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Britain's Pivotal Vote; House Judiciary Committee Holds Marathon Debate on Trump Impeachment Articles; India Protests; Volcano Victims' Recovery Planned for Friday; U.K. Polling Stations Open for Crucial Vote; House Judiciary Holds Marathon Impeachment Debate; Indian Troops Mobilize as Citizenship Protests Erupt. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired December 12, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Kristie Lu Stout and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
Coming up, it is Election Day in the U.K. Voting gets underway in the next hour.
A rare midnight debate on Capitol Hill and an historic vote on articles of impeachment,
Plus the controversial citizenship bill that has led to angry protests in India.
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STOUT: We start this hour in the U.K., where polls have just open for the country's third general election in less than five years. There are 650 open Parliament seats, a political party needs 326 to get a majority, the polls close at 10:00 pm local time and we will bring you the results as soon as they are available.
CNN's Nina dos Santos joins us live from London.
The polls are open.
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Yes, they are they open, just a moment ago. We've seen a steady stream of people arriving at this polling station in the school, in Kensington and Chelsea. We are actually in Notting Hill not far away from where the famous movie was shot.
This is obviously a very cosmopolitan part of London, very international, as you can see many people casting their votes just before they go to work.
As you said this is the third vote since 2015. Obviously, something in the forefront of voters' minds is having to go to the polls, yet again, remember there's been three general elections since 2015 but also two more referenda, one on independence of Scotland, Scottish voters could vote on and then, of course, the big Brexit referendum.
All of that will be in the back of people's minds and turnout will, of course, be key. Just a factoid for you here, Kristie, this is actually the first time we've had a general election in December since 1923. There are 650 seats up for grabs, the real issue for any of the seven parties on their ballots today is one of trying to avoid a hung Parliament.
What's important is that you need to have more than 326 seats to try and avoid that type of political scenario. Obviously important reporting restrictions are in place because the campaign has ended. And people are now voting and for that reason obviously this is not the time to be talking about polls, it's not the time to talk about issues that will be in people's minds.
It really is a point to talk about the actual number of seats that are up for grabs and when the polls open and they close. They have just opened now here in Notting Hill, in Kensington and Chelsea and across the rest of the country. They will be closing at 10:00 pm. Thereafter we will expect the first exit polls to be released.
STOUT: Nina dos Santos, reporting live early morning this day in London.
Join us Thursday for CNN special coverage of results. Starting at 10:00 pm in the U.K.
In just a few hours, House Judiciary Committee members are expected to propose amendments to the two impeachment articles against U.S. President Donald Trump, they will then vote on them, before the articles go to the House floor for a full vote that will likely take place next week.
All this comes after heated debate on Wednesday night, 41 committee members speaking for five minutes each, put forward their views on the impeachment articles.
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REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Other presidents have resisted congressional oversight. But President Trump's stonewall was complete, absolute and without precedent in American history.
Taken together, the two articles charge President Trump with placing his private political interests above our national security, above our free and fair elections and above our ability to hold public officials accountable.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): House Democrats aren't clarifying that no one is above the wall, there just clarifying that none of them are above partisanship, politics. This is the quickest, thinnest, weakest most partisan impeachment and all the American presidential history. REP. GREG STANTON (D): He withheld aid to our ally at war until that ally agreed to help him damage a top political opponent. The Ukraine plot put our elections and our democracy at risk. And it helped Vladimir Putin and Russia.
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REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): This is not about Ukraine. The facts are on the president's side. still as he said he wasn't pressures Ukrainians even know it was all the time the call more support lay did nothing to get the aid released. Support one basic fact the Democrats have never accepted the wolf American people. Three weeks ago Nancy Pelosi called the president to the United States an impostor and the attacks on the president started before the election.
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STOUT: Meanwhile the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says he plans to hold a Senate impeachment trial and vote to acquit the president and not just vote on a motion to dismiss the articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Joining me now to discuss Leslie Vinjamuri, head of the U.S. and Americas Programme at Chatham House.
Leslie, thank you so much for joining us. The articles of impeachment are out. And abuse of power, obstruction of Congress. They are narrowly focused and the Dems are also putting the Mueller report on the back burner.
Why proceed in this way?
LESLIE VINJAMURI, CHATHAM HOUSE: I think it's been a very long discussion; I think there's been a concern. If you go very far back there's been pressure on Nancy Pelosi to proceed with impeachment hearings for a very long time and she held off.
