East Africa

Kofi Annan is in Kenya to lead talks between President Mwai Kibaki and ODM opposition leader Raila Odinga. Thus far the two men have failed to find any common ground upon which they can work to bring stability back to the country and to the region. Now though they have Mr. Annan in their midst and you can be sure that the international community (specifically the G8) expects his presence to make a difference.

These images are taken by Kenyan bloggers and photojournalists in the country over the past three weeks.

The RSS feed is coming from Kenya Post-Election Pictures 2008, a Flickr group.

A group of Kenyan bloggers has put together a Google Maps mash-up called Ushahidi, which means witness in Swahili. Anyone can report the incident that he or she have seen, and it will appear on a Google map for others to see. Those reports are then relayed to local Kenyan NGO’s to get more information and to verify each incident.

The on-going crisis in Kenya has backed Museveni into a corner of sorts. Uganda's economy and welfare are tied to Kenya's stability. As such, fuel shortages in Uganda have been disrupting business and causing the kinds of rumblings that are always dangerous to ignore. Museveni might have wanted to stay out of the Kenyan mess, but it was necessary for his government to open up a dialogue with Nairobi to work out a way that will ensure the flow of fuel into Uganda.

You should by now know that parts of Kenya are on the brink of full-blown violence following the announcement that Mwai Kibaki has won the hotly disputed Kenyan elections. The Economist has posted an analysis of Kenya's unsound election.

Much thanks to DEMOSH who posted images of the Kenyan elections on Flickr.

Safaricom's decision to float its IPO on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) has sent ripples through the financial market in Kampala. Seen largely as a vote of confidence for the young exchange, the move may prove to be anything but.

Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have not always treated each other with a great deal of respect. But now that oil has been discovered in Lake Albert, that has only made things more complicated.
[image source: Heritage Oil, 2007]

Uganda and Congo: the background