The Mwanyagetinge Association of Kenyans in
Minnesota
held its elections on November 26. Paul Morande was reelected chairman after garnering 78% of the vote. He beat Henry Kerongo who managed to get 19% of the votes cast. Naftali Makora trailed with a paltry 2%.

John Makori, the incumbent treasurer is now the Vice-President. His ascension to the VP spot however left a void in the treasury where no candidates offered themselves for one of the most challenging job in the leadership. The position of Secretary is also unfilled.

Interestingly, key positions have been left unfilled as the organization has stepped up its accountability endeavors and gained a much higher profile than before.

Other officials elected to the position of committee members are Peter Ndemo, Josephat Obino and Agnes Oburu.

Meanwhile, Mr. Morande sent out New Year greetings to all Kenyans and their friends. He also thanked the U.S.Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program -Twin Cities for the gift of toys that his organization received and distributed to the community’s children in celebrating the

last Christmas. In a statement, he said “This was a great support particularly to the families and children of our community who enjoyed the gift of a toy. It was also an opportunity to teach others

about sharing and motivate our youth on the power of sharing”.

He also expressed gratitude to the Brooklyn Center based Kenyan Community Church for offering space at its recently purchased facility to be used as a distribution center. “To Mwanyagetinge officials and members who worked to collect and distribute the gifts Mr. & Mrs. Peter Ndemo, Josephat Obino and George Mayieka, I say thank you”, the chairman said.

Mwanyagetinge is on the web at www.mwanyagetinge.org.

Nyango Melissa Nambangi, founder of the Minnesota African Women’s Association (MAWA) received the Women’s of Distinction award from

The award according to

Century
College

was developed to celebrate the fact that more women gain access to higher education through community/technical colleges than through any other type of post-secondary institution. The college sought nominations from the community to honor women who have demonstrated accomplishments in their fields of expertise, have a record of working to increase opportunity and equality for women or girls and have an appreciation of the value of community/technical colleges.

The other two receiving the award were Marian Bemis Johnson and Ann Schrader. Bemis Johnson is a woman sports historian in
Minnesota
and has co-authored a book called "Daughters of the Game." A former instructor at
Stillwater
High School
,
Hamline
University
and the former
Lakewood
State
Junior College
, she developed the women’s intercollegiate athletic program at
Lakewood
. In the early 1980s, she received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the

Minnesota
Community College

system. She retired in 1987. Ann Schrader is the chief operating officer of HealthEast Care System.

Melissa Nambangi founded MAWA to provide a forum for African women to network, address the challenges of making a home in
Minnesota
, and provide a venue for women to share and connect with community resources. Recent initiatives of the group include a program for African girls ages 9 to 18, a college preparation program for junior and senior high school girls from low-income immigrant and refugee families, and a training workshop for African girls designed to encourage political participation.

The Women of Distinction awards are sponsored by

Century
College

, the Century College Foundation and the Century College Women’s Studies Department.

Former Prime Minister of Somalia, Dr Ali Khalif Galaydh has pointed an accusing finger to the neighboring states of Ethiopia and Kenya as the obstacles to peace in his country.

Speaking during a panel discussion sponsored by the Minnesota International Center at a packed assembly hall at the University of Minnesota’s Coffman Union on December 7, Dr Galaydh accused the named countries of interference in the internal affairs of and serving as a conduit of arms trafficking that is fueling conflict in for the last 15 years.

While he questioned the validity of sending a multinational peace keeping force to help improve the security situation, he objected very strongly to the inclusion of soldiers from the three countries because their governments have vested interests in the current chaos in.

He said historically, had a record of good democratic governance before the collapse of the system in 1973. “There was a time when could boast of state cohesion and a massive infrastructure, we had no political detainees before the chaos, the Somali people are tolerant Sunni Muslim pastoralists, and as a nation we have the hardware but lack the operating systems, (to borrow the computer language).”

Dr Galaydh said Somalia needs a coherent national vision with an accountable leadership. He said warring parties should engage in a peaceful dialogue with a measure of sanity to determine the way forward. He said Somalis at home and in the Diaspora must join forces to support the peace process and help build institutions of government instead of supporting personalities.

Quoting a Jewish Rabbi, “If not now, when? If not us, who?” he said Somalis have had enough suffering and now “enough is enough – salalabash”.  He said Somalis must learn from Minnesota how to run democratic institutions and live a peaceful life without fear “of a beast following the caravan.”

