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Zomba High Court judge Zione Ntaba has suspended the arrest and further detention of Minister of Lands Kezzie Msukwa who was nabbed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday. Ntaba has questioned the manner in which Msukwa was arrested, describing it as unreasonable and meant to just embarrass him. However, ACB Director General Martha Chizuma …
The post High Court saves Kezzie Msukwa appeared first on The Times Group Malawi.
A November 26 letter from the presidency asked the head of Uganda's national drug authority to 'work out a mechanism' to clear the importation of the vaccines.
China has about five COVID-19 vaccine candidates at different levels of trials. It was not clear what vaccine was being imported into Uganda.
One of the frontrunners is the Sinopharm vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates said the vaccine has 86% efficacy, citing an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials.
China has used the drug to vaccinate up to a million people under its emergency use program.
On Tuesday, Morocco said it was ordering up to 10 million doses of the vaccine.
Record cases
Uganda on Monday registered 701 new COVID-19 cases, the highest-ever daily increase, bringing its national count to 23,200.
The new cases were out of the 5,578 samples tested for the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
Tuesday's tally was 606, the second-highest ever number of new infections, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the east African country to 23,860.
Health authorities have blamed ongoing election campaigns which have drawn huge crowds for the rise in infections.
[FrontPageAfrica] Monrovia -- It's been a long week of criticism for the Legislature since the disclosure of US$15,000 given to each lawmaker for legislative projects. In the view of the public, dishing out such amount of money among a handful of lawmakers while many sectors in the country remain in shambles is a waste of taxpayers' money.
William Henry Ellis, an African American businessman who challenged racial constructs in the United States by “passing” as Hispanic, was born a slave to Charles and Margaret Ellis on June 15, 1864. His parents had been brought by Joseph Weisiger from Kentucky to Texas in 1853. In 1870 the Ellis parents had gained their freedom and relocated to Victoria, Texas, where they established a home for themselves and their seven children.
In his youth, William Henry Ellis attended school in Victoria with his sister, Fannie, while his other siblings held full-time jobs as laborers or servants. Sometime during his teenage years, Ellis learned to speak fluent Spanish.
During his early twenties, Ellis was employed by William McNamara, a cotton and hide dealer, and constantly conducted business with Spanish-speaking businessmen. Eventually, Ellis made a name for himself in the trade. Around 1887, Ellis settled permanently in San Antonio, Texas, and began calling himself “Guillermo Enrique Eliseo,” spreading a fabricated story of his Cuban and Mexican ancestry in newspapers and social circles to conceal his real racial identity, thus enjoying some of the freedoms other African Americans could not experience at the time. He balanced these two identities for the rest of his life.
By the early 1890s, Ellis was swept into Texas politics. In 1888 he gave a speech in support of Norris Wright Cuney that landed Ellis an appointment to the Texas Republican Party’s Committee on Resolutions. By 1892, Ellis was nominated to represent the 83rd District in the Texas Legislature but lost the election to A.G. Kennedy, a white Democrat. Ellis would never seek public office again.
As time went on, Ellis began embracing ideas of African American colonization abroad, especially in Mexico. He was once quoted as saying, “Mexico has no race prejudice from a social standpoint.” Twice during the 1890s, Ellis attempted to create a colony for blacks in Mexico from the southern United States. Both attempts would fail. The first, started in 1889, fell
(Reuters) - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the reduction of batsman Umar Akmal’s ban for an anti-corruption breach.
The article PCB launches CAS appeal against Akmal’s reduced ban for anti-corruption breach appeared first on Stabroek News.
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH | Associated Press MISSION, Kan. — Just when the U.S. appears on the verge of rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine, the numbers have become gloomier than ever: Over 3,000 American deaths in a single day, more than on D-Day or 9/11. One million new cases in the span of five days. More […]
Sources close to Yusef Salaam say the Exonerated 5 member has signaled his intention to vie for the soon-to-be-vacant Harlem state senate seat, New York Daily News reported. The 47-year-old’s decision to run for public office comes almost 20 years after his rape conviction was vacated alongside that of his four associates. The seat is...
Bill Barrow The Associated Press - (Source: www.miamitimesonline.com) - Jennifer McClellan remembers her parents recounting life as Black Southerners enduring segregation and the trauma and triumph of the civil rights movement. It taught her that [...]
ON Thursday, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe was joined by fellow ministers in the security sector and army bosses just to dispel rumours of an “imminent coup d’état”.
