Thursday 06, Nov 2024 {HMC} Kenyan authorities have tied Hashim Dagane Muhumed, already in custody for a notorious triple murder in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood, to a fourth killing. The new revelation—linking Muhumed to the brutal death and dismemberment of another woman—has intensified community outrage and amplified calls for justice in a city increasingly anxious about violence against women.

Detectives with Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) announced the development on November 6, describing it as a major breakthrough. The victim, believed to be Deka Abdinoor Gorone, was last seen shopping at a Quickmart supermarket in Nairobi on October 29. CCTV footage showed Gorone entering an apartment in Lavington with Muhumed, where detectives suspect she was killed. Two days later, security footage captured Muhumed leaving the apartment, carrying two large bags thought to contain her dismembered remains, which were later found dumped at Lang’ata Cemetery.

Muhumed is suspected in the murder of Gorone.

According to DCI Director Amin Mohamed, the landlord of the Lavington apartment is also implicated in the cover-up. After reportedly discovering the crime scene, the landlord attempted to erase evidence by repainting and cleaning the premises before fleeing. “It’s only a matter of time before he is apprehended,” Mohamed noted.

The new link comes as Muhumed remains in custody, accused of orchestrating the October 21 brutal abduction and murder of three Somali women: Amina Abdirashid, her aunt Waris Dahabo Daud, and 12-year-old Nuseiba Abdi Mohammed. The three women, all from the Eastleigh neighbourhood, were abducted and later found dead at different locations across Nairobi and Machakos County. Their bodies showed signs of severe violence, including strangulation, mutilation, and, in Nuseiba’s case, evidence of sexual assault. A post-mortem revealed that Daud had been strangled and her hands amputated, while Abdirashid died from a stab wound to the heart.

Kenyan authorities have arrested Muhumed following an intensive manhunt that concluded in Nairobi’s Starehe district on October 27.

Detectives tracked Muhumed through a combination of CCTV footage, forensic evidence, and digital surveillance, piecing together a trail that began with his vehicle, a Nissan Note with registration number KDQ 718Y, captured on CCTV near the Eastleigh residence of the three victims on the night of their disappearance. The footage shows the car pulling up to the building where the women were last seen. Evidence from the vehicle, later found abandoned near the busy Wakulima Market, suggested Muhumed had transported the victims under duress.

The vehicle became a critical piece of evidence. Forensic teams recovered biological traces, including blood and fibres, indicating a violent struggle had taken place inside the car. Personal belongings linked to the victims were also found, further corroborating Muhumed’s alleged role in the crime. Digital tracking of Muhumed’s cell phone locations led detectives to Starehe, where he was ultimately cornered and surrendered without resistance.

Investigations into Muhumed’s background have revealed troubling details. Authorities allege that Muhumed was a police officer in Ethiopia and had fled his home country under suspicion of murdering his wife. Upon arrival in Nairobi, he reportedly assumed a false identity, using forged documents to evade detection. Muhumed managed to establish a small taxi business in Eastleigh, blending into the community. His ability to remain undetected for years has sparked concerns about Kenya’s vetting procedures and raised questions about potential security lapses.

With Muhumed now suspected in two separate murder cases, detectives are expanding their investigation to determine whether he had accomplices. Officials are exploring possible connections with individuals who may have sheltered him or provided logistical support as he evaded authorities. The DCI has also widened its scope to examine whether Muhumed may be linked to other unsolved cases in Nairobi, particularly those involving similar patterns of violence and abduction.

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Thursday 06, Nov 2024 {HMC} Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused Kenyan security forces of abducting, torturing and killing people believed to be leaders of anti-government protests that took place between June and August.

The group said security officers held abductees in unlawful detention facilities, including in forests and abandoned buildings, and denied them access to their families and lawyers.

Mary Muthoni Mwangi of Kirinyaga, in rural central Kenya, said she lost her son in the protests, in which thousands of young Kenyans demonstrated against a bill that would have increased taxes.

Her son, 20-year-old Kennedy Njeru, took part in a protest on June 25, she said, when demonstrators stormed the parliament after lawmakers passed the tax increase.

Mwangi said she searched for her son for four days, finally finding his body in the city mortuary. She said a postmortem examination found a bullet wound to his head.

Human rights groups say 61 people were killed across the country during the weeks of protests.

Human Rights Watch blamed Kenyan security agencies for the abduction, torture and killing of people seen as leading or taking part in the demonstrations.

Mausi Segun, head of HRW’s Africa division, said, “Whoever the initial abductors were, the police were involved because people were taken to police stations and many times the torture happened while people were in police custody.”

She added, “Those who are dead, we don’t have details of what happened to them, but people who witnessed their abduction said that individuals who took them away were clearly security agents.”

HRW researchers spoke to 75 people, including victims, family members, journalists, parliament staff and police officers.

The interviewees said that police officers hunted down protesters. But because the officers wore plain clothes, covered their faces and traveled in unmarked vehicles, it was difficult for family members, rights groups, lawyers and government agencies to trace victims’ whereabouts.

Segun said some of those taken away were tortured and killed.

