Items by kenopp

Opalo's weblog

• cool blog

  Posted: March 14, 2010, 6:36 am by kenopp

  Check this out… Filed under: africa

• those opposed to the creation of an unrepresentative senate have a point

  Posted: March 12, 2010, 1:08 am by kenopp

  The Kenyan Draft Constitution seems to have hit a snag. A section of parliamentarians are opposed to the section of the proposed constitution that gives all counties equal powers via their elected senators. I agree with them. The to-be-formed senate, as currently constituted, grants too much power to sparsely populated counties. Theoretically, this should not [...]

• jeffrey gettleman is back

  Posted: March 12, 2010, 5:55 am by kenopp

  Texas in Africa has a piece on Gettleman’s style of journalism. Mr. Gettleman is of course not new to this type of criticism. I have voiced my opinion on his reporting style a few times before. This is not an argument for the mis-representation of the goings on on the Continent. (By all means tell [...]

• as if somalis did not have enough problems….

  Posted: March 11, 2010, 2:40 am by kenopp

  The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is implicated in a leaked report that suggests that corrupt officials have been diverting food aid intended for displaced Somali refugees. It is feared that al-Shabab (the Islamist insurgency group that is fighting against Somalia’s transitional government and its international backers) is benefiting from the diversion of food [...]

• corruption in South Africa

  Posted: March 10, 2010, 1:17 am by kenopp

  South African democracy still has a long way to go. My greatest fear is that ANC supremacy might get into the heads of the party bosses and have them collapse the distinction between party and state. There are already allegations of corruption within the top ranks of the ANC. Ironically, if corruption is to be [...]

• sectarian violence in nigeria getting out of hand

  Posted: March 8, 2010, 2:39 pm by kenopp

  The BBC reports that at least 500 people were killed in a massacre carried out on Sunday morning by machete wielding men near the Nigerian city of Jos. This Day, a Nigerian daily, puts the number at 200. The attacks were in response to similar killings that took place in the same area in January. This [...]

• President Gnassingbe wins togo poll

  Posted: March 7, 2010, 3:00 am by kenopp

  The president of Togo has won re-election. According to the country’s electoral commission Mr. Gnassingbe got 1.2 million votes out of a total of 2 million votes cast. The opposition and a number of election observers have voiced their concerns over the fairness of the process. Mr. Faure Gnassingbe will most certainly be sworn in [...]

• togo goes to the polls

  Posted: March 4, 2010, 12:17 pm by kenopp

  Togo, a tiny West African country of 6.6 million, goes to the polls today. Faure Gnassingbe, President of Togo and son of the late strongman Gnassingbe Eyadema, is hoping to be re-elected for a second term. His father ruled the country uninterrupted between 1967 until his death in 2005. The younger Gnassingbe was then installed [...]

• 2009 kcse results out

  Posted: March 2, 2010, 1:04 pm by kenopp

  UPDATE: The KNEC system seems to be down, judging by the amount of comments and requests I have received in the last few hours. I guess the cell phone thing is not working after all. Even the Nation went down at some point last night. The 2009 KCSE results are out. The best student in the country [...]

• kenyan students await the release of the 2009 KCSE results

  Posted: March 2, 2010, 12:40 pm by kenopp

  The Kenyan Ministry of Education is due to release the results of Kenya’s high school national examinations (KCSE). This year the government will text the results directly to student’s cell phones – for those who subscribed – mitigating the need to actually visit one’s school or the KNEC headquarters to find out about one’s grades. I [...]

• still no concrete deadline for a return to democracy in Niger

  Posted: March 2, 2010, 12:28 pm by kenopp

  Niger’s military junta just named an interim government that included three generals that were close to former President Tandja. The leader of the junta, Major Djibo, promised a return to democracy in the near future but did not give actual dates. I still have faith in the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, see post [...]

• will the nigerien colonels keep their word?

  Posted: February 25, 2010, 12:41 am by kenopp

  The coup leaders in Niger promised a return to democracy as soon as possible. Perhaps as a signal that they are willing to keep their word on this they have appointment a civilian as prime minister.They have also promised that none of the military leaders in government will take part in elections whenever they are [...]

