Developing More Top African Women Research Scientists

In a tiny village near Kisumu city in Kenya, scientific researcher Mary Anyango Oyunga spends most of her time educating women about something they have always done – grow sweet potatoes.

MALAWI: Innovative Campaigning by Women Candidates

You will find Beauty Kasonda on her campaign trail at funerals, weddings, church functions or just about any local gathering in her community. Kasonda does not have the sort of funding her male counterparts have for campaigning in the country’s November 2010 elections but she is not letting that stop her.

KENYA: Claim Disputed that Trade Measures “Aid” Counterfeiters

A major pharmaceutical company in Kenya alleges that special trade measures to make medicines available in poor countries create "loopholes" for counterfeit medicines to enter the market – a claim that health rights advocates refute.

HEALTH: Uganda Authority Finding Less Counterfeit Drugs

Uganda’s National Drug Authority (NDA) says the failure rate among samples of medicines tested at their laboratories has fallen by 15 percent from the early 2000s. This serves as a possible indication of a drop in the availability of counterfeit medicines in the East African country.

Boycott Cedes Power To Burundi’s Ruling Party

The coalition of 11 major opposition parties which boycotted July 23 national assembly elections will also boycott elections to the senate on July 28. The Alliance of Democrats for Change, as the coalition is known, claims that two previous polls - to elect Burundi's district administrators and the president - were characterised by "massive fraud".

KENYA: Jury Still Out on Traditional Birth Attendants

The government of Kenya has been encouraging women to deliver in hospital. Home deliveries by traditional birth attendants are considered to be a major contributor to maternal deaths.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Youth Vulnerable to Violence

James Banda, 27, is an unemployed youth although he occasionally is hired to act as a bus conductor at Lusaka’s Kulima Tower Bus Station. He may not have a permanent job, but it is easy to find him. Anyone looking for him just has to go to the bus station and ask. Everyone knows who he is. Banda, or ‘ba-Jay’ as people call him, is a young man who commands a lot of respect from his friends – he is a thug for hire.

HEALTH: Kenyans’ Right to Affordable Drugs in Hands of Court

Kenya’s Constitutional Court is due to set a date on Jul 22 for a hearing on the application against the Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008, of which clauses pertaining to medicines have been suspended pending the court’s decision on whether the law violates the right to health and life.

KENYA: HIV Strain Among Gays Same as Strain in Heterosexuals

Because of societal pressure and the criminality associated with men who have sex with men (MSM) in Kenya, Omondi Maina* married a woman. This is despite being involved in a homosexual relationship for the last 10 years.

Somalia Centre Stage Ahead of AU Summit

The African Union summit opens in Kampala on July 19 amid heightened security following twin bomb attacks a week earlier.

MALAWI: Women Candidates Desperate to Finance Freebies for Voters

Mable Malinda wants to contest the local government elections but the independent candidate who is using her life savings to fund her campaign only has 500 dollars left in her bank account. She has already spent three times as much buying handouts for voters – an unofficial requirement when contesting elections in Malawi.

MALAWI: Concerns over Cost of New HIV/AIDS Treatment Regime

As government implements a new HIV/AIDS treatment regimen according to latest world standards, a major grouping of non-governmental organisations are concerned that the high cost of the new medication will mean government will no longer be able provide free treatment to as many people as before.

ETHIOPIA: Unique Community Leads on Gender Equality

Married at just 13 years of age, Fantaye Adem wishes her life had been different.

UGANDA: Getting the Common Market to Benefit the Common Woman

July 1 marked the moment when the East African Community common market protocol kicked into operation. But Ugandan women face several obstacles before they will benefit from the boost that the protocol gives to the free movement of goods, labour and capital.

KENYA: Tradition an Obstacle to Maternal Health

Their kangas and heavy bead necklaces are the only colour in an arid landscape. The weary women waiting outside the Kangatotha dispensary have walked up to 50 kilometres to receive food aid; now they will walk home carrying their share.

UGANDA: HIV-positive Teens Infecting Other Teens

HIV-positive Phiona* (19) had unprotected sex with her best friend and she prays that she did not infect him with the virus. She knew she should not have let it happen but Phiona was too scared to tell him her status, and the teenagers did not have access to condoms.

HEALTH-KENYA: Agency Unaware of Anti-Counterfeit Law Suspension

The agency tasked with implementing the Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008 in Kenya is unaware of the Constitutional Court’s suspension of the law’s application to medicines. Moreover, a large multinational pharmaceutical company has offered to assist the agency in implementing the law with regards to medicines despite the court decision.

UGANDA: Too Young to Know, Yet Too Young to Die

Thirteen-year-old Jacinta Okello and her fellow primary school classmates call it "doing bad manners". But when you ask her what she knows about sex, she breaks into a shy smile, looks to her feet and giggles.

KENYA: Rural Parents Prevent HIV Transmission to their Children

When Samuel Mwangi’s one-year-old HIV-positive son died five years ago, he thought the death of his child also meant the death of his family’s legacy. "I wept. And to the bottom of my heart, I knew that that was the end of my generation," said HIV-positive Mwangi.

AFRICA: “Help Small Fishers to Fish Less, Earn More”

Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures are a headache for African fish exporters but aid for trade may help small-scale fisherpersons to meet these standards.

Risking Life and Limb for Football in Somalia

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that," former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said. Uncomfortably close to a bald statement of fact for fans of the beautiful game in Somalia, who risk their lives to watch the World Cup unfolding in South Africa.