Vol 67 No 9 | KENYAFRANCE Ruto stakes his presidency on a $39bn investment blitz 29th April 2026 Courting capital from Beijing to the Gulf and Paris to become Africa’s Singapore, the President is being stymied by a fuel import scandal and fraying regional alliances William Samoei Ruto opened the Africa Finance Corporation summit on 23 April in Nairobi last week flanked by Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni – a tableau...
Vol 67 No 9 | KENYAITALY Balancing Rome and Paris, Ruto locks in the Mattei plan 29th April 2026 On a three-day trip to Italy, the President agreed multiple funding deals under Giorgia Meloni's €5.5bn Mattei Plan but the opposition questions the pace and volume of disbursements President William Ruto’s sales pitch to Italian politicians and business leaders went down well, even if some of his claims strained credulity. ‘If you are looking at de-carbonising...
Vol 67 No 8 | KENYASUDAN Ruto’s RSF ties under scrutiny 17th April 2026 Allegations over Kenya’s role in Sudan’s conflict – all denied by Nairobi – are straining relations with Khartoum The detail in a United States Treasury Department sanctions list in February that Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa, the youngest brother of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)...
Vol 67 No 7 | KENYA Winnie Odinga tries to build bridges as the ODM fractures 31st March 2026 The daughter of opposition leader Raila Odinga is continuing the family dynasty and its shaky alliance with President Ruto The Odinga family strengthened its grip on the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) following a Special National Delegates Convention (SDC) on 26 March but its political base will be...
DISPATCHES Vol 67 No 7 | KENYAAFRICAN UNIONG7 Ruto the winner as Ramaphosa plays down G7 snub 30th March 2026 Macron denies he buckled under US pressure to exclude South Africa from western G7 crisis summit in France There was much diplomatic manoeuvring after a presidential spokesman in South Africa announced on 26 March that France’s invitation to President Cyril Ramaphosa to attend the G7 summit... READ FOR FREE
DISPATCHES Vol 67 No 7 | KENYA Kenyatta ally gets court reprieve after week of arrest and ‘disappearance’ 30th March 2026 Former foreign minister Raphael Tuju was the target of ruling party activists for leading campaign against the 2022 election results The ruling by a Nairobi court on 25 March that former Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju’s house could not be searched by police, was a major win... READ FOR FREE
Vol 67 No 6 | KENYA The one-party state and its discontents 20th March 2026 The ODM’s oligarchs are determined to build a coalition with President Ruto – but the party’s rebels are gathering support On 10 March, President William Ruto fired the starter’s gun on coalition talks with the Orange Democratic Movement in the traditional Kenyan way – by setting up a...
Vol 67 No 6 | KENYATANZANIA Aziz takes a run at the Nation 20th March 2026 A Tanzanian business mogul with close ties to regional presidents could reshape East Africa’s largest media group Rostam Aziz’s takeover of Kenya-based Nation Media Group (NMG) is more than a business deal: it hands East Africa’s most influential media conglomerate to one of Tanzanian President...
Vol 67 No 6 | KENYAFRANCEAFRICA Macron tries a multipolar reset at Nairobi summit 12th March 2026 As France hosts its first-ever summit in Anglophone Africa bringing in Kenya, Uganda, Germany and India, it tries to drop the old post-colonial playbook The choice of Kenya to host the France-Africa summit on 11-12 May, a first for an Anglophone state, suits the policy aims of both President Emmanuel Macron and...
DISPATCHES Vol 67 No 4 | KENYA Election referee gets his marching orders 9th February 2026 Opposition leaders score a tactical victory by forcing out Electoral Chief Hussein Marjan on questions of technical competence The embattled Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission faces another credibility challenge after its long-time chief executive Hussein Marjan was forced to resign after opposition leaders said they had... READ FOR FREE
Vol 67 No 4 | KENYARUSSIA Cannon fodder on the front line 20th February 2026 A report by the All Eyes on Wagner (AEOW) investigative group, published on 11 February, lists 1,417 fighters from 35 African countries who joined the Russian army between...
Vol 67 No 4 | KENYA The battle for ODM’s soul 20th February 2026 The sacking of Edwin Sifuna as Secretary-General of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a desperate attempt by party leader Oburu Odinga to contain divisions but risks breaking...
Vol 67 No 3 | KENYATANZANIAUGANDA Opposition solidarity goes regional 6th February 2026 Pro-democracy activists across the region are rallying together, but they are being met with brutal and coordinated repression by state authorities ‘Don’t try this again,’ was the message to dozens of pro-democracy activists from across East Africa as they were deported from Tanzania last year after attempting to attend...
Vol 67 No 3 | KENYA Golden tickets for sale in Ruto’s party 6th February 2026 The President envisages a two-three million margin of victory in next year’s elections as ambitious contenders flock to his party President William Ruto is bullish. He is aiming for re-election in August 2027 ‘by a margin of between two and three million so that we unite the country...
Vol 67 No 2 | KENYAWHO'S WHO NEWSMAKER: Oburu Odinga, awkward caretaker 23rd January 2026 The death of Raila Odinga last October left a void in Kenyan politics and at the heart of his Orange Democratic Movement. ODM was Raila’s fiefdom. It was...
Vol 67 No 1 | KENYAEAST AFRICAAFRICA IN 2026 Ruto – the unloved but unbeatable candidate 9th January 2026 The president will use 2026 to strengthen the broad-based coalition that is likely to carry him to re-election in August 2027 An early test will be internal elections in William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) – initially supposed to take place in mid-2024 but which will now happen on...