According to a report, up to 30% of children ages 12-18 in Kenya’s coastal areas of Malindi, Mombasa, Kalifi and Diani are involved in transactional sex with tourists. While this figure is outdated, reporting by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and journalists suggests that child sexual exploitation remains endemic, particularly in areas popular with tourists.Ěý

Kenya’s sex trafficking crisis

Coastal communities in Kenya are among the country’s poorest, despite their popularity with European tourists. While tourism has brought some employment opportunities to the area, significant earnings have not trickled down to locals, maintaining the region’s impoverished state. 

Such poverty, coupled with a relatively high level of social normalization, increases the local children’s vulnerability to exploitation. For instance, the states that many children will first sell sex in bars to local men and from there will enter the tourist market, meaning that exploitation often begins locally before extending to foreigners as demand increases during the high season.

For the children, few avenues exist to provide psychological, financial or social support. While a handful of provide critical aid to victims and work to combat exploitation, the issue overwhelms their resources. At the same time, state-level prevention, enforcement and accountability mechanisms are underdeveloped. While training includes a brief section on children’s rights, there is usually no subsequent refresher,and pursuing wealthy foreign offenders in particular remains a pertinent issue.Ěý

Meanwhile, European governments frequently fail to hold their citizens accountable for crimes committed abroad. For example, while the Swiss government the “Campaign to Protect Children and Youth against Sexual Exploitation Tourism” in 2010, the project focused more on raising awareness than on genuine governmental cooperation to facilitate convictions of offenders. Yet amid this governance gap, a promising infrastructure is emerging through bilateral agreements.

Bilateral agreements: flawed, yet promising

In 2024, Germany and Kenya a Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement (MMPA), one of several such bilateral agreements developed as part of European states’ external migration agendas. These agreements are designed to manage migration flows, address European labor shortages, and facilitate the return of unauthorized migrants. Crucially, they represent a growing form of interstate cooperation that brings together legal, political and development tools under a shared framework of responsibility.

Within these agreements, there is often some reference to addressing human trafficking, but it is usually limited to labor exploitation. Since tourism falls outside of the scope of MMPAs, they do not acknowledge the link between international tourism and child sexual abuse, let alone develop or propose concrete measures to combat it. Yet, greater labor migration and interstate cooperation between the two states will likely also increase tourism flows. 

Currently, Germans are the group of European tourists visiting Kenya, after the British. As diplomatic ties strengthen and mobility increases between the two countries, the risk of predatory behavior emerging without sufficient oversight also grows. Although the MMPA between Kenya and Germany is not specifically centered on tourism, it already stresses combating human trafficking and exploitation. Thus, these clauses could be expanded to include child protection measures.

For instance, the MMPAs provide mechanisms for cross-border law enforcement cooperation, which could also be adapted to include joint investigations into child sex tourism cases, information-sharing protocols about suspected offenders and mutual legal assistance agreements that enable prosecution across jurisdictions. 

Additionally, MMPAs offer a regularized diplomatic platform that requires consistent communication between state representatives. This could institutionalize discussions on child sexual exploitation and ensure political accountability. Interstate cooperation on this issue is not merely desirable; it is necessary. The crimes against children span borders, involving higher-income perpetrators from one country and lower-income victims in another. 

Without bilateral structures to close legal and enforcement gaps, the result is near-total impunity. In the current framework, European states have little political incentive to prosecute their citizens, while may hesitate to prosecute foreigners for fear of destabilizing the profitable tourism industry. Bilateral migration partnerships, backed by mutual interest and regular coordination, offer a path through this stalemate.

The precedence of bilateral cooperation for child sexual exploitationĚý

Using bilateral cooperation to counter child sexual exploitation has some precedents. For instance, have ratified international commitments to counter child sex tourism. Additionally, of the Canadian Criminal Code provides extraterritorial jurisdiction to Canadian authorities to convict tourists exploiting children abroad.Ěý

Theoretically, this means Canadian tourists are held accountable for their crimes, although in practice, convictions . However, the cases that resulted in successful prosecutions were the product of effective cooperation between the Thai and Canadian authorities through legal assistance and extradition treaties.

The MMPA between Germany and Kenya lays the foundation for similar collaboration, with the potential for higher conviction rates if applied effectively. of the MMPA outlines that areas for cooperation between the states will include “preventing and combatting forced labor, exploitation of labor, and human trafficking as well as protecting victims.” Following the Canadian-Thai model, this clause could be expanded to specifically include child sexual exploitation, as not only is it an illegal form of labor, but it also usually involves trafficking.

The German-Kenyan agreement presents a compelling case study, but the challenges and opportunities are far broader. The expanding network of MMPAs and similar bilateral agreements by European states creates the foundational governance infrastructure necessary to tackle transnational child sexual exploitation.

What is now required is a political vision to extend their mandate. These agreements already consolidate multiple domains, including labor, development, return and capacity-building, under a shared framework. Embedding child protection into this framework would reorient existing tools towards a more holistic understanding of human protection.

Europe cannot credibly present itself as a responsible actor in global migration governance and bilateral cooperation while turning a blind eye to the harms committed by its citizens abroad. Equally, African states, eager to benefit from international tourism, should not be forced to accept child exploitation as a trade-off. 

[ edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Bilateral Cooperation: A Promising Solution to the Child Sex Tourism Crisis appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

This transformation has not emerged in isolation. This is not just the result of governance failures, but of historical grievances rooted in colonial legacies, the spread of jihadist ideology through regional conflicts, the repeated failure of external actors to adapt their strategies to local dynamics and of narrow geopolitical interests. The US, turning a blind eye to the security vacuum in Sahel, is making the same mistake it made in Afghanistan.

The colonial echoes

The Sahel region was colonized by France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, significantly shaping its development. The French solely on resource extraction and exploitation, neglecting its governance. When they drew the borders of the Sahel, they drew them arbitrarily, dividing ethnic groups across different countries and weakening national cohesion.Ěý

After independence in 1960, frustration grew among nomadic and tribal groups as the already limited governance began to fail, marking the start of extremism and rebellion. This rebellion and violent tendencies escalated when the Sahel was hit by famine and (especially the 1968-73 drought), and escalated further in the 1980s, with issues such as banditry, kidnapping, extortion and the killing of French citizens.

The beginning of jihad in the SahelĚý

The Sahel region practiced moderate Sufi Islam, but the North African region soon saw the first signs of jihadi conflict — specifically the outbreak of the Algerian civil war in 1991, when the government out of fear that Islamist forces might gain power.Ěý

Islamist forces quickly capitalized on growing public disillusionment with the state, leading to the creation of radicalized armed groups. The military’s intervention and subsequent coup escalated the conflict into a civil war, creating a political vacuum that enabled Islamist groups to establish a foothold. 

Concurrently, in 1992, Osama Bin Laden relocated to Sudan, where he set up Al-Qaeda’s training camps and business operations. This move signaled Al-Qaeda’s growing interest in the region and its strategic potential. The of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania underscored how North and East Africa had become increasingly integrated into Al-Qaeda’s transnational agenda.

By 2007, the Algerian Armed Islamic Group had pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda and rebranded itself as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (). From there, AQIM expanded southward into Mali and Niger, using smuggling and banditry to finance its terror activities. This southward shift gained further momentum after the 9/11 attacks, as the US-led war on terror displaced jihadist networks from the Middle East and South Asia, pushing them to seek new bases of operation in regions like the Sahel — where porous borders and unstable governments offered strategic opportunity.

As the mid-2000s approached, a distinct jihadist landscape had begun to take shape in the Sahel, one that would be further reinforced after the of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011.

Expansion of the jihadi landscape

The fall of Gaddafi created a political and security vacuum that Al-Qaeda was quick to exploit, especially in Mali. With the collapse of Gaddafi’s regime, significant of weapons spilled into the region.Ěý

Among those freed were Tuareg who had served as mercenaries under Gaddafi. These fighters later aligned with AQIM, strengthening Al-Qaeda. Their alliance was further shaped by the Tuaregs’ separatist desire for autonomy in Mali’s Azawad region, sparking a rebellion in 2012 that quickly took on a militant Islamist character.Ěý

By April that year, Islamist forces had seized control of key northern cities in Mali, marking a fresh surge in jihadist activity across the region.

Consolidation ofĚý the jihadist waveĚý

By 2013, Western governments began acknowledging the growing terrorist threat in the Sahel. France launched to oust jihadist groups from northern Mali. The mission succeeded in dislodging militants from major urban areas — but it pushed them deeper into the countryside and across national borders, allowing them to regroup and destabilize the region more.Ěý

France followed this with between 2014 and 2022, aimed at regional stabilization. But progress stalled. French troops encountered resistance not just from insurgents, but from local populations with deep-seated resentment linked to France’s . As these military interventions struggled to deliver long-term security, political instability, poverty and governance failures deepened, creating conditions that Islamist groups readily exploited to recruit and radicalize.

A dangerous convergence: jihadist unity and coups

ISIS made its into the Sahel in 2015, prompting a breakaway faction from AQIM to pledge allegiance and form the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). Two years later, Al-Qaeda responded by consolidating its presence. AQIM merged with Ansar al-Dine and al-Mourabitoun to form Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), a powerful group that is now the behind jihadist operations in the region.

The political environment further deteriorated from 2020 onwards, as swept through the Sahel, weakening already fragile governments. These conditions enabled ISGS and Al-Qaeda to entrench themselves further.Ěý

As criminal activities increased, these terror groups adopted banditry with jihadist motives, creating what is called “”, encouraging criminal groups to adopt jihadist ideologies and migrate into terrorism. This has significantly bolstered Al-Qaeda and ISIS’s presence in the Sahel in recent years.Ěý

The consequences have been staggering: in 2023, Sahel accounted for of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide, a number that grew to in 2024. Burkina Faso alone recorded fatalities in 2022, making it the world’s most terror-affected country.

Narrow geopolitics and limited attentionĚý

Africa has steadily become central to global geopolitics and geoeconomics, particularly due to its of rare earth minerals and gold. Yet, in the Sahel, these resources remain largely untapped, overshadowed by an entrenched security crisis and volatile political environment.Ěý

After France’s military withdrawal, the region saw the arrival of ¸éłÜ˛ő˛őľ±˛ąâ€™s , a private mercenary or paramilitary force. The Sahel’s military juntas welcomed Wagner for the short-term promise of security support and the political leverage it offered through alignment with Moscow. However, Wagner’s presence has not translated into lasting stability. Its activities have remained largely focused on securing Russian interests and gold mining operations, rather than providing a serious or coordinated response to the region’s security challenges.Ěý

Despite the presence of Russian forces and the persistence of jihadist activity, the United States has kept the Sahel at a strategic priority.

Washington has avoided deeper engagement, the absence of a direct or immediate national security threat. But a primary reason is that the US likely considers involvement in African conflicts risky, given its haunting past with the Somali crisis, where it faced one of its biggest failures: . But the operation failed due to overconfident and patterned operational planning with a lack of contingency and strong communication on the ground, none of which are unavoidable in future operations.ĚýĚý

During the 90s, Sahel did not emerge as a direct threat, and the US focus remained on security issues in East Africa and Al-Qaeda. 

However, the Sahel region has gradually become a direct threat to the US after the 2011 Libyan , and the threat increased greatly by 2017, when ISIS cadres in Africa gained strength. The 2017 Tongo Tongo in Niger, where ISGS fighters killed four US Special Forces soldiers, underscored the growing threat to US personnel in the region.Ěý

The apprehension was echoed by General , head of US Africa Command, who warned in 2024 that Sahel-based terrorist groups could develop the capacity to strike the US homeland if left unchecked.

While the US did maintain a surveillance and reconnaissance in Niger for some time, this was withdrawn in 2024, alongside France’s broader . The departure of Western forces, combined with ¸éłÜ˛ő˛őľ±˛ąâ€™s limited effectiveness, has left a fragile security landscape in which terror groups are once again finding space to operate.

A recurring blind spot in US counterterrorism

The United States’ counterterrorism strategy has repeatedly failed to anticipate the evolution of jihadist networks, particularly when they have emerged from outside conventional theaters of war.

The 1998 embassy bombings were orchestrated from Afghanistan, exploiting a blind spot in US regional threat assessments; the US grossly underestimated Al-Qaeda’s transnational reach. Similarly, during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, the alignment between Algerian Islamist factions and Al-Qaeda to form a secret jihadist revolution in Africa went largely unacknowledged by US intelligence, despite clear that they were building contacts with the global terror network. In Somalia, the US once again the regional Islamist force, Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, while focusing on humanitarian operations. This misjudgment contributed to the emergence of Al-Shabaab, now a dominant Al-Qaeda affiliate in East Africa.Ěý

The list doesn’t end here; the US also failed to act when ideological convergence between jihadist groups and narcotics cartels grew in Colombia (a country with which it shares strong security cooperation on narcotics issues), which led to cartel bombings in 1998. A now sustains Al-Qaeda’s operations in the Sahel, with JNIM heavily depending on a drug smuggling network.Ěý

Yet, Washington’s strategic assessments have continued to downplay this growing narco-terror convergence.

The threat of resurgence is now common; the real danger is that terror groups are acquiring the capabilities necessary for transnational terror attacks. Without a shift in strategic posture — one that moves beyond narrow geopolitical interests and accounts for the full complexity of threats — another major wave of global jihadists may be inevitable.

[ edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post The US Needs to Face the Rising Threat of Jihad in the Sahel Region appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

The (AU) selected 2063 as the target year for its 50-year vision starting in 2013 with , which references the vision of its predecessor organization, the OAU. This strategy for Africa’s transformation includes five ten-year implementation phases. The (2013-2023) focused mainly on economic growth, integration, governance and peace. Key initiatives included the Single African Air Transport Market () and the initiative. According to the on the Implementation of Agenda 2063, some progress has been made, such as with the flagship project, the African Continental Free Trade Area (), which 54 member states have signed. The second ten-year plan (2024–2033) aims to accelerate progress and strengthen implementation. The AU envisions achieving its goal of a united, integrated Africa several decades from now, indicating that the continent still has a long road ahead.

Fragile progress

The continent has surged forward in various areas, as some of the world’s are in Africa. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) allow tech enthusiasts to work on groundbreaking solutions to local and global challenges. They have been thriving, allowing more people access to education and health services. Many areas have improved their infrastructure, including the emerging standard gauge railway . This will connect Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.

While there is cautious optimism that better governance and democratization could improve the well-being of many African nations, concerns still exist regarding the fragility of this progress.Ěý According to the , many African countries perform weakly in the governance dimension, as well as in political transformation and economic transformation. Looking at the African continent immediately reveals political instabilities, a decline in freedoms and setbacks in democracy.Ěý

The coexistence of progress and stagnation is particularly evident in countries the index classifies as moderate, such as . President William Ruto’s administration drives promising developments in the rule of law, economic growth and climate policy, as reflected in the corruption and high national debt offset these gains. In 2024, further tested the country, culminating in the storming of the parliament.

Many people on the continent still yearn for administrations that can better manage resources, conduct affairs transparently, and uphold human rights. So, can regional integration be a tool for better governance in Africa, a continent of 1.4 billion people in 54 countries?

Approaches to successful integration

Agenda 2063 captures the aspiration for a fully integrated continent by focusing on economic cooperation (such as the ), promoting democratic governance, and resolving conflicts. The final aspect of integration is the establishment and strengthening of continental institutions. One of the most practical benefits of an integrated Africa is an environment where people can move freely across borders, bringing knowledge, goods and services.

There are good examples of integration on the continent. The has successfully integrated countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and more recently Somalia. Institutions have evolved, including the East African Legislative Assembly, a common customs union and a common market. Countries also usually find a familiar voice in continental and international matters.

Furthermore, the EAC allows the free movement of people, goods, services, labor and capital among its members. The community has set up conflict resolution mechanisms to ensure peace and security in the region.

Particular interests and powerless institutions

On paper, the AU has clearly articulated its aim to expand such approaches to successful integration. Its leaders often speak about the need for an environment where people can move freely across borders, thus accelerating integration.

