Africa News blog
African business, politics and lifestyle
Operation Somalia: The U.S., Ethiopia and now Kenya
By Aaron Maasho
Ethiopia did it five years ago, the Americans a while back. Now Kenya has rolled tanks and troops across its arid frontier into lawless Somalia, in another campaign to stamp out a rag-tag militia of Islamist rebels that has stoked terror throughout the region with threats of strikes.
The catalyst for Nairobi’s incursion was a series of kidnappings by Somali gunmen on its soil. A Frenchwoman was bundled off to Somalia from northern Kenya, while a British woman and two female aid workers from Spain, abducted from a refugee camp inside Kenya, are also being held across the border.
The incidents caused concern over their impact on the country’s vital tourism industry, with Kenya’s forecast 100 billion shillings or revenue this year expected to falter. The likes of Britain and the United States have already issued warnings against travel to some parts of the country.
Kenyans have so far responded with bravado towards their government’s operation against the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group. Local channels regularly show high approval ratings for the campaign, some as high as 98 percent.
“The issue of our security is non-negotiable,” one commentator told a TV station in the wake of the announcement. Another chipped in with: ”We’ve been casual to the extent of endangering our national sovereignty. Kenya has what it takes to get rid of this dangerous threat once and for all.”
Is Africa drought a chance to enact new UK policy?
New ways of managing aid are being debated in Britain as global concerns mount over a hunger crisis devastating the drought-affected Horn of Africa.
Randolph Kent, director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College in London, says the crisis provides a perfect opportunity for the British government to test its recent promise to reform how it responds to humanitarian emergencies.
The severe drought, caused by the driest weather since 1995 in East Africa, has affected an estimated 10 million people and is expected to continue to worsen into early 2012, according to the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
While Kent acknowledges the importance of a $145 million (90.2 million pound) injection of humanitarian aid from the British government, he says the money will not help prevent the next Horn of Africa drought and that the government needs to become more “anticipatory”.
“This disaster has to teach us that the ways we’ve approached such crises in the past is not good enough,” Kent said in a statement. “If we don’t want to be consistently on a back foot when disasters happen, then we need evidence of strategic planning taking place at an international and regional level now.”
The British government’s Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR), released in June, recognises that as a result of the increase in the intensity and frequency of disasters – a trend expected to grow with climate change and population growth – preparedness must be a key goal.
There’s no secret about why these people are condemned to suffer as it’s a man made tragedy.
Bad agricultural practices, overpopulation and incompetent government, aggravated by growing climate instability, are its causes.
Migration and relocation can mitigate it. The question is will it be orderly or disorderly, particularly when it crosses Africa’s permeable borders.
Sad to say, on past experience it will be the latter as there is no longer any effective regional governance.
Uganda votes: Fighting talk
Ugandans love to talk. And, unlike in some other African countries, few people are afraid to be heard talking politics. Cafes and bars in Kampala and elsewhere hum to the sound of politicians being loudly verbally skewered.
The politicos themselves are not much different. Rhetoric is being ratcheted up ahead of elections on February 18. And the opposition are not holding back.
Kizza Besigye, the only man with any chance of unseating 25-year President Yoweri Museveni, is leading the charge with predictions of Tunisia and Egypt-inspired public protests should his party, for the third time in a row, say an election has been rigged.
“In our case it’s even more likely that we can get chaos because remember, no leader of our country has ever handed over power peacefully to another leader,” he told Reuters in an interview when asked if Uganda could follow the examples set in North Africa.
“Every president of Uganda has been bombed out of office. As long as there is repression that is sustained for a long time, that pent up anger builds and at some point explodes.”
Uganda is, he has since said, a “ruthless dictatorship.”
Strong stuff, indeed.
What else is there for the word “DEMOCRACY” in Uganda what is seen today is a promise made by the President himself after winning the Feb elections “i will Crush them” he was quoted using a runyankole proverb “Enumi Eligasa empango eyanda kuffa” meaning a bull that wilders it tounge near an axe will only be requesting to be beheaded. My fellow youth it is the only time we have to live like free people.All live media broadcasts have been banned..the police doest seem to understand the law or even read the constitution but thank God the internet is here for us to use..I wish all my fellow Ugandans Luck in this struggle for freedom.
Uganda’s Museveni at 25: Still fit?
“Look at him!” the emcee at celebrations to mark 25 years in power for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni shouts into a mic. “Look at him! He is very fit!”
The former rebel decked out in his usual – and fairly unique – floppy hat and suit combo ambles down a grass slope and waves cheerily to his supporters.
“Look!” she shouts again. “You can even see from the way he is walking!”
