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INSIDE AFRICA
Zimbabwe Crisis; Education Expansion; Kenya's Water Problem
Aired July 5, 2008 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ISHA SESAY, HOST, INSIDE AFRICA: Hello. I'm Isha Sesay. Welcome to INSIDE AFRICA, your weekly window to the continent.
On the program this week, Zimbabwe's opposition leader says the A.U. hasn't gone far enough in its response. We'll examine why some A.U. leaders may be holding back.
We'll also look at initiatives in Nigeria and Egypt to extend the reach of education. And a simple solution gives some poor Kenyans access to safe drinking water.
We begin in Zimbabwe, where the U.S. embassy says more than 200 people sought refuge on its ground from politically motivated attacks. Many of the refugees are supporters of the main opposition party. U.S. Ambassador James McGee says violence in Zimbabwe might be even worse than before last month's presidential runoff.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the race against President Robert Mugabe just days before the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) vote (ph), (UNINTELLIGIBLE) violence against his supporters. He says he will not take part in talks and forming a unity government unless the African Union appoints an additional mediator.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has come under widespread criticism for his mediation efforts thus far.
Well, the African Union has called on President Mugabe to form a unity government with Tsvangirai, but the A.U. has stopped well short of condemning Mr. Mugabe for the runoff results. Instead, he was treated as any legitimate head of state at the A.U. summit.
Analysts suggest that may be because many other African leaders hold power under dubious circumstances.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
SESAY (voice-over): Robert Mugabe clearly feels that many of his African counterparts have no room to talk when it comes to legitimacy.
ROBERT MUGABE, PRESIDENT OF ZIMBABWE: I would want to see a country which will point a finger at us and say "You have done wrong." I would want to see that finger, and see whether it is clean or dirty. In the African Union, I want to see that finger. Let it be pointed at me.
SESAY: Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki isn't pointing any fingers. Political and ethnic violence erupted in Kenya earlier this year when Mr. Kibaki claimed victory over challenger Raila Odinga in a highly disputed election.
At least 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced before the two sides formed a unity government under intense international pressure.
Odinga now serves as prime minister and is one of few African leaders to be an outspoken critic of the Mugabe government.
RAILA ODINGA, PRIME MINISTER OF KENYA: President Mugabe has completely lost any kind of moral authority to speak of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in Zimbabwe. Because, as you know, he did lose an election, the first rounds, and therefore is now illegitimately in power.
SESAY: But Mr. Mugabe was warmly received at the 11th African Union Summit the day after being sworn in for his sixth term as Zimbabwe's president.
He entered the meeting hall with host Hosni Mubarak, who has governed Egypt under a state of emergency law since 1981. The law prohibits public gatherings and allows police to detain people without charge.
FRANCIS KOMEGAY, CENTER FOR POLICY STUDIES: There are a number of countries where you have leaders that have been in power for a long time, and where there is no sign of any kind of democratic transition. They're not going to have a lot of political rule, let me put it that way.
SESAY: Libya's Colonel Moammar Gaddafi has held power since 1969, when he led a military coup that toppled the country's monarchy. Mr. Gaddafi is believed to have financed the Palestinian kidnapping of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. And he admitted Libyan agents were responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
And then there is the leader of Sudan, Omar al Bashir, who came to power in an Islamic-backed coup in 1989. He has ignored an international outcry over the Darfur crisis, which U.S. President George W. Bush and others have called a case of genocide.
Mr. Bashir's government denies backing Arab militias who are accused of attacking civilians in and around Darfur.
By many estimates, fewer than 20 countries in Africa are multi-party democracies where there is a possibility of power changing hands peacefully. A majority have rulers unlikely to cede power to opponents, however unpopular they may become.
So, it's perhaps not surprising that Robert Mugabe heard little criticism from his A.U. colleagues.
(END VIDEO)
SESAY: Given the unlikelihood that the African Union will strengthen its stand on Zimbabwe, what's next for Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change?
I asked Faten Aggad of the South African Institute for International Affairs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FATEN AGGAD, ZIMBABWE ANALYST, SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: We need to remember that it's not only about (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Mugabe, but it's also about his entourage, and certainly, the political -- sorry -- the military officials that are surrounding him. And we were told that they are so far refusing to relinquish power.
So, if we are to negotiate for a government of national unity, what will we do with the security officers are resisting a government that includes the MDC?
The other thing, of course, is, if you go for a genuine (ph) government of national unity, what would the role of the MDC be?
Ideally, and we've seen it in the case of Kenya, for instance, just earlier this year, where there is a government of national unity, but the powers of the president are reduced -- at least executive powers of the president are decreased. So, he becomes more of a ceremonial president. And then a prime minister would have more executive powers.
I'm not so sure that Mr. Mugabe or his entourage would expect that particular setting in a government of national unity in Zimbabwe. So, it is faced by a lot of challenges, and it's going to be very difficult to go ahead with that particular proposal.
SESAY: The question now lies as to whether we should be shifting our attention to the wider international community to apply pressure to Mugabe and those that surround him. What are your thoughts on that and the wider international community and the role it should play going forward?
