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Featuring research on insecurity, gender, everyday commuting in Nairobi among other things.

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Perspectives: Why has Africa grown slowly?

Paul Collier (1999) clearly stated his arguments and explanations why Continental Africa is lagging behind in terms of development and growth unlike other regions of the world. Africa’s slow growth was explained by grouping the perceived causes into two-by-two matrix separating on one hand policy and “destiny” factors and on the other external and domestic. Furthermore, he comes to his conclusion by saying that reforms, especially in areas of domestic policy dealing with service delivery needs to be intensified while finally stating that freedom will be helpful in strengthening democracy which will likely support economic reform.   Although extensive and valid explanations were given by the author, it is quite hard not to separate the author from the institution he is working for when he published the article. He was working as a director of development research with the World Bank, thus making it hard for readers to rule out institutional bias since he barely made referenc...
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Understanding post election violence in new democracies; governance, ethnic diversity and patronage politics

Although post election violence has been a common occurrence in most African states, the new wave of PEV especially in Guinea and Nigeria shows change in pattern. These states are the so called new democracies in Africa, states that recently underwent democratic transition (S, Omotola 2010). This wave of violence has threatened stability of these states as people took to the streets to redress the disputed elections through violence. And unfortunately in some instances it took ethnic dimensions when a specific group of people were targeted in the process not only complicating the situation but also raising concerns over ethnic violence. Post election violence in these states is linked to patrimonial nature of most African states, weak institutions and exploitation of ethnicity to invoke political support which has undermined stability and security.   Additionally, different parties and leaders in these states have employed different tactics of election malpractices that invol...
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Homophobia and Third World problems

Forget high child mortality, high inflation, bad roads/infrastructure, poor health care facilities, jigger problems, food insecurity and political instability, some African countries like Uganda and Zimbabwe are facing a bigger threat, according to their respective presidents and homophobic supporters, gays are a threat. They are such a threat that bills have been signed into laws to make homosexuality a crime. One might think for governments that have problems fulfilling its duties, worrying about the nature of relationship between two consenting adults and questioning their decision would be the last thing on their minds. Religious and cultural based arguments aside; ostracizing, beating up and locking up a person for engaging in an act of love with another person with full consent without harming anyone in the society is beyond comprehension. Surely we have evolved into a society that is tolerant to existence of ruthless rebels with AK-47’s that has no value for human life than ...
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