Internally displaced persons at a camp just outside Nairobi’s slum of Mathare © Anne Holmes
Chief mediator Kofi Annan announced today that he was suspending talks in order to deal directly with the two leaders. He insisted the talks had not collapsed, but clearly an impasse has been reached. This morning, he announced that he was […]

By Prof. Alberto Bencivenga
(http://www.ogiek.org)
Whoever reads Mr. S. N. Waruhiu’s book “From Autocracy to Democracy in Kenya” will be impressed by the amount of information and by the clarity of the analysis done by this author. Any reader who did not grow up in an Anglo-Saxon juridical culture will be additionally impressed by the fact that, […]

Residents of Huruma gather around the body of a man shot dead by police in a late-night confrontation. © Anne Holmes
The Nation published an article yesterday about the police raids in Mathare North on Wednesday. According to them, 85 people were arrested, including children. At the court hearing on Thursday, people were shocked when a […]

A mob in Mathare North attacks a man they accuse of being Mungiki. © Anne Holmes
An overnight raid by police sparked a minor violent scene in Mathare North this morning. Sometime around 3 in the morning police entered a building by force and indescriminately arrested an estimated 80 persons, including women and children, over alleged […]

Kisii Warriors in Chepilat on Tuesday. © Anne Holmes
Standing by. That’s what I’m doing these days. The negotiations with Annan have helped to quiet things down a bit in Kenya. As we all wait for the results of the talks on Tuesday, people speculate that a power-sharing agreement breakthrough may be in the works. This […]

By Onyango Oketch
Move over grand pa
They are young. They are angry. They are articulate and sophisticated. Nearly three quarters of them live in the sprawling slums of major Kenyan cities. These are a new generation of youths, mostly male, educated, jobless, idle and restless. It is a highly politicized generation, with nothing to loose and […]

My first day on the ground in Kenya, I went into Mathare with a group of photographers after hearing that there had been some problems. Two mobs were facing off on the main street leading into the Nairobi slum. Once the dust had settled, I met an Italian photographer by the name of Enrico Dagnino. […]

ALERT: AN ODM MP HAS JUST BEEN SHOT DEAD BY A TRAFFIC POLICE OFFICER IN ELDORET.
UPDATE: It appears the killing is a crime of passion. The MP in question was apparently having an affair with the Policeman’s wife.
UPDATE #2: As noted by one reader who commented below, the officer also killed his wife and has […]

A man salvaged an immaculate Kenyan flag within the ashes of a burning house. © Anne Holmes
Tuesday afternoon I was witness to a scene in Soweto Kibera, a slum of Nairobi, where an estimated 3,000 non-Kikuyus were asked to leave. Many packed their belongings and left their homes to take shelter by St. Judes Church […]