Yet the process has been slow, if not stagnant, as African governments have limited interest in further integration. One reason for this is that many countries are focused on their own internal political, economic and social challenges, overlooking the bigger picture.

These governments have not developed effective agreements or harmonized legislation to facilitate free movement or integration. At the same time, frequent border disputes further challenge the movement of people, goods and services. Travelers often encounter security checkpoints and roadblocks at national borders and within countries. Wars and political instability frequently disrupt existing arrangements as well. 

Whereas AU member states have often agreed on protocols, regulations and directives, their governments have been sluggish in adopting these decisions for implementation or do not implement them at all. There is also a form of protectionism in which member states want to keep their independence.

One example is the AU protocol on the of persons adopted in 2018 by the AU. The agreement aimed to allow citizens of member states to move and work freely across borders, but many countries have not ratified or implemented it. One such country is , where the government emphasizes the need to meet specific prerequisites before implementing free movement, including strengthening integrated border management. Other states are concerned that could place greater strain on their labor markets and social systems.

Meanwhile, the AU bodies are poorly funded as they rely on contributions from member states, which are often delayed or unpaid, leaving the institutions in severe financial distress. The AU receives financial assistance from international donors such as the EU, the UN and non-governmental organizations and foundations. Still, that assistance has faced challenges due to ongoing global economic problems. To foster successful integration and improve governance, the AU must ensure adequate funding for its institutions. In recent years, the AU has tried to strengthen its financial autonomy — for example, by introducing a on imports in member states to increase self-financing.

Substantial progress is needed

Another key obstacle to realizing the vision of successful integration lies in the structural constitution of the AU. Although it includes institutions like the, the and the , authority rests with the assembly, which gathers heads of state. Thus far, they have refused to delegate authority to the AU’s organs. As a result, the Pan-African Parliament does not exercise binding legislative powers.Ěý

To implement the AU’s vision of a united and prosperous Africa, it is essential to urge member states not to cling to their self-interest but to work towards effective agreements or legislative harmonization that facilitate the movement of people, goods and services. Furthermore, the AU must work harder to end wars, conflicts and disputes among its members. To this end, it would be helpful if the AU had greater capacities for peacekeeping — for example, in the form of peacekeeping troops modeled after the UN peacekeepers nicknamed “Blue Helmets.” Without overcoming selfishness and implementing more effective structures, the vision outlined in Agenda 2063 will remain a distant future goal.

[ edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorialĚýpolicy.

The post Exploring Africa’s Thrilling Agenda 2063: Genuine Opportunities and Challenges appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

To be fair, the British have apologized for one of their darkest acts in Kenya. In 2013, the government “finalized an out-of-court settlement with thousands of Kenyans who were tortured in detention camps during the end of the British colonial reign.” The British were crushing the Mau Mau — Kenyan rebels from the Kikuyu tribe — who fought in the 1950s and 1960s. It took years before the historic apology and the unprecedented settlement was finalized in 2013.

In 2022, Kenya is back in the news for seeking justice for another brutal British act. With nearly 56 million, is a dynamic East African country. It now has a literacy rate of 78% but its per capita income is barely $1,879, ranking lowly 144 in the world. Many argue that many of Kenya’s current problems are a legacy of British colonialism.

British Colonization

For millennia before British colonization, comprised many tribes. There was sporadic violence but these tribes lived in relative peace and harmony. Some communities farmed, others raised livestock, while others practiced a combination of both activities. Some were hunters and those by Lake Victoria fished. Production served the needs of communal survival. Family and clans shared ownership and cooperated in production as well as distribution. These communitarian societies ensured that no one fell into abject poverty. Boundaries between different ethnic groups were fluid. Trade and intermarriage were prevalent. Notably, communities generally operated without the modern version of the chief.

British ripped apart the social fabric of the communities who now live in Kenya. British rule kicked off with the 1884/85 , which deprived Kenyans of their natural, territorial, and political rights. In 1894, Britain declared  Kenya a protectorate of the Crown. Its officials created Kenya and drew the nation’s boundaries without ever consulting the Kenyans themselves. These new boundaries divided existing communities and brought disparate ethnic groups into a new country. The British created an atmosphere in which communities had to compete for resources and survival. They ruled over the communities with an iron hand. Their military expeditions stole people’s lands and forced many to migrate in a genocidal campaign.

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The confiscated the land they coveted. They instituted forced labor, turning Kenyans into the property of the British settlers. In 1902, they inaugurated the hut tax, which forced the natives to work for the British to pay the tax or be forced to serve the British settlers. In 1913, they introduced the land bill. This gave British settlers a 999-year lease and effectively confiscated nearly all Kenyan land. In 1919. they required all native men to wear identity discs, more than a decade before the Nazis adopted the same policy with the Jews. In the 1920s, natives were forced to live on reservations and subjected to flogging, much as the British had done to the indigenous peoples from North America to Australia.

Mau Mau Uprising

After World War II, India gained independence in 1947. This inspired the African independence movements. In 1952, the Mau Mau movement for self-determination began. When Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip visited Kenya that year, Elizabeth reportedly went up into a treehouse as a princess and came down as . 

Whilst the royals were putting up a pretty face, British forces were planning one of the world’s worst ethnic cleansing operations. They went on to smash the Mau Mau through brutal methods. When Kenya achieved independence in 1963, the British destroyed all their official records. In this Cold War era, the US was aware of British atrocities but looked the other way.

Supported at the “highest levels”, the British purged the capital city Nairobi of people, placing them in “barbed-wire enclosures”. They interrogated thousands of detainees. Their interrogators resorted to all types of torture, including forced labor, beatings, starvation, and sexual abuse. Records show that one of those “tortured was the grandfather of former US President Barack Obama”.  

In a span of 18 months, the British dropped “6 million into Kenya’s forests to disrupt guerrilla activity.” Then, the British “dusted Kikuyu areas with photographs of mutilated women to intimidate the populace.” 

In her book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya, observes that thousands of Kenyans  fought alongside British forces against Germany in World War II. The British repaid the Kenyans with barbarism, not gratitude. They locked up around 1.5 million Kenyans in detention camps and barbed-wired townships in response and killed thousands.

In her 70-year reign, Elizabeth never acknowledged or apologized for British atrocities. Neither did any prime minister. Winston Churchill was then prime minister. Lionized in the UK even today for taking on Adolf Hitler, Churchill escapes scrutiny for his racist, imperialist and ruthless actions in the colonies. In 1919, he that he was “strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes.” He ordered that British forces put down the 1920 Iraqi rebellion with an iron hand. Churchill spreading “a lively terror” among the natives so that they would come to heel. In Iraq, the Royal Air Force flew missions for 4,008 hours, dropped 97 tons of bombs and fired 183,861 rounds. They used on Iraqis, over 60 years before Saddam Hussein who targeted Iranians, Shia Arabs and Iraqi Kurds. Under Churchill, the British government unleashed similar brutality upon the Kenyans.

US Foreign Policy in the Middle East Needs a Rethink

The forced the natives away from their ancestral lands and into reservations. Only a few years after the Holocaust, the British locked up 1.5 Kikuyu people in concentration camps, torturing, beating, and starving them to death in large numbers. This was an egregious act amounting to naked genocide. Their signature on the UN Charter did not hold them back.

An example of British brutality was revealed in court in 2012. Four Kenyan victims appeared before the in London. Jane Mara, one of the victims, was 15-years-old at the time. She was repeatedly beaten by the interrogators. They pinned her down on her back while four guards held her thighs wide open and kicked a heated glass bottle into her vagina. After that excruciating pain, she witnessed the same torture inflicted on three other young women. Men were not spared either. The designed pliers to squeeze male testicles. 

The US Supported the UK

After World War II, the US became top dog. The Cold War began. The UK was now a trusted ally. Therefore, the US overlooked British atrocities in Kenya. was well aware of the British conducting genocide in Kenya. Just as in the Congo and in Vietnam, the US sided with the white imperial powers against the colored peoples of the colonies. Remember this was still a time when the US itself was segregated along racial lines. The US wanted to free Eastern Europe from Soviet rule but it wanted to perpetuate British, French or Belgian rule elsewhere.

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In the first half of the 20th century, Vanderbilt University scholar observed in the Journal of American History that Americans thought of East Africa as “a real white man’s country.” They believed that Kenya deserved Western imperialism and white supremacy. Over centuries, the US practiced ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, enslaved African Americans and subjugated ethnic minorities. These races were deemed biologically and intellectually inferior to the white race.

As is their habit, the US mainstream media, including , followed the official US narrative. They painted a picture of the African continent described as  “synonymous with terror, hopelessness, and conflict.” The media represented the Mau Mau fighters as terrorists and criminals with communist connections. They failed to recognize that Kenyans were involved in a liberation movement. Just like George Washinton and Thomas Jefferson, they too were fighting for independence.

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UN Failure and Case for Reparations

After World War II, the UN has consistently failed to stop genocide, prevent ethnic cleansing or rescue victims. It has been unable to bring the guilty to justice. The UN has failed all around the world from Cambodia to Sudan.

The UN represents the interests of powerful nations. Five of them have veto power in the Security Council. Naturally, the Peace Worldwide Organization considers the a failed institution, and gives it a mere 12 out of 100.

The UN has failed to deliver justice to the Kenyans too. Despite British denials and cover-ups, evidence of their atrocities is overwhelming. So, an International Court of Tribunal for Kenya (ICTK) would be a good first start. Just as Holocaust victims have been compensated, their properties restituted, Kenyans must also get compensation and restitution.

The British must acknowledge, apologize and make reparations for the genocide and atrocities they committed during colonial times. Importantly, reparation payments should go directly to victims and their descendants, not into the coffers of Kenya’s corrupt government. A sum must be set aside for education and infrastructure to compensate for the ravages of colonization.

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No sum can ever wipe out the suffering of the Keynan people. However, reparations are important for three reasons. First, victims get justice. Second, poor countries and poor victims get valuable financial support. Third, they set an important precedent of imperial masters being held accountable. Germany paid compensation to Jews who suffered unspeakable tragedy during the Holocaust, This has made the country less likely to repeat the atrocities of the past. The UK must be held to account so that the British do not repeat the colonial misadventures of Kenya and India in places like Iraq and Libya.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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February 25: Dead Empires

Perhaps the most lucid on the Ukraine crisis came from the Kenyan ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani. Addressing the UN Security Council earlier this week, Kenya joined the chorus of nations categorically condemning ¸éłÜ˛ő˛őľ±˛ąâ€™s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity as a prelude to a military assault. But unlike other nations, which have been framing their judgment only in terms of international law, Kimani proposed a measured reflection drawing on a much wider historical perspective than that of disputed territories in Eastern Europe. The experience of African nation-states, “birthed” as he reminds us in the past century, helps to clarify the crisis in Eastern Europe as just one more symptom of a pathology spawned by the Western colonial tradition.

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The New York Times didn’t bother to mention Kimani’s speech. After all, who cares about Kenya or the historical insight of Africans? The Washington Post offered two minutes of excerpted from the ambassador’s six-minute speech. It was accompanied by a single sentence of commentary that gives no hint of the substance of his remarks: “Kenyan Ambassador to the U.N. Martin Kimani evoked Kenyan‘s colonial history while rebuking Russia’s move into eastern Ukraine at the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 21.”

Carlos Mureithi at Quartz Africa penned a fuller that doesn’t quite get Kimani’s real point. He begins by describing the speech as “a scathing condemnation of the Russia–Ukraine crisis, comparing it to colonialism in Africa.” But it was much more than that.

Kimani invited the Security Council to consider how the nation-states we have today were crafted by European colonial masters focused on perpetuating their own interests and indifferent to the needs and even identities of the peoples who lived in those lands and who woke up one morning to find themselves contained within newly drawn national borders. Kimani makes the surprising case for respecting those borders. However arbitrary in their design, they may serve to reign in the ethnic rivalries and tribal tendencies that exist in all regions of the globe, inevitably spawning local conflicts. But even while arguing in favor of the integrity of modern nation-states, he showed little respect for those who drew the borders and even less for the self-interested logic that guided them.

“We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires,” Kimani urges, “in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression.” The populations on the receiving end of colonial logic know that even dead empires, chopped down to size, can be sources of contamination. They have left a lot of dead wood on the path of their colonial conquests. Not only does dead wood tend to rot, but, if the vestiges of the past are not cleared away, those who must continue to tread on the path frequently risk tripping over it.

Kimani evokes the specter of “nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia.” He sees a bright side in the fact that an incoherently drawn map may have helped Africa avoid the worst effects of nostalgia. The real paradox, however, is that his description of dead empires applies to the two still breathing opponents who are facing off in the current struggle: Russia and the United States.

In an article on the Russia–Ukraine crisis published on 51łÔąĎ in December, Atul Singh and Glenn Carle highlighted Vladimir Putin’s obsession with a form of nostalgic traditionalism. They described it as “a reaction to and rejection of the cosmopolitan, international, modernizing forces of Western liberalism and capitalism.” Though Putin’s wealth is as legendary as it is secret and the Russian president appears to be as greedy as a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, he seems possessed by a pathological nostalgia for the enforced order of the Soviet Union and perhaps even for the Tsarist Russia the Bolsheviks overturned a century ago. At the same time, Donald Trump’s campaign to “Make America Great Again” reveals a similar pathology affecting the population of the US. It’s equally a part of President Joe Biden’s political culture. The “back” that appears in Biden’s slogan “America is back” and even in “Build Back Better” confirms that orientation.

In declining empires, the mindset of a former conqueror remains present even when conquest is no longer possible. Kimani alludes to this when he affirms that Kenya “strongly condemn[s] the trend in the last decades of powerful states, including members of this Security Council, breaching international law with little regard.” He accuses those states of betraying the ideals of the United Nations. “Multilateralism lies on its deathbed tonight,” Kimani intones. “It has been assaulted today as it has been by other powerful states in the recent past.” In other words, Putin is not an isolated case.

Kimani politely names no names. But the message is clear: There is blame to go all around and it is endemic. That is perhaps the saddest aspect of the current crisis. Sad because in wartime situations, the participating actors will always claim to act virtuously and build their propaganda around the idea of pursuing a noble cause. Putin has provocatively — and almost comically — dared to call his military operations a campaign of “demilitarization,” which most people would agree to be a virtuous act. We have already seen Biden the various severe measures intended to cripple ¸éłÜ˛ő˛őľ±˛ąâ€™s economy “totally defensive.”

Empires assumed to be dead are often still able to breathe and, even with reduced liberty of movement, follow their worst habitual instincts. The two empires that squared off against each other during the Cold War to different degrees are shadows of what they once were. But their embers are still capable of producing a lot of destructive heat.

Why Monitoring Language Is Important

Language allows people to express thoughts, theories, ideas, experiences and opinions. But even while doing so, it also serves to obscure what is essential for understanding the complex nature of reality. When people use language to hide essential meaning, it is not only because they cynically seek to prevaricate or spread misinformation. It is because they strive to tell the part or the angle of the story that correlates with their needs and interests.

In the age of social media, many of our institutions and pundits proclaim their intent to root out “misinformation.” But often, in so doing, they are literally seeking to miss information.

Is there a solution? It will never be perfect, but critical thinking begins by being attentive to two things: the full context of any issue we are trying to understand and the operation of language itself. In our schools, we are taught to read and write, but, unless we bring rhetoric back into the standard curriculum, we are never taught how the power of language to both convey and distort the truth functions. There is a largely unconscious but observable historical reason for that negligence. Teaching establishments and cultural authorities fear the power of linguistic critique may be used against their authority.

Remember, 51łÔąĎ’s Language and the News seeks to sensitize our readers to the importance of digging deeper when assimilating the wisdom of our authorities, pundits and the media that transmit their knowledge and wisdom.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Beware of Dying Empires, an African Warns appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

The most striking impression I have of Kenya comes from a walk I took from Southlands Estate to Valley Arcade. I didn’t take an Uber, taxi or matatu, the mythical minivan service. I walked over to the meeting against the express advice of my hosts who maintained I was taking an unsafe route. In their view, walking along the edge of Kibera, Nairobi’s legendary slum, demonstrated I was a naive mzungu asking for trouble.

