President Ruto’s insistence on local processing is testing Washington’s ability to compete with China's 20-year head start
For Kenya’s President William Samoei Ruto, building the Mrima Hill rare earth mine is key to his ambition to turn Kenya into a ‘first world economy’ modelled on...
The Digo people’s opposition to mining on their sacred sites complicates a deal Ruto has staked his presidency on
The Kenyan government’s project to extract rare earths from the reserves in Mrima Hill valued at US$62 billion took another step forward when Mines Minister Hassan Joho confirmed...
DISPATCHES
Installing a hard-line police spokesman as chief communicator suggests Ruto is choosing loyalty over reconciliation ahead of next year’s elections
President William Ruto may have abandoned any plans to win over a sceptical public. His combative new spokesman, formerly with the National Police Service, Charles Owino sought a...
READ FOR FREE
The president’s costly election strategy is unnerving both the ruling party and its opponents
After concluding that he can win a second term without the votes of central Kenyan votes that his predecessors relied on, President William Samoei Ruto is banking on...
DISPATCHES
Ousted opposition chief plans western Kenya rallies as he opens another opposition front and demands strategic rethinking
Edwin Sifuna's path to a presidential run cleared on 9 July, when the Registrar of Political Parties rejected his appeal against dismissal as Secretary-General Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)....
READ FOR FREE
The opposition coalition is getting broader but struggling to control egos and unite behind a single candidate
President William Ruto is the heavy favourite to secure a second term in the August 2027 general elections mainly because of his relentless politicking and the lack of...
DISPATCHES
Vol 67 No 13 |
- KENYA
- AFRICA
- G7
Kenya's President Ruto seized the Évian stage but the minerals deal may define the summit more than pledges on debt and the cost of the capital
Kenya’s President William Ruto took advantage of South Africa’s enforced absence from the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains to push his credentials as the continent’s leading pan-African spokesman.
READ FOR FREE
In Kisumu and Mombasa, ODM's courtship of Ruto has come with a price tag — and the local voters know exactly what it is
Even a year ago, few would have imagined that Kisumu, Kenya’s main port city on Lake Victoria, and late opposition leader Raila Odinga’s fiefdom for four decades, would...
DISPATCHES
Court action against two US-backed health schemes in Kenya is exposing the political limits of Washington’s new Africa strategy
The high court in Nairobi has temporarily blocked a plan to build an Ebola quarantine facility to be financed by the US, days after it was announced by...
READ FOR FREE
Rigathi Gachagua won the argument but lost the political battle after the High Court ruled that he was denied due process during the Senate hearing that led to...
Fuel price hikes and a tougher tax regime are testing how far the government can push voters before anger spills back onto the streets
President William Ruto has told allies he expects to win the 2027 general election ‘with a two to three million vote margin,’ confident that his record of international...
DISPATCHES
Latest TIFA opinion poll puts support for Ruto at 24% ahead of next year’s elections making him vulnerable if the opposition alliance holds together
Wins for President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance in three by-elections on 14 May look like strengthening his case for a second term next year, but the numbers...
READ FOR FREE
Part investment forum and part military realignment, summit co-hosts France and Kenya brought in 30 African leaders and some 1,500-2,000 business leaders
There was enough mutual self-interest, measured in €23 billion (US$27bn) of commercial deals and diplomatic positioning ahead of the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains in June, to make the...
DISPATCHES
Nairobi’s relaxation of sulphur limits after it rejected a contaminated Gulf cargo suggests it was caught by the fall out from its UAE-linked fuel deals
The decision by ministers to waive the maximum sulphur limits on diesel and petrol imports for two months, just weeks after the Energy and Petroleum Ministry rejected a...
READ FOR FREE
Never one to forget personal slights, President William Ruto may applaud Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei’s motion seeking to strip former President Uhuru Kenyatta of his retirement benefits. State...