And I think when she did make that decision, she made it for very clear reason and that was on the back of the whistleblower report and these allegations about interference and pressure on Ukraine and withholding of military aid for political purposes by the president.
So she's always had an instinct for thinking very narrowly about things that were very concrete that were threatening to America's national security and to the integrity of the elections.
And I think there's been a genuine concern that going too broad would dilute the focus and it would lead to very difficult politics. That an extended and protracted set of hearings and that would get perhaps too close to the next presidential elections.
STOUT: With these articles of impeachment, Democrats stayed absolutely clear of the Mueller report, this epic investigation that captured the world's attention for so long.
Why do that? VINJAMURI: I think there is a sense that the Mueller report is there; it's in the public domain and, of course, once the president is no longer sitting in office, sooner or after a second term, there will be a lot that can be pursued in other quarters.
So I think at some level that investigation has taken place in public record. It's there, it's not going away, so didn't need to be the focus of this particular set of this impeachment. But, yes, it's a very important choice and was deliberated on for a very long time.
STOUT: So the two articles that had been put forward, to they merit the impeachment process, do they signal impeachable conduct?
VINJAMURI: I think what we are seeing here, as we know, it's a great division and I think this price for some of those of us watching is that opinion hasn't moved more amongst those engaged. It's really been about one side, Democrats versus Republicans, with very few moving over to the other side of the public, not moving dramatically, facts being contested, whether or not these are impeachable offenses being contested.
It's really been an extraordinary process for this one reason so, no, I think whether people's views on whether these impeachable offenses are not moving. They're very, very fixed.
STOUT: I was going to ask you what the intentions of America's founding fathers, they never stated explicitly what constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors.
Is the impeachment clause working right now the way the founders intended?
VINJAMURI: I think founders, of course, those are written there in order to be interpreted in light of current circumstances. And, of course, abuse of power I think is a very significant one, the fact that it's been articulated so clearly; the move by the president, according to these impeachment articles, to prevent Congress from pursuing its authority, its duty to investigate, oversee the obstruction of subpoenas, attempting to block the investigations.
Those are tremendously serious charges and I think that they do speak to the intention of the idea of impeachment, such as it was originally set out. Of course these things are interpreted. And, of course, they become intensely political.
We always knew and I think that's why Nancy Pelosi has been so careful, that impeachment is a deeply political process.
STOUT: Leslie Vinjamuri, thank you so much for joining us.
VINJAMURI: Thank you.
STOUT: A controversial measure is getting a violent response. India's parliament passes a citizenship bill and protesters have been hitting the streets and they're angry.
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STOUT: Also ahead, recovery crews are still being kept away from White Island where a deadly volcano is threatening to erupt again we will be live in New Zealand after the break.
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STOUT: Thousands of troops are in India's northeastern city of Assam after violent protests erupted over a new citizenship bill. Parliament passed the measure, which fast-tracks citizenship to immigrants from three countries but not if they are Muslim.
People in the Assam region fear that immigrants could upset the area's demographic balance. Vedika Sud joins us from New Delhi with the latest.
Vedika, there are angry protests out there after the passage of this controversial piece of legislation.
What is the level of anger out there?
VEDIKA SUD, JOURNALIST: The level of anger can be seen both in Parliament as well as outside since yesterday. Remember the lower house of parliament passed this bill Monday. Wednesday we saw the upper house of parliament passing it, which now means it goes to the president for the north to make this into legislation.
In Assam and the northeast part of India, we've seen a lot of violence because of which the military has been called out and paramilitary forces. The Internet has been down ever since these protests broke out. There have been many (INAUDIBLE) that been set on fire by the protesters.
Let's understand why these people are protesting. They fear that the influx of these migrants into their state will threaten not only the culture but the economic state of affairs in their states, given that the resources will have to be shared with them.
Inside parliament, the opposition also made it very clear that they oppose this bill, they question the bill, stating that why is it that only Hindus and five other minority communities are being given citizenship in India if they have resided here before 31st December 2014?
To which the home minister said look these people are coming in from three Muslim countries, mainly Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And it is due to persecution of these communities, that they were moved to India, therefore we can only allow these communities to move to India and not the Muslim community, because they come from Muslim countries.
STOUT: Vedika Sud reporting, live from New Delhi for us, thank you. The official death toll from that volcanic eruption in New Zealand now
stands at eight.
