Items by kenopp

Opalo's weblog

• Potholes potholes potholes!

  Posted: September 1, 2010, 11:58 pm by kenopp

  It is a key road that links western Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and the eastern DRC to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. But the state of the Kisumu-Busia “highway” does not exemplify its economic importance to the wider east African region.  Potholes, dangerously narrow stretches, and encroachment by vendors are some of the many things that [...]

• Drinking their savings and lives away

  Posted: September 1, 2010, 11:51 pm by kenopp

  Rural (western) Kenya has a drinking problem. I base this conclusion on three weeks of traveling in and around Siaya. From Bondo to Ugunja, Siaya town to Rabar trading centre, men start drinking from as early as ten in the morning. They call it “kustuwa kichwa” (loosely translates to jumpstarting the mind). East African Breweries [...]

• jkia has free internet!

  Posted: September 1, 2010, 11:41 pm by kenopp

  The last time I had free wireless at an airport was in Hartford, Connecticut. I am therefore absolutely delighted to be able to blog as I wait for my flight to London tonight. I am not looking forward to the long hours in pressurized steel tubes – as one of my pals calls them – [...]

• back in business…

  Posted: August 30, 2010, 10:33 am by kenopp

  Dear readers, sorry for the long silence. I blame it on the super-slow internet connectivity offered by Safaricom in western Kenyan. Back here in Nairobi things are a bit more normal. Over the next few days I shall post a series of blogs that I wrote but never published for one reason or another. As [...]

• kenya’s referendum update

  Posted: August 4, 2010, 11:59 pm by kenopp

  Provisional results indicate that 67% of Kenyans voted in favor of the proposed draft constitution. In all provinces but the Rift Valley and Eastern, Kenyans voted overwhelmingly in favor of the document. Rift Valley saw the stiffest opposition to the new constitution, recording a 62% NO vote. This was however expected since the regional political [...]

• airports airports

  Posted: July 31, 2010, 10:47 pm by kenopp

  Yours truly is about to embark on a much awaited summer vacation back home. Nothing beats the annual summer trip back to the bustle of Nairobi and weekend trips to my “ancestral homeland” of Siaya. The only difference is that unlike back in my undergrad days this time vacation doesn’t really mean no work. Grad [...]

• do not miss out on this…

  Posted: July 29, 2010, 5:21 am by kenopp

  Happening on Blattman’s Blog. In addition to the many foreign experts who are being asked to please stand up, I add, would the real eastern Congolese also please stand up and weigh in on this debate? Also, Texas in Africa has a number of posts on minerals and conflict in the eastern DRC to mark [...]

• really Mr. Moi, really?

  Posted: July 29, 2010, 5:12 am by kenopp

  So when the former president runs around Kenya being characteristically anti-reform by campaigning against the proposed constitution and claiming that "I was not a dictator. People wanted peace" we can only sit back and ask: really Mr. Moi, really? Wazee wengine wanazunguka wakisema katiba ni mbaya

• au sending more troops to somalia, defends Sudan’s al-Bashir

  Posted: July 27, 2010, 7:39 am by kenopp

  The African Union Summit in Uganda resolved to send an additional 2000 troops to Somalia. 5000 Ugandan and Burundian troops are already stationed in Mogadishu to prop up the beleaguered transitional government. The same summit resolution also sought to change the rules of engagement to allow AU troops to preemptively attack suspected terrorist al-Shabab strongholds. [...]

• southern sudan

  Posted: July 26, 2010, 9:21 am by kenopp

  As the January 9th, 2011 referendum draws closer the international community is getting concerned about the consequences of Southern Sudanese independence. Many fear that the north, led by the strongman Omar al-Bashir, will not honor the CPA and let the Southerners go. Southern stability is also a concern. Once in the early 1990s the SPLA/M [...]

• sunday roundup

  Posted: July 25, 2010, 10:44 pm by kenopp

  Easterly goes to church in Ghana. This post has pictures on some interesting way to use bed nets…. It seems like the only way we shall ever eliminate malaria on the Continent is by getting rid of all the mosquitoes. Other tropical places have done it. Why can’t it be done on the Continent, at [...]

