Vol 66 No 13 | KENYA The shine comes off M-Kopa 27th June 2025 Founded by the Vodafone team behind M-Pesa, M-Kopa has seen similar commercial success and political backing. At a 2015 entrepreneurship summit with President Barack Obama, then-President Uhuru Kenyatta...
Vol 66 No 12 | KENYATRIBUTE Ngugi wa Thiong’o – The pan-Africanist bard 13th June 2025 A champion of African literature and the rejection of colonial languages as a means to convey it, Kenya’s Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who died on 28 May, was often...
DISPATCHES Vol 66 No 11 | KENYATANZANIA Hassan intensifies crackdown with torture of Kenyan and Ugandan activists 27th May 2025 Boniface Mwangi was held for four days before being dumped at the border The detention and torture of Boniface Mwangi, one of Kenya’s most prominent civil society activists, is the latest move by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s increasingly authoritarian government. Hassan... READ FOR FREE
Vol 66 No 11 | KENYA Impeached but unbowed 30th May 2025 The launch of Rigathi Gachagua’s Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) marks the latest challenge to President William Ruto’s standing in central Kenya, a region where he claimed...
DISPATCHES Vol 66 No 10 | KENYA Wary of hiking tax rates, finance minister Mbadi cracks down on evasion 12th May 2025 Treasury seeks revenue via heavier enforcement and digital surveillance as protestors hold fire Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has ruled out any new tax rises in his budget plan for 2025/26, arguing that greater efficiency in revenue collection will be sufficient. READ FOR FREE
Vol 66 No 10 | KENYA Killings on camera 16th May 2025 Officials from President William Ruto’s government have vainly tried to intimidate journalists and activists as they attempt to control the fallout from a BBC Africa Eye documentary Blood...
Vol 66 No 9 | KENYACHINA Ruto pivots from Washington to Beijing 2nd May 2025 Kenya’s embattled president calculates that being nice to Donald Trump can only get you so far – his meeting with Xi Jinping may have netted billions For a cash-strapped government and a deeply unpopular president, William Ruto’s five-day trip to China could hardly have gone better. He returned with the promise of new investment...
DISPATCHES Vol 66 No 9 | KENYAEUROPEAN UNION IMF praises Kenya’s growth as Brussels pushes its unpopular trade deals 28th April 2025 After multiple setbacks President Ruto can celebrate some economic boosts during his trip to China Kenya will overtake Ethiopia as East Africa’s largest economy this year, the IMF has said. Kenya’s gross domestic product will be US$132 billion in 2025, compared to Ethiopia’s... READ FOR FREE
Vol 66 No 8 | KENYA Ruto’s fiscal gamble – can he break the debt trap by 2027? 15th April 2025 Government looks to China and the UAE for funding as growth and revenues fall short and it bets on a pre-election spending boom At the heart of President William Ruto’s calculus ahead of his re-election bid in 2027 is a bet that Kenya’s economy will have recovered enough to allow him...
Vol 66 No 7 | KENYAWHO'S WHO Edwin Sifuna, 42-year-old youth activist 4th April 2025 Edwin Sifuna, Secretary-General of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Senator for Nairobi County, has cut a frustrated figure during the political manoeuvring that followed last June’s...