Category: General

We are working with Tunisia on a comprehensive package which is built on five pillars, the 1st of which is economic development, said European Commission President Ursual von der Leyen at a press conference held on Sunday with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the end of a meeting with President Kais Saied.

“The European Commission is considering macro-financial assistance as soon as the necessary agreement is found. We are ready to mobilise up to EUR 900 million for this purpose. And as an immediate step, we could provide an additional EUR 150 million in budget support,” she added.

“The second pillar is investment and trade. The EU is Tunisia’s biggest foreign investor and trading partner. And we propose to go further. We would like to modernise our current trade agreement. There is much potential to create jobs and boost growth here in Tunisia.

An important focus for our investments is the digital sector. We already have a good basis. Our flagship project, the Medusa submarine cable, will link the two sides of the Mediterranean. The Medusa cable is bringing high-speed broadband to the region – a real digital bridge that by 2025 will connect 11 countries around the Mediterranean. Together with the European Investment Bank, we are investing EUR 150 million in this project.”

“The biggest area for investment we see is energy. This is our third pillar. Energy is a win-win area. Tunisia is looking to harness its tremendous potential for renewable energy. And the European Union needs reliable energy suppliers of clean energy as we are electrifying our entire economy.

Thus, we need to invest in our infrastructure so that Tunisia can export clean energy to Europe. An important milestone in this journey is the ELMED interconnector, an undersea electricity cable linking Tunisia to Italy.

The European Union is investing more than EUR 300 million in the ELMED interconnector. This is great news for Tunisia and Europe. In the autumn, we propose to organise together an investment forum to bring more private investment to Tunisia’s renewable sector, including hydrogen. To put all this in a common roadmap, we are working on a Memorandum of Understanding on renewables with Tunisia,” she pointed out.

“The fourth pillar is migration. We both have an interest in breaking the cynical business model of smuggler. It is horrible to see how they deliberately risk human lives for profit. We will work together on an Anti-Smuggling Operational Partnership. And we will support Tunisia with border management. This year, the EU will provide EUR 100 million to Tunisia for border management, but also search and rescue, anti-smuggling and return.”

The objective is to support a holistic migration policy rooted in the respect of human rights, she added.

“The fifth and very important pillar is about people-to-people contacts. Tunisia has a young and vibrant population. And we should do everything to bring people together. We will create a Tunisia window in the Erasmus+ programme worth EUR 10 million to support student exchange.

And we will establish ‘Talent Partnerships’ to give Tunisia’s youth opportunities to study, work or train in the EU. They will develop new skills useful for modernising Tunisia’s economy. There is a lot of work ahead of us. I have asked Commissioner Várhelyi to take this work forward.”

“And finally, we will reinstate the Association Council. The High Representative is ready to organise the next meeting before the end of the year. Team Europe, the Commission and the Member States are looking forward to working on our partnership with Tunisia,” she announced.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Tunisia will chair works of the 16th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), due June 13-15 in New York.

Social Affairs Minister Malek Ezzahi who will lead the Tunisian delegation, will deliver an address during this conference which will be hosted at the United Nations headquarters and attended by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, reads a Social Affairs Ministry press release.

Several themes will be discussed during this conference, notably the harmonisation of national policies and strategies with the CRPD and access of persons with disabilities to reproductive health services and digitisation.

Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations Tarek Ladeb will chair on the occasion, an interactive debate on June 13 on the implementation of the CRPD.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

The number of deaths caused by road accidents reached 468 since the start of the year till June 8, according to data released by the National Road Safety Observatory (ONSR).

The number of accidents dropped by 224 in the same period from 2,444 last year to 2,220.

Likewise, the number of injuries caused by road accidents fell by 363, to 3,128, against 3,491 in 2022.

The main causes of these accidents are the lack of attention (42%), excessive speed (15,59%) and failure to give way (8.47%).

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

The project “for better empowerment of women in Thala, El Ayoun and Hidra,” initiated by the NGO Thala Solidaire and funded by the French Institute of Tunisia and the French Embassy in Tunis, concluded on Sunday in Kasserine.

25 women from the delegations of Thala, El Ayoun and Hidra had been assisted in carrying out their projects, and 5 women project initiators had been chosen to receive support to set up their projects in various fields (livestock breeding, cooperatives, rosemary oil extraction and sewing workshops), representative of the NGO Aroua Chahbi said.

“During this closing ceremony, these projects were presented with a view to securing funding,” she told TAP.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa has asked leaders from Sugarcane Growing regions of Western Kenya to consider convening a mega Sugar Conference to discuss how to resuscitate the ailing sector.

He said sugarcane has been the main cash crop in the region creating many opportunities while improving livelihoods.

The Governor said there was a need to have a conversation to come up with a lasting solution to the sector that has potential to turnaround the economy of Western Kenya.

He said as leaders from other regions are planning for Coffee and Tea Conferences to assist their farmers, Western region leaders need to also wake up to the call.

‘Let us start having a conversation around sugar so that we can revive our sugar factories,’ he noted.

The Governor also urged Mumias Sugar Company Investor Sarrai Group of Companies to employ locals before engaging workers from foreign countries.

‘We have our youth who have experience, please give them an opportunity to work in the company,’ he noted.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Parents have been challenged to work closely with teachers and other education stakeholders in moulding learners to succeed in their careers.

Homa Bay County Commissioner Moses Lilan said parents should closely monitor children and nurture them to be reliable and resourceful citizens.

Speaking today during a thanksgiving ceremony at Wayare Mixed Secondary School in Ndhiwa Sub County, Lilan called for concerted efforts to address rampant teen pregnancies in the area.

He directed Chiefs to ensure all teenage pregnancies were reported and the culprits behind the defilements tracked down.

He said such culprits must face the full force of the law and warned against out of court settlement.

The administrator hailed Wayare School for impressive performance in last year’s Form Four exams despite challenges like lack of teachers and electricity connection.

He said the school will be connected to the national electricity grid before the end of this month.

Lilan advised students to set their goals early and ensure that they pursue courses that are relevant to the job market.

Homa Bay County Director of Education Eunice Khaemba challenged girls to embrace mathematics, sciences and technical courses.

She told the girls to disregard the mindset that such careers were a preserve for the boys.

The school’s Board of Management Chairman Professor John Ochola urged the government to support the school by drilling a borehole in the institution to ease water scarcity.

He urged the Teachers Service Commission to deploy more teachers to the school adding that the school also urgently required infrastructural facilities.

Prof. Ochola thanked the M-pesa Foundation for recently donating desks and water tanks to the school.

Source: Kenya News Agency

As the country undergoes digital transformation where a variety of services to the public will be availed on digital platforms, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has put in place legal and institutional mechanisms to ensure that personal data is protected.

It’s a constitutional right of all Kenyan citizens, legally referred to as data subjects, to have their data protected from persons and organizations who may intend to use this information for unlawful purposes.

Protection of personal data is what informed the establishment of ODPC in November, 2020 following the enactment of the Data Protection Act of 2019. The office is mandated to ensure that processing of personal data of a subject is guided by the principles set out in the Act.

Head of Legal Services at ODPC Ms. Susan Waweru said that the office is also mandated to create awareness among Data Controllers and Processors on how they can operate within the law. She said registering with ODPC is the first step towards compliance with the Data Protection Act.

An Advocacy officer at ODPC, Mr. Abdullahi Ali said that the office was creating awareness in all counties and hoped to reach all counties by the end of this financial year.

‘Several teams have therefore been dispatched to different counties to sensitize data collectors and processors on the mandate of the ODPC, the provisions of the data protection Act and their obligation in data protection’, he said.

Speaking at Embu County during sensitization exercise, Ali asked data controllers and processors to be accountable for the information in their custody and ensure that it’s only used for the intended purpose. He urged them to only collect the data they require in order to minimize risks such as fraud or unsolicited marketing by entities that could obtain this data illegally.

Data collectors and processors were asked to undertake a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) in order to identify the risks involved in their work and address them thus ensuring there is no data breach.

‘They should also have a retention schedule which will guide how long they should hold information after which it should be discarded in a lawful manner’, he said.

Mr Ali said that in instances where a data collector provides private data to another party for processing, a contract bearing details on how this information will be managed should be drawn.

Embu West Deputy County Commissioner Ms Mercy Gatobu speaking at the function pledged support for the ODPC in ensuring that all public and private entities that were handling personal data in the County complied with the provisions of the Data Protection Act.

She noted that government departments collected a lot of personal and even sensitive data in the cause of providing services to the public and concurred that there was urgent need to protect this information that at times leaked into the public domain.

Source: Kenya News Agency

The Meru County government has in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a four-day mass deworming programme in Igembe South sub-county to combat worms.

Speaking to KNA, Igembe South Deputy Public Health Officer Allan Njiru maintained that the exercise which began on Thursday would ensure that every individual in the region benefits from the programme.

‘We will ensure that everyone is included in the exercise including the street children who are at a high risk of getting infections such as intestinal worms due to the kind of foods they eat,’ he said.

Njiru maintained that with the help of community health promoters, they would administer the drugs to all institutions of learning, churches, market places and all public gatherings.

The health officer noted that the drugs being administered were vermox, a drug used for treating intestinal worms and vitamin A for children below five years to boost their immunity.

He also urged the pupils and the community at large to be at forefront in practicing proper sanitation and hygiene to minimize infections associated with poor hygiene.

Njiru further called on residents to take the drug for their wellbeing.

The joyous residents lauded the county government for the move to eliminate diseases associated with poor hygiene and receiving health education adding that the programme would boost their long ignored wellbeing.

‘Since 2020, I have never thought of deworming due to ignorance but today, I am happy for the county government’s move of ensuring good health for all,’ said Ken Mwenda, a boda boda rider.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Kenya Red Cross Society in Mombasa County has embarked on a mission to sensitize the media on disaster management towards curbing possible disasters especially during the ongoing rainy season.

Speaking to journalists during a seminar at the Mombasa offices, the Regional Manager, Kenya Red Cross Society (KRC) Hassan Musa called upon all media personalities and media houses to create more awareness to the public about KRC services.

The seminar was aimed at appraising the journalists with the day to day activities of the KRC of how they manage calamities and respond to different types of incidents that occur.

Musa said that the main challenge they were facing as KRC was the issue of blood donation. ‘We receive many calls on the daily from the public appealing for blood but we rarely receive calls from the public wanting to donate blood,’ he said.

When asked about the ongoing rains in Mombasa County, Hassan stated that this year’s rain hasn’t caused much floods but has instead brought blessings.

For the two months it has rained, farmers have planted and are waiting for the harvest season, he noted.

Anne Mucheke, Deputy Communication Coordinator ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) Nairobi Regional Delegation asked journalists and media houses to always publish truthful and factual information.

While touching on the prohibition of arbitrary arrest and right to fair trials, Mucheke encouraged the journalists saying, ‘You have a right to fair trial and have a right to protest against arbitrary arrest, they must tell you why they are arresting you’.

The deputy also reminded journalists to avoid getting involved in conflicts refrain from allying any team for their only cover is the lens and the public outcry.

Mucheke also cautioned the journalists who tended to ignore these rules while trying to outshine the rest in either getting the perfect picture or headline but ended up misinforming people or even causing harm to the public.

‘But you know there are people who follow rules and others who are just ignorant, these days as you have seen, there are so many reports, most which don’t really follow rules, they don’t even know what they’re doing, they are copying stuff everywhere,’ she pointed out.

Mucheke encouraged journalists to promote the good things our country is doing and also promote the good (KRC) is doing.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Parents have been urged to allow supervised access of mobile devices and internet services to their children which will help in keeping them up-to-date with technological advancement while protecting them from its harm.

According to a report on evidence of Online Child Sexual Abuse in Kenya dubbed ‘Disrupting Harm’ released in 2021, the most popular device to access the Internet among 12-17 years was mobile at 99 per cent, while the most popular place to access the Internet is a cyber.

Speaking during the Launch of the Day of African Child at the Garissa University, Cabinet Secretary for Labour and social protection Florence Bore in her speech read by the Secretary of Administration Benson Mugo said that the internet has provided invaluable opportunities for the realization of children’s fundamental rights and freedoms such as the right to education, freedom of expression, and freedom of association, among others.

The CS further notes that while access to the internet has ensured that some children still have access to these rights in the event of emergencies, such as the COVID 19, there are risks when children are exposed to prolonged unsupervised access to the internet online like cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content.

‘The Internet also presents risks for the infringement of children’s rights. An increase in internet usage comes with a bigger risk of children being susceptible to sexual exploitation online. Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) includes the use of children in pornographic activities, performances, and materials (child sexual abuse material), sexual extortion, online grooming, and exposure of children to adult pornography,’ Bore said.

‘Children’s privacy can also be compromised in the online environment due to a number of practices such as the sharing of children’s personal information by children or adults; data collection and processing by public institutions, businesses, and other organizations; and criminal activities such as identity theft,’ she added.

The CS said that the role played by parents and caregivers in child protection activities is very important and there is a need to set up programmes geared towards sensitizing them on those roles.

‘All actors including the community and children themselves need to be sensitized on how to prevent, respond to, and report incidents of child abuse to the relevant authorities including calling toll-free line Child Helpline 116,’ she said.

She called for concerted efforts towards support for victims of online child abuse, support in rehabilitation programmes for offenders, and ensuring awareness and dissemination of information and messaging.

Source: Kenya News Agency