• the drc: the fire continues to consume lives unabated

  Posted: February 25, 2010, 2:25 am by kenopp

  In the recent past the Niger coup, the return of the ailing Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua from a hospital in Saudi Arabia and the supposed peace deal between Khartoum and the Darfuris have stolen most headlines on the Continent. But let us not forget that the eastern reaches of the DRC still approximate a war zone, [...]

• the politics of presentation and representation of Africa

  Posted: February 23, 2010, 9:26 pm by kenopp

  I am not particularly keen on these debates but here you go… Filed under: africa Tagged: media politics, Politics

• africa’s endless conflicts

  Posted: February 22, 2010, 10:25 pm by kenopp

  The New York Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman has a thought-provoking piece in Foreign Policy. I don’t particularly buy his doomsday analysis (most of the Continent will definitely not head the Somalia way) but his characterization of the modern day African rebel movement is spot on. The typical rebel leader on the Continent is nothing but a [...]

• a pre-election truce in darfur? fingers crossed

  Posted: February 20, 2010, 10:08 pm by kenopp

  Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president,  might be having information that we don’t in relation to the upcoming general election in April. His government just signed a peace accord with the JEM, Darfur’s biggest rebel movement. Mr. al-Bashir is desperately trying to stay in power. He also dreads the inevitable secession of Southern Sudan come 2011. [...]

• cool news source

  Posted: February 20, 2010, 1:48 pm by kenopp

  I just discovered this cool news source. Check it out. Filed under: africa

• Sudanese elections

  Posted: February 20, 2010, 1:42 pm by kenopp

  Southern Sudan continues to be an extremely dangerous place as it prepares for elections in April. “Ethnic clashes” have so far killed at least 2500 this year alone. The SPLM has nominated Yasir Arman, a northerner, as its presidential candidate in their attempt to dislodge the genocidal al-Bashir from power. The fact that President Kir [...]

• president tandja ousted in coup

  Posted: February 19, 2010, 3:04 am by kenopp

  Nigerien president Mamadou Tandja has been ousted in a military coup. An announcement on national radio stated that the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy was now in charge of the country. The council includes Col. Salou Djibo (the leader) and and four other colonels.The president and members of his cabinet are being held [...]

• the frutis of french meddling

  Posted: February 18, 2010, 7:53 pm by kenopp

  News reports indicate that the Nigerien leader is being held by soldiers in the capital in an apparent coup attempt. President Tandja recently extended his rule after the constitutionally mandated two term limit claiming that no one in Niger was good enough to replace him. He had French backing. The French are investing in a [...]

• the “brain drain” debate

  Posted: February 17, 2010, 10:37 am by kenopp

  The first time I saw this paper/chapter presented at a workshop last year it left me with more questions than answers. I have since been convinced. The paper makes intuitive sense. That said, I am still a little uneasy with some of the implications of the argument. For one, providing education with a foreign labor [...]

• raila-kibaki feud continues over corruption

  Posted: February 14, 2010, 9:00 pm by kenopp

  The events of Sunday morning exposed the illusion that Kibaki and Raila had decided to bury the hatchet and do what is right for the Republic. Earlier the Prime Minister had suspended Ministers William Ruto and Samuel Ongeri over graft in their respective ministries. But the President quickly followed with a press release saying that [...]

• intolerable intolerance

  Posted: February 13, 2010, 3:18 am by kenopp

  Church leaders, and their followers, should know that issues to do with the after-life need not necessarily be put before security, order in society, and general well being in the present.

• don’t forget about eastern congo

  Posted: February 11, 2010, 12:22 am by kenopp

  The DRC might have a space program, but don’t be fooled by this rather strange choice of resource allocation in a country of nearly 69 million souls and per capita income of US $300. All forms of atrocities still take place unabated in the eastern regions of the country. When will those with the ability [...]

• mandela’s dream deferred?

  Posted: February 11, 2010, 11:59 pm by kenopp

  South Africans marked the 20th anniversary of the release of President Mandela from prison by South Africa’s apartheid regime in 1990 with a lot of pomp and celebration. It goes without saying that President Nelson Mandela belongs in the pantheon of the great sons and daughters of the Continent, and indeed of the whole world. But [...]

• low grade anti-malarials found in a number of african countries

  Posted: February 9, 2010, 6:09 am by kenopp

  This might be why the last time I was down with malaria – back in the summer of 2007 in Uganda – none of the medication I got from a clinic in the capital Kampala helped me out. I had to go back home in Nairobi, Kenya before I got medication that completely cleared the [...]

• awkward…

  Posted: February 8, 2010, 10:50 pm by kenopp

  Kenyan Premier, Raila Odinga, continued his call for the resignation of Education Minister Sam Ongeri – this time in the presence of the latter at a function in Nairobi’s Upper Hill district. According to media reports, Prof. Ongeri’s ministry has been involved in a corruption scandal that robbed the country’s free primary education program of millions [...]

• only in Kenya: milk oversupply, even as some Kenyans starve

  Posted: February 4, 2010, 11:28 pm by kenopp

  So the government and dairy farmers are not too happy with the current milk oversupply. Prices have gone down dramatically due to the milk glut, causing farmers to want tighter regulation of the dairy industry to protect local dairy farmers. First of all, advocating for a contraction of the industry in order to boost prices is [...]

• addressing the political economy of conflicts

  Posted: February 3, 2010, 11:13 am by kenopp

  It is no secret that the war in eastern Congo is a resource war. Indeed most wars the world over have economic dimensions to them. Even rag tag Somalia must have people who are accruing economic benefits from the war. The pirates are certainly among this group. Global Witness, the British watchdog, has a report [...]

• a link that i liked

  Posted: February 2, 2010, 8:54 pm by kenopp

  One more case for why we should think of development and democracy in terms of statist/institutional solutions and not do-gooder initiatives. The game should be all about getting states to do what they are supposed to be doing, and not helping citizens exit the state, thereby even weakening the accountability channels between citizens and the [...]

• required reading for africa’s ruling elite

  Posted: February 2, 2010, 6:43 am by kenopp

  The discourse on Africa in the West (and elsewhere) is laden with a lot of offensive stuff. And the offensive stuff is not restricted to plebes in the streets or newspaper articles written by ill-informed correspondents. Even more informed people still lapse into the default way of conceptualizing Africa. It is not uncommon to hear [...]

• jacob zuma: why crash so soon?

  Posted: February 1, 2010, 5:14 am by kenopp

  Update: President Jacob Zuma agrees that he fathered a child out of wedlock with the 39 year-old daughter of one of his friends. Mr. Zuma is 67. In his statement the President said that he had done the “cultural imperative” of admitting to having fathered the child. A few suggestions for Mr. Zuma and those [...]

• kudos to the pharaohs

  Posted: February 1, 2010, 2:24 am by kenopp

  The Egyptian national football team beat their Ghanaian opponents 1-0 to win a record seventh title at the African Cup of Nations tournament in Angola. The Egyptians however did not qualify for the World Cup that will be held in June in South Africa, having lost to rivals Algeria in the qualifiers. Egypt beat Algeria [...]

• zuma defends polygamy at davos

  Posted: January 28, 2010, 7:53 pm by kenopp

  Yesterday South African president Jacob Zuma defended polygamy at Davos, adding that those who think their culture is superior have a problem. This is absolutely ridiculous. The fight against polygamy is not a cultural war. It is a war against the unfair treatment of women. It is very irresponsible of Mr. Zuma to set such a [...]

• in defense of swahili

  Posted: January 20, 2010, 5:16 am by kenopp

  Update: the ministry of education has disowned the directive discussed here. Apparently there are still a few sane people under Prof. Ongeri’s docket. Now if only they could also tell us where they took the free primary education money… When it comes to Swahili I suddenly go nationalist. I think there is something to be said [...]

• some good news from Guinea

  Posted: January 18, 2010, 10:16 am by kenopp

  Abubakar  Diakite, the guy who almost assassinated Guinean dictator Moussa Camara, should be handsomely rewarded. Well, unless he was actually responsible for the massacre of more than 150 pro-civilian-rule opposition protesters last year in which case he should be tried for crimes against humanity and locked away for life. Either way his actions may have [...]

• please do away with the “omnipresent smells of donkey dung”

  Posted: January 14, 2010, 3:23 am by kenopp

  Big business and economic development in “pristine lands” is awful. Especially if you grew up with the comforts of indoor plumbing and general over-abundance of the purest hedonistic-capitalist kind. It is only when you have the choice to pop in and out of “tropical obscurity” that you would find the intellectual courage to defend a [...]