AGGAD: Well, the African Union did have an opportunity to use their existing instrument (ph) that made provisions for suspension from the African Union, and certainly imposing sanctions.
Really, I think what's left, then, is to move beyond the African borders and to indeed try to have some form of international (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to impose these sanctions. There is certainly support within a few African countries for that particular step, assisted (ph) by South Africa.
But a lot of people, at least from where we are here in South Africa, feel that that may be the only way forward, that would eventually put pressure on President Mugabe and his entourage to really compel them to find a solution to the crisis and to include the MDC.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: That was Faten Aggad of the South African Institute of International Affairs.
Nigeria is trying to extend the reach of its education system. Coming up, bringing school to nomadic children.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA.
While serving as Nigeria's education minister, World Bank vice president, Obiageli Ezekwesili placed an emphasis on reform. And last year, she declared that education is the key to her country's economic development. Providing quality education can be a tall order, even when children are able to go to school consistently.
But sometimes the school must go to the children.
Christian Purefoy got a lesson in nomadic education.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, YANURI (ph), NIGERIA: Nomadic fishermen on a voyage of discovery. Umaru Mohammed (ph) and the generations before him were never formally educated. But as he now takes his son to school, he hopes things will be different.
"Times are changing," he says, "and without education, my son will not be able to help the community, except by fishing. And anyone can fish."
With the help of Nigeria's Commission for Nomadic Education, Umaru's (ph) 5-year-old son Zaianu (ph) has been learning the alphabet.
Whether it's under trees or in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tents, the commission has set up schools providing free primary education along traditional migration routes of nomadic fishermen and herdsmen.
And the commission claims to have tripled enrollment from 90,000 children in 1995 to over 350,000 in 2006.
But these figures are a far cry from the estimated five million nomadic children in the country.
Seventy percent of people in Nigeria live on less than a dollar a day, and these communities are no exception.
Parents depend on their children to help out with fishing or tending the animals, and often don't send them to school. Or they remove them from class during the migration seasons.
The River Niger has provided a livelihood for generations of nomadic fishermen. But during the rainy season when the river is lower, they might migrate for up to six months, either traveling upstream towards Lake Chad or downstream as far as the Atlantic.
These are traditional people, and the commission has been forced to adapt their teaching methods to address, for example, the concern among Muslims to teach Arabic, in an effort to encourage parents to send their children to school.
NAFISA MUHAMMAD, NIGERIAN NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR NOMADIC EDUCATION: These people require special intervention that will not -- that will allay their fears, let me put it that way -- that will allay their fears to the change that they are afraid of.
PUREFOY: Umaru (ph) still teaches his son how to fish, but he hopes education will give Zaianu (ph) the opportunity to cast a wider net.
Christian Purefoy, CNN, Yanuri (ph), Nigeria.
(END VIDEO)
SESAY: Boys typically outnumber girls in schools around Africa. Up next, Egypt and the U.N. try to help girls close (ph) the gap.
Also ahead, using the sun to make contaminated water safe to drink.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making business news in Africa this week, GlaxoSmithKline has sold four of its medicines to Africa's largest pharmaceutical manufacturer. The nearly $340 million sale means Aspen Pharmacare will own the rights to the drugs outside the United States.
Eventually, the company intends to move production of the drugs to South Africa, where it's based. Aspen already makes HIV drugs, vitamins and baby formula.
Kenya, feeling the economic impact of its post-election turmoil. The country's real gross domestic product shrank by an estimated 1.3 percent in the first quarter.
Kenya's National Bureau of Statistics says the drop is directly linked to the violence that followed December's disputed presidential vote. Hotels and restaurants and agriculture are among the hardest-hit industries. Last year, Kenya's economy grew 7.7 percent during the same period.
SESAY: You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Welcome back.
Around the continent, girls traditionally have not enjoyed the same access to education as boys, especially in poor communities. But in recent years, the United Nations Girls Education Initiative has been teaming up with African governments to close that gap.
As Shahira Amin reports, the combined effort appears to be paying off in Egypt.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
SHAHIRA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CAIRO, EGYPT: Kom Aushim, a remote hamlet west of Cairo. Historically, poverty has kept most of the village children -- girls, in particular -- out of the classroom.
MALAK ZAALOUK, REGIONAL EDUCATION ADVISER, UNICEF: In impoverished rural communities, if parents were faced with the choice of educating their boys or girls, they would have definitely preferred to invest in the boy with the idea that he would become the breadwinner.
AMIN: While men are traditionally the breadwinners here, girls are expected to contribute to the family income. Many of them work in the fields. At home they take care of heavy, time-consuming household chores and look after siblings.
The culturally engrained desire to protect a girl's innocence can also stand in the way of her education.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice of interpreter): All my sons go to school. They use public transport to get there. But I worry about my daughters, Hoda (ph) and Ammar (ph), so I refuse to have them traveling the long distance to school every day.
AMIN: But now, his daughters attend what people here call a girl- friendly or community school. Built on land donated by the community using funds from the private sector, the school opened three years ago. It's free, and they also get regular meals here.
Beaming with pride, they eagerly show off what they've learned.
"Three one-thirds make up a whole orange," Ammar (ph) chimes. "And two halves make up one whole," says her classmate.
MOUSHIRA KHATTAB, GIRLS' EDUCATION ADVOCATE: Well, the community brainstormed over the reasons why girls don't go to school. They brainstormed of resolutions, how to solve this problem. And they were the ones who put the plan of action.
AMIN: The same approach seems to be working around the country. Five years ago, there wasn't a single girl-friendly school in Egypt.
Then, the government signed on with the U.N. Girls' Education Initiative. Now, there are an estimated 28,000 primary school-aged girls enrolled in more than 1,000 girl-friendly schools.
And the UNGEI says Egypt has now closed the gender gap through the fifth grade level.
Officials hope that the building of new girl-friendly schools like this one in the underserved areas will level out enrollment rates between boys and girls in primary schools in Egypt within the next two years -- an incredible feat for a country that still ranks among the top 10 in the world in terms of illiteracy.
An estimated 35 percent of Egypt's population cannot read or write. The figure is worse for the female population. Forty-five percent of girls over (ph) 15 are illiterate.
The government is taking steps to bring down those numbers. It has declared education a priority goal on its development agenda, and has been steadily increasing its annual education budget.
YOUSRY EL GAMAL, EGYPTIAN MINISTER OF EDUCATION: We started to work very hard on modernizing our school curriculum, providing active learning and authentic evaluation through devoting 50 percent of the time to activities.
The big challenge is the growing number of pupils that are joining education every year.
AMIN: To realize its ambitious education goals, including primary education for all girls, the government will have to stay committed to its present course. It will also need the support of aid organizations, the U.N., the private sector and persuasis community volunteers.
Shahira Amin, CNN, Cairo.
(END VIDEO)
SESAY: Poor access to clean water is a huge problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Up next, our David McKenzie tests out a simple water purification process on himself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA.
CNN has been going green all week, and water has been a major focus of our coverage.
More than two billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water, and many of them live in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Kenya's Kibera slum, poor sanitation is an obvious cause of contaminated drinking water. But as David McKenzie reports, some Kibera residents are looking to the sun for a solution.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, KIBERA, KENYA: It's unusual sight in the slums of Nairobi. Selina Abuya performing her science experiments on the taps of Kibera. She tests for E. coli.
E. coli bacteria multiply when sewage taints the water. A count of one can mean diarrhea, or even cholera.
SELINA ABUYA, ANALYST, KENYAN MINISTRY OF WATER: Some of the levels here are very high. They can go up to 1,000 E. coli count, which is very dangerous.
MCKENZIE: A danger that Kibera residents have toiled with for decades. A danger critics say the government has ignored.
Raw sewage runs down the streets here. The water supply is vulnerable to contamination.
So we tested the water to see how bad it is, in a rusty tank where people pay three times what they pay in the suburbs. Another (ph) pool of fetid water where they wash belongings and utensils, and sometimes even drink.
Then Selina took us to Amina Hassan. For years, dirty water hurt her family.
AMINA HASSAN, SODIS USER (voice of interpreter): We had a real problem with diarrhea. I had to take the children to the hospital and pay money that I didn't have.
MCKENZIE: But Amina has a simple solution. She collects water from the same local tanks, pours it into clear plastic bottles and sticks it on her roof.
It's called solar disinfection. The sun kills the bacteria by zapping them with UV radiation and heat.
That's all there is to it. Take the water off the shack and it should be clean and safe -- and good enough to drink.
If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
So, this water has been sitting here for about 10 hours, because it's winter. Normally, it only needs to be there about six hours. Thanks, Amina.
And they swear that this water is crystal clear and very clean, though it's been in tanks that are often contaminated. So, let's see if the sun has done its job.
Mmm. That's good. It's very sweet. A sante.
But the proof is in the petri dish.
Selina treats our samples one by one, and shoves them in the oven.
She pulls them out 18 hours later to test for E. coli. Sample one, from the tank water that people pay a premium to drink. Each blue square is one. A count of 76, it can kill you.
And the standing water where people wash and drink?
ABUYA: It is too numerous to count -- TNTC.
MCKENZIE: TNTC?
ABUYA: We can't count it.
MCKENZIE: Finally, the solar-treated water that I happily drank.
ABUYA: After the solar disinfection, all the microorganisms died, in case they were there.
MCKENZIE: So, I'm lucky.
ABUYA: You are very lucky.
MCKENZIE: An estimated two million people around the world are now using solar disinfection to clean water. As a result, they have a much smaller risk of getting diarrhea.
Of those most at risk, like the children of Kibera, it's a low-tech way to save lives.
David McKenzie, CNN, Kibera, Kenya.
(END VIDEO)
SESAY: And now we must leave this week's show. I'll be back with another edition of INSIDE AFRICA next week. Thanks for watching.
END