Kazembe was flanked by Defence minister Oppah Muchinguri, National Security minister Owen Ncube, Defence Forces Commander Philip Valerio Sibanda, Airforce boss Air Marshal Elson Moyo and Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga, CIO boss Isaac Moyo, among others, to dismiss a rumour of a plot to topple President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
That Kazembe named former Zanu PF officials ousted together with former President Robert Mugabe, toppled by a military coup orchestrated by Mnangagwa and the military in November 2017, western embassies, MDC Alliance officials, unnamed government and security officials, makes the rumour more intriguing.
That there are some unnamed government officials working to topple Mnangagwa together with the opposition, embassies and some men and women in uniform remains a rumour, probably circulating within the Zanu PF corridors, yet to get to the people.
How about Mnangagwa himself telling his party’s politburo meeting on the same day the security chiefs pledged loyalty to him by attending the “rumour Press conference” of a plot, this time driven by business to topple him?
[Nation] Kapkatet Sub-County Referral Hospital in Kericho County is on the spot after a patient who was presumed dead was transferred to the mortuary.
Prosecutors in DR Congo have requested a 20 year prison sentence for Vital Kamerhe, a key ally of President Felix Tshisekedi, over his alleged role in the embezzlement of more than 50 million dollars of public funds.
\"Neither the lawyers of the Republic nor the prosecutor's office have been able to prove the guilt of M. Vital Kamerhe,\" he said referring to himself in the third person.
Kamerhe, who made a pact to back President Felix Tshisekedi in a 2018 election in the expectation of succeeding him, is accused of embezzling more than 50 million dollars of state funds intended for major public works.
Kamerhe's supporters say the case is politically motivated, aimed at blocking his chances of challenging Tshisekedi at the next election in 2023, after prosecutors requested he be barred from holding public office for 10 years.
Insulting the president
Nothing was done \"without the knowledge\" of Tshisekedi, Kamerhe claimed, insisting he was not in office when the contract at the centre of the allegations was signed in 2018.
OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar alleged that the transfer of a Porsche car sold by someone in 2016 had not been declared to the Integrity Commission for several years, until 2021. She was speaking in the budget debate in the House of Representatives on Friday.
She said the budget has an allocation for the Integrity Commission, to which people in public office are compelled by law to declare assets.
\"The country learnt of individuals who sold a Porche SUV to their friend and did not transfer it. That is in breach of the law.
\"Additionally, if a person in public life fails to declare any sale of any assets, he is in breach of the law.\"
She said Integrity Commission records showed a person in public life sold a vehicle in 2016 and failed to disclose the sale to the Integrity Commission in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
\"Failed! In breach of the law. Only in 2021, after the mark buss, was the sale declared by letter (in) February 2021. Why did it take five years to disclose this sale? What were you hiding?\"
She asked if the commission was under-resourced to detect these matters?
\"This Government has slashed the recurrent expenditure to the Integrity Commission, from $16.6 million in 2015 to $8.3 million in this budget. We deserve an explanation.\"
Persad-Bissessar said while citizens were lining up to do their personal transactions, Attorney General Al-Rawi's family was collecting millions of dollars per year by renting offices to the Government, including buildings housing branches of the Ministry of Public Utilities, Personnel Department, Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, and the police service.
Persad-Bissessar also inquired about TT Petroleum Holdings Ltd overriding the advice of its own legal team not to appeal TTPH's lost case against AV Oil Ltd, the sale of Kay Donna land and the growth of NCB GlobalFinance.
She asked if the Government had contracted an Israeli company to intercept people's phone calls, claiming a whistleblower had said so, as she recalled a past PNM government once tapping the phone of the then president.
Persad-Bissessar asked why a proposed fuel card was to be distributed by the Ministry of Public Utilities, asking, \"Is this to be another PNM slush fund?\"
On the Police Service Commission imbroglio, she said it was an unprecedented constitutional crisis which demands absolute transparency.
\"In this regard, I wish to advise that I have written to Her Excellency the President, co-signed by all 19 UNC MPs, calling on the President to provide much-needed answers to a series of questions.\"
The post Persad-Bissessar: Porsche sale not declared appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
Ronald Ron Kirk is the U.S. Trade Representative for U.S. President Barack Obama. Kirk was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 18, 2009, and officially sworn in two days later. Kirk is the 16th trade representative and the first African American to hold the Cabinet-level post. As trade representative, he serves as the presidents principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson. He is also responsible for the development of U.S. trade policy and the oversight of existing trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Kirk was born in 1954 in Austin, Texas. He received a BA degree in political science and sociology from Austin College in 1976 and then went on to the University of Texas Law School where he received a J.D. three years later. While attending law school, he accepted an internship with the Texas Legislature. After graduating, Kirk worked for Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as an aide and later was appointed Texas Secretary of State by Texas Governor Ann Richards, also a Democrat.