• KENYAN MPS TO GET PAY HIKE

  Posted: January 7, 2010, 12:35 am by kenopp

  Can someone please tell me how these guys sleep at night given that they run a country with the following stats????? Infant mortality: 54.7 deaths/1,000 live births Life expectancy: 58 years Female literacy rate: 80% Urban population (crude measure of peasantry rate and level of industrialization): 22% of total population (2008) PER CAPITA GDP: $ 1,600 Posted in africa Tagged: Corruption, [...]

• so what exactly do they do at the AU? seriously

  Posted: January 7, 2010, 8:29 am by kenopp

  If the African Union has a PR section then they should all be fired. I am beginning to think that all they do at the AU is convene every year to elect the worst dictator among them as president – Gaddafi is the current president. Well, on top of issuing statements defending the actions of [...]

• more on economic development

  Posted: January 7, 2010, 8:05 am by kenopp

  In line with the theme of my previous post here is a link to Chris Blattman’s blog. This is the kind of stuff that should be bugging economic planners in capitals all over the Continent. How do we grow medium-sized to large corporations that are gonna create jobs? Of course corporations have problems too. But [...]

• jua kali will not take us where we want to go

  Posted: January 6, 2010, 11:57 am by kenopp

  Sometimes I wonder whether instead of the US paying the Ethiopians to invade Somalia it might have been better to have the Islamic Courts Union run the country. Well, at least for some time before incentivizing their being less predatory and misogynistic. Most politicians the world over have a price. Especially once they have tasted real power.

• Happy New Year!

  Posted: January 1, 2010, 4:34 pm by kenopp

  Happy New Year to all of you out there. Let’s start off the year by looking at the one thing that the Continent needs really badly: economic growth. Uganda’s New Vision reports that African business people have positive expectations for the new year. Responding to a survey by Africa Practice most of them believed that intra-continental [...]

• kcpe results: where are the girls?

  Posted: December 30, 2009, 3:27 am by kenopp

  This year’s KCPE results were released yesterday. As expected, girls beat boys (on average) in the languages. They however trailed in all the other subjects: mathematics, science, social studies and religious education. The top 100 lists in all the provinces were dominated by boys. It should disturb Kenyan educators that from a very early age [...]

• merry christmas and a happy new year to everyone!!

  Posted: December 23, 2009, 9:38 pm by kenopp

  It has been two years since I started this blog. I thank all my loyal readers and especially those who occasionally care to leave comments or send me emails with criticisms and corrections. I will be traveling over the next several days so I might not be able to post anything until after January 3rd. Merry [...]

• kibaki should not waste this opportunity to punish corruption

  Posted: December 21, 2009, 10:43 pm by kenopp

  The Kenyan Education Minister Prof. Sam Ongeri is not among the big fish in Kenyan politics. Neither are his assistant and the Ministry’s permanent secretary. Firing them and making them face the law will not have any awful political consequences for the president and his non-existent party. But it will serve Kenya. I think that [...]

• Kenyan insanity

  Posted: December 19, 2009, 1:58 am by kenopp

  How is this even imaginable in a country where millions are faced with starvation and an annual income per capita of under $ 2000??? The Kenyan political class should be ashamed of itself. Posted in africa Tagged: Corruption, Kenya, Kibaki, land grabbing, Mau, Moi, Raila

• the world cup draws

  Posted: December 4, 2009, 9:46 pm by kenopp

  South Africa (Group A) get Mexico, Uruguay and France Cote d’Ivoire (Group G) get Portugal, North Korea and Brazil Ghana (Group D) get Germany, Australia and Serbia Cameroon (Group E) get Netherlands, Denmark and Japan Nigeria (Group B) get Argentina, Greece and South Korea Algeria (Group C) get England, the US and Slovenia All the groups look good for the African [...]

• people don’t go to war because they are poor

  Posted: December 3, 2009, 10:49 pm by kenopp

  Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa, yeah right.

• the definition of travesty

  Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:10 pm by kenopp

  This is a travesty…   Posted in africa

• the democratic republic of congo, what a mess

  Posted: November 25, 2009, 11:36 am by kenopp

  "There is ..... creeping warlordism. Local army commanders are taxing timber, charcoal, tomatoes, anything that passes through their roadblocks, making $250,000 a month, the report said. Commanders are even conscripting civilians to haul wood through the forest, reminiscent of the Belgian colonial days when pith-helmeted officers whipped Congolese porters with hippopotamus hide."-- The New York Times

• climate change madness, and bad research

  Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:26 am by kenopp

  we should save the environment or else the Africans will kill themselves. This is what I call a heap of horse manure.