Vol 67 No 9 |
- KENYA
- FRANCE
Courting capital from Beijing to the Gulf and Paris to become Africa’s Singapore, the President is being stymied by a fuel import scandal and fraying regional alliances
William Samoei Ruto opened the Africa Finance Corporation summit on 23 April in Nairobi last week flanked by Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni – a tableau...
On a three-day trip to Italy, the President agreed multiple funding deals under Giorgia Meloni's €5.5bn Mattei Plan but the opposition questions the pace and volume of disbursements
President William Ruto’s sales pitch to Italian politicians and business leaders went down well, even if some of his claims strained credulity. ‘If you are looking at de-carbonising...
Allegations over Kenya’s role in Sudan’s conflict – all denied by Nairobi – are straining relations with Khartoum
The detail in a United States Treasury Department sanctions list in February that Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa, the youngest brother of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)...
The daughter of opposition leader Raila Odinga is continuing the family dynasty and its shaky alliance with President Ruto
The Odinga family strengthened its grip on the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) following a Special National Delegates Convention (SDC) on 26 March but its political base will be...
DISPATCHES
Macron denies he buckled under US pressure to exclude South Africa from western G7 crisis summit in France
There was much diplomatic manoeuvring after a presidential spokesman in South Africa announced on 26 March that France’s invitation to President Cyril Ramaphosa to attend the G7 summit...
READ FOR FREE
DISPATCHES
Former foreign minister Raphael Tuju was the target of ruling party activists for leading campaign against the 2022 election results
The ruling by a Nairobi court on 25 March that former Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju’s house could not be searched by police, was a major win...
READ FOR FREE
The ODM’s oligarchs are determined to build a coalition with President Ruto – but the party’s rebels are gathering support
On 10 March, President William Ruto fired the starter’s gun on coalition talks with the Orange Democratic Movement in the traditional Kenyan way – by setting up a...
Vol 67 No 6 |
- KENYA
- TANZANIA
A Tanzanian business mogul with close ties to regional presidents could reshape East Africa’s largest media group
Rostam Aziz’s takeover of Kenya-based Nation Media Group (NMG) is more than a business deal: it hands East Africa’s most influential media conglomerate to one of Tanzanian President...
As France hosts its first-ever summit in Anglophone Africa bringing in Kenya, Uganda, Germany and India, it tries to drop the old post-colonial playbook
The choice of Kenya to host the France-Africa summit on 11-12 May, a first for an Anglophone state, suits the policy aims of both President Emmanuel Macron and...
DISPATCHES
Opposition leaders score a tactical victory by forcing out Electoral Chief Hussein Marjan on questions of technical competence
The embattled Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission faces another credibility challenge after its long-time chief executive Hussein Marjan was forced to resign after opposition leaders said they had...
READ FOR FREE
Vol 67 No 4 |
- KENYA
- RUSSIA
A report by the All Eyes on Wagner (AEOW) investigative group, published on 11 February, lists 1,417 fighters from 35 African countries who joined the Russian army between...
The sacking of Edwin Sifuna as Secretary-General of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a desperate attempt by party leader Oburu Odinga to contain divisions but risks breaking...
Pro-democracy activists across the region are rallying together, but they are being met with brutal and coordinated repression by state authorities
‘Don’t try this again,’ was the message to dozens of pro-democracy activists from across East Africa as they were deported from Tanzania last year after attempting to attend...
The President envisages a two-three million margin of victory in next year’s elections as ambitious contenders flock to his party
President William Ruto is bullish. He is aiming for re-election in August 2027 ‘by a margin of between two and three million so that we unite the country...
Vol 67 No 2 |
- KENYA
- WHO'S WHO
The death of Raila Odinga last October left a void in Kenyan politics and at the heart of his Orange Democratic Movement. ODM was Raila’s fiefdom. It was...
The president will use 2026 to strengthen the broad-based coalition that is likely to carry him to re-election in August 2027
An early test will be internal elections in William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) – initially supposed to take place in mid-2024 but which will now happen on...