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STOUT: It is believed that eight more victims are still on White Island and now we are hearing New Zealand defense force personnel will try to retrieve the bodies of eight people presumed dead there. Will Ripley reports on how the tourist treasure turned to tragedy.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Monday was a picture- perfect day to visit white island. Crystal blue skies, sunlight bouncing off the lunar-like landscape. Raw, rugged natural beauty lures thousands to this New Zealand treasure each year.
HOPKINS: Beautiful yellows and whites and crystals. But knowing just below the surface is so violent, so hot, so explosive.
RIPLEY: The trip was Geoff Hopkins 50th birthday gift from his daughter, Leilani.
HOPKINS: We weren't in any hurry to get off the island. I'm thinking where I'm going to sit on the boat so we can get some awesome shots of the island as we leave.
RIPLEY: He took this photo at 2:07 pm.
(on camera): Those dots are people who were in the crater.
HOPKINS: There people on the crater, like on the edge of the crater lake and then four minutes later --
RIPLEY (voice-over): At 2:11, blue skies turned dark.
HOPKINS: For a split second, it was a gasp of awe.
One or two seconds later is that menacing ash cloud started to roll over the cliff and engulf the island. Wow.
This is serious. This is bad. And you know, at that stage they knew you'd think there were people still on the island.
RIPLEY: Their tour boat turned around. Everything on the island covered in ash.
HOPKINS: And that smashed helicopter just completely gray. And we can see there's people in the water, as people swimming off the island.
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RIPLEY: They pulled 23 survivors onto the boat. It was hard to tell the students from the senior citizens. HOPKINS: Everybody had horrific burns. Skin falling off, lots of screaming, you know, panic screaming. Get me out of here. I'm burning.
I'm burning.
RIPLEY: Hopkins is a trained first responder. He spent much of the 90- minute trip back to shore caring for a young couple from Virginia, Lauren and Matthew Urey on what was supposed to be their dream honeymoon.
HOPKINS: I remember I asked her name and she struggled to say it, but he said it for me. He said she's my wife. And she would ask, how is my husband? And he would ask, how is my wife?
RIPLEY: He fought to keep them awake. Fought to keep them alive.
HOPKINS: She said this is the worst day of my life. And I had to say, yes, it is, but you've got so much more in your life to live. When she says I don't think I'm going to make it, you rebuke that. You are going to make it. You are going to make it, you are strong. You're a fighter.
You're going to get through this. You've got a future.
JANICE UREY, MATT UREY'S MOTHER: Ten minutes through this life or death for them.
RIPLEY: I spoke with Matt Urey's mom, Janice. She was about to board her flight for the 29-hour journey from Pennsylvania to New Zealand.
UREY: This is absolutely soul crushing. It's my worst nightmare, but on the other hand, I'm trying to focus on the positive. They were lucky enough they had already come down the volcano, so they were very close to the water.
RIPLEY: The couple managed to seek shelter behind a rock. They still suffered severe burns over much of their bodies.
HOPKINS: I'm still coming to terms with it.
RIPLEY: Hopkins tries not to think about what could have happened.
HOPKINS: If we hadn't have got off the island, there would have been double the victims and nobody to help. It's a day I'll never forget.
Never forget.
RIPLEY: He'll also never forget the people who died and the ones still fighting to stay alive.
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STOUT: The experience is just so harrowing. CNN's Will Ripley joins us now live from New Zealand.
We know that the delicate process of recovery will go on on Friday.
Is the island going to be safe for crews to get there?
RIPLEY: We don't know. I can tell you what we observed both from helicopter in the air yesterday and on the ground here today, a very large plume of smoke coming out from the volcanic crater.
In some ways earlier a few hours ago it resembled what we saw on Monday during the eruption. There hasn't been another eruption as far as we know but there were reports of an elevated risk level.
And yet it has now been a number of days, far too many days for these family members of these eight people, whose bodies are believed to be lying there on the crater and frustration has been growing on the ground here.
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RIPLEY: They feel authorities need to do something to bring these people back before much more time passes. So the operation that will ensue in the early morning hours will involve the New Zealand defense forces. There's a frigate just offshore.
We don't know specifics about how they plan to get on the island, whether it'll be by helicopter or by boat but we do know that the defense force personnel will go. They believe they have identified the location of six bodies, they don't know where the other two are at this moment.
So the first priority will be to get those six but they have a good idea where they are, to look for the other two, and they will be guided by New Zealand police and scientists, who will be operating from here in Whakaari to try to help them as much as they can to get this operation done quickly and safely and give these families closure.
