Vol 61 No 19 | KENYA Keeping up with the Kenyattas 24th September 2020 As they take the field, the battle between the President and his deputy is testing the limits of ethnic politics 'You should go and insult your mother, not mine' said President Uhuru Kenyatta on 10 September to a small crowd just outside Nairobi. He was referring to two...
Vol 61 No 17 | KENYAUNITED STATESTRADE Trading favours 27th August 2020 A trade deal between Nairobi and Washington appears to make political and economic sense for both sides but critics see dangers for Kenyatta President Donald Trump has used his presidency to launch trade wars against China, the European Union and his North American Free Trade Association partners. His government has blocked...
Vol 61 No 17 | KENYA The Kenyatta-Odinga deal starts fraying 14th August 2020 As the Building Bridges Initiative stalls, politicians are readying for a battle over the top jobs The Building Bridges Initiative – the political deal concocted between opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta – is in trouble again. Enough trouble to merit requiring...
Vol 61 No 16 | KENYA From a grateful nation 6th August 2020 Not content with being among the world's best-paid politicians, Kenyan lawmakers have ensured that their predecessors are also amply rewarded for their service. On 5 August, after 10...
Vol 61 No 15 | KENYAWORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION A favourite for an impossible job 23rd July 2020 After several near misses in her search for a top international job, Amina Mohamed is a WTO front-runner. But what does she stand for? Of all the candidates gunning for the helm of the World Trade Organisation, Amina Mohamed probably ranks as the best prepared for the contest. Along with the rival...
Vol 61 No 14 | KENYA A big tent for Moi's children 9th July 2020 The President's attempts to co-opt oppositionists has reunited young Turks promoted by the late President Moi Thirty years after the Saba Saba protests triggered the battle for the restoration of multiparty politics in Kenya, veterans of that struggle might be troubled to see that...
Vol 61 No 12 | KENYA Uhuru takes it out on his party 11th June 2020 An angry President Kenyatta vents his frustrations on dissident Jubilee MPs. His deputy stays within the tent for now For the first time in three years, President Uhuru Kenyatta invited all 404 Jubilee Party legislators – 337 MPs and 67 Senators – to a parliamentary group meeting...
Vol 61 No 11 | KENYA The one-party statesmen 28th May 2020 The effect of thwarting Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential ambitions could be the return of a de facto single-party state The disintegration of the ruling Jubilee Party continues apace. In the clearest indications yet that President Uhuru Kenyatta is determined to remove the succession from his deputy, William...
Vol 61 No 10 | KENYA A clumsy coup 14th May 2020 The government expected that curbing the Nairobi governor’s powers would end his career, but the flamboyant Mike Sonko won’t go quietly The image of suspended Nairobi governor Mike Sonko at State House wordlessly signing powers over to the national government in February appeared to symbolise the presidency's triumph in...
Vol 61 No 10 | KENYA False report of an assassination attempt against President Kenyatta 22nd May 2020 This is to inform you that a meme circulating on social media today purportedly of a story published by Africa Confidential with the headline 'The Plot to Assassinate... READ FOR FREE