The sight of Kenyans streaming on foot into Nairobi’s central business district (CBD) while passenger cars continued to clog streets with heavy traffic contributed to what is at least a temporary reprieve from the new ban on matatu, the privately operated shared taxis many rely on for transport. The ban…
Cultural practices from three African nations have been named by UNESCO to this year’s list of “Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.” The decisions were made by an intergovernmental committee meeting in Mauritius through Saturday. In Algeria, it’s the role of elders who manage water resources in the…
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda was among the top African leaders to deliver an address Monday during the opening session of the Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Museveni said he was at first skeptical about the summit on oceans and water resources, but came to the conclusion that marine…
New investigative reporting from the Associated Press finds that hospitals in Kenya continue to hold patients as prisoners until they pay their bills – sometimes in facilities where armed guards are posted. The reporting focuses on Robert Wanyonyi, a shooting victim who remains in Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi even…
There’s a new standard for marathon runners, now that Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge has set a world record in Sunday’s BMW Berlin Marathon. Kipchoge set the record with a time of 2:01:39, eclipsing the previous record of 2:02:57 set by fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto during the same race in 2014. He…
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya met with United States President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Monday, in a visit focused on boosting trade and continued security cooperation. “We’ve had strong relations that stretch back – all the way back to our own independence. And we are…
Prosecutors in Kenya have called for the arrest of more than a dozen people, including the heads of the National Land Commission (NLC) and managing director of the state-owned Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC), following a fraud and corruption investigation into the country’s USD$3.2 billion railroad project. NLC Chairman Mohammed Abdalla…
For much of this summer, the topics of environmental crisis and climate change have exploded into the news cycles of the developed world with the same frightening alacrity as the floods and wildfires forcing the headlines. Storms and rain at the weekend have broken a historic heat wave in the…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Former United States President Barack Obama announced Friday on Facebook that he’s set to travel to Africa for the first time since leaving office more than a year ago. Obama will deliver the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture on Tuesday at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, in what is part of the…
Cambridge Analytica, the disgraced intelligence and data-driven communications firm at the center of the Facebook political data scandals and subsequent British and U.S. investigations, has re-emerged with an Egyptian as its sole investor and a focus on the Middle East and Africa. The new company, Auspex International, will keep former…
Nine people will face charges in Kenya following the tragic failure of a private dam that killed nearly four dozen people in May, according to the ODPP, the country’s national prosecuting authority. The Patel Dam was named for the private farm it served but is also known as the Milmet…
Wildlife experts at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya were thrilled to hear the news Wednesday that scientists, working to save the nearly extinct northern white rhino, found a breakthrough in their search to develop an embryo suitable for assisted reproduction. Scientists at Avantea announced that their technique for developing…
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has announced that Lake Turkana National Parks in Kenya has been added to the List of World Heritage in Danger, notably because of the impact of a dam on the site. “The Committee expressed concern about the changes affecting the hydrology of the Lake Turkana…
With all of the attention paid to United States President Donald Trump’s tirades on trade during the weekend G7 meeting in Canada, it might go unnoticed that a number of African heads of state were in Quebec too – and they were focused on environment and climate in a G7…
In South Africa, exiled South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar acknowledged meeting with former Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga, but it remains to be seen if Machar will participate in direct peace negotiations with President Salva Kiir. “I have had a fruitful discussion with Hon. Raila Odinga in the quest…