Darren Taylor
Darren Taylor is a freelance journalist based in Johannesburg. He is a regular contributor to several African and international news organisations.
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/ 27 January 2006

‘Wake up Kenya’

Aftershocks from an earthquake in central Africa were still being felt in Kenya on December 5 last year when a leading academic warned of a looming ”tragedy”. Many buildings in the city were being erected without ”proper structural analysis”, said Professor Norbert Opiyo-Aketch of the University of Nairobi.

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/ 15 December 2005

‘Tragic game of musical chairs’

Kenya’s political crisis has deepened, with 22 politicians refusing to accept posts in a reconstituted government, and foreign envoys adding their voices to demands for a snap election. Kenya has been without an effective government since President Mwai Kibaki fired his Cabinet three weeks ago.

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/ 9 December 2005

Quake a ‘wake-up call’ for Africa

Seismologists have warned that East and Central Africa will be struck by natural disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides and volcanic eruptions in the near future, but that countries in the region remain ill-prepared for catastrophes. A powerful earthquake struck the region on Monday afternoon, causing panic in at least six countries.

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/ 25 November 2005

An orange revolution

”Kibaki out! Kibaki out!” was the cry on the streets of Kenya as thousands of people celebrated the defeat of a draft Constitution its opponents had branded a “recipe for dictatorship”. A mere three years ago, the same Kenyans, had massed to support Mwai Kibaki with the mantra of ”Kibaki tosha [forward]!”

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/ 21 November 2005

Kibaki’s ‘chicken shit’ broadside

Kenya’s 11,5-million registered voters go to the polls on Monday in the 42-year-old republic’s first referendum. But the economic hub of East Africa is tense ahead of the ballot on a controversial draft Constitution. Police have shot dead at least 10 people during violent protests against the document in the weeks leading up to the plebiscite.

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/ 8 November 2005

Ensuring that justice delayed is not justice denied

David Gicheru is a former guerrilla who fought British colonial forces from hideouts in the dense forests of central Kenya ahead of independence in 1963. As much as the prospect of a poor harvest gnaws at him, so do memories of his struggle against the British — and Kenya’s subsequent treatment of those who liberated the country from colonialism.

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/ 31 October 2005

Land for loyalty?

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has allocated thousands of title deeds for land in a move his opponents say is an attempt to ”bribe” voters to support a controversial draft constitution in a November 21 referendum. Environmentalists charge that the ”illegal dishing out of land” spells ”ecological disaster” for a country lauded internationally for its stringent legislation to protect wildlife.

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/ 6 October 2005

‘Who cares about human rights?’

Behind a dilapidated store in a dusty field at Athi River, an export processing zone on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, a group of textile factory workers has gathered for a mid-afternoon break. The heat is searing, and the hastily purchased cool drinks quench thirsts. But not tempers.

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/ 23 September 2005

Africa’s ‘most wanted’ man

He is in his early 30s but looks much younger with a ”smooth, boyish face” and a height of a little more than one-and-a-half metres. He is soft-spoken, well-mannered, and often dresses in jeans and track shoes, Nike being his brand of choice. He has hated the United States with a ”passion bordering on insanity” ever since spending time with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Sudan.

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/ 5 August 2005

‘He was our Moses; our hero’

Analysts, refugees and political commentators are united in their view that the death of former rebel leader and Sudanese Vice-President, John Garang, could plunge the country into a new crisis and place immense pressure on the peace deal that, in January, ended 21 years of war.