workers and other organizations invited to the conference, it is mystifying, to say the very least to fathom the reasons why the Zambian government decided at the eleventh hour to cancel the conference, bar African civil society members from entering another African country among the other draconian measures taken.
Writing as a Kenyan social justice activist and former political prisoner, and more particularly as the Secretary General of the Social Democratic Party, one of the founder members of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy in Kenya, I would like to condemn, in the strongest possible terms the harassment of Njeri Kabeberi, Cyprian Nyamwamu and all those civil society attendeee at the abruptly cancelled conference.
I call upon all those who are reading this to contact the Zambian authorities directly in Lusaka and through their diplomatic representatives around the world to express their outrage, concern, disappointnment or whatever reaction/feeling they have towards today's repressive state measures on the part of the Zambian government. I reaffirm my solidarity with and support for Njeri Kabeberi, Cyprian Nyamwamu and all those Pan Africanist sisters and brothers whose only crime it appears to be to have the temerity of gathering in an African country to seek peaceful and democratic solutions to African problems.\
A lutta continua!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
* Onyango Oloo is Secretary General Social Democratic Party of Kenya Nairobi
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