Kenya's National Cohesion And Integration Commission (NCIC) has claimed that ‘the five largest communities’ have a disproportionate share of total workforce in public universities and constituent colleges in Kenya. But how does this make a contribution to national cohesion and integration?

African countries operating under the exploitative CFA Franc must free themselves from its shackles.

NOTE DE L'ÉDITEUR:

Les lettres qui suivent font partie d'un échange émouvant et d’une rare perspicacité entre deux femmes qui ont été, pendant des décennies, des leaders respectés de mouvements citoyens en Afrique de l'Ouest. Deux femmes connues pour leur sagesse, leur courage, leur créativité et leur engagement sans faille pour la justice, la paix et le bien-être de leurs pays respectifs, la Guinée-Bissau et le Mali. Cette semaine, Pambazuka est heureux de partager une partie de ces correspondances personnelles, échangées à la suite des coups d'Etat survenus d’abord au Mali en mars, puis en Guinée-Bissau en avril. Les lettres ont été traduites du français et sont signés avec des noms d’emprunt pour la sécurité de ces femmes, de leurs camarades et de leurs familles en ces moments difficiles qu’ils sont en train de vivre. (La version en anglais des lettres peuvent être lues à http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/82019]

href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_Africa_municipalities_by_l…">cc Wikimedia[/url">A solidarity for the vulnerable that cuts across the ethnic, regional and political divide is the final counter-balance against tribalism in South Africa.

The policy prescriptions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have failed to change the fundamentals of the economies of African countries and must be re-examined for the continent to develop, says a Professor of Law. 'The fundamentals remain unchanged. That the structure of African economies remains unchanged means that there will be no meaningful development,' Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, a member of the Council of State, said at the launch of 'The Oxford Companion to the Economics of Africa' in Accra.

A lot of money and time have been invested in writing a new constitution. There are several drafts lying around. Why not immediately hire reputable drafters to finish off the job and put the resulting document to a referendum?

The proposed law results from consultations between the state and traditional leadership structures. It ignores the voices of millions of rural women disenfranchised by those structures.

Sudanese war planes have launched renewed air strikes against South Sudan, violating a UN resolution to end weeks of a bitter border conflict. 'The Republic of Sudan has been randomly bombarding civilian areas,' said Southern army spokesperson Kella Kueth, who said the air strikes hit the border states of Upper Nile, Unity and Western Bahr el-Ghazal on Monday and Tuesday (7 and 8 May). It was not possible to independently confirm the reports of bombing and Sudan has repeatedly denied it has bombed the South.

The 21-member Civil Society Constitution Coalition (CSCC) has welcomed the Draft Constitution released recently, saying some clauses provided for in the document were progressive. CSCC spokesperson, Leonard Chiti, said the coalition had noted some progressive clauses provided for in the document and that it would protect them so that other interest groups would not take advantage of their numbers or influence to water down or remove them.

The proposed constitution serves the interests of the Transitional Federal Government and its international backers, not the people of Somalia.

Organic Agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved.

Close ties between Senegal and The Gambia go back many decades. But the collapse of the Senegambia Confederation underscores one lesson among many: Every effort must be made to ensure popular support for cooperation endeavours.

The post-colonial Arab state was everything else but a state. Concepts like the rule of law, governing institutions and citizenship rights did not apply. With a few exceptions, the organised Arab opposition seldom challenged this system.

Although the Malawian constitution is clear about succession in the event of the death or incapacitation of the president, a cabal close to the late President Mutharika wanted to install their own man in power instead of Vice President Joyce Banda.

The faltering economies and tighter budgets of Europe and America, the traditional providers of development financing, have left organizations and communities wondering where the continued funding of their development projects will come from. In this special report on the Peace and Conflict Monitor website, veteran fundraiser and development guru Jürgen Carls reviews the remaining instruments and possibilities for north-south financing, and argues that the solution may be in a completely new approach to fundraising - an approach based on longer term relationships between funders and recipients, characterized by trust, openness, honesty, commitment, and international cooperation.

African countries need more support from the private sector in order to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which include important development targets like poverty reduction, and improved health and education. Governments cannot do it alone, development and economic experts told delegates at the MDG Review Summit, which took place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3-4 May.

Shoppers in Malawi have been scrambling to buy basic goods, fearing huge price rises after the currency was devalued by 33 per cent. The BBC's Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says that many shops had run out of staple foods such as sugar, cooking oil and bread by the end of Monday. The kwacha was devalued as part of moves by the new government to restore donor funding. The central bank announced that one dollar would now be worth 250 kwacha, up from 168, while the peg to the US currency would be scrapped.

The European Union has slapped an assets freeze and travel ban on six coup leaders in Guinea-Bissau. It said a ban on entering the EU and the assets freeze targeted "six persons that threaten the peace, security and stability of Guinea-Bissau. Their names will be listed in the EU Official Journal on May 4.

When the Western Sahara report of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was watered down this year, from an April 6 to an April 11 'final' version, the first questions were directed at Morocco. But on April 16 a senior Ban administration official told Inner City Press the larger hypocrisy is France's, and sell-out of the UN is by Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to run the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).

Daughters as young as 12 in the villages surrounding Antsohihy, the capital of Sofia Region, in Madagascar's remote, traditional north, often suffer the harmful consequences of falling pregnant and giving birth too young when parents accept zebus (cattle) or cash as a dowry. Nationwide, 3,750 mothers and 16,500 babies die each year during or soon after delivery. Another 75,000 women experience medical problems as a result of childbirth, and an estimated 40 per cent of these women receive insufficient care.