Moments later, a pick-up truck draws alongside the 66-year-old and he slowly clambers up onto the back to continue saluting the crowds.
“Oh…” she pauses for a moment before quickly gathering herself.
“He is in a car now!” she booms. “That is the modern way! He needs that vantage point to see you. He is a kind-hearted man who wants to see you!”
I don’t subscribe to the principle of a benevolent dictator because it runs contrary to all of the principles, upon which democracy was founded. I suppose this moral dilemma is made somewhat easier by the fact that Museveni’s track record isn’t perfect. In addition, simply because you liberate a country, it does not give you free reign for the following 25 years. This is a reoccurring sentiment across the continent (Paul Kagame in Rwanda, dos Santos in Angola, etc…). People tend to think: ‘well this is as good as democracy gets in Africa, so that’ll do’. Lets no settle for second best, Africa deserves better.
Sudan-a tale of two countries
As delighted southern Sudanese voted in a long-awaited referendum on independence, visitors to the north and south could be forgiven for thinking they were already two separate countries.
Far from the orange dusty landscape of Khartoum, newcomers landing at the airport in south Sudan’s capital Juba wander off the runway to be greeted by a smack of wet, humid heat driven by the surrounding lush tropical forests.
Beer adverts and often drunk soldiers adorn the few Tarmac roads in the would-be capital of what is likely to be the world’s newest nation state, a culture shock to anyone coming from the Islamic north where alcohol is banned.
Visitors enjoy Nile-side restaurants where they can sip a glass of wine and eat pork unavailable up north. The south’s population is mostly Christian or follows traditional religions.
African music blares throughout the town’s markets, run by Ugandan and Kenyan traders. Residents shout at each other in an Arabic dialect almost incomprehensible to northerners.
In the north, Arab music or Islamic verses are heard in the minibuses which hurtle around the capital.
Will EAC’s common market deal work?
For telecoms-tycoon-turned-philanthropist Mo Ibrahim, it’s one step forward, two steps back. For Benno Ndullu, governor of the central Bank of Tanzania, the whole thing is bound to stall unless problems are ironed out first.
For many Tanzanians, it’s a threat to their jobs, language and prospects.
But for the leaders of the five-member East African Community (EAC), signing the common market protocol on Friday represents the future fortunes of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda combined.
Signing the document — the culmination of a relatively speedy 18 months of negotiation — will mean goods, services and the community’s 126 million people can move freely across their borders, in theory at least.
Together, the five countries muster $60 billion in gross domestic product combined, and believe they can prosper better as one unit than apart.
Already they have a customs union, but by 2012 they foresee sharing a single currency and finally political federation.
This is exactly the type of thing necessary for long term growth, leading to transparency, then true democracy. This alliance would have lost any chance of success if GlobalWarming Zealots ever succeed.
Was white Kenyan aristocrat’s conviction fair?
It’s been almost three years since the son of the 5th Lord Delamere, Thomas Cholmondeley, first hopped down from a police truck and entered into Kenya’s High Court to face murder charges over the death of a local poacher on his estate.
Cholmondeley sat as impassively this week as he did that first day in court as the judge convicted him of a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Although the death penalty is off the table, he still could face life in prison.
It appears to me that this trial was blatantly turned into a race issue by certain Kenyan politians and the Judge was under huge political pressure to ensure a conviction no matter what the evidence produced. For the Judge to completly deregard the defence was a scandal in itself. In my opion this man did not get a fair trial and reflects the deep seated corruption in Kenya. Possibly the politians are trying to distract from the fact that they themselves are partaking in a land grab of their own.
I, myself grew up in a country that is predominatly black and was once ruled by the white man, as Kenya was, and I find the black man always seems to dwell on the past. To which the black politicians, who rule, are only too happy to remind him mainly to hind their own greed and misgovernment.
I think Kenyans should be ashamed of their Judicial system and the trial this man received. SHAME ON KENYA.
Going organic in Kenya’s biggest slum
A group from east Africa’s biggest slum has proved that you don’t need a big farm in the countryside to produce food crops for sale.
They’re planting organic vegetables on a small allotment in the middle of Nairobi’s Kibera slum that his been cleared out of an old rubbish tip.
A year ago, nothing grew on their patch of land. Today, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and kale flourish.
Kibera is home to nearly one million people, who mostly live in corrugated iron shacks with no running water.
Victor Matioli grew up a tough inner-city kid. He never imagined that one day he’d be a farmer with a passion for plants and for the soil they grow in.
East African albinos fear witchcraft murders
In Burundi, 11 albinos have been killed since last year. In Tanzania, over 40 have been killed since mid-2007 by people who use their body parts, including hair, limbs and genitals, for witchcraft.
