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Published 20th February 1998

Vol 39 No 4


Kenya

Moi's last lap

Trying to defuse political rows over a new wave of killings in the Rift and election-rigging, KANU wants to concentrate on the succession

The signs are that President Daniel arap Moi’s final term in office will be as troubled as the last two. His victory in the December elections (AC Vol 39 No 1) has been tarnished by independent reports of vote-rigging by the Kenya African National Union (see Box) and of the killing of over 100 people in Nakuru and Laikipia districts in the Rift Valley last month. Nor can Moi expect much good economic news: growth in gross domestic product is projected at less than 3 per cent this year, with food production badly hit by the El Niño floods. Foreign capital inflows have slumped because of political instability, worsening corruption and the International Monetary Fund’s consequent suspension of a US$205 million soft loan in August (AC Vol 38 No 16).


Righting the rigging

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Kenya’s Electoral Commission and Western diplomats have responded with a deafening silence to a confidential report on the 28 December elections by the Democratic Development...


The contras return

The rebels in Rwanda and their allies threaten the post-Mobutu balance of power

Just as Rwanda’s conflicts (AC Vol 37 No 9) led to the destabilisation and then the overthrow of the Mobutu regime last year, a new wave of rebel attacks is again destabilisi...


Kabbah's comeback

The returning civilian government faces empty coffers and a continuing rebellion

Sierra Leoneans were surprised at the efficiency and speed with which the West African peace keeping forces (Ecomog) toppled Major Johnny Paul Koroma’s military Revolutionary...


Military muddling

Divisions in his army are diverting Kabila from urgent economic and political issues

In early February the people of Goma, in Congo-Kinshasa, could hear the Rwandan artillery pounding away at Gisenyi, across the border. The fighting in Rwanda and Burundi constantly...


Troubling the waters

President Obiang wants to be an oil sheikh but this stirs enemies at home and abroad

Investors are scrambling into Equatorial Guinea’s oil-fired economy, which has grown by over 40 per cent a year since 1995; now President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo wants ...



Pointers

Political plane crash

he 12 February plane crash which killed First Vice-President Major General El Zubeir Mohamed Salih is one of the biggest blows to the National Islamic Front since it seized power i...


Rethink

French strategy is bouncing back after its low point in Central Africa last year. Other Western capitals now consider Paris’ reservations about Laurent-Desiré Kabila a...