Slums, Sewers, Women and Young Men

Truth be told, my hosts were right to fear my choice. During my walk, I went off the grid and took a detour through Kibera. It reminded me of slums in India but something was a bit different. There was aggression in the air that Indian slums lack. It is not that Indian slums are peaceful places with people happy in their poverty as some gullible tourists proclaim. Such poverty-ridden places have their slumlords, there are fights over water and vicious violence breaks out from time to time. Yet the air you breathe in India lacks the menace in the air of Kibera.

Having said that, the moment you make eye contact, speak to people and engage them at a basic human level, the menace dissipates even if it never entirely evaporates. Like their counterparts in India, people in Kibera struggle hard to make a living. Some walk for two hours to get to work. This means they walk four hours a day to do backbreaking jobs and this takes a heavy toll on their bodies.

Talking to people along the way, I heard the same familiar story again and again. Jobs were few, they paid little and the cost of living was rising ever higher. Many regretted leaving their villages and moving for the bright lights of the city. The urbanization of Africa and economic growth figures that economists are wont to extol seem to be based on the same Dickensian misery of 19th-century Britain. Unlike Britain, urbanization is not even being accompanied by industrialization. There is no engine of wealth generation in Kenya, which is buying its phones from China, its motorcycles from India and its cars from Japan.

Yet as I walked to my meeting, I could not fail to observe that Kenya is an extremely entrepreneurial society. This is not entrepreneurship of Silicon Valley, but of the small-scale variety one sees in emerging economies. Small shops were selling coal for families to buy for cooking or heating. Chicken in co-ops awaited slaughter as buyers felt their keels and picked the finest bird. Meat, eggs, vegetables, shoes, dresses, tea and snacks were all for sale. Pertinently, a majority of entrepreneurs seemed to be women. In India, this is certainly not the case.

There were other sights along my way. Mountains of garbage lay everywhere to see. Numerous open sewers were in full view. Corrugated rusting tin sheds dotted hillsides even as stray dogs lounged around. The stench was pervasive and so were groups of idle young men who eyed up strangers like me. Yet they were not quite as fearsome or ferocious as some had painted them out to be. At their essence, they were largely amiable young men who were looking for meaning, identity and things to do in the urban jungle they find themselves lost in.

It was interesting to hear what they had to say. Almost all of them had no faith in government. They believed we live in a Hobbesian world where the strong prey on the weak. They told me stories of friends falling in potholes, people dying in accidents and politicians making off with bucket loads of cash. Their view of the world was grim. Not only jobs and incomes, but also civic sense and hope seem to be in short supply, making fertile soil for crime.

Observations From Mothers, Fathers and Others

Eventually, I did make my way out of Kibera to Valley Arcade and could not fail to observe electric fences along the way. Apartment blocks and shopping complexes appeared with whiffs of luxury wafting beyond the fences. I could not help but observe that these posh places were mini-fortresses walled off from their surroundings.

I finally walked into Valley Arcade and found it to be a rather pleasant collection of restaurants and shops that could have been in Palo Alto or Singapore. I found it to be an enclave for Nairobi’s expats, affluent upper-middle classes and tourists. In the interest of making most of my time, I had set up many meetings with a diverse set of people. They ranged from a Luhiya mother of two children, a Swedish-Italian father of three with a Kikuyu wife, and a local friend who did her graduate degree at Harvard.

Some themes emerged again and again through various conversations. The Swedish-Italian was strongest in his denunciation of “white people” who have ruined Africa through colonization, misguided aid and unfair trade. At the same time, he damned African leaders for failing their people and the people themselves for falling prey to a culture of apathy that has led to a most sorry state of affairs. People don’t care because they feel helpless. They do not believe they have a chance and, therefore, try to work around the circumstances they find themselves in. They get on with life, assuming that corruption, incompetence and poverty are insoluble problems. The solution to potholes is fancy cars with better shock absorbers because no single individual can build a better road.

My friend also spoke about how the African man has lost his identity. He attributed this to colonization, urbanization, and the scale and speed of change. Gone is the village, lost is the need for bravery in battle and no longer is farming or herding cattle a viable vocation. The ancient rhythms of Africa are giving way to new realities, and African men are reacting to the loss of identity poorly. They are terrified of being seen as not manly enough. They do not do housework and avoid jobs that they deem as unworthy. As a result, the huge burden of work, at home and outside it, falls on women. To exemplify his point, my European friend narrated the story of a Kikuyu man who had bragged to his friends in a bar that he let the milk boil over to teach his wife a lesson.

Even as my European friend focused on culture, the Luhya lady worried about rising crime and the increasing costs of education. She told me that she is afraid to go out at night, that a friend had been attacked with iron rods and that people get robbed every evening on a daily basis. Later the conversation moved on to the boarding school epidemic in Kenya. She said that keeping up with the Joneses is now an epidemic in the country. Naturally, boarding schools price themselves well given such demand. She told me that boarding schools in Kenya can now be more expensive than their counterparts in the US or Britain. If what she said is true, the British have fundamentally and irrevocably altered the social fabric of Kenya forever.

Students from these posh boarding schools often leave the country for their undergraduate education. They aspire to be part of the Davos elite and become the comprador class for outside powers. They buy into the dominant ideology of New York and London, hook, line and sinker, and perpetuate the cultural hegemony of their colonial masters. Unlike Nelson Mandela, Kenya’s leaders do not wear shirts with African motifs. They outcompete one another to be better suited and booted, retaining little connection with either those who live in villages or in urban slums. Like the UK, Kenya is turning into a class-divided society and the relatively more horizontal social structure of various tribes is crumbling dramatically.

My friend who graduated from Harvard refuses to associate with her tribe. She aspires to a future when people in her country and in all of Africa outgrow tribal association. She talked about the challenge of health care in the country and how she was playing her role to solve it. Apparently, there are now two hospitals in each of the 47 counties in Kenya and four national referral hospitals. These are running relatively well.

Having said that, the demand for health care can still not be served by local hospitals. Many go to India, Dubai, Singapore, Britain and the US for further treatment. Over time, she saw things improving despite poverty and corruption. She thought that the 2010 constitution that devolves power to 47 counties might be the single biggest ray of hope for Kenya. Over time, it could lead to better roads, schools and hospitals for the people. I fervently hope she proves to be right.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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As Africa sits astride the equator, the seasons offer the end of April as a time to reflect. In many parts of Africa, and a new planting season is about to begin. Political, social and economic developments this month provide excellent material for much reflection and are of much significance for the future.

Zuma’s Woes Continue

In March, . This month, he has been hit by a new political storm. On March 31, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that Zuma breached the constitution by ignoring a state order to repay some of the $16 million plus government funds used to spruce up his private residence. Apparently, a pool and an amphitheater were part of security features to protect the president.

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela did not quite agree and rapped Zuma on his knuckles. Mandonsela’s is a credit to her and to South Africa’s young democracy. She courageously asked Zuma to cough up costs “that do not relate to security, and which include Visitors’ Centre, the amphitheater, the cattle kraal and chicken run, the swimming pool.”

Zuma ignored Mandonsela’s order and all 11 of South Africa’s highest justices have held that he showed a “substantial disregard” for the constitutional power of the public protector. The court has held Mandonsela’s order to be legally binding and chided Zuma for not taking remedial action as directed. : “In failing to comply with the remedial action, the president thus failed to uphold, comply and respect the constitution.”

sets another major precedent. It squashed the parliament’s resolution absolving Zuma and nullifying the findings of the public prosecutor. The court held that parliament had not only failed in its duty to hold the president to account, but also that its resolution was unconstitutional. Lawyers who love Latin would term this section of the judgment the locus classicus or the authoritative passage on the doctrines of separation of powers and rule of law.

The highest court in South Africa has made history. Rarely do courts in Africa or indeed anywhere in erstwhile colonies pass such bold judgments. There is a higher chance of getting struck by lightning six times while riding on a unicorn than of seeing an African head of state held to account by the judiciary of his country. As the justices declared, “constitutionalism‚ accountability and the rule of law constitute the sharp and mighty sword that stands ready to chop the ugly head of impunity off its stiffened neck.”

The ruling fired up South Africa’s opposition. Like sharks, they smelt blood. They had long seen Zuma perform Houdini acts, escaping the jaws of justice one scandal after another. Therefore, they launched impeachment proceedings against Zuma. Again, the . Zuma’s charm still works and the African National Congress (ANC) still supports him blindly. Yet he has been greatly damaged and it is unlikely he will wield the same power going forward.

Julius Malema, the firebrand boss of the Economic Freedom Fighters Party, has declared that his party is running out of patience and Zuma’s government has promptly charged Malema with treason. This angry nation with anxieties of the past is on a knife’s edge, and it appears that things will get worse in South Africa before they get better.

Kenya and the International Criminal Court

Kenya’s stormy marriage with the International Criminal Court (ICC) seems to be over. In a landmark majority ruling, the . The court ruled there was insufficient evidence but refused to acquit them. If new evidence comes up, the accused may face trial again. This is unlikely and, therefore, Ruto’s supporters celebrated wildly.

On March 13, 2015, . While giving the notice to withdraw charges, the prosecutor’s office accused Kenyatta’s government of refusing to hand over vital evidence. It claimed that witnesses had been “.” Kenyatta rallied nationalist support by claiming that the ICC was interfering in Kenya’s internal affairs.

The collapse of all cases against the accused after the disputed Kenyan elections of 2007 ends international efforts to pursue justice for victims of violence. Around 1,200 people were killed and more than half a million fled for their lives when a naked pursuit of power led rivals to ignite inter-ethnic clashes that spiraled out of control. Kenyatta and Ruto who are now united in government and against the ICC were rivals then.

Now, victims of violence and their families have no recourse to justice. They will never know the definitive truth or get any compensation. The collapse of cases has revealed the ICC to be weak and ineffective. Its credibility is in question. Louis Moreno Ocampo, the former prosecutor of the ICC, huffed, puffed and thumped his chest but was found wanting when Kenyan politicians called his bluff. His cross-examination of Kenyatta on September 29, 2011, revealed that he was clueless about the sociopolitical dynamics of Kenya. The ICC’s investigations were shoddy and it has proved itself to be an outfit of amateurs. It is in dire need of reform to salvage the little credibility it has left.

To add insult to injury, Kenyatta has already declared that no Kenyan would ever be hauled up in front of the ICC. He claimed that the court unfairly targets Africa and, apart from Georgia, the other eight nations facing trial are African states. . He declared: “Elsewhere in the world, many things happen, many flagrant violations of human rights, but nobody cares.” Unsurprisingly, the African Union is backing the Kenyan proposal to revoke and leave the ICC.

Most countries that have ratified the statute hail from Africa. As the US State Department website clearly says, “.” . The ICC increasingly reminds us of the ill-fated League of Nations that collapsed after World War I because most powers cared two hoots for it. If African states leave then the ICC might lose its raison d’ĂŞtre and implode.

Yet the ICC seems to serve a purpose for many. The idea of international criminal justice might hark back to colonial times, but it also has a draw for victims of violence in conflict-ridden or war-ravaged areas. , “Leaving the ICC with no credible mechanism for justice for mass crimes in sight would be an error of colossal proportions.”

Peace in South Sudan?

This month, the world’s youngest country, gained much needed good news. After two years of civil war, a peace agreement has been concluded. Riek Machar, the rebel leader, has returned to the capital, Juba. in President Salva Kiir’s new unity government.

There is much irony in South Sudan’s peace deal. Machar has taken up the very same position he held before the civil war, which broke out when Kiir fired him. In the ensuing conflict, tens of thousands have been killed and about 2 million people have lost their homes. The economy has hit rock bottom. Kiir and Machar are now referring to each other as brothers. Unsurprisingly, their relations continue to be frosty.

In the midst of relief at some sort of peace dawning over the land, inconvenient questions keep nagging away. Was this bloodshed and wanton destruction necessary? Who is responsible for the tragedies that the people have suffered since the sacking of Machar in July 2013? Will this peace last or is it just a truce before conflict breaks out again?

Despite these questions, people of South Sudan can breathe a sigh of relief for now as the fighting, killing, raping and looting comes to a long awaited end.

Economic Woes

As the Atlantic Council points out, African economies are being hit by a “” of declining commodity prices and downturns in emerging economies. In particular, the economies of Angola, Nigeria and Zambia are suffering because of plummeting oil, copper, iron ore and platinum prices. have declined by 16%. . Other African countries are at risk too.

Even Ghana’s economy is under stress. In 2015, . Falling oil and gold prices are hobbling this African star. Last year, cocoa production dropped to its lowest in five years and continues to slump more this year. Government revenues are limited and inflation is rising.

Anthony Akoto Osei, a ranking member of the parliament’s finance committee, has declared that but, unlike the Hellenic nation, it is unlikely to get a bailout. The Ghanaian government has resorted to heavy domestic borrowing, which is . Only Malawi has higher rates. The bank lending rate of 26% and microfinancing rates as high as 70% are killing local businesses and the general population. The International Monetary Fund is offering Ghana $1 billion of loans on the condition that it will reduce its budget deficit from 7.3% to 5.3%.

Even the Chinese who have long been investing heavily in Africa are not riding to the rescue. and its economic model has run its course. The Middle Kingdom has scaled back its investment in Africa. It is also importing less than before. The fall in both price and quantity of exports is hurting African economies. Consequently, they are facing budget shortfalls, weakening currencies and falling economic growth. Clearly, much pain is in store ahead.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Adam Smith, a professor of moral philosophy who practiced his craft in the Scotland of Enlightenment, would probably be pleased this week. For the first time, the (GES) was held in sub-Saharan Africa and US President turned up to kick off the show. “Africa is on the move,” declared the president, who has Kenyan roots and paid obeisance to Smith’s idea that humans have “the propensity to truck, barter and exchange.”

Smith, a Presbyterian Scot, threw the gauntlet to Catholic mercantilists by declaring that the wealth of a land lay not in its gold and silver, but in the productive capacity of its people. He saw trade as a win-win with the butcher, the brewer and the baker focusing on their crafts and then exchanging the fruits of their efforts, thereby allowing each to consume more meat, whiskey and bread. Africa, a continent blighted by the legacy of imperialism and the death kiss of bureaucratic socialism, is starting to embrace Smith and usher in a new zeitgeist.

At the GES in , Obama declared that his administration had provided over $1 billion of support to entrepreneurs around the world over the last year. This is less than a drop in the ocean when the total world economy is valued at over $77 trillion. Yet it is a start, and this week’s GES is significant for three reasons.

First, it sets out a new economic paradigm for . By 2050, Africa’s population will and reach nearly 2 billion. In the next 15 years, 370 million youth will enter the job market. There is no way that governments or even big business can employ such numbers. There are limits to the number of bureaucrats, soldiers and peons that the African tax payer can fund. Besides, African governments are better off investing their money in education and infrastructure. Even building ports and railways is unlikely to create enough jobs. Eventually, it is only new small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) that will employ young Africans. Hence, a key contribution of the GES is that it makes entrepreneurship “cool” for both young Africans and their leaders.

Second, the GES recognizes the economic potential and entrepreneurial energy of Africa. In popular imagination, Silicon Valley is the Mecca of entrepreneurship. It has geniuses like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk reimagining the world. Bold venture capitalists take big bets on them, and armies of engineers march together to transform the planet. The reality is a little different to the romance. Silicon Valley has turned bourgeois in more ways than one. The Facebook generation far too often focuses on its rich world problems and does not give a damn about the fact that more than people on the planet lack access to safe water. In fact, most people in Silicon Valley are now working for big companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook, while people in many parts of the poorer world have no option but to hustle. Hardly anyone in Silicon Valley struggles like in Lesotho who rear poultry and pigs to make a living. This is a far more riveting story than yet another iPhone app.

