The U.S. has no Ambassador in Kenya?
“It’s a zero-sum game between Ruto and Raila with everything hanging in the balance.”
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Al-Shabaab Kills Private Military Contractor in Roadside Explosion
Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for targeting the elite US-trained Danab force in a roadside explosion about 110 km southwest of Mogadishu on Sunday. The attack killed a French national working with Bancroft Global Development, an American private military company. Two other contractors with the company were injured, as well as two senior Somali Brigade […]
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US demands right to attack Islamist fighters gaining foothold in Kenya – The Times of London
America is seeking clearance to launch drone strikes against Islamic militants operating in Kenya, according to Pentagon sources, as part of efforts to counter jihadists’ growing reach into Africa.
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2 Men Found Guilty of Aiding in 2013 Kenya Mall Attack
The timing of this verdict is interesting given the imminent US presidential election.Since the attack in 2013 the Kenya and US govs have presented zero evidence (to the public anyway) that any of the four attackers as seen on CCTV were killed. If there were (DNA evidence) the Kenya gov would have been reminding us […]
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Why is the U.S. Military Authority Seeking to Expand its Counterterrorism Drone War to Kenya?
