Questions raised on why Museveni holds Ugandan children prison for months after opposition crackdown
Ugandan security services held children for months in prisons after successive crackdowns against opposition activists earlier this year, witnesses and victims have said. Adults and children described systematic physical abuse, denial of basic legal rights and appalling conditions as they waited for trial on charges they claim were fabricated. The...
Hospital workers in UK offer a hint about how some people clear Covid infections so fast that they don’t positive
Data from dozens of UK health-care workers suggest a tantalising possibility: that some people can clear a nascent SARS-CoV-2 infection from their bodies so quickly that they never test positive for the virus nor even produce antibodies against it. The data also suggest that such resistance is conferred by immune...
After years of financial fiddling and theft, Kenya zeroing in on a cartel in energy behind economic crimes
After years of financial fiddling in Kenya’s energy sector that scared off potential investors in manufacturing sector citing high cost of electricity and fuel, findings by taskforce appointed by the government to investigate the unusual happenings in the industry, point to serious accountability gaps. Consequently, shocked by the findings that...
Power and the glory: Cabal in Kenya president’s office piling misery on electricity consumers face arrest
Kenya is bracing for a stormier ending of the Jubilee government after a taskforce constituted by the President Uhuru Kenyatta to investigate the cause of high power tariffs unearthed massive rot in the seat of power, besides raising the red flag over the role-played by Deputy President William Ruto and...
Report: Cartel in Kenya president’s office ‘steals’ electricity and fuel, bills taxpayers three times above market rates
Kenya is bracing for a stormier ending of the Jubilee government after a taskforce constituted by Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta to investigate the cause of high cost of electricity and fuel unearthed massive rot in the seat of power, besides raising the red flag over the role-played by Deputy President...
Trouble with Nigeria-2: Weapons are readily available in northwest, flowing in from gunsmiths in the Sahel
Regardless of government intentions, the problem with Nigeria failure to hammer out permanent peace agreements with insurgents is that the accords negotiated so far are badly flawed and amateurishly executed. The running theme in all conflicts in Nigeria – as is the case elsewhere in Africa – equitable access to...
Trouble with Nigeria-1: Peace deals negotiated are so flawed they can’t rein in rampant banditry
They are known simply as “bandits” – heavily armed criminal gangs that have terrorised Nigeria’s rural northwest, killing, kidnapping, forcing people from their homes, and taunting the authorities with their brazenness. The violence typically involves scores of gunmen on motorbikes sweeping into villages, shooting all the young men they can...
Excluded from political and illicit economy, Mozambique insurgents were spurred on by the ‘privileges of the gun’
Political and economic exclusion, poverty and radicalisation came together to create the insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, and although military intervention has driven the insurgents back, it will not solve the root causes that led to young men taking up arms. This is according to a number of experts,...
AI: The goal should not be to make Google more money or help governments kill people more efficiently
Artificial intelligence researchers are facing a problem of accountability: How do you try to ensure decisions are responsible when the decision maker is not a responsible person, but rather an algorithm? Right now, only a handful of people and organisations have the power – and resources – to automate decision-making....
Political militarisation takes root in Africa as constitutional democracy is trampled on by party militia
In preparation for the 2000 parliamentary elections, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU-PF) militias were created and trained by the National Youth Service (NYS) to “transform and empower youths for nation-building through skills development and leadership training.” A report published by African Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS) says...