“Many of the bodies of those who have been abducted have showed up sometimes on the streets, sometimes in quarries, unmarked places where they have been dumped,” she said.

“Many of those bodies have shown signs of torture and dismemberment of body parts, showing what they went through at the hands of their captors,” she said. “Many of these bodies have not been released to family members.”

Kenyan security forces deny that their officers were behind the abductions and killings.

President William Ruto, speaking at a town hall gathering in Kisumu in late August, said he was not aware of any abductions and called on family members to forward the names to the government to take action.

Human Rights Watch said reports of abductions, missing people and killings are well documented and called on the president and other government institutions to hold those responsible to account.

On September 24, Mary Mwangi was among dozens of activists and victims’ family members who tried to submit a list of the missing and dead to the president’s office.

They were driven back with teargas.

Ruto ultimately declined to sign the tax increase into law.

SOURCE VOA

Thursday 06, Nov 2024 {HMC} The Central African Republic said Wednesday that several hundred rebels have surrendered and handed over their weapons over to government troops and U.N. forces. The rebels surrendered less than a month after the C.A.R reached an agreement with neighboring Chad to jointly protect the two countries’ 1,200-kilometer border. Officials now hope to organize local elections that were postponed in October due to insecurity.

C.A.R. officials said it was hardship and ceaseless raids by government troops that forced many rebel fighters to drop their weapons and give themselves up.

Mloubo Etienne, 36, was among several dozen fighters who defected from the Union for Peace rebel group this week. The UPC is one of the C.A.R.’s largest armed groups.

Maloubo, speaking on state TV, said he surrendered because life was becoming unbearable without food in dense tropical rainforests near the C.A.R.’s southern border. He said many UPC rebel fighters along the northern border with Chad also want to surrender because Chad government troops have shut off the regular food supply.

Maxime Balalou, the C.A.R.’s communication minister and government spokesperson, said some of the 105 fighters who surrendered their weapons in Bambari, the third-largest city in the country, belonged either to the UPC or anti-balaka rebel groups.

He said that in another operation in the central commercial town of Kouango, 36 fighters, including three women, were disarmed. Balalou said rebels who disarm voluntarily will be handed over to the C.A.R. Center for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, where they will be economically and socially reintegrated or trained to join the country’s troops.

The anti-balaka are an alliance of rebel groups operating for the past 10 years.

The government says its operations consist of attacking hideouts of rebels who refuse to surrender. The goal is to establish peace before the C.A.R. holds its first local elections in 36 years. The elections originally slated for October were postponed because of insecurity and a lack of readiness by political parties.

Officials now say the elections will take place on Dec. 29, assuming conditions are favorable.

As part of efforts to organize the elections, officials from the C.A.R. and Chad met in Bangui on Oct. 23 and agreed to establish a joint security force along their 1,200-kilometer border.

Chad said it would deploy troops to the border with the C.A.R. to stop supplies from reaching rebel groups.

The government says rebels still hiding in the bush will be killed if they do not surrender and hand their weapons over to government troops or forces of the U.N. stabilization mission in the C.A.R., or MINUSCA.

The C.A.R. says its goal is to get at least half of an estimated 21,000 rebels in the central African state to surrender by the end of 2025.

SOURCE VOA

Thursday 06, Nov 2024 {HMC} President-elect Donald Trump put immigration at the front of his campaign agenda, pledging to bring what he calls “unprecedented order” to the southern border and launch the nation’s largest mass deportation operation of undocumented immigrants on his first day in office.

Throughout his campaign, Trump called immigration a crisis and vowed to move swiftly to implement a series of controversial policies to clamp down on illegal immigration and curb new arrivals.

“We are going to fix our borders. … We want people to come back in, but we have to let them come back in. They have to come in legally,” Trump said during his victory speech in Florida on Tuesday.

However, managing the re-entry of possibly millions of people presents formidable legal and logistical challenges.

“There’s this belief that there’s a line and people should stand in line. Oftentimes, there’s not a line,” Mark Hetfield, CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, told VOA.

A Migration Policy Institute report makes the same point, saying there are multiple visa pathways, each with distinct backlogs and wait times, governing how long individuals wait for permanent residency.

Annual limits and country quotas create extensive delays, with some applicants facing waits lasting decades.

Many undocumented immigrants may have no way to join these lines because of restrictive re-entry policies.

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act blocks re-entry for immigrants with a history of “unlawful presence” in the U.S. If they leave and want to re-enter legally, those with more than 180 days but less than one year of unlawful presence face a three-year re-entry ban. Those with more than one year of unlawful presence face a 10-year ban.

Unlawful presence generally includes overstaying or entering without inspection.

Largest deportation campaign in US history

Trump has vowed to surpass deportation numbers from his first term.

With plans to use the National Guard to round up undocumented immigrants, Trump has also invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that allows the president to deport noncitizens from nations deemed hostile to the United States.

Trump aims to drastically reduce the undocumented population, something his supporters see as a step toward restoring order, though opponents argue it will lead to legal battles and logistical hurdles.

Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, wrote in an email to VOA that should any president choose to pursue mass deportation, it would come at an extraordinary cost to the government while also devastating the economy.

“It’s critical that policymakers and the American public understand what this would involve: tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, already-strained industries devastated, millions of people locked up in detention, and thousands of families torn apart causing widespread terror and chaos in communities across the country,” Robbins wrote.

Travel ban, birthright citizenship and more

The Remain in Mexico program, a program initiated in the first Trump administration, is expected to be renewed. The policy forces migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed. Also expected to be renewed is a policy to quickly expel migrants and curb immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Another central promise Trump made during his presidential campaign is to roll back initiatives under the Biden administration that have allowed specific groups of migrants to enter the U.S. legally.

Under Biden, up to 30,000 migrants per month from four countries — Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela — were allowed to come to the U.S. legally if they met certain conditions. Trump has pledged to end these pathways.

In an effort to intensify scrutiny of those entering the U.S., Trump has promised to renew and expand travel bans aimed at a broader list of countries and introduce an “ideological screening” to bar individuals whom Trump describes as “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs.”

Trump’s campaign says this measure will enhance national security, though it has sparked concerns over discrimination and civil liberties.

Trump also said he plans to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally. This would require a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment and is expected to face intense legal challenges.

While Trump’s immigration plans have the support of his base, they face steep opposition from advocacy groups and legal experts, who argue that mass deportations and travel bans could lead to human rights violations and extensive court challenges.

Hetfield of HIAS told VOA that advocates are concerned about what a new Trump administration will do to legal immigration.

“We will likely litigate if he tries to close down the [refugee] program and oversteps. … But the bottom line is, the president has a lot of discretion when it comes to the refugee program. … And for asylum, [he’s] going to make it impossible to apply at the border as he did with Title 42 and his Remain in Mexico policies,” Hetfield said.

Michelle Ming, political director at United We Dream, the nation’s largest immigrant youth-led organization, said they will be ready to “protect” immigrant families.

Ming anticipates a significant amount of “know your rights” events throughout Trump’s second term in the White House.

“Once Trump takes office, we’re going to remind him that we are here to fight back against any kind of policy that he tries to implement to hurt our communities,” Ming said.

SOURCE VOA 

Thursday 06, Nov 2024 {HMC} Donald Trump’s victory over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris dominated the news cycle across Africa on Wednesday, with coverage reflecting the anxiety being felt by some on the continent.

In South Africa, the newspaper Business Day ran an opinion column headlined “Trump’s comeback heralds harder U.S. approach to Africa,” while another local newspaper, The Sunday Times, was running a poll for readers asking: “Are you worried about Donald Trump being elected U.S. president?”

A cartoon by renowned South African political cartoonist Zapiro in the Daily Maverick newspaper depicted a frightened looking globe watching TV as U.S. election results came in.

The markets were also affected, with South Africa’s currency, the rand, dropping almost 3% on the news in the early hours of trading.

Trump inspires mixed views on the continent, having riled some by calling African countries a derogatory name in his first term, and being viewed positively by others as a kind of “strongman” leader.

Steven Gruzd, a political analyst with the South African Institute of International Affairs, told VOA that Trump did not pay much attention to Africa in his first term and he doesn’t expect that to change.

“Africa is not going to be a priority for the second Trump administration by any measure, and I don’t think we should expect too much,” he said. “I think we’re also going to see a world that has a very different USA in operation, and African countries will have to decide how they deal with that.”

Asanda Ngoasheng, an independent analyst in Cape Town, said she believes a Trump presidency will affect Africa in terms of trade, with South Africa possibly seeing its exports to the U.S. reduced.

Ngoasheng said public health funding for Africa could also be affected under the incoming Republican administration, particularly for reproductive health. Likewise, any reduction in U.S. contributions to the United Nations could have negative effects on the continent, she said.

“Donald Trump has been very clear that his administration will be an America-first administration. … This is going to have implications for Africa,” Ngoasheng said.

As is diplomatic custom, leaders around the world congratulated the U.S. election winner.

Kenyan President William Ruto, who recently paid a state visit to the U.S. at President Joe Biden’s invitation, praised what he called Trump’s “visionary, bold and innovative leadership.”

Nigerian leader Bola Tinubu said he hoped Trump’s presidency would usher in an era of “beneficial and reciprocal economic and development partnerships” between Africa and the U.S.

And South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa said he looked forward to continuing a “mutually beneficial partnership” between the two countries.

The statements come as African governments are hoping the U.S. will renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, next year. The preferential trade policy gives some countries duty-free access to the U.S. market.

However, the president of the Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, had other concerns about what a second Trump presidency could mean for his Indian Ocean island nation, which is under particular threat from climate change and rising sea levels.

“We are going through a climate crisis, so will the U.S. once again pull out of the Paris Agreement? … What will be the pronouncement of President Trump?” Ramkalawan asked.

Ramkalawan, speaking at a press event in Johannesburg, was referring to the fact that in his first term Trump withdrew the U.S. from a major international agreement to limit global warming. The U.S. rejoined the pact under President Biden.

SOURCE VOA