A FRENCH LADY WITH DISABILITY IS SET TO BREAK A RECORD OF CLIMB MOUNT KILIMANJARO

Chrystel Alquvier  clapping hands as she was marking his taugh journey to African Mountain Summit

Chrystel Alquvier  srrounded by her Friends some minutes before the journey started 

"Iam prepared to reach to Mt Kimanjaro SUMMIT"

Read More

Kenya arrests Tanzanian student with 5.4kg of heroine

Kenyan authorities are interrogating a Tanzanian lady student after intercepting 5.44 kilograms of heroine at the country's main airport.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said on Friday the 25-year- old lady was arrested on Wednesday evening during an ongoing surveillance and targeting operation aimed at curbing drug trafficking through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

KRA spokesman Kennedy Onyonyi said the suspect was picked from the transit area after the officers went through the passenger manifest for Sabena Airlines.

"The drug was concealed in the false 'top and bottom' of a Japan Express suitcase and was wrapped in black plastic paper to avoid detection at the screening machines," Onyonyi said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The East African nation has been restructuring the anti- narcotics police unit which has helped the country improve its capability to arrest drug peddlers using Kenya as a transit hub.

The authorities claimed to have made major gains since December 2010 following the arrest of several drug traffickers at the JKIA and along the Indian Ocean in Mombasa.

Read More

Thomson Safaris hand over teachers` two in one house

An American tour firm has shined as a multinational company that is a rare example for giving back to the communities where it operates.

Thomson Safaris won the hearts of the Maasai community for fulfilling its corporate social responsibility right at Ngorongoro district in Arusha region.

In a country where the search is always on for corporate social responsibility success stories, Thomson Safaris has shined as a multinational company that is seen as doing most things right.

Natural resources rich Ngorongoro district council vice-chairperson Edward Maura said the Thomson Safaris spirit towards the community where it operates merits emulation.

“If all tour company would be considerate like Thomson Safaris to the community, I am sure the living standards of Tanzanian communities would have been improved significantly,” said Mr. Maura, the Nainokanoka ward councilor.

He was receiving the Nainokanoka primary school teachers’ furnished modern house worth $40,710 built by Thomson Safaris in partnership with a US-based organization, Focus on Tanzanian Communities (FoTZC).

“We are ready to offer the company a potential area to invest in Nainokanoka village to stimulate the area’s economic undertakings,” he stated.

Judi Wineland, the director of Thomson Safaris and board member of FoTZC, said that Tanzania is becoming a shining star on the continent in various areas.

“Tanzania is shining because of wise elders, both past and current leaders the way they have paved the way for tomorrow’s leaders,” she told the audience.

“Citizens and leaders have to make choices and only a good education allows you to make good choices,” she explained.

“Education shows you opportunities you never thought possible. Education allows you to make changes if you want,” she stated.

One must get an education and for that to happen there must be good teachers.

“Today we pass over to the people of Tanzania housing for those most precious teachers who will lead you into the future...and teach you how to make choices, and show you opportunities,” the corporate organizer stressed.

She said tourism brings guests who visit the villages and who believe that education is the foundation for tomorrow.

“For the past 30 years Thomson Safaris has brought guests to Tanzania.

Many of them joined together to form an NGO: FoTZC ...and they have focused on Nainokanaoka along with Thomson Safaris. We thank the guests of Thomson Safaris and the donors of FoTZC for their generous gifts to this village,” she concluded.

FoTZC director of development, Ms Eliza Hatch, pledged to continue supporting the community for a better future.

Ngorongoro District Commissioner Elias Wawa-Lali commended Thomson Safaris directors Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland for their willing hearts to giving back to the poor community.

“These people have been extending a helping hand in many communities

in Ngorongoro district in education, health and relief for calamities like hunger,” he said.

Ngorongoro MP Saning’o Telele also expressed his gratitude for the company for its efforts to uplift Maasai communities.

Thomson Safaris general manager John Bearcroft says by the end of the travel season 2013-14, the total contribution to communities since 2008 through various projects, business, and fees is expected to have reached $919,520 at current pace.

Also by the end of the period under review, FoTZC projects would have spent a total of $502,583 on community projects in villages surrounding the Enashiva Nature Refuge since 2008.

Projects completed include four modern two-in-one teachers homes at four different schools of Sukenya, Orkiu, Soit Sambu primary schools and Soit Sambu Secondary, worth more than $40,000 each. 

Read More

Jasusi wa Ufaransa auawa Somalia

 

Jasusi Denis Alex

Kundi la wanamgambo la kiisilamu Al-Shabab, limesema kuwa limemuua jasusi wa Ufaransa ambaye walikuwa wamemzuilia.

Inaarifiwa Al Shaabab wamemuua Jasusi Denis Alex baada ya jaribio la makomando wa Ufaransa la kumuoka kutibuka.

Serikali ya Ufaransa imesema inaamini kuwa Allex aliuawa wiki jana wakati wa jaribuio la kumuokoa ambapo pia makomando wawili wa ufaransa waliuawa.

Allex alitekwa nyara nchini Somalia mwezi Julai mwaka 2009.
Wanamgambo wa Al-Shabaab, ambao wana uhusiano na al-Qaeda, walisema kupitia mtandao wa kijamii wa Twitter kuwa Allex aliuawa siku ya Jumatano.

Awali Al-Shabab walitishia kumuua Allex na kusema ni kwa sababu ya jaribio la makomando wa Ufaransa kutaka kumuokoa wakisema kuwa Ufaransa inapaswa kulaumiwa kwa kifo chake.
Siku ya Jumatano,takriban makomando hamsini walishambulia kwa helikopta ngome ya al-Shabab katika eneo la Bulo Marer, wakiamini kuwa Allex alikuwa anazuiliwa mjini humo.
Aidha Al-Shabaab walisema kuwa iwalikuwa na habari ya kuwa shambulio lingetoa dhidi yao na kwamba Alex hakuwepo mjini Bulo wakati huo.
Ufaransa inasema kuwa wanamgambo 17 waliuawa wakati wa makabiliano kati yao na makomando wa Ufaransa, na kwamba yalidumu kwa saa moja.  

Raia kadhaa waliuawa wakati wa makabiliano hayo.
Kwa upande ake, Ufaransa inasema kuwa ililazimika kufanya mashambulizi hayo baada ya kushindwa kumuokoa

Serikali ya Somalia ilisema kuwa haikuwa na taarifa zozote kuhusu mashambulizi hatyo na kuwa inasikitishwa sana na vifo vya raia.

Mnamo Jumatatu, al-Shabab ilichapisha picha ya mwanajeshi wa Ufaransa ambaye kundi hilo linasema alifariki kutokana na majeraha ya risasi,wakati wa uvamizi. 

Somalia haijakuwa na serikali thabiti kwa zaidi ya miongo miwili.

Nayo ufaransa ina kambi kubwa ya kijeshi katika nchi jirani ya Djibouti, ikiwemo kikosi cha jeshi la wanamaji na wanahewa.

Read More

Deadly shooting in Garissa, eastern Kenya

At least five people have been killed and four wounded in a shooting at a restaurant in the town of Garissa in eastern Kenya, local police say.

Somali Islamist group al-Shabab is suspected of being behind the attack. A senior prison officer was among the dead.

Several soldiers and police have been killed in Garissa in recent months.

Al-Shabab has threatened revenge for Kenyan military involvement in Somalia in support of the UN-backed government.

Gunmen burst into the building and opened fire at around 19:30 local time (16:30 GMT), The Standard newspaper reports.

Three people were killed on the spot and two others died on the way to hospital, local media say.

Police in the north-eastern region are on high alert following reports that contingents of militants from Somalia have crossed the border.

In October, gunmen shot dead a police officer and wounded another in Garissa. In November, three Kenyan soldiers and two police were shot dead there.

Two recent incidents thought to involve al-Shabab in the capital Nairobi left at least 15 people dead, triggering increased tension between ethnic Somalis and other Kenyans.

There have also been mass arrests of ethnic Somalis.

Read More

TANZANIA'S VILLAGE EYE $1.455 MILLION IN CARBON TRADE

SIX villages near the sprawling Nou thick forest in northern Tanzania
are eyeing the clean air business to rake in funds under a U.N.-backed
global carbon-trading scheme.

The villages with over 2,141.885 hactors of dense forest have drawn up
plans to reap $1.455 million in ten years in exchange for carbon
offsets, known as carbon emission reductions (CERs).

Experts say the community forest owned jointly by Dohom, Bermi
Bashnet, Long, Qameyu and Endaw villages could offset 24,232 tonnes of
CERs annually worth Tsh 233million ($145,392).

The village would be earning Tsh 9,000 ($6), by reducing a tonne of
carbon dioxide emission, the main agent for global warming.

Currently the villagers are finalizing some conditions, ready to
generate CER units, which are tradable in the carbon market under the
U.N.'s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD) scheme.

Babati Rural District Forest Officer, Josiah Manga told The East
African that the villages have so far managed to demarcate the
community forest borders, registered it and acquired the title deed.

Under the technical support of Farm Africa, an international
organization, plan to launch a pilot carbon trading project next year.

“These six villages will borrow a leaf from the nearby Ayasanda
Village Forest which has been a carbon trading pilot project under
REDD since 2002” Mr Manga explained.

Ayasanda miombo woodland forest covering 550 hactors, earns the
village Tsh 60 million ($40,000) annually for trading CERs.

Bashnet Ward civic leader, Mr Laurence Tara said the goal is to cash
in on carbon dioxide that trees store up and, at the same time, to
slow down the forest destruction in the area.

“The carbon trade would build villagers' trust in forest conservation,
if the survival of Manyara's remaining forests may well depend on
their efforts” Mr Tara explained.

Farm Africa Participatory Forest Management Team leader, Ernest Moshi
said the carbon-trading scheme would take off in January 2013.

The Farm Africa initiative is to assess the potential for communities
to benefit from carbon trading.

Members of village forest councils would be trained to measure how
much carbon their forests store per year, while continuing to manage
their forests sustainably.

“We have supported 13 villages in Babati and Mbulu district of Manyara
region to form community based forest management and joint forest
management” Mr Moshi explained, stressing that in the next phase of
the project, they will cover 33 villages.

Tanzania Participatory Forest Management Project (TPFMP) Coordinator,
Phillip Mbaga said his project pillars are participatory forest
management and improving the livelihood of adjacent forest communities
through forest based income-generating activities.

“We are trying to strike a balance between poverty and conservation
because poor people depending immensely on natural resources as the
source of their livelihood, so in order to have sustainable
conservation, we need to provide alternative sources of income to
these people” Mbaga noted.

Read More