FAIR GRANTS INVESTIGATIONS 2009–2010

Kenya: mission to cheat Zambian mineworkers and Nigerian farmers Marijuana in Ivory Coast After Zimbabwe’s medical tsunami Black empowerment, Namibia-style Schoolgirl marriages and petrol smugglers in Benin

FORUM for AFRICAN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS Contents 1. Kenya: Mission to cheat Kipchumba Some 1 2. Slave labour in Zambia Alvin Chiinga 4 3. Namibia: Black empowerment gone wrong John Grobler 7 4. Benin: Poverty perpetuates cruel traditions Christophe Assogba 11 5. Benin: Petrol smuggling funds the powerful Kokouvi Eklou 16 6. Kenya: How the African Inland Church robbed its orphans Walter Cheruiyot 19 7. Ivory Coast: The smoking rooms of Abidjan Edouard Denoua Gonto 22 8. Nigeria: Farm subsidies have been stolen, are stolen and will continue to be stolen Aniefiok Udonquak 28 9. Zimbabwe after the medical tsunami Stanley Kwenda 31 About the FAIR Grants

n 2009, as in previous years, the Forum for African gladly accept donations to the governing party from petrol Investigative Reporters allocated grants to a number of smugglers whilst purporting to clamp down on them. African investigative journalists to enable them to follow Edouard Gonto, meanwhile, makes us question whether up on an investigative story which would otherwise, due the governance frameworks that send entire police brigades Ito a lack of time and resources, not have seen the light of day. to chase marijuana users in Ivory Coast – jailing children in The investigations were done, the stories were written and the process – are suitable in a country where poor farmers this is the result. This brochure contains nine articles in total, increasingly turn to the ‘herb’ as a more profitable crop than revealing hidden truths from East, West and southern Africa, cocoa or coffee. And Christophe Assogba attempts to answer exposing injustices ranging from child abuse in Benin to elite the question as to why parents in Benin continue to adhere to enrichment in Namibia and murders of policemen in Kenya. medieval traditions, by mutilating and selling off their young The articles were first published, as per the grants rules, in daughters in spite of the efforts made by a dozen NGOs. the African media that the awarded journalists work for. This All of the above is also in line with FAIR’s mission, which is in keeping with the objective of the FAIR grants, which is not seeks to increase transparency, democracy and citizen’s merely to produce a booklet, but to deliver quality journalism empowerment through quality investigative journalism. to the African public through the media that serve it. Please visit FAIR’s website www.fairreporters.org, or its In the aftermath of some of the publications in the Facebook page (Forum for African Investigative Reporters) for particular countries, strides were made by the public regular updates on new grants projects. FAIR –‘fairreporters’- and civil society to address the injustices that the FAIR can also be followed on Twitter. investigations had brought to light. In Nigeria, thanks to Aniefiok Udonquak’s persistence in following up on farm FAIR, July 2010 subsidies corruption, state reform in the administration of these subsidies is back on the agenda. The donors of the The 2009–2010 grants project was made possible by Freevoice. African Inland Church in Kenya, which robbed the orphans it pretended to care for, have been alerted to the full extent of the fraud because of Walter Cheruiyot’s work in unearthing The grants investigations were managed and peer mentored just what had happened there. The money-pilfering, state- by Charles Rukuni owned Namibia Wildlife Resources Company has folded This compilation was edited by Evelyn Groenink partly as a result of John Grobler’s meticulous checking up Typesetting and production: Compress.dsl on faulty books, and the restructuring of this part of that country’s tourism sector is imminent. More generally, policemen in Kenya have been alerted, by Kipchumba Some, to the dangers posed by a governing party that uses them as tools; unions in Zambia have been shaken by Alvin Chiinga’s exposé on how casual labourers are let down; FORUM for AFRICAN INVESTIGATIVE Kokouvi Eklou has shown up hypocritical rulers in Benin, who REPORTERS Kenyan governing party sent policemen to their deaths Mission to cheat Kipchumba Some

1 ‘We only rescued nine. We don’t know what happened to the rest of them’

Article first published inThe Standard on Saturday, Kenya, 10 April 2010

In the run-up to the 2007 general election, thou- Nyanza. The events on 25 December, Boxing Day, sands of Kenya’s Administration Police officers were described as an ‘ordeal in which the hapless were summoned to their training college in Nairobi AP officers were chased through Nyanza ‘like wild for an undisclosed assignment. It turned out that animals’ by irate opposition ODM supporters, who they were to act as agents of President Kibaki’s Party had somehow become aware of the ‘mission to cheat’. of National Unity, and that they would be sent to Finding out who exactly was attacked and where, ‘work for the party’ in the upcoming elections, is difficult. Every village, every voting station seems planned for 27 December 2007. Their mission: to go to have a story to tell. Out of 22 AP officers, who were to Nyanza, an opposition stronghold, and ensure dropped from a ‘City Hoppa’ bus at Homa Bay police that on the day of the elections ballot boxes would station in Nyanza, only nine made it to the safety be stuffed with pro-government votes. They went of the guarded station. Opposition mobs, who had to Nyanza to prepare to do just that. It is not known been waiting for them, chased and perhaps killed how many exactly ended up dead as a result. the others. ‘We only rescued nine. We do not know On 21 December 2007, a week before the elections, what happened to the rest of them,’ an officer at a government order was sent out to the Administration Homa Bay said. Police (AP) authority in Nairobi. It summoned 3 000 AP The survivors’ tales are equally sketchy. Constable officers to go for training at the ECK training college. Charles Kibet* sustained head wounds when he was They were told to take their civilian clothes. attacked in the village of Nyandhiwa. ‘It was horrible. Upon arrival at the college, a Police It was like a horror movie. Everybody was shouting Commissioner whose name was not disclosed, and and chasing us. We did not have anything to protect equally anonymous college trainers, lectured them ourselves with. We were at the mercy of the angry on politics. They were agents of this government, villagers.’ Constable Kibet, pleading with his attackers they said, and they were expected to now also be that he was also originally from the same ethnic agents of the governing Party of National Unity of background as they, survived the ordeal with ‘only’ a President Mwai Kibaki. machete cut to his head. ‘I told them I was a Kalenjin, After the lectures, specific instructions followed. and thus could not be their enemy,’ he says. At the time, They were told that they would be taken to Nyanza, the Kalenjin and Luo tribes were solidly united behind an opposition stronghold. They had to hand in their the ODM’s presidential candidate, Raila Odinga. IDs and instead carry PNU letters, with president Odinga would eventually become Prime Minister Kibaki’s signature. They were also given envelopes after the 28 February 2008 power sharing deal. with money in it (it is not known how much, Ed.). Constable Richard Momanyi* was also lucky Not everybody received the same instructions, or to survive. He was attacked while looking for ‘his’ the money, however. As the contingent that was to voting station at the Uriri trading centre in Nyanza. go to Nyanza took an oath to ‘serve’, it saw a group ‘They beat me up, held me down and threatened to of other ‘trainees’ leaving the camp. Some in the castrate me. I pleaded with them that I was not their contingent knew some of the men who left: these enemy. I gave them all the money I had. A highway colleagues were originally from Nyanza. It seemed traffic patrol officer who found me escorted me to probable that they were removed from the group Kisili and gave me money to go home.’ because they could be opposition supporters. At the Sori trading centre, where another voting The Standard on Saturday has obtained some station was installed, some locals described how and accounts from eyewitnesses on what happened why they killed an AP inspector on the afternoon of that day, two days before the elections in South Christmas Day. ‘He alighted from a bus and started

2 ‘The man on the other end said they were going to kill him’