• quick hits

  Posted: July 23, 2010, 11:39 pm by kenopp

  This is progress. I hope PLO does not go the way of most idealists and get sucked into the vortex that is Kenya’s corruption and patronage networks. Relatedly, the latest TI ratings suggest that corruption may have declined a tiny bit in Kenya. Rwanda still leads the pack as the least corrupt country in the [...]

• hapa na pale (here and there)

  Posted: July 22, 2010, 9:24 am by kenopp

  Bankelele has a nice post on medical investment in East Africa. For the business-minded, here is one more reason for Kenyans to vote YES in the August 4th referendum for a new constitution. I remain apprehensive about the size of government that will result from a victory for the YES camp. But as a student [...]

• Paul Kagame: Rwanda’s “savior” turned despot

  Posted: July 21, 2010, 11:37 am by kenopp

  Rwandans go to the polls on August 9th. There are no prizes for guessing who the winner will be. President Paul Kagame, who is credited by most to have ended the Rwandan genocide in 1994, has recently had to resort to his darker tendencies to continue his stay in power, even as he walks the [...]

• Happy Birthday Madiba!

  Posted: July 19, 2010, 5:51 am by kenopp

  Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is 92 today. To mark the occasion scores across the world will celebrate the Nelson Mandela Day, created in honor of Madiba’s service to humanity. The man surely has a special place in the pantheon of the greatest sons and daughters of the Continent who ever lived. Happy Birthday Madiba! Filed under: [...]

• is france messing up africa?

  Posted: July 14, 2010, 11:17 pm by kenopp

  Elizabeth Dickinson at FP asks. Whatever the answer might be one thing is clear: France still has commercial and geopolitical interests in French-speaking Africa and would love to maintain close ties with the region, even if it means propping up misguided dictators who buy homes in the French Riviera while their own people starve. The [...]

• a very nigerian affair

  Posted: July 14, 2010, 9:57 am by kenopp

  The BBC reports that the Nigerian state owned oil company (NNPC) is insolvent, with a US $ 5 billion debt. Most of the money ($ 3b) is owed to the Federation Account a lootable cash cow that distributes money to different levels of government within the Nigerian state. The country is divided into 36 states [...]

• Sudan’s president bashir charged with genocide, icc issues new arrest warrant

  Posted: July 12, 2010, 7:47 pm by kenopp

  President Omar al-Bashir just won’t shake the ICC off. The strongman of Khartoum already has an arrest warrant with his name on it for war crimes and crimes against humanity. To this the international criminal court has added three counts of genocide, the most serious charge in international law. It is interesting to see how [...]

• Mwakwere seeks to retain seat in matuga by-election

  Posted: July 12, 2010, 10:19 am by kenopp

  Latest: The Daily Nation reports that former Kenyan Transport Minister Ali Chirau Mwakwere has been re-elected as member of parliament for Matuga. Mr. Mwakwere will probably be reinstated as Transport Minister by President Kibaki. The Matuga by-election was occasioned by a court order that annulled Mwakwere’s initial election in the 2007 general election. Update: Mwakwere [...]

• al-shabaab may be linked to kampala blasts

  Posted: July 12, 2010, 5:39 am by kenopp

  UPDATE: The daily nation reports that Somalia’s insurgent group al-Shabab has claimed the bombings that killed dozens in Kampala yesterday. The Atlantic’s Max Fisher offers an interesting analysis of the bombings. Blasts in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, killed at least 64, the BBC reports. According to the report Ugandan security forces suspect that the bomb attacks [...]

• demographic transition in kenya, signs of hope

  Posted: July 10, 2010, 1:47 am by kenopp

  Kenyan women, on average, still have a staggering 4.6 children in their lifetime, down from 4.9 in 2003. One Mr. Omwenga – a public health administrator – says that part of the problem is polygyny, which at 13% is still a too-common-for-comfort practice in most of rural, poorer and more Islamized parts of Kenya. Mr. [...]

• Urban Poverty

  Posted: July 8, 2010, 11:38 pm by kenopp

  This is the kind of story that makes you sick in the stomach. The story is about the plight of women in Nairobi’s slums and focuses on one Ms Kambura: In 2006, she was gang-raped by four men who infected her with the Aids virus, hardy 100 metres from her one-room home. She had gone [...]

• food for thought…

  Posted: July 7, 2010, 8:38 pm by kenopp

  The Economist reports a scientific finding that links nutrition and disease burden to human intelligence. The findings add to the development debate by suggesting that disease burden, through its effect on brain development, is a significant predictor of a country’s average intelligence level and that this in turn may explain endemic underdevelopment within the tropics. [...]

• Kenyan politicians’ pay

  Posted: July 5, 2010, 12:21 am by kenopp

  The Economist has a graph comparing politicians’ pay across the globe. After the new emoluments that parliament unanimously adopted last week, Kenya’s crop of thieves poles, and on this list the Prime Minister, would rank at the very top. Shame shame shame. Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and the Prime Minister himself are on record as [...]

• three cheers to gettleman and his ilk

  Posted: July 1, 2010, 12:56 am by kenopp

  I am on record as being very critical of Jeffrey Gettleman, the New York Times bureau chief for eastern Africa. His sensational reporting from the region has oftentimes painted a one dimensional picture of events and portrayed east Africans as irrational and passive beings at the mercy of fate, and their sadistic rulers. That said, [...]

• failed states panel

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 11:32 pm by kenopp

  FP has a live stream discussion on the issue of failed states. Catch it here Update: Texas in Africa has a post on the conflict in eastern Congo. Filed under: africa Tagged: Bukavu, drc, eastern Congo, Kigoma, Kivu, lake kivu, lubumbashi, Nkunda, north kivu, Texas in Africa, Zaire

• The DRC is 50 today

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 11:16 pm by kenopp

  The Democratic Republic of Congo is 50 years old. The last 50 years (after they killed Lumumba) have been absolutely disastrous for this vast country in the middle of the Continent; Independence merely replaced the brutality, cruelty and pillage of King Leopold’s men (King Albert II attended the independence day “festivities”) with the brutality and [...]

• Kenyan MPs raise their salaries, again

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 10:13 pm by kenopp

  Being a member of parliament in Kenya is one of the most lucrative jobs on the Continent. The men and women of the August house unanimously voted to raise their salaries to US $174, 400 a year – which puts them at par with what US congressmen make. Most of this money will not be [...]

• economic history… and some people’s lived experience

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 7:17 am by kenopp

  I am currently doing some research on the economic history of medieval Europe and came across an interesting quote from one Francesco Guicciar commenting on 16th century Spain: ... poverty is great here, and I believe it is due not so much to the quality of the country as to the nature of the Spaniards, [...]

• Raila hospitalized

  Posted: June 29, 2010, 11:50 am by kenopp

  Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been hospitalized, apparently due to fatigue. The 65 year-old Mr. Odinga has no publicly known health condition except for his eye problems that have seen him take several trips to Germany for treatment. His aides say that Mr. Odinga will be confined to bed rest for a few days. [...]

• Obiang is back in the news

  Posted: June 29, 2010, 9:19 am by kenopp

  The diminutive dictator Brig. Gen. (ret.) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of  Equatorial Guinea since 1979, is back in the news. After the UNESCO fiasco which nearly earned him the title of clown of the month of June Obiang is back again in the news, this time with an American PR agent. The Times reports [...]

• Paul Kagame: clown of the month

  Posted: June 25, 2010, 6:28 pm by kenopp

  He is credited for ending the Rwandan genocide. For some time in his presidency he was the regional darling of donors and newsroom editors, being touted as one of the new class of pliable autocrats responsible leaders that were poised to drag the Continent out of abject mediocrity. But absolute power corrupts absolutely. Events like [...]

