Global Voices Post on Facebook, Kingpin Act and Harun Mwau

Facebook Should Unfriend John Mwau ( This a Re print of a post published by the author at GlobalVoices)

A Kenyan blogger Daudi Were has raised an interesting question about whether the U.S. government will be willing to enforce the Kingpin Act against Facebook for apparently doing business with a Kenyan national John Harun Mwau who had earlier this year been designated as a drug lord under the Kingpin Act (See White House Press Release).
The Kingpin Act denies significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system and prohibits all trade and transactions between the traffickers and U.S. companies and individuals.
Daudi makes some interesting observations in his post titled “Facebook Should Unfriend Mwau”:

In other words Kingpin Act targets, on a worldwide basis, significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organizations, and operatives by making it illegal for any U.S. company or any U.S. individual to conduct any financial transactions with them.

Daudi further elaborates:

Facebook is a social networking service and website operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Facebook, Inc was founded in 2004 and is based in Palo Alto, California. It is a U.S. company. Ownership of Facebook, Inc is shared between Mark Zuckerberg, Accel Partners, Digital Sky Technologies, Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and Microsoft amongst others. Most are U.S. citizens and U.S. companies.
Remember that U.S. companies and U.S. individuals are forbidden from any financial transactions with narcotics traffickers named through the Kingpin Act. The fines for ignoring the Act range from USD 1 million to USD 10 million and there’s also the not very little matter of the possibility of 30 years imprisonment.
Last night I started noticing adverts on Facebook for John Harun Mwau’s Facebook page. The text for the ad reads:The text for the ad reads:

Success and Wealth are but a state of mind. Discover the principles that guided me to Success on My Facebook Page.

These ads are typical paid for, they usually involve some sort of financial transaction. The type of transaction the Kingpin Act forbids.

He then makes a significant question that begs an answer from Facebook:

The world is a village. You never know when a “significant narcotics trafficker” is going to buy ads on your service. The real question here perhaps is what will these U.S. companies, such as Facebook and Microsoft, do when they find out individuals they are not allowed to do business with are buying their services?

Jke  of KikuyuMoja blog leaves a comment on the post stating:

FB & Mwau: hahahaha, good point! I’d like to see someone from the Embassy reply on this one. Or maybe they will argue that the ads weren’t bought by Mwau but instead by his supporters (which isn’t the same, ama?).

Daudi responds:

@JKE – the act targets traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives. So friends, friends of friends, supporters etc all count in my book!

The naming of John Harun Mwau as a drug Kingpin back in June created a lot of buzz online.
Reacting to the news at the time, Kenyan Jurist wrote:

The Kingpin designation essentially makes Mwau a pariah and any financial relationship with him becomes toxic particularly when it falls within the jurisdiction of the US. This in essence applies to any foreign transaction, where money may be routed through the US. It is also a warning to the Government of Kenya to take the problem of drug trafficking seriously.

Kenyan Stockholm blog published the letter from Barack Obama on the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, which drew 21 comments.
Following alleged attack on Mwau's vehicle, blogger Wesley Rants wrote:

Then this allusion that Obama is after his personal wealth and consequently the boss’s life is in danger is clutching at straws literally, really?
As for the demand that government accords him extra security, didn’t I just read that there was a driver and a bodyguard in the car? Don’t all Mps have a bodyguard provided at our expense?
Maybe our local bosses can borrow a leaf from Mexico where bosses are building their own battle tanks:

Is the Kingpin Act just a public relations stunt? Kenyans are eager to see what will be the official response to the question raised by Daudi Were.

2011 KENYA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

OVER 250 FILMS RECEIVED FOR 2011 KENYA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Call for Film Entries to Close in Two Weeks

Nairobi July 28, 2011: Filmmakers who want to participate in this year’s Kenya International Film Festival have now up to August 14 to submit their entries. The festival, set for October 21 to October 31 has so far received 250 entries.

The Kenya International Film Festivals commonly known as KIFF is inviting film makers to send in their films for various categories such as Long Features, Documentaries, Short Features, Animation, Student Films and Experimental Films to be featured at this year’s event.

The KIFF will award winners in all the categories as well as Best East Africa film, Jury Award, Best actor and Best actress. The organization is holding its sixth annual festival since its inception. The festival is a unique array of 10 days that showcases best film entries from all over the world in various towns and countries.

