From police to a ‘gangster’ state, Kenya stares into the abyss
“Nobody can stop reggae” is a refrain that connotes the Building Bridges Initiative campaign to amend the constitution, but in Kenyan politics it communicates political anarchy security and democracy experts fear will drive the country deep into the abyss. Beneath the reforms refrain or anthem – as politicians refer to...
New oil and gas finds trigger big investments in Southern Africa
Last spring, the Maersk Voyager, an ultra-deep-water drillship under contract by French supermajor Total, drilled a wildcat well in the deepest water ever – 3,628 meters in Block 48, a massive area with potentially huge oil reserves in the Congo basin offshore Angola. The record-setting achievement was not a success...
Coronavirus recasts attention on public health
Public health — the science of protecting and improving the health of a population — includes everything from setting pollution limits to urging women to get mammograms. It’s investigating salmonella outbreaks, tracking Lyme disease, defining drink-driving, fighting climate change, tackling systemic racism, inspecting restaurants, distributing condoms and every other activity...
Nairobi sucked into ‘fool’s gold’ as the mineral fuels conflict in central Africa
Despite efforts invested licit mineral trade to stifle gold smuggling and money-laundering, East Africa – with Nairobi and Kampala as pivots – still towers other countries in Africa as a major conduit for pirated gold and diamonds from conflict regions in the South and Central Africa. East Africa is in...
As Kenya mulls facial recognition technology, resistance builds up in Europe, US
In Belgrade’s Republic Square, dome-shaped cameras hang prominently on wall fixtures, silently scanning people walking across the central plaza.It is one of 800 locations in the city that Serbia’s government said last year it would monitor using cameras equipped with facial-recognition software, purchased from electronics firm Huawei in Shenzhen, China.The...
Puzzle of Kenya’s ‘mysteriously low Covid death toll’
One of the first large SARS‑CoV-2 antibody studies in Africa suggests that by mid-2020, the virus had infected four per cent of people in Kenya — a surprisingly high figure in view of Kenya’s small number of Covid-19 deaths.The presence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 indicates a history of infection with...
Rhumba Big Bang: Franco and Verckys split that reshaped African industry music forever
A rebellion in Orchestra Oscar Kashama (OK) in 1968 gave Africa rich a cultural diversity that lives on to this day.It happened when OK – later renamed Orchestra Kinshasa – band leader Luambo Luanzo Makiadi (Francois) was away on a business trip in Europe and forever changed the course, tenor...
Islamic jihadists behead dozens in Mozambique
Mozambican police have confirmed that at least 50 people in the country’s northernmost province were beheaded this month by suspected Islamist militants.The horrific attacks in gas-rich Cabo Delgado province took place in three villages in the districts of Muidumbe and Macomia over a week, according to commander-general of Mozambique’s police,...
Trade: Synthetic alternatives to endangered wildlife products being developed
Roughly a million species are threatened with extinction, according to a major international study published last year. And trade and personal use by people is the second leading driver behind habitat destruction, the research established.Conservation agency, Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)...
CITES is a terminally ill patient in need of serious attention – conservationists
Customs officials in Singapore made a grisly discovery last April at a port on the island’s southern coast. Inside shipping containers supposedly transporting frozen beef from Nigeria to Vietnam, they found bloodstained sacks stuffed with 14 tonnes of scales stripped illegally from pangolins — scaly anteaters endemic to Africa and...
