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☆ Kenya's Ruto says further tax-hike protests will not be allowed
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NAIROBI, July 14 (Reuters) - Kenyan President William Ruto vowed on Friday that protests planned next week would not be allowed following two rounds of demonstrations that have left at least 15 people dead. Opposition leader Raila Odinga's party called earlier in the day for three more days of protests from next Wednesday against tax hikes that Ruto signed into law last month. You cannot look for the leadership of this country using the blood of the citizens, the death of the citizens and the destruction of property," Ruto said at the opening of a road in the town of Naivasha. Kenya's President William Ruto attends a joint press conference with Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi at the State House in Nairobi, Kenya, July 12, 2023. The most recent demonstrations took place despite bans by the police, and Ruto did not say how he planned to stop the upcoming protests.

Persons: William Ruto, Raila, Ruto, Odinga, Ebrahim Raisi, Jeremy Laurence, Humphrey Malalo, Thomas Mukoya, Hereward Holland, Aaron Ross, Alex Richardson Organizations: Kenyan, Iran's, State, West Asia News Agency, REUTERS, Human Rights, Thomson Locations: NAIROBI, Naivasha, Nairobi, Kenya

☆ Iranian President Raisi begins Africa trip with visit to Kenya
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Raisi's trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade, and represents a bid to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling U.S. sanctions. Iran stepped up its diplomatic outreach to developing world countries after then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched a nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. In June, Raisi visited three Latin American countries to shore up support with allies also saddled with U.S. sanctions. Raisi is expected to next fly to Uganda to discuss trade and bilateral relations with President Yoweri Museveni, and then to Zimbabwe. The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.

Persons: Ebrahim Raisi, William Ruto, Donald Trump, Raisi, Kenya's, Yoweri Museveni, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bhargav Acharya, Hereward, Aaron Ross, Jason Neely Organizations: Kenyan, Ruto, Thomson Locations: NAIROBI, Africa, Tehran, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Iran, Kenya, East, Hereward Holland

☆ Protesters clash with Kenya police over tax hikes, two killed, officers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital Nairobi, the port city of Mombasa and several other towns, according to Reuters reporters and footage aired on Kenyan television stations. Police officers patrolling the expressway, who did not give their names, told Reuters they had shot dead two protesters as they sought to repel an advancing crowd. You promised them that you are going to help them, but you didn't," Bernard Ochieng, a protester in Nairobi's informal Kibera settlements, told Reuters. The government says the tax hikes, which include a doubling of the fuel tax and the introduction of a levy to fund affordable housing, are needed to deal with growing debt repayments and to fund job-creation initiatives. At least six people were killed last Friday during protests called for by opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Persons: Raila Odinga, William Ruto, Young, Bernard Ochieng, Odinga, Thomas Mukoya, Jefferson Kahinju, Humphrey Malalo, Aaron Ross, Alex Richardson, Peter Graff, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: Kenya Alliance, Police, Kenyan, Reuters, Kenya's, Thomson Locations: Read, NAIROBI, Nairobi, Mombasa

[1/5] Participants react with Pride rainbow flags as they attend the Badilika festival to celebrate the LGBT rights in Nairobi, Kenya, June 11, 2023. Some regional lawmakers frame the issue as an almost existential battle to save African values and sovereignty, which they say have been battered by Western pressure to capitulate on gay rights. Spokespeople for the Kenyan presidency and government didn't respond to requests for comment about the proposed bill. Several called for legislation to strengthen penalties for same-sex acts, including the deputy majority leader, who said gay sex could be punished by hanging. President William Ruto, an evangelical Christian, has criticized a February supreme court decision allowing an LGBT rights group to register as a non-governmental organization.