• the political economy of food aid

  Posted: June 25, 2010, 8:42 am by kenopp

  Aid Watch has a piece on this very important subject, check it out. Other stories worth checking out this Friday include Jina Moore’s and the IRIN piece on the food situation in the Sahel. Filed under: africa Tagged: agribusiness, Burkina Faso, Central Africa Republic, Chad, food aid, IRIN News, iron triangle, Jian Moore, Jina Moore, [...]

• populism gone mad

  Posted: June 23, 2010, 10:44 pm by kenopp

  The Kenyan parliament today passed a law that empowers the finance minister to fix prices of “essential goods” in an effort to tame unscrupulous traders who exploit wananchi with arbitrary price hikes. That is the story the sponsors of the bill want us to believe. Trade Minister Amos Kimunya has criticized the bill as a [...]

• failed states index

  Posted: June 22, 2010, 10:02 pm by kenopp

  Foreign Policy, in its July/August issue has 2010′s failed states index. The Continent has 12 of the top 20 worst performers on this index, with Somalia, Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe and the DRC being in the top five respectively. Kenya is 13th on this index, performing worse than Niger, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, among other basket [...]

• the state of the kenyan education system

  Posted: June 22, 2010, 5:17 am by kenopp

  The state of the Kenyan education system is appalling. Read more here. Buried in the said report is Kenya’s shameful legacy of regional disparities in the provision of public goods, including education, security and healthcare. Peripheral and frontier areas such as Western Kenya, the Coast Provinve and the arid north seem to be particularly disfavored. [...]

• “the town seemed to exist only for sickness and death”

  Posted: June 21, 2010, 4:31 pm by kenopp

  Time has this story about the “most malarial town on earth,” Apac in Uganda. The pictures tell it all, life in Apac appears to be singularly harsh. The story also reports that malaria steals away 1.3 percentage points off Africa’s annual growth rate. It is encouraging, though, to know that the fight to eradicate malaria [...]

• legislators’ salaries

  Posted: June 21, 2010, 5:24 am by kenopp

  Annual compensation of members of parliament in US dollars: Nigeria 224,000 United States 174,000 Kenya 157,000 South Africa 66,080 Uganda 39,960 Ghana 33,120 The disparities are mind-boggling. It is a shame really that Nigerian parliamentarians should be making the kind of money they make, given the level of their per capita GDP. Ditto the Kenyans. [...]

• the world cup

  Posted: June 19, 2010, 1:02 am by kenopp

  African football is on the ropes. Of the six teams in the tournament in South Africa only Ghana has managed a victory, and even that only through a penalty kick. With Cameroon out (they crashed out today against an arguably weaker Danish team) the best African team in the tournament is Cote d’Ivoire. But the [...]

• William Easterly’s Burden

  Posted: June 18, 2010, 12:52 am by kenopp

  William Easterly continues his great crusade against the development establishment. I like his pitch for spontaneous development, but I remain skeptical of his quick dismissal of the role of the state in African development for two reasons: 1. The rest of the world has a massive head start which means that if the African entrepreneur [...]

• great idea

  Posted: June 17, 2010, 12:32 am by kenopp

  African nations have finally woken up to the threat of the ever advancing Sahara. The “great green wall of Africa” will be several kilometres wide and stretch from Senegal to Djibouti. Whoever is funding this project should condition cash transfers on need level (aridity, terrain and what not) so we can have a way of [...]

• everyone is under the law

  Posted: June 16, 2010, 7:11 pm by kenopp

  It is kind of nice to be reminded that in a democracy nobody should be above the law. The pictures of sitting members of parliament, one of them an assistant minister, arraigned in court on charges of incitement are definitely refreshing. In other news, a reminder that parts of the Continent still have the sort [...]

• nairobi blasts were grenade attacks

  Posted: June 14, 2010, 1:02 am by kenopp

  The Daily Nation reports that the blasts at a “NO” rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi were caused by grenades. This confirms Kenyans’ worst fear – that the explosions were not accidents but an organized attack on those opposed to the draft constitution. One hopes that Kenyan politicians will be sober-minded as the relevant authorities investigate [...]

