Vol 57 No 23 | KENYA Empty words on graft 18th November 2016 The President pledged to end corruption but a series of scandals in the press and the courts have been embarrassing him During the 2013 presidential election campaign, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his running-mate William Ruto promised Kenyans that they would end the corruption that had bedevilled p...
Vol 57 No 23 | ETHIOPIASOMALIA Shabaab fills Ethiopian vacuum 18th November 2016 Ethiopia has been withdrawing forces from Somalia in order to help restore order at home, say military observers, and Al Haraka al Shabaab al Mujahideen has moved in to fill the va...
Vol 57 No 22 | KENYAAFRICAN UNION Amina jumps to the front 4th November 2016 Kenya's foreign minister has taken the lead in the race to become the next leader of the African Union Commission As regional factions tussle for influence, finding a candidate to replace South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as Chairperson of the African Union Commission is proving a tortuous...
Vol 57 No 22 | SUDAN The securocrats get stronger 4th November 2016 Under pressure, President Omer is cutting the power of the party and the army and relying more on his security agents and enforcers The regime's power-base is shrinking after the formal end of its National Dialogue initiative on 10 October. President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir had hoped that the planned return...
Vol 57 No 22 | KENYA More growth, more debt 4th November 2016 Although Kenya's economy will buck the regional trend of low growth, says the World Bank, there are serious problems with its rising debt burden and budget deficit. The Bank projec...
Vol 57 No 21 | ETHIOPIA Ruling party ploughs on 21st October 2016 No compromise with the wave of protest is in view. The elite reckons it can weather the storm The select of Ethiopia's elites, including opposition leaders, crowded into the Sheraton Addis Hotel on 15 October to discuss the country's fragile ethnic federation and stuttering...
Vol 57 No 20 | SUDAN Did Khartoum cross the line? 7th October 2016 France joins human rights groups to demand an international probe into claims that Khartoum used chemical weapons in its Darfur war Claims in an Amnesty International report released on 29 September that the Sudanese regime may have used chemical weapons in Darfur will again test United Nations and African Unio...
Vol 57 No 20 | SOMALIA Electoral roads to federalism 7th October 2016 As the country goes to the polls, the base is broader but will the government that emerges be more legitimate than its predecessors? Four years ago, general elections took place in Mogadishu in a hectic atmosphere created mostly by an international community determined to show that the political transition was o...
Vol 57 No 20 | KENYA Jubilee unites ahead of poll 7th October 2016 A divided opposition lacking ideas is in danger of handing victory to the ever more confident ruling party The political battle lines for next August's general elections have been drawn. President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Party, which grew out of the governing Jubilee coalition and comb...
Vol 57 No 20 | KENYA Safe choice, vexed process 7th October 2016 After three political attempts to undermine the selection process, the Judicial Service Commission has named a new Chief Justice An uncontroversial Appeals Court Judge of 64 from Kisii, David Kenani Maraga, has been named as the new Chief Justice. After two weeks of open interviews and three failed political...