Kenya

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May 2009
- Recession Pushes African Immigrants to Head Home
  
  Washington Post | May 26, 09 6:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The US recession is driving many middle-class African immigrants home, where life is slower and growth has lately pointed to a bright economic future, the Washington Post reports. Diaspora societies of immigrants say many members are planning to return to Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana.“The people I know here work two or three jobs just to make ends meet, while in Kenya—despite its problems—people seem more happy,” says the head of one such association. More »
April 2009
- Kenyan Women Use Sex Strike to Sway Politics
  
  Associated Press | Apr 29, 09 12:23 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Kenyan women are withholding sex in hopes of forcing an end to the squabbling that threatens to break the government's fragile coalition and plunge the nation into chaos, the AP reports. Thousands of members of 11 women's groups are participating in the week-long strike, and they have asked the wives of the president and prime minister to join them. More »
- Fierce Rivalries Shape, Threaten Kenyan Politics
  
  Economist | Apr 25, 09 4:54 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Election violence in 2007 gave way to an uneasy coalition between Kenyan PM Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki, but that move seems only to have transformed the fighting on the streets into squabbling in the capital. Now, "Kenya does not have a functioning executive at all, just an unholy alliance of fierce rivals," reports the Economist. More »
- Python Attack Survivor: 'I Had to Bite It'
  
  BBC | Apr 15, 09 12:17 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A Kenyan farm worker beat the odds last weekend, surviving an attack by a 13-foot python that dragged him up a tree, the BBC reports. "I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python," Ben Nyaumbe recalled. His solution? "I had to bite it." The snake was captured but has since escaped. More »
February 2009
- Kenya Mourns Double Tragedy That Killed 136
  
  BBC | Feb 2, 09 6:23 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Kenyans are blaming the government for poor public safety and emergency response as they mourn the loss of 136 people in back-to-back fires at a Nairobi supermarket and on a rural highway. Emergency crews were slow to respond to yesterday's fuel tanker explosion, which came as they were still searching rubble from the market fire three days earlier, the BBC reports. "There was no response by any disaster team because there is no such team," said Prime Minister Raila Odinga. More »
- Kenya Oil Tanker Blast Kills 111
  
  Reuters | Feb 1, 09 4:49 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - At least 111 people were killed when a truck transporting oil crashed and exploded in central Kenya last night, reports Reuters. The explosion, one of the worst recent disasters in eastern Africa, occurred just as Rift Valley residents crowded around the crippled tanker to gather spilling fuel. Rescuers speculated that someone may have accidentally dropped a cigarette, but also suspected that the fire may have been deliberately set by an angry resident blocked from the scene by police. More »
January 2009
- Obama's Half- Brother Nabbed for Pot in Kenya
  
  CNN | Jan 31, 09 6:50 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama’s half-brother has been arrested in Kenya for possessing marijuana, CNN reports. George Obama is being held at a Nairobi police station ahead of a Monday trial after police said he resisted arrest. He denies the charges. “They took me from my home," he said. "I don't know why they are charging me.” George and Barack barely know each other; George was the only close family member not to attend the inauguration. More »
December 2008
- Is Your Castoff Their Cross?
  
  Spectator | Dec 14, 08 8:20 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - When you gave away last year's clothes, you probably didn't think that poor nations would pay big bucks for them. Yet castoffs are a $1 billion business, the Spectator reports, and may be threatening African cotton growers by flooding their nascent markets. Oxfam argues that its castoffs create jobs—washers, sorters, importers—but a study it funded blamed the charity for undermining West African textiles. More »
- Errors Apparent: 2008's Worst Predictions
  
  Foreign Policy | Dec 13, 08 4:42 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Presidential candidate Bloomberg? Nope. Russia invading the Ukraine? Hardly. Foreign Policy takes a look back at the worst predictions of the year: A stabilized banking system: Shortly after Henry Paulson forecast stability on Wall Street, Citigroup’s stock price dropped 75% and closed below $5 for the first time since 1994. More »
- Africa Must Oust Mugabe: Kenyan PM
  
  BBC | Dec 4, 08 2:22 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Zimbabwe’s unity government is a sham, and the only way to break the deadlock is to force President Robert Mugabe to resign, Kenya’s prime minister said today. “Power-sharing will not work with a dictator who does not really believe in power-sharing,” Raila Odinga told the BBC. “It’s time for African governments … to push him out of power.” More »
- Brits Tortured Obama Patriarch in Kenya Revolt
  
  Times (UK) | Dec 3, 08 9:09 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - British jailers tortured Barack Obama's grandfather during the struggle for Kenyan independence, his family tells the Times of London. Hussein Onyango Obama, who worked as a cook for a British army officer, was arrested in 1949, aged 56, and imprisoned for two years. There he was subjected to daily whippings and horrific sexual torture that left him permanently scarred, according to his widow, Sarah Onyango. More »
November 2008
- Unrelated Obamas Relish Connection
  
  Washington Post | Nov 28, 08 2:59 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Ordinary citizens who share the last name Obama with the president-elect are seeing goodwill and unexpected perks lately, the Washington Post reports. They might not be able to score Inauguration tickets, but entrance to a swanky nightclub? No problem. Speeding ticket? Fixed. And it’s an exclusive club: The country may have fewer than 20 Obama families, compared to 60,000 people whose last name is Bush. More »
- Obama's Kenyan Clan Adjusts to Fame
  
  Los Angeles Times | Nov 22, 08 6:27 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - The election of Barack Obama has changed the lives of his Kenyan relatives forever, the Los Angeles Times reports. Roughly 400 people in western Kenya can claim kinship to the president-elect, and the clan is attracting huge amounts of attention from the world's media and from fellow Kenyans. Their village now boasts a new road, its first power line—and a new police station. More »
- Tomorrow's Obama Day in Kenya
  
  BBC | Nov 5, 08 7:53 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Kenya has declared tomorrow a national holiday to honor Barack Obama’s presidential victory, the BBC reports. “We the Kenyan people are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots,” President Mwai Kibaki said. Obama’s father was Kenyan; his step-grandmother danced and cheered outside her home after the family pulled an Election-Day all-nighter. Meanwhile, people across the country took to the streets to celebrate. More »
October 2008
- Kenya Deports Author of Obama Nation
  
  Times (UK) | Oct 7, 08 8:43 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The author of the bestselling attack on Barack Obama, The Obama Nation, is being deported from Kenya for lacking the right working papers, the AP reports. Police nabbed Jerome Corsi at his hotel ahead of a book launch. One source said he had been held for accusing the prime minister’s Muslim supporters of post-election violence, the Times of London reports. More »
August 2008
- Eco-Waste, Water Plans Aid Kenya's Poor
  
  Associated Press | Aug 24, 08 5:03 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Sewage and sunlight are offering unexpected aid to the poor of Kenyan slums, the AP reports. Public toilets are recycling waste into gas, while sunlight disinfects water and reduces cases of waterborne illness. Adapted from a plan in Tanzania, the project was funded by international donors to help people struggling with high coal and food prices. More »
May 2008
- Kenya Mob Torches 11 for Witchcraft
  
  Associated Press | May 22, 08 8:15 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A mob in western Kenya hunted down and killed 11 people they accused of being witches and wizards, AP reports. The gang went from house to house with a list of suspected sorcerers and the spells they had cast. The eight men and three women, most over 70, were lynched and burned in their homes in the notoriously superstitious district. More »
April 2008
- IPO Fever Shows Kenya is Recovering
  
  Wall Street Journal | Apr 15, 08 1:24 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - When Safaricom, Kenyan’s partially state-owned cellular giant, went public, Kenyans lined up by the thousands to buy in—a generally good sign for a country recently wracked by paralyzing ethnic violence, the Wall Street Journal reports. Safaricom’s IPO itself had been delayed by post-election clashes, but now the country’s economic boom appears back on track. More »
- Kenya Announces Shared Cabinet
  
  BBC | Apr 13, 08 2:11 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Calling for Kenyans to "put politics aside and get to work," president Mwai Kibaki named chief opposition leader Raila Odinga prime minister today in a move to end political strife with a power-sharing cabinet. The 40-member cabinet, including two deputy PMs, was divided evenly between the two parties, though the BBC notes that key positions remained with Kibaki loyalists. More »
- Deal Reached in Kenyan Crisis
  
  BBC | Apr 12, 08 7:18 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Kenya’s election crisis may finally be over. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga today reached a deal on a new cabinet, the BBC reports, ending the dispute that has long delayed a February power-sharing deal. The new cabinet will be announced tomorrow and should be in place before the parliament returns on Tuesday. More »