Jump to navigation

Published 3rd February 2006

Vol 47 No 3


Kenya

Going down with the ship

Finance Minister David Mwiraria is the first domino to fall as the government faces a growing anti-corruption backlash

The momentum behind the anti-corruption drive, sparked by press reports of a dossier of investigations into more than US$1 billion of fraudulent government procurement deals, now looks unstoppable. The dossier's power is its author, former anti-corruption czar John Githongo, who relentlessly probed the network of fraud and front companies organised by officials at the heart of government. Githongo's 36-page dossier names ministers, civil servants and businessmen whom he accuses of complicity in the graft. Just as importantly, he unveils the structure of the deals and their corporate vehicles.


Losers can win too

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

View site

President Museveni is surprised to face the strongest challenge yet to his 20-year rule

The cheering was almost as loud as the jets of two MiG-21 fighters that flew low over Kampala on 26 January. The flypast crowned a military display to celebrate the 20th annual Nat...


The President's generals

The President may be back but succession rumours are festering

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has spent much of the last three months in the Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris, being treated for what was eventually announced to be a...


Mystery kidnappers

Crooks, mercenaries and ambitious politicians were mixed up in the deal to free the hostages

The release of four foreign hostages after 19 days in captivity in the Niger Delta did not end the crisis (AC Vol 47 Nos 1 & 2). Nor did it solve the mystery surrounding the ki...


Human wrongs

Sudan's failed bid to win the chair of the AU keeps peace and security issues off the agenda

The African Union's credibility took a beating at its Khartoum summit on 23-24 January. The meeting was dominated by the Sudanese regime's attempt to secure the chairmanship, withd...



Pointers

Confucius, he say

On 12 January, China issued a paper on its African policy. This raises more questions than it answers, as it reads less like a policy paper than a public relations exercise designe...


Booted out

Shock spread when South Africa, host of the 2010 World Cup, was knocked out in the first round after an ignominious 3-0 defeat by Zambia on 30 January. A furious President Thabo Mb...


US hurricane

Having triumphed by massive fraud in November's elections (AC Vol 46 No 24), Africa's longest serving leader, Omar Bongo Ondimba, looks forward to seven more years as President but...