US: Clinton Pledges Military Aid to Somalia and Other African Countries

On Aug. 6, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in Kenya and pledged to provide more military aid and training to the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

POLITICS: Clinton’s Africa Tour to Stress U.S. Commitments

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left yesterday on a seven-nation trip to Africa that has elicited an appeal from Human Rights Watch for her to put human rights at the top of her agenda. During her eleven-day trip, Clinton will visit Kenya, South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, and Cape Verde.

KENYA: Govt Fails to Keep Word on Tribunals

The Kenyan government has reneged on its commitments to call on independent, international tribunals to try perpetrators of 2007 post-election violence. This move is being criticised by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York City-based organisation that advocates against human rights abuses.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Justice Waits While Debate Rages Over Tribunal

Kenya's cabinet is expected to meet Monday to review a bill establishing how the masterminds of the country's post-election violence will be punished.

RIGHTS: Kenya Cannot Fail to Prosecute Extra-Judicial Killings

When stock is taken of the Kenyan coalition government’s first year in office no marks will be awarded to its handling of extra-judicial killings in the country. Human rights activists claim that the police have murdered about 500 people in the past 16 months.

KENYA: Words that Reshape a Country’s Identity

The goal is ambitious: Kenya’s first literary journal, Kwani?, wants to bring new thinking to the country - and ultimately the continent - and reshape African identities. The journal aims to provoke, create, entertain and develop a literary community that isn’t afraid to question the status quo.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Rethinking 'Return Home'

The most urgent test of the grand coalition in Kenya is resettlement of the estimated 350,000 or so people made homeless by the violence after the December 2007 elections. Launched in May, the government's Operation 'Return Home' has been riddled with flaws and many experts on internal displacement argue it has exacerbated the crisis rather than resolving it.

Q&A: "They Mobilised Violence For Their Own Reasons"

The text of the Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation Accord, brokered by former UN chief Kofi Annan in March this year and released to the press in full last Sunday, identifies land as one of the central issues creating "economic, social, political and environmental problems" in the country.

POLITICS-KENYA: Writing For Peace

Since January, a group of politically-conscious poets, writers and storytellers in Kenya has been writing an alternative account of the violence that shook Kenya during the first two months of the year. Their work is now part of the evidence before the Waki Commission inquiring into post-election violence in Kenya.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Commission To Challenge Silence on Sexual Crimes

No sooner did Kenya's Commission of Inquiry into Post-election Violence begin public hearings last week than it was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task at hand.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Doubly Displaced

The Kenyan government says Operation Rudi Nyumbani - Return Home in Kiswahili - is almost complete; most of the camps for internally displaced people are closed and the remaining IDPs will be resettled within a week or two. But the hastily implemented programme is being called into question by Kenya's civil society and human rights activists.

Q&A: "But They Never Killed My Spirit"

On Sep. 7 last year, as she walked to her home, parliamentary candidate Flora Igoki Terah was attacked and tortured by a gang of five men. Terah's case is one of several case studies highlighted in Amnesty International's 2008 report on the state of the world's human rights, released on May 28.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Home Is Where the Fear Is

The Kenyan government has begun transporting certain internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the camps they have occupied for the last four months back to their homes. The IDPs have been assured of support by government once back on their farms.

POLITICS-KENYA: Big Cabinet, Bigger Challenges

The oaths of office have been taken, and solemn pronouncements made about the ills that have dogged Kenya's past, and the way to address these in the future. Now, can the East African country's vast new coalition government move from talking the talk to walking the walk?

Q&A: "As a Woman Politician in Kenya, You Need to Think Out of the Box"

A coalition cabinet for Kenya was sworn in Thursday amidst mingled relief and exasperation on the part of those living in the East African nation: relief at the possibility of Kenya now being able to rebuild in earnest after post-election violence, and exasperation at the price tag attached to this hope.

Q&A: "I Will Give the Big Boys a Run For Their Money"

She's made her mark in the history books by becoming one of only three women to contest the presidency in Kenya; but, Nazlin Umar won't be taking up residence in State House, at least not during the current political term.

Q&A: "I Don&#39t Consider Myself a Loser in Any Way"

In the run-up to Kenya's Dec. 27 general elections, IPS touched base with legislative candidate Pamela Mburia on several occasions to discuss the challenges she was facing in her campaign. Ultimately, Mburia did not win the Eastern Province seat of Nithi that she contested, so this week we decided to join her again to look back on lessons learned.

KENYA: Education Amidst Displacement

With the new academic year in Kenya underway, teacher Moses Simiyu Kalenda is once again instructing children - just not in the place where he expected to be doing so.

POLITICS-KENYA: From Suspension of Talks to Fragile Success

The signing of a power-sharing agreement to end the political crisis in Kenya has elicited a variety of reactions.

RIGHTS: U.N. Inaction Threatens "Mass Killings" in Africa, Asia

The international failure to respond aggressively to the killings in Sudan, and more recently in Kenya, is threatening the spread of genocide and ethnic cleansing in other parts of Africa, a London-based human rights organisation warns.

POLITICS-KENYA: "It Will Not Be Machetes and Arrows Any More, But Firearms"

Political analyst Kwamchetsi Makhokha has warned that failure of talks to address Kenya's political crisis could prove explosive. The East African country is trying to resolve a disputed presidential election that has already cost more than 1,000 lives - and displaced up to 600,000 people.