Ethiopia's troops are gone and another transitional government is installed but the new order is tenuous
On 25 January, the last Ethiopian troops withdrew, only three weeks later than planned, from Somalia. They had originally intervened in Somalia in December 2006, at the request...
President Kabila's improbable deal with Rwanda could unravel and further weaken his authority in Kinshasa
Kinshasa's sudden embrace of Kigali may cause as many problems as it solves. President Paul Kagame's troops have been spearheading joint operations against the Hutu militiamen of the...
Vol 50 No 3 |
- KENYA
- BRITAIN
Britain's Serious Fraud Office announced on 4 February that it is closing its 'investigation into contracts secured with the Kenyan government by Anglo-Leasing finance and related business'. This...
Three new developments will shape Sudan's politics this year: the International Criminal Court's (ICC) issue of an arrest warrant for President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir; the planned elections under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement; and the inauguration of President Barack Obama's government in the United States with a clear commitment to act against Khartoum's mass murder in Darfur.
New politics, new threats The ruling National Congress (NC, aka National Islamic Front) is struggling to adapt to new realities. A dozen years of meticulous planning and patient...
In the last months of President George Walker Bush's reign, US officials pressed the Khartoum regime over Darfur and Abyei by telling leaders, 'If you think we're tough,...
Southern Sudan is still run like a feudal state, with President Salva Kiir Mayardit appointing people from among competing factions and ethnic interest groups in a complex balancing...
Lloyds TSB, recently bailed out by the British government, has had to pay fines of US$350 million for breaking United States' sanctions on Sudan, Libya and Iran, following...
Young Tanzanians conscripted for their military National Service may find themselves doing commercial security work. The government says it wants to reduce youth unemployment and increase competition in...
Vol 49 No 25 |
- KENYA
- ANALYSIS
A year after the flawed elections, much of the fire has gone out of the once radical opposition Orange Democratic Movement. Odinga, the firebrand ODM leader, held a meeting for his constituents in Nairobi’s Kibera’s slum to thank them for voting for him. He yelled the rallying cry ‘ODM!’, expecting the crowd to respond as it used to ‘Chungwa!’ (Orange!), the party colour and symbol, but they roared back ‘Unga!’, the maize flour that makes up the staple diet of ugali.
Politics is now taking second place to overwhelming concerns about the economy. Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement had promised lower rents and food prices, but its...
The first of the two commissions on Kenya’s election crisis – both advocated by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and his group of eminent persons –...