Opalo's weblog

• strengthening the social contract?

  Posted: March 31, 2010, 9:59 am by kenopp

  Occasionally I come across news that make me think that Kenya is still on the right track. The circus that is the current debate on the review of the constitution is definitely a reminder that the east African nation has a long way to go. But things are looking better elsewhere. For one, more Kenyan [...]

• abuja is sleeping on the job

  Posted: March 30, 2010, 1:28 am by kenopp

  The Nigerian government has failed its people in so many respects that we have come to not expect the men and women in Abuja to deliver much. That said, this is too much. At the risk of sounding religiously intolerant, I am gonna go out on a limb and say that this should be considered [...]

• you can respect women’s rights without being pro-abortion

  Posted: March 28, 2010, 3:33 am by kenopp

  In any case, Kenyan society is already conservative enough when it comes to things like abortion and sexuality. What we need is not a constitution that pushes us further into paranoia about these issues but one that protects our mothers and sisters from the tyranny of men from 10,000 BC.

• the lra menace

  Posted: March 27, 2010, 12:21 am by kenopp

  That Joseph Kony and his top lieutenants are still alive and well is testament to the ineptitude of the Ugandan and Congolese armies. The Ugandan rebel leader continues to roam the forests in the border regions of Chad, the DRC, Uganda and Southern Sudan, killing villagers with abandon. The BBC reports that late last year [...]

• this seems really cool

  Posted: March 27, 2010, 9:05 am by kenopp

  An African youth volunteer program just got launched in West Africa. The BBC reports that “The scheme would see youths spend time helping out in areas such as agriculture, health or education in a different country to their own.” Read more here Filed under: africa Tagged: africa volunteer scheme, agriculture, civic culture, development, ECOWAS, mano river [...]

• botswana’s ian khama (and the bdp) faces his stiffest challenge yet

  Posted: March 26, 2010, 1:52 am by kenopp

  Ian Khama has not had the presidency he dreamed of. The son of Botswana’s founding president faces his stiffest challenge yet since assuming office. A group of lawmakers from his party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), have threatened to jump ship and form their own party. If enough of them do, President Khama may be [...]

• the south africans cometh

  Posted: March 26, 2010, 10:05 pm by kenopp

  They are all over Tanzania. Kenya’s southern neighbor is even a member of the SADC and currently suffers a huge trade deficit with South Africa. Now the sons and daughters of the Continent from south of the Limpopo are eying even greater penetration into the EAC via Uganda. President Zuma just visited Uganda with a [...]

• saving rift valley railways

  Posted: March 25, 2010, 11:42 pm by kenopp

  I hope some day someone will write a novel about how one Mr. Roy Puffet, a rather nondescript South African, managed to rake in millions at the expense of East African tax payers in the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) deal. The railway company is now in the hands of Egyptian investors and as Mr. Kisero [...]

• makmende goes viral

  Posted: March 25, 2010, 6:46 pm by kenopp

  Just A Band, starring Makmende the hero, continues to attract more and more fans. Even the Wall Street Journal gave it a few lines. My favorite Makmende one-liner: “some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Makmende pajamas.” Filed under: africa Tagged: Just A Band, Makmende

• spring break

  Posted: March 19, 2010, 12:07 pm by kenopp

  Yours truly will be away for the next few days because of a planned trip to “real America.” I hope to have some cool stories for you when I return. Filed under: africa

• I like Hayek too

  Posted: March 16, 2010, 8:52 am by kenopp

  OK, I have to admit, I am one of those who read “The Road to Serfdom” and totally loved it. Hayek was spot on about the folly of planned economies. The markets are not perfect. But having imperfect markets beats planned economies on any day. We just have to provide a reasonable amount of regulation [...]

• cool blog

  Posted: March 14, 2010, 6:36 am by kenopp

  Check this out… Filed under: africa

• those opposed to the creation of an unrepresentative senate have a point

  Posted: March 12, 2010, 1:08 am by kenopp

  The Kenyan Draft Constitution seems to have hit a snag. A section of parliamentarians are opposed to the section of the proposed constitution that gives all counties equal powers via their elected senators. I agree with them. The to-be-formed senate, as currently constituted, grants too much power to sparsely populated counties. Theoretically, this should not [...]

• jeffrey gettleman is back

  Posted: March 12, 2010, 5:55 am by kenopp

  Texas in Africa has a piece on Gettleman’s style of journalism. Mr. Gettleman is of course not new to this type of criticism. I have voiced my opinion on his reporting style a few times before. This is not an argument for the mis-representation of the goings on on the Continent. (By all means tell [...]

• as if somalis did not have enough problems….

  Posted: March 11, 2010, 2:40 am by kenopp

  The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is implicated in a leaked report that suggests that corrupt officials have been diverting food aid intended for displaced Somali refugees. It is feared that al-Shabab (the Islamist insurgency group that is fighting against Somalia’s transitional government and its international backers) is benefiting from the diversion of food [...]

• corruption in South Africa

  Posted: March 10, 2010, 1:17 am by kenopp

  South African democracy still has a long way to go. My greatest fear is that ANC supremacy might get into the heads of the party bosses and have them collapse the distinction between party and state. There are already allegations of corruption within the top ranks of the ANC. Ironically, if corruption is to be [...]

• sectarian violence in nigeria getting out of hand

  Posted: March 8, 2010, 2:39 pm by kenopp

  The BBC reports that at least 500 people were killed in a massacre carried out on Sunday morning by machete wielding men near the Nigerian city of Jos. This Day, a Nigerian daily, puts the number at 200. The attacks were in response to similar killings that took place in the same area in January. This [...]

• President Gnassingbe wins togo poll

  Posted: March 7, 2010, 3:00 am by kenopp

  The president of Togo has won re-election. According to the country’s electoral commission Mr. Gnassingbe got 1.2 million votes out of a total of 2 million votes cast. The opposition and a number of election observers have voiced their concerns over the fairness of the process. Mr. Faure Gnassingbe will most certainly be sworn in [...]

• togo goes to the polls

  Posted: March 4, 2010, 12:17 pm by kenopp

  Togo, a tiny West African country of 6.6 million, goes to the polls today. Faure Gnassingbe, President of Togo and son of the late strongman Gnassingbe Eyadema, is hoping to be re-elected for a second term. His father ruled the country uninterrupted between 1967 until his death in 2005. The younger Gnassingbe was then installed [...]

• 2009 kcse results out

  Posted: March 2, 2010, 1:04 pm by kenopp

  UPDATE: The KNEC system seems to be down, judging by the amount of comments and requests I have received in the last few hours. I guess the cell phone thing is not working after all. Even the Nation went down at some point last night. The 2009 KCSE results are out. The best student in the country [...]

• kenyan students await the release of the 2009 KCSE results

  Posted: March 2, 2010, 12:40 pm by kenopp

  The Kenyan Ministry of Education is due to release the results of Kenya’s high school national examinations (KCSE). This year the government will text the results directly to student’s cell phones – for those who subscribed – mitigating the need to actually visit one’s school or the KNEC headquarters to find out about one’s grades. I [...]

• still no concrete deadline for a return to democracy in Niger

  Posted: March 2, 2010, 12:28 pm by kenopp

  Niger’s military junta just named an interim government that included three generals that were close to former President Tandja. The leader of the junta, Major Djibo, promised a return to democracy in the near future but did not give actual dates. I still have faith in the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, see post [...]

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Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes