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/ 18 February 2005
”Well, he’s damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t,” says leading Kenyan lawyer Albert Mumma of the dilemma that may shortly face President Mwai Kibaki: whether to prosecute former head of state Daniel arap Moi in connection with the Goldenberg scandal. For the past two years, a commission has probed the dealings of the company at the heart of this corruption scam.
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/ 11 February 2005
The Central Bank of Kenya has secretly removed the South African Bank Note Company, a subsidiary of the South African Reserve Bank, from a shortlist of international security printing firms in line to win a tender worth almost R800-million to print "new generation" currency for the East African country over the next five years.
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/ 4 February 2005
Hundreds of thousands of hectares belonging to the elite lie fallow and unused, while impoverished Kenyans kill one another for access to tiny parcels of overworked land and muddy trickles that were once rivers. The flames of rebellion have been fanned by a drought, failed harvests and increasing competition between crop and cattle farmers.
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/ 3 December 2004
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The hospital on the outskirts of Nairobi wasn’t built because of its proximity to the Kenyan capital’s massive townships, although the chaotic slums do provide it with an overflow of patients. It wasn’t constructed using millions of dollars of donor funds, which is why it consists completely of cold, grey cement, overcrowded wards and medical equipment dating back to the 1960s. The wind created Mbagathi Hospital.
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/ 29 October 2004
It’s supposed to be a period of serene, prayerful contemplation, a time to explore the depths of faith and to think of the poor. But for many of Kenya’s 10-million Muslims, the month of Ramadan this year has become a reflection on crime, HIV/Aids and the effects of the United States-sponsored war on terror on the followers of Islam around the globe.
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/ 18 October 2004
Lauded as both ”legend” and ”prophet” in the Kenyan media, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize continued to command world attention last week. But Aids activists, health NGOs and small-scale farmers in Kenya considered the honour bestowed upon the country’s assistant minister of the environment with mixed feelings.
The latest round of talks to secure a lasting peace in southern Sudan began at Naivasha in Kenya on Thursday, amid fears that ”delaying tactics” would result in their suspension — an outcome analysts predicted would have ”tragic consequences” for the entire war-ravaged region. An estimated two million people have died, and about four million have been displaced, in more than two decades of conflict.
From the permanent prison of a poster-sized photograph high on a pale wall, Freddie Mercury gazed down on a lesbian couple embracing in the haze of a bright red light. Gay icon and pop superstar Mercury took his first uncertain steps in the gardens near this bar on Zanzibar’s Stone Town’s waterfront in 1946. There is a definite lack of spice in these islands, unless you’re straight.
”This is a war [in Iraq] which is splitting the world along religious lines … but the human race must not allow this to happen,” said Sheikh Mohammed Idriss, the leader of Kenya’s Council of Imams, a group with influence throughout East Africa — a region home to millions of Muslims. But while Idriss preached tolerance, African Muslims are being targeted in the war against terror.
The prospect of more violence in Kenya has escalated following the call for another rally, in Mombasa on July 24, in support of constitutional reform. Supporters of President Mwai Kibaki have threatened the organisers of the rally with "unfortunate consequences" should it go ahead. At least two people were killed and several others arrested during demonstrations earlier this month.