Archivo etiqueta «Kenia»

By Martin Kimani, deputy director of the Ansari Africa centre at the Atlantic council in Washington DC and associate fellow at the conflict, security and development group at King’s College London (THE GUARDIAN, 04/08/10):

Kenyans have just finished voting on whether to approve a new constitution that would limit presidential power and devolve power from the centre. I did not vote. Since the early 1990s when Kenya was emerging from a single-party, authoritarian period, I have mostly lived and worked abroad. Referendum day finds me watching CNN or the BBC, laptop at hand and my phone bill rising precipitously … Seguir leyendo

By Waithaka Waihenya, the editor-in-chief of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (THE GUARDIAN, 02/07/10):

Kenya’s parliament has an inexhaustible capacity to debate on an issue for days without reaching an agreement. But when it comes to an issue touching on their welfare, they can expedite it in an amazingly short time.

This week, they voted to award themselves a massive pay hike – at a time when everyone is feeling the pain of inflation and the weight of heavy tax burden. Currently, an MP takes home 851,000 Kenyan shillings (approximately £8,510) per month. The new salary will see them take home … Seguir leyendo

By Paul Collier, the author of Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, which is dedicated to John Githongo (THE GUARDIAN, 12/02/09):

This time last year Kenya was in flames, torn apart by ethnic violence triggered by a flawed election. About a thousand people were killed, and several hundred thousand fled their homes in response to ethnic cleansing. Even prior to the violence, politics was already ethnically polarised. The election pitted a Kikuyu against a Luo – President Mwai Kibaki against Raila Odinga – and about 98% of Luo people voted for Odinga. There was little faith … Seguir leyendo

Por Jaume Ribera, profesor del IESE (EL PERIÓDICO, 26/02/08):

Kenia ha ocupado las portadas de los medios internacionales en los últimos meses con imágenes de una violencia increíble para un país que durante años ha sido un modelo de éxito de democracia en África. La chispa de esta situación la encontramos en las discutidas elecciones del pasado noviembre, en las que el presidente anterior, Mwai Kibaki (del Partido de Unificación Nacional, PNU), se declaró ganador por un margen de 2,5%, dando la vuelta a unos sondeos que pocos meses antes apuntaban a una victoria del opositor Raila Odinga (del … Seguir leyendo

By Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel peace prizewinner and a member of Kenya’s parliament from 2002 to 2007. She is the author of Unbowed: A Memoir (THE GUARDIAN, 22/02/08):

The post-election crisis in Kenya remains unresolved. The damage being done to the country’s economy is severe: tourism, horticulture, and other industries that depend on trade beyond the Kenyan border are reeling. Thousands of livelihoods, along with investments throughout the region, are threatened and collapsing.

As the situation in Kenya escalated – with murders, rapes, burning of property, looting, and the displacement of thousands of people throughout the country – … Seguir leyendo

By Maina Kiai, the chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and L. Muthoni Wanyeki, the executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, a nongovernmental organization (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 12/02/08):

Until December, Kenya was the most stable nation in East Africa. It has long been a willing partner in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. Yet the United States has mostly stood by as our country has descended into chaos.

More than 800 people have been killed and at least 250,000 driven from their homes since rigged presidential elections on Dec. 27. Two opposition … Seguir leyendo

By Simiyu Barasa, a filmmaker and writer (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 12/02/08):

When you find yourself at a wedding discussing how more than 800 people have been killed and more than 250,000 kicked out of their homes for having certain ethnic origins, you know there is something terribly wrong with your country. Living in Nairobi the past few months has been like living in a relatively comfortable glass cave in the middle of hell.

What began in late December as protests against election irregularities has spiraled into killings based on which tribe your identity card and speech indicate you … Seguir leyendo

By Andia Kisia (THE GUARDIAN, 31/01/08):

By now, the question of who won the election is almost beside the point. Neither “President” Kibaki nor Raila Odinga should be allowed within sniffing distance of the presidency. The country is imploding, people are dying and destitute, and these two great men have to be coaxed to the negotiating table.The idea of Kenya belonging to all Kenyans and Kenyans having the right to live where they like is dead in the water. For some of the victims of the violence in the Rift Valley, this is the second or third time they have … Seguir leyendo

By Anne Applebaum (THE WASHINGTON POST, 22/01/08):

Blurry video of a policeman beating a demonstrator; a photograph of angry slum-dwellers storming a food depot; headlines featuring the word “violence.” That, more or less, sums up the news from Kenya, or at least the news that has filtered into the general consciousness over the past few weeks. Unless you were paying very close attention, you were probably tempted, as I was at first, to dismiss these events as yet more evidence of Africa‘s ungovernability. Uganda, Rwanda, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone; tribal enmity … Seguir leyendo

By Jim Hoagland (THE WASHINGTON POST, 20/01/08):

Other people’s violence is not a deep concern for most of us, particularly if it occurs in remote Africa or overpopulated Asia. But the outbreak of tribal killings and widespread rioting in Kenya hits me where I live.

Rather, it hits me where I lived. The upheaval threatens to put Nairobi on a list of foreign capitals where I once resided or visited regularly but which have become dangerous ground for foreign tourists or business people, journalists and, in many cases, the local population. A curtain of violence and of hostility toward … Seguir leyendo

By Madeleine Bunting (THE GUARDIAN, 14/01/08):

It will be Kofi Annan’s turn tomorrow to arrive in a tense Nairobi, following in the steps of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and John Kufuor, the Ghanian president and head of the African Union, last week, and US diplomats and the former Sierra Leonean president the week before. As the tourists abandon Kenya’s beaches, the country has tragically become the premier destination for a new type of visitor – the international mediator. But so far, all of them have managed no more than what could be described as a minibreak, hastily repacking their overnight bags … Seguir leyendo