PRESIDENT Mwai Kibaki has challenged local universities to expand their admission capacities to enable the Government save Sh 20 billion the country loses annually on university study abroad.

Kibaki asked the universities to diversify programmes and expand admission through open and distant learning. He was speaking at the launch of the Kenya Methodist University’s (KEMU) charter in Meru yesterday.

He said the Commission for Higher Education that directs university education had eliminated lengthy and bureaucratic procedures for evaluating higher education and processing admission to university status. The president said the commission will be accorded the power to regulate all institutions offering diploma and technical studies and asked universities to focus on programmes that impart competitive skills for employment.

Kibaki said the Government was striving to create employment and asked tertiary institutions to produce graduates that fit market requirements.

The president said the Government had set aside Sh65 million for research at universities and other institutions in response to a question by KEMU’s vice chancellor Prof Mutuma Mugambi. Kibaki said this budget will be raised to Sh 71 million next year.

Present were acting Education minister Noah Wekesa and his Internal Security counterpart John Michuki and Education assistant ministers Kilemi Mwiria and Beth Mugo. Others were Petkey Miriti (Trade) and Raphael Muriungi (Tourism), and former cabinet ministers David Mwiraria and Kiraitu Murungi.

source: http://www.timesnews.co.ke

Initially awarded to only one recipient, the $25,000 Merit scholarship will now be awarded to four deserving Bahamian students, it was announced yesterday.

The change comes after a National Scholarship Advisory Committee spent the past year reviewing the now defunct Bonded Scholarship scheme that was replaced with the government’s Guaranteed Loan programme.

However education officials noticed that although students were deserving of assistance from the scheme, many of them failed to qualify for it.

This gave birth to the Merit Scholarship Programme, a partnership involving the government, the Central Bank of The Bahamas and the Lyford Cay Foundation.

According to Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Alfred Sears, the programme has now been restructured to ensure its sustainability, as well as give all post-secondary students a fair opportunity to become a recipient.

"This national scholarship programme will be a partnership between the government and the private sector," Minister Sears explained.

"The scheme, which has been approved by the Cabinet will commence this year, initially funded by the government. But the Committee is in discussions with a number of private sector partners."

Philip Simon represents the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and the wider community on the scholarship’s Advisory Committee.

He too stressed the importance of the public and private sectors working together to ensure the country has continued development and sustainability.

"We can and must all agree that there is no more important resource that we have than that of our youth and no more important ingredient to the future success of our nation than the success of our students," Mr. Simon said.

"As such, the responsibility lies not just on the government, teachers or parents alone but…the overall support and input from each stakeholder in this process, for we all would pay the collective price of failure as a result of ignorance or the lack of information, poor planning or simply lost opportunity."

This year, the four Merit scholarships for four years each will be awarded to two New Providence recipients, and others in the Family Islands.

According to Reginald Saunders, administrator for the Ministry’s Scholarship and Loan Division, the Merit scholarship aims to attract those Bahamian students with "impeccable" academic credentials.

The recipient must maintain a 3.25 average in the first semester and subsequent to that, must maintain a 3.0 average, he said.

The government is also offering seven academic need-based National Scholarship Awards of up to $10,000.

Four of those recipients will be selected from New Providence, one in Grand Bahama and one in the Family Islands. This is in addition to eight technical scholarships.

In this case, applicants must maintain an overall academic average of 3.0.

There will also be eight National Technical Training Scholarships. Four of these will go to students in the capital, two in Grand Bahama and two in the Family Islands.

In this case, a 2.5 GPA is needed to qualify.

This accounts for a total of 19 scholarships with an estimated value of $250,000.

Officials say priority will be given to tertiary institutions like the College of The Bahamas and the Bahamas Technical & Vocational Institute (BTVI).

"In the case of all of these awards, the Advisory Committee felt it necessary to insist that the recipients return home," Mr. Saunders said.

Deputy Chairman of the Scholarship Advisory Committee, Arnold Forbes agreed.

"We don’t want our students to go away, get an education and stay overseas. We are hoping that they return home and share the knowledge they have learnt and assist in our nation building," Mr. Forbes said.

Interested persons are encouraged to pick up an application from the Ministry of Education’s Scholarship & Loan Division.

It can also be accessed online at www.bahamaseducation.com.

Applications will also be available at district offices throughout the Family Islands.

source: http://www.jonesbahamas.com

The Alliance for the Arts, the official nonprofit fundraising arm of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, recently announced the creation and implementation of the Richard Carpenter Performing Arts Scholarship Program.

"These significant financial scholarships will be made available to interested high school and college students throughout Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. Over 100 schools have been contacted and invited to have their most talented students in dance, song and instruments apply," said Patricia Jones, president and executive director for the Alliance. The deadline for applications is

Tues., Aug. 1. The top four finalists in each category will compete on stage in the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Countrywide Performing Arts Center, Thousand Oaks, on Wed., Sept. 20.

The performance for the scholarships on Sept. 20 has been dubbed the inaugural "Front and Center" talent competition and will also feature Richard Carpenter and three of his children, Traci, Mindy, and Colin, in performances that evening.

"We are extremely grateful to Richard and Mary Carpenter for providing the funding for this meaningful scholarship program. The Carpenter Scholarship Program will be a huge resource for the many gifted artists in our region," said Carole Nussbaum, chair of the scholarship committee and president and CEO of Cabrillo Music Theatre.

The first place winners in each category will be awarded $5,000 and have an opportunity to be featured in a prominent role in a Cabrillo Music Theatre production. The second and third place winners will receive $2,500 and $1,000 respectively. The "Honorable Mention" award recipient will receive $250.

Richard Carpenter was half of the brother-sister duo The Carpenters along with his late sister Karen. Their hit records began in the early '70s and included "Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun." Richard and his wife, Mary, have five children and became residents of Thousand Oaks in 2000. They recently provided a $3 million gift to the Alliance to name the park in front of the Civic Arts Plaza the "Mary and Richard Carpenter Plaza Park." It was agreed that $1 million would be endowed to create this scholarship program with the Carpenters' input and involvement.

This donation is the largest gift ever received by the Alliance and the largest in Ventura County.

All interested students who would like to apply for a scholarship and an opportunity to perform

Gopher Israel Public Affairs Committee's main goal next year is to establish an offical Israel study-abroad program through the University, said the group's president, Julia Krieger, a journalism sophomore.

"The consensus has been that until the U.S. travel warning has been lifted basically there is not going to be a travel ban lifted from the University," she said.

Krieger said it's a civil rights issue and discriminatory that the University doesn't have a study-abroad program to Israel.

"It's troubling to me that the University of Minnesota is one of the finest universities in the nation … it is slamming its door to legitimate opportunities to study in Israel," she said.

The University never has had an official study-abroad program to Israel, said Jodi Malmgren, the director of advising at the University's Learning Abroad Center.

This is because Israel is on the U.S. State Department's travel warning list, and also because there hasn't been overwhelming interest in an official study-abroad program, she said.

"Our utmost concern is the safety of our University of Minnesota students, and … the State Department has issued a warning for a country that suggests there is a safety concern with sending students there," Malmgrem said.

Joseph Walla, who graduated in May with a degree in political science, said traveling to Israel isn't more dangerous than traveling to other countries.

While he studied abroad in Italy last year, a University of Miami student was stabbed, he said.

"You always assume some risk when you travel, and I don't think it's necessarily greater when you travel to Israel," Walla said.

With the exception of a program to Kenya, the University doesn't offer study-abroad programs to countries with travel warnings.

"Students would go on what we could call an outside program," Malmgren said.

If a student wants to go to Israel or any other country on the travel warning list, he or she would have to find another program and then petition to the Education Abroad Suspension Committee.

"I think the University, by having this ban and forcing students to go outside the University, it doesn't send the best message," said Dan Goodman, a political science and Jewish studies senior and group member.

He said some of the cons of not having an official study-abroad program to Israel is having to petition to the committee.

Other universities such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ohio State University offer official study-abroad programs to Israel, Goodman said.

One of the difficulties students who want to study-abroad in Israel face is that their credits, but not their grades, transfer, he said.

"Grades you earn in Israel don't get transferred or calculated into you GPA," Goodman said. "If it is an official study-abroad program, the grades do transfer."

When a student studies abroad through an unofficial program, he or she has to take a leave of absence from the University, which could look bad to future employers looking at your transcript, he said

"You can learn things (at a University in Israel) that you can't here," Goodman said.

Goodman said Israeli universities have some of the world's best programs in Jewish and holocaust studies and programs in Roman architecture.

source: http://www.mndaily.com

That is the figure that the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), an international coalition of charities and teacher unions, believes is the very minimum necessary to achieve the target -- agreed on by the UN in 2000 as a Millennium Development Goal and reaffirmed at the G8 summit at Gleneagles a year ago -- of providing universal free access to primary education by 2015. Strides towards this goal have been taken in several countries, thanks to the combined effects of debt relief and increased aid: Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have scrapped school fees for primary education, luring an extra 7 million children into the classroom. But where are the new teachers needed to teach them?

It is these missing millions who are the focus of the current campaign by the GCE, My Friend Needs a Teacher, which aims to ensure every child has a trained and properly paid teacher and can be taught in a class of no more than 40 pupils. It follows in the footsteps of last year's action to draw attention to the 100 million children around the world who do not go to school at all. That saw more than 5 million children worldwide create cut-outs to represent their would-be classmates, in what the GCE claims was "probably the largest children's challenge ever."

But that campaign took place in the white heat of the Make Poverty History rally, the Live 8 concert and the G8 leaders descending on Gleneagles. This year, the public profile of this agenda might have dimmed, but the enthusiasm of pupils for its goals has not -- more than 8,000 UK schools have signed up this year. So how has this issue captured the passions of children and made them so determined to ensure politicians stick to their pledges?

no letdown

"We've been very heartened by the fact that there has been no die-down since last year," says Janet Convery of ActionAid, one of the UK partners in the GCE. "It's part of children understanding how change takes place. We didn't want them to think the campaign was over with the Live 8 concert. It's actually an easy thing for children to understand -- they are motivated by an innate sense of unfairness, and they know why education is important."

Jenade Sharma, a year 8 pupil from Langdon school in east London, visited Mozambique earlier this year.

"In the first school we went to, there were 70 children to one teacher," he says. "In the second school, they were outside, getting taught under the trees. Knowing the facts really shocks you."

Jenade is something of a seasoned campaigner on this issue. In April, with his classmate Lily King-Taylor, he traveled to Mozambique with the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown to meet Nelson Mandela to discuss the importance of getting every child into school.

And on Tuesday, together with pupils from four other UK schools, Jenade went to 10 Downing Street in London to check on the progress made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on this promise and those made at Gleneagles.

Jenade insists, however, that he was going merely as a representative of the thousands of pupils who have been involved in the campaign.

questions

"Our questions are not just from us but from all the children in England," he says.

"Being part of this big thing, they feel they can really make a difference," says teacher Jeannie Rios of her class at South Street primary in Bedminster, in the English midlands, three of whose pupils went to No 10.

"They saw that it wasn't just them, that it's a massive campaign, and that really enthused them," she said.

This year, the GCE has enlisted the help of celebrities but, in reality, it is pupils who have fronted the campaign, and pupils who are keeping it going.

"It's superb for our children to think they were with this right at the beginning and have followed it through," says Tabitha Sawyer, a teacher at Ysgol Emmanuel, who took two pupils to Downing Street.

Year 6 pupil Rosa Maitland-Price recalls hearing about a school in Nigeria with 900 pupils and just nine teachers.

She could not believe it, she says: "We need lots more teachers."

Teaching is not, in many developing countries, a particularly attractive career. Training can be scarce or non-existent: In Uganda, for example, half have no training at all. Pay is often poor; in some countries, teachers can go for months without receiving their salaries. Class sizes are huge -- 60, 80, 100 pupils for each teacher -- and classrooms overcrowded or improvised. HIV/AIDS has cut a dreadful path through the profession and threatens its replenishment.

Last week, Blair fleshed out the promises made by Brown in Mozambique, committing the UK to a doubling of its aid budget for education, from ?45 million (US$82.9 million) last year to ?1 billion by 2010. Countries will be encouraged to come up with long-term plans for their education systems, with teacher training an integral part of that vision.

Blair told the children who visited Downing Street: "Developing countries need to draw up ambitious plans for their education systems, and the G8 and other international leaders need to provide the long-term, predictable funding that is required. An important part of these plans must be ensuring that there are sufficient trained teachers for the increased numbers of schoolchildren."

"We are seeing progress. As a result of debt relief, Nigeria is already employing an extra 120,000 teachers and sending 3.5 million more children to school," he said.

There will also be a renewed focus on promoting secondary and tertiary education.

The forthcoming G8 summit in St Petersburg, the pupils think, should provide that opportunity; they want Blair to know -- and to pass on to fellow world leaders -- that the goodwill generated by last year's fine words will not continue indefinitely.

With sessions on education and Africa, the issue is one of the priorities at the G8 summit. But progress on the ground since last year's commitments were trumpeted has been hard to assess. The GCE is working on ways to measure the effects of the promises of aid and advice.

uk in the lead

"We do welcome the lead the UK is taking on this," Convery says. "But there is still a long way to go. We're not going to be happy until we see that 100 million figure go down."

The cost of meeting the goal of free, universal primary education by 2015 is estimated at US$100 billion. The GCE says there is currently a shortfall in funding of US$10 billion a year; the US, Japan, Germany and Italy are among those countries it believes are not pulling their weight. Some African nations still spend more in debt repayments than they do on education.

Another Millennium Development Goal, to eliminate the gender gap in primary schools by last year -- two-thirds of those children not in school are girls -- was missed by more than 70 countries. At the current rate of progress, says the GCE, it would take 150 years in Africa to reach the goal of getting every child to school.

The pupils involved in the campaign are not prepared to wait anything like that long.

"Seeing as England is a wealthy country and part of the G8, we have a responsibility to help other countries," says Inderpal Lehal, a year 8 pupil from St George's school in Gravesend, east of London.

His teacher, Kirsty Ritchie, says: "When you bring it to the level of analyzing what world leaders like Blair and [US President George W.] Bush have done to follow though on earlier promises, the kids seem to get really involved. They like to play detective in finding faults and blunders and also to examine whether leaders have kept their promises or not.

"When they realize that a promise has been kept, like the raising of the aid budget, they seem to develop greater respect for politics and they also feel proud that their country is helping. However, when they find a promise that has no evidence of being kept or followed through, they want to remind leaders of the promise," Ritchie says.
This story has been viewed 167 times.
By Claire Phipps

source: http://www.taipeitimes.com

Special to the Herald

The National Farmers Union Foundation recently announced Leonard Polzin of Cadott as one of six recipients of the 2006 Stanley Moore Scholarship in the amount of $500. He is the son of George and Marie Polzin.

Polzin’s family has been involved with Wisconsin Farmers Union for three generations in Chippewa County. He is a student at the University of Wisconsin River Falls majoring in dairy science. After graduation, he hopes to be involved with the family dairy operation.