In 1995, Kirk, in his first bid for public office and with major support from the local business community, ran for mayor of Dallas, Texas. He won a landslide victory, securing 62% of the vote to become mayor. During his mayoral campaign, Kirk promoted racial harmony in a city that had experienced considerable racial tension.
As mayor, Kirk promoted the development of a $230 million sports arena and a $256 million urban renewal project to revitalize the Trinity Corridor on the edge of downtown Dallas. Both projects were criticized by skeptics who claimed he promoted downtown business interests at the expense of basic city services and neighborhood development. Kirk overcame the criticism to win an overwhelming victory in his 1999 re-election bid. He defeated his opponent by a 2 to 1 margin.
In 2002 he ran unsuccessfully for the seat of retiring U.S. Republican Senator Phil Gramm. During the next six years prior to his confirmation to the Obama administration, Kirk
John Edmondson Prim was the first African American to serve as deputy prosecuting attorney for King County and the first African American judge in the State of Washington. He was born to Charles and Sara Prim in Nashville, Tennessee on September 15, 1898. In 1904, the family moved to Seattle where Charles Prim found employment as a longshoreman. John Prim was educated in Seattle Public Schools and graduated in 1918 from Franklin High School where he was active in sports and the debate team.
After working his way through the University of Washington as a waiter at the Butler Hotel in Seattle, he received his Bachelor of Laws Degree in 1927, and was admitted to the bar the same year. While at the university, he lettered in baseball and also played football. He played part of the Washington-Dartmouth football game on November 27, 1920, which dedicated the University stadium.
Prim had a private law practice from 1927 until 1943, when he assumed the responsibilities of his first full time public office as deputy prosecutor of King County. He returned to private practice in 1951. Then, in 1954 he was appointed by Mayor Allan Pomeroy as judge pro tem of Seattle Municipal Court. He served on the Mayor’s welcoming committee when Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selasse visited Seattle on June 11, 1954.
Judge Prim served as precinct committeeman and as a member of King County Democratic Central Committee. He was a founder of the Seattle Urban League and was the first African American member of the State Board of Prisons and Parole.
Sources:
Edgar I. Stewart, Northwest Frontier; Family and Personal History (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1957); Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994).
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[Nation] Deputy President William Ruto's 'hustlers versus dynasties' campaign slogan could soon land him and his political allies in jail, in addition to being banned from holding public office, if a proposed Bill is passed into law.
NEW DELHI - Indian authorities are not investigating the 'grave human rights violations' allegedly committed by the police during February riots in New Delhi, human ...
Floyd Mayweather cashed in BIG TIME on the Dustin Poirier v Conor McGregor trilogy fight at UFC 264 in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Currently in his 13th term in Congress, Edolphus Towns is a Democratic Representative from the State of New York. Towns was born in Chadbourn, North Carolina on July 21, 1934, and attended the public schools of Chadbourn before graduating with a B.S. degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in 1956. After graduating he served for two years in the U.S. Army and then taught in several New York City public schools, Fordham University, and Medgar Evars College. He received his master’s degree in social work from Adelphi University in 1973.
Between 1965 and 1975 Towns worked as program director of the Metropolitan Hospital and as assistant administrator at Beth Israel Hospital. He was also employed by several Brooklyn area healthcare and youth and senior citizen organizations.
In 1972 Towns was elected Democratic state committeeman in Brooklyn. Four year later, in 1976, he became the first African American Deputy Borough president of Brooklyn, a position he held until 1982. That same year Representative Frederick W. Richmond resigned from the House. Towns won the vacated seat in the November election.
Edolphus Towns has been treasurer and vice chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and is currently a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Government Reform Committee. Through these committees he is active on the Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee, the Health Subcommittee, the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee, and is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement.
Some of Towns’s major legislative achievements include the “Student Right to Know Act,” new bilingual education programs, health related changes like greater Medicare reimbursement for mid-level practitioners, federal funding for poison control centers, and new standards for clinical trials on children. He also created the Telecommunications Development Fund to assist small and minority telecommunications businesses. Towns is also
We have a lot of very bright and talented individuals in our community, many of whom are reluctant to run for political office for many reasons. But now, as we see more and more people placing their names on the ballot and having success, we are seeing an unprecedented interest in Black people, particularly Black women, who are answering the call to public service in order to place our issues on the table and set the framework for a brighter future for everyone.
