Responding to an article by Beth Maina and Cenya Ciyendi, Nzilani writes that ‘the anti-constitution campaign by various church leaders in Kenya is an attempt to exert their authority and power in the face of the government’. Ciiru Njehu hopes Kenyans will ‘recognise the hypocrisy of the church leaders’, while K?riak? wa K?nyua says it ‘is time for the “voiceless” to speak-out for themselves’.??

Responding to an article by Zaya Yeebo, Simon Kokoyo writes that ‘the agenda for people-driven change or development in Kenya has always been either hijacked by people with ulterior motives or externally driven.’

Is democracy possible here in the UK?

13 May Post-Election Reflections
Reflections on what the recent UK election tells us about the health, or
otherwise, of democracy in the UK with:

Firoze Manji, Editor in Chief, Pambazuka News
Colin Leys (Goldsmiths and Queens University, Ontario, author of
Market-Driven Politics, 2000)
Hilary Wainwright, Editor, Red Pepper
Heather Wakefield, UNISON
Chaired by Nick Couldry, Goldsmiths, University of London

5.30pm Goldsmiths main building RHB 309

For more details, write to Nick Couldry, n.couldry[at]gold.ac.uk of visit

Amady Ba

Amady Aly Dieng

Deportations to and from Uganda encompass a largely unreported world of human rights abuses, writes Bernadette Iyodu. Those returning are commonly immediately regarded as a threat as potential political dissidents, while those deported from Uganda face a murky world of debilitating bureaucracy and detention.

The surge in anti-gay statements by leaders across the continent is aimed at diverting the attention of people both at home and abroad from the lack of good governance and democracy, writes Hama Tuma.

Why should one take pride in one’s identity or country, asks Elyas Mulu Kiros, in an exploration of the tension between national and ethnic identities in Ethiopia.

As millions of UK citizens cast their votes in the country’s general and local elections, Alex Free considers the attitudes of the three major parties – Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats – towards engaging with other parts of the world as set out in their manifestos, for a sense of how the outcome of the election might affect Africa and the global South.

The large-scale acquisition for industrial agriculture in African and other developing countries has been described as a global land grab, 'threatening food, seed and land sovereignty of family farmers, social stability, environmental health and biodiversity around the world', writes Joan Baxter. While it is understandable that investors deny that this kind of agricultural investment is a ‘land grab’, says Baxter, what is perplexing is that ‘the same kind of rhetoric is coming from some whose job it is to protect Africa’s farmers’ rights and their farmland from exploitative foreign takeover’.

Stressing that recent US military interventions represent nothing more than 'the expansion and consolidation of Western capital', Ba Karang takes a look at the emergence of the US AFRICOM (African Command) programme. The African continent's emergence as a key oil and energy provider has not escaped the attention of the US government, Karang notes, and we are now seeing the 'aggressive birth' of AFRICOM.

In an interview with Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) Western Cape provincial secretary, Phumlani Majavu discusses the extravagance of Julius Malema and the differences between Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki's interaction with the ANC (African National Congress).

With Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's regime gearing up to set things firmly in its favour, Ethiopia's upcoming national election this month is already a done deal, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Zenawi's threatening gestures towards opposition leaders and dissenting political activists, Mariam stresses, are simply part of a broader campaign of pre-electoral intimidation and political paralysis.

The silent cries of the innocent,
Abandoned in the dark,
Stabbed in the night,
Shot by the wayside,
By masked men in ‘plain clothes’

We not know their names
We know their masters
Actions of intimidation
The voiceless cry!

Seekers of truth strangled
Maimed in daylight…

We have seen them,
We know them
But in little whispers we talk of them;

Intimidated by the lack of;
Crucified for the act of;

Bailing for the blood of the innocent
Kill and maim for what they cannot provide

The voice of the voiceless
Crying in the silent wilderness
Strangled by very powers we pay

We have seen them abduct kill and maim
We have seen them tap and disconnect
In fears we live
In confidence we cry

They abduct
They kill
And silence
Yet the voiceless die in the silent
Those with voice are now in borders
Those with voice never will return – Oulu, Kingara
Those with voice fear

When will the new dawn rise?

As the US's Tea Party marches on, Tim Wise invites readers to imagine if the movement's participants were black.

In preparations for the next elections Kenya has made changes to their voting systems, changing it from a paper based model to an electronic version. As of the 12th of April 2010 to the 21st may 2010, Kenya’s Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) will register voters electronically for the first time ever in 18 selected constituencies. The pilot will cover the 18 constituencies of Kamkunji, Langata, Mvita, Malindi, Dujis, Wajira East, Isiolo South, Imenti Central, Mbooni, Nyeri Town, Kikuyu, Eldoret North, Nakuru Town, Ainamoi, Ikolomani, Webuye, Kisumu Town West and Bonchari.

South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team jetted into Harare Thursday in aother attempt to diffuse rising tension between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. South Africa was appointed by the SADC to facilitate the removal of obstacles which hinder the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi has said North Korea’s World Cup squad will no longer visit and play a friendly match in Bulawayo, following unprecedented pressure from residents who labelled the planned trip ‘insensitive.’ There was massive opposition in the Matabeleland region to the team’s proposed visit to Bulawayo, after it revived memories of the brutal political massacres of the 1980’s.

Political tension in Masvingo’s Mwenezi district was said to be high, after a 15 year old schoolboy exacted his own revenge last week Sunday by killing the ZANU PF thug who murdered his father in 2008. An MDC official in the area told Newsreel that Nhamo Machacha was stabbed in the stomach by the fifteen year old, after a scuffle broke out at a church service.

The top United Nations envoy to Somalia today appealed to members of the nation’s Parliament to put aside their infighting and to instead focus on meeting the population’s needs and bolstering security. “I am following, with great unease, the unhelpful debate about parliamentary issues now taking place in Mogadishu,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, said in a press release.

Against the backdrop of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's spring meetings this weekend, numerous groups have chimed in on the need for and direction of a new World Bank energy strategy. The bank's review of this strategy, according to which it makes decisions on loans to energy projects in developing countries, is ongoing and is due to be finalised early next year. For now, though, it remains under fire.