acting suspiciously. When we asked him who he learnt that a number of them had been sent to the was, he reached into his breast pocket. We thought region to cheat in the elections. he was removing a gun and that is when we lynched On 25 December, Jane Wambui received a call him,’ said a local. from the mobile phone that belonged to her husband, Several female officers were also deployed for the George Githuati. ‘A strange voice asked whether we operation. A senior source within the AP disclosed knew the owner of the phone. We said yes. The man that some of them, including the daughter of a on the other end said they were going to kill him.’ senior AP adjutant, were raped. The female officers George Githuati, who hailed from Watuka village, refused to talk about their ordeal. Mweiga division, Nyeri District, had served the The Administration Police, the Police and the force for 26 years, since 1981. After several months government have not released the names of officers of searching, his family finally found his body and killed during the clashes, or even their numbers. transported it back to his home for burial. ‘It was a bitter moment for me. We had lost the central pillar Still missing of our family,’ says Jane Wambui. From an informal list in possession of The Standard A Constable Joseph Kioko is also believed to have on Saturday, we were able to confirm the deaths died, but his force number could not be ascertained, of several officers mentioned on it. One of them is nor his family traced. constable Willam Nyamu, who had only been in the force for one year and had been stationed at A stony silence Kericho. Officially speaking, William Nyamu, of Families of those Administration Police officers who force number 2003052252, is only still ‘missing’. were killed have not had word, let alone compensation, ‘William informed us on December 24 that he was for the death of their loved ones. The government is going to work in Nyanza and would be back on 28 maintaining a stony silence on the matter. Neither the December. We are still keeping faith that he will AP High Command nor senior government officials return,’ says his mother, Pauline Njeri Kahiru. were ready to comment on the story or provide details After six months, in June 2006, a delegation from on the number of officers killed, missing or injured. the AP headquarters visited Kahiru to confirm that Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis her son was now officially missing. ‘They told me Kimenia did not respond to our requests for comment. that he might have died in the operation, but could Assistant minister in the same ministry Ojode said not be certain’ said Kahiru, who adds that she cried he ‘did not have information’ concerning the whole for ‘days on end’. Pauline Kahiru was also informed issue since it happened ‘before his appointment’. that it would take seven years before her son could Contacted for comment, AP Commandant be declared legally dead. ‘It is painful to lose a child. Kinuthia Mbugua referred us to AP spokesman It is even more tormenting not to know whether he Masoud Munyi. Munyi however declined to disclose is dead or alive. It would have been better if I had the number of the officers killed. ‘It would evoke bad seen his body and buried it,’ she concludes sadly. memories for the families of the affected soldiers. Jane Wambui, a mother of four, will never Kindly let us comfortably leave it at that. It is not in understand why her husband of 24 years, Constable anybody’s interest to dwell on such things for that George Mwangi Githsuathi, of force number long. Those are things that happened long ago and 810103555, had to die. ‘We know that officers die in need not to be pursued at this time,’ he said. the line of duty but was whatever he was going to do worth his life?’ she asks. Githuati was killed at a *The real names of Constables Charles Kibet and road block in Migori town where ODM supporters Richard Momanyi have been changed to protect their were screening vehicles for AP officers, after they identities since they are still serving in the force.

3 Government kowtows tearfully to new investors Slave labour in Zambia Alvin Chiinga

4 Article first published inThe Daily Mail, Zambia, 18 March 2010

Kingsley Kavwili daily finds himself about 400 of the companies in this FDI category were paying feet underground, mining copper. His face always low wages and that the hiring of casual labour drips with sweat as he works the hot tunnels. He was rife, with just a few workers on fixed terms of earns US$ 30 per month: hardly enough for one employment. The report also said that the quality person to live on. And he has a family to feed. of the employment offered fell short of decent Under Zambian labour law, the basic wage for work standards, mainly because of poor pay and a worker is US$ 55. In addition each worker has to conditions of work, casual labour and hazardous be paid a transport allowance of US$ 16, a lunch work environments. allowance of US$ 15 and a housing allowance, The mining industry is the backbone of the which should be 30% of the basic salary, as well as Zambian economy. It accounts for more than 70% healthcare. Kavwili is not getting any of this because of export earnings and more than half the gross he is a casual worker. As such, he cannot engage his domestic product. There were days that the sector employers in any meaningful negotiations for better was strong, with a strong unionised work force. In pay or conditions. 1991, mining unions were even instrumental in Casual workers are also not accommodated kicking out Zambia’s founding president Kenneth like the regular workers by the mines: they live in Kaunda, replacing him with trade unionist ramshackle structures dotting the surrounding Frederick Chiluba. areas of the mines. Kingsley Kavwili lives in a shack But much has changed in Zambia since the now near the China Non-Ferrous Company–Africa notorious privatisation of mines that took place (NFCA) mine in the town of Luanshya on the between 1997 and 2000. International, mostly Zambian Copperbelt. Whereas regular workers Chinese, companies, waving hard currency, came receive protective clothing, as well as medical in. The weak Zambian government welcomed them attention for the many diseases and ailments that with open arms, never daring to present the new come with working in mines which are treated with big kids on the block with any rules, regulations or, cyanide and other chemical compounds, the casual perish the thought, talk of workers’ rights. workers have no right to any of these things. The result is that some companies now virtually Kavwili is one of the thousands of casual workers run on casual work. The Chinese NFCA mine at that are employed in Zambia’s mining industry. Chambishi, for example, has 1 800 casual workers No one knows how many casual workers there are and only 71 full-time employees. In comparison, presently in this industry, the highest employer in the older and more established Konkola Copper the country after the government. The only report Mines employ only 6 000 casual workers out of a that mentions figures is a 2004 study by the Institute total workforce of 16 000. of Security Studies in Zambia. This study reported Whilst Kingsley Kavwili doesn’t complain that there were, in that year, 29 868 workers in the much, his colleague Brian Lundwe openly blames mining industry. More than a third of these – 11 785 the authorities for their suffering. ‘Our government according to the ISS – were casual employees. doesn’t monitor our working conditions,’ he says. The government should actually do just that because Poor pay and hazardous work casual workers are protected under Zambian law. The percentage is likely to have gone up since then. The law states that anyone employed for more than A report on the social and economic impact of Asian three months must be confirmed as a full-time Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the extractive employee. So why don’t the authorities intervene in industry in Zambia (1997–2007), showed that most the situation, which is widely known?

5 ‘At present, we have not prosecuted anyone’

Senior Labour Officer at the Ministry of Labour minister Alice Simango shed tears before television and Social Security, Chikula Chinyanta, agrees that cameras at the sight of underfed miners clad in rags, there is ‘weak monitoring’. He also admits that, without any protective wear, at foreign-owned coal while his ministry is aware that companies are mine Maamba Collieries in Southern Province. breaking the laws that regulate the hiring of casual Similarly, her colleague, Labour and Social Security workers, it prefers ‘negotiating’ with employers Deputy Minister Simon Kachimba declared himself rather than prosecuting them. ‘At present, we have to be ‘shocked’ when he found that workers in not prosecuted anyone in the mines who employs another foreign-owned foundry were casting metal workers on a casual basis,’ he says, explaining later in very hot conditions without any gloves or safety that the ministry feared ‘having to pay legal costs if boots. it lost any court case’. Neither Shimango nor Kachimba, however, did So far, according to Chinyanta, such negotiations anything more than express their pain publicly. had not resulted in better treatment of casual Asked for his stance on the situation, Mine workers, or the conversion of long-term casual Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) President Rayford workers to full-timers. He said that this ‘could only Mbulu said that it was not easy to monitor the plight be dealt with if his ministry would be better placed of casual workers because ‘they are not union to handle the issue of casual work’. He added that members’, and ‘most Chinese mining companies the ministry did ‘not have enough manpower or did not recognise the MUZ’. Mbulu said that the transport to monitor casual work’. union had taken the matter of the casual workers The v irtual abandonment of the mining sector by to court and sometimes won, but that nothing the Zambian government has led to a situation that had happened. Observers blamed the lack of could not have been imagined even 20 years ago. implementation of court decisions on ‘political Mining conditions, mining pollution and worker interference’. exploitation are so bad that, in 2007, provincial

6 Closed holiday resorts and a bottomless pit of US$ 100 million Namibia: Black empowerment gone wrong John Grobler

7 John Grobler published a series of articles on this subject in The Namibian between August 2009 and January 2010. The series ruffled so many feathers that on 8 January 2010, Grobler was assaulted at a public nightspot in Windhoek by three men, one of whom was a former Koevoet member, Kiliat Kamana. Kamana is also the main supplier of soap products to the NWR. Among the attackers was also David Imbili, a former son-in-law of former President Sam Nujoma. Namibian taxpayers have paid more than US$ 40 Unexplained grants and unhappy auditors million into the state-owned Namibia Wildlife At the occasion, NWR managing director Tobie Resorts Company (NWR) in the past two years, Aupindi said the company had made a successful even though the company has not managed to turnaround and had earned a profit of N$ 9 million maintain, or even keep open, some of the country’s (US$ 1.2 million), enhancing shareholder value. most important holiday resorts. An analysis of the company’s financial statements, The N W R, led by SWAPO Secretar y General Iv ula however, showed that this was not true and that its Ithana’s nephew Tobie Aupindi, has swallowed up performance was actually dismal. It owed N$ 110.4 US$ 40 million through grants and debt write-offs. It million (US$ 14.7 million) at the end of 2006 and this recently claimed that it had successfully carried out had worsened to N$ 241.6 million (US$ 32.2 million) a turn-around and even paid a dividend to its sole last year. This did not include its current overdraft shareholder, the government, but an investigation and grants from the government. found that this was not true and that the NWR Industry analyst Gielie van Zyl pointed out remains riddled with debts. that the profit announced by Aupindi included The NWR was given loans totalling N$ 241.6 an unexplained grant of N$ 29 million (US$ 3.9 million (about US$ 30 million) backed by the million). Though the figure is contained in the Namibian government over the past five years. It 2008/09 financial report, there is no explanation of also had an overdraft of N$ 27 million and grants what the grant was for or where it came from. of N$ 44 million (together slightly more than US$ A closer look at the NWR’s financial statements 10 million) making a total of N$ 312.6 million. This also showed that the company made a loss of amount translates to a total of US$ 41.7 million. N$ 9.1 million (US$ 1.2 million) before grants in The NWR saga shows a black empowerment 2009. Though this was a remarkable improvement adventure gone horribly wrong, with once from the previous year when it made a loss of successful holiday resorts now closed and potential N$ 22.3 million (US$ 3 million), the auditors, KPMG, tourist income for the struggling African country qualified each and every financial statement. The cut off, whilst enriching a few handsomely salaried reason: the auditors could not be provided with bosses of the entity. adequate documentary proof that opening bank The NWR was established in 1998 and manages balances were what NWR said they amounted to. 23 restcamps and campsites in Namibia. It is No further explanation is offered by the NWR board supposed to produce its financial statements in their financial reports. annually within six months of the end of the A closer reading of the state resort operator’s financial year. The company, however, did not results reveals that the NWR would have been produce any annual financial statements until completely broke had it not been for generous secret April this year, when it released results for the years cash injections from the state. 2004–2009. Documents obtained during the investigation showed, for example, that on 20 December 2007 the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET)