In 2010 the film festivals saw 5 out of the 10 awards go to Kenyan films. They included Gill Wilsons ‘Why Now’, Jeff Mohamed’s ‘One Goal, One Hope’ and Best East African Film went to Hawa Essuman’s ‘Soul Boy’. Other awards went to film makers from Ethiopia and Belgium.

The year’s theme is ‘Leadership – Next Generation’.

According to the Festival director Mr. Charles Asiba the theme was developed in line with Africa’s mood, the changes in the continent and its need for good and accountable leadership.

“Do you know for example, all four presidents in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya are facing an election in the next 12 months? These are challenging times for many African countries and we want to give African’s an opportunity to tell the world and to express what their thoughts on leadership are”, said Mr. Asiba while speaking during an interview.

This year the Film Festivals screenings will be held simultaneously in various towns including Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa, and Eldoret. Mr. Asiba expressed his satisfaction in the growth of Kenyan film sector saying that there will be many Kenya films to be aired during the festival week.

Mr Asiba said “We are so far impressed by the levels of professionalism and record number of 250 entries that have come in so far. Our target was 365 films but we are not complaining”.

Filmmakers are encouraged to send their DVDs and cassettes to the KIFF either by registered mail or drop them at KIFF offices.

Pfizer Nutrition Launches in Kenya

High levels of obesity combined with high levels of malnutrition evident among children in Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya – July, 28^th, 2011: Following the launch of Pfizer Distributive hub in Kenya to serve the East African region, Pfizer Nutrition has announced the launch of its advanced product portfolio in Nairobi, Kenya. The launch is in line with Pfizer’s global mission to improve health and well-being at every stage in life, bringing breadth and depth of consumer and scientific insight to new populations and markets around the world.

“We are very excited about our entry into the Kenyan market, and we thank all our local partners for their support and faith in Pfizer Nutrition. Kenya is very different to any other market. Here, we see two extremes in the child nutrition spectrum; we have high levels of obesity combined with high levels of malnutrition. It is part of our social responsibility to try and help minimize these gaps and meet the needs of the community,” said Dr. Mohamed Abdel Khalek, Medical Director, Pfizer Nutrition, Africa & Middle East. “For almost 100 years, Pfizer Nutrition has leveraged clinical rigor, scientific research, world class manufacturing and product safety standards to drive innovative solutions that meet the specific needs of the child nutrition field in every market.”

In a recent study published by Constance A Gewa, Department of Global & Community Health, College of Health & Human Services, George Mason University, USA, out of 1,495 children between the ages of three and five years in Kenya, 30% were stunted, 16% were underweight and 22% were overweight or obese1. The analysis demonstrates the presence of under and over-nutrition among Kenyan pre-school children and the importance of focusing on expanding efforts to prevent and treat malnutrition within this population.

Dr. Fred Were, Pediatrician & Specialist in Neonatal Medicine & National Chairman, Kenya Pediatric Association, commented: “We all know that as a country becomes more industrialized and westernized the level of obesity or over-nutrition increases while the level of malnutrition decreases. In Kenya, this trend is very different, obesity is becoming very visible in urbanized areas such as Nairobi, but malnutrition is not decreasing in the rural communities or even in the low income areas of Nairobi. We have to address these two extremes immediately.”

In a direct effort to support the growing concerns of the Kenyan child nutrition market, Pfizer Nutrition has made available its new advanced Gold line of child formulations in Kenya. The new GOLD range has been specially developed to meet the changing feeding needs of young children.

Pfizer Nutrition’s GOLD range is a comprehensive series of nutritious infant formulas, follow-on formulas and growing-up milks designed to reflect the latest recommendations from leading nutritional experts and contains the Biofactors System which are the nutritional components that deliver functional benefits and play a positive and or integrative role that help support the child’s health, growth and development.  

Breast milk is best for healthy growth and development, but when that option is not possible, Pfizer Nutrition is committed to developing infant formula that helps formula-fed babies grow and develop to their full potential.

“Now that we are here in Kenya, one of our main priorities is aimed at developing local public health partnerships to strengthen connections within the pediatric nutrition community and  increase information sharing and develop a supportive network to accurately deal with the local challenges Kenya is facing in the child nutrition field,” concluded Dr. Abdel Khalek.