Category Archives: africa

you can respect women’s rights without being pro-abortion

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The Church in Kenya has every right to lobby for a pro-life amendment to the draft constitution. But that does not give them the right to completely rubbish the opinions of women leaders. Women like Gender Minister Esther Murugi are not crazy child-killers. They are reasonable people who do not want the male-dominated constitutional review process to usurp too much of women’s reproductive rights. Demanding for women’s reproductive rights is not being pro-abortion. And if the church leaders are so concerned about abortion perhaps it is time they eased their opposition to contraceptives that limit the occurrence of unwanted pregnancies in the first place.

The fact that the Kenyan clergy feel the need to legislate morality is a clear pointer to their failure to do their job right. If you do not want people to have premarital sex or use contraceptives, preach to them from the pulpit. Do not seek to make this into law. In any case, Kenyan society is already conservative enough when it comes to things like abortion and sexuality. What we need is not a constitution that pushes us further into paranoia about these issues but one that protects our mothers and sisters from the tyranny of the men from 10,000 BC who run our country.

This quote from Hon. Murugi captures the absurdity of the amendments being proposed by the anti-women’s rights team: “Let us have a reproductive health bill where all other issues are addressed. For instance, women are using morning after pills after sex. Are you going to put us all in jail?”

I am sure none of those opposed to the amendments is into the idea of killing the unborn. All that Kenyan progressives want is a law that does not take away women’s rights to choose what is good for them. Reason demands that we should not legislate morality. This will only lead to more kienyeji abortions that will continue to kill many Kenyan women each year.

It is fascinating how the conservative types (in both ODM and PNU) that ordered policemen to shoot rioters or organized militias to kill fellow Kenyans in early 2008 are the same ones at the forefront of the faux pro-life campaign. May their efforts to go against reason fail.

the lra menace

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That Joseph Kony and his top lieutenants are still alive and well is testament to the ineptitude of the Ugandan and Congolese armies. The Ugandan rebel leader continues to roam the forests in the border regions of Chad, the DRC, Uganda and Southern Sudan, killing villagers with abandon. The BBC reports that late last year the Lord’s Resistance Army massacred more than 300 people.

The LRA has morphed into a thuggish movement with loads of ideological deficit. They stand no chance of reaching Kampala and so roam in the forests of the great lakes region killing villagers and abducting children. This is yet another textbook case on the Continent of a rebellion that festers on for no other reason than because of state incapacity.

this seems really cool

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An African youth volunteer program just got launched in West Africa. The BBC reports that “The scheme would see youths spend time helping out in areas such as agriculture, health or education in a different country to their own.”

Read more here

botswana’s ian khama (and the bdp) faces his stiffest challenge yet

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Ian Khama has not had the presidency he dreamed of. The son of Botswana’s founding president faces his stiffest challenge yet since assuming office. A group of lawmakers from his party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), have threatened to jump ship and form their own party. If enough of them do, President Khama may be forced to resign and call fresh elections. The BDP has run Botswana since independence in 1966.

Read more here…

the south africans cometh

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They are all over Tanzania. Kenya’s southern neighbor is even a member of the SADC and currently suffers a huge trade deficit with South Africa. Now the sons and daughters of the Continent from south of the Limpopo are eying even greater penetration into the EAC via Uganda. President Zuma just visited Uganda with a delegation of businesspeople. Uganda’s oil sector was on top of the agenda.

I hope Kenyan businesspeople, and the political class, are watching. Competition from the South Africans is, of course, most welcome – companies like the East African Breweries certainly benefited from South African competition. That said, Kenya should not give up its role as the economic locomotive of East Africa. In particular, the government should ensure that Kenyan companies in the light manufacturing, retail and banking sectors remain competitive in the region. Investment in infrastructure – roads, the ports in Lamu and Mombasa, pipelines, power generation – should be prioritized. Nairobi must ensure that the Ugandans, Rwandans, Burundians and Southern Sudanese find it cheapest to export and import through Kenyan ports.

saving rift valley railways

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I hope some day someone will write a novel about how one Mr. Roy Puffet, a rather nondescript South African, managed to rake in millions at the expense of East African tax payers in the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) deal. The railway company is now in the hands of Egyptian investors and as Mr. Kisero of The Nation points out, I hope the Egyptians will make good of their promise and invest in making RVR good for the Kenyan economy.

The RVR deal is a lesson in bureaucratic incompetence. The Kenyan treasury sat by as sneaky businessmen like Mr. Puffet cut deals and made millions without doing anything in the way of improving the Kenyan railway system. In a country led by sane people we would have expected someone to take some responsibility over this. But not in Kenya. I bet someone high up in the Kenyan treasury was in cahoots with Mr. Puffet.

makmende goes viral

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Just A Band, starring Makmende the hero, continues to attract more and more fans. Even the Wall Street Journal gave it a few lines. My favorite Makmende one-liner:

“some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Makmende pajamas.”

spring break

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Yours truly will be away for the next few days because of a planned trip to “real America.” I hope to have some cool stories for you when I return.

I like Hayek too

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OK, I have to admit, I am one of those who read “The Road to Serfdom” and totally loved it. Hayek was spot on about the folly of planned economies. The markets are not perfect. But having imperfect markets beats planned economies on any day. We just have to provide a reasonable amount of regulation and provide social safety nets that take care of those who end up taking one for the team because of the dynamics of the free market.

And that is why I thought this post by Easterly was kind of neat.

I also found this post kind of interesting and to be an important part of the debate on the viability of certain African states. I am not into the whole idea of blaming colonial “arbitrary” borders for holding Africa back. The fact of the matter is that Africa has been held back by Africans like Samuel Doe, Mobutu, Emperor Bokassa, Sani Abacha, Idi Amin, Omar al-Bashir and other crazies of their ilk. That said, I also think that certain states should either be split up (Nigeria, DRC, Sudan) or absorbed into other states (most of the Sahelian states. )

cool blog

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Check this out…

those opposed to the creation of an unrepresentative senate have a point

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The Kenyan Draft Constitution seems to have hit a snag. A section of parliamentarians are opposed to the section of the proposed constitution that gives all counties equal powers via their elected senators. I agree with them. The to-be-formed senate, as currently constituted, grants too much power to sparsely populated counties. Theoretically, this should not make any difference because people could just move to better served, over-represented counties thereby balancing everything. But we all know that this does not happen in Kenya. The country remains divided into various “ethnic homelands” that are more often than not inhabited exclusively by a single ethnic group.

I hold the opinion that part of the reason why we currently have a corrupt and unresponsive political class is that those who actually pay taxes – and therefore feel the pinch of mismanagement of public funds – are grossly under-represented. For instance, Nairobi only has eight members of parliament even though it generates a huge chunk of Kenya’s tax revenue. Let us not worsen this by creating an even more powerful senate whose members will bribe their way into office with a few bags of sugar and flour per voter and then proceed to steal millions of urban Kenyans’ hard earned cash. I am not advocating for an urban-biased senate. What I am saying is that the constitution should, at a minimum, respect the principle of equal representation. Nairobians and other Kenyan urbanites should make it clear that they are not into the idea of taxation without equal representation.

The alternative would be to have independent incorporate urban districts that elect their own governments and have greater control over the collection and expenditure of their tax revenue. I don’t particularly like this idea though because places like Suba and Maragua still need Nairobi, Eldoret, Kisumu, Nyeri,Mombasa and others, to pull them up.

That is my peni nane opinion on this.

jeffrey gettleman is back

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Texas in Africa has a piece on Gettleman’s style of journalism. Mr. Gettleman is of course not new to this type of criticism. I have voiced my opinion on his reporting style a few times before.

This is not an argument for the mis-representation of the goings on on the Continent. (By all means tell us who is starving and is under incredible disease burden or being killed in a civil conflict). It is an argument for respectful reporting of the suffering of other people. This sort of sensationalism that you often see on the front pages of major newspapers does more harm than good.

And about Kristof. He should know better. I guess it must feel great to walk into a conflict zone ridden with poverty and get the reception of a rock star such as what Kristof got in Goma.

The line between helping the needy and this sort of vulgar self-gratification can be thinly thin sometimes.

as if somalis did not have enough problems….

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is implicated in a leaked report that suggests that corrupt officials have been diverting food aid intended for displaced Somali refugees. It is feared that al-Shabab (the Islamist insurgency group that is fighting against Somalia’s transitional government and its international backers) is benefiting from the diversion of food aid.

Diversion of food aid for other ends is not new in this region of the Continent. In the 1980s when the Ethiopian government under tin pot dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was fighting Eritrean and Meles Zenawi-led rebels, both sides of the conflict diverted food aid and used it to purchase weapons, with disastrous consequences. The CIA seems to have forgotten about this particular case. The agency is a key nemesis of al-Shabab in Somalia.

corruption in South Africa

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South African democracy still has a long way to go. My greatest fear is that ANC supremacy might get into the heads of the party bosses and have them collapse the distinction between party and state. There are already allegations of corruption within the top ranks of the ANC. Ironically, if corruption is to be tackled head on within the ANC, Jacob Zuma is the right man for the job, his own failings notwithstanding. He seems to have a direct connection with average ANC supporters and could use this to rein in party bosses, or at least make them steal less.

It is hard being a disciplined hegemonic party. Tanzania’s CCM is a lesson in what the ANC should avoid. Botswana’s BDP might be a better example of a relatively disciplined hegemonic party. The party has ruled Botswana since 1966 without falling into the temptations of grand corruption and power grabbing.

Edit: Recent events have shown cracks beginning to form within the BDP. The world is watching what Ian Khama, son of Seretse Khama is prepared to do to secure his presidency in the face of increasing opposition.

sectarian violence in nigeria getting out of hand

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The BBC reports that at least 500 people were killed in a massacre carried out on Sunday morning by machete wielding men near the Nigerian city of Jos. This Day, a Nigerian daily, puts the number at 200. The attacks were in response to similar killings that took place in the same area in January.

This latest incident highlights the ineptitude of the Nigerian security forces. Most of the villagers were hacked to death with machetes. In an age of cell phones it is unbelievable that the Nigerian police could not have arrived soon enough to stop this madness. It must take quite some time to kill more than 500 people with machetes. The slow response of the Nigerian security forces is unpardonable. And in any case how can such a plot be planned and carried out in an already volatile area out without the knowledge of the Nigerian intelligence services?

So far 95 people have been arrested. This is not enough. Abuja should move ahead and identify the planners of this abhorrent act and serve them justice. Anything short of this and the international community should move in and try those involved for crimes against humanity. Over 350 people were killed back in January when this sort of madness descended on Jos. The January attack in Kuru was just as ghastly. Several bodies were dumped in wells. Abuja should stop the killings ASAP and then attend to the problems that force people to commit such heinous crimes in the first place.