Survival in many poor countries is an incredibly entrepreneurial affair. Slums in Asia, Africa and Latin America tend to be bustling with initiatives and communities from barber shops to childcare centers. Tapping this energy and providing an institutional support system for entrepreneurs to thrive is the big challenge for these countries. Some experiments such as , microcredits to women and chronicling local innovations have been successful. These have to be replicated and multiplied.

Third, as Obama pointed out, governments still matter. Corruption blights possibilities for individuals and economies. If entrepreneurs have to spend half their day running from pillar to post to get approvals and bribe functionaries to get started, they waste time and energy. Starting something is hard. Corruption often makes it daunting. The worst aspect of this phenomenon is that governments end up robbing their people instead of building schools, hospitals and roads.

Entrepreneurship in emerging economies would get a great shot in the arm with some simple reforms. For instance, investing in schools and slashing red tape would be a good start. Figuring out how to clean garbage would help too. The are descendants of Phoenicians and legendary entrepreneurs. Yet the residents of Beirut are in an ocean of trash. In India, of sewage flows into India’s rivers, damaging the health and endangering the lives of hundreds of millions. Many of these are farmers and fishermen who are going out of business and having to flee to urban slums. While entrepreneurship is empowering, there are certain things that require collective action. Making laws, providing schooling and cleaning cities or rivers are things only governments can do and have to do.

Speaking of laws, ended restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and eased trade barriers. Obama’s bold rapprochement with Cuba seems to be attracting bipartisan support. Many Americans want to go diving in the coral reefs of Cuba, soak up the romantic ambience of Havana and sell stuff to their neighbors. Already, Oklahoma and Nebraska are gleefully eyeing a new market for their wheat.

Finally, the (IS) conducted a ghastly attack in Suruc, a town in Turkey where young Kurdish activists were meeting to discuss the reconstruction of Kobane across the Turkey-Syria border. Earlier this year, Kurdish forces drove back IS from Kobane as Turkish tanks silently looked on. All that the Turks did was the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the Ottoman Empire, to save it from IS. Now, Turkish jets have struck IS targets in Syria and the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq.

So far, Turkey has tried to stay out of the Middle East’s version of the . It even maintained a truce for over two years with the PKK. Now, Turkey has been sucked into the conflict. Its leaders are playing a risky hand. Turkish forces have taken on both IS and the PKK, who in turn are fighting each other. This makes the Turkish state vulnerable to double-pronged attacks and the conflict in the Middle East bloodier and messier.

*[You can receive “The World This Week” directly in your inbox by subscribing to our mailing list. Simply visitĚýĚýand enter your email address in the space provided. Meanwhile, please find below five of our finest articles for the week.]

[seperator style=”style1″]Obama’s Kenyan Homecoming: Dreams From His Father’s Land[/seperator]

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Obama’s visit to Kenya comes off the most important month of his presidency.

History is upon us as an acclaimed umbilical homecoming beckons. Kenya will play host to the most significant “foreign” visitor to ever grace the country’s shores. US President Barack Obama will be visiting the nation of his father’s birth on July 24. The three-day tour to the land that swept the backdrop of his seminal book, Dreams from My Father, will be his first as US president—and potentially his last as leader of the free world.

Excitement in Kenya is at a fever pitch. A friend who used to work at the US Embassy in Nairobi sent over an amusing article showing how those Kenyans drunk with jubilation in the historical moment have been heard to make atypical proclamations, some bordering on the bizarre. But with such an unprecedented visit, who is to say what type of excitement in these circumstances is normal?

Upon his historical election in 2008, many expected Obama…

[seperator style=”style1″]Iran is Not the Threat[/seperator]

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The Israeli prime minister opposes the Iran deal because the Iranians support Hamas and Hezbollah, says Miko Peled.

Binyamin Netanyahu’s name is in the headlines again—this time with the news of the Iran deal. He rejects the agreement, he called it a disastrous and historic mistake and he didn’t miss the opportunity to say that Israel will defend itself.

Two questions must be raised in light of the Israeli prime minister’s outrage. The first is why? And the second is why does anyone care?

Netanyahu opposes the Iran deal because the Iranians support Hamas and Hezbollah. Both of these organizations were created in response to Israeli aggression and occupation—the former in Palestine and the latter in southern Lebanon.

It was the dedicated resistance of Hezbollah that ended the 20-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and made it possible for Lebanese people to return to their homes in the south.

Hamas was democratically elected to govern. It maintains some semblance of a government in…

[seperator style=”style1″]Getting Down to Business in Cuba[/seperator]

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American companies are more eager than ever to set up shop in Cuba.

In case you missed it, the United States and Cuba now have diplomatic relations for the first time in 54 years. Unfortunately, the outdated economic embargo is smothering the tremendous potential this opening offers.

First, some background. The embargo, put in place in the early 1960s to punish the revolutionary government, has held back the Cuban economy and poisoned American-Cuban relations for decades.

When Washington spurned Cuba, the Soviet Union (USSR) became the island’s top trading partner, taking some of the sting off the embargo. But after the USSR collapsed in 1991, Cuba plunged into a deep economic crisis.

Venezuela mostly replaced Russia as a reliable supplier of cheap oil years ago. Now, Cubans fear that turmoil in the South American nation will knock out this lifeline too.

Long-term economic distress has frayed Cuba’s impressive education and health care systems. Its heavily subsidized food rations no longer meet basic needs. And the high prices unregulated…

[seperator style=”style1″]Why Are Interest Rates So Low?[/seperator]

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A lack of consensus on a policy prescription keeps interest rates lower for longer.

The global economic environment of recent memory has been unusual to say the least. Persistently low and even negative interest rates have failed to spark an adequate revival in economic fortunes as growth remains subpar. This year has seen the commencement of easing cycles by central banks in China and India, while the European Central Bank (ECB) has ventured into unprecedented negative territory. Richard Koo, Nomura Research Institute’s chief economist, aptly stated that we have moved from an “unusual” world of persistently low and near zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) to a ridiculous one in which negative interest rate policy (NIRP) has become the norm.

As is the nature of economists, there has been widespread disagreement as to which emerging theory best explains the economic quagmire we currently find ourselves in. To better understand modern-day economics, it is important to delve into the main prevailing theories: Secular stagnation, global savings glut…

[seperator style=”style1″]Cult Attraction is Not a Problem of Logic[/seperator]

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What are cults, and how do they work?

Cults come in a great variety of forms: from the largely religious ones to terrorist groups that train suicide bombers; from right-wing to the ingrown “left” political groups that thrived in the 1970s and 1980s; and from get-rich-quick to personal growth groups. Although they are not all violent, they do share common features that enable them to exert extraordinary levels of control over their members.

The mechanisms that drive these groups are not as mysterious as we may think. Seventy years of study has been done to understand them.

Starting during the horrors of World War II and then Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong’s totalitarian regimes, scholars did groundbreaking work to try understand the forces that produced extreme obedience to charismatic leaders. This period saw, among others, Hannah Arendt’s great work, The Origins of Totalitarianism; Stanley Milgram’s extraordinary experiments where ordinary people administered seemingly excruciating electrical shocks to strangers; and Robert Jay Lifton’s insightful work on brainwashing…

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

Photo Credit:Ěý /

We bring you perspectives from around the world. Help us to inform and educate. YourĚýĚýis tax-deductible. Join over 400 people to become a donor or you could choose to be aĚý.

The post The World This Week: Entrepreneurship in the Air and Africa on the Move appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

History is upon us as an acclaimed umbilical homecoming beckons. will play host to the most significant “foreign” visitor to ever grace the country’s shores. US President will be visiting the nationĚýof his father’s birth on July 24. The three-day tour to the land that swept the backdrop of his seminal book, Dreams from My Father, will be his first as US president—and potentially his last as leader of the free world.

Excitement in Kenya is at a fever pitch. A friend who used to work at the US Embassy in Nairobi sent over an amusing article showing how those Kenyans drunk with jubilation in the historical moment have been heard to make atypical proclamations, some bordering on the bizarre. But with such an unprecedented visit, who is to say what type of excitement in these circumstances is normal?

Upon his historical election in 2008, many expected Obama to extend his celebrations of that momentous victory into Kenya by favoring the country with his first foreign visit or at least his first sojourn on the continent. However, to do so would have been to lend a barn of fodder to those within the ranks of his opponents, eager to make the case that he was not American enough, or just simply not American at all.

What is to be said of his visit now, then? The timing is perfect. Obama is coming off the most important month of his presidency. His polls are at their highest in the last two years. The list of his vaunted recent successes include the Supreme Court’s affirmatory ruling in favor of —his signature health care program—and same-sex marriage, Congress’ assent to his trade initiative and his conclusion of the .

As he sweeps into the homestretch, Obama’s legacy is beginning to take shape. A definitive identity to his presidency is emerging. Many believe the substance of his tenure has begun to touch the periphery of the transformational leadership column where the likes of Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the great Abraham Lincoln reside.

Further, with respect to the two nations, US-Kenya relations have been at their best since the Kenyatta regime took office in 2013. The thawing in the frosty ties can be traced to the fact that the case against President before the (ICC) has collapsed, and the one against his deputy, William Ruto, appears to be on quicksand.

Until now, many Kenyans were not happy with what they felt was a double-standard on the part of the US. They were miffed on grounds that the United States had, in their opinion, the temerity to pollute the moral high ground by demanding that Kenya go through with the cases before the ICC, yet the US had itself refused to ratify the .

However, the Obama administration’s position was judgmatic. On the one hand, the optics of proximity were not kind, considering it would not augur well for the US—both domestically and internationally—to be seen as closely associated with a government believed to be led by or shielding potential perpetrators of crimes against humanity. On the other, Kenya itself triggered the intercession of the ICC, and the US argued that it was merely urging the country to fulfill its treaty obligations in line with customary international law and relations.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit

Obama will visit two African countries on his trip: Kenya and Ethiopia. He will tour the latter last, becoming the first US president to set foot on Ethiopian soil. This is very pivotal, and accordingly, it ought to overshadow his Kenyan stay, which will be ushered in by the fetching Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

The importance of the convention—the first Global Entrepreneurship Summit to be held in Sub-Saharan Africa—cannot be gainsaid. But the subtext, especially from the perspective of Kenyans, is unassailable.

No, Obama’s visit is not most compelling because he is the first black US president. That is of course profound and memorable. However, Kenya has played host to many presidents with insignia of firsts draped across their diplomatic lapels. It is also not merely estimable because of a connection to Kenya that may now be viewed as being only academic—after all, isn’t everyone essentially from the African continent? Obama has Irish heritage, and although he had the warmest of welcomes when he visited the Emerald Isle a few years ago, Kenyans customarily view his standing differently, in a very nuanced way that is difficult to explain and discern.

In essence, the arresting cultural root connection is palpably viewed as being so deep as to subsume furnished modern constructs. Thus, cretinous birthers might take offense and try to find ammunition in the statement: Barack Obama is a son of Kenya. Yet verily I tell you, he was not born in the land of his father. It is just that culturally in Kenya, and more particularly among his father’s Luo people, the notion of where one is from has little, if anything, to do with where one is born—a Western immigration law modernism—and more to do with the underlying legacy of one’s heritage.

Hence, for example, upon the demise of a forlorn and worldly abandoned fellow Luo—however obscure that person’s life and achievements, and regardless of how tenuous his links to the community may have been—the community would sooner find a charter to the moon to bring the prodigal back home to rest in peace with his forefathers and ancestors. Indeed, in spite of the opinion or beliefs to the contrary of the person in question or even of the prevailing members of the community, such is the depth of the root of the bond at play that the precept cannot be broken willy-nilly; even by those who forsake the community. It is a kindred ancestral edict that transcends the individual and the people compelled to bring home their stranded own.

In essence, Obama might be the most powerful man in the world, and there is much he can summon by the shrug of his shoulders. But the warm embrace of his father’s country will never be his to call.

So is Obama really American? Absolutely, in all senses of the word. Yet if the US and every region of the world were to reject him, paraphrasing the poet Rupert Brooke in The Soldier, “there is a corner” of his father’s people’s land that shall forever be his. And it has little to do with choice. That is why when he visits Kenya, Obama will be greeted with warm wide-open arms and welcomed home.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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On April 2, four gunmen from stormed into Garissa University College in Kenya, 148 students and injuring 79 others. Among the dead was my high school friend, Agnes Mwende Muthama, a beautiful young woman pursuing a Bachelor’s in Education.

The attack was one of the worst to occur in since the 1998 of the US Embassy in Nairobi by al-Qaeda, which killed 213 people.

As I grieve for my friend Agnes and the countless other victims with fellow Kenyans, I would like to share my perspective on the tragedy.

I am disappointed, horrified and saddened by the state of insecurity in Kenya. Attacking and killing students who are trying to fulfil their dreams is in and of itself a senseless and unforgivable act. As a Kenyan student in the United States, I cannot begin to fathom how hurt and broken the affected families must be.

Kenya has been a target and victim of terrorism on several occasions. But never before have terrorists stooped so low as to end the lives of young, innocent and vibrant university students with great potential to be the country’s future leaders.

Being so far from Kenya in the aftermath of the attack leaves me with a deep sense of fear. I fear for my own family back in Kenya. I fear for my friends. I fear for my country.

Since the attack, I have been overcome by many emotions because the departed souls will not get a chance to fulfil their dreams. I find myself filled with anger and sadness, because I believe that more could have been done to prevent the killings from happening.

Poor security and ensuing violence can have a negative impact on society. As Kenyans, we have worked tirelessly to build our economy, education system and infrastructure to the positive state it is in today. Yet terrorists are doing their best to destroy our progress, right before our very eyes.

Kenyans from all walks of life have been left devastated by al-Shabab’s actions, but working-class citizens who can’t afford private security have the most to lose. We must remember that terrorism affects people in different ways. When the whole country is mourning, Kenyans must come together to bring terrorism to an end and restore hope among the people.

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Ending 148 young and vibrant lives is a new low, even by al-Shabab’s standards. I believe the students were targeted because of their vulnerability and helplessness, but also because of the enormous impact their deaths have had on Kenya.

In a school setting like Garrissa, the students are diverse and come from all over Kenya. As a result, the students’ deaths have brought anguish and pain to every corner of the country. Attacking students implies that no one is safe, and this has instilled a deep fear in the minds of many Kenyans. It shows how heartless the attackers are, and that they are ready to do anything to destroy the nation.

After the Westgate Mall by al-Shabab in 2013, which killed 67 people, Kenyans were devastated, but we soon regained faith and hope for the future of the country. With the Garissa killings, however, our hope has once again been dashed.

The Kenyan government has failed to protect its citizens, and the Kenyan people must once again live in constant fear of attack. Following the latest tragedy, it is clear the government must allocate more resources to the provision of security, and it must work to ensure that Kenya’s police forces are well-equipped to effectively protect the people. The government must treat emergencies seriously and be better prepared to respond quickly and effectively in the case of future terrorist attacks. If the response to the Garissa incident had been better handled, there is a good chance that fewer students would have died.

As Kenyans, we appreciate the love and support from people all over the world. I urge the international community to continue to speak about peace and unite to fight terrorism. We are not going to give up on a peaceful future for our nation, and I urge the international community to continue to stand by our side. Even as we mourn the dead, Kenya remains unbowed and unshaken. May all the victims rest in peace.

*[The author dedicates this article to her high school friend, Agnes Mwende Muthama, who was killed in the Garissa attack.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Paige Elenson, and founder of , is committed to creating the future market leaders of ’s currently untapped wellness industry. Using the transformational practice of , she is persuading youth to discover their passion, translate this into employment opportunities and to become leaders in their communities.

In this interview with , she challenges us to play a role in enabling youth all over East Africa to do the same.

Ashoka: Tell us about some of the young people who are drawn to Africa Yoga Project: Where do they come from? What are their families like? What are their aspirations?

