March 19, 2024

Odds & ends

Home in Nairobi - My street at dusk

Home in Nairobi - My street at dusk

Apologies for the lack of updates. A friend told me that while the Kenyan government held a ceremony in honor of the arrival of fiber optic cable, their party was premature and the much-anticipated cable is not yet in the country. This didn’t seem implausible given that accounting for things not actually present is something of a well-rehearsed skill among the Kenyan political elite.  Anyway – cable in the country or not, we are for now all still muddling along with an internet connection slower than any I have ever had in Congo, Chad, Sudan – I could go on, but you get the point: Accessing WordPress has been something of a challenge. So, a few odds and ends –

Beatrice Nierere trial: There was another hearing last Thursday (apparently with much of the same dynamics as the session I attended), and once again the decision was postponed. They meet again this coming Thursday and I’ll let you know what Valence reports after that.

Podcast with SLA: I got an apologetic call from SLA field commander, Ebrahim Abdullah, early last week saying he had to head overseas. We’ve re-scheduled for two weeks time so if you have questions you want to ask him, there is still time to submit them.

Interviews:  After 14 months of ‘requesting’, that I fear ended up in something closer to ‘pain-in-the-ass pestering’ (a skill becoming more and more pronounced in me the longer I work on this project), I got an email saying that Dr Salim Ahmed Salim could meet me this week – which is why I am writing from Dar es Salaam now. I had a solid few hours with him this afternoon and am writing up my notes now. Later this week I’ll head to Addis to speak with some folks at the AU and should be back in Nairobi late the following week.

Thanks to the growing number of you who keep returning to this site (the magic of google analytics lets me know how many “new” and “returning” visitors I get each day, which, on the one hand is a little freaky – but is nevertheless interesting.)

Best

Bec

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