Dr Galaydh is on record to have served in three different administrations in and a member of the public asked why he has stayed so long in government and wondered if it was not time to give room to others. In reply he said, if you want to get involved in government, “you have to earn it the old fashion way, you cannot just sit back and wait for being anointed,” causing ripples of laughter. He was one of the 650 delegates who drafted a National Charter based on a 1960 Constitution. He was Prime Minister in September 2000 and served until 2001. He now teaches politics at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs.

The panel discussion organized by the Minnesota International Center also brought on board Senator Norm Coleman, Dr Elmi Ahmed Duale – Permanent Representative of to the United Nations and Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, the Assistant Secretary of African Affairs in Washington, D.C.   The moderator of the panel was Gary Gilson, a veteran broadcast journalist.

Both Senator Norm Coleman and Ambassador Frazer said that the ranks highly in its agenda to “prevent the country turning into a safe haven for terrorists” and is helping in efforts to establish a viable democratic state in the horn of Africa. Sen. Coleman said he would push Washington to appoint a US Emissary for to help the country towards the restoration of order and peace, and institute a constitutional process for building a democracy. He warned that while the can take these initiatives; it cannot make things happen unless the Somalis themselves become fully engaged in a constructive dialogue to sort out their differences.

Senator Coleman referred to Somalia as a “fragile tender baby” and cautioned about the use of “words and actions” that may damage the peace process. He said it was imperative for Somalis to keep hope alive and nurture things that keep hope alive. He said Somalis should focus on their commonalties, aim at fighting poverty by creating economic vitality, eliminate HIV-AIDS and provide clean water to the people.

Ambassador Frazer spoke about the initiative to help contain poverty in Africa through the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) in which African countries are given access for their goods into the market duty-free and quota free. She said over and above providing development assistance, the administration is working towards creating a level playing field by changing trade laws in the World Trade Organization (WTO) forum. She said on-going WTO talks seek to abolish agricultural subsidies in the industrialized nations to enable Africa that relies on agriculture as its economic backbone to catch up and have a level playing field in international trade relations.

Ambassador Frazer said, last year the administration disbursed $ 3.2 billion as development assistance to Africa. Minnesota has the largest Somali immigrant population now numbering 60,000.

Contributing to the panel discussion, Dr Elmi Ahmed Duale, the Somali Permanent Representative to the United Nations thanked the Minnesota community for being in the forefront of supporting the Somali case, pointing out that without their assistance many of their people would have died of hunger over the last 15 years. Dr Duale spent three years in detention in together with all Cabinet members of the last democratically elected civilian Government (1970-1973).

When Somalia had a functioning democracy, Dr Duale was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He had previously served as an elected Member of Parliament, Vice Chancellor of the National University of Somalia and used to work for the World Health Organization (WHO) for 30 years.

There are two new key additions to the Mshale team, according to Mshale Editor & Publisher, Tom Gitaa. Edwin Okong’o becomes Mshale’s West Coast correspondent. Mr. Okong’o is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Pioneer, California State University ’s student newspaper at the East Bay campus.

He held the position in 2004 and 2005. Previously he did stints as managing editor as well as city editor of that paper. In his new capacity, he will head Mshale’s news gathering operations in that region. In 2005, he received the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Student Development Program Award for Reporting. He has also been a recipient of the Outstanding Journalism  Student award at California State University, Hayward. He has a BA in Mass Communication from California State University.

His appointment is the first step in Mshale’s plan to have key regions in North America covered by high calibre correspondents that will keep readers informed of news from those places, according Mr. Gitaa. At last October’s Channel Afrique’s gathering where Mr. Gitaa  was the guest speaker, he shared with those present that plans were afoot to take Mshale national. Channel Afrique is a monthly gathering of African professionals and business people in the Twin Cities area. The October 2005 edition of Mshale had a full blank page that with tiny letters called for new writers.Mr. Okong’o came across a copy of Mshale at a California distribution outlet and decided to follow up with an inquiry. He said he is very honored to join the solid Mshale team.

Mshale also announced that  Mr. Abdirahman Aynte, Editor of Hiiraan Online (www.hiiraan.com), one of the largest and most respected online Somali news portals will team up with Mshale as a Contributing Writer to augment the Mshale news gathering team. Mr. Aynte who has a BA in Communications from Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul “brings valuable experience to Mshale as one of the key people behind Hiiraan which many Somali people in the diaspora have come to rely on as portal”, said Mr. Gitaa. Mr. Aynte still retains his position at Hiiraan and will work with Mshale on general assignments covering the community.