The U.S.-Africa summit is a failure if Americans do not treat Africans as equals NAIROBI, KENYA | Xinhua | Distrust of the United States has been growing across sub-Saharan Africa for decades, with recent developments widening the country’s credibility gap and offering little hope for improvement. Earlier this month, U.S. …
Read More »Kenya’s misguided protestors
How Kenya’s Gen Z have exaggerated expectations of their government and president THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I am writing this article from Nairobi where young, educated Kenyans are keeping President William Ruto busy. At the beginning of these protests, naïve commentators commended Ruto for conceding to the demands of …
Read More »Kenyan president orders debt audit, budget cuts amid protests
NAIROBI, Kenya | Xinhua | Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday appointed an independent taskforce to conduct a forensic audit of the country’s public debt, aiming to reduce government spending. Addressing a televised news conference in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, Ruto announced the dissolution of 47 state agencies, the suspension …
Read More »Kenya to overhaul budget after finance bill withdrawal amid protests
NAIROBI, Kenya | Xinhua | The Kenyan government is reorganizing the budget following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024, which sparked protests across the country in the past three weeks, President William Ruto said Thursday. Ruto, who chaired a Cabinet meeting in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, said the National …
Read More »Ruto pulling the finance bill is unlikely to satisfy angry young protesters – here’s why
KENYA | KATHLEEN KLAUS | In a move that shocked observers, Kenya’s President William Ruto announced on 26 June he was withdrawing his government’s highly controversial finance bill. This followed two days in which tens of thousands of mostly young protesters took to the streets in nationwide rallies against the proposals …
Read More »Ruto’s shambolically risky gamble
Why the Kenyan president may have opened the pandora’s box that will grievously impair his government THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Many people have hailed President William Ruto of Kenya for yielding to popular pressure not to sign the controversial Finance Bill. A friend in diplomatic circles in Kampala texted …
Read More »Kenyan president flags off 400 police officers to Haiti to combat gang violence
NAIROBI, Kenya | Xinhua | Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday flagged off the first group of 400 police officers, marking their deployment to Haiti to combat gang violence. The ceremony in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, saw the president hand over the Kenyan flag to the officers who will …
Read More »How G7 leaders can unlock financing for Africa
African countries pay interest rates eight times higher than those of the typical World Bank loan COMMENT | WILLIAM RUTO | Climate change continues to ravage Africa, which is enduring extreme weather and natural disasters on an unprecedented scale. My own country, Kenya, has just emerged from its longest drought on …
Read More »Speaker condoles with Kenya on CDF death as MPs rally against malaria
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament has paid tribute to the fallen Kenyan Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Francis Ogolla, who died in a helicopter crash on Thursday, 18 April 2024. Gen Ogolla and other officers died in the afternoon crash on Thursday, President William Ruto announced yesterday. He …
Read More »East African leaders call for immediate ceasefire in Sudan
ENTEBBE, Uganda | Xinhua | Regional leaders in East Africa have called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Sudan, where clashes since April of last year have left thousands of people dead. In a communique issued late Thursday at the end of the one-day Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) …
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