• mbeki’s legacy

  Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:09 am by kenopp

  Partial results of Thabo Mbeki’s beetroot response to the South African AIDS epidemic are out. Life expectancy in South Africa declined between 1990-2007 (from 62 to 50). It is expected to decline even further over the next few years. Read more about this here. It is worth noting that the new South African administration took an [...]

• keeping them honest, Aid Watch style

  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:13 pm by kenopp

  For those into famines and famine politics, here’s one for you… And more of the same And here is more news on Ethiopia’s second insurgency waged by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). The Oromo Liberation Front in the southern parts of the country is the other major thorn in Addis Ababa’s flesh. For a man into [...]

• football hooligans and diplomacy

  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:05 pm by kenopp

  Both Egyptian and Algerian officials could have been classier in handling the mess that has resulted from their rivalry on the field. The two national football teams were competing for the last African slot in next year’s world cup in South Africa. Egypt won the second leg in Cairo, resulting in a deadlock in the [...]

• my two cents on the new constitution

  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:27 am by kenopp

  What I liked: The bicameral parliament. It is expensive but will serve to give the regions a voice. The regional governments. Great idea, but how are they going to be funded? I would have loved it if there was a provision that each region should generate enough revenue to fund a fixed percentage of its [...]

• obscene, utterly obscene

  Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:42 am by kenopp

  Stories like this drive me crazy. Quoting the Guardian Newspaper: “Little Teodoro, as President Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s son is known at home, appears to spend as little time as possible fulfilling his duties as the minister of agriculture and forestry in the west African state. Instead he flits between South Africa, France and the US, pursuing [...]

• kenya’s new constitution, who will pay for it?

  Posted: November 17, 2009, 12:36 pm by kenopp

  The document is here... 290 members of parliament. 100 Senators. Several regions and more than 70 counties. These are among the new burdens that will be added onto the load currently weighing down the Kenyan taxpayer. The draft constitution released today also proposes an executive Premier and dual citizenship. 390 elected legislators is a bit too much, [...]

• stop the blame game and move on

  Posted: November 14, 2009, 10:58 pm by kenopp

  I am no apologist for colonialism. I am also not a fan of blaming everything on colonialism. Arbitrary borders, neocolonialism, assassination of presidents, unfair farm subsidies etc etc are the usual things we hear as explanations to why most of Africa remains economically backward. I say it has been more than 50 years and its [...]

• what can ocampo do?

  Posted: November 5, 2009, 4:27 am by kenopp

  Chief prosecutor of the ICC – Moreno-Ocampo – jets into Kenya on Thursday in his efforts to bring to justice those who planned and financed the murder of over 1300 Kenyans in last year’s post-election violence. It is not clear exactly what Ocampo will demand of the president and his premier. Both men have close [...]

• internally displaced people in Africa

  Posted: October 30, 2009, 6:39 am by kenopp

  “There are other questions too. Should IDPs stay in rural areas or be resettled in towns? Providing the right amount of assistance is tricky as well. Too much, and an African government risks turning camps into subsidised slums. Too little, and people die.” The above quote is from this weeks Economist Newspaper. As I have argued [...]

• malaria is still around, you know

  Posted: October 28, 2009, 9:46 pm by kenopp

  Researchers have discovered a trend in the habits of mosquitoes. The little insects are feeding on human blood earlier than they used to. This means that more and more people get bitten earlier in the evening before they get to sleep under bed nets – which in turn translates into higher malaria infection rates. Bed [...]

• where is Nkunda?

  Posted: October 26, 2009, 8:41 pm by kenopp

  Laurent Nkunda remains imprisoned in Rwanda – at least as far as a google search can tell. This even as his minions – or have they taken over already, given the fractious nature of rebel movements on the Continent? – who have been integrated into the Congolese army issued a warning that they are going [...]

• Marende needs to do more

  Posted: October 25, 2009, 10:31 am by kenopp

  Kenyan parliamentarians are the highest paid in Africa. Indeed, the 222 members of the August House make more than US senators do in a year. Quite a job they have. All they have to do now is do their job right. According to a Parliamentary Powers Index the Kenyan parliament has a score of 31%. The [...]