STOUT: And Will, let's talk about the survivors, including the beautiful couple who you profiled in that moving report. These newlyweds are fighting for their lives right now. We know that New Zealand is asking for a huge quantity of skin tissue to treat the burns of the survivors.
Can you tell us anything more about the treatment required or their condition?
RIPLEY: Yes, 1.2 million square centimeters of skin has been ordered by New Zealand authorities to be distributed to the number of hospitals across this country that are dealing with all of the victims, many of whom have severe burns over more than 30 percent of their bodies.
The burns that they are dealing with, these are not surface burns; some of them go through all the layers of the skin, even down to the fat. These are the kind of burns that are going to require skin grafts. You heard the description of people whose skin was falling off. This is not something that is a quick fix. It's going to take many
surgeries over a long period of time for these people to recover. It is simply heartbreaking to think of the painful ordeal that they are going through and the mothers of that couple, both of them are, we believe, now on the ground here in New Zealand. They're actually at different hospitals, one in Christchurch, the other in Auckland.
So they're actually on different islands, one on the north island and one on the south island. But the family members have arrived; they're by their loved one's side, trying to offer as much support as they can.
Just to think that this was supposed to be a dream honeymoon that they planned and they looked forward to so much to this excursion, on the White Island volcano, which is visited by thousands of people every year.
It's a beautiful place, it's an experience that for many is a once in a lifetime. But nobody could have expected what happened on Monday. The key question now is whether those island tours will be allowed to continue.
Should they be allowed to continue?
Even though it was more than a century without a single fatality up until this week, that does not change the fact of what happened and how much so many people have lost.
STOUT: A lot of big questions remain unanswered at the moment. Thoughts going out to the survivors, victims' families as well. Will Ripley, thank you.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Up next, if at first you don't succeed, you try again and again and again. Israel now headed for an unprecedented third election in less than a year.
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STOUT: Welcome back.
Israel, perhaps a third time will be a charm. The country will hold an unprecedented third national election in less than year after the Knesset failed to agree on a politician who could get the support of more than half the Parliament. More now from Oren Liebermann.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, Israel's political system definitely qualifies.
For the third time in 12 months, Israelis will be voting in national elections, trying to lead a country out of political deadlock. It's election deja vu, the same candidates, same issues and possibly similar results.
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LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu versus his now familiar foe, former military chief of staff Benny Gantz. Netanyahu has now failed to put together a government twice. He will be indicted for bribery and fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases.
But it's done little to shake his support, the 70-year-old leader casting the indictments as a media-driven attempted coup to topple him. A rival within his own party has emerged to challenge him. But he remains the face of Israel's right wing.
Gantz's Blue and White Party emerged from the last elections with the most seats but he was also unable to form a government. No other politician emerged who would garner the necessary support to lead.
Netanyahu's election strategy until recently was largely based on president Donald Trump but as Netanyahu failed two straight times to pull out a victory, Trump was no longer the gift that kept on giving, the leader facing indictment could no longer rely on the leader facing impeachment.
Israel hasn't had a properly functioning government since Christmas Eve of last year and there's no promise a third election will change anything. Israel remains stuck in political nowhere.
Is this middle of nowhere?
Or nearing the end?
LIEBERMANN: We began talking about the possibility of a third election the day after the second election, back in September and we have already begun discussing the possibility of a fourth election later next year.
In fact, one member of Knesset suggesting setting the date for it right now, if nothing changes in the political deadlock that has now gripped Israel for a year -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.
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STOUT: Human trafficking is a ruthless business and the victims don't always survive and those who do make it are often traumatized and live in fear. We will hear from two of them.
And Myanmar's de facto leader defends the crackdown. Aung San Suu Kyi has her say on genocide charges against her government.
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STOUT: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. Let's check the headlines this hour.
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Now, voters are casting ballots in U.K.'s third general election in less than five years. There are 650 open parliament seats. If a party gets 326 for a majority, its leader will become prime minister. And polls close at 10 p.m. local time. And we will have the results once they become available.
The House Judiciary Committee is debating the two articles of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump. On Wednesday night, 41 committee members put forward their views. And in just a few hours, they will reconvene to put forward amendments to the articles and vote on them before sending them to the House floor for a full vote, likely next week.
Now, Indian troops are mobilized to the northeastern state of Assam. Protest broke out to parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill. It's fast-tracked citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from three neighboring countries. The Hindu ruling party says the measure protects minorities, but Muslims argue it is discriminatory.
Now, it is the rainy season in East Africa. And this year's rainfall is unprecedented. Severe flooding has inundated farmland, caused landslides and displaced thousands of people. Again, experts say climate change is a factor. Farai Sevenzo has more.
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FARAI SEVENZO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As the rainy seasons have begun across East Africa in recent months, countries across the region have been battered by unprecedented levels of rain. Kenya, Sudan, Djibouti, Somali, Uganda and Ethiopia among others, have all been affected.
And now, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says more than 2.8 million people across East Africa have been affected by the heavy rains and the flash flooding.
The climate science says warming waters in the Indian Ocean which sit on the coast of East Africa, are contributing to the heavy rainfall. In Kenya alone, more than 100 people are reported to have died, many in a landslide triggered by the rains in West Pokot County, at the end of November.
People's homes were buried. Uganda's West Nile province saw the Nile bursts its banks with tragic consequences such as yet more mudslides and drownings.
Somalia's Puntland brace for a major storm emanating from Madagascar this last weekend. The waters made people move to higher ground. In some areas, the rains have come after months of drought and their sudden appearance has wiped out crops and destroyed livelihoods. In South Sudan, where there's been conflict and widespread food and security, the rains have made existing shortages worst.
The sudden turn in East Africa's weather comes as partners gather in Madrid for COP25, to discuss the very issue of climate change. Here in East Africa, the falling rains have lent an urgency to the discussions underway in the Spanish capital. Meryne Wara's organization, the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance has people in Madrid.
MERYNE WARA, ORGANIZER, PAN AFRICAN CLIMATE JUSTICE ALLIANCE: We build the capacities of communities so that they can be resilient to the effects of climate change. But as an organization, it's not enough. We do not have enough resources. So, our governments are supposed to be in a position to work with us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not in Madrid, but I understand that why Madrid is happening, and people are talking about climate change. This massive tragedy is hitting East Africa.
WARA: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, if you were there, what would you tell them?
WARA: If you are a country that pollutes, pay up. Paying doesn't necessarily mean money. It means bring technologies that can be in a position to help our communities build their resilience. It means that providing some research for our country that is supposed to help us know what is coming before it comes.
SEVENZO: The U.N. says more rains are expected throughout East Africa before 2019 ends. And many here are wondering, if these floods are an act of God, or if they are man-made. Farai Sevenzo, CNN, Nairobi.
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AUNG SAN SUU KYI, STATE COUNSELOR OF MYANMAR: Regrettably, the Gambie has placed before the court an incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar.
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STOUT: And with that, Myanmar's de facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, discounted overwhelming evidence of military brutality and rejected charges of genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi told the U.N.'s highest court that the 2017 military crackdown of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State was a response to terror attacks on police stations.
And she listened impassively to graphic descriptions of rape and mass murders a day earlier, on Wednesday. She admitted only that disproportionate force could not be ruled out and should be investigated internally.
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SUU KYI: Surely, under the circumstances, genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis. Under its 2008 constitution, Myanmar has a military justice system. Criminal cases against soldiers or officers for possible war crimes committed in Rakhine must be investigated and prosecuted by that system.
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STOUT: More than 740,000 Rohingya fled the violence and went to Bangladesh. Refugees who watched Suu Kyi's testimony on television, accused her of lying.
In the horrific case of 39 Vietnamese nationals who died while being smuggled into Britain, illegally, a Friday court date has been set for the truck driver. Morris Robinson, he is one of six people arrested, so far. The gruesome incident exposed a shadowy world of human trafficking that stretches across the globe. More now from CNN's Scott McLean.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In October, the world heard news of a horrifying scene, 39 people found dead in the back of a truck, where the victims inside, it was the end of a long journey that they would not live to see, but many others are still willing to make that trip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I feel very scared because that might have been me.
MCLEAN: In Northern England, we met two Vietnamese women, we're calling Hannah and Michelle, who've separately have made this dangerous trek themselves. For Hannah, it wasn't by choice. She says she was sold by an abusive uncle and taken to China where three men forced her into prostitution.
Months later, she was handed a Chinese passport and boarded a flight to a place she was told was Hungary. From there, a white man loaded her into a trailer with another woman. She fell asleep only to wake up somewhere in England, where she managed to escape from the back of the truck.
Did you feel like you are treated as a human?
HANNAH (through translator): They wanted me to work so they could get their money. That's all.
MCLEAN: Debt that the trafficker said her uncle owed them.