Tanzania is currently holding a secret vote to try to identity those involved in the murders and the trade in body parts. It has also banned traditional healers in an effort to curb the killings.
It is not clear why there has been such an upsurge in murders although Tanzania’s government and albino groups blame people involved in fishing and small-scale mining, an industry that has been booming.
The graves of albinos had long been plundered for the gruesome trade, leading to them being filled with concrete to prevent robbery. The killings are more recent.
Burundi has arrested at least eight people who were found with human bones, saying the killings are being carried out at the behest of people in neighbouring Tanzania. In Tanzania, at least 90 people – including four police officers – have been arrested on suspicion of killing albinos.
Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has called the killings stupid and superstitious, but some people clearly believe that using the parts of the murdered albinos will help them to achieve success.
Even if the murders can be stopped, how can such beliefs be challenged?
One thing common about Africans, we are rebellious towards change and to things that we think are unusual, being different to the majority does not mean you do not have the same attributes. Being an albino is just a different pigmentation and that does not make them less than a human. Killing them is the same as participating in evil deeds. Let us stop being judgemental and supersitious about things or it will cost us as it has in Haiti.
Is East Africa ready for oil?
Buoyed by recent discoveries of commercial scale oil deposits in Uganda, east African policy makers, foreign oil explorers and their local partners trooped to a five-star hotel on the Kenyan coast this week to reflect on the progress and chart future strategies.Viewed as a frontier region for oil exploration, east Africa’s first major oil find was made by Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil companies in the Albertine Basin, which spans the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (whose improving relations are making the exploitation of the reserves look morel ikely).Before that, Tanzania had found vast reserves of natural gas in Songo Songo and Mnazi Bay areas.Just like Rwanda, which hopes to revolutionise electricity generation in the region through methane gas from Lake Kivu, Tanzania hopes to power cars from the gas and generate much needed electricity from its natural gas.The regional economic power house Kenya has, however, had disappointing results so far in its search for oil.Although 32 wells have been sunk here since the 1950s, only traces of oil and gas have been found. It is now reprocessing data gathered over that period in the hope new knowledge and technology will reveal hidden deposits.Drilling, an expensive affair that prospectors say can cost a firm $200 million for one well, took a commercial break in the 1980s. But it has also seen a resurgence of interest, thanks to last year’s rise of crude in global markets.Kenya issued 14 exploration licenses last year and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is set to sink its first well in the second half of this year in the eastern province.Kiraitu Murungi, the nation’s energy minister, told the meeting in Mombasa they were praying day and night for the new well and data reprocessing to show signs of oil.On the other hand, Uganda — long reliant on Kenya’s ageing oil refinery for its supply of petroleum products — has grand plans for its newfound oil resources.They include the construction of a state of the art modern refinery at an estimated cost of $1.3 billion to process its oil as well as oil from any new finds in the region.Uganda’s energy and mineral development minister, Hillary Onek, spoke of the plans with a grin and added that the region, believed to share common geology, could be headed for a better future as it taps its oil and gas reserves to power development.However, as officials and oil prospectors retired to the hotel’s restaurants and beach bar for a drink in the evenings, they must have wondered if a few obstacles may not block the path to that prosperous future.The global financial crisis is weighing heavily on the finance base of some companies prospecting in the region.Lack of local skilled manpower in oil and gas industry is also worrying. So is the big question of how to equitably manage revenues from oil and gas so that oil and gas do not turn into a curse for the region as they have elsewhere on the continent.Is east Africa ready to handle oil and gas? Will oil discoveries help local communities?
Hi Duncan,After reading your posting, I was wondering if you may have some insight into a related question posted on ProspectLinker, a community for professional conversations.Here’s the question:Any thoughts on the state of financial institutions in Nigeria?While the American credit crisis has sent shockwaves throughout the global finance economy it has particularly impacted Nigeria. A perfect storm of depressed crude prices, the collapse of the American economy, its largest trade partner, and weak government regulation has driven the country’s stock exchange index down 37% in the first quarter this year, the worst of 89 benchmark indexes that Bloomberg follows.Does the success of Nigeria’s financial institutions depend on the resurgence of oil prices? Will greater government oversight prompt confidence and spur investment? Or is Nigeria so dependent on foreign investment that autonomous actions are negligible and success depends on global economic performance?***If you have some interesting insight, please feel free to share here – http://bit.ly/OudIpThanks,Andre
All talk about peace and democracy but what they want in reality is war as long as it is not in their own backyard and love “friendly tyrants” like Meles Zenawi who is willing to sell his land and people.