A possible cause is reported as having hit his head in a vehicle three weeks ago. Kenya’s roads will do that.
PM Odinga has surgery to remove fluid from head
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Monthly Archives: June 2010
No lack of warnings
From BBC News Africa front page this evening:
MORE FROM AFRICA
Uganda reburial for genocide dead
Al-Shabab warns Somaliland
AU head warns Burundi politicians
Diamond body split on Zimbabwe
US warns Bissau on drug lords
African livestock genes ‘ignored’
Kenya warning over price fixing
Kenya to fast-track pirate cases
Mystery over Burundi’s ex-rebel
Hate Radio in Burundi? | from Foreign Policy
Somaliland election as pivot point for US?
Kevin J. Kelly’s piece in this week’s East African, “US urged to cut lifeline to struggling TFG”, comes as the Progressio international team and IRI’s observers have made positive statements on the status of the voting in Somaliland Saturday.
It seems that at least some people in Washington are taking stock of the gravity of what Jeffrey Gettleman reported on in the Times on the TFG’s use of child soldiers. Perhaps the “now what?” is a different approach.
To me, an orderly election in Somaliland in which the violence was limited to confrontation with militia supporting Puntland in the disputed region should not come as a surprise–this reflects society in Somaliland. This should be appreciated and “recognized” by the rest of the world. Nonetheless, let us see the electoral process to a conclusion before we offer our own conclusions.
Dining in Hargeisa
Time covers Burundi’s “High Stakes” Presidential Election Monday
From Ioannis Gatsiounis in Time, “Why All of East Africa is Watching Burundi’s Election”:
When Burundi goes to the polls on June 28, it will be the first of four countries in the East African Community (EAC) to hold presidential elections over the next eight months. Neighboring leaders and international observers were hoping the war-torn country would set a positive precedent for the others in the EAC — an intergovernmental organization intended to create political and economic link between countries that include Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania — and complete its transition to democracy in the process. But in recent weeks, an escalating series of political clashes and violent incidents has made it unlikely that Burundi will serve as a role model for the region.
The trouble began on May 24 when voters in the country’s local elections handed power to the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD). Accusing the CNDD-FDD of fraud, the 13 opposition parties withdrew from the presidential race, leaving incumbent Pierre Nkurunziza as the only candidate.
. . . .
“Burundi is facing a serious crisis,” says Fabien Nsengimana, program coordinator of the Burundi Leadership Training Program. And it could endanger not only national but regional stability. Glancing at Burundi’s vital statistics, it’s hard to imagine that what goes on in the country could have such an impact — Burundi is landlocked, it’s one of Africa’s smallest countries and one of the world’s poorest, with little in the way of prized natural resources. Yet time and again the former Belgian colony has proved pivotal to east Africa’s security, serving as a crossroads for the illegal arms trade and a floodgate for refugees. It even played a part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, with strife between Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi igniting tensions across the border.
. . . .
Burundi is no stranger to political strife, but traditionally it would cut along racial lines, with Hutus pitted against Tutsis. But a 2001 power-sharing agreement has effectively rendered race a non-issue. Today, four of President Nkurunziza’s 12 ministers, including his vice president, are Tutsi. These days, unrest is fed by social inequality: undereducated and unskilled youth, high unemployment, and a scarcity of land in a country where the majority of people survive as subsistent farmers.
Somaliland Election Update
Progressio’s press conference will be at 11:00am local time tomorrow (in the wee hours in the U.S.).
Here is the links page from Somaliland Focus for news sites and background. And their Election Observers’ Blog.
Somaliland Election status
Progressio will issue a preliminary statement as the international observation coordinator tomorrow on how things are going so far at that time.
Somaliland Elections and Oil in Mississippi Sound
Best wishes to all in Somaliland on Saturday’s long awaited presidential election.
Oil from the BP blowout is now finally entering the Mississippi Sound for the first time, so we can now expect to be seeing here more of what has been happening in Louisiana, and to a lesser extent Alabama and Florida.
There are those who anxiously await an opportunity to drill off Somaliland. Oil has been the basis for the economy in Louisiana but it has threatened the physical future of a large chunk of the state, as well as the social and cultural heritage, and the wildlife and environment. Definitely a situation that demands good governance. Perhaps in the age of globalization, people can learn from our mistakes.
Vote Buying and Women Candidates in Kenya
Following up on my last post noting the FRIDE study assessing democracy assistance in Kenya, here is a paragraph from a paper I drafted for the “briefing book” for our IRI 2007 election observation delegates. This is an example of the challenges faced in seeking to bolster female candidates while staying in graces with the powers that be:
While we at IRI try to train women candidates to do the most that they can with the least resources, and to find non-traditional sources of funds, the reality is that Kenyan political culture places heavy financial demands on those seeking office—from the fact that vote buying is extremely common, accepted and expected, to the fact that there is very little “free” or “earned” media available for races below the presidential level. Most women running for parliament will face daunting challenges financially. [On vote buying, 20% in our IRI/USAID poll admitted accepting money on this basis—I suspect the real number is significantly higher. A senior minister in government who has done training for IRI in the past explained unashamedly how in this year’s campaign he will spend twice what he has in the past, but will use his established practice of keeping crisp flat bills in denominations of 50, 100 and 200 KSh in his suit pockets as he campaigns, to be distributed based on the socio-economic and gender status of the potential voter.]
An interesting academic inquiry into vote buying in Kenya is posted here at the Working Group for African Political Economy.