CONTINENTAL DRIFT
Bail for Ugandan activist
Academic and activist Stella Nyanzi was released on bail after 33 days in prison — or, as she described it in her own inimitable fashion: “What a delight to be out of the ugly belly of the state’s brutality.” Nyanzi was arrested for Facebook posts critical of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (“a pair of buttocks”) and his wife, Janet (“she with a brain tinier than her narrow vagina”). Nyanzi, who campaigns for free sanitary pads for schoolgirls, deliberately uses crude language as a way to diminish the legitimacy of Museveni’s regime.
China-Africa trade bump
China’s trade with Africa is “off to a flying start” in 2017, said China’s commerce ministry. The numbers support this assessment: direct Chinese investment in Africa is up 64% for the first quarter, compared with last year, and overall trade with African countries is up nearly a fifth. Even better, it’s not all one-way traffic: the bump is largely thanks to a 46% year-on-year increase in imports to China from Africa.
Al-Shabab defeat in ‘two years’
Somalia’s popular new president, Mohamed “Farmajo” Abdullahi, is not short on optimism. He has promised to defeat Islamist militant group al-Shabab within two years, provided the international community stumps up the cash. He was speaking at a donor conference in London, but the news from home underlined just how tough that task will be: in Mogadishu, yet another car bomb killed eight people in a crowded café.
Kagame opponent bullied
Days after Diane Rwigara announced her intention to run against President Paul Kagame in Rwanda’s August presidential election — she would be the country’s first female independent candidate — social media was flooded with nude photos allegedly of her. Coincidence, or a smear campaign designed to derail her candidacy before it’s begun?
We’re going on a medi-holiday
Two African presidents embarked on medical holidays this week. Nigeria’s 74-year-old Muhammadu Buhari went for treatment in London, and Zimbabwe’s nonagenarian Robert Mugabe is in Singapore. We’d like to tell you what is wrong with them, but we have no idea: both administrations are keeping their hospital admission cards close to their chests.
US freezes aid to Kenya
The United States has frozen $21-million in aid to Kenya because of corruption concerns. The sentiment is noble, but not that noble: the US still disburses hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the Kenyan security forces, despite those security forces being repeatedly implicated in serious human rights violations.
Malema in Zim coup allegation
Is Julius Malema plotting a coup? That’s the claim made by Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland provincial affairs minister Martin Dinha, who said Malema was working with Zimbabwe’s local government minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, to topple President Robert Mugabe. Kasukuwere, currently on the wrong end of Zanu-PF faction fighting, denies the allegation; Malema hasn’t dignified it with a response. —