30/5/2017
When Prime Minister David Cameron called a conference on global corruption earlier this year my first reaction was: you must be joking. From Pergau dam in the 1990s where Britain’s development agency built a useless dam in Malaysia as a sweetener for a massive arms deal, to selling Tanzania an unnecessary air-traffic control system in …
In the debate about future trade deals post Brexit one destination has been almost completed ignored: Africa. China and India are the targets for future UK trade but why is Africa off the list? Too poor? Too strange? Too corrupt or violent? Mainstream media co...
22/2/2017
The first time I saw Uhuru Kenyatta speak was in Addis Ababa at the 2012 World Economic Forum. As he stepped down off the platform, his assistant slipped and tumbled heavily down the steps. Everyone rushed to help him. Kenyatta was closest. He turned, saw the ...
13/12/2016
In Cuba it seems there will forever be two histories of Fidel Castro. One is the revolutionary who succeeded and became the guiding star for all who saw the world through the lens of Marxist Leninism. The other is the brutal dictator who suppressed democracy a...
08/12/2016
Call for Evidence: UK-Sudan Relations – Consequences of Engagement The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sudan and South Sudan is launching an inquiry to examine the current state of UK-Sudan relations, and to inform the appropriate form of the relationshi...
12/9/2016
Today’s election in Zambia pits an opportunist president against a rich, slick contender. It could be tight. President Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front won 48% of the vote in 2015 to 47% for Hakainde Hichelema of the United Party for National Development. ...
26/8/2016
Last week I was asked to speak at a gathering of Africa Auditors in Ghana. I haven’t been there for a while and I thought the conference a good opportunity to see how the country is doing as it heads into a December general election on the eve of its 60th b...
19/8/2016
Twenty five years ago Somaliland declared its independence from the wrecked country called Somalia. The ceremony of raising the flag was held on May 18th in Burao, a small town down on the plain. It still had some buildings standing. The capital Hargeisa had b...
20/6/2016
The Corruption Summit just concluded in London seems to have produced a strong and very clear statement on the effect of corruption and taken tough measures to ensure it is curbed. Prime Minister David Cameron has taken a lead in stopping the practices that im...
24/5/2016