Persons: Mohamed Ali doesn't, Ali, Weeks, Bill, Yoweri Museveni, Annette Atieno, John Agany, Jacqueline Ngonyani, Ngonyani, Damas Ndumbaro, William Ruto, Peter Kaluma, Uganda's, Kaluma, U.S . State Department didn't, Stella Kachina, Marylize Biubwa, Lorna Dias, Dias, Nuzulack Dausen, Waakhe Simon Wudu, Daphne Psaledakis, Estelle Shirbon, Aaron Ross, Pravin Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Kenyan, National Gay, Human Rights Commission, U.S . State Department, East, NAIROBI PRIDE, Gay and Lesbian Coalition of, Thomson Locations: Nairobi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, NAIROBI, East Africa, Juba, United, Africa, Entebbe, Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, Ruto, Dar es, Washington

☆ Ugandan students' parents submit DNA samples to ID massacre victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KAMPALA, June 20 (Reuters) - Parents of students missing after an attack on a school in western Uganda are flocking to the local police station to submit DNA samples that could identify their children among the 42 bodies that have been recovered. Assailants set a dormitory full of boys alight, then attacked a dormitory full of girls, hacking victims to death with machetes and knives. Regional police commander Tai Ramadhan said many of the dead bodies were charred beyond recognition, forcing investigators to use DNA samples from relatives to try to identify them. Simon Kule, who had come to Bwera Police Station to give a DNA sample, was still looking for his son, Philmon Mumbere. Authorities said on Monday that 20 suspected "collaborators" of the attackers, including the school's head teacher, had been detained for questioning.

Persons: Tai Ramadhan, Simon Kule, Philmon, Solomon Mulekya, Trephine, Elias Biryabarema, Aaron Ross, Peter Graff Organizations: Lhubirira Secondary, Islamic, Regional, Bwera Police, Authorities, Thomson Locations: KAMPALA, Uganda, Islamic State, Democratic Republic of Congo

[1/2] Internally displaced Ethiopians queue to receive food aid in the Higlo camp for people displaced by drought in the town of Gode, Somali Region, Ethiopia, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File PhotoNAIROBI, June 19 (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme hopes to resume some food aid distribution in Ethiopia as soon as next month once it has received greater control over how beneficiaries are selected, a senior WFP official said on Monday. It paused food aid to the northern Tigray region in May and then to all of Ethiopia this month in response to widespread theft of donations. The WFP has been providing emergency food assistance to nearly 6 million of them. Valerie Guarnieri, WFP assistant executive director for programme and policy development, said the agency wanted to reduce the authority of local and regional government officials to decide who qualified for food aid.

Persons: Valerie Guarnieri, Guarnieri, Aaron Ross, Alison Williams Organizations: REUTERS, Tiksa, WFP, Reuters, U.S . Agency for International Development, USAID, Ethiopian, Thomson Locations: Gode, Somali Region, Ethiopia, NAIROBI, Tigray, States

☆ Many culprits stole food aid in north Ethiopia, investigation finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Giulia Paravicini | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NAIROBI, June 15 (Reuters) - Regional and federal government officials as well as Eritrean soldiers were involved in the theft of food aid in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region, the head of an investigation by the Tigrayan authorities said on Thursday. The U.N. World Food Programme and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) paused food distribution last month in war-scarred Tigray because they said significant amounts of aid had been stolen. The two agencies then suspended food aid across all of Ethiopia last week for the same reason. An internal humanitarian memo said USAID believes food has been diverted to Ethiopian military units as part of a scheme orchestrated by federal and regional government entities. Ethiopia's army has denied its forces benefited from any stolen food aid.

Persons: General Fiseha Kidanu, Tigrai, Giulia Paravicini, Aaron Ross, Alex Richardson Organizations: Food, U.S . Agency for International Development, USAID, Ethiopian, WFP, Thomson Locations: NAIROBI, Ethiopia's Tigray, Tigray, Ethiopia

☆ Kenyan president's tax hikes alienate his 'hustler' base
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Duncan Miriri | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Ruto has also faced criticism for increasing allocations to his office and the deputy president's while cutting petrol subsidies. The proposals, contained in a draft law known as the finance bill, will be considered by parliament alongside the 2023-24 budget to be presented by the finance minister on Thursday. The president and his allies have defended the tax hikes, saying East Africa's economic powerhouse needs more revenue to avert a debt crisis and fund affordable housing projects. One man in Githunguri, who declined to give his name, defended the finance bill, saying Ruto was simply trying to leave his mark by constructing affordable housing. Fruit vendor John Nyaga, another Ruto voter, complained that the tax hikes would leave his customers with even less money to spend.

Persons: William Ruto, Ruto, Jacqueline Wambui, Ruto's, Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga, John Nyaga, Duncan Miriri, Aaron Ross, Ed Osmond Organizations: REUTERS, Ruto, Thomson Locations: Kiambu County, Kenya, GITHUNGURI, Nairobi, Ukraine, Githunguri

☆ HIV alarm in Uganda as anti-gay law forces LGBT 'lockdown'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

REUTERS/Abubaker LubowaKAMPALA, June 8 (Reuters) - The HIV/AIDS treatment centre in Kampala is almost empty, days after Uganda enacted one of the most draconian anti-gay laws on Earth. "The LGBT community in Uganda is on lockdown now," he said. 'AFRAID TO LEAVE HOME'A rare patient visiting the Kampala clinic said he despaired at the new legislation. In the 2021/2022 fiscal year, PEPFAR provided $418.4 million in funding to Uganda, more than half of the country's HIV/AIDS treatment budget. The Ugandan bill toughened up an existing British colonial-era law, under which gay sex was already illegal.

Persons: Andrew Tendo, Yoweri Museveni, it's, Mary Borgman, Museveni, Joe Biden, PEPFAR, Borgman, Lillian Mworeko, Ugandans, Museveni didn't criminalise, Tendo, Aaron Ross, Pravin Organizations: Ice Breakers Uganda, REUTERS, Uganda AIDS Commission, US, AIDS Relief, National Security Council, East African, International, Thomson Locations: Makindye, Salaama, Kampala, Uganda, Abubaker, KAMPALA

☆ Uganda accuses West of blackmail in its response to anti-LGBTQ law
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KAMPALA, May 30 (Reuters) - Uganda on Tuesday condemned the Western response to the East African country's new anti-LGBTQ law, considered one of the harshest in the world, and said sanctions threats from donors amounted to "blackmail". The law signed by President Yoweri Museveni carries the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", an offence that includes transmitting HIV through gay sex. In the Ugandan government's first detailed comments since Museveni signed the law, Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi rejected the condemnation. REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa/File Photo"While we appreciate the support we get from partners, they must be reminded that we are a sovereign country and we do not legislate for the Western world. In an interview, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told Reuters he expects the courts to agree.

Persons: Yoweri Museveni, Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, Josep Borrell, Museveni, Chris Baryomunsi, Abubaker, Human Rights Volker Turk, Turk, France's, Emma Farge, Alison Williams, Aaron Ross, Nick Macfie Organizations: Ugandan, Reuters, REUTERS, UN, Human Rights, Thomson Locations: KAMPALA, Uganda, EU, Kampala, Tanzania

☆ Uganda enacts harsh anti-LGBTQ law including death penalty
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes much further. It imposes capital punishment for some behaviour including transmitting a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through gay sex, and stipulates a 20-year sentence for "promoting" homosexuality. Uganda receives billions of dollars in foreign aid each year and could now face another round of sanctions. The bill's sponsor Asuman Basalirwa told reporters that parliament speaker Anita Among's U.S. visa was cancelled after the law was signed. "Our data shows that this law runs counter to the interests of economic progress and prosperity of all people in Uganda," he said.

☆ Unhappy return: Sudan crisis forces South Sudanese refugees back to troubled home
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Denis Elamu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"I would not have come back to South Sudan. Up to last month, more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees lived in Sudan, refugees from decades of conflict. Since the fighting erupted in Khartoum, the UNHCR has registered more than 30,000 people crossing into South Sudan, more than 90% of them South Sudanese. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after two decades of north-south conflict. "People say there is no stability in South Sudan, so we decided to build houses in Sudan.

☆ Uganda parliament passes harsh anti-LGBTQ bill mostly unchanged
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The legislation now heads back to President Yoweri Museveni, who can sign it, veto it or return it again to parliament. It was not immediately clear if the new bill satisfied his requests, and his office was not available for comment. Proponents of the bill say broad legislation is needed to counter what they allege, without evidence, are efforts by LGBTQ Ugandans to recruit children into homosexuality. Western governments suspended aid, imposed visa restrictions and curtailed security cooperation in response to another anti-LGBTQ law Museveni signed in 2014. The U.S. government said last week that it was assessing the implications of the looming law for activities in Uganda under its flagship HIV/AIDS programme.