Paige Elenson: The that are drawn to Africa Yoga Project (AYP) are dynamic and creative young leaders, who sense there is more available to them personally and professionally than the current status quo. Some of these young people come from ’s informal settlements, where their way of life consisted of carjacking and robbing on a daily basis to feed their families. Others come from rural , where they have been traumatized by and are still facing sleepless nights. And some young people are drawn to AYP in hope of relieving back pain, sleeping better at night or losing weight. Yoga helps with all of these things but through AYP’s full range of programs, they also gain a greater sense of purpose, productivity and inner peacefulness.

We see an evolution in young people who participate. They find their excitement and passion and often this turns into a opportunity, when they translate their enthusiasm into skills and use these skills to secure or create employment opportunities. They also share their skills with their peers, which begins to change their communities. They become true social entrepreneurs.

I want to tell you the story of one such social entrepreneur — her name is Margaret and she is a graduate of Africa Yoga Project. She was married at 12 years old and was repeatedly abused until she ran away. She began pickpocketing on the streets and was trapped in the vicious cycle of that so many youth in Kenya who we work with go through. She would spend her days doing things that she felt ashamed about in order to survive, and then try and numb the inner pain through drugs, alcohol and reckless behavior. She completed AYP’s three-year yoga teacher certification training. She talks about the process of finding herself — slowly taking care of her body and making decisions that allowed her to regain confidence and self-worth. Now she teaches yoga to corporate clients like Nokia and the United Nations, and is a part-time receptionist at a yoga studio. She also teaches yoga to HIV-positive women in Langata Women’s Prison. Margaret is passionate about educating and giving back to prisons, because she feels that this is easily where she could have ended up.

Ashoka: Can you share more about AYP and the organization and programs you have created?

Elenson: Africa Yoga Project’s mission is to educate, empower, elevate and employ youth from Africa, using the transformational practice of yoga. Our vision is to create opportunities for youth to step into their greatness and become self-sustaining leaders in their communities.

People wonder what yoga has to do with solving ’s youth crisis. Yoga is an evidence-based practice that empowers a healthy lifestyle. Coupled with a curriculum of teacher training, self-growth, mentorship and business development skills, Africa Yoga Project’s model creates a new source of jobs for Kenya’s unemployed youth.

AYP has two programs. The first is a three-year certification program, which includes Africa’s only accredited yoga teacher training, international mentorship and job placement for free. The second is a two-year business development program that focus on creating wellness-inspired enterprises like a yoga studio, a retreat business, or a clothing or yoga mat company. In both programs, youth participate in a professional development curriculum that focuses on self-discovery. AYP also perpetuates a culture of community activism, health and empowerment by employing these youth to teach yoga to communities that lack access to preventative medicine and health care practices. We offer 350 free yoga classes a week to these communities, reaching over 6,000 people. Our program capitalizes on the global yoga market to generate sustainable income through “voluntourism” programs, which ensure earned income for Kenya’s youth and inspire a new generation of global advocates for a diverse and active community.

Africa’s ability to unlock the potential in undeveloped local industries could shift millions of unemployed youth into formal employment. AYP provides meaningful employment opportunities by unlocking the market potential of a new and untapped wellness industry in Africa. In its full scope, including yoga-related products, yoga is a global multi-billion dollar industry that has barely taken root in Africa. By tapping into this market, we offer youth productive roles in their communities, leadership training, education and skills that guide them to well-paying jobs.

So far, we have trained over 200 teachers through our program. They teach over 6,000 people a week. Over 80% of our teachers are employed by the wellness industry and have moved from below the poverty line to what Kenya considers middle income earners. Each teacher supports approximately five people with their salary. Yoga is a $27 billion business in the . International wellness tourism is directly responsible for $12 million global jobs, which delivers $1.3 trillion in global economic impact. I believe the African wellness market can be a billion dollar market in the next five years. Africa Yoga Project is on a mission to make this happen by creating the future market leaders of this industry.

Ashoka: How does youth unemployment affect the lives of AYP participants? What does youth unemployment look like at a national scale — at a societal, economic and cultural level?

Elenson: Youth unemployment can been seen as Kenya’s biggest problem or its greatest potential. Youth unemployment affects the lives of AYP participants in so many ways: poor health, safety, lack of possibility and hope, and a loss in purpose and integrity.ĚýAYP works primarily in Nairobi, where 78% of Kenya’s population is younger than 35 years, with over 70% of these people currently unemployed [Kenya Census]. Research shows that there are about 800,000 young people being released into the job market annually, with only a fraction of these getting jobs. It has also been noted that most crimes are committed by youth from urban slums, as idleness — especially in the absence of formal education — breeds restlessness.

People wonder what yoga has to do with solving Kenya’s youth unemployment crisis. Yoga is an evidence-based practice that empowers a healthy lifestyle. Coupled with a curriculum of teacher training, self-growth, mentorship and business development skills, Africa Yoga Project’s model creates a new source of jobs for Kenya’s unemployed youth.

Moreover, Nairobi’s urban slums showcase the link between poverty, inequality, disease and crime. Oxfam reports that 50% of Nairobi’s population consists of youth living in urban slums. As a result of this extreme chronic poverty, there is a 30% increase of engagement in high-risk livelihoods in these communities, according to Oxfam.

It is like a bomb ready to explode. If these youth are not given an opportunity to become formal members of society, they will ultimately form the population from which terrorists, gang members and criminals are recruited.

Ashoka: Whose role is it to address youth unemployment? And whose job is it to create and ensure employment opportunities for (East) African youth?

If there are youth at-risk, then we are all at risk. Poverty and unemployment are key drivers of crime, and each of us has a stake in these twin problems and in their solutions. We cannot continue to look the other way and assume it is the government’s role alone to address these issues. The citizen sector, the private sector, governments, educators and parents must join hands to create solutions and enable youth to push new markets forward.

I believe it is everyone’s job to participate in the solutions. Each of us, in our communities, households and workplaces, has the opportunity to mentor, train and share the skills and knowledge that we use to earn income with young people. Can you imagine the outcome if each person in East Africa could enable one young person to pursue their passion and secure a meaningful livelihood? If every person in East Africa believed it is their responsibility to create or enable one job for just one young person, there would be no crisis.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Vickie Wambura Wamonje is the founder of , a rehabilitation program that seeks to reduce recidivism rates among prison inmates in . She was elected an in 2013 in recognition and support of her work as a leading social with an innovative solution to employment in Africa. In this interview with Ashoka, Vickie discusses the relationship between incarceration and youth in Kenya.

Ashoka: Tell us about some of the young people who are drawn to Nafisika Trust: Where do they come from? What are their families like? What are their aspirations?

Vickie Wamonje: Prisoners are from all walks of life, but most of our work is with young people. Earlier data from the Kenya Economic Survey (published in the Kenya Youth Fact Book), showed that a significant number of offenders are between the ages of 18-25. Out of 96,726 convictions, 54.3% were in this age group. are also lured into a criminal lifestyle. According to the Children’s Service Department, the state runs ten child rehabilitation centers that host an average of 70 children each, between the ages of 10-17. Most participants reported that they committed their first offence between the ages of 12-15 (30%) or between 16-19 years (23%). The study further established that poverty (40%) and alcohol/drugs (23%) were responsible for increased vulnerability of youth to recommit crimes into their adulthood (Kenya Youth Fact Book). Individuals in prison come from diverse socioeconomic, educational and family backgrounds. However, we realize common threads among them, namely dysfunctional family backgrounds, low educational levels, unemployment and .

For most first-time offenders, prison is a place of self-reflection about the choices they have made. However, many do not feel hopeful. Prison is like a living graveyard of untapped potential. Its dwellers walk around with dreams in their hearts that only need time, patience and support to bring out. It is our task to ensure they have the support needed to realize their dreams when they leave prison. In the past, the prison system was slanted toward punishment as opposed to rehabilitation. It is known for its power to take away all hope and suck one into its repetitive cycle of arrests and imprisonment. We try to change this.

There are many individuals who are talented in the arts or who desire college degrees, and there is great demand from prisoners for business and entrepreneurship skills. One such individual is Baraka, a male inmate at Nairobi West Prison, who is passionate about law. He spends most of his time advocating for inmates’ needs. He was appointed by the prison administration to assist individuals with writing and submitting letters of appeal. Due to his hard-work and diligence, many have succeeded. Baraka would like to pursue a degree in law in 2015 once released.

Ashoka: How does youth unemployment affect the lives of Nafisika Trust participants?

Vickie: The lack of access to gainful is a cause of frustration and disappointment for many young people. Kenya’s unemployment rate is estimated at 40% and former prisoners have even fewer chances than their peers who do not have a prison record. A main concern for prison inmates is their integration back into the job market. The scarcity of gainful employment is one of the contributing factors to the cycle of crime and recidivism.

A strong aspect of our work is linking and preparing our participants for gainful employment. We realize a mere job placement is not enough in rapidly growing economies. Therefore, we try to provide our participants with competitive skills, so they improve their employability and incomes in the long-run. This, in turn, lowers the financial frustrations on individuals and their families, gives them something worth protecting, and reduces the likelihood of re-offence.

Ashoka: What does youth unemployment look like at a national scale — societally, economically and culturally?

Vickie: The challenge of providing viable jobs for youth is perhaps the single most important issue facing Kenya. The government civil service used to be the largest employer in the country, but this is no longer the case; in fact, it is keen to cut down its wage bill. The private sector cannot absorb the over 50,000 graduates being churned out by universities and colleges every year. There have also been suggestions that the curricula in place is notĚýin sync with the needs of the job market. The current drive has been toward encouraging entrepreneurship. To its credit, the government has set up a fund to give loans to youth and youth groups to facilitate this. However, the uptake is low, mainly due to overly strict qualification criteria and the bureaucratic procedures in place.

While the job market is in this new reality, the cultural expectations and implications have not yet caught up. A graduate is expected to be in gainful employment soon after his or her studies. Extended periods of joblessness are not met with empathy from the community. We think these pressures are part of what drives some people into crime and dishonest gain. Kenya does not have a welfare system that supports the unemployed. The social structures in place — beyond the nuclear family — do not offer much help in addressing youth unemployment. An interesting development we have observed is the flourishing of informal peer-based savings clubs commonly known as “chama.” These savings clubs are popular among youth, and are currently enabling young people to pool resources and take on joint ventures, which would have been too expensive for an individual to take on alone.

Ashoka: Can you share more about Nafisika Trust and the organization and programs you have created?

Vickie: Nafisika Trust works to reduce recidivism rates in Kenya by providing programs focused on behavior change and economic empowerment of inmates while they are in prison. The name “Nafisika” means “bring out into well-being” in the Swahili language. We help bring out the potential that lies dormant in young people behind bars. Our goal is to break the cycle of a life of crime by equipping individuals with the skills, knowledge and opportunities they need to change their circumstances for a brighter future.

According to the Children’s Service Department, the state runs ten child rehabilitation centers that host an average of 70 children each, between the ages of 10-17. Most participants reported that they committed their first offence between the ages of 12-15 (30%) or between 16-19 years (23%). The study further established that poverty (40%) and alcohol/drugs (23%) were responsible for increased vulnerability of youth to recommit crimes into their adulthood

Our programs are developed in response to the main causes of crime among the inmate population: dysfunctional families, low educational levels and a lack of economically viable skills. Most often, this potent combination of factors leads to unemployment, poverty and, ultimately, a life of crime. Nafisika Trust currently offers four programs:

1) Counseling: This incorporates both social and substance abuse programs. Most prisoners that we work with suffer from psychological issues, and many have a history of substance abuse. Some have even been incarcerated for handling drugs. Substance abuse is quite rampant among youth and is a major barrier to employment. We have partnered with the psychology department of the United States International University — Ěýa local, private university in Kenya — to enable us to deliver quality counselling and family therapy in prisons.

2) Education: Literacy rates among prison inmates are quite low. Many of the inmates dropped out of school at an early age and lack the most basic writing and numeracy skills needed to get by. We run a basic education program to address this gap. A few of the inmates go on to take the national examination and some proceed to study for their â€�O’ level examinations. ĚýThis, in turn, improves the employability of many inmates. We also have a long running computer skills education program in which we teach basic computer literacy skills to those who already have some proficiency in reading and writing.

3) Employment programs: Our Employment Program consists of entrepreneurship training and business incubation projects. We have partnered with KCA University to deliver an entrepreneurship course, which develops self-awareness, assists with career goal-setting and acquiring financial literacy, sales and business plan development skills. These programs equip inmates with skills to enable them to either secure employment or start their own businesses.

4) Exit Programs: Prison service ends when an inmate is done serving time. While this should be a joyful moment, a former inmate quickly experiences the woes of life after prison. Many ex-inmates experience stigma and rejection from society, and some find it hard to get jobs as they may not be adequately skilled or are not employed because they have a criminal record. Nafisika walks with former inmates down this difficult path and helps them get on their feet as fast as possible. Before release, inmates go through interview sessions with Nafisika and prison staff to help them envision their lives after release. We hold family therapy sessions so the bond between them and their family is strengthened. Upon release, we hold their hand through the tough times. We also link individuals with prospective employers, support them in starting a business or get them to college to pursue higher education.

Ashoka: Can you tell us more about the entrepreneurship program and perhaps about some of the inmates’ experiences after participating?

Vickie: The entrepreneurship program is the biggest and most impactful initiative we run. The majority of inmates are eager to take this class despite its intensive nature. This quarterly program takes inmates through the ins and outs of how to start and run a successful business. Those who attend feel it is most beneficial to them after being released, especially since their criminal record lowers their attractiveness in the formal employment market. The skills they gain in this program give them a competitive advantage. The curriculum, jointly developed by Nafisika and KCA University, teaches inmates to discover themselves and their potential away from crime. It also teaches them how to best position and brand themselves, write business plans, raise capital and keep appropriate accounts for their business. We like to think of this as a discovery of who they are and what they can achieve. At the end of the program, inmates graduate with a certificate in Business and Entrepreneurship from KCA University.

Two inmates released from Nairobi West Prison recently have gone on to put into practice what they learned in our entrepreneurship program. John and Kamau [pseudonyms] were both former security guards arrested for assault but exonerated three years later. John now runs his own clothing business in downtown Nairobi and offers writing services — he has been successful in these endeavors. He also volunteers his security skills at his local church in the face of terror threats in the country. Kamau is running a successful vegetable farm in his hometown of Gatundu. When asked about the impact of the entrepreneurship program he had participated in while in prison, John stated that it helped him learn how to write a business plan and think through important steps in starting a business. He knew he could not get his former job back, but he is now happy to have something of his own and is able to support his wife and two children.

Ashoka: You mentioned earlier that Nafisika Trust places a strong emphasis on its volunteer program, in order to involve society in the empowerment of prisoners and to reduce the stigma that surrounds ex-offenders. Can you share more about the involvement of volunteers in Nafisika work?

Vickie: Nafisika thrives on a volunteer system. We attract a pool of young volunteers and professionals who in the past year alone have given 9,837 hours of service. We receive volunteers from different sectors, but most are university students and young professionals. We like to work with young volunteers whom the inmates can relate with. Every year, Nafisikainvolves an average of 60 volunteers in its programs, and this is often a defining experience for both inmates and volunteers alike.

Youth unemployment inĚýAfricaĚýis like a ticking time bomb. We are already experiencing its effects in society. Young, idle and unemployed youth are prime targets for recruitment into violent terrorist groups.

Some of our volunteers have gone on to stay with us longer than they signed up for. Many carry on providing their services to inmates even as they continue with school or pursue their careers. There are a few who choose to devote most of their time to this mission. Geoffrey and Loreen started out as university interns in 2013. Loreen served as a drug and abuse counsellor and Geoffrey taught rabbit-keeping under the employment program. They both volunteered more than their required time, and a year later were taken in as full time staff members in Nafisika Trust. They are both passionate about prison rehabilitation.

Ashoka: Turning back to youth unemployment, whose role do you think it is to address this challenge? And whose job is it to create and ensure employment opportunities for (East) African youth?

Vickie: Youth unemployment in is like a ticking time bomb. We are already experiencing its effects in society. Young, idle and unemployed youth are prime targets for recruitment into violent terrorist groups. They are usually lured in by financial gain and not because they believe in the ideologies of these groups. This presents an opportunity for social entrepreneurs and the community to work together to reverse this trend. At such a productive age, young people need to channel their energy in the right direction. They should be viewed as a great resource to the economy and the country.

Everybody has a role in addressing youth unemployment, from the family to educational institutions, governments and communities. However, entrepreneurship should be embraced and viewed as a way of life. Parents and teachers should encourage innovation and creativity at an early age to develop an entrepreneurial spirit in young ones. Governments should set up systems to invest in youth ideas, allowing them to test ideas, learn from their experiences, and thrive in a diverse and changing world. Companies should as well encourage and invest in young people’s ideas, and guide them in building sustainable businesses that will in turn employ many others. It is through the innovative ideas of young people that we will solve this challenge and create more diverse jobs and roles for everyone in society.

Ashoka: How would they go about doing this? Where would they start?

Vickie: We need to broaden our thinking on employment. Parents and teachers need to prepare their young ones for the world that is and the world that is to come. Things change fast but we are stuck in our old habits of doing things and old systems that deal with a past reality. Part of the reason for high unemployment rates among the youth is that our education systems and thinking patterns have not changed with the times.

Efforts should be made to enhance the skills taught to young people so they may fit into the knowledge economy and the service sector, where there is great potential for growth. The government, universities and other centers of learning, private sector partners and youth groups should engage in constructive dialogue. If the private sector feels that graduates do not fit their employee needs, then there should be flexibility on the universities to change their approaches and their curricula. The government can accelerate this by creating and passing enabling policies and legislation. Youth should be involved as partners and not just observers because they are the next crop of taxpayers, economy builders and change-makers in society. The next phase of Africa’s growth and development will ride on the promise that is the youth of the continent.

*[In partnership withĚýAshoka’sĚýĚýinitiative, which is finding Innovations for Youth Employment in Africa, 51łÔąĎ explores the theme: Who is responsible for addressing youth employment in Africa? From June to September 2014, we will be developing online events and a series of articles that will gather multiple perspectives and provide aĚýĚýanalysis on the topic. Join the conversation by following and contributing toĚýĚýthrough social media channels.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Vickie Wambura Wamonje founded  after discovering that prisoners were often young repeat offenders who continued to commit crimes following their release from prison. She wanted to provide transformational experiences to help inmates become agents of positive change rather than perpetrators of crime in their communities. Vickie founded Nafisika Trust with that goal in mind.

The Trust offers volunteer-run education and entrepreneurship training programs. Through Nafisika, inmates and volunteers alike gain hard skills from a practical curriculum while practicing soft skills such as empathy and leadership, which help them create better livelihoods for themselves and for others.

Nafisika graduates have gone on to start their own , become valued employees, and even lead initiatives that tackle social problems in their communities. Vickie’s collaboration with the government helps young inmates break out of a cycle of crime and unemployment. On a broader scale, Nafisika Trust helps improve a broken penal system by incorporating transformative experiences for all participants.

Vickie is an Ashoka Fellow, elected through the in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, which aims to find, support and accelerate innovative approaches to youth employment in Africa.

*[In partnership with Ashoka’s  initiative, which is finding Innovations for Youth Employment in Africa, 51łÔąĎ explores the theme: Who is responsible for addressing youth employment in Africa? From June to September 2014, we will be developing online events and a series of articles that will gather multiple perspectives and provide a  analysis on the topic. Join the conversation by following and contributing to  through social media channels.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Kenya’s Marriage Bill 2014, into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta, legalizes the act of polygamy. The law gives men the right to enter multiple marriages, without having to consult their existing spouses or obtain their consent.

The bill has been met with intense censure from religious leaders, who claim it violates any sense of equality that exists within a marriage, and women’s rights groups, who decry it on grounds that the law disempowers women.

In response to these disparaging comments, Junet Mohammed, a member of the Kenyan parliament, justified the removal of a clause that required a wife’s consent. Mohammed that, in Africa, a wife “must know” a second is on the way and so any legal requirement of consent is futile.

Aside from being a poor justification, the fact that the law reflects a disturbing tendency of lawmakers to disregard the basic human right of women to live in dignity, with equality, has been ignored.

Ironically, the Marriage Bill had been initiated to provide more rights to Kenyan women. This objective may have been fulfilled in reforms regarding the share of property a woman is entitled to, but it has failed to uphold universal principles of equality on two counts.

Cementing Inequality

The first is manifested in the sole right of men to have more than one spouse, while this right is abjectly denied to women. The law was introduced to legitimize an age-old and commonly practiced exercise in Kenya and prevent unofficial marriages. Despite its cultural backing, polygyny has been noted as a means by which patriarchy is enforced upon society, with women being exploited and subjected to this enforcement. Laws that permit polygamy but only to the extent of polygyny are indicative of a society that approves of an imbalance of power between men and women.

In a state that calls itself democratically governed, laws of this kind are unacceptable. Legalizing only polygyny perpetuates the notion that women are like collectible economic assets that exist for purposes like childbirth and the production of food, instead of recognizing them as humans.

It is the duty of each government to ensure they do not infringe upon the rights of individuals in their legislative processes. The Kenyan government, however, has fallen far short with the Marriage Bill.Ěý

These are notions that women’s rights activists have fought to overcome and their efforts have clearly been undone in this move by the Kenyan government. Far from providing the intended relief to victims of unofficial polygamous marriages, this law has toppled the status of women in Kenya by sending a misogynistic message of exploitability to society. The laws of a country should fight existing social barriers and stereotypes, and act as stimulants of change in a society. Considering the shocking gender gap in Kenya, the government has failed to achieve this fundamental objective of democratic lawmaking. Instead, it has damaged sacrosanct constitutional principles of equality.

Disregarding Women’s Rights

Secondly, and most importantly, the non-requirement of consent denotes an absolute lack of respect for a woman’s rights within a marriage. The modern interpretation of the institution of marriage is that both partners are considered to be equal, but the Marriage Bill unabashedly undermines this idea. By refusing a wife the ability to consent to her husband’s second marriage, she is relegated to second place, while her husband is established as the most powerful person.

Far from ensuring equality, the Kenyan government has firmly established a sense of male superiority in a family and, correspondingly, in the nation. A second marriage would also involve sharing the family’s resources between at least three people, as a second wife would typically reside in the same house as the first. To take away a woman’s right to accept or deny the entry of a completely new person into her marriage and household automatically places every single wife in Kenya on a lower pedestal than her husband, stealing her right to equal protection by law.

This is not the first time a country has laid down such regressive laws. Earlier this year, the Council of Islamic Ideology in also upheld the nonessential nature of a woman’s consent regarding her husband’s second marriage.ĚýModern democracies are built on principles of ensuring mutual respect and understanding toward each other. However, the law clearly violates this by legitimizing disrespect to one’s wife and certifying that power in society is ultimately male dominated.

Even in India, the constant refusal to criminalize marital rape is indicative of how we view married women as property, exclusively owned by their husbands to be treated and mistreated at their fancies.Ěý

Democracy Has to Uphold Equality

These failures demonstrate that the so-called reforms are a façade that cover up the ominous undercurrent of patriarchy and sexism in 21^st century lawmaking. This denial of the right to consent to crucial decisions within a marriage also seems to represent the general attitude of lawmakers toward the concept of a woman’s voice.

Even in India, the constant refusal to criminalize marital rape is indicative of how we view married women as property, exclusively owned by their husbands to be treated and mistreated at their fancies. Despite having been passed in democratically elected legislatures, what these laws truly signify is murky male chauvinism that still exists in the corridors of hallowed legislative bodies.

Over the last few decades, the feminist movement has gained immense momentum and the status of women around the world has rapidly improved. Much legislation has been passed that seeks to protect women by expanding definitions and imposing harsher punishments. It is the duty of each government to ensure they do not infringe upon the rights of individuals in their legislative processes. The Kenyan government, however, has fallen far short with the Marriage Bill. The government’s actions threaten to undo the work that has gone into promoting gender equality and reducing the gender gap.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Kenya’s president, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, and his deputy, William Samoei Ruto,Ěý against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC). They stand accused of orchestrating the violence that followed the 2007 general elections in Kenya. As a result of the violence, at least 1,200 people were killed with hundreds of thousands injured and displaced from their homes.

To date, many of the victims’ families still yearn for justice and repatriation. Despite initial promises to cooperate with the ICC in proving their innocence, the Kenyan leaders are now intent on evading the dock for as long as they can.

Leading figures from other African countries have backed Kenya’s petition to postpone the cases against Kenyatta and Ruto, claiming that the proceedings were interfering with their role as heads of state. Kenyatta and Ruto argue that they were democratically elected in 2012 and a move by the ICC to bar them from executing their duty to the electorate infringes upon Kenya’s sovereignty. Notwithstanding is the claim that the ICC targets African leaders who are at a weaker bargaining position, given their states’ dependence on the West for economic support.

Local Justice as an Alternative

As a result of these grievances, the indictments against the Kenyan leaders have become an African Union (AU) affair. The AU against Kenyatta and Ruto to be deferred. The union also called for amendments to the Rome Statute, including the establishment of a court in Africa whose mandate would be to try alleged perpetrators of crimes deemed to be internationally significant.

However, given the history of local tribunals in Africa, a move to establish an “African court” will only further shield the continent’s leaders from international accountability. Such a move will only facilitate impunity and iron fist leadership that have characterized post-colonial African countries.

The international community, beginning with South Africa, developed the concept of local tribunals to try individuals who were not summoned by the ICC. Despite their foreign origin, local tribunals perpetuate the idea of homegrown justice, which is crucial to restoring faith with host countries’ judicial processes.

Setting up these criminal tribunals and introducing national trials or truth and reconciliation commissions have become a common feature of the international community’s response to war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, a lack of oversight on these tribunals has resulted in slow, stalled, and flawed processes.

An Independent Watchdog in RwandaĚýand Sierra Leone

However favorable the idea of localized justice seems, press coverage of these events leave a lot to be desired. The United Nation’s (ICTR), which is based in Arusha, Tanzania, presents an ideal case. The tribunal’s mismanagement, geographical isolation, and general slowness has only heightened its problems.

Given Western media’s knack for sensational African news, this apparently uninteresting tribunal has seen little or no press coverage. As a result, a new initiative was launched: To fill the information gap, international NGOs have assumed the role of independent media companies. Three of them — whose headquarters are located in the US (), Switzerland (), and France (Intermedia) — have provided coverage of the ICTR since the trials began in 1997.

Since 2003, however, Fondation Hirondelle has been the only international NGO that still operates on a daily basis in Arusha, while Internews has moved to Kigali. This eventual disengagement of the “watchdogs” is a common trend among the international community with their judicial oversight in Africa.

Sierra Leone provides a slightly different case. Unlike the ICTR, which has seen coverage by international NGOs, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, whose trials began in 2004, is only covered on a permanent basis by local media. No information-focused NGO like the one in Arusha has started a project in Freetown relating to the court’s activities.

The local press in Sierra Leone suffers from grave economic and ethical problems, while also having a lack of journalists trained in court reporting. As a result, the Special Court for Sierra Leone — which is primarily funded by the US, the Netherlands, Britain, and Canada — lacks any independent international watchdog. The only international NGO currently involved in monitoring the Special Court is the International Center for Transitional Justice. Unfortunately, the center does not aim at providing a public and independent journalistic coverage of the trials. Therefore, it cannot replace the press as a watchdog.

Lessons for the Kenyan Case and the Future

Such situations — ones in which NGOs are responsible for reporting on trials with a highly political agenda — raises questions over NGO independence and the role they play as a watchdog. NGO reporting lacks investigative, analytical, and critical approaches. Their editorial policy is often driven by a “project” mentality — common to NGOs — rather than a journalistic one.

In Sierra Leone, a lack of independent and professional media organizations has resulted in a loss of democratic control over the judicial process.

Based on Rwanda and Sierra Leone, it is clear that the judicial process can be authoritarian, corrupt, and dysfunctional once there is a lack of accountability. One can only conclude that this lack of transparency in local tribunals has informed the decision by Kenyatta and Ruto to advocate for an “independent” local tribunal, as opposed to going to The Hague for their role in the 2007-2008 post-election violence.

Although requests to defer the Kenyan cases were denied, the petition for the establishment of an African court is still on the table for discussion by the Assembly of State Parties (ASP). While Kenyatta and Ruto will not benefit from the decision by the ASP on the various proposed amendments, the future of Africa’s accountability to international law is at stake.

Opinion polls show an increasing consensus among Kenyans that their leaders should face the ICC and prove their innocence — perhaps a signal of distrust in alternative judicial systems.

The potential effectiveness of African judicial institutions should not be questioned, as long as local tribunals are actually used for their intended manner.

In the absence of a counterbalancing legislative body — with state donors focused mainly on budgetary issues and with human rights organizations reluctant to criticize institutions they helped create — there is an obvious need for independent press scrutiny to hold these tribunals accountable. A fusion of independent international press and training of local journalists is bound to help in achieving judicial transparency and accountability.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Background

Despite the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) may appear to be a recent phenomenon, in reality, the long story of its establishment stretches back to the late 19^th century.

In 1872, Gustav Moynier, one of the founders of the International Committee of the Red Cross, proposed the creation of a permanent international court to seek justice for crimes committed during the Franco-Prussian War.

The next resurgence of interest in the establishment of an international tribunal occurred in 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference, when the drafters of the Treaty of Versailles proposed the establishment of a court to try Kaiser Wilhelm II and German forces. The idea was abandoned until it was resurrected following World War II, when the Allies started the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials to seek justice for victims of atrocities and to punish the perpetrators.  

Following these trials, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the . The document called for criminals to be tried "by such international penal tribunals" that have jurisdiction, while it also asked the International Law Commission (ILC) "to study the desirability and possibility of establishing an international judicial organ for the trials of persons charged with genocide." Although the International Law Commission drafted these documents, the plan for an international tribunal was abandoned due to the tense political climate of the Cold War.

In 1989, Trinidad and Tobago, partially motivated by a desire to combat drug trafficking, moved to resurrect the pre-existing proposals for the establishment of an international tribunal. Consequently, the ILC resumed drafting a statute.

In the early 1990s, as the United Nations (UN) established ad hoc tribunals in Rwanda and Bosnia to seek justice for genocide and other crimes against humanity, the need for a permanent international criminal court became increasingly clear.

After years of negotiations, the UN General Assembly convened a conference in Rome in June 1998 to finalize a treaty. On July 17, 1988, the was adopted — 120 nations voted in favor of the adoption of the Rome Statute; seven nations, including the United States, Israel, China, Iraq and Qatar, voted against the treaty; and 21 nations abstained. In 2002, the court became fully operational.

According to its mandate, the ICC is intended to complement existing national judicial systems. The court only exercises its jurisdiction in cases where national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute crimes. The Office of the Prosecutor is responsible for conducting investigations and prosecutions. The prosecutor opens investigations after referrals from state parties or the UN Security Council. However, the prosecutor may also open an investigation, if they receive information meriting a judicial response from individuals or NGOs.

The first prosecutor of the ICC was Luis Moreno Ocampo, while the current prosecutor is Fatou Bensouda. The court’s headquarters are in The Hague, Netherlands.

Why is the ICC Relevant?

In recent years, the ICC has been accused of bias and neo-colonialism as all eight cases that the court has investigated have been African ones. Despite having a global mandate, African leaders have complained that the ICC places too much of an emphasis on Africa while ignoring other nations.

Due to the prosecution of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto for , the ICC has been subject to severe criticism over the last few years. Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed has accused the ICC of treating “,” while the Kenyan parliament passed a motion calling for the withdrawal of support for the ICC.

The Kenyan campaign against the ICC has received support from other African nations. In October 2013, the African Union (AU) convened a summit that . Following the summit, the AU called upon the ICC and the UN Security Council to delay the Kenyatta/Ruto case.

Now, a debate rages on over the court’s perceived bias and who should direct the fight for justice in Kenya.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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December 29, 2007, marked the beginning of the darkest two months in Kenya’s 45 years of independence. In the preceding five years, the country had rid itself of President Daniel Moi’s dictatorial regime and, after 24 years of oppression, had ushered in a government that oversaw economic expansion and renewed respect for media freedoms. The run-up to the 2007 election, however, had shown a country deeply divided along tribal lines. While previous elections had featured tribal clashes in some parts of the country, the fighting was typically limited to well-known “hot spots.” Not many were prepared for the extent of violence that was to come, previously unimaginable for Kenya – an oasis of calm in volatile East Africa.

The chaos first started when riots broke out throughout the country in protest to the Electoral Commission of Kenya’s announcement of Mwai Kibaki as the winner of a dubious vote. International observers cited widespread electoral manipulation in many parts of the country and refused to declare the election free and fair. The violence soon fragmented across ethnic lines as atavistic tensions bubbled to the surface. For the next eight weeks, the country descended into unprecedented levels of violence, at the peak of which 35 people, mostly elderly women and children, were burnt alive at Kiambaa church where they had sought refuge. By the time the two leading candidates reluctantly struck a deal to end the violence in a power-sharing agreement, about .

Now, six years later, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, along with local radio personality Joshua arap Sang, are on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. In recent months Kenya, and numerous African nations, have demanded that the ICC drop the cases and instead bring them before a locally constituted tribunal. The Kenyan government has spent millions of taxpayers’ dollars in an effective shuttle diplomacy campaign to portray the current ICC trial as an imperialist and racial agenda by the West against Africa. Only last month, the African Union met in Ethiopia to around organizing a mass withdrawal from the ICC.

Voluntary referral

Given the fervor with which the Kenyatta government has argued against having the Kenyan cases tried at the ICC, one might be forgiven for thinking that the Kenyan government was indeed coerced into sending the cases to The Hague. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. As part of the post-election compromise by the two principals to end the political impasse, the Commission of Inquiry on Post Election Violence (CIPEV) – colloquially known as the – was set up to investigate the facts surrounding the post election violence and make recommendations to avoid the same in the future.

The , besides comprehensively outlining the various factors that culminated in the use of violence in the aftermath of the election, also provided one of the most effective roadmaps to justice by a government-mandated commission in Kenya. The report instructed the Kenyan government to carry out a series of reforms that would culminate in a locally constituted tribunal to try suspects believed to have carried out the violence. As a fail-safe, the commission had prepared a list of the main suspects responsible for the violence that would be handed over to the ICC, if the commission’s recommendations were not executed.

Despite support for the local tribunal by the principals of the coalition government, parliament repeatedly rejected the idea of a local tribunal and consistently by the government to carry out the demands of the report. In a country where local institutions were deeply distrusted to hold the political class accountable, having the cases tried at The Hague seemed to hold the most realistic chance of success.

Local Trials

The Kenyan government has attempted to explain away this argument. In a recent interview with BBC’s news bulletin , Kenya’s Foreign Secretary Amina Mohamed explained that although Kenya had voluntarily referred the cases to the ICC, the country now has a new constitution and has reformed important local institutions enough to handle them locally.ĚýStill, one should be skeptical about Kenya’s ability to effectively deal with the cases. Since independence, Kenya has never seen a high-ranking official or senior politician arrested and held accountable to the full extent of the law in connection with a high-profile criminal case. This holds true in spite of the wealth of high-profile corruption scandals, political assassinations, as well as drug and human trafficking cases that have been linked to well-known politicians.

A closer study of the reasons why parliament blocked attempts to have a local tribunal increases doubts about the current government’s desire to try the cases in Kenya. Some politicians were weary of a local judicial process that could be prone to manipulation, and others who felt that the ICC process would take years to bring the cases to trial, giving enough time for the suspects to maneuver to stronger political positions. Initially, the phrase “Let’s not be vague, let’s go to The Hague!” was coined by Isaac Ruto, a close ally to the current deputy president, as a rallying call to push the cases to be tried at the ICC. However, the same politicians back-pedaled once they realized the cases were moving faster than anticipated.

Likewise, a cursory glance at the current political climate reveals a government that is superficial with its intention to try the cases locally. In December 2013, President Kenyatta endorsed a series of to the media freedoms allowed in the new constitution that would negate the progress made in the last decade. The moves, once signed into law, will allow the executive to control media houses through a government-controlled tribunal.ĚýThe ease with which the government is clawing back on fundamental freedoms that Kenyans have defended for decades is disconcerting, and questions the Kenyatta administration’s willingness to put its citizens’ interests before its own.

Even more telling is the small number of cases that have been prosecuted in relation to the post-election crimes that were committed in 2008. The Waki Report alleges that there were prominent businessmen and local leaders that were deeply involved in planning and carrying out the violence. Beyond the cases that are before the ICC, no significant arrests and prosecutions have been seen to date. It is hard to understand why the Kenyatta government has not established a local tribunal that would oversee the prosecutions of these crimes. If the current government were serious about its intentions to bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice, we should have seen far more meaningful investigations and prosecutions of these mid-level players.

Justica and Healing

While it is clear that the Kenyan government’s aggressive claims that the ICC is pursuing a racial agenda are completely baseless, the ICC’s record of prosecuting only African cases should be a cause for concern. A credible judicial system should not only provide legal recourse to victims and their defendants alike, but it should also function in a way that is seen to be just. The Court’s disproportionate focus on Africa undermines its credibility as an impartial institution. Nonetheless, it’s important to note in this debate that the Kenyan cases are being tried at the ICC only because of parliament’s refusal to come up with a local solution and not because of the ICC’s propensity to prosecuting African cases.

Lastly, one can only read mischief into the government’s efforts to withdraw the cases from the ICC. Not only are such attempts irresponsible, but they also serve to highlight the blatant disregard to the rule of law that is pervasive within Kenya’s political class. Allowing Kenya to leave the ICC would be a perversion of justice for the victims of the post-election clashes. As Desmond Tutu aptly put it in his recent op-ed in The New York Times, without justice, “there can be no healing, leaving violence and hatred ticking like a bomb in the corner.”

The long walk to healing as a country can only start when Kenyans demand accountability. The deep-seated historical injustices surrounding land disputes, stark development inequalities and the disenfranchisement of unemployed youth that lead to the 2008 violence still need fixing. However, only an honest process that values accountability and eschews impunity will lead to success.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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The key event of November was the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1. The US, the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany got together with Iran to agree to give Tehran temporary relief from sanctions for accepting restrictions on its nuclear program.

The deal has plenty of enemies starting from other states such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Canada, as well as political forces such as Iranian conservatives and US senators. There is no guarantee that the deal will stick but it is a major step forward and a cause for hope.

The ink was barely dry on this deal when China and the US started scrambling jets in the East China Sea over a disputed air defense zone. China, Japan and South Korea dispute control over some tiny islands, which are currently under Japanese administrative authority. There is a deep history of conflict involving these three countries, two of which are close US allies. All four parties are now flying jets over the disputed territory in a dangerous game that needs to end. The dispute in Asia is reminiscent of the European disputes over territory before World War I.

In the US, filibuster rules were ironically changed during the week when the country was celebrating the 150^th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The Republicans were opposing Barack Obama’s nominees for top positions and, in particular, the second highest court of the land. Filibuster was intended to protect the minority and it also meant that 60 votes out of 100 were needed in the Senate to override an objection. Now the filibuster can only be used for Supreme Court nominees. This means that Obama will now be able to make more appointments, but it seems unlikely that any legislation will pass because the House is dominated by Republicans. There might even be another repeat of a showdown over the budget.

Europe continues to wallow in economic stagnation. The eurozone grew by barely 0.1% between July and September. Even German growth stalled at 0.3% and France suffered a credit ratings downgrade by Standard & Poor’s thanks to the catastrophic economic policies of the Hollande government.

The big news in Europe was Ukraine. After reaching the altar, it has fled from the EU into the brawny arms of Russia as protests erupted on the streets of Kiev.

Brazil is making great strides towards better governance. It sent some powerful politicians to prison for corruption, exhumed the remains of a former democratically elected president to find out if he had been murdered, and is inviting private investment to improve its creaking infrastructure in a race to be ready for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

In Chile, Michele Bachelet was taken to the second round of voting but is expected to win and become president again. Elections in Honduras are under dispute, Argentina has drifted more to the left, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is unleashing disaster on the economy. Mexico’s drug wars continue to take their toll and a decent mayor was killed. On that note, the murder rate in Latin America has gone up by 11% over the last decade. Clearly, the War on Drugs has failed.

In Southeast Asia, the long-running saga of street protests continues in Thailand. Protesters are defying Prime Minister Yinglick Shinawatra’s government and refusing to work through constitutional means. Elsewhere in the region, a terrible typhoon hit the Philippines, Vietnam saw floods, and a volcano erupted in Indonesia.

South Asia saw turmoil. The US killed Hakimullah Mesud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. Dr. Nasiruddin Haqqani of the Haqqani Network was also assassinated and Shi'a-Sunni violence broke out in the country. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa found himself squirming after the focus on his government’s war crimes against the Tamil minority as he hosted the Commonwealth Summit. The Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh is facing violence in the run up to next year’s elections.

India is in election fever too. Allegations are flying around on a daily basis, but no one knows what to believe because the media is perhaps even more corrupt than the politicians.

President Hamid Karzai is refusing the Bilateral Security Arrangement with the US, while Afghan opium production has reached a . In Afghanistan, both the War on Terror and the War on Drugs have failed.

Turmoil continues in the Middle East and North Africa. Violence has broken out in Libya and the bloodbath in Iraq continues with over 350 people killed this month. Clashes rage on in Syria and seem to be spreading to Lebanon where the Iranian Embassy was bombed.

Geopolitically, the most interesting developments are taking place in Egypt. It is deepening ties with Saudi Arabia, who is putting $12 billion into the Egyptian economy. The ruling generals are squeezing Gaza because of Hamas’ links with the Muslim Brotherhood, pleasing Israel. The Egyptian generals are flirting with Russia and discussing a $2 billion arms deal to spite the US for stopping military aid. Most importantly, Egypt’s rulers are clashing with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his support for deposed President Mohammed Morsi, and have expelled the Turkish Ambassador from Cairo.

On a human note, two of the richest countries in the region, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were in the news for mistreating foreign workers. The former expelled a large number of them who returned with stories of exploitation, abuse and racism.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to, "as a general rule, be present in court." African states unsuccessfully tried to get the UN Security Council to suspend the trial. Supporters argue that given Africa’s poor governance structures, lack of rule of law and absence of an independent judiciary, the ICC is the last resort for Africans seeking justice. Others believe that the court is neo-colonial and that it targets African leaders exclusively, leaving out the likes of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who should be tried for his role in the Iraq War.

As this historic month draws to a close, please find below our finest articles and, as always, keep telling us how we can do better.

1: — Victor J. Stenger

Humanity’s “god model” is inconsistent with scientific observations.

2: — by Peter Jenkins

The most problematic element of the nuclear deal is the lifting of sanctions.

3: — by Sara El Yafi

What lies at the heart of the Sunni-Shiite divide?

4: — by David Karl

The White House is insulating Obama; thereby leading to domestic and foreign policy blunders.

5: — Eliora Katz

An orthodox American-Persian Jew discovers that the road to peace is paved with rice and opera.

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On his recent trip to Africa, US President Barack Obama announced his initiative to spend $7 billion over five years to fund an electricity program in sub-Saharan Africa that includes geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar power. Critics have attacked the plan from all directions: and does not involve a long-term commitment; it does not give ; it does not deal with distribution issues; and it does not focus enough on cleaning up conditions that keep the global private power industry in Africa — “poorly enforced property rights, corruption, and patchy enforcement of the rule of law.”

A Much Needed Project

Yet no one denies the need, as nearly lack access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. Ironically, “indoor air pollution from wood stoves now kills 3.5 million people per year, more than AIDS and malaria combined.” In some cases, US regulations will have to be changed to support the initiative because certain environmental rules restrict the US’ Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) from funding projects that emit greenhouse gases. Due to the rural locations of many of those in need, renewable energy, according to the International Energy Agency, “could be the most cost-effective option for expanding energy access in about 70 percent of rural areas in developing countries.” One solution already provided by the US company SKYei, is the installation of mini-grids powered by a hybrid of solar and gas that are inexpensive and well suited to rural areas.

So far, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania have signed up for the first round of projects. Andrew Mayock of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) believes the initial fund of $7 billion, which has already attracted an additional $9 billion in commitments from private sector investors, could grow to $30 billion in energy infrastructure investments annually.

Leading by Example: Morocco and WAPP

While Power Africa moves forward, there are burgeoning opportunities across the continent in Central and West Africa. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), through its West Africa Power Pool (), has made regional power grid access a priority for the next decade. The WAPP intends to integrate the various national power systems “into a unified regional electricity market – with the expectation that such mechanism would, over the medium to long-term, assure the citizens of ECOWAS member states a stable and reliable electricity supply at affordable costs… facilitating the balanced development of diverse energy resources… for their collective economic benefit, through long-term energy sector cooperation, unimpeded energy transit and increasing cross-border electricity trade.”

It should come as no surprise that Morocco is a significant player in WAPP through its close ties to and revived leadership of the Community of Sahal-Saharan States (). More importantly, Morocco is a strong partner for energy development due to its dominant role in Africa when it comes to investing in renewable energies. It has been successful in bringing electricity to 98% of its rural areas and there are strong logistical ties between Morocco and the countries in Central and West Africa.

More Cooperation is Necessary

Trends in energy consumption and production favor a strong regional grid between Morocco and its neighbors to the south. Given the expanding utilization of its national resources for local projects, the region is collectively demanding more efficient and productive investment in all types of infrastructure. With this strong commitment to economic and human development, more reliable energy supplies are a core requirement. Reliable energy is an enabler and multiplier of opportunities across many sectors and is a key driver in attracting foreign direct investment, creating jobs and enhancing stability.

"The development of Africa’s electrical power sector is a prerequisite for growth in other industries. A regular, consistent power supply will do much to attract foreign investment and entice international companies to establish operations in Africa… Power sharing has become more prevalent in the in recent years… [as] neighboring countries have seen benefit on the sharing of electricity… countries with limited or unreliable power generation capacity will now have access to power, without the intensive capital investment required to construct new facilities.”

Despite the fading demand from the European leg of the , which linked renewable energy from the Maghreb to European customers, it is now obvious that, given projected high growth for sub-Saharan Africa, Morocco’s strategic investments in renewable energies and extension of its power grid southward will provide a critical backbone for regional energy distribution. Given the already extensive inputs in power generation and distribution in West and Central Africa, the US should consider broadening its Power Africa program in partnership with Morocco to accelerate the delivery of sustainable energy along the north-south power corridor in the region.

*[This article was produced in collaboration with , and represents the views of the author and not the perspectives of the Moroccan American Trade & Investment Center.]

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Each year, on June 20, the United Nations marks World Refugee Day; a time to recognize the contributions of refugees to their communities around the world. 

Refugees are people who are forced to flee their home countries due to political persecution, war, famine, and other causes of forced migration. The moment they cross the borders of foreign lands, migrants are known as "refugees" — a brand that doesn't only degrade their status, but also subjects them to indifference to their basic human needs.

Kakuma Refugee Camp

The Kakuma refugee camp was established in 1991 and is located 95km from Lokichoggio, a town at the Kenya-Sudan border. It is administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and falls under the jurisdiction of the Kenyan government. Kakuma, meaning "nowhere" in Swahili, has been controlled through the Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA) since the adoption of the Kenya Refugee Act of 2006. The refugee camp is connected with only a highway on the Kenyan northern corridor.

Kakuma is remote; it is a cosmopolitan camp. Over many years, it has developed into a town within another town, since the actual city of Kakuma is also home to non-refugees. The camp's area is defined by a harsh environment in a remote location, coupled with poor infrastructure and low access to essential services, in addition to other underlying causes of poverty.

In the Kakuma refugee camp, tens of thousands of multinational refugees have been warehoused for decades. Refugees are trapped there with one big difference between the camp's residents and those who live in the town of Kakuma: The camp's residents cannot leave without permission from the camp's governing authority.

The refugee camp itself has three major settlement sections. During the early stages of its inception, the Kakuma refugee camp was designed to accommodate South Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict and violence. Over the years, the camp has accommodated refugees from: South Sudan; Sudan; Somali; DRC Congo; Burundi; Ethiopia; Rwanda; Eritrea; Uganda; Tanzania; and Congo-Brazzaville. The camp has also accommodated three Ivoirians, an Iranian, a Zimbabwean, and a Cameroonian.

By mid-May, the total population in Kakuma stood at 150,891, of which 49,767 were refugees of Somali origin. Another 44,395 were refugees from South Sudan. However, by the end of May, the camp's population had already increased to 155,269 persons, according to a UNHCR official report.

Refugees' Voices

In the Kakuma refugee camp, World Refugee Day was commemorated on Thursday, June 20 at the Napata grounds in the camp. At 9am, flags were lifted and dancing and speeches soon followed.

Some views expressed by camp residents are full of bitterness and worries: "I'm in a voluntary prison, I was young when I arrived here 14 years ago," said Elias Wondimu, an Ethiopian refugee in Kakuma. "That has changed now, I don't see any reason as to why we celebrate refugee day. I hate life."  

Refugees in the camp are trapped and their rights to freedom of movement and to obtain employment and citizenship are denied. The UNHCR is supposed to advocate refugee rights, but camp residents strongly feel that the UN Refugee Agency has done little in finding durable solutions.

Sara Hassan, a Somali refugee, said: "I wish I could turn back time. I have lived here since 1994 [and] I was promised resettlement but that turned out to be a dream; many years of waiting. Was my case closed? I don't see real life anymore."

There are no well established structures, and human rights conditions are fragile. Therefore, the exact figures concerning victims of rape and sexual assaults are not registered, despite its rampant occurrences.

Some refugees have the opportunity to go back to their homeland, while others will never have the chance to set foot on their country of origin again. In Kakuma, refugees have strongly encountered the negative impact of warehousing and many lives are being lost in exile. Some refugees will be lucky enough to secure resettlement abroad, while many others who desire the same thing will never get the opportunity. Some even feel discriminated against.

"Are all refugees equal? Some are more equal than others [and] some deserve resettlement, but it's a taboo to Rwandese in Kakuma," said Leah Bugingo, a Rwandan refugee. "I hope there will be change for [future] generations."

In the Kakuma camp, refugees are entirely dependent on humanitarian food aid. Their life consists of constant waiting and dreams of new hope. Under these circumstances, children grow to adulthood and adults grow to old age in this warehousing situation.

As a refugee community leader in Kakuma said: "We're vulnerable, we're voiceless, [and] we're neglected by the UN, the media, [and] the international community, as well by our host government." 

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Kenya's election commission on Saturday announced that last week the deeply ethnically divided nation had elected Uhuru Kenyatta to be the new president by a narrow margin. Everyone's mind is focus on the fear of new violence similar to what happened after the December 27, 2007, elections, when inter-ethnic killings, rapes and amputations triggered by dissatisfaction with election results killed thousands of people. In his acceptance speech, :
"I would especially like to acknowledge the Kenyans who lost their lives on the eve of the elections. They made the ultimate sacrifice, laying down their lives, in the name of democracy. To the families of those who lost their loved ones- I offer my sincere condolences and I assure you that I, and the people of Kenya are standing with you in prayer. The incidents that took the lives of our officers are a reminder that security remains one of the biggest challenges to our nation. It is unacceptable to see the lives of Kenyans lost so senselessly. As we move forward, I pledge to keep the issue of national security high on our agenda."
However, Raila Odinga, the candidate who lost the election, is not very happy with the results. In his speech, he listed "massive irregularities" in the voting process. Billions of dollars had been spent on new technology — electronic voter identification kits and electronic voter tallying systems — that all failed completely, forcing a count of the paper ballots, according to Odinga as qouted by :
"Two days after the vote, the electronic tallying process was discarded and counting began afresh, manually. That too turned out to be flawed exercise in which, among other things, there was massive tampering with the IEBC voter register. …Democracy is on trial in Kenya. It is clear that the process of electing a new set of leaders has been thwarted by another tainted election.""

Odinga's supporters believe that these failures were intentional sabotage to give his opponent a victory. However, Odinga asked his supporters to remain peaceful:
"Any violence now could destroy this nation. …Let the Supreme Court determine whether the result announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission [IEBC] is lawful. We are confident the court will restore the faith of Kenyans in the democratic rule if law."

The Supreme Court will then have 14 days to hear the dispute and make a ruling whether to call for a new election. Odinga has made it clear that he expects to win a victory in court. Whichever way the court decision goes, it's going to make a lot of people very angry.

Kenyatta's Criminal Charges Provide Dilemma for Obama Administration

The fact that Kenya is Barack Obama's ancestral homeland only complicates the over the fact that winning candidate Uhuru Kenyatta is under indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, stemming from his alleged involvement in the bloodbath that occurred after the December 2007 elections. He's accused of organizing and funding the death squads that killed more than 1200 people, and caused many atrocities. Kenyatta's trial is scheduled to begin this summer, and many people inside and outside of Kenya are wondering how he's going to be able to govern the nation while he's standing trial in the Hague.

Western nations, including the United States, are going to be reluctant to have ordinary diplomatic relations with a man who allegedly committed such these atrocities. In fact, prior to the election, the US. State Department’s top diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, issued a thinly veiled warning to Kenyans that "choices have consequences."

This remark caused a huge outcry in Kenya, where the US. was accused of trying to interfere in Kenya's election process. As it turned out, Carson's remark proved to be a big benefit to Kenyatta. He portrayed himself as a victim of both the ICC and the United States, and was able to rally his supporters with those charges. In many ways, the election turned into a referendum on the ICC itself.

Kenya is extremely important to US interests, according to the Council on :
"The fact that the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi is the largest in all of sub-Saharan Africa reflects the country’s centrality to a number of U.S. priorities. Kenya is a significant counterterrorism partner and an important point of military and humanitarian access in the region. Kenya has been a vital diplomatic partner in efforts to bring stability to Sudan and Somalia. The country is also a regional hub for U.S., international, and nongovernmental programs as well as the linchpin for private sector activity in East Africa. Trouble in Kenya can quickly infect neighboring countries, as the economic spillover effects of the current crisis have already made plain."

However from our point of view the view of generational theory, Kenya's last generational crisis war was the Mau-Mau rebellion that climaxed in 1956, and so a new round of violence has a moderate probability of spiraling into a full-scale ethnic war. 

*[This article was originally published by on March 10, 2013.]

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Background

Kenya, officially named the Republic of Kenya, is a country on the East Coast of Africa that is roughly twice the size of the United Kingdom..

Kenya has a long colonial history beginning in 1885 when Germany took possession of the coastal lands. However, it handed over its Kenyan holdings to the United Kingdom in 1890.  Kenya remained a British colony until December 12, 1963. The Kenyan African National Union (Kanu) took control of the country and on December 12, 1964, exactly a year later, the Kanu formed the Republic of Kenya and Jomo Kenyatta became the first president.

The new presidency began outlawing opposition parties including the Kenya People’s Union, which was formed by the vice president, Oginga Odinga. Kenyatta was reelected in 1974 with Daniel arap Moi as his vice president, who took office when Kenyatta died in 1978. Under Moi, Kenya was declared a one-party state in June of 1982. This was followed by a failed air force coup in August of 1982, which did little to stop Moi who continued to take political prisoners and was rumored to be violating human rights.

 In 1991, Odinga and several other opposition leaders formed the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford), which was also outlawed and its leaders were taken as political prisoners. Moi received much criticism and was condemned by many other nations who suspended their aid to Kenya. In December of 1991, Kanu decided to institute a multi-party political system.  Four months before the 1992 elections, Ford split into two separate factions: Ford-Asili, led by Kenneth Matiba, and Ford-Kenya, led by Odinga. Moi was reelected in the first multi-party elections in 1992. Two new political parties, the United National Democratic Alliance and Safina, were both formed before the 1997 elections but Moi won his last election this year.

Moi was finally defeated in the 2002 elections which were won by Mwai Kibaki, a former vice president and a founder of the Democratic Party.  Under Kibaki, there was government emphasis on anti-corruption but Moi is granted immunity from a death sentence on corruption charges. In 2005, voters rejected a proposed constitution because they felt it gave the presidency too much power. The 2007 elections erupted in ethnic violence leaving Kibaki in power and killing 1,500. Finally in 2010, a new constitution was passed designed to limit the power of the presidency.

Why is this election important?

This will be the first election since the approval of the new constitution.  While the new constitution divides Kenya into 47 counties, each with its own governor and parliament that makes budgetary decisions, big time politicians are controlling Kenyan politics.

Recent party primaries were filled with violence; one election official was stabbed to death in western Kenya and two journalists were severely beaten in Kibera. This leads many to be fearful that the elections will cause Kenya to break into violence again like in 2007. Additionally, corruption became evident at the primaries once more; Ralia Odinga, prime minister and son of Oginga Odinga, tried to nominate his brother and sister for office. The people, however, are testing out the new powers they have  been given by the Constitution and overwhelmingly outvoted Odinga’s siblings.

Currently, there are eight candidates running for president, all of who appeared in Kenya’s first political debate on Febraury 11^th.  Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the founding president Jomo Kenyatta, are both frontrunners in the presidential race so far with Odinga slightly surpassing Kenyatta in recent polls.  Kenyatta is also facing charges from the International Criminal Court for the role he allegedly played in the ethnic violence after the 2007 election. Both men have a long history tying them to the political corruption, which has long been a part of the Kenyan government.  However, one is likely to become president and bring that corruption to the newly refined government and constitution. 

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Few scholars have envisioned a day in which African security and economic prosperity were no longer dependent on a constant flow of blue helmets and aid packages. While exceptionally belated, the day has finally arrived in which African private investment has finally surpassed aid exchanges. Today, it is impossible to ignore the continent’s newly radiant economic complexion, and more astoundingly so when one considers the obstacles that hindered the African economy from solidifying its hold on the international marketplace in the first place: a global recession, donor budget cuts, and the adverse affects of climate change to name a few.

Just ten years ago, I had the pleasure of assisting the planning team for the 2012 US-Africa Business Conference, the United States State Department’s highest-level event with sub-Saharan Africa. An extension of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the forum hosted six hundred participants, including top US and African government officials, private sector leaders, and civil society representatives, and strived to expand physical infrastructure to make Africa “ready for trade.” At the time, investors clearly recognized that the continent was on the precipice of change, but it was also painstakingly clear that Africa had a long way to go. Ghana, one of the continent’s key economic powerhouses, was investing in its green energy portfolio, particularly its solar capabilities. Meanwhile, Zambian officials sought investors to finance their endeavor to turn the Lusaka airport into a dynamic regional hub with the ultimate aim of maximizing regional integration. The resolve for change was tangible.

Over the course of the subsequent decade, Africa did what nobody thought was possible. While the rest of the global economy cowered during the recession, Africa remained the only developing region that demonstrated a dramatic increase in economic growth, trade, and foreign direct investment. What is perhaps even more impressive is the fact that it maintained a steady growth trajectory even after its major donors experienced serious budget cuts, at which point it was steadily forced to expand grassroots business networks to replace the neo-colonial aid structures on which it had once been dependent.

Now home to the world’s fastest growing economies, Africa boasts the global economy’s highest foreign investment rates. Its path to success, however, is incredibly unique when compared to growth periods of other developing regions such as Latin America or Asia. Essentially, the continent has leapfrogged past periods of industry development that most budding industrial economies impatiently withstood, instead free riding off of pre-existing technologies and adapting them for its own unique needs.

Take its telecom technologies, such as its mobile agriculture apps and mobile banking programs. Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile banking program, an exemplary model of Africa’s expanding communications infrastructure, now hosts millions of cell phones. The mobile banking trend also thrives in Somalia, once considered a failed state, as it has begun to realize the liquidity of its highly developed banking and finance systems. Mobile apps are now employed for everything from conflict mapping to the regulation of local agricultural production. Likewise, communications infrastructure financiers have invested in powerful undersea fiber-optic cables from Durban to Accra, which have brought Internet capabilities to even the most rural communities. By providing a sense of autonomy to previously unconnected youth, the proliferation of new technology systems has electrified a new generation of entrepreneurs by endowing them with the tools necessary to interact within the globalized realm.

The rise of a new class of motivated young elites and female entrepreneurs is another extraordinary African phenomenon. Small businesses have exploded and markets have gained liquidity, contributing to the doubling of discretionary income and consumer spending and a remarkable entrepreneurial boom. Most importantly, rapid urbanization and the rise of the middle class in countries such as Ethiopia have produced a new generation of problem-solvers with a stake in their own nations. While unemployment still plagues Africa’s urban capitals, entrepreneurship has been a driving force of economic growth and is a direct response to many problems of the past, from capital formation to social inclusion. The fact that the world’s largest population of youth has begun to mobilize out of city slums and into improvised office buildings is, if anything, a major win itself. To that end, regional institutions, led by the East African Community (EAC) and African Union, have extended the vibrancy of African markets by fortifying cross-border trade relations between grassroots businesses on the continent. Efforts to increase economy of scale and reduce trade and transportation costs have yielded dramatic results.

Yet while the growth of its physical and human infrastructure has been exceptional, the most praiseworthy deliverable of Africa’s economic boom is its growing commodities and agriculture markets, providing its largest export revenue. Though it has always had potential in Africa, the agriculture industry did not thrive until governments were pressured by necessity — global food insecurity — and until improved political stability and democratization contributed to business-friendly regulatory infrastructures. Agricultural growth has radically transformed the African economic model as exports to “food-insecure” nations have increased returns to the land and have created a sustainable solution to unemployment. Progress regarding regulatory infrastructure has also helped African commodities markets. Infamously known for its “resource curse” following the legacy of King Leopold II’s imperialist stronghold in the Congo and the 1990’s “blood diamond” scare in Sierra Leone, Africa now sees the most export growth via its commodity markets. The increased transparency in these markets is truly cause for celebration. Following the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Dodd-Frank legislation in 2010, multinationals on the U.S. stock markets are finally starting to be regulated. Major private sector players, led by Apple and Intel, have henceforth cleaned supply chains of conflict minerals found in common technologies, such as coltan and tungsten. Additionally, the Kimberly Process, a mechanism in place to monitor the world supply of rough diamonds, has improved its enforcement structures and supports development initiatives to decrease governments’ reliance on minerals for national income. Together, these steps have improved Africa’s largest industry, giving the international community fresh hope that the industry might increasingly promote human rights rather than perpetuate intractable internal conflicts.

Of course, the African economy still faces obstacles in the coming years. Neopatrimonial marketplaces and competitions for rent still threaten the internal political dynamics of the continent’s resource-rich economies, such as Nigeria and the DRC, while China and the West continue to scavenge its remaining resources. Terrorist finance is still prominent in Western Africa, where Al Qaeda and its affiliates have taken strongholds over the Malian economy, and drug trafficking remains a primary artery of trade within international clandestine markets. Most importantly, future African governments will be forced to protect the growth made within their new economies as climate change begins to take its toll on the global South, whether by seeking additional funding or by simply adapting to the stress of agriculture-debilitating weather patterns.

Nevertheless, there is no denying that the vision of the continent we see today is practically unrecognizable when compared to the struggling continent that was once the focus of international aid missions. After decades of struggle, Africa has finally begun to find sustainable and local solutions to its own problems. Indeed, it is finally Africa’s turn.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ's editorial policy.

Image: Copyright © Jim Vallee: . All Rights Reserved.

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