MCLEAN: Did you feel safe?
HANNAH (through translator): I was very scared then. Right now, I'm still scared. I'm scared that one day the Chinese men will catch me or that if they see my uncle, he will sell me away again.
MCLEAN: Hannah has since found safety at a shelter supported by the salvation army. Michelle came to the U.K. for another reason, she says her family was the victim of religious persecution at home. Her grandmother had to sell land to pay for the journey.
MICHELLE (through translator): I follow traditional Buddhism and it's not allowed in Vietnam. And therefore, I was beaten up. I'm very scared because my father, my grandfather, my uncles and my grandmother have died from being beaten up.
MCLEAN: She says a smuggler took her to China, gave her a Chinese passport and together, they boarded a flight to Paris. A day later, she climbed into the cab of a truck that was loaded onto a ferry sailing across the English Channel. The driver was white and her Asian smuggler never left her side. She's not sure how they avoided passport checks.
MICHELLE (through translator): I only know that I was transported in a boat and across the channel, and nothing else.
MCLEAN: Both journeys trace a well-established route for Vietnam through China, to Europe, and then by truck to the U.K., involving both Asian and European smugglers. Almost all of it is fueled by organized crime, sometimes even rival groups working together.
ALAN MCQUILLAN, FORMER BELFAST DETECTIVE: Well, money makes for strange bedfellows but about three companies treaty. That he regarded exactly the same way. They regard themselves as a business. The biggest barrier in the end is usually getting them across the channel and actually into the U.K.
MCLEAN: Former Belfast detective Alan McQuillan says cutting off the flow of illegal entries is a massive challenge for police. Some European ports have sophisticated technology to detect stowaways, others have much less stringent checks, even retracing the route and the people involved is near impossible.
Most people like Hannah and Michelle never actually learn the true identities of their smugglers or traffickers. Plus, there is a bigger problem, police budgets are dwarfed by revenues from organized crime.
MCQUILLAN: The police are facing an uphill battle from the very start.
MCLEAN: It hasn't stopped Hannah from praying for justice.
HANNAH (through translator): I just want those people arrested soon, so they can't put other people in the same situation as me.
MCLEAN: Scott McLean, CNN, London.
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STOUT: In Kenya, one company is trying to help modernize industry stuck with old inefficient practices. Eleni Giokos has the story as part of her ongoing series, Innovate Africa.
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MARY MWANGI, CEO, DATA INTEGRATED: Data Integrated is a company that its mission is to digitize an automatic payment for small to medium- sized enterprises. Mainly around payments, the revenue that they're collecting, and the products that they are selling, to build controls around that.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The company started in 2012 and early on, found a need to fill with the unique Kenyan mode of transport, the matatu.
MWANGI: Transportation in Kenya is privately owned. We call it public transport, but really, it is private enterprise. So, you want to buy a matatu, you can just buy it. But then the law states that you have to take it to an organization, society to actually manage it.
[02:40:13]
GIOKOS: Hundreds of organizations across Kenya, called SACCOs, manage the daily operations of matatu buses. Data Integrated founder, Mary Mwangi saw that their business operations were far from streamlined.
MWANGI: We went to the SACCOs, the bus companies, and we asked them what are you doing? And after we understood what they were doing, then we went ahead and digitized their processes as they were doing it. And then after a while, then we introduced more efficiency where we see that they could use it.
GIOKOS: Including a handheld payment device that issues daily reports via SMS and online management system and a tracking device similar to ride-sharing apps. All with the aim to take innovations in mobile money to the next level.
MWANGI: Mobile money is very big in Africa, but it does not go far enough when it comes to automating the businesses. It automates the last part of the transaction. But then when you come in to check the operations in the management, you still find there's a lot of manual process still going on.
GIOKOS: One of the biggest points of pride for Data Integrated is their homegrown team, including female developers.
MWANGI: Most of these people that came to us, actually to work with us, came in as interns, you know, they're world class, so most of our success is actually because of these young team that we have, very amazing to see that's the future of Africa.
GIOKOS: Eleni Giokos, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT: And thank you for joining us. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just 15 minutes, that's right after WORLD SPORT. Stay with us. You're watching CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WORLD SPORT)
STOUT: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, I'm Kristie Lu Stout, and this is CNN NEWSROOM. Coming up, voters in the U.K. are making their voices heard on this election day. We are live outside a polling station in London. And voters in Israel will be doing the same very soon. A political deadlock is forcing a third national election in less than a year.
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