African politics

Opinion

DRC elections: Kabila’s legacy hangs over country’s vote

Former president Joseph Kabila remains a strong presence in Congo's institutions — and that power will assert itself divisively if he decides to back a candidate ahead of the country's December elections
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame meets with President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo Ahead of the 74th UN General Assembly, 24 September 2019
Politics & Policy

Rule of Law: the same old story in Uganda and continuing erosion worldwide

Report highlights the continuing decline in rule of law around the world as governments loosen constraints on their power and weaken fundamental rights – and little change in Uganda
Sculpture of Lady Justice at Dublin Castle
Opinion

Africa’s escalating peacekeeping crisis

The premature withdrawal of peacekeepers from the DRC, Mali, and Somalia will exacerbate instability in Africa's most volatile regions
Amisom female peacekeepers from Uganda mounting an honour guard in Somalia
OpinionPolitics & Policy

Kenya’s election should ring alarm bells on digital influence campaigns

Online influencers played a significant role in shaping the outcome of Kenya’s 2022 election, partly by amplifying misleading narratives. African countries preparing for elections should be on guard
Social media networks in one group on an iPhone
Politics & Policy

Mwai Kibaki wasted opportunity to fix Kenya

Kenya's third president initially enjoyed broad goodwill among his own population until he failed to confront the gross excesses he had promised he would reform
Mwai Kibaki at a conference in London, in 2012
Politics & Policy

Chad’s covert coup is the latest example of African militaries stunting democracy

Military governments in Africa have shown little interest in building democratic governance
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives at Pretoria's Waterkloof Air Force Base
Politics & Policy

Idriss Déby, the reformer that wasn’t, leaves a painful legacy

Idriss Déby died from battlefield injuries days before he was to start his sixth term. Chad’s military announced a transition government headed by Déby’s son
Idriss Déby at a conference
OpinionPolitics & Policy

Why don’t young people vote? In Uganda, the law doesn’t want them to

The elections take place in January/February 2021. Scores of young voters will be ineligible to vote – despite meeting the age requirement at the time of the election. Considering that over 75% of Uganda’s population is below 30, the implications could be significant
Four young men walking down a road in Kampala
OpinionPolitics & Policy

Colonial rule is to blame for the failure of democracy in Africa

By elevating powerful local leaders over their communities, the colonial era undermined pre-existing checks and balances and helped institutionalise repressive forms of government in Africa
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry greets Cameroon's President Paul Biya at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C., on August 6, 2014
Opinion

Victory gives Ramaphosa’s ANC last chance to reform and solve South Africa’s ills

More popular than his party for the first time since Nelson Mandela in 1994, and more trusted than the leaders of the opposition, Ramaphosa can claim to have saved the ANC’s bacon in the 2019 general election
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa at an African National Congress rally in April
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