President Biden removes sanctions against ICC, opens doors for possible cooperation
US President Joe Biden’s cancellation of punitive sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC) removes a serious obstacle to the court’s providing justice to the victims of the world’s worst crimes, Human Rights Watch has said. In the first week of April, Biden revoked a June 2020 order by then-President...
Kenyan and Ugandan truckdrivers boycott South Sudan roads to protest killings
South Sudan is bracing for a sharp rise in consumer goods prices after more than 3,000 drivers from Kenya and Uganda went on strike to protest spiralling insecurity on roads that link the frontier town of Nimule to the capital Juba, and towns further north. The protest follows a spate...
World journalists’ body wants Kenya to hasten probe into murder of editor
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) wants the Kenya government to hasten investigations into the brutal murder of a senior video editor and television producer with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) Betty Mutekhele Barasa. Ms Batty Barasa was assaulted and shot dead at her home on the outskirts of the...
Kenyan filmmakers, artistes pile pressure on president to relax rigid Covid protocols
Rendered helpless and idle by the recent rigid Covid-19 containment measures, stakeholders in Kenya’s entertainment and hospitality industries want the government through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth to bail out artistes and film-makers who depend on them for a living. In a statement, Kisima Music and Film Awards,...
Africa’s ‘Blue Economy’ remains untapped, set to be in hands of foreign powers
African governments have the ability to significantly impact the investment environment and investors will look to the way they are planning, regulating, owning and operating their ports. They will also take the country’s stability, security and perceived corruption levels into account. Experienced investors will certainly consider how individual governments have...
Too many regional economic communities, are they really helpful to African trade?
Africa is a complex continent. She is an eclectic mix of authoritarian regimes – where leaders have been in power for many decades; countries that are attempting to make their way towards democracy – even if progress is incremental and slow. There are others that have had a stronger semblance...
Angola nears Africa oil giant status with 57 billion barrels and 27 trillion cubic feet of gas
Italian oil and gas mining giant ENI has announced discovery of new deposits in Angola, elevating the southwestern African nation to one of the leading producers on the continent south of the Sahara Desert. ENI announced the discovery on April 6 in its Block 15/06 concession offshore Angola, to underline...
In fiery social media war, irate Kenyans petition IMF to deny their ‘eating thieves’ loans
Four hashtags sum up Kenyan’s frustration with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s handling of the economy: #NoLoantoKenya, #UhuruMalizaUende, #ThiefOfTheLoans, #IMFStopLoaningKenya. In threads under these hashtags, the angry public gives their verdict on an administration that was nine years ago romanticised as the springboard to economic dynamism in digital age, to leave office....
Africa’s urban rot: ‘We treat human beings like waste by ignoring or brutalising them’
A report presented to South African Tswane city in June 2019 highlighted the need for economic growth and job creation. It specifically addressed “the problem of informal recyclers sorting waste in an uncoordinated manner across the City,” and made a commitment to “extend their waste management systems in order to...
Human ‘scavengers’ in Africa exist because cities, residents create ‘garbage economy’
For the “Bagerezi” – informal recyclable material reclaimers – Covid-19 was just one extra thing to worry about. They face many more immediate dangers every day and are subject to every kind of disadvantage: homelessness, hunger and exposure to the elements, ostracism, exploitation, harassment and threats of eviction. The Bagerezi...
