Defend Truth

Kiflu Hussain

Kiflu Hassain was born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, in the 1960s. He was trained as a lawyer in Addis Ababa University, and worked at different state enterprises and corporations as an attorney until he landed up in a concentration camp in October 2005 on a farcical charge of corruption. After being denied bail for a full year, he was released in October 2006. On top of being threatened by another round of incarceration, he found the outside world itself to be one big concentration camp, since fear and suspicion had descended on the land due to the brutal crackdown in July and November 2005 that saw the massacre of more than 200 civilians in Addis Ababa alone. Hence, he decided to flee the country, seeking asylum in Uganda in January 2007. Kiflu has written articles for the English Reporter and the defunct Addis Zena newspaper in Ethiopia; and the Daily Monitor, Uganda Record, and New Vision in Uganda, among other publications. Ethiopia, despite being the seat of the African Union had never produced a regime that allows even the minimum space for dialogue that other people in Africa enjoy so naturally. Thus Kiflu feels that ending up in Uganda is a blessing in disguise, as it affords him the opportunity to write. At the same time, being a refugee has exposed him to the hypocrisy of the international community. Thus, he defines the term refugee as follows: R - rooted outE - exiledF - frightenedU - unwelcomeG - globally shunnedE - expendable to capricious politicsE - eternally endangered Whether you welcome him or not, his voice will be heard through his eclectic writings.