• sunday editorials that I liked

  Posted: October 25, 2009, 4:39 am by kenopp

  As usual, Mutahi Ngunyi has a provocative piece in the Sunday Nation. I am sort of sympathetic to his idea of ethnic suicide (by which he means dumping ethnic identities and what they stand for) – I was in Eldoret and Timboroa for two days this summer and saw with my own eyes the fruits [...]

• where are the african governments in this debate?

  Posted: October 23, 2009, 1:49 am by kenopp

  I am a regular reader of Bill Easterly’s Aid Watch blog. I like his skepticism with regard to the efficacy of aid in the developing world. But every time I read something by him I am always left wondering; what do African finance ministers’ think? I would appreciate having some opinions from the people he [...]

• a case of gross state incompetence?

  Posted: October 23, 2009, 12:50 am by kenopp

  Amos Wako should resign. Together with Keriako Tobiko. I used to think that the latter was dedicated to true justice but it turns out that he is also beholden to powerful individuals within Kenya’s upper class and emerging thuggish new upper class. All I have to say is that this is a sign of gross state [...]

• lessons not learned

  Posted: October 22, 2009, 12:00 pm by kenopp

  It has been 25 years since the 1984-85 Ethiopian famine that inspired Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to write the song do they know it’s christmas? The Ethiopian government is marking the anniversary in the most appropriate way: by appealing for food aid from the international community to assist the more than 6.2 million of [...]

• celebrating kenyatta day

  Posted: October 20, 2009, 2:17 pm by kenopp

  Macharia Gaitho has a rather hard hitting editorial piece in the Daily Nation today. His rather utopian idealization of the revolutionary Kenyan peasantry aside (they are very complicit in the creation of the mess that is Kenya today), I think he raises some serious questions that the country – and especially the ruling class – [...]

• there is no worthy ex-president in Africa, at least not this year

  Posted: October 19, 2009, 11:08 pm by kenopp

  The Mo Ibrahim award goes to no one this year. The award is intended for former African presidents that have shown good leadership by peacefully relinquishing power and then doing some good after that (mediating a conflict or facilitating dialogue over disputed elections and what not). It’s a $ 5 million award for the first [...]

• guinea-bissau has no prisons??

  Posted: October 19, 2009, 10:26 am by kenopp

  IRIN reports that Guinea-Bissau has no prisons. Yes, seriously. A “sovereign” state in 2009 has no formal prisons. According to the US State Department the Guinea-Bissau government detains suspects in make-shift detention centres and military bases. Don’t you wish it was 1894 and it was still cool to move into Bissau and change things a bit? [...]

• of african IDPs

  Posted: October 19, 2009, 10:14 am by kenopp

  I could not miss the irony. African leaders will be gathered in Kampala, Uganda (19th – 23rd Oct.) to come up with a mechanism to protect the more than 11 million internally displaced people (IDPs) on the Continent. IRIN touts this as a landmark move. But I beg to ask the question: Is anyone asking [...]

• i still don’t get how the church justifies this

  Posted: October 18, 2009, 8:28 am by kenopp

  The Catholic Church, among other churches, continues to be opposed to birth control measures that also help in the prevention of AIDS. This is such a disappointment. Millions of people have died from the disease since its emergence in the 1980s. Currently there are more than 20 million infected people on the Continent, and 11 [...]

• what ali ben bongo owes gabon

  Posted: October 17, 2009, 8:41 am by kenopp

  His father ruled Gabon, an oil and timber rich nation of 1.4 million, for 42 years. The elder Bongo passed away this year and was succeeded by his son Ali Ben after a disputed election. Nobody really expected things to turn out otherwise. That said, one hopes that Ali Ben will feel the need to make [...]

• this has got to have been the most stupid law ever

  Posted: October 14, 2009, 7:11 pm by kenopp

  You can stop wondering what Nigerian law-makers had in mind when they passed this law. And in other news, Luis Moreno-Ocampo the Argentine chief prosecutor of ICC is due in Kenya in the next few weeks. Watch this space. This is gonna be interesting, both from a comparative politics and international relations perspective. Posted in africa [...]

• Defending Nairobi

  Posted: October 12, 2009, 9:21 am by kenopp

  The New York Times has a story on the security situation in Nairobi. In the interest of full disclosure, Nairobi is my home town. I was there this summer and would like to point out – just for the record – that although Nairobi may not be the safest place in the world, it is [...]

