The headlines after 8 August will be about Kenyatta vs. Odinga. But the real contest for Kenya’s future is being waged at a more intimate and local level. Nairobi, Kenya | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS | There is an epic battle afoot over the future of Kenya, but it’s not happening where you might …
Read More »How Kenya could move away from the politics of ethnicity
How Kenya could move away from the politics of ethnicity | In 1992 Kenya held its first multi-party election in 26 years. Since this re-introduction of multipartism, the “politics of tribe” has been blamed for the country’s political tribulations. Nairobi, Kenya | DAISY MARITIM-MAINA | This has led to a system …
Read More »Kenya on a knife edge ahead of high-stakes elections
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenyans head to the polls Tuesday to vote in a knife-edge contest between incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta and his rival Raila Odinga which has heightened claims of vote rigging and fears of violence. The final days of campaigning have been marred by the murder and torture of …
Read More »ANALYSIS: What will decide the Kenyan election?
ANALYSIS: What will decide the Kenyan election? | A dose of faith, tribe and hard cash Nairobi, Kenya | JOSEPH WANDERA | After accepting his nomination as the presidential candidate of the main opposition coalition; the National Super Alliance (NASA), Raila Odinga likened himself to Joshua, the biblical figure who led the Jews to the …
Read More »Kenyans take no chances ahead of high-stakes election
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | In recent days, the queues of early morning travellers at Nairobi’s long-distance bus stations have been thick with people seeking to leave the city. In supermarkets, the aisles are cramped with shoppers pushing convoys of trolleys stacked high with provisions. In the runup to Tuesday’s …
Read More »Kenya: five things to know
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya, which holds elections on Tuesday a decade after deadly post-vote violence, is one of east Africa’s leading economies with a crucial tourism sector based on safaris and tropical beaches. – Post-election violence – Kenya was a British colony until independence on December 12, 1963. Jomo …
Read More »UHURU: from millionaire playboy to Kenyan president
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | The son of Kenya’s founding president and a man who epitomises the country’s elite, Uhuru Kenyatta hopes to win a second and final five-year term in elections on August 8. The 55-year-old US-educated multi-millionaire, whose family owns an array of businesses, properties and tracts of land, …
Read More »RAILA ODINGA: Veteran Kenyan oppositionist vies again
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Raila Odinga, Kenya’s veteran opposition leader and one-time prime minister, is taking his fourth tilt at the presidency in next week’s election. The 72-year-old has been a mainstay of Kenyan politics since the 1980s but has never achieved his presidential ambition. His career emulates that of …
Read More »Kenya opposition says US, Canadian poll advisers deported
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Two foreign nationals working on the opposition’s poll campaign are being deported from Kenya, the opposition and the US embassy said Saturday, just three days before a general election. In a tweet the US embassy in Nairobi said an American and a Canadian had been detained …
Read More »Kenya opposition claims office raided by police
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s main opposition coalition said Friday that one of its offices in a Nairobi suburb was raided by police who made off with dozens of computers, servers and surveillance equipment. The incident comes as the country is on a knife edge just days ahead of …
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