Vol 49 No 6 | UGANDA On the brink of a deal 14th March 2008 A faction of the LRA is ready to come to terms with Museveni; the rest will move on to cause mayhem elsewhere Suddenly optimism has broken out about the outcome of the long, drawn- out talks between the government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. The mediators are so confident ...
Vol 49 No 6 | SOMALIA Missing the target 14th March 2008 The US bombs Al Qaida targets and misses while the TFG holds secret negotiations with elders and the Islamist opposition On 3 March, a United States' cruise missile hit a home on the outskirts of Dobley, a small crossing point on the Somalia-Kenya border. Dobley is in an area of significant Islamic p...
Vol 49 No 6 | KENYA Second honeymoon for the money men 14th March 2008 Following the political deal this month, Kenyans are hoping for another deal to restart the economy. Conservative estimates put the cost of the post-election crisis at around US$1.5 billion and the loss of more than 1,000 lives. Yet the effects of more than 300,000 people chased from their homes and the disruptions to subsistence and export crop farming will hit the economy for months to come This month, Kenya's economy faces it first big post-election test when the successful mobile telephone operator Safaricom lists on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). According to th...
Vol 49 No 6 | KENYA Trans-Century and transcendental 14th March 2008 Formed a decade ago, Trans-Century Limited has grown over the past five years to become the biggest private equity firm in East Africa, with a multimillion dollar portfolio. It has...
Vol 49 No 6 | KENYA Life after a game of golf 14th March 2008 President Mwai Kibaki and putative Prime Minister Raila Odinga spent the day together at the Karen Open, Nairobi's most prestigious golf tournament on 10 March. Spectacularly out o...
Vol 49 No 5 | KENYA The Harambee House deal 29th February 2008 A compromise deal has pulled the rival parties back from the brink but much detail still has to be resolved The two-page agreement signed by President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga at Harambee House on 28 February could hardly have been simpler. Drafted by Attorney Gener...
Vol 49 No 5 | KENYA An outbreak of cordiality 29th February 2008 In the aftermath of the signing of the power-sharing agreement on 28 February, Raila Odinga turned to his adversary, addressing him as 'My countryman, President Mwai Kibaki'. Ever ...
Vol 49 No 5 | SUDANCHINA Lifting the bamboo curtain 29th February 2008 Beijing is changing its policy on Khartoum but on its own terms China is worried about the 'deadlock' in Darfur and is looking for new ideas, its Special Representative for Africa and Darfur, Liu Guijin, told a leading Sudanese civic activist i...
Vol 49 No 5 | SUDANCHINABRITAIN Selective divestment 29th February 2008 Britain’s Conservative Party, which has been campaigning against the Sudan government’s Darfur policy, faces charges of hypocrisy after it accepted more than US$800,000 in contribu...
Vol 49 No 5 | RWANDABRITAIN Mission position 29th February 2008 Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair landed in Kigali on 23 February on his mission to give ‘unpaid’ advice to the Rwandan government and to his ‘long standing friend’ Presid...