KENYA The anti-corruption collapse 20th October 2006 The failure of Justice Ringera's investigations reinforces the growing criminalisation of the state Attorney General Amos Wako's dismissal of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission's (KACC) investigation into five state contracts will effectively block the cases until after next year's national elections. It was clear that these contracts and the Anglo-Leasing passport scandal, which prompted the dismissal of three of President Mwai Kibaki's Ministers, Chris Murungaru (Security and Transport), Kiraitu Murungi (Justice and Energy) and David Mwiraria (Finance), had become the government's biggest political liability and a symbol of its failure to tackle corruption.
KENYA Brothers in Armenia 20th October 2006 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the activities of the so-called Armenian brothers - Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargasyan - uncovers a pattern of fraud...
ZAMBIA The Titanic sails at dawn 20th October 2006 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The opposition offered its voters refuge on Noah's Ark, but it sank and Mwanawasa is back The polls were wrong and Michael Sata lost to incumbent President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, whose solid 42 per cent of the vote came overwhelmingly from rural areas. In...
Welcome to the new 12-page Africa Confidential. The time is right for expansion. Elections and key party congresses are due in many of Africa’s biggest countries in the next 18 months, and the outcomes will decide the shape of the continent’s leadership over the next five years. The current boost to African growth, the strongest since the late 1970s, is fuelled by commodity demand from India and China, which are establishing new trade and investment routes. Africa is also attracting fast-g... Welcome to the new 12-page Africa Confidential. The time is right for expansion. Elections and key party congresses are due in many of Africa’s biggest countries in the next 18 months, and the outcomes will decide the shape of the continent’s leadership over the next five years. The current boost to African growth, the strongest since the late 1970s, is fuelled by commodity demand from India and China, which are establishing new trade and investment routes. Africa is also attracting fast-growing private funds, which are buying equities and treasury bills in what some see as the emerging markets’ last frontier. The USA’s war on terror – with deployments in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and along West Africa’s seaboard – and the new economic power of Asia echo the Cold War era, when African regimes played off one side against the other. One positive sign is the new political activism that demands more accountability and better governance. For every anti-corruption movement that is closed down, more spring up, determined to check commercial and political abuses. Whatever their successes, our pages will be full of the inside stories. Read more
NIGERIA All for one, not yet 20th October 2006 Under threat of corruption charges, state governors are losing their political nerve As the net closes in on those state governors accused of corruption and fraud, President Olusegun Obasanjo's position has strengthened markedly against his Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and most...
SOUTH AFRICA Who is eligible to vote? 20th October 2006 The African National Congress strictly determines eligibility to vote at national conferences. Branches usually nominate two delegates, more in large urban branches . . .
EAST AFRICA No EASSY rider 20th October 2006 Kenya and South Africa are in heated dispute over the control and cost of a crucial African development project - a fibre-optic cable to surround the continent and...
SOUTH AFRICA The ANC's toughest election yet 20th October 2006 It will be the fiercest-fought election the African National Congress has faced since coming to power in 2004 Even the most conservative African National Congress activists admit that a schism has developed in the party between supporters of President Thabo Mbeki and those of sacked Deputy...
CÔTE D'IVOIRE Diamonds, gold and guns 20th October 2006 Both sides in the divided country exploit the underground economy to pay for fresh weapons Another round of regional negotiations has failed, a credible election is impossible by the deadline of 31 October and the international and regional organisations look increasingly ineffectual. The...
EQUATORIAL GUINEAGABON No man an island 20th October 2006 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan wanted to resolve a 35-year old territorial dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon before his tenure ends. That looks doubtful. The minuscule,...
SOUTH AFRICA The road to the ANC's 2007 National Conference 20th October 2006 Preparatory conferences 1.The African National Congress Provincial Conferences will be fiercely lobbied by Jacob Zuma's and Thabo Mbeki's camps. The Provincial Conferences will be held after Mbeki delivers...
CÔTE D'IVOIRE Diamond dollars 20th October 2006 Diamonds slip through the export ban imposed on Côte d'Ivoire last year. Many are now routed through Ghana. Production is estimated at between 114,000 and 214,000...
SUDANSAUDI ARABIA Signal from Saudi 20th October 2006 An astonishing attack on Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir in the Saudi press signals a crack in Arab solidarity over Khartoum's policy on Darfur.
NAMIBIA Kobi's refuge 20th October 2006 Former Chief Executive of United States-based Comverse Inc. Jacob 'Kobi' Alexander was arrested in Windhoek on 27 September on an Interpol warrant but he has formed some powerful...
UGANDA Riek's battalion 20th October 2006 The government of Southern Sudan has finally deployed a battalion of the Sudan People's Liberation Army to the assembly area that 800 Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters abandoned...
CÔTE D'IVOIRE Toxic trials 20th October 2006 International oil traders Trafigura's Chief Executive, Claude Dauphin, and his West Africa Manager Jean-Pierre Valentini remain in Abidjan's high-security Maison d'Arrêt et de Correction gaol. Trafigura denies wrong-doing...
AFRICAN UNIONNEPAD Contretemps 20th October 2006 The rivalry between the African Union (AU) and the New Programme for Africa's Economic Development (NePAD) resurfaced at a conference on China in Africa, organised by the South...