• five dead in Nairobi blasts

  Posted: June 14, 2010, 3:45 am by kenopp

  Explosions hit a NO rally in Nairobi Sunday evening. The rally was attended by those opposed to the proposed constitution. The authorities have not yet released any information on whether they have leads to who might be behind the blasts. This is a worrying occurrence, given the goings on in Somalia. I hope the blasts [...]

• Links I liked

  Posted: June 8, 2010, 9:32 pm by kenopp

  A nice piece by Moussa Blimpo on Aid Watch highlights the urgent need to improve general conditions at African universities. On a related note, I totally agree with Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda’s position that Aid should be more targeted – and perhaps at times even to the middle class – if it is to make [...]

• sad sad story

  Posted: June 5, 2010, 10:55 am by kenopp

  A while back I posted something on Sierra Leone’s shocking maternal mortality stats. This week TIME magazine has this sad piece on Mamma Sessay, an 18 year old Sierra Leonean woman who died during childbirth. The images could have been a little bit more respectful (there is a little too much poorism involved for my [...]

• i like this idea…

  Posted: June 1, 2010, 8:13 am by kenopp

  Sleepless in Kenya has started this possibly 42-part series on Kenya’s many ethnic groups. Check it out here. Filed under: africa Tagged: Kenya's 42 tribes, Kenya's ethnic groups, sleepless in Kenya

• comparative child mortality stats, and other news

  Posted: May 30, 2010, 11:54 pm by kenopp

  The Continent still lags the rest of the world in the effort to reduce child mortality. Malaria and GI related illnesses (due to unclean water and what not) are still the number one killers of children in Africa. For more on the child mortality stats see Aidwatch. In other news, IRIN reports that “Humanitarian officials [...]

• it was never going to be an easy ride

  Posted: May 30, 2010, 7:10 am by kenopp

  The two decade-old clamour for a new constitution in Kenya has not been an easy ride. One is reminded of the saba saba rallies from the early 1990s. Most vivid of all was the shocking image of Rev. Timothy Njoya being clobbered by armed police men. Then came the Bomas constitutional conference under the NARC [...]

• clown of the month

  Posted: May 26, 2010, 1:47 am by kenopp

  The Zim ambassador to Washington has inspired me to begin a new monthly post titled Clown of the Month. His embarrassing actions at a recent dinner event are beyond madness. For having embarrassed not just Zim but the entire Continent with his unrestrained provincialism I hereby declare Ambassador H.E. Machivenyika Mapuranga Clown of the Month. [...]

• happy africa day!

  Posted: May 25, 2010, 9:53 pm by kenopp

  Pan-Africanism may still be infeasible but the dream lives on. Kudos to Nyerere, Kenyatta, Nkrumah and all the other members of the Continental Pantheon who dreamed of uniting all the peoples of the Continent into one political community.

• Quick hits

  Posted: May 25, 2010, 5:09 am by kenopp

  No surprises in the Ethiopian elections. Sunday’s elections most certainly resulted in a mandate for Meles Zenawi. It still will be interesting though to know how many seats the opposition won. Final results are not out yet. In other news, the junta in Niger has decided that future presidential candidates must have university degrees. Don’t [...]

• 27-year old mother of nine, and four months pregnant

  Posted: May 20, 2010, 11:16 am by kenopp

  It is no secret that if standards of living are to improve on the Continent the rate of economic growth must outstrip that of the population. Sadly, Africa’s demographic transition continues to be a dream deferred. High (gendered) illiteracy rates, ignorance about (and church opposition to) contraceptives, antiquated cultural practices, among other things continue to [...]

• all systems go for kenyan referendum

  Posted: May 17, 2010, 8:50 pm by kenopp

  Kenyans have the chance to vote in a new constitution come August 4th. The referendum vote has created a divide in Kenyan society, pitting clerics  and politicians allied to William Ruto against Kenya’s wider political establishment. Kenya’s quasi-dyarchy fully backs the new document. The church opposes the document on the grounds that it allows for [...]

