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Published 4th August 2022

Vol 63 No 16

Kenya

Taking the fifth

Students in Nakuru, Kenya, walk past elections billboards. Pic: © James Wakibia/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire
Students in Nakuru, Kenya, walk past elections billboards. Pic: © James Wakibia/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire

Both the presidential frontrunners say they are heading for victory on 9 August in an election that will be decided by turnout in key battleground regions

The presidential election on 9 August is on a knife edge as the campaigns draws to a close amid mounting concerns about the independence and efficiency of the electoral commission.

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Questions about the electoral referee

IEBC vice chairperson Juliana Cherera together with commissioners and political party officials inspect the second batch of presidential ballot papers that arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi ahead of the August 9, 2022 general elections. Pic: © John Ochieng/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire
IEBC vice chairperson Juliana Cherera together with commissioners and political party officials inspect the second batch of presidential ballot papers that arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi ahead of the August 9, 2022 general elections. Pic: © John Ochieng/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire

A dysfunctional electoral commission is targeted again amid growing fears of vote manipulation and political interference

Whatever doubts existed about the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s ability to supervise next week’s general election have only deepened in the final stretch of th...

Monumental disputes

Building the National Cathedral in Accra. Pic: twitter.com/cathedral_ghana

Plans for a National Cathedral and to revamp a monument to independence leader Kwame Nkrumah are becoming a political battleground

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo described the project to build a National Cathedral in Accra as 'an opportunity to redeem a pledge I made to [God] before I became President',...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Africa’s biggest oil and gas producing economies are making no pledges for a rapid transition to renewable energy in negotiations ahead of the UN COP27 climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh in November. Instead, they are stepping up the drive for investment in fossil fuels. In the first week of August, Italy’s ENI announced it was planning to spend US$7 billion on a second gas export platform in Mozambique, alongside the $21bn gas investment there by France’s TotalEnergies. That was followed by a...

Africa’s biggest oil and gas producing economies are making no pledges for a rapid transition to renewable energy in negotiations ahead of the UN COP27 climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh in November. Instead, they are stepping up the drive for investment in fossil fuels. In the first week of August, Italy’s ENI announced it was planning to spend US$7 billion on a second gas export platform in Mozambique, alongside the $21bn gas investment there by France’s TotalEnergies. That was followed by an accord between Algeria, Nigeria and Niger to build a gas pipeline across the Sahara, for onward transport to Europe. And Congo-Kinshasa’s government announced it was opening up vast new acreage to oil and gas exploitation despite widespread criticism.

Documents seen by Africa Confidential setting out the African Union’s Common Position on Energy Access and Transition for adoption at COP27 barely mention renewable energy or decentralised energy access. But they state that gas, oil and coal ‘will continue to play a crucial role’ in the continent’s energy mix. The AU emphasises the importance of a unified negotiating stance at COP27. Anger is already growing at rich countries’ unwillingness to offer new commitments on climate finance at the summit, and particularly efforts to sideline discussions about the environmental loss and damage inflicted on developing economies.

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Once silenced, twice shy

Russia and China froze the UN Group of Experts on Congo for five months—now the group is far warier of criticising China

Russia and China, increasingly intolerant of criticism of their nationals in United Nations reports, froze the work of several UN Groups of Experts during 2021 and 2022. The two su...

Attacks shatter Abuja’s complacency

After breaking into a prison in the capital and killing elite security officers, Islamic State fighters claim they are now targeting President Buhari

As Islamist militants launch deadly assaults on the outskirts of Abuja and the country groans under a hydra-headed security crisis, enraged opposition senators have issued an ultim...

Hassan Sheikh seeks new foreign allies

The new president has been touring the region, gauging his support among the neighbours and geopolitical heavyweights as tensions build

With funding and diplomatic attention diverted to Ukraine, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his fellow leaders in the Horn of Africa are trying to manage the region's security c...

Washington in summit race with Moscow

President Biden organises his African leaders' meeting for mid-December while President Putin delays his grand conference until mid-2023

As geopolitical tensions rise, the tally of Africa summits is mounting – with grand conferences with the continent's leaders being organised this year by the European Union, ...

The ANC is at its weakest since 1994

The President has managed, for now, to save his anti-corruption campaign from opponents who have regained control of KwaZulu-Natal province

In his closing address to the African National Congress’s 6th policy conference in Johannesburg on 31 July, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the gathering was overwhelmingly in favou...

Zuma allies wound Ramaphosa at KwaZulu-Natal conference

The province with most ANC members is a stronghold for the ousted President and voted strongly against the incumbent

Anyone who thought ex-President Jacob Zuma was a spent force within the ruling African National Congress had a rude awakening at the ninth KwaZulu-Natal elective conference on 22-2...

Dubaiba woos UAE and Haftar with about-turn on oil

Dubaiba tries to end embargo and undercut his eastern-based rival Bashagha by naming Bengdara as the new state oil chief

The latest arena of conflict between the country's two opposing governments is the crucial position of head of the National Oil Company (NOC). A complex political game between the ...

Some light at last

President Ramaphosa’s plan to restore reliable electricity access is flawed but fast action is vital to rescue the ANC’s political standing

A plan to strengthen the private sector, import technical skills and remove the 100-megawatt licensing threshold for independent power producers could end crippling power cuts with...

Food crisis deepens as world looks to Ukraine

New President Hassan Sheikh has to respond to the imminent deaths of tens of thousands from starvation – a calamity which his foes, local and foreign, will try to exploit

The worsening drought and food crisis in Somalia – where someone is likely to die every 48 seconds from acute hunger linked to conflict according to British aid agencies &nda...

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When the political descends to the personal

An election campaign focused more on insults than policy is doing little to calm fears about disputed results

Ahead of the 9 August presidential elections, former prime minister Raila Odinga has eked out a narrow opinion poll lead over Deputy President William Ruto in recent weeks, but nei...

Pointers

MPs with fewer benefits

Kenyan lawmakers joining Parliament and county assemblies after the 9 August general elections will receive fewer perks than their predecessors, though that will still leave them a...

BBY suffers poll backlash

Final results of elections to the 165-seat national assembly are yet to be confirmed – but the 31 July polls have delivered a major setback to the ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar coalitio...

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