UGANDA Rebels with a cause 2nd March 2012 Oppostion leader Kizza Besigye stands in the roof of a car. His arm is in plaster as he received wounds to his hand from rubber bullets. Sven Torfinn / Panos Image courtesy of Panos Pictures The latest intake of MPs from Museveni’s party is causing ructions over oil and corruption as jockeying starts for the presidential succession A group of truculent members of parliament in the governing National Resistance Movement has forced ministers to resign and is obliging President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to contemplate sacking most of his cabinet. This is unlikely to include his near untouchable comrade-in-arms, Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi. In the absence of effective constitutional opposition, the NRM has become the most important check on President Museveni’s government. The young MPs are joining forces with some senior party members to challenge Museveni’s policies and his appointments.
UGANDA All go for Tullow 2nd March 2012 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site After over a year of political and commercial disputes, Ireland’s Tullow Oil has signed for its production licence in Uganda, which means mid-2013 is now a realistic date for oil t...
SOMALIA Cashing in on chaos 2nd March 2012 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The work of a former government accountant again exposes financial confusion and crime on a grand scale While February’s London Conference on Somalia sought ways out of the military and political quagmire, a former civil servant in the Transitional Federal Government was documenting ...
The sentencing this week of three former employees of the United States oil company Halliburton marks an end to attempts to prosecute the organisers of a bribery scheme to sell overpriced contracts on Nigeria’s US$6 billion gas export scheme. The most senior of the three, Albert Jack Stanley, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. It was when The sentencing this week of three former employees of the United States oil company Halliburton marks an end to attempts to prosecute the organisers of a bribery scheme to sell overpriced contracts on Nigeria’s US$6 billion gas export scheme. The most senior of the three, Albert Jack Stanley, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. It was when Dick Cheney was Chairman and Chief Executive of Halliburton in 1997-1999 that he appointed Stanley as head of the Kellogg, Brown and Root unit, the third most important position in the company. Cheney left to become US Vice-President in late 1999 but remains active in Halliburton’s African business. Vital questions remain about how the bribery scheme was run and how much the top management of all the companies implicated knew about the conspiracy. By negotiating plea bargain deals, the individuals who ran the conspiracy and the companies they represented have avoided having to disclose many embarrassing details about their crimes. Such details are vital for investigators, especially in Nigeria where no senior politicians or businesspeople have been convicted in connection with the scandal. Officials there believe the bribery fund was much bigger than the $180 million admitted. They say that linked to the bribery scheme was a mechanism to sell Nigeria’s gas for well under the international market price and divert the proceeds to accounts controlled by Western and Nigerian company officials. Read more
SOMALIA Board to probe finances 2nd March 2012 Privately, diplomats in Mogadishu agree that the reports by Abdirizak Jama ‘Fartaag’ are the best source of financial information about the Mogadishu government.
KENYA John Michuki (1932-2012): A life 2nd March 2012 John Stanley Njoroge Michuki had a hero’s send-off in his native Kangema constituency on 28 February, testimony that the idea of the Big Man is alive and well in Kenya.
AFRICAOIL AND GASMINING Companies fight regulation 2nd March 2012 New US laws and planned European regulations are coming under fire from well-organised oil and mining lobbyists Extractive industries don’t always like compulsory disclosure requirements. Companies are now fighting a rearguard action against recent United States and European Union legislatio...
MALAWI Kwacha devaluation: not if but when 2nd March 2012 The debate about whether to devalue the kwacha has moved on and become ‘by how much?’ President Bingu wa Mutharika remains determined not to devalue, though the International Monet...
SOMALIABRITAIN Martial music plays in London 2nd March 2012 Whispers of possible negotiations with Al Shabaab were drowned out by the drums of war The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) may have been hosting the London Conference on Somalia but there was no doubting that Downing Street was in the driving seat.
CONGO-KINSHASA Kabila targets the land 2nd March 2012 Agricultural investors will lose out due to new rules on land ownership while presidential associates stand to benefit The new law on ‘Fundamental Principles of Agriculture’ removes the right of foreigners to own farmland in Congo-Kinshasa and seems certain to discourage external investment in the ...
ZAMBIA Lusaka restarts the anti-corruption campaign 2nd March 2012 President Sata starts to deliver on promises of cleaner government President Michael Sata is cheering donors and his supporters by relaunching the fight against corruption begun under the late President Levy Mwanawasa but curtailed under President...
EGYPT Unity on cash crisis 2nd March 2012 The IMF offers concessions to the Islamist-dominated parliament The Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Freedom and Justice Party, the largest in the new Parliament, is now on a neo-liberal economic course as it supports government proposals to borrow...
KENYA Kibaki loses his peers 2nd March 2012 Standing alone as the last of the Kikuyu Big Men, Kibaki has to reassess his plans for succession It was a tough week for President Mwai Kibaki, 80. While he was attending the Somalia Conference in London, two of his closest friends died.
AFRICAMININGCOMMODITIES The Glencore-Xstrata merger 2nd March 2012 Two of the world’s biggest mining and trading companies are joining forces to launch new ventures in West and South Africa A new African empire stretching from the Sahara to South Africa is in the making as Glencore and Xstrata, two giant mining and trading companies, finalise their plans to merge into...
MALAWI Pressure mounts on Mutharika 2nd March 2012 The IMF still wants devaluation, while a former Attorney General claims the governing party is hiring thugs to silence critics Ralph Kasambara is voicing the concern of many when he warns of a campaign of intimidation against civil society activists by criminals hired by the party in power.
MADAGASCARSOUTH AFRICA Who's the democrat now? 2nd March 2012 South Africa seeks a global role and is standing up for democracy – in Madagascar, anyway.
SENEGAL Wade poll shock 2nd March 2012 President Abdoulaye Wade’s failed to clear the 50% hurdle in the first round of the presidential election on 26 February and must slug it out again on 18 March.
LIBERIA Timis drills deep 2nd March 2012 Controversial British-based mining entrepreneur Frank Timis’s African Petroleum Corporation announced a ‘significant’ oil find off the Liberian coast on 21 February.
GHANA Diplomatic challenge 2nd March 2012 Calling for African Union membership to be limited strictly to democratic states, Ghanaian presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in London on 29 February that the...