• something awesome from JKUAT

  Posted: October 9, 2009, 5:10 am by kenopp

  The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology has an awesome blog. Check it out. Posted in africa

• the ostrich way is the wrong way

  Posted: October 8, 2009, 11:29 pm by kenopp

  Agriculture minister William Ruto (the de facto political leader of the Rift Valley Province) has dismissed reports of an ethnic arms race in his backyard as mere rumors. George Saitoti, the minister for internal security has equally dismissed the same reports. I understand that the government is trying to show that it is in charge and [...]

• kenyan ethnic groups arming ahead of 2012

  Posted: October 7, 2009, 8:28 am by kenopp

  I just read this on the BBC and can’t stop wishing that it is all hype. The report quotes a number of Kenyans – mostly from the Rift Valley – who seem to be acknowledging that segments of the Kenyan population are arming ahead of the 2012 elections. And this time round instead of machetes [...]

• top genocidaire arrested

  Posted: October 6, 2009, 11:02 pm by kenopp

  The BBC reports that a former Rwandan intelligence chief suspected to have been responsible for the drawing up of death lists (including more proximately, the murder of a Tutsi queen) has been arrested in Uganda. I remain impressed by the efficacy of the UN tribunal on the Rwandan genocide in getting those that planned the [...]

• Posted in africa ...

  Posted: October 4, 2009, 11:46 am by kenopp

  Posted in africa

• guineans have to elect Camara, or else…

  Posted: October 2, 2009, 5:35 am by kenopp

  Speaking to a French radio station Moussa Camara (junior officer who now leads the military junta in Guinea that just killed over 157 people this past week) intimated that the country was in danger of experiencing another military coup were he to step down. This by extension means that the country will experience a military [...]

• ringera calls it quits

  Posted: September 30, 2009, 12:34 am by kenopp

  I just watched a clip on the Nation’s website showing the press conference at which outgoing director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, retired judge Ringera announced his departure from Integrity Centre. I don’t understand exactly why it took him so long to see the sense in doing this.The clip also hinted at rumors that Ringera [...]

• on american involvement in Kenya

  Posted: September 29, 2009, 10:12 pm by kenopp

  Macharia Gaitho, one of my favorite columnists at The Daily Nation captured my exact sentiments in his column today. I hope the American ambassador in Nairobi, and whoever it is that briefs Washington on matters Kenyan took note of this piece. And in other news, Guinea has serious problems. The junior army officer who took over  [...]

• marriage bill needs improvement

  Posted: September 28, 2009, 1:00 am by kenopp

  The Kenyan cabinet is planning on introducing a bill that will seek to set the record straight when it comes to marriages. People who cohabit under come-we-stay arrangements for up to two years will be considered married under the law. Forced wife inheritance will be outlawed. Marriage while under the age of 18 will be [...]

• more on cannibalism, this time from the Congo

  Posted: September 22, 2009, 12:52 pm by kenopp

  If you thought that the Economist’s mention of cannibalism in Africa was a rare exception, think again. The Independent, an Irish paper, just ran a story with the headline “We can’t abandon Africa to cannibalism and genocide.” This is in reaction to details out of the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Congolese warlord, at the [...]

• links that I liked

  Posted: September 21, 2009, 12:32 pm by kenopp

  Taking a break from Collier and Hoeffler and Crawford Young (and into my third cup of tea for the night) I came across the following links… William Easterly has his usual skepticism when it comes to practitioner-certainty in the field of Economics. How I wish I had time to read the two books he is banging [...]

• cannibals in zimbabwe?

  Posted: September 19, 2009, 8:03 am by kenopp

  It is sad that Mugabe's illegal (and at times murderous) repossession of land in the country has overshadowed the real land problem in Zimbabwe - to the extent that even a somewhat respected newspaper like the Economist feels no shame in allowing the woefully subliminally racist line like the one quoted above in its pages.

• subsidiary of british firm suspends ore imports from congo

  Posted: September 19, 2009, 7:02 am by kenopp

  It is not a secret that the war in eastern DRC is more than anything else economic. The trade in charcoal and a litany of minerals has forever been blamed for the conflict that has killed, maimed or displaced millions of Congolese. It is therefore encouraging to learn that Thailand Smelting and Refining Co. (Thaisarco), [...]

