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/ 2 November 2007
Religion and the debate between those who want a federal state and those who prefer centralised power have become key elements in Kenya’s election politics, which are heating up before the December 27 poll. The Kenyan Catholic Church is openly backing incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, who is seeking re- election and who wants to maintain the current system in which power is concentrated in the executive.
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/ 22 October 2007
A political storm over corruption allegations in Tanzania could compel President Jakaya Kikwete to sack Prime Minister Edward Lowassa — and is already damaging the country’s standing with international donors. Tanzanian press reports in the past two months have linked Lowassa to a major financial fraud that precipitated 10 months of power-rationing last year.
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/ 20 September 2007
Less than a week after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki unveiled his new party and embarked on a rigorous re-election campaign, the National Security Intelligence Service has leaked a damaging report, suggesting the president is headed for a resounding defeat in six out of the country’s eight provinces in the national polls set for December.
Muslim faithful resolved this week to organise mass action, including street protests, beginning this Friday to compel the Kenyan government to end what they are calling extraordinary ”renditions” and holding terrorism suspects incommunicado. The decision follows the disappearance of a leading anti-rendition campaigner, Farah Mohammed Abdullahi.
A week after the Kenyan Parliament passed a law compelling journalists to disclose their sources, pressure is mounting for President Mwai Kibaki to reject the punitive legislation. The new Kenya Media Bill, which was passed last week by 27 votes instead of the mandatory 30-member quorum, has come under heavy criticism from both the industry and the public, which perceive it as a deliberate attempt to gag the media, which has openly criticised the government for corruption.
The prospect of peace in Somalia, after 16 years of violence and bloodletting, receded further this month, even as President Abdullahi Yusuf’s transitional federal government prepared to hold talks with adversaries to draw a road map to a comprehensive peace settlement. Nairobi-based international humanitarian organisations estimate that more than 2 000 people, mainly civilians, have died in the latest flare-up.
A public spat over when 200 000 tons of duty-free sugar should be imported from the Common Market for East and Southern African (Comesa) bloc to forestall a sugar shortage in Kenya has exposed potential economic sabotage by members of the ruling party.
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/ 5 February 2007
The Kenyan government’s frantic attempts to bury the ghost of high level corruption haunting President Mwai Kibaki’s administration suffered a major setback when exiled former anti-corruption czar, John Githongo, dropped yet another bombshell in late January, which appeared to link the president and his henchmen to a brazen bid to cream off millions of dollars through fictitious projects.