• quick hits

  Posted: May 13, 2010, 1:30 am by kenopp

  Check out the mind-boggling disparities in maternal mortality rates around the world here. In other news, Uganda’s AIDS success story may be unraveling. How sad. Filed under: africa Tagged: africa, Aids in Uganda, development economics, maternal mortality rates, Uganda

• economic matters

  Posted: May 8, 2010, 8:44 pm by kenopp

  The 20th World Economic Forum on Africa has been meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Participants at the forum stressed the need for the Continent to move to the centre of the global economy. The emphasis on agriculture was particularly encouraging. Food, textiles and construction should dominate the Continent’s Planning Ministers’ agenda. The need for [...]

• Kadhi’s courts and abortion revisited

  Posted: May 6, 2010, 1:55 am by kenopp

  It appears that after more than 20 years of waiting Kenyans will finally have a new constitution after August 6th. The Attorney General Amos Wako (I can’t believe this man is still in office) published the document today. The electoral commission will formulate the referendum question and announce the campaign period for the August 6th [...]

• Yar’Adua passes on

  Posted: May 6, 2010, 9:01 am by kenopp

  Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua died today. According to the Nigerian constitution Goodluck Jonathan who has been acting president will formerly assume office as president of the federal republic. Mr. Yar’Adua had had problems with his kidneys going back to his days as governor of Katsina state. May he rest in peace. Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian [...]

• links that i liked

  Posted: May 5, 2010, 12:33 pm by kenopp

  TED talk by Esther Duflo here and Texas in Africa has a few things to say about attitudes towards aid. Cool map of eastern Africa over time. Filed under: africa Tagged: Chris Blattman, development, eastern africa, Esther Duflo, Texas in Africa, underdevelopment, William Easterly

• foreshadowing post-independence southern Sudan

  Posted: April 30, 2010, 8:47 pm by kenopp

  It is an open secret that Southern Sudan will likely descend into civil war once it secedes from Khartoum. Reports of a mutiny against Southern Sudanese government troops after last week’s election may foreshadow what is to come after Juba achieves full autonomy. Divisions within the South are not new. In 1991 Riek Machar led [...]

• kenyan mp Dick Wathika to lose Makadara seat

  Posted: April 30, 2010, 2:08 pm by kenopp

  Following a petition by former MP Reuben Ndolo (of the “weka tire” infamy), Lady Justice Kaplana Rawal has nullified the election of Dick Wathika as Makadara MP in the 2007 general elections. Mr. Wathika becomes the 5th sitting MP since the chaotic 2007 vote to lose after an election petition in court. The 2007 elections [...]

• if a tenth the charities out to help “africa” were any good ….

  Posted: April 28, 2010, 8:14 pm by kenopp

  A lot of money has been poured in Africa (to use a Kenyan phrase) since the 1960s. Most of it has gone down the drain without much impact. If a tenth of the aid effort in Africa were effective things would be very different. Instead you have a cacophony of aid effort without much coordination. [...]

• after sudan, ethiopia

  Posted: April 27, 2010, 7:52 pm by kenopp

  Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir is here to stay. Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi is up next on a list of African autocrats who face elections this year. Ethiopia holds parliamentary elections on May 23rd in a vote that will determine who becomes Prime Minsiter. Africa’s second most populous country cremains under tight rule by the increasingly despotic Meles [...]

• al-bashir wins sudan vote

  Posted: April 26, 2010, 6:08 pm by kenopp

  As expected, incumbent Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir won in the just concluded general election. More here Filed under: africa Tagged: Abyei, darfur, John Garang, Juba, Khartoum, Omar al-Bashir, Salva Kir, Southern Sudan

• south africa steps up fight against aids

  Posted: April 26, 2010, 9:52 am by kenopp

  The most embarrassing part of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency was his bizarre approach to South Africa’s AIDS epidemic. Together with his nutty health minister, President Mbeki refused to dot the lines between the HIV virus and AIDS. The Minister was known to traffic in the idea that beetroots and traditional herbs could confront the deadly virus. [...]