• more on the Mang’eli saga

  Posted: September 18, 2009, 1:08 am by kenopp

  It is now emerging that the Kenya Bureau of Standards MD, Kioko Mang’eli, falsified information while petitioning for a salary increase. The embattled director was asking for a salary hike from 480,000 shillings a month to 1.07 million. His reason was that he had contributed to the financial stability of the bureau of standards by [...]

• shame on the Ivorian government

  Posted: September 17, 2009, 9:28 am by kenopp

  The BBC has this really sad story about the dumping of chemicals in Abidjan, Ivory Coast by Trafigura, an oil trading company. The story reveals that the company  knew about the harmful effects of the chemicals. Internal emails contained messages like: “This operation is no longer allowed in the European Union, the United States and Singapore” it [...]

• it is time more districts translated into wider taxation

  Posted: September 17, 2009, 5:08 am by kenopp

  President Kibaki has created about 180 districts over the last 6 years. The logic behind the creation of the many districts, according to the president and his men, has been that there is a need to bring government services closer to the people. One obvious question then is what government services? Are we talking about [...]

• more reasons why Mang’eli should go home

  Posted: September 15, 2009, 1:58 am by kenopp

  Related to the previous post, here is Jaindi Kisero’s piece in the Daily Nation shedding some light on the validity of the sacking of Kioko Mang’eli, the former boss of the Kenya Bureau of Standards. And in other news, where is the East African Standard? I keep being redirected to this website that says that the [...]

• Kalonzo disappoints, again

  Posted: September 15, 2009, 6:57 am by kenopp

  Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka is an embarrassment to Kenya. It is most disturbing when someone of his stature decides to play the ethnic card over the sacking of a government employee (In this case Dr. Eng. Kioko Mang’eli, former MD of the Kenya Bureau of Standards). I mean he is the Vice President of the Republic [...]

• comparative development…

  Posted: September 12, 2009, 10:34 pm by kenopp

  William Easterly has this neat collection of pics to show just how badly Africa is doing in many sectors compared to the rest of the world. The Continent’s share of global trade is a paltry 2%. In the 1960’s Africa’s share of world exports was 3%. By the 1990s the same had declined to 1%. [...]

• some good and bad news

  Posted: September 11, 2009, 1:05 am by kenopp

  The good news first. According to UNICEF, the global under five mortality dropped by about 28% between 1990 and 2008. In other words, 10,000 less children are dying daily worldwide than was the case in 1990. But that is as good as it gets. The sorry fact is that millions of children under the age of [...]

• Ali’s exit was long overdue

  Posted: September 8, 2009, 1:56 am by kenopp

  In an ideal world the ranking of an institution as the most corrupt in a country is enough reason for the head of that institution to resign or initiate radical reforms to mitigate the situation. But this has never been true for the Kenya Police Force. Every year,  the Kenya Police Force has emerged as [...]

• gettleman does it again

  Posted: September 8, 2009, 8:02 am by kenopp

  Do not get me wrong. Jeffrey Gettleman’s story on the famine in Kenya is as important as any other article on a humanitarian disaster. It is his delivery that sucks. In typical Gettleman fashion (more about his style here and here), the article is full of sensationalism that does not belong in the Times. He [...]

• africa’s population – the economist’s view

  Posted: August 28, 2009, 3:45 pm by kenopp

  The Economist has two interesting pieces on the demographic trends in Africa. The first article notes that the fertility rates on the continent are finally beginning to come down. The second one discusses the chances that Africa will take advantage of the democratic dividend and execute its own green revolution. As I have argued before, there [...]

• will agriculture save africa?

  Posted: August 28, 2009, 1:02 pm by kenopp

  The Atlantic Monthly has a piece on the looming global food crisis – the world population is set to hit over 9 billion by 2050 while grain yields have not been increasing at the rates they used to in the latter decades of the 20th century (Will Malthus ever be right? God forbid!). The article posits [...]

• a comic about uganda’s lra

  Posted: August 27, 2009, 3:38 pm by kenopp

  I just started reading this comic about the LRA in northern Uganda. Check it out if you have some spare time. Posted in africa Tagged: DC COMICS, gulu, Joseph Kony, lord's resistance army, Uganda

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes