Power Sharing Deal Struck
Supporters of ODM cheering outside Harambe house were dispersed with tear gas this afternoon as President Mwai Kibaki and Hon. Raila Odinga signed a power sharing deal. The deal struck creates a Prime Ministerial post for Mr. Odinga with the necessary constitutional amendments, and two Deputy Prime Minister positions, one for ODM and one for [...]
Negotiating Talks Break Down
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 [...]
Constitutional Crisis in Kenya
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, [...]
Three Consecutive Nights of Raids in the Slums and More Reasons for Concern
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 [...]
Tensions Return
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 [...]
What’s Next for Kenya?
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 [...]
They Are Young
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 [...]
Saved From a Lynching
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. [...]