“Leonard has an outstanding record of academic excellence as well as school and community involvement, which are qualities promoted by Stanley Moore,” said WFU President Sue Beitlich. “The Farmers Union Foundation is dedicated to assisting Farmers Union members in their educational and leadership development, and we’re very proud that one of our very own is the recipient of this national scholarship.”

Polzin was active in high school FFA, National Honor Society, choir, drama, baseball and was a Badger Boy’s State alternate. In college, he is a member of the University of River Falls Dairy Club and the UWRF Agricultural Education Society.

In addition to Wisconsin Farmers Union, his community activities include the 4-H, Quality Meat Program, Big Drywood Lutheran Church Program and the Chippewa Valley Youth Leadership Congress.

The scholarship, offered through the National Farmers Union Foundation, was established by the Farmers Union Insurance Acquisition Corporation to honor Stanley Moore and his lifelong dedication to Farmers Union.

“Since its beginning, education has been a key component of Farmers Union programs,” said Beitlich. “We are pleased to offer this scholarship in the name of an outstanding member who upheld the ideals and vision of the organization.”

The scholarship is open to Farmers Union members. For more information contact the National Farmers Union at education@nfu.org.

source: http://www.chippewa.com

by Duane Shimogawa Jr. - The Garden Island

Lihu‘e’s Jordan Tottori picked up a $1,000 scholarship for his work on and off the field on May 27 at the 46th Annual Pop Warner All-American Scholars banquet in Orlando, Florida.

The Lihu‘e Pop Warner athlete earned First Team All-American honors.

Because Mike Walker wants student-athletes like Ryan Sichting to have a shot at college scholarships, the New Castle basketball coach has given them an extra opportunity.

Sichting, who just graduated from Martinsville High School, is one of many such athletes who have been selected to play in Saturday's East-West All-Star Games at New Castle High School.

Sichting will play for the Class 4A West team in the finale of the marathon of games in the New Castle High School Fieldhouse.

The big-school boys start at 8:30 p.m., capping an eight-game run of boys' and girls' games for all the classes contested by the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

Two other area athletes are also on the list.

Monrovia's Rachel Hadley will compete in the Girls' Class 2A game, which is set for 1 p.m.

Mooresville's Heather Harper will display her talents in the 7 p.m. game for Class 4A girls.

These games are strictly for the benefit of the players, according to Walker, the founder and director of the all-star games.

He says the contests are designed to give "honor and recognition to both large and small communities all across Indiana."

Walker, a first team all-state selection on Crawfordville's final four team in 1958, has coached in Florida, California and now at New Castle.

Walker says the games give student-athletes an opportunity to attract attention of college coaches.

"My mom and dad were great parents, but as far as education went, they both dropped out of school in the eighth grade to go to work," he said. "My coaches were the only people who encouraged me to dream that I could actually go to college.

"I am sure there are thousands of kids out there who are in the same boat that I was in, as one of six kids growing up in Crawfordsville. All they need is a chance. We want to give them that chance."

The Class 1A girls’ game opens the day at 10 a.m. The 1A boys follow at 11:30 a.m. The boys' 2A game is set for 2:30 p.m. The 3A girls play at 4 p.m. and the 3A boys at 5:30 p.m.

Sichting helped the Artesians win the Mooresville sectional tournament. They topped Terre Haute South 54-46, Terre Haute North 57-52 and Plainfield 61-53. The Artesians were eliminated, 60-52, by Jeffersonville in the Seymour Regional.

The Artesians finished 14-10 after winning eight of their last 12 games.

Hadley helped Monrovia also win a sectional championship. The Bulldogs captured the Cascade sectional by beating Cloverdale 65-39, Cascade 50-35 and South Putnam 54-44 in overtime.

North Knox eliminated the Bulldogs 50-35 in the semifinal round of the Forest Park Regional Tournament. Monrovia finished its season with a 16-8 record.

There's another connection for Hadley. The West All-Stars will be directed by Debby Steffy, the South Put coach.

