/OpEd/comment/-/434750/434750/-/1h0hnv/-/index.html http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Hype+over+East+Africa+oil++gas+discoveries+requires+reality/-/434750/1404624/-/q49oq8z/-/index.html In the past 50 years, East Africa has never been completely off the radar screen of the international oil and gas industry, but apart from some small gas discoveries in Tanzania in the 1970s and ‘80s, exploration efforts in the region were unsuccessful until the discovery of commercial quantities of oil in Uganda in 2006. 2012-05-12T14:04:21Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/-/434750/1404610/-/45976xz/-/index.html On a visit to Kenya last week, the National Democratic Institute — a Washington based lobby group — pronounced Kenya not ready to hold a democratic and violence-free general election. This was not — as we often claim when criticised — yet another example of Western imperialism; the delegation included respected human-rights advocates such as Martin Luther King III and former Botswana president Quett Masire. 2012-05-12T13:29:50Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Mysterious+billions+for+grain+imports+turn+out+to+be/-/434750/1404608/-/ysol0yz/-/index.html Had the finance minister opted to explain “fiscal risks” clearly in Annex 10 itself, he might have avoided parliamentary and media misinterpretation.” 2012-05-12T13:28:52Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/-/434750/1404606/-/45977nz/-/index.html So, we have a new Cabinet. Congratulations to those who made it back, it is always nice not to get demoted, isn’t it? And good luck to the brand new appointees who are going to get blooded in the arena of the executive: may their skills and competence match their ambition and their promises. 2012-05-12T13:27:20Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/How+to+end+poverty+just+arrest+all+those+lazy+poor+people/-/434750/1404604/-/x3htryz/-/index.html At first it struck me as rather funny. Then I spent a few minutes reflecting on it. I decided it wasn’t so funny after all. According to a report in a local daily, Uganda’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Major-General Kahinda Otafiire, had finally lost his patience with poor people in his home district of Mitooma. “I have long held you with soft hands but this time I am changing tactics,” he told a group that had gathered to take part in Labour Day (May Day) celebrations. 2012-05-12T13:26:34Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Jambo+Jet+If+it+does+not+charge++100+Kampala+Nairobi/-/434750/1404602/-/3wrnit/-/index.html People who travel around the region recently had their hopes raised by the news that Kenya Airways was planning to establish a low-cost carrier to be called Jambo Jet. Not knowing the business dynamics of the air travel industry, we can only comment from a consumer’s point of view, and hope that our view also matters. 2012-05-12T13:25:50Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Now+Kikwete+has+sacked+his+naughty+ministers++will+he+prosecute/-/434750/1404600/-/m76egl/-/index.html Finally, last week, President Jakaya Kikwete fired a number of ministers who had been accused of either corruption or incompetence and appointed new ones in their place. In other circumstances, this action would have assumed dramatic proportions and given rise to excitement, but, in the event, it hardly raised eyebrows. Why? 2012-05-12T13:23:27Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Has+our+new+Constitution+already+failed+us/-/434750/1404598/-/9sbn9i/-/index.html It is now May. We have no indication from our two principals as to whether they intend to dissolve the Grand Coalition Government to hold elections this December. Or whether they intend to sit it out until, as per the old Constitution and transitional clauses of the new Constitution, elections are held by March 2013. 2012-05-12T13:22:21Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Oil+curses+work+in+mysterious+ways++just+ask+the+Nigerians/-/434750/1404596/-/deseh5/-/index.html Now that every deep hole in East Africa seems to yield oil or gas at the bottom, there is a growing smell of money in the air in the years ahead. 2012-05-12T13:21:38Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Stop+manipulating+and+bullying+the+EA+court+/-/434750/1404590/-/hvapauz/-/index.html The East African Legislative Assembly passed a resolution on April 26 calling on the ICC to transfer the cases of Kenya’s “Ocampo Four” 2012-05-12T13:18:27Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/I+envy+Zuma+his+many+wives++but+I+am+not+president/-/434750/1400160/-/35p59fz/-/index.html It has been official for some time: South African President Jacob Zuma has married his fourth wife. The wedding is his third in just over four years and the second since coming to power in 2009. He has fathered 21 children and counting, a robust performance by even the standards of polygamy. In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria a while back, Zuma defended his polygamous lifestyle, saying it was part of his culture, and there was no conflict between it and his presidential duties. Then sitting back in his chair, Zuma smiled broadly and assured Zakaria that he loved all his wives greatly and equally. 2012-05-05T13:48:10Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Are+Western+donors+more+interested+in+workshops+than+work/-/434750/1400158/-/6dl523/-/index.html The past few weeks have seen harsh attacks on Western donors in the Kenyan press, with writers extolling the virtues of the Chinese approach to aid. The basic argument seems to be the following: China cares about infrastructure and wants to invest in real development projects, no questions asked. The West is obsessed with good governance and only provides aid with lots of conditions attached. The conclusion is facile: China rules. 2012-05-05T13:46:51Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/May+Day+needs+a+makeover+in+the+new+millennium/-/434750/1400154/-/ohfje4z/-/index.html Like many of my contemporaries, I find it hard to say what feelings May Day inspires in the present day, from a heartfelt perspective. There is a point at which inherited traditions are carried out by rote, with a large dose of faking it. If you haven’t lived through particular times, embracing the ethos of the age in question becomes challenging. 2012-05-05T13:42:37Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Museveni+regime+suffering+multiple+personality+disorder/-/434750/1400152/-/4x455o/-/index.html With its five-tier local government system, Uganda has easily the largest number of elected officials in the region.” 2012-05-05T13:41:54Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/and+women+are+still+lured+into+sex+slavery/-/434750/1400148/-/8rxiwnz/-/index.html So, when are we going to get serious about the trafficking of girls from East Africa? Recent reports indicate that 600 young Ugandan ladies who were lured to Iraq with promises of jobs like working in supermarkets are now unaccounted for. And who is so naïve as to imagine that so many black women who cannot speak Arabic just merged into the crowd like they would in America? 2012-05-05T13:39:37Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Waiting+for+a+Bashir+style++fugitive+Kenyan+presidency/-/434750/1400146/-/rure8b/-/index.html Last week, the East African Community leapt into the Kenyan fray. 2012-05-05T13:38:37Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/This+is+Hotel+Africa++you+can+check+out+any+time+you+like/-/434750/1400142/-/1syd9s/-/index.html Do you sometimes feel, dear reader, that you are in the middle of a hostage situation in which you and your fellow captives know that you are in a bad way and there is nothing you can do about it because all the doors are locked and your hands and feet have been manacled? 2012-05-05T13:33:30Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/So+Zuma+gone+and+got+married+again++so+what/-/434750/1400140/-/10x0swhz/-/index.html Recently South Africa President Jacob Zuma was in the news big time again, when it was reported that he was to marry his long-time fiancée Bongi Ngema. 2012-05-05T13:32:14Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/+Kenya+must+act+on+reprisals+against+civilians+in+North+Eastern/-/434750/1400134/-/kqcvf2/-/index.html “The terror attacks are abhorrent, especially for police and soldiers whose colleagues are killed, but that can never justify the indiscriminate abuse of civilians” 2012-05-05T13:28:37Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Help+they+are+eating+black+people+in+Sweden+/-/434750/1395584/-/tg4u6vz/-/index.html Can a black person be racist against fellow blacks; can someone who has an official record of antiracism be a racist; can women be misogynist? 2012-04-28T10:55:56Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Sorry+this+column+is+not+about+Kenyas+2012+Budget+Policy/-/434750/1395582/-/ciubsu/-/index.html Kenya’s Ministry of Finance, in attempting to shield Kenyans from their own worst excesses, has judged that the Budget Policy Statement cannot be released to them when it is released to parliament. 2012-04-28T10:51:26Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Who+knew+motions+of+no+confidence+could+be+so+exciting/-/434750/1395578/-/4biyuoz/-/index.html So, Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda was nearly unseated by a most unexpected power play from the lesser-known corners of the parliamentary rulebook. 2012-04-28T10:33:26Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Janet+has+met+Jeanette+will+she+have+a+quiet+word+with+hubby/-/434750/1395574/-/uoipos/-/index.html At the invitation of her Ugandan counterpart, Jeannette Kagame spent two days in Uganda, in her host’s rural constituency, Ruhaama County, in Ntungamo district, near the border between the two countries. 2012-04-28T10:24:49Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/If+you+want+to+annoy+Museveni+do+it+now/-/434750/1395560/-/kjm5iuz/-/index.html Karuhanga need not fear that anything adverse will be done to him for pulling Museveni’s beard — unlike Dr Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s fellow bush-war veteran who in 2000 wrote a critique of the government and has been undergoing punishment ever since. 2012-04-28T10:08:25Z http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/PM+Pinda+is+embarrassed+Kikwete+twiddles+his+thumbs+/-/434750/1395550/-/tg48ufz/-/index.html Once again, the Tanzanian public is being treated to the ugly spectacle of political illiteracy, administrative incompetence and ethical bankruptcy within governing circles. 2012-04-28T09:55:50Z