• development and how to achieve it

  Posted: April 24, 2010, 9:20 pm by kenopp

  A while back I argued for a move away form small scale, “pro-poor” development strategies to more robust development strategies aimed at economic innovation and large-scale job creation. This is not to say that micro-development should be neglected. What I am saying is that jua kali kiosks will not increase Africa’s per capita income to [...]

• ruto moved in cabinet reshuffle

  Posted: April 21, 2010, 9:20 pm by kenopp

  Former Agriculture Minister William Ruto has been demoted to the Ministry of Higher Education. This is certainly linked to Ruto’s position on the draft constitution. Mr. Ruto has been the most vocal minister in the Kibaki cabinet opposed to the draft constitution which is due for referendum in a few months. In other news, I [...]

• china in africa: getting the right picture

  Posted: April 20, 2010, 11:30 pm by kenopp

  Here is a new blog on this by Brautigam. I attended her talk at Stanford and kind of liked the book. I am glad that a consensus seems to be emerging that one-sided and blind China-bashing is not productive, especially with regard to Chinese involvement in Africa. And in other news, what is Kagame up [...]

• Democracy 0 President of Djibouti 10

  Posted: April 20, 2010, 4:19 am by kenopp

  Terms limits scrapped in Djibouti to allow President Guelleh to hang on as long as he can. It is weird how things never change. Filed under: africa Tagged: democracy, dictatorship, Djibouti, President Guelleh, term limits

• constitution making in Kenya and the noise around it

  Posted: April 19, 2010, 9:36 am by kenopp

  Muthoni Wanyeki has this cool piece on the ongoing debate over the draft constitution. I share in her surprise at how low the church has decided to sink in its opposition to Kadhi courts and the so called abortion clause in the draft constitution. Firstly, abortions are but a symptom of greater social problems (marital [...]

• daylight robbery

  Posted: April 11, 2010, 1:10 am by kenopp

  Edit: Lands Minister James Orengo has since declared that the mentioned piece of land is state property and promised to do “what is right for this country [Kenya].” Let’s wait and see. This is daylight robbery. It appears that private investors have consistently robbed the government of much needed revenue in relation to the land [...]

• democratizing kenyan schools

  Posted: April 7, 2010, 6:13 pm by kenopp

  As a former prefect at Mang’u High School, I know quite a bit about the excesses of the prefect system. To put it mildly, prefects sometimes do go beyond the line. I am therefore glad that a student forum at Bomas, Nairobi voted for the establishment of elected student councils to replace prefect bodies. In [...]

• the church and the crisis

  Posted: April 7, 2010, 9:30 am by kenopp

  Maureen Dowd’s column highlights the deep crisis in which the Catholic church has found itself in the aftermath  of the many cases of sexual abuse across Europe and the United States. Like Dowd, I am also a Catholic who is deeply disturbed by the Church’s apparent intransigence and inexplicable inflexibility in the face of problems like [...]

• getting out of my league…

  Posted: April 6, 2010, 10:21 am by kenopp

  The other day a friend ambushed me with a somewhat interesting question. Presenting me with two options – Negritude or Fanonian “New Africanism” – he asked me to pick one that best describes my view of how the process of societal change should pan out on the Continent. I usually don’t like caging myself with [...]

• new eu policy on food aid commendable

  Posted: April 3, 2010, 10:17 pm by kenopp

  For many years experts have pointed out the negative impact of international food aid. The practice of tying food aid to farm subsidies to western farmers resulted in unfair competition that drove many an African farmer out of business. The EU intends to change this. New policy will now require the purchase of food aid [...]

• president kibaki to resign and call for fresh elections

  Posted: April 1, 2010, 8:31 pm by kenopp

  Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki has announced that he will resign and call snap elections. Mr. Kibaki cited wrangling within the cabinet and the failure to tackle corruption and poor governance as his main reasons for seeking a fresh mandate from Kenyans. It is unclear which party ticket the president will run on since his party, [...]

• coup in Guinea-Bissau

  Posted: April 1, 2010, 6:37 pm by kenopp

  The BBC reports that a coup is underway in Guinea-Bissau. More here.. and here You may recall that Guinea-Bissau had a coup last year after the president fell out with the head of the military. Filed under: africa Tagged: Bissau, Guinea Bissau

• strengthening the social contract?

  Posted: March 31, 2010, 9:59 am by kenopp

  Occasionally I come across news that make me think that Kenya is still on the right track. The circus that is the current debate on the review of the constitution is definitely a reminder that the east African nation has a long way to go. But things are looking better elsewhere. For one, more Kenyan [...]

• abuja is sleeping on the job

  Posted: March 30, 2010, 1:28 am by kenopp

  The Nigerian government has failed its people in so many respects that we have come to not expect the men and women in Abuja to deliver much. That said, this is too much. At the risk of sounding religiously intolerant, I am gonna go out on a limb and say that this should be considered [...]

• you can respect women’s rights without being pro-abortion

  Posted: March 28, 2010, 3:33 am by kenopp

  In any case, Kenyan society is already conservative enough when it comes to things like abortion and sexuality. What we need is not a constitution that pushes us further into paranoia about these issues but one that protects our mothers and sisters from the tyranny of men from 10,000 BC.

• the lra menace

  Posted: March 27, 2010, 12:21 am by kenopp

  That Joseph Kony and his top lieutenants are still alive and well is testament to the ineptitude of the Ugandan and Congolese armies. The Ugandan rebel leader continues to roam the forests in the border regions of Chad, the DRC, Uganda and Southern Sudan, killing villagers with abandon. The BBC reports that late last year [...]

• this seems really cool

  Posted: March 27, 2010, 9:05 am by kenopp

  An African youth volunteer program just got launched in West Africa. The BBC reports that “The scheme would see youths spend time helping out in areas such as agriculture, health or education in a different country to their own.” Read more here Filed under: africa Tagged: africa volunteer scheme, agriculture, civic culture, development, ECOWAS, mano river [...]

• botswana’s ian khama (and the bdp) faces his stiffest challenge yet

  Posted: March 26, 2010, 1:52 am by kenopp

  Ian Khama has not had the presidency he dreamed of. The son of Botswana’s founding president faces his stiffest challenge yet since assuming office. A group of lawmakers from his party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), have threatened to jump ship and form their own party. If enough of them do, President Khama may be [...]

• the south africans cometh

  Posted: March 26, 2010, 10:05 pm by kenopp

  They are all over Tanzania. Kenya’s southern neighbor is even a member of the SADC and currently suffers a huge trade deficit with South Africa. Now the sons and daughters of the Continent from south of the Limpopo are eying even greater penetration into the EAC via Uganda. President Zuma just visited Uganda with a [...]

• saving rift valley railways

  Posted: March 25, 2010, 11:42 pm by kenopp

  I hope some day someone will write a novel about how one Mr. Roy Puffet, a rather nondescript South African, managed to rake in millions at the expense of East African tax payers in the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) deal. The railway company is now in the hands of Egyptian investors and as Mr. Kisero [...]

• makmende goes viral

  Posted: March 25, 2010, 6:46 pm by kenopp

  Just A Band, starring Makmende the hero, continues to attract more and more fans. Even the Wall Street Journal gave it a few lines. My favorite Makmende one-liner: “some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Makmende pajamas.” Filed under: africa Tagged: Just A Band, Makmende

• spring break

  Posted: March 19, 2010, 12:07 pm by kenopp

  Yours truly will be away for the next few days because of a planned trip to “real America.” I hope to have some cool stories for you when I return. Filed under: africa

• I like Hayek too

  Posted: March 16, 2010, 8:52 am by kenopp

  OK, I have to admit, I am one of those who read “The Road to Serfdom” and totally loved it. Hayek was spot on about the folly of planned economies. The markets are not perfect. But having imperfect markets beats planned economies on any day. We just have to provide a reasonable amount of regulation [...]

• 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 [...]

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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

The end of the fish cakes