8 transferred N$ 51 million (US$ 6.8 million) from its choice state-owned resorts, conservatively valued Development Fund to the NWR. The fund was set at N$ 300 million, under the Public-Private- up to assist the development of community-based Partnership scheme to companies with links to tourism. A further N$ 19 million (US$ 2.5 million) SWAPO. The resorts, the Von Bach Dam (which was transferred from the same fund to the NWR on solely provides all fresh water for Namibia’s capital, 18 March 2008. Windhoek), the West Coast Recreation Park, the The first tranche was authorised by Erica Rehoboth Spa and the Daan Viljoen Resort, were to Akuenye, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the have been revamped in time for the World Cup in department, who insisted that the funds had to be South Africa. Of these, only the Reho Spa was open kept secret. ‘This letter serves to inform you that for tourism use in time. The other resorts remain N$ 51 million will be transferred to your company’s closed and are at least a year or two away from account,’ the letter read. ‘The funds must be kept re-opening. save (sic) until you receive written guidance from SWAPO Secretary-General and Justice Minister MET management on the utilisation thereof.’ The Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana has been mentioned as a second tranche, with an identical letter – with the powerful figure behind the secret funding of the same spelling error – was signed by Albert Mieze, NWR. Iivula-Ithana is Aupindi’s aunt. He served as Director of Tourism. Both officials have since left her personal assistant in the early 1990s when she the ministry. was still Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport. The N$ 70 million is not reflected in the NWR’s 2007/08 financial report. The secret funding of Secretary General supplies restcamps the struggling state resort operator appeared to be Iivula-Ithana seemed to be personally concerned largely prompted by political considerations by the when FAIR started to investigate the NWR saga. ruling party SWAPO, which is finding it difficult to She sent an email to her nephew Tobie Aupindi sell its ‘Black Economic Empowerment’ projects and expressing such concern, and slandering reporter has touted the NWR as one of its success stories. John Grobler as an ‘ex Koevoet’(1). When Grobler published an exposé that showed how the tender A management degree from Nicosia process was manipulated to hand the Von Bach, Aupindi recently declared a dividend of N$ 15 Reho and Daan Viljoen assets to individuals closely million to the state, but immediately after that the associated with Iivula-Ithana, she published the MET was forced to pump another N$ 44 million into same accusations on SWAPO’s official website. the NWR to save it from total bankruptcy. Aupindi Iivula-Ithana was accused of corruption, but has since announced that he is stepping down next was cleared by the Anti-Corruption Commission year. (ACC) because of her Omuthiya-based Ha-Na- Neither Aupindi nor the NWR board has Ne butchery’s exclusive deal to supply all Etosha responded to emailed questions surrounding restaurants with fresh meat. Explaining why his grants and other misleading claims made in the Commission cleared her, ACC Director Paulus NWR’s annual reports for 2004–2009. Aupindi has Noa said the NWR was not obliged to use an open also refused to respond to questions regarding and competitive tender system in allocating this his University of Nicosia (Cyprus) PhD degree contract, still in place four years later. in management. Aupindi did finalise an MBA at Circles around Iivula-Ithana also appear to have the University of Namibia, but his PhD has been an interest in the touted development of a ‘lifestyle questioned, particularly because Nicosia is a place village’ at the Von Bach Dam, Windhoek’s principal notorious for so-called ‘mail order’ degrees. source of fresh water. A company called ‘Donors Meanwhile, the NWR has handed over several Investments’, with strong links to the SWAPO Party

9 Youth League (SPYL), is a 30% shareholder in this Walt as their champion), and are closely linked to development.(2) Iivula-Ithana’s powerbase in this wing of the ruling Donors Investments was a vehicle that dealt party. with SWAPO’s properties, one-time director and Van der Walt said that the NWR’s Tobie Aupindi recently anointed SWAPO MP Piet van der Walt and local businessman Desie Amunyela were involved claimed in an interview. However, no trace could in the running of Donors Investments, but both be found of such a company in SWAPO’s extensive Amunyela and Aupindi denied that this was so. property portfolio, which is managed by its wholly owned Kalahari Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Instead, Donors (1) Koevoet was the para-military counter- Investments appeared to be linked to the SWAPO insurgency wing of the colonial-era South West Youth League’s own commercial interests outside African Police (SWAPOL). that of wider SWAPO commercial interests. All its (2) See: http://www.namibian.com.na/index. recognised officials are known to be SPYL members php?id=28&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=59711&no_cache=1 (and who pushed the political neophyte Van der

10 Poverty perpetuates cruel traditions in Benin Woe to the girl who grows breasts early Christophe Assogba

11 ‘The child usually ends up with an older man who is already married’

Article first published inLa Nouvelle Gazette, Benin, on 13 April 2010

In the rural areas of Benin, girls as young as 11 to my husband’s house. I didn’t know that my father leave school to get married and have children. was arranging a marriage for me. If I had known, I Child marriage and female circumcision – a ritual would have run away from home.’ intended to increase a young girls’ value on the market – are age-old practices that continue to ‘Trade’ in young girls endanger the health and future of many young Child marriage in Benin takes place in many forms. girls in Benin. Though the practices have been Often, as soon as there is a female newborn, a outlawed, and numerous NGOs and institutions marriage proposal is put on the table by an interested campaign throughout the country to get parents family. The intended ‘groom’ then closely monitors to stop hurting their daughters, there seems to be the growth of the child up until a certain age, when little result so far. ‘We continue to do these things she is considered ‘ready’ to leave her family and because we are poor.’ marry him. In other cases, girls are even kidnapped. Five years ago, Alimatou Kora (21) was a high Whatever the case may be, the child usually ends up school student in Kandi, a town 600 km to the tied to an older man who is already married. Such north of Cotonou, the country’s economic centre. forced unions do sometimes end in divorce, but in Today, Alimatou holds her two babies in her arms most cases the victims don’t have such an option and cooks gruel at the road side for a living whilst and simply have to take on a life and responsibilities girls who used to be her classmates have finished that are not of their choice. Professor Albert Tingbé school or even attend university. Alimatou would Azalou, socio-anthropologist at the University of have liked to have continued with her studies, but Abomey-Calavi, qualifies the practice as the ‘trade’ her parents decided otherwise. A victim of child in young girls. marriage, Alimatou fights a daily battle in order to There are no reliable statistics on the practice, meet her family’s needs. but NGOs estimate that child marriage may affect Alimatou’s working day starts at 5 o’clock in the one in 15 or even one in ten of girls between 11 and morning, when she lights a fire in the courtyard 15 years old in ten out of Benin’s 12 regions. under a big aluminium pot and prepares gruel. At Schools in the area around Kandi village report 7 o’clock, when the sun appears on the horizon, an increase in the drop-out rate among girls within Alimatou and her two children arrive at their work this age group. Headmaster Jean Lassindé, of Kandi corner. She sets up the rest of her utensils and the Fô primary school, tells us that each year at least day starts. On the days that she has made cakes from two girls in Grade 5 are taken away to be forcibly bean flour as well, the delicious aroma permeates married. ‘In my school, young girls are taken out the fresh, dry air of the Harmattan season and it by their parents and given in marriage to friends or quickly attracts clients. But it’s only when the last relatives. It is intolerable,’ says Lassindé. To make drop of the gruel is sold that Alimatou ends the day matters worse, it is very often the brightest girls who and starts preparing for tomorrow. fall victim to this practice. ‘It is generally the girls Alimatou was 15 years old when she suddenly who work hard who are victims of these removals in found herself under the roof of a man who, before my school.’ In the neighbourhood of Péporiyakou, in then, used to visit her father. She relates, ‘I came Natitingou in the north, people tell us that ‘as soon as back from school one evening. As usual, I did my a girl starts to grow breasts, she is ready for marriage.’ evening house work and after the meal I went to bed. ‘Woe to the young girl who grows breasts early,’ in the During the night, I was woken up and forcibly taken words of Nicolas Saguia, a municipal adviser.

12 ‘My father’s friend visited and called me his wife’

Sometimes, relatives plan a child marriage in education. The worst thing is that the parents without telling the girl’s mother and manipulate the of these girls support this thing,’ fumes Ibrahim girl into agreeing. ‘My daughter was doing very well Assouma, secretary of the office of the Association in class but a marriage was being planned without for Parents of College Students in Kandi. my knowledge with a young boy from the village. Early marriage comes with serious health He took her to Alfa Koara where they now live,’ cries risks. ‘A young girls’ uterus is immature. If she Kandi homemaker Bana Bayé, unable to hold back gives birth at an early age, there is an increased her grief during our conversation. risk of developing of cancer cells,’ explains Emma Falilatou Abdoulaye, 14 years old, was married Mbongo, director of the women’s health NGO, Sin- off against her will during the last school holidays. Do. Another risk identified by health practitioners She wanted to obtain the primary education diploma is fistula: the rupture of the membrane between the that she was to receive this year, but unfortunately bladder, intestines and birth canal. her breasts started to grow. ‘I never asked for a husband. But my parents removed me from school Muslim girls escape the cut in order to give me to a man. He was a friend of my Another traditional practice that haunts girls in father who often used to come to the house and Benin, adding considerably to their health risks, is would affectionately call me his ‘wife’. I didn’t know female circumcision. The mutilatory practice varies why he did that, or that he was frequenting our from the removal of only the clitoris to the complete home because of me, or that this was the reason why excision of all visible private parts and sometimes he would sometimes give me presents. I don’t love even includes vaginal stitching. Meant to increase him and we do not get along,’ she says tearfully. a girl’s chances for marriage, it regularly comes Falilatou never stops crying during our with health complications – such as excessive conversation, asking how long she is going to bleeding and septic shock – which can, and do, endure this, and trying to explain how she wanted cause deaths. Those who survive often suffer to continue with her studies, hoping one day from chronic pain, internal infections, sterility or to become a doctor. Her own parents shattered renal dysfunction. During childbirth, having been her dream. ‘I am not the only one to whom this circumcised can cause serious and sometimes has happened. Many of my classmates were also deadly complications. forcibly given away in marriage by their parents,’ Even though Alimatou Kora, Falilatou she concludes despondently. Abdoulayé and Chantal Kora’s families kept to ‘I was kidnapped one night on my way back from the tradition of early marriage for the girl child, school by some youths from my neighbourhood these three girls escaped the ‘cut’ because they are who were under my father’s instructions to take me Muslim. The Muslim communities of Benin don’t to the home of a man in Ayou (a village 40 km from practice circumcision. But Beninese girls from the Cotonou, Ed.),’ says Chantal Bakpé, a 21-year-old Lokpa and Baatonu communities suffer from both street vendor of medicaments and mother of three. traditional practices: childhood marriage and the ‘I was 15 years old. Later, when my younger sister prevailing view in their communities that they turned 15, the same fate happened to her.’ Chantal should be circumcised before marriage. is now determined to do what she can to avoid early Farmer’s daughter Assana (19) (surname marriage for her three daughters. withheld at her request, Ed.), is a water vendor at the ‘It is revolting to see little girls get married, market in Djougou, 400 km north of Cotonou. Her sometimes even to teachers, whilst at the same clitoris was removed when she was still a little girl. time we speak of gender awareness and girls rights She does not remember exactly how old she was. ‘In

13 ‘In our family, every girl who is born is circumcised’

our family, every girl who is born is circumcised. I sexual instincts and impulses’. The equally elderly am not the first and I will certainly not be the last. Allassane Seidou, from Badjoudè village in northern I don’t have a choice. We are told that tradition Ouaké, is of the view that circumcision helps women requires it,’ she says. Sexual intercourse is painful to ‘contain themselves’ in a polygamous marriage. for Assana, who was married off when she was But all explanations for female genital mutilation 16 years old. ‘I suffer a lot and feel pain instead of have one thing in common: they prepare a girl for pleasurable sensations.’ marriage, since no self-respecting man will marry Afoussa, (surname withheld at her request, an ‘uncut’ girl. And girls must after all be married Ed.) a 17-year-old student at Djougou college, was off, preferably as young as possible. ‘We are poor. We also circumcised. Reluctant to talk at first, Afoussa don’t have money to pay school fees for our children. changed her mind when she was informed that this Our fields are no longer yielding any harvest. That report was meant to help fight the phenomenon. is why we are forced to take our children out from ‘It is my grandmother who circumcised me. I lived school at a very young age and to marry them off. with her when I was quite small. One morning, she Then we can benefit from the dowry,’ explains took me somewhere. There were many of us young elderly farmer Alphonse Sondjo. girls who were circumcised that day. I felt a lot of Sondjo says he regrets having interrupted the pain.’ education of his two daughters, and that he feels Among the Baatonu and Lokpa communities, bad that they are now living in poverty, caring for the procedure can be carried out at any age: at their families with little means, in Ayou village. ‘I birth, during early childhood, during adolescence, know that I have acted wrongly,’ he says, nodding. just before marriage and/or after the birth of the Whether he really means that or only says it because first child. The timing depends on the ethnic group it is the politically correct answer is anybody’s in question and in any one ethnic group it can vary guess. from generation to generation. It is usually elderly women who do the cutting, using knives, blades and Arrests and workshops razors. They then apply a paste made from weeds, The practices are frowned upon in modern earth and ash on the wound to stop the bleeding. Beninese society. Both child marriage and female genital mutilation are officially outlawed. Ever Turning girls into adults since 2003, people who carry out mutilations are The reasons given for the practice vary from one guilty of a crime. Forced child marriage, along with milieu to another and from one community to the other crimes of (sexual) violence against women, next. Surveys quote ancient sayings such as that has been penalised since 2004. a woman who is not circumcised ‘before going But the practices continue in this country, where to her husband’s house’ does not have any value. the majority of inhabitants are poor and illiterate, ‘Circumcision turns girls into adults,’ explains and laws on paper seem to have no bearing on the Bouko Guera, an elder from Alfa Koara. In the realities of life. Even the many NGOs that operate Baatonu region, ‘A man who has sexual relations in this field haven’t made great progress up to now. with a woman who is not circumcised is the laughing According to the NGO Intact which since 1997 has stock of his community,’ says elder Yarou Gounou, a offered alternative job opportunities to professional septuagenarian. According to Gounou, the excision circumcisers, hundreds of these practitioners ‘strengthens the victim to bear suffering, and it have ‘dropped their knives’ in exchange for other creates enthusiasm in the family’. He adds that trades. But the question as to whether parents who ‘circumcision also strengthens the girl to resist her can’t find a ‘professional’ go underground and

14 ‘A man who has sex with an uncircumcised woman is a laughing stock’

use unqualified ‘cutters’ instead has not yet been than 18 information workshops around the themes investigated. of child marriage, civil rights, female ownership Other efforts include NGOs working with the rights, the rights of orphans and widows, genital justice department, and the implementation of mutilation and child trafficking. The NGOs all try a number of awareness raising campaigns. The to conscientise the public at large regarding the NGO Sin-Do has brought a number of perpetrators existing laws governing these issues. of female genital mutilation and child marriage However, if the laments from the parents we crime to justice since 2007. ‘We got more than 400 interviewed are anything to go by, submitting the individuals charged and many of them went to jail,’ girl child to genital mutilation as well as forced early she says. ‘They have all been sentenced for violent marriage will probably continue as long as there is sexual crimes against minors, and for forcibly not enough food on the table in the girls’ parental marrying off children.’ And as far as awareness- homes. raising is concerned, since 2002 the Association for Female Lawyers in Benin has conducted no less

15 Benin: Petrol smuggling funds the powerful Kokouvi Eklou Article first published on www.ebeninois.com, 7 June 2010 Petrol, smuggled into Benin from neighbouring who are well-connected to political circles in Benin. Nigeria, fuels a vast and profitable traders’ In the town of Abomey-Calavi, where he conducts network in the West African country. It even funds most of his smuggling and trading activities, he is the governing party –the same party that says it one of the coordinators of a movement that supports will outlaw it. the sitting president. ‘We are working to re-elect A horde of people landed on one bank of the our Head of State and also our latest legislative and lagoon of Cotonou follow what happens when illegal municipal candidates.’ Far from recognising that petrol dealer Baudouin (not his real name) discovers his trade is illegal, he feels that he is doing good, that he has been cheated. The just-received drums, both in business and in politics. The anger caused that should contain petrol, are found to be filled by the water-for-petrol trick dissipates when he with water instead. Baudouin, as he keeps checking talks with passion about what he sees as best for the petroleum cans just unloaded from the boat he Benin. ‘We want to see our ideals prevail. We want owns, cries out: ‘they will pay heavily for this!’ to continue to conduct our activities for the benefit He feels in his suit pockets for one of his three of the people. it is in their interest that we provide mobile phones. He dials and starts talking. ‘Yes, fuel at a low cost,’ he says. commissioner. I am telling you, its water instead of The interview is interrupted by yet another petrol.’ After a silence he hangs up the phone and lieutenant, a big man, who whispers a few words in calls one of his lieutenants. ‘The commander can Baudouin’s ears. He apologises and leaves, moving do nothing for us. I have given him the names, but towards his car. Hoping for jobs or opportunities I am told that he can’t help us in dealing with the perhaps, the crowd from the lagoon follows him suspects because what we do is illegal.’ until he gets into the vehicle and speeds away. The two companions are annoyed and announce Baudouin and his fellow traders are wholesalers, that they will take revenge on the culprits themselves. active at the waterways’ landings and all along the They start phoning, too: other petrol dealers, to Benin-Nigeria border. They control the trade in inform them of the tricks pulled and asking them to all the border towns: Cotonou, Abomey-Calavi keep their eyes open for any of the cheaters. Igolo, Ifangni, Pobe, Adja Ouèrè, Avrankou, and ‘It’s a 1 million CFA (US$ 2 000) loss at least,’ Kétou Kilibo. Free to move their drums, thanks to growls Baudouin. complicity at the highest political and administra- tive levels both in Benin and Nigeria, they organise Friends in high places transport and distribution of petroleum products Baudouin rules a significant part of the illegal petrol all over Benin. The Beninese Directorate of Internal traffic in Benin. He is, simultaneously, a member of Trade estimates that in 2003 alone, over 300 million a political movement close to the presidency: the liters of oil were sold illegally in that country: an Democratic Renewal Party (PRD). To him, his PRD estimated loss of revenue amounting to 15 billion membership is proof that the government quietly CFA (US$ 3 million). blesses his activities. Not only that, but it should There is some law enforcement activity directed even entitle him to privileges, he feels – which is towards the illegal oil traders. However, despite why he feels disappointed with the commissioner’s the occasional raids and cargo checks along the attitude. He expected better service. ‘I have some routes, the trade continues to flourish. There are friends in high politics and I have helped them, too,’ those who explain this because of the support that he explains. some of the illegal traders provide to powerful Baudouin is part of the inner circle of oil traders politicians. Whereas, at the time when the Yayi Boni

17 ‘This regime embraces fraudsters’

government arrived in 2006, with a campaign to was not happy about the move, which he saw as a end illegal petrol dealing, Benin saw some clashes maneuver to exclude him from the political scene. between smugglers and security forces, lately all He tried and failed again to stand for elections in has been quiet again. 2008, but now, in the run up to the 2011 presidential Critics of the illegal trade complain about what elections, rumours abound that the PRD and seems to be a new honeymoon between the powers- Minakodé will establish a new, fresh connection. that-be and the smugglers. They point at the damage Joseph (alias Midodjoho) Oloyé, a third powerful inflicted to the national economy, to general illegal oil trader in Benin, has never formally entered security and to people’s health: the illegal petrol, politics, but is well-known for his financial support which hasn’t been filtered by well-maintained and of the ruling PRD. His Association of Importers, licensed petrol stations, is quite polluting. Carriers and Retailers of Petroleum Products ‘This regime embraces fraudsters. We live (AITRPP) delivered Oloyé’s hometown Adjarra – a in a system of patronage where all who bring in few kilometers from Porto Novo – to the PRD. ‘Oloyé money are welcome, regardless of where it comes has never been a party member. As an independent from. Political circles are so compromised that he supported Adrien Houngbedji during the 2006 nobody is clean. You can’t apply the law equally to presidential elections. That’s it. But his involvement all, because there is always someone on your own in the movement that supports the PRD ensures side who is violating the law. It is a mafia logic. that his activities are not disturbed,’ says a party And it applies to the entire economy,’ says Camille insider. Amouro, a columnist who has long been following The political parties’ spokespeople meanwhile the smuggling of petroleum products in Benin. reject the thought that the political involvement of illegal oil traders buys them protection. ‘These Old and new connections people are not the main financiers of the PRD,’ says Whilst Baudouin himself currently displays no Franck Oké, a lawyer and active PRD member. ‘They ambition to be elected a local councilor or MP, have their network, their business and a certain some of his peers are getting involved in politics ability to mobilise, but they are far from being ‘the’ or have already served as elected representatives. donor of our party. The PRD is funded by its leaders Loukman Aloukou Minakodé, for example. Elected and influential members.’ MP in 1995, on the list of the PRD – whose leader The financing of political parties remains a Adrien Houngbedji is the designated opposition nebulous area in Benin. According to political candidate for the presidency in 2011 – Minakodé was scientist Hounkpe Mathias, ‘The financing of re-elected twice and served the National Assembly political parties is not settled by law. We do not for twelve years. This is quite a feat for a man who know where parties’ campaign funds come from.’ doesn’t have much formal education and whose But nobody in Benin expects that the winner of parliamentary history has been marked by silence the 2011 presidential elections will bother much to during practically all debates. reinvigorate the country’s fight against the illegal In 2007, the PRD decided it was time to get in oil trade. some young cadres and let him go. The old smuggler

18 Kenya: How the African Inland Church robbed its orphans Walter Cheruiyot

19 Article first published in thePeople Daily, Kenya, 18 December 2009

The African Inland Church (AIC)’s childcare The donors always trusted the church department in Nairobi, Kenya, has misused donor The church, apparently, was never closely monitored funds meant for its orphanages. A former director, by its donors. The Dutch organisation Red een Kind accused by the church itself of stealing up to (‘save a child’), which has been supporting their US$ 260 000, has disappeared. Children in the Christian counterparts for the past 40 years, ‘always homes are going without care since caregivers, trusted the church’, HACA’s Martha Maina said. She who in some cases were not paid for six months, explained that embezzlement seemed routine for have left. Orphanages’ land has been sold off to the African Inland Church’s childcare department. third parties. A home for abandoned and orphaned ‘The children’s homes present budgets to the babies in Mogogosiek, in the Rift Valley province, donors, but when the money comes, the childcare has not received any funds earmarked for it and department brings it down and distributes less to is surviving on incidental donations from a tea the orpahanages.’ company. This investigation established that some The problems surfaced after children’s school church officials withdrew money personally, fees were found lacking from the AIC childcare without authorisation. The chairman of Litein budget. orphanage withdrew 40 000 Ksh (around US$ 500), The African Inland Church head office has whereas only the manager, Wilson Aiyabei, had blamed its own childcare department, saying that such authorisation. A staff member of the Kenya as a church, AIC was not kept informed of what Commercial Bank’s Litein office admitted to this was happening there. ‘Contacts were between the reporter that orphanage board members had been donors and the childcare department directly,’ given money from the orphanages’ account without head office-based church official Josua Tonui said. authorisation. Church Presiding Bishop Silas Yego said he was When Martha Maina started her fact finding also not aware of the problems, but that he would mission at Litein Orphanage in the Rift Valley investigate. province, she found that part of the church’s However, a fact finding mission by the donors’ land earmarked for orphanage services was now agency, Help a Child Africa (HACA), was stopped by occupied by a school. Powerful individuals within the church after only five out of twenty four homes the church had sold it off privately to government were visited. officials. ‘They do not want us to do our supervisory job, Litein itself is in a state of anarchy. Manager but we are donors’ representatives. We need to know Aiyabei has resigned after not receiving a salary for what is being done with the donors’ money,’ Martha six months and it is not clear who is going to succeed Maina, child sponsor official at HACA, said. him. A former manager of the church’s Litein orphanage, Wilson Aiyabei – who had complained A fugitive ex-director to HACA about the church’s fraud – was afterwards Sources in the AIC childcare department blame summoned by AIC Bishop Edwin Koech ‘to explain its former director George Pile, who was sacked why he was exposing the church.’ Koech is an AIC by the church for unclear reasons last year. AIC Board member next to the Church’s Presiding spokesman Joshua Tonui said that the amount of Bishop, Silas Yego. money stolen under Pile’s leadership amounted to Ksh 20 million (about US$ 260 000). There were also allegations that Pile pocketed abundant extra

20 donations – running into millions of Ksh – that confidence’. In response to our observation that the flowed to the church’s childcare department during church’s childcare services have all but collapsed, the post elections violence in 2008. This reporter she said she was ‘optimistic that the situation will attempted to find Pile in the areas around Kisumu improve with time’. and Eldoret, where he is supposed to have retired, According to sources in the church, the AIC board but was unsuccessful. trusts Jobita, but the donors, who have withdrawn New AIC childcare department director, most of their funding, do not share this confidence. ‘transitional manager’ Margaret Jobita did in the The Dutch donors have so far refrained from opening end agree to grant us an interview. She claimed that criminal cases for theft and fraud against the she ‘was doing everything possible to restore donors’ church.

21 Police abuse youngsters in the fight against the ‘herb’ Ivory Coast: The smoking rooms of Abidjan Edouard Denoua Gonto

22 Article first published inL’Intelligent d’Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 28 February 2010 Ever since the growing West African drug trade sécurité, CeCOS) believes, rightly or wrongly, that has taken up headquarters in the Ivorian capital video games rooms in working-class neighbour- Abidjan, the country’s city children are haunted hoods are covers for ‘smoking rooms’ where drugs for ‘drug-related offences’. Teenagers who may are sold and consumed. The NP have launched an or may not be drug users are blackmailed by the operation to destroy the dens and, hence, at Play security agencies and abused in prison. Social Station 2 in Abobo Plaque I, youngsters guard the rehabilitation programmes exist on paper only. entrance. On the lookout today are Diarra (19 years Fighting the drug trade seems impossible when, old and in Grade 11), Narcisse (20 years old and in growing and trading the ‘weed’ is now far more Grade 11), Lopez (20 years old and a student at the profitable than coffee or cocoa. According to Abobo University), Maxime (16 years old and in many, the main players are firmly ensconced and Grade 9) and Hamed (17 years old and in Grade 9) protected within the police force itself. When the cops come, they are recognised in spite of Abidjan, the working-class neighbourhood of their civil attire. A stampede ensues. Abobo, Plaque I. A sign ‘Play Station 2’ is displayed at the entrance of a shack of rusted metal, two meters Kids caught in police nets long, two meters wide and almost one-and-a-half Diarra, Narcisse, Lopez, Maxime and Hamed say meters high. Inside the shack, two televisions, two they are often blackmailed and defrauded by the consoles, four controls and four benches make up security forces. ‘They’ve been here several times, this video games business owned by a man called taking away everyone that they found in this games Touré. Today, about a dozen shouting kids devote room and in its close vicinity. They take you away themselves here to their hobby: playing soccer really quickly. And no matter whether they find video games. drugs on you or not, you are always in trouble.’ In this year of the 27th Africa Cup of Nations Parents are summoned to respond to their and the first ever African World Cup, passion for the (mostly minor) children’s drug charges. They are ‘sport of kings’ is practised and lived out in these forced to pay large sums of money, from FCFA 50 neighbourhoods. The African soccer heroes Didier 000 to FCFA 200 000 (US$100 to US$ 400) to gain Drogba, Chelsea’s Michael Essien, Inter Milan’s their offspring’s freedom. ‘Parents don’t have an Samuel Eto’o fuel the youngsters’ passion. Kids alternative but to pay. In Côte d’Ivoire, the offence from destitute families, too poor to be able to buy of ‘being detained on a drugs-related charge’ can their own consoles and video games, battle it out put you in prison for at least a year and the methods in these makeshift premises. The rooms are always used by the police are more and more vicious,’ says full: from sunrise until closing time at 10pm, bets a young metered cab driver called K. Christophe. are placed one after the other. It costs fifty FCFA, Christophe had had to come to the rescue of his about ten US cents, to play a ten-minute soccer nephew, 17-year-old Bahi M., who was arrested one video match instead of the regulatory 90 minutes day in April 2009. The boy, the cab driver explains, of the real game. It all makes for good business for had been a bit confused, displaying signs of mental Touré. trauma, after suffering serious head injuries in a car However, the boys play with fear in their stom- accident six months earlier. ‘He was now regularly achs. The dreaded Narcotics Police (NP), a unit going out to unknown destinations and spending of the Security Operations Command Centre most of his time in games rooms. The police arrived (Centre de commandement des opérations de one day in a games room and arrested every child

23 ‘I’m not giving in to blackmail’

that they found there, accusing them of possessing gendarmerie commando camp, where they were and using drugs. But Bahi didn’t even know what charged with drug use. The parents had to pay drugs were.’ before their children were released around midday. Christophe takes us to talk to Bahi, who tells us No proper channels or procedures were followed. his story: ‘There were about 20 of us playing soccer All they wanted was money.’ video games. When the police arrested us, we were Bouo says that his good relations with the driven around for a long time in a police van. It was parents of his young clients, who felt frustrated only later on, at the police station, that I learned and cheated, have been damaged by the incident. that we had been arrested for the possession and ‘And it’s terrible for those who can’t afford to pay. use of drugs. My friends asked for their parents to They are handed over to the law and suffer all the be called and they came immediately. My aunt was consequences.’ also alerted and she came to ask me what I had According to sources close to the NP, this special done. The police say I should support their version police unit weekly arrests 50 to 70 people for the of the facts, or I would be locked up in prison for possession, use and sale of drugs. The suspects a long time – even though I was innocent.’ In the are brought before prosecutors in Abidjan Plateau end, Bahi’s aunts and uncles had to club together to and Yopougon. ‘We don’t have any qualms about come up with the sum of FCFA 50 000 (US $ 100) to this. We don’t differentiate between child and adult buy his freedom. drug users. When we arrive in ‘smoking rooms’, we The case caused a heartwarming display of gather up everybody: the sellers, users and owners solidarity in the Dan ethnic community of Abobo of the property. That’s the reason why the number of Plaque II, who raised funds to help the boy leave smoking rooms has decreased in Abidjan,’ says an Abidjan for a while so that he could to recover from NP agent, proudly. his nightmarish experience. Several NP agents who were interviewed during 30-year-old Adaye Kouassi Bouo who, in spite this investigation claimed that there was ‘nothing’ of his Advanced Vocational Diploma, manages to the accusations of blackmail, and that it was not a telephone cabin and owns a games room in up to them to charge or free the children, but up to Abobo Plaque II, says he has often faced up to the the prosecutor. They emphasised that a children’s authorities ‘though I am naturally a shy person. judge could be called upon to place the minors But I won’t give in to blackmail.’ He explains that in the care of a specialised structure. They also ‘police have a right to arrest children for betting and scoffed at accusations of child abuse, saying that fighting – and betting does sometimes cause fights. ‘these children are not innocent angels’. ‘We often This is why I’ve forbidden betting in my rooms, but catch pupils and students with drugs. Their parents it doesn’t help much. The authorities still look for leave home at 5am and come back late at night, so ways to take money from people.’ the children have all the time in the world to go to There are many like Adaye Bouo in Côte smoking rooms. If you want, we can go to a place d’Ivoire who, after their higher education, do not where you can see a load of drugs selling like hot find work and fall back on managing telephone cakes.’ cabins and games rooms. Nicknamed ‘Youths’ good conscience’, Bouo relates how once the police Recognised because of pimples arrived at his place ‘and asked the kids to stand The NP are quite certain that they can spot a drug in a row. They checked their fingers and arrested addict when they see one. ‘We recognise them by them, saying they could ‘spot drugs stains on the how they are dressed and their behaviour. They tips of their fingers.’ I accompanied the kids to the look dependent, the lips and fingers smell of burned

24 ‘Indeed, sometimes they are not caught with actual drugs’

flesh. Drugs disfigure, distort and turn the addict growing in abundance in all the country’s forest pale. They cause pimples.’ regions, particularly in former cocoa, coffee and In the court of Abidjan Plateau, the Children’s rubber tree fields, bringing it almost on the same Court Magistrate, Yoro Hervé, is at pains to show level with these legal Ivorian export products. that the justice system does, in fact, care about It is now far more profitable for the average child drug-users, and that he is battling a massive Ivorian farmer to grow and deal in marijuana than child drug-use problem. ‘We seek to help the child to keep growing chocolate. Whereas coffee and rather than condemn him.’ The Magistrate explains cocoa get the seller an average of FCFA 500 (US$ that child drug-users who are arrested for their 1) per kilogram, and of this sum, a host of taxes is first offence are either returned to their parents, still deducted centrally, one kilogram of marijuana admitted to the Observation Centre for Minors, can get the seller a tax free FCFA 4000 (US$ 8). (A where living conditions are ‘acceptable’, or they are 5kg packet of marijuana is sold for FCFA 20 000, committed to a specialised institution. ‘However, US$ 40, in the border areas). after their release, the majority of these kids As a result, Abidjan is literally flooded with regrettably find their way back to smoking rooms,’ marijuana. The main victims are the teenagers, Hervé says, adding that ‘two out five children are who try it out of curiosity, and then suddenly find repeat offenders’ when it comes to smoking soft themselves in conflict with the law. They soon drugs (marijuana). If they are caught again, they discover that the ‘preferential handling of children will go to jail. of less than 18 years old’, claimed by both the NP It does however happen, Hervé admits, that and Magistrate Hervé, exists only in theory. Since ‘sometimes, there are cases where young people the majority of youths who are arrested for drug use were not caught with actual drugs’. This is have no identification on them at the moment of embarrassing, since ‘each defendant is supposed to their arrest, the authorities usually huddle all their be accompanied by the evidence of his crime and suspects together. And if you have no important we cannot just claim that drugs, that were found connections, or money to pay your captors, you somewhere else, do belong to this person’. The soon find yourself in jail. Magistrate appears to be astonished by our reports that the police extort money from children and their Jail brings hunger, rape and aids parents, but doesn’t comment much. 17-year-old Abou, today a resident at a rehabilitation centre, recalls how he was arrested by the CeCOS. More profitable than cocoa or coffee ‘They arrested us near Grace College and we were It is mostly dagga, marijuana, that the NP chase beaten to a bloody pulp. My parents no longer in their operation to destroy the smoking rooms wanted to intervene for my release because I had and arrest child drug-users. There are also hard previously been arrested and released a few times. drugs in Cote d’Ivoire, but this is more of a transit We were locked up together with serious criminals market toward European destinations for heroin from Friday until Monday before being brought and cocaine coming in from Mexico, Brazil before a judge.’ and Asian countries. Only the ‘weed’ market is He was lucky to be taken to a specialised centre well-established in the country itself. Marijuana in town afterwards, but the rest of his group was flourishes in Abidjan, with 90% of the dried weed incarcerated in Abidjan’s main prison, Maca, which being trafficked in from Ghana, over land as well houses hundreds of youths. Maca is overpopulated: as in makeshift boats and canoes that cross over there are more than 6 000 prisoners for only 1 500 next to the sea shore. The weed has now also started places. Children in Maca are at risk of hunger, rape,

25 ‘The real dealers are in the police’

prostitution, gang recruitment, tuberculosis and adolescents find the jobs that they have been trained AIDS. ‘Maca does not meet international standards to do. They then return to the streets and, often, to for prisons. The prison is overpopulated and there drug addiction. are no utilities provided for the prisoners’ privacy. To make matters worse, European Union funding Prisoners sodomise their fellow inmates and they for the centre has come to an end recently. New often victimise the youngest prisoners,’ confirm children cannot be taken in and activities are now some prison guards. largely limited to supplying food to prisons. The Other prisons in Côte d’Ivoire, particularly in rate of police station inspections has also decreased Dabou, Daloa, Dimbokro and Bouaké, have even considerably. Before, the centre’s officials could worse reputations. They are virtual houses of death, make one visit per week to each of the 32 police as much for adults as for minors. Only sometimes, stations in Abidjan. Now, it’s down to one inspection when parents or NGOs react in time, judges can take per month. the decision to transfer minors to more specialised The Narcotics Police is always happy to trumpet institutions. its victories over the drug trade. From press conferences and TV announcements we learn A drop in the ocean that, on 30 December 2009, the anti-drug unit of Several NGOs make efforts to help some of the the National Gendarmerie destroyed a sizeable child victims of Cote d’Ivoire’s ‘drug justice’, but quantity of drugs in the presence of a representative they are the first to admit that what they provide for the State Prosecutor, Adou Koffi, and the security is a mere drop in the ocean and that ultimately director of Abidjan’s harbour, Bilé Cyriaque. And only intervention by state structures could make a that, during the last trimester of last year, more change. The International Catholic Child Bureau than 900kg of marijuana found in raids on different (Bureau International Catholique de l’Enfance, places along the Ghanaian border were destroyed BICE) and the Erb Aloïs Rehabilitation Centre by the anti-drug unit of the National Gendarmerie. (EARC), located in Yopougon Toit Rouge, provide The arrest , by the Yamoussoukro anti-drug unit, provisional guardianship for about 30 adolescents of marijuana farmer and trader Konan Kouamé, between the ages of 13 and 18 at the time. BICE also an ex-convict from Zéré village, and the seizure of runs centres in Maca, the civil prison in Bouaké, in 100kg of the weed at his home and field, was also Niangon Lokoua Amigo Doumé, in the Abel Centre well-publicised. But the biggest successes claimed in Bassam and in Dabou. by the NP are the closure, in Abidjan alone, of more The centres try to ensure that children are not than 2 000 smoking rooms since 2006. treated like adults and that jail is the exception ‘Never mind what the police tell you. The major instead of the rule for them. ‘We make sure that part of drugs on the market is supplied by the procedure is followed in police stations and give Narcotics Police itself,’ says B.K.L., a 27-year-old these children hope to one day lead healthy lives in veteran of the ‘smoking rooms’. B.K.L., in the past a society. These are children who can pull themselves multiple drug offender who has done stints in Maca, together again,’ explains Joël Koffi, EARC’s legal now works in one of the rehabilitation centres in assistant. EARC runs a training programme for Yamoussoukro. ‘I worked for drug dealers on all careers in shoemaking, woodwork, mechanics and levels of the trade for more than nine years. And I soap factory work aimed at the adolescents in their can say, loudly and clearly, that the Narcotics Police programme. But the programme does not provide resell the rugs they seize in the smoking rooms, as for work placement afterwards and, most often, well as the drugs they take directly from traffickers. their families make no effort to help the reformed The people who are arrested and who end up in jail

26 are the weakest, smallest fry.’ an RSC deputy inspector, who tried in vain to join ‘The children suffer because they don’t have the Narcotics Police: ‘The ‘narcotics’ are a mafia. money, not because they do drugs. The real drug You need to be connected in order to join. It’s all users and dealers don’t suffer, because the police about big money. After you are in, you reap big make ‘arrangements’ with them,’ agrees a fellow rewards. Each policeman in the NP protects one or child-welfare worker. several smoking rooms. They may destroy some of These claims are confirmed by members of the them, but there are plenty of smoking rooms that Republican Security (RSC) police department. Says they never touch.’

27 Will farmers in Nigeria ever access funds meant for them? Nigeria: Farm subsidies have been stolen, are stolen and will continue to be stolen Aniefiok Udonquak

28 Article first published in Business Day, Nigeria, 31 May 2010 Project grants to improve the income level of rural Officials not briefing their superiors farmers and boost food production in Nigeria Investigations show that lack of transparency in the have been and continue to be misused. The disbursement of the grants has been the general qualifications of a new project manager to deal bane of the exercise. According to the head of the with the problem have also been questioned. ‘You technical committee appointed to oversee the are still on this story?’ Aniefiok Udonquak reports scheme, Ita Essen, the lack of due process and from Akwa Ibom. transparency ‘had to do with the officials involved A tripartite funding scheme – called the Fadama not constantly briefing their superiors on funds project – involving the World Bank, the Nigerian disbursement and the criteria’. Essen said that Federal Government and some federal states, which 13 million Naira (about US$ 177 000) had been was meant to improve food production and empower disbursed to intended beneficiaries under the ‘smallholder and poor farmers to acquire capital current phase of the scheme. He blamed the inability assets’, should have enabled farmers to undertake of the local government councils to contribute a wide range of small income-generating activities, the necessary counterpart funds to the fact that such as keeping poultry and engaging in fishery, intended beneficiaries had not received grants. piggery, agro processing and cassava production. Local government councils were expected to pay 30 However, officials involved in the disbursement of percent of the project cost while the participating the funds have been disbursing them to themselves, banks would pay 70 percent of the total cost. rather than to the farmers. In spite of corruption Meanwhile, when Business Day investigated enquiries, the abuse goes on. how much money had been paid out to date under Years after the scheme took off, the impact has the current phase, we gathered that this was closer yet to be felt. In Akwa Ibom State, out of 31 local to 26 million Naira (about US$ 355 000) out of the government councils, 20 of them should have total of 50 million Naira (about US$ 700 000). The engaged in activities funded by the scheme. But management of the fund was not able to show where they have nothing to show for it. On the contrary: this money was spent. Sources said it was probably more than 100 million Naira (about US$ 1 500 000) spent without ‘due process’. The manner in which has been disbursed to non-existent ‘cooperative the funds have been managed and disbursed, societies’ with fictitious names, whilst genuine without the prescribed guidelines being adhered participants have waited endlessly for grants that to, has already led to the removal and subsequent never came. More than a thousand cooperative suspension of former project manager Godwin societies, known as Fadama user groups, are still Ekaiko. waiting to receive grants that may never come. In Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom, two partici- New manager and Governor from same area pants were selected as beneficiaries and given grants, Business Day gathered that the appointment of a but the officials who should have signed off on these new programme manager, meant to clean up the disbursements said they were left in the dark by their previous problems, has also been irregular. While superiors as to why these two individuals, and not five persons attended the selection interview for others, were selected. ‘We were invited to watch the the post, meant for top managers with considerable ceremony at which they were awarded the grants, experience and track record in agriculture and but we did not know how they were selected,’ said small business operation, the new appointee, one official, who asked to remain anonymous. Richard Assam, had no experience in these fields at

29 ‘We were invited to watch the ceremony at which they were awarded the grants, but we did not know how they were selected’

all. Sources within the project said they suspected Blocking the office that his appointment could have more to do with the The suspended manager, meanwhile, was still found fact that he hailed from the same local government in the Fadama office during this investigation. He area as State Governor Godswill Akpabio. ordered that this reporter, who was trying to access Commissioner for Agriculture Etok Ekanem, information on how the funds were spent, should whose department is in charge of supervising the not be allowed in the office. scheme, has declined to comment. In a telephone A committee set up by the Ministry of Agriculture interview, he wondered why questions should be has completed its findings on the Fadama matter, asked about the scheme now more than two years but the Ministry has yet to make the report public or after corrupt practices in the disbursement of funds begin the implementation of the recommendations. first came to light. ‘Why are you interested in the One of the recommendations is reportedly the Fadama scheme now? Are you just asking about ‘restructuring of the scheme’ as well as ‘effective Fadama now?’ he asked. It was Ekanem himself monitoring’. However, the report is said to be silent who, two years ago, ordered the first investigation on ways to recover funds misappropriated so far. into the financial mismanagement, recklessness and irregular release of funds associated with the scheme. He also authorised the suspension of the former programme manager.

30 Healthcare available, but for hard cash only Zimbabwe after the medical tsunami Stanley Kwenda

31 ‘There was nothing in the hospital, it was only ourselves and the patients’

Just over a year ago, Parirenyatwa Hospital, released in January 2009, the NGO Physicians Zimbabwe’s biggest referral hospital located in the for Human Rights detailed how a government capital, Harare, was closed. Health workers were physician, in 2008, earned US 32 cents as a monthly unwilling to work and systems had broken down. salary – not enough money to afford transport to The coming in of a new political order seems to come to work. have turned things around. But healthcare is now Then, after years of neglect, mismanagement, only accessible to the rich in Zimbabwe. lack of funding, electrical black-outs and a full Parirenyatwa Hospital, collapsed in 2008, collapse of the heating systems, Parirenyatwa has come back to life. From one end of the main finally closed completely. On 17 November 2008, entrance to the other there is a buzz that greets the medical school located at Parirenyatwa closed patients. Health workers exude a willingness to its doors as well. work and save lives, whereas before, the sick would Since the end of 2009, the hospital has reopened. find no-one prepared to help. Parirenyatwa Hospital The quality of food given to patients has improved. was closed. Meat, eggs, vegetables and milk have made a return. Though virtually all state hospitals stopped Water is now available – although it still comes providing proper services during what has erratically. The Children’s Hospital – part of Harare become known as Zimbabwe’s ‘medical tsunami’, Hospital – which had been closed for the better Parirenyatwa hospital suffered the most. From part of last year is now also open. There is general being the most advanced in the whole of southern cleanliness and service delivery. The government Africa, it became a place of broken-down elevators has even bought five new dialysis machines for and nurses struggling to carry critically ill patients Harare Central Hospital's renal unit as part of its up the stairs in wheelchairs. The stench coming efforts to bring the country’s health system on track. from the mortuary was heavier each day. Inside the Recently, it also spent US$ 3.5 million to rehabilitate wards, bed linen and running water were absent; the hospital’s water and sewer reticulation system. there was no surgical equipment in the operating According to Physicians for Human Rights, most theatres, and there were no drugs in the medicine doctors today earn between US$ 150 and US$ 300 a chests. month. This was prett y much the case in all Zimbabwean The recent change is a result of efforts of a host state hospitals. According to the Hospital Doctors of donor agencies such as the World Bank, UNICEF, Association (HDA) at the time, as much as half the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others – required equipment in all Zimbabwean hospitals too numerous to mention – who started funding was not working. HDA president Amon Severegi the rebuilding of the country’s health system. said there was a ‘frightening scarcity of drugs and This happened after the country’s politicians medicines’, even though donors did their best to reached a political settlement in 2008, with three supply some drugs. main political parties agreeing to form a coalition Health workers refused to work, saying they government. could not continue to endanger the lives of patients by working in hospitals that were not properly Illegible X-rays equipped. ‘There was nothing in the hospital, it However, the Community Working Group on was only ourselves and the patients,’ said Tarisai Health, a network of United Nations-coordinated Chipere, a Parirenyatwa hospital orderly. But it civic groups that promote health awareness, says wasn’t only that: according to the report ‘Health many Zimbabwean hospitals are still far from in Ruins, A Man-made Disaster In Zimbabwe’, reaching the desired levels of operations. ‘We

32 Surgical equipment and drugs, even painkillers and cough syrup, are often not in stock

are not yet out of the woods,’ said the grouping’s this,’ said Zigora. Without getting into figures, he representative who asked for anonymity because also said the hospital still faced a budget deficit of he was ‘not authorised to speak on behalf of UN more than three-quarters of its desired budgetary agencies’. The coming in of donors may have requirements. changed things in a big way, but the health sector is still putting up with many of the old problems. Money is not enough Surgical equipment and drugs, even painkillers But it’s not just the money. Nurses at Parirenyatwa and cough syrup, are often not in stock. Hosital, and its fellow state facility, Harare Hospital, Ambulances are also in short supply. Staff confessed during this investigation that some of numbers have not been brought up to the desired the shortages facing the hospitals are caused not levels. There are not enough incubators for pre- by lack of money per se, but by mismanagement. mature babies. Many elevators (whose installation For instance, there are no proper measures in dates back to the colonial era) are still not working. place to prevent theft. ‘We steal (medicines and Neither do the HIV and AIDS CD4 count monitor, nor materials) to supplement our meagre salaries,’ said the ultrasound equipment. The X-Ray and the ECG one nurse who asked for anonymity. She and other machines don’t work either. Patient Gift Chikodzi, health workers who admitted to stealing, claimed who was involved in a car accident in April, could that they were doing this because money that had not be treated at Parirenyatwa because the X-ray been given by donors to cater for their salaries, had machine didn’t work. ‘I had broken ribs and a failing ‘disappeared’. heart. The doctors could not read the X-rays. I spent They also said they were disgruntled because of eight hours in bandages until I discharged myself,’ bad working conditions and that theft of drugs and said Chikodzi, who later underwent surgeries at a materials by hospital staff – according to them, this private hospital, where ‘cash for service’ systems is even done by senior functionaries – will continue are still in place, at a total cost of US$ 8 000. if these issues were not addressed. A majority of Zimbabweans, most of whom Dr Lovemore Mbengeranwa, who is now the work in the public sector, earn less than US$ 200 Deputy Minister of Health but still practices as a a month but are expected to pay about US$ 1 000 medical doctor, commented that government still in admission fees at private hospitals. At Harare’s needs to take more responsibility for the hospitals. Avenues Hospital, one of the few private hospitals ‘We need to put more money into our health system that were left operating during the past two years, and stop relying on donors. It is a dangerous thing a consultation alone costs US$ 800 and a small to surrender our responsibilities to donors because operation such as a cesarian birth is only carried the day they leave we will go back to where we were.’ out in exchange for US$ 3 000. He said there was a need for a national health policy At public hospitals, varying amounts of between that would respond to both the needs of the health US$ 50 to $ 300 can be charged. workers and the running of health facilities. Parirenyatwa Hospital Chief Executive Officer Whether it’s due to the absence of a policy, Thomas Zigora admits that his hospital is still or simple mismanagement, even the Ministry faced with numerous challenges, both from an of Health itself continues to experience gaps in administrative and operational point of view. ‘We medicine stocks. Availability remains low, at 50 have water and electricity shortages. Sometimes percent for vital drugs. That, combined with the we have electricity cuts twice a week. Water cuts fact that most of the medical equipment critical for are an even bigger problem, we just don’t have it diagnosis and treatment in hospitals is old, obsolete and we don’t know what will happen if it stays like and often non functional, means that most public

33 This is the first time that health in Zimbabwe received a bigger budget than defence

health institutions remain unable to meet basic junkets overseas, but still can’t buy syringes for our hospital standards for patient care and infection hospitals,’ said Hopewell Gumbo, a Harare-based control. social justice activist. The same activists point Another indictment of the Health Ministry itself out that most Zimbabwean politicians still visit is that getting figures and statistics on budgets, risks, foreign countries even for the simplest of medical products and services is very difficult. Zimbabwe requirements. is now said to be facing a measles epidemic but Zimbabwe’s Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani how big this danger is, who is at risk, and what Khupe has, however, conceded that conditions measures are in place to contain the epidemic, can’t in Zimbabwe’s hospitals remain dire and that be assessed. According to Physicians for Human especially the remuneration of health workers is Rights, the government deliberately suppresses a problem, as well as the state of the equipment. information on health. ‘For example, the Minister Khupe is in charge of social sector clusters, which of Information Skhanyiso Ndlovu has ordered incorporates public service ministries such as the government-controlled media to downplay the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. She said cholera epidemic. He said the reports were giving conditions of service for nurses and doctors should the country a bad name,’ the group said. be improved. ‘We are talking about remuneration here, the issue of housing and cars. This is to make Measles are political life easier for these people who are keeping our A government source seemed to confirm the view nation healthy,’ she said. that Zimbabwe’s leaders do not want the country’s In order to provide the continuation of health health problems highlighted publicly. ‘Measles is funding after donors are gone, Khupe is making very political. We are not supposed to have diseases efforts to involve the corporate sector. A first result in Zimbabwe. So even though we see it everyday we from this strategy has recently materialised. The can not report it,’ said an official in the Ministry of National Health Care Trust, an arm of Econet Health. The official asked not to be named because Wireless, is funding preventive and curative he was ‘not authorised to speak on behalf of the interventions in the struggle against cholera government’. and measles and is now also working to revive Activists have criticised the governments’ the University of Zimbabwe’s College of Health failure, so far, to address the health crisis, leaving Sciences. the problem to be addressed by donors. They have Making efforts as well, Minister of Finance also pointed out the sharp contrast between the Tendai Biti has allocated US$ 285.4 million, situation in the health sector and the extravagant translating to 12.7 percent of the total government spending in other sectors, such as the acquisition, budget, to the procurement of drugs and medical in 2009, of top of the range vehicles for ministers, supplies, medical equipment and infrastructure defence chiefs, and judges. ‘I don’t understand it rehabilitation. This is the first time that health in when people choose to buy expensive cars, or go on Zimbabwe received a bigger budget than defence.

34