Harper helped Mooresville win 19 of 23 games, including a 53-44 decision of Martinsville during the regular season as the Pioneers avenged a loss to the Arties in the sectional championship game a year earlier.

MoPi won its first sectional game, beating Terre Haute North 57-40, but fell 49-39 to eventual sectional champion Northview in the semifinal round.

Dave McCullough of Noblesville will coach the boys' 4A West team. Wayne Allen of Castle will direct the Class 4A West girls.

source: http://www.reporter-times.com

Robert Lopez has feasted on feijoada, the Brazilian national dish. He’s witnessed Brazilian soccer hysteria from the stands of Mineirao Stadium. And he’s toured the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, Mexico.

He’s done all of this while working toward a degree at Kansas University.

“I wish I could spend all my college career abroad,” said the KU senior who has studied in Brazil and Mexico. “I think you learn more when you study abroad than when you sit around a classroom with 30 people from Johnson County who haven’t been outside the United States and don’t have that broader knowledge.”

Kansas Board of Regents Chairman Nelson Galle agrees. Galle is proposing an ambitious policy that would require all traditional four-year college students at the state’s six universities to receive some type of international experience before they graduate. That experience could entail living, working or studying abroad.

Robert Lopez has feasted on feijoada, the Brazilian national dish. He’s witnessed Brazilian soccer hysteria from the stands of Mineirao Stadium. And he’s toured the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, Mexico.

He’s done all of this while working toward a degree at Kansas University.

“I wish I could spend all my college career abroad,” said the KU senior who has studied in Brazil and Mexico. “I think you learn more when you study abroad than when you sit around a classroom with 30 people from Johnson County who haven’t been outside the United States and don’t have that broader knowledge.”

Kansas Board of Regents Chairman Nelson Galle agrees. Galle is proposing an ambitious policy that would require all traditional four-year college students at the state’s six universities to receive some type of international experience before they graduate. That experience could entail living, working or studying abroad.

Some Marshall University students will now have a better chance to study abroad.

J.A. Fred Brothers and his wife, Paula, have created a fund, in memory of Fred's sister, to help bring more faculty and student exchanges between Marshall University and the University of Rennes 2 in France.

One MU student and one Rennes 2 student will be selected each year to receive $5,000 for one year or $3,000 for one semester to study abroad.

People who are interested in applying for the scholarship must be full-time students who are undergraduates in their sophomore or higher.

Call (304) 696-2456 for more information.

source: http://www.herald-dispatch.com

BY JULIE CHAZYN

Special to The Miami Herald

On my 13-day trip to East Asia I saw dried bugs sold in the Namdaemun market of South Korea. I ate raw shrimp and sea urchin in Osaka. I karaoked in Tokyo, visited printing presses at the biggest newspapers in South Korea and Japan, and washed away my imperfections before entering temples in Kyoto.

The trip, courtesy of the Scripps Howard foundation, took nine winners of the Roy W. Howard Collegiate National Reporting Competition to South Korea and Japan. The goal was to open our eyes and making us more conscious journalists, following in the steps of Roy W. Howard who, by 29, was United Press International's first president of business and editorial operations.

Brad Hamm, dean of the journalism school at Indiana University and a Roy W. Howard scholar, and Bonnie Brownlee, associate dean for undergraduate studies there, led the group. They were accompanied by Pamela Howard, Roy Howard's great-granddaughter, who joined us in Japan. The 12 of us, sometimes disoriented, flew more than 14 hours to finally land in a world where I understood nothing.

According to Transitions Abroad magazine, an online source that helps those who want to study, live or volunteer abroad, only 6 percent of all undergraduate students who study abroad go to Asia, because of this fear of the unknown.

But I feel there is much we can learn from both Japan and South Korea. Japan, home to more than 127 million people, sells around 70 million newspapers each day, while the United States, with a population of more than 295 million, sells only 48 million papers a day, according to the World Association of Newspapers.

I searched hard to uncover the reason for that difference.

I discovered a strong dedication to tradition.

Reading the newspaper every morning, at home or on the train. Bowing at a passerby. Respecting elders. Culture and tradition run deep within the veins of both the South Koreans and the Japanese, helping them cultivate their mores, yet also often creating tension between shining brightly as individuals and working together as a group for the betterment of society.

As I strolled the streets of Osaka after sunset, I was mesmerized by a sea of multicolored hair and mismatched clothing: neon purple jackets with short pink mini-skirts, ripped jeans, green heels, funky scrunched-up socks, puffy jackets. Individualism -- mixed in with the American influence of McDonald's, Baskin Robbins and Pizza Hut -- buzzed and colored the city streets while the youth gambled at Pachinko machines and played Brit-pop music on the side of the road.

But by 11 at night, the streets cleared out, and in the morning the individualism was gone.

Professionals identically dress in business attire and students in white and navy uniforms march purposefully through the streets and on subways. Polite bows and whispers of ''excuse me'' and ''thank you'' could be heard; those were some of the few words I could understand.

This divide between the new and the old is shaping the youth in this part of the world. With cellphones that also serve as credit cards, video systems and televisions, along with a mentality that encourages respect and responsibility for the group as a whole, many Japanese think differently than their ancestors, who saw their emperor as a descendant of God.

In 1933, almost 73 years to the day our group visited the Imperial Palace, Roy Howard was the first American journalist to interview Hirohito, the emperor of Japan, shedding the first light on this distant land, which would soon defy the United States during World War II.

Now, many years later, it is our turn to understand Asia.

Although I'm back home and eating Florida mangoes, which ran at no less than $8 in South Korea and Japan, the taste of squid-sushi fresh from Tokyo's wholesale fish market still lingers on my tongue. I say arigato gozaimasu, thank you very much, East Asia, for opening my eyes to both our differences and our similarities.

source: http://www.miami.com

Exactly five months ago, President Kibaki officially received the Goldenberg Report from Mr. Justice Samuel Bosire of the the Court of Appeal. When receiving the report, the President promised Kenyans that he would carefully study it and ensure that “what it says shall be done,” to quote him verbatim.

Because of the President’s checkered record on fulfilling promises made, skeptics had good reason to doubt his determination to slay the corruption beast. Despite this skepticism, many Kenyans still believed that the President had the opportunity and ability to redeem his legacy.

One of the key recommendations in the report was for further investigations into the activities of very senior politicians and purported businessmen in Kenya. Presumably, the investigations were recommended because, we are told, not enough evidence had been presented before the Goldenberg Commission to warrant it to ask for the arrest and prosecution of the people involved.

Kenyans naively expected that some of the identified architects of this mammoth scandal would be speedily prosecuted and if found guilty, sentenced to long jail terms. Despite serial mishaps by the Government on the anti-corruption front and long lists of unfulfilled promises on every conceivable thing strewn everywhere, we desperately wanted to believe that some good could still come out of the Goldenberg Commission.

We eagerly waited for both the suggested investigations to be conducted and the prosecutions to unravel. One month went by. We dismissed that as too short. It was fair and reasonable to give the Government more time, we reasoned. Bureaucracy turns slowly, some of us said. It is not one individual’s fault, we told ourselves.

Then two, three and four months passed. We begun to feel concerned, even slightly irritated at the unknown staring back at us. Nothing happened.

It is now five long, dreary months, and we have no indication how much longer we will have to wait; or if anything will ever come out of the hundreds of millions of shillings we spent on that Commission. Our hopes have been completely dashed.

Meanwhile, as we anxiously waited for the Goldenberg corruption czars to be slaughtered, we have encountered other, possibly more massive rip-offs and scandals than the Goldenberg one. With the unearthing of unimaginable money laundering, tax evasion and other related economic crimes, Kenyans are no longer certain of how many other egregious economic crimes are occurring.

With a conservative estimate of Sh 3 billion clandestinely ferreted out of our national economy annually from Charterhouse Bank alone without a single red penny paid as duty, Kenya might have lost hundreds of billions of shillings in the past five years alone. And we are not yet talking about the circumstances surrounding the suspicious collapse of Uchumi Supermarkets; the allegations about money laundering and tax evasion claims at Nakumatt and its other affiliates. Considering the fact that we are here only scratching the surface of these gigantic mountains of scandals, it is possible that our economy might not ever recover from their impact. It is also quite logical to assume that had all these stolen funds been invested in the economy, our country would today be on the path to total and true economic independence.

By any standards, the loot stashed abroad by our economic saboteurs would be more than adequate to construct thousands of first class road networks around the country; clean, varnish and reconstruct all the urban and rural hovels like Mathare, Kibera, Korogocho, Kariobangi and many others into habitable modest quarters; provide clean piped water for all our needy citizens; revamp and equip our dilapidated public facilities and infrastructure like hospitals, dispensaries and schools; and launch an effective campaign against the HIV/Aids pandemic and malaria.

It is even possible for the left-over to be used for fighting floods, irrigating our arid alnd semi-arid areas and creating a national culture that can bring fundamental unity amongst our different peoples.

For a while, it looked like the political and economic filth exposed by John Githongo was the bleakest that we could ever become aware of. Kenyans were optimistic that with all those ugly skeletons exposed from the Government closet, we might have just turned a corner to accountability and prosperity. The high profile cabinet “resignations” or “step asides” were viewed as a welcome respite in an otherwise polluted environment. We breathed heavily but healthily. There was a flicker of light at the end of the corruption tunnel, so we thought.But we were clearly mistaken. Our exuberance was short-lived.

Along came the news of the final utter destruction of Uchumi Supermarkets. Then revelations of massive money laundering, tax evasions and other economic crimes emerged from the Charterhouse Bank, Nakumat Supermarket and other affiliated enterprises and individuals.

Combined with the Artur, Artur and Company performance, we have suddenly realised that we are dealing with a colossal problem hitherto unimagined. It is far reaching than a mere failure in leadership. The conundrum facing us is not something that can be wished away. Neither can we varnish it using our untutored and unreliable experiences and institutions. To rely on our corrupt institutions to deal with these massive frauds would be to partake in the commission of more frauds.

In order to fully unearth the fraudulent activities involved, we need to bring in competent and well trained independent international forensic accountants from reputable firms. There is also a need for the establishment (under special legislation) of an independent court, staffed by international experts in the areas of money laundering, tax evasion, organised crime, international banking and drug trafficking. Special prosecutors (preferably non-Kenyans) should then be appointed to deal exclusively with these crimes for a period of two to three years.

To address potential liability issues from KACC directors and other busy bodies, another special piece of legislation may need to be introduced expressly abolishing the KACC and immunising the Government from any lawsuits. This is a piece of cake. It has been done in other jurisdictions and Kenya is not an exception.

*The writer is a Barrister and Solicitor in Toronto, Canada

sopurce: http://www.timesnews.co.ke

Robert Lopez has feasted on feijoada, the Brazilian national dish. He’s witnessed Brazilian soccer hysteria from the stands of Mineirao Stadium. And he’s toured the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, Mexico.

He’s done all of this while working toward a degree at Kansas University.

“I wish I could spend all my college career abroad,” said the KU senior who has studied in Brazil and Mexico. “I think you learn more when you study abroad than when you sit around a classroom with 30 people from Johnson County who haven’t been outside the United States and don’t have that broader knowledge.”

Kansas Board of Regents Chairman Nelson Galle agrees. Galle is proposing an ambitious policy that would require all traditional four-year college students at the state’s six universities to receive some type of international experience before they graduate. That experience could entail living, working or studying abroad.