Human Rights Watch raise concerns over Kenya, Ethiopia Gibe III dam project.

Ethiopian herders at the lower end of the Omo river where the controversial dam Gibe III is set to be built

Kenya’s quest to get power from Ethiopia’s Gibe III dam project by 2014 may receive a setback after Human Rights Watch wrote to World Bank, a major financier against the project.

The rights watchdog have written to WB saying they should stall the funding of the 1,000 kilometer transmission line to the country from the 240m high dam, tallest in Africa, in Southern Ethiopia with a capacity to produce 1,870 megawatts of electricity citing abuse of human rights.

But yesterday Thursday WB agreed to fund the project even though it doesn't meet its project assessment.

 “The World Bank should ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment are rigorously protected before funding a power transmission line connecting Kenya to the controversial dam in Ethiopia” Human Rights Watch said in a letter to President Jim Yong Kim ahead of Thursday meeting on the project.

“The World Bank shouldn’t think that it’s fine to fund a transmission line while closing its eyes to abuses at the power source, where rights of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people are threatened by the Gibe III dam without protection ” Jessica Evans, senior international financial institutions advocate at HRW said in statement posted on their website.

The project is set to double Ethiopia's current power generating capacity which will see excess power being exported to neighboring countries like Kenya whose 80 percent of the population don’t have access to electricity.

Apart from exporting the power, the Ethiopian government is going to use power from the dam supplied by the Omo River which also gives 90% of Lake Turkana water, to supply electricity for her 245,000 hectares of state-run irrigated sugar plantations and other projects.

According to HRW “the dam and related agricultural plans are also likely to dramatically decrease water levels in Kenya’s Lake Turkana to further increasing competition over scarce resources for the additional 300,000 indigenous people who live around Lake Turkana.” The statement says.

The site of the Gibe III dam

Apart from Kenya there have been serious implications of Ethiopia’s sugar plantations project where over 200,000 indigenous residents of the Lower Omo have been forcefully relocate by security forces to affect the loss of grazing land and cultivation sites as they rely on the 760KM long Omo River for their survival.

“State security forces have used intimidation, assaults and arbitrary arrests when people questioned the relocation or refused to move even though The United Nations in 1980 named the area a World Heritage because of its special cultural and physical significance” the statement says.

WB requires that projects it funds should follow and mitigate against adverse environmental and social impacts especially if it will affect loss of livelihood by calling on adequate compensation to at least maintain their previous living standard.

“WB is set to undermine these policies by approving the power transmission line to Kenya with the source of energy highly questionable” the statement says adding that environmental and social assessment should be done on the project on indigenous people before funding the transmission line.

Jim Yong Kim the 12^th WB president who took the office on July 1 is faced with his first big test to commitment to human rights and environment issue on the funding of the transmission line to Kenya.

 “Kim should show the people of Ethiopia and Kenya that he will stand for their rights. That means not letting this project proceed until the bank has taken adequate steps to prevent serious harm to peoples’ rights and livelihoods” Evans, the HRW official says.

©Manuel Odeny 2012

Horn of Africa: Will Famine in Ethiopia lead to a Regime Change?

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi, his government has been implicted for holding aid from rebels and opposition areas.

The report of Ethiopian government under Meles Zenawi using aid as a weapon against opposition in the famine ravaging the Horn of Africa is worrying. This trend is compounded with mass detentions, widespread torture and extra judicial killings.

Sadly, this same scenario during famine in the country helped in toppling Haile Selassie and Mengistu in 1974 and 1991 respectively. The current famine affecting about 10 million people in the region and the worst in 60 years according to UN may cause a regime change.

BBC Newsnight report has uncovered the ruling party Ethiopia People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) as denying people deemed to have voted for the opposition in 2005 and 2010 elections food, fertilizer and seeds.

The report has been supported by earlier ones by Amnesty International and UN.

As a major western ally in counter terrorism, Ethiopian is among the largest recipient of aid in the continent explaining the laxity in upholding human rights record since the country is pivotal in controlling Somalia’s Al-shabaab rebels.

It is estimated that 13 million Ethiopians are dependent on aid making it a potent weapon of war.

“There is a great deal of political differentiation. People who support the ruling party, the EPRDF, and our members are treated differently. The motivation is buying support (by) holding the population hostage” Prof. Beyene Petros an opposition politician is quoted in the report.

Southern Ethiopia is worst hit like areas controlled by Somalia tribe Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) where about 200 people throng to Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya daily.

 Considering the country’s history of regime change in famine will the ripple in Ethiopia tickle in other countries of the Horn of Africa?

The 1973 famine that claimed tens-of-thousands peasant became the last straw that broke Emperor Selassie by coalescing disparate rebels and elites against his monarchy. The rebels included Ogaden, Oromo and Eritrea.

Then, like now, the government insisted it could feed the population to avoid shame in international community.  When he was toppled and killed by Mengistu in 1975, a British movie The Hidden Famine was aired on state television showing the Emperor and his entourage feasting on champagne, caviar and feeding dogs from silver trays while the famine killed people. (I posted Selassie's life here)

Later, in a sharp precision the ghost of 1984 famine would topple Mengistu in 1991 undermined by support gained from Soviet bloc and Cuba in quashing rebellion.  To avoid international condemnation and shame the government banned donors, journalist and foreign visitors from famine areas.

Aid was used as a weapon in war, to fund the army and in celebration of Mengistu decade rule. (Mengistu's rule is here )

“There was famine in Ethiopia for years before we took power, it was the way nature kept the balnce” Mengistu is quoted by Dawit Wolde Giorgis his minister in Red Tears: War, Famine and Revolution in Ethiopia (Red Sea Press: 1989)

The world was only jolted into reality when Kenya photojournalist Mohammed Amin and Michael Burke from sidelines of Mengistu celebrations on 23^rd October 1984 broadcasted the famine for BBC which was aired on 425 TVs worldwide and aid in rising over $1 billion in a year. (Read about Amin's life  here)

A famine victim in Dadaab Kenya 

This revelation never made Ethiopia to relent on her stance which brought together Tigray rebels (now in power), Eritera and Ogaden in a major offensive that toppled the government.

Now Zenawi is in power supported by aid from the West which he uses against opposition and rebels. Zenawi is reading from the same script as its predecessors and expects peace and unity.

The famine across the Horn of Africa is causing mass movements, conflict and little faith on governments. The big question now is: how long will foreign aid be used as a weapon in Ethiopia before a war against the regime erupts?