☆ Kenyan police fire tear gas as anti-government protests resume
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Thomas MukoyaNAIROBI, May 2 (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired tear gas at a small group of protesters in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday as the opposition took to the streets again in anti-government demonstrations following a one-month pause. Police said they had arrested 46 people "engaging in acts of criminality" and said the protests were unlawful. The Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) coalition said some of its members of parliament were stopped on their way to the president's office and met with teargas. Our protests will resume on Thursday," the coalition said in a statement. But he later announced that the protests would resume, accusing the government of not negotiating in good faith.

☆ Kenyan anti-government protests resume with police firing tear gas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Thomas MukoyaNAIROBI, May 2 (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired tear gas at a small group of protesters in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday as the opposition resumed anti-government demonstrations following a one-month pause. But he later announced that the protests would resume, accusing the government of not negotiating in good faith. The police said on Monday that the protests would be considered unlawful. Odinga's Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) coalition said the protests would go ahead. Reporting by George Obulutsa, Thomas Mukoya and Humphrey Malalo; Editing by Aaron Ross, Alexandra HudsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Kenyan father searches for wife and six children among dead cult members
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The children who have been rescued, I went and had a look and I did not see my children," Mwiti said as he waved a photo of his wife and four of the children. Mwiti said his wife took the children in 2021 to live among members of the Good News International Church, 89 of whom are known to have died. The leader of the cult, Paul Mackenzie has been in police custody since April 14, held alongside 14 other cult members. Authorities have recovered 81 bodies from shallow graves, while eight cult members died after being found alive. He said Mackenzie told them they could not pick up the children since they had all gone deeper into the forest.

☆ LGBTQ Ugandans live in fear as new law looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A British colonial-era law bans gay sex, and members of the community are often victims of violence and discrimination. One resident contrasted the current atmosphere with 2013, when parliament passed a bill that strengthened penalties for same-sex relations. After parliament passed the bill, she deleted her Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter accounts. Other LGBTQ Ugandans said they were taking security precautions like changing the routes they use to travel between home and work and carrying pepper spray. For LGBTQ Ugandans living abroad, the new reality is also clouding their prospects of coming home.

☆ Explainer: Sudan's conflict and what worries neighbours, the U.S. and others
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Five of Sudan's seven neighbours - Ethiopia, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan - have faced political upheaval or conflict themselves in recent years. Smoke rises from burning aircraft inside Khartoum Airport during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum, Sudan April 17, 2023. SOUTH SUDAN - South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011 after a civil war lasting decades, exports its oil output of 170,000 barrels per day via a pipeline through its northern neighbour. Analysts say neither side in Sudan's conflict has an interest in disrupting those flows but South Sudan's government said this week fighting had already hampered logistics and transport links between the oilfields and Port Sudan. THE UNITED STATES AND THE WEST - The United States, like other Western powers, was happy to be rid of Bashir, who was charged with genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the Darfur conflict.

☆ Uganda's president sends anti-LGBTQ bill back to parliament for 'strengthening'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni speaks during a Reuters interview at his farm in Kisozi settlement of Gomba district, in the Central Region of Uganda, January 16, 2022. REUTERS/Abubaker LubowaKAMPALA, April 20 (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni supports a bill containing some of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ legislation but will send it back to parliament for "strengthening", the ruling party's chief whip said. A group of lawmakers from Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) discussed the bill with the president and agreed in principle to make it law, chief whip Denis Hamson Obua said. Obua said Museveni would hold a meeting on Tuesday with parliament's legal and parliamentary affairs committee to draft the amendments. Western governments suspended aid, imposed visa restrictions and curtailed security cooperation in response to the law Museveni signed in 2014.

☆ For LGBTQ Kenyans, court win prompts backlash as threats escalate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Ayenat Mersie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NAIROBI, April 18 (Reuters) - For Kenya's lesbians and gays, a supreme court ruling allowing the rights body that represents their interests to register as a non-governmental organisation has turned out to be a mixed blessing. But, in a country where same-sex acts remain punishable by up to 14 years in prison, the ruling has also led to a menacing backlash. An LGBT activist wears a badge as he attends a court hearing in the Milimani high Court in Nairobi in Nairobi, Kenya. For now, Kenya is still seen as a relative haven for LGBTQ people in a hostile region. For Kevin Mwachiro, an LGBTQ activist for 15 years, this is the most challenging time that the community inside Kenya has experienced.

☆ Ugandan LGBTQ activist readies for the fight of his life
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Since then, as Mugisha has emerged as the country's most prominent LGBTQ rights activist, the perils have multiplied. "The Ugandan population has been radicalised to fear and hate homosexuals," Mugisha, 38, told Reuters during an interview outside the capital, Kampala. "I guess I am going to be in trouble a lot because I am not going to stop," Mugisha said. [1/5] Ugandan LGBTQ activist Frank Mugisha poses for a photograph after a Reuters interview in Makindye, suburb, of Kampala, Uganda March 30, 2023. In 2007, Mugisha took over leadership of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an advocacy group he had earlier joined as an activist.

☆ Gunfire, protests in Ethiopia's Amhara over plan to disband regional force
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ADDIS ABABA, April 9 (Reuters) - Gunfire was heard in at least two towns in Ethiopia's Amhara region on Sunday as thousands protested against a federal government order to integrate regional special forces into the police or national army, residents said. Spokespersons for Ethiopia's federal government and army and for the Amhara regional government could not be immediately reached for comment. In fact it was simply organising regional forces under federal security institutions, it quoted him as saying. Special forces and militias from Amhara fought in support of the federal army during its two-year war in the neighbouring Tigray region. They say the dissolution of their region's special forces would leave them vulnerable to attacks from Tigray and Oromiya.

☆ In southern Ethiopia, drought kills livestock amid fears of what comes next
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Dawit Endeshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Roba Galgalo, 26, walks next to his emaciated cows at Kura Kalicha camp for the people internally displaced by drought near Das town, Oromiya region, Ethiopia March 7, 2023. REUTERS/Tiksa NegeriKURA KALICHA, Ethiopia, April 6 (Reuters) - After three years of failed rains, the animals in the southern Ethiopian village of Kura Kalicha are dying. Like its neighbours Somalia and Kenya, southern Ethiopia is enduring the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades. “Collectively, as communities they have run out of coping mechanisms,” said Kate Maldonado from international aid agency Mercy Corps, who recently visited southern Ethiopia's Somali region. The population across much of southern Ethiopia's lowlands relies overwhelmingly on its livestock, with diets supplemented by basic crops like maize.

☆ Renewed protests in Kenya as authorities vow to 'halt the descent'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In Mathare, a low-income settlement in Nairobi, protesters used improvised catapults to launch stones at police in riot gear, footage on Kenyan television showed. Local television stations on Thursday showed tires ablaze in Kibera and in Kisumu, near Odinga's ancestral home. During the previous two protests, they have fired tear gas and water cannon. The government says two civilians have been killed and more than 130 people, including 51 police officers, injured in protests since last week. Reporting by Ayenat Mersie; Editing by Aaron Ross and Christina FincherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Kamala Harris announces Tanzania trade boost during Africa tour
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Nuzulack Dausen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/4] U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris talks to her Tanzanian counterpart Philip Mpango as she arrives in Tanzania, the second stop of a three-nation tour of Africa, at the Julius Nyerere Airport in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania March 29, 2023. "Working together, it is our shared goal to increase economic investment in Tanzania and strengthen our economic ties," Harris said, listing a number of initiatives. China has invested heavily in Africa in the last two decades, and last November the Tanzanian president met China's President Xi Jinping during a state visit to Beijing. Under Hassan, Tanzania has returned to international engagement after a period of isolationism enforced by her predecessor John Magufuli, who cancelled all his ministers' foreign trips and discouraged travel. "Madam President, under your leadership Tanzania has taken important and meaningful steps and President Joe Biden and I applaud you," Harris said, standing alongside Hassan.

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