Politics

Kenya: Govt, opposition begin talks over election review, cost of living

Published

9 months ago

August 10, 2023

The Kenyan government has begun discussions to resolve bitter political feud between it and the opposition following deadly demonstrations over the high cost of living and calls for electoral reforms.

The talks are holding at the Bomas of Kenya, a tourist site in Nairobi that was also the venue for the announcement of the results of the tightly contested poll held a year ago.

The discourse will be conducted by a 10-member joint committee, but no timeframe has been set for the talks’ duration, and the exact agenda that will be the subject of contention.

Since March, veteran opposition leader, Raila Odinga has organized ten days of protests, most of which have been marred by violent run-ins with the law, to call for an audit of the election that put President William Ruto in office and against recent tax reforms that have raised the cost of living.

Official statistics indicate that at least 20 people have died in the conflicts, but human rights activists believe the number to be significantly higher.

Odinga has argued that the government could have sought debt rescheduling, both domestic and external, instead of high taxes. He has also condemned the process that birthed the new tax laws. According to him, the Kenyan parliament used an “artificial majority” to pass Finance Act through the house, and the opposition stood no chance to shoot it down.

Eugene Wamalwa, a member of the opposition delegation, Azimio, told journalists shortly before the official opening of the talks that they “have looked forward to this day and are very hopeful that these talks will unlock the past stalemate.”

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

18 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.