Day: January 14, 2023

The government of Saudi Arabia might open up more job opportunities for Kenyan nurses, doctors and allied health professionals.

The matter shaped deliberations between a Kenyan delegation led by Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore, and officials from Saudi Ministry of Health in Riyadh this week.

Bore indicated that the meeting hosted by Deputy Minister for Health, Human Resources in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Abdulrahman A. Al Aiban in Riyadh and which was aimed at exploring opportunities for employment in the country’s health sector ended on a positive note.

“I thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their willingness to consider Kenyan Health workers, especially nurses and physicians who will successfully pass the requisite accreditation process,” said the Labour CS.

The Principal Secretary for Labour and Skills Development Geoffrey Kaituko and her counterpart in the State Department for Diaspora Affairs Roselyn Njogu were part of the Kenyan delegation.

The deliberations between the two sides took place amid recent revelations of increasing demand for health professionals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

For the first time in years, Arya Rams falls asleep and wakes up each day without a dense knot of fear in her chest.

She lives in a room in a safe house deep in Kenya’s Rift Valley, supported by the Dutch non-governmental organization Trans Rescue.

Being transgender in Kenya can be dangerous. In 2021, her friend was stoned to death by a mob on a beach near the city of Malindi, she said. A few months later, Arya said she was chased by people wielding machetes.

Arya, 27, said the protections of the safe house have been all the more important over the past week as a backlash against lesbian, gay and transgender Kenyans has flared following the death of LGBTQ rights activist Edwin Chiloba.

Chiloba’s body was found in a metal box on the roadside near the city of Eldoret last week. A pathologist said he died from suffocation caused by socks stuffed into his mouth.

“People were going through other gay people’s social media saying, ‘Have you seen Chiloba? You are next,'” said Arya.

Police this week named Chiloba’s reported partner as the main suspect in his death. Reuters has not been able to reach him for comment.

Outside the investigation, much of the public commentary on the case has been harsh, and sometimes threatening.

“Let us not waste time discussing LGBTQ … it’s illegal … Jail them,” lawmaker Mohammed Ali wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

A rarely-enforced colonial-era law makes gay sex punishable by 14 years in prison. Identifying as gay or transgender is not a crime.

Amnesty International and other campaign groups last week said there had been increasing cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), as well as domestic abuse, across Kenya.

They said there was an “uncoordinated and often reluctant response to SGBV from State and non-state actors” and called on authorities to do more to investigate crimes and work with survivors.

A positive response to that appeal would make a big difference, said Arya.

“I’m just saying that if someone … from the LGBTQ community could be in a situation whereby they don’t fear to walk into a police station and record a statement … then probably we could have reduced a lot of (problems).”

Source: Voice of America

THE European Union (EU) will be organising a series of activities in Tanzania to be conducted this year for the East African nation to continue attracting more investors, enhance economy, trade and political cooperation

Some of the major events that will be conducted by the EU delegation for the year 2023 include the business forum that will bring together investors from EU member states and their Tanzanian counterparts.

The two sides have been enjoying bilateral ties in the past 47 years.

Addressing a press conference Friday, the head of EU delegation to Tanzania Ambassador Manfredo Fanti said the forum that will be held next month, will also play a role in attracting European investors to Tanzania.

“It will also create a way for improvement on trade cooperation between EU members and Tanzania,” he said.

“There will also be high level visits by leaders from EU member states to Tanzania as well as political dialogue to be done with the government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation,” added the diplomat.

He went on to explain that, during the year 2022, the political cooperation between the two parties recorded a positive progress that was attributed to a visit that President Samia Suluhu Hassan made to the EU and other member states.

“Also, there were official visits by various government leaders to EU member states, also European leaders visited Tanzania, this shows that the cooperation has been so dynamic,” he explained.

In February last year, President Samia visited France and the headquarters of the European Commission (EC) in Belgium.

While in the countries, Samia met with her counterparts for official talks, which enabled Tanzania to secure a grant of 425 million Euros, estimated at 1.15tri/- from the EC to fund various development projects.

The funds are to be used in various development projects for the next three years in the country, revealed President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenwhile during a meeting with President Samia in Belgium.

A statement issued by the Directorate of Presidential Communications in February last year had it that Tanzania planned to spend the 180 million Euros equivalent to 480bn/-, on three projects, including the upgrading of digital systems.

Another area is strengthening the social well-being of Tanzanians based on gender equality where 284bn/- would be spent.

The statement further indicated that 197.3bn/- would go for the Green Cities project, whose first phase would include Tanga, Mwanza and Pemba.

Regarding the trade and economic ties, Ambassador Fanti noted that the EU continued to support Tanzania by putting in place policies that supported smooth importation of Tanzania goods and products to European countries.

He said, EU has a policy that allows free importation of goods and products that are made in Tanzania, the move aims at supporting economic growth of Tanzanian businessmen as well as increasing the balance of trade.

Moreover, the EU has been constantly supporting Tanzania’s with average grants of 105 million Euros (264.4bn/-) every year for implementation of various development programmes.

“The grants have been channeled to support various sectors such as energy, rural development, gender issues, environment and climate change business development for the private sector. We are overall pleased with the quality of implementation of the development projects in the country,” he explained.

“We are also supporting the blue economy sector at a budget of 110 million Euros (around 277bn/-) that are meant to cover three main areas such as environmental protection, sustainable use of marine resources as well as policy issues,” he noted further.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK