KENYA: Media’s Role in the Election Fallout

As Kenya’s tenth parliament met for the first time last week, the violence that rocked the country after the announcement of Mwai Kibaki as the presidential winner in the Dec. 2007 elections had largely died down. But the country is bracing for more violence and turmoil.

POLITICS-KENYA: State Overpowering People

Post-election politics in Kenya has become a war of attrition, and President Mwai Kibaki seems to be winning it, the cost to the image and economy of the country notwithstanding.

KENYA: Senior Women Editors Campaign For Peace

The story of a 12-year-old girl stabbed by her 14-year-old neighbour just because their parents supported different presidential candidates in the Dec. 27 elections will hardly make headlines here. Neither will the story of a woman in President Mwai Kibaki’s backyard sheltering about 100 workers who have fled the post-election violence.

POLITICS-KENYA: Annan&#39s Weighty Terms of Engagement

Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan has his work cut out for him as Kenya 's tenth parliament is due to convene Tuesday amid calls from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for a 3-day mass protest beginning Wednesday.

POLITICS-KENYA: Kibaki Spoils Reconciliation Bid

When Kenya’s controversially re-elected president, Mwai Kibaki, appeared on national television to address the nation Tuesday evening, hopes were that he would address the humanitarian crisis his country faces in the wake of post- election tribal violence and hold out an olive branch to his rival Raila Odinga.

Q&A: In Kisii, Kenya, "Food Shortages, Because People Are Afraid To Buy Supplies"

A few days ago, IPS East Africa Correspondent Kwamboka Oyaro was obliged to travel to Kisii in western Kenya on urgent family business. Coming just after the Dec. 27 general elections, the timing of the trip was unfortunate; but, we said to ourselves, she'd be back in Nairobi shortly afterwards.

/UPDATE/POLITICS-KENYA: Mediation to Address Election Crisis Planned

Opposition officials have postponed a gathering that was supposed to take place Thursday in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, this after police clashed with demonstrators as they tried to make their way to Uhuru Park for the rally.

POLITICS-KENYA: A Call to Arm Women Candidates With More Than Speeches

Last Friday, Margaret Wanjiru - a parliamentary candidate in Kenya's Dec. 27 general elections - was reportedly attacked while campaigning in her Starehe constituency in the capital, Nairobi. While she escaped injury, her supporters are said to have been hurt and her campaign van extensively damaged by stoning...Still, those targeted in this incident were probably luckier than Martha Kibwana.

CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Peacekeepers for Darfur an Ongoing Source of Conflict

The hope for a lasting peace in Darfur is pinned on the deployment of 26,000 peacekeeping troops to the troubled region. However, squabbling between the many rebel factions, the Sudanese government and the international community still threatens to derail the process.

ECONOMY: The Bitter Taste of Cocoa in Cote d&#39Ivoire

Hacking his way through the lush forest with a machete, his rubber boots sinking into the moist earth, Lambert Kwame surveys the plot of land that his family has worked for over 30 years, harvesting cocoa.

DEVELOPMENT: Faced with Clashes, It&#39s Good to Talk

With clashing civilisations, as with clashing people, there's one strategy that works: talk your way out of it. Just how is, of course, the more difficult question.

HELSINKI PROCESS: Pushing For Progress in the Great Lakes Region

Continued strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has dealt a blow to those hoping for peace in Central Africa. However, Liberata Mulamula, executive director of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), remains optimistic about the future of this part of the continent.

HELSINKI PROCESS: Democracy as an Antidote to Extremism

The director of Panorama - the Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development - has condemned those who carry out terrorist acts in the name of Islam, saying they are not representative of the global Muslim community.

HELSINKI PROCESS: More Development and Security in Exchange For Small Arms

Increasing international co-operation in exchange for guns and improving the sense of domestic security are promising strategies for reducing the number of small weapons in the hands of civilians in developing countries, a leading expert on the matter says.

POLITICS-DRC: A President and a General Face Off

Instability continues to loom large in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with President Joseph Kabila having demanded that renegade General Laurent Nkunda disarm and reintegrate his approximately 5,000 troops into the national army.

POLITICS-SOMALIA: "Humpty Dumpty Has Fallen Off the Wall"

Every day that gun shots ring through a Mogadishu neighbourhood, every week that an explosion rips homes into plumes of dust, and every month that thousands of civilians flee the capital, Somalia plunges deeper into crisis.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Little Hope for Success Ahead of Darfur Talks

Long-awaited peace talks between Sudan's government and rebel groups from the country's war-torn Darfur region are due to begin in the Libyan port city of Sirte Saturday.

Q&A: “We Don’t Believe Gbagbo Will Organise Transparent Elections”

Will it be third time lucky for Ivorian opposition leader Alassane Ouattara during presidential elections which many hope will take place in Cote d'Ivoire next year?

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: The Cycle of Violence Continues

Pius Ncube, the outspoken Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwe, has urged President Robert Mugabe to step down - this as the country faces deepening political and economic woes.

POLITICS: Conflicts In the Spotlight at African Union Summit

The conflicts in Somalia and Darfur have come under discussion at the African Union (AU) summit underway in Accra.

SIERRA LEONE: Too Busy Surviving to Follow a Landmark Trial

It was Charles Taylor's money that allegedly bought guns for the rebel faction that fired the first shot of Sierra Leone's devastating civil war in 1991 - a conflict that claimed the life of Mustafa Mansaray's pregnant daughter.