The post Black Women Are Taking Over The Political Landscape appeared first on The Seattle Medium.
From Boston's 'old' Ward 9 in the Beacon Hill area, Boston's Black citizens were able to elect 20 Black persons to public office - to the city council, the state legislature, and school committee - during the second half of the 19th century.
Caesar Carpenter C.C. Antoine is best known as a leading African American politician in Louisiana during Reconstruction (1863-1877). Antoine was born in New Orleans to a Black father who fought the British as an American soldier at the Battle of New Orleans (1815), and to a West Indian mother. His father’s mother was from Africa and the daughter of a captured African chief. Her reputed self-purchase from slavery and accumulation of a minor fortune allowed C.C. Antoine and his father to live out their lives as free blacks. Prior to entering politics, Antoine ran a successful grocery business in New Orleans.
In 1862, one year after the Civil War began, New Orleans was captured and occupied by Union troops, Antoine joined the Union Army and quickly rose to the rank of Captain. From 1862 to 1865 Captain Antoine was attached to one of the nation’s first all-black regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards. As Captain, Antoine recruited former bondsmen for service and developed Company I of the Seventh Native Guard primarily stationed at Brashear (now Morgan City) about 85 miles southwest of New Orleans.
At the end of the Civil War, Antoine moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, opened a family grocery store, bought land and became a farmer. He soon entered politics and held his first office as a delegate to Louisiana’s Constitutional Convention in 1868. That convention set the parameters of Louisiana’s Reconstruction-era state government. With black voting rights established under the protection of federal troops, Antoine served Louisiana as State Senator between 1868 and 1872 and Lieutenant Governor from 1872 to 1877. In 1876 he was briefly Acting Governor. Antoine’s tenure in office ended soon after the Compromise of 1877 which withdrew federal troops from Louisiana, allowing the Democrats to return to power. Although Antoine continued to be active in Republican Party politics, he never again held public office. In 1921, C.C. Antoine died of natural causes at his home in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Oscar Stanton De Priest was the first African American elected to Congress in the post-Reconstruction era. Priest’s successful election campaign to represent a district in Chicago initiated the trend of black representation in northern cities, where the Great Migration sharply increased African-American populations. De Priest was born on March 9, 1871, in Florence, Ala., to […]
Sharon Pratt Dixon was born on January 30, 1944 in Washington, D.C. to parents Carlisle Pratt and Mildred (Petticord) Pratt. Carlisle was a Washington, D.C. Superior Court Judge. Mildred Pratt died of breast cancer when Sharon was four years old. Pratt’s father played a major role in her life by instilling certain values and encouraging her commitment to public service. Sharon Pratt attended public schools in Washington, D.C. and graduated with honors from Roosevelt High School in 1961.
Although she initially wanting to pursue an acting career, her father persuaded Pratt to attend Howard University where in 1965 she received a B.A. degree in Political Science. She then enrolled in Howard University’s School of Law. While in law school, she married Arrington Dixon in 1966 who later became a Washington, D.C. city councilmember. In 1968 Dixon earned her law degree and gave birth to their first daughter, Aimee Arrington Dixon. A second daughter, Drew Arrington Dixon, was born in 1970.
After she completed law school Dixon initially worked in private practice from 1971- 1976 where she was an associate in her father’s law firm, Pratt and Queen. Dixon focused on the rights of children in custodial cases, provided legal representation for juveniles, and became a leader in the emerging area of family rights law. In 1972, Dixon was named a Professor of Law at the Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., a post she held for four years.
In 1976, Dixon began working for Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO), the utility company for the Washington, D.C. area. Eventually becoming Vice President of Public Policy, Dixon was both the first woman and the first African American to hold this position. During her term, she created new programs to improve low-income D.C. residents and senior citizens. She also created new employment opportunities for Washington, D.C. residents by launching satellite branches of PEPCO.
Dixon was actively involved in the Democratic Party. In 1977 she was elected as the Democratic
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has stopped the Ministry of Transport and Public Works from awarding a contract for the upgrading of Marka-Bangula railway over corruption allegations. The bureau's spokesperson Egrita Ndala has confirmed in a statement. The contract is for the desiging, upgrading and rehabilitation of the railway section between Marka and Bangula. 'Pursuant to […]
The post ACB suspends contract for Marka-Bangula railway appeared first on Malawi 24.
