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Africa rising: COVID-19 cases are surging across Africa, with many countries experiencing a fourth wave amidst the Omicron variant. In Nigeria, the number of daily confirmed infections over the past week jumped from 76 to 451, following the discovery of the new variant in the country. Both South Africa and Kenya surpassed the WHO high-risk threshold of 5% for COVID-19 cases, with South Africa exceeding a 30% positivity rate and Kenya at 6.5%. However, despite the surge of COVID-19 infections in Africa, the number...
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Earlier this year, we asked our audiences across Africa to nominate their favorite artist whose music is making strides in the fight against corruption in Africa for the 2021 Accountability Music Awards. After receiving 35 nominations, five African artists were nominated and over 10,000 votes were cast to decide the winner of this prestigious award.
Our audiences have voted and we are pleased to announce Winky D as the winner of the 2021 Accountability Music Awards for his song “Njema!”...
Beatrice, a beautician at a spa in Nairobi, first tried to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in June. But all the health facilities she visited turned her away because they had no vaccine doses. All had either not received any supplies or they had run out. Eventually, she received her first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at a health facility some 50 kilometres outside the city.
When it was time to get her second shot, Beatrice was told she might have...
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Face, meet palm: At least 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been thrown away since last December in Canada, roughly 2.6% of the total number of doses delivered across the country. Some pharmacists are still being encouraged to throw away unused doses, rather than give them to non-eligible people. Meanwhile, only 6.9% of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated and COVID-19 deaths have increased the fastest in low-income countries, which have the lowest vaccination rates globally. Strive Masiyiwa, head of the African Vaccine Acquisition Task...
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12 years of waiting: Rich countries failed to mobilise the $100 billion in climate finance that they promised to developing nations (ahem) 12 years ago. Meanwhile, 34 of the world’s poorest countries spend five times more on debt payments than they do on curbing the effects of climate change ($29.4 billion to $5.4 billion). Jubilee Debt Campaign, which produced the analysis, was at COP to sound the alarm on the issue — but Glasgow police considered their inflatable Loch Ness debt monster more of a...
Until about two decades ago, on clear sunny days and from certain strategic locations, Nairobi residents could catch a glimpse of Africa’s two highest mountains – Mount Kenya in the north and Mount Kilimanjaro in the south, both located some 200 kilometres from the city. The view was spectacular: It captured two majestic mountains in two neighbouring countries, and both mountains were covered in snow, an unusual phenomenon for mountains located so near the Equator.
But such sights are rare...
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Coup d’Abdalla: Sudan’s military leaders seized power on Monday, arresting Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdock and derailing a transition to democratic rule two years in the making. The US halted a $700 million aid package earmarked for the democratic transition, and experts speculate that the move also imperils a $50 billion debt relief package announced in June. Sudan is battling surging food prices and inflation (a quarter of the population is food insecure), and just 1.3% of the population...
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See no evil: 6 in 7 COVID-19 cases in Africa go undetected, according to the WHO. That means the continent’s COVID-19 cases could be as high as 59 million, far above the 8 million reported cases. This news also complicates otherwise encouraging reports of decreasing case loads. Senegal, for example, reported zero new cases on 20 October, the first time since the pandemic began. To address the disparity, the WHO Regional Office for Africa announced a new initiative to increase COVID-19 screening in...
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Pandora’s box, open: This week, the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ) launched the “Pandora Papers,” its latest leaked investigation into the murky world of “offshore” finance. The data leak includes the names of more than 330 politicians in 91 countries, including 35 current and former world leaders, who seemingly participate in and benefit from a global system that enables illicit practices like corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion. Such activities undermine government revenues and trust in government at...
The death of 22-year-old Benson Njiru Ndwiga and his 19-year-old brother Emmanuel in police custody in Kianjokoma has once again highlighted the excessive use of force and violence by Kenya’s police when enforcing COVID rules. Police say that the brothers, both college students, died after jumping out of a moving police vehicle after they were rounded up for flouting the nationwide curfew time of 10 pm, which the government extended on 30 July after a nation-wide spike in COVID-19...