“Abandoning diplomacy for confrontation.....is a dive over a cliff,” - Antonio Guterres, UN Chief

  In 2019, Kenyan rapper King Kaka caused an internet storm with his hit “ Wajinga nyinyi” in which he castigated the corrupt as well as the stupidity of voters who according to him and rightly so, elect the same culprits. One of the key people mentioned was the current Kirinyanga Governor Anne Waiguru who despite her stay in government having been clouded by serious corruption allegations turned out victorious in the gubernatorial election. She threatened to sue the rapper for defamation but that never materialized although some like Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi had already offered to represent King Kaka pro bono. Today, Waiguru is on the right side of Abdullahi’s politics so just like many others, nobody seems to care about her past. Dr. David Ndii recently claimed that Dr. William Ruto was not running on an anti-corruption platform and those who think otherwise should look elsewhere. The elephant in the room would be how Ruto will deliver his economic agenda in a corrup...

Refugee politics involves the national and international decision-making process regarding the admission, treatment, and administration of refugees as well as the negotiations determining their fate (Benard, 1986). When Ethiopia went into the current crisis stemming from its rebellious Tigray region, Kenya rushed to close its border with Ethiopia stating that there was need to check against illegal influx of immigrants. Kenya has also on several occasions threatened to close Dadaab and Kakuma settlements housing over 400,000 refugees amidst its row with Somalia. Kenyan security officials argue that the two refugee camps have become recruiting grounds for the terrorist group al-Shabab and bases for planning violent attacks inside Kenya. It is important to note that the September 11 th , 2001, attacks by the militant Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States accelerated the securitization of the refugee issue (Cooper et al, 2013). The issue of how to deal with refugee...

It is Chinese national interests of security, sovereignty and development that determine how it views the international order something that has been expressed in its official and unofficial documents and statements. Limited by poverty and political isolation during the Maoist era, China increased its interactions with the international system in the late 1970s following recognition by the United States and entrance into the United Nations. The legitimacy, predictability and stability of the international order is appreciated especially where Beijing can exert influence and resented where they view disproportionate benefits towards the United States. Support is seen in participation in international organizations such as the United Nations(UN) and the World Trade Organization(WTO) whereas criticism of the liberal norms and values that are a hallmark of the current international order are a sign of resentment. Western values that emphasize human rights, democracy and military alliances ...

Introduction Sanctions can be defined as restrictions placed on an entity with the aim of altering its behavior. Article 41 of the UN Charter mentions sanctions as one of the instruments the UN Security Council can use to maintain international peace and security although several governments as well as regional organizations have on their own initiative announced sanctions as a coercive tool. Interestingly, a majority of UN sanctions are preceded by unilateral or regional sanctions (Brzoska, 2015). Due to complaints that sanctions against a state tend to harm innocent civilians as witnessed in Iraq in the 1990s, there has been an emerging shift towards targeted sanctions on individuals, non-state entities, particular regions or sectors of the economies instead of the entire state ( Charron, Giumelli and Portela , 2015). However, Kanji (2016) is of the opinion that sanctions can never absolutely avoid affecting the general population hence the focus should be on minimizing that effe...

A review of the article titled China and Africa: economic growth and a non-transformative political elite by Obert Hodzi Hodzi (2018) article titled “China and Africa: economic growth and a non-transformative political elite” puts the blame for Africa’s development challenges or failure to do so at the doorsteps of the corrupt political elite. The article aims at challenging perceptions that China is actually developing the African continent, that the coming of the Chinese has enhanced sovereignty in the developing world and finally indirectly tackles what it would take to bring about progress in this post-colonial era. Before delving into state capture by the elite which provides a basis for what the article argues about, Hodzi bemoans what he refers to as the portrayal of Africa as a passive recipient of development models prescribed to her by the so called benevolent foreign powers. Africa is therefore looked at as a burden for others to fix and all is required is for her to fit ...

A review of the article titled ‘The EU, Economic Partnership Agreements and Africa’  by  Sir Ronald Sanders Sanders (2015) article titled “ The EU, Economic Partnership Agreements and Africa ” is a call for Africa to think twice when it comes to this trade agreement called Economic Partnership Agreement(EPA) with the European Union(EU) as we have often been reminded that not all that glitters is gold. Sanders declares in his main argument that the ‘EPAs are unfair’ and goes ahead to explain how this unequal relationship is detrimental to the interests and future trade prospects of the African states made worse by the fact that European states negotiate as a single entity while their partners have to do it individually as a country. Sanders asserts that there is credible projection that Africa could be the next leading source of global economic growth hence the reasoning behind ‘Agenda 2063’ as a vison of the African Union. With this, the continent should not think lightly of...

Brief History The state of Israel is in Western Asia with neighbors such as Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Tel Aviv is the economic and technological nerve of the state whereas her government seats in Jerusalem which was recently proclaimed by the Trump Administration as the Capital of Israel. In 1947, the  United Nations   adopted a  Partition Plan for Palestine  recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an  internationalized Jerusalem . The plan was accepted by the  Jewish Agency , and rejected by Arab leaders. The following year, the Jewish Agency  declared the independence  of the State of Israel, and the subsequent  1948 Arab–Israeli War  saw Israel's establishment over most of the former  Mandate territory , while the  West Bank  and  Gaza  were held by neighboring Arab states. Israel has since fought  several wars  with Arab count...