EAC army deployment in Congo raises suspicions the move’s a ploy to create business opening for outgoing Kenyan president
Tensions are spiking once again in the chronically turbulent eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The M23 rebel movement – widely thought to be long dead – has dramatically resurrected. DRC President Félix Tshisekedi is now accusing Rwandan President Paul Kagame of again backing it with military support. Tshisekedi...
Abortion is a crime: Why US Supreme Court overturned right to pregnancy termination in 26 states
The constitutional right to an abortion has been struck down in the United States. The US Supreme Court announced on June 24 that it would overturn the 1973 landmark decision Roe v. Wade, which had protected abortion access up until the point that a foetus can live outside the womb...
South African xenophobia becomes endemic as vigilante groups embrace the ‘negative nationalism’
A week after members of Operation Dudula allegedly threatened to burn it down, the iconic Yeoville market in Johannesburg was set on fire in the early hours of June 20. Most traders who rent stalls there are migrants from other African countries. The South African Human Rights Commission confirmed that...
Mutual respect and conversation, not name-calling and conflict, are key to America’s gun violence prevention
When an 18-year-old took a semiautomatic rifle to an elementary school in Texas last month and killed 19 students and two teachers, I was looking after my 10-year-old grandson. He knows I have spent most of my life trying to prevent gun violence. I had to tell him we had...
Kenya’s unresolved murders: Why police leave stones unturned during investigations of high profile crimes
At least one person gets killed every two days in Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. Most of these cases are never resolved. Only 94 murder cases were registered in Nairobi courts in 2021. Nairobi is Kenya’s most populous city with more than four million people. Like other major cities across Africa,...
Old, emerging and lingering economic hurdles new administration in Colombia must wrestle with
In early May, a show of force – announced by Gaitanista Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AGC), after one of the group’s top leaders was extradited to the US – paralysed nearly a quarter of the country as the group forbade transport or economic activity for five days: a decree enforced...
They promise heaven, then serve hell: Why Kenyan youths have no appetite for August 9 elections
The number of young voters registered for Kenya’s August elections has dropped since the last poll five years ago, the election commission announced on Monday, pointing to apathy among a youth disenchanted by economic hardship and widespread corruption. This is despite the total number of people who have signed up...
Kenya elects new government in August, but polls body the youth have given the exercise a wide berth
On August 9, Kenyans head to the polls to elect their next president. The campaigns and manifestos of the four contenders still in the race have made the youth common denominator of their promises to the country. In spite of the youth agenda, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)...
How ‘Peace with Legality’ agreement is likely to impact new Colombia government domestic policies
Before the June 19 Colombian presidential election, candidates endorsed the 2016 peace deal and criticised the unpopular “Peace with Legality” plan of outgoing President Iván Duque Márquez government, which has involved deadly military operations, including the bombing of children at rebel camps. Defeated right-wing populist Rodolfo Hernandez, a right-of-centre political...
Civil war: Daunting humanitarian crisis Colombia’s newly elected president Gustova Petro faces
Helmut Ángulo lost his parents in 2000 at the height of the Colombian civil war, kidnapped and killed by rebel fighters. When the country signed a peace deal 16 years later, Ángulo vigorously opposed it. He wanted justice for his parents’ deaths, and he wanted to find their remains so...
