Kenya: why elite cohesion is more important than ethnicity to political stability

Posted on Mon 02 March 2020 in Africa • Tagged with Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga, Kenyan elections, politics

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) shakes hands with the opposition coalition leader Raila Odinga to symbolise a truce in March 2018. Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images

Nic Cheeseman, University of Birmingham; Gabrielle Lynch, University of Warwick, and Karuti Kanyinga, University of Nairobi

Kenyan politics is often depicted as …


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President Buhari and the $1bn splurge on military equipment

Posted on Tue 27 November 2018 in Nigeria • Tagged with News, Opinion, Politics, corruption, Buhari, Nigerian Army, weapons, military hardware, Metele, Borno State, Boko Haram

President Buhari in April 2018 approved the release of $1bn for the procurement for military weapons with the stated intention of crushing the Boko Haram terrorist group. 7 months on, the threat from Boko Haram doesn't seem to have abated, especially in the light of recent events:

On November 18 …


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