PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Kenyan newspapers turn spotlight to food protests
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyan government appeared under siege this week as parliament joined forces with newspapers to demand for action on rising food prices and a wildcat rise in the cost of oil, which ignited an across-the-board fuel protests.
The Kenyan fuel and food protests followed a week of ‘walk-to-work’ protest in next-door neigbour Uganda, which appeared to question the legitimacy of President Yoweri Museveni’s recent electoral victory and the independence of the courts.
Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye and Norbert Mao, arrested repeatedly over the walk-to-work protests, dominated headlines and airwaves in Kenya, with television footage of Besigye kicking police as he was being loaded into a truck.
Besigye said in a Kampala magistrate court that his trial was also a trial of the court.
Kenyan news media highlighted protests in major towns, which remained largely peaceful and questioned the success or failure of the government’s efforts to keep the prices of fuel under check with the creation of the Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Commission is tasked with setting the prices of fuel, the main industrial input that determines the cost of production in the entire economy.
Parliament set aside its regular session to discuss the rising cost of food even as a government attempt to cut the taxes on paraffin and diesel appeared largely ignored.
“MPs join calls for lower food and fuel prices,” was the Daily Nation’s headline on Wednesday, which reported about a duel in parliament on the day of the street food protests, which also put pressure on agriculture, finance and energy ministers to act.
“As a country, we cannot claim to be sovereign when we keep on begging for food as we have been unable to feed our own people,” veteran opposition politician and lawyer Paul Muite, was quoted as telling the government to act on the food crisis.
Parliamentarians derided the executive for the high fuel prices in the country, saying the costs should be blamed on corruption, inefficiency in the supply of fuel and the poor regulation of the energy sector.
The Standard newspaper kicked off the fuel outrage story with a headline announcing a petition to the Speaker, sent out by Ababu Namwamba, an MP representing Budalangi constituency, near the Kenyan border with Uganda.
Namwamba petition sought the setting aside of a special session of parliament to discuss the rising fuel prices as an issue of great national importance.
Meanwhile, the energy ministry defended its record in handling the fuel crisis in the country.
The ministry said its ERC had helped keep the prices much lower than a free market system, which would have been much higher.
-0- PANA AO/VAO 23April2011
The Kenyan fuel and food protests followed a week of ‘walk-to-work’ protest in next-door neigbour Uganda, which appeared to question the legitimacy of President Yoweri Museveni’s recent electoral victory and the independence of the courts.
Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye and Norbert Mao, arrested repeatedly over the walk-to-work protests, dominated headlines and airwaves in Kenya, with television footage of Besigye kicking police as he was being loaded into a truck.
Besigye said in a Kampala magistrate court that his trial was also a trial of the court.
Kenyan news media highlighted protests in major towns, which remained largely peaceful and questioned the success or failure of the government’s efforts to keep the prices of fuel under check with the creation of the Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Commission is tasked with setting the prices of fuel, the main industrial input that determines the cost of production in the entire economy.
Parliament set aside its regular session to discuss the rising cost of food even as a government attempt to cut the taxes on paraffin and diesel appeared largely ignored.
“MPs join calls for lower food and fuel prices,” was the Daily Nation’s headline on Wednesday, which reported about a duel in parliament on the day of the street food protests, which also put pressure on agriculture, finance and energy ministers to act.
“As a country, we cannot claim to be sovereign when we keep on begging for food as we have been unable to feed our own people,” veteran opposition politician and lawyer Paul Muite, was quoted as telling the government to act on the food crisis.
Parliamentarians derided the executive for the high fuel prices in the country, saying the costs should be blamed on corruption, inefficiency in the supply of fuel and the poor regulation of the energy sector.
The Standard newspaper kicked off the fuel outrage story with a headline announcing a petition to the Speaker, sent out by Ababu Namwamba, an MP representing Budalangi constituency, near the Kenyan border with Uganda.
Namwamba petition sought the setting aside of a special session of parliament to discuss the rising fuel prices as an issue of great national importance.
Meanwhile, the energy ministry defended its record in handling the fuel crisis in the country.
The ministry said its ERC had helped keep the prices much lower than a free market system, which would have been much higher.
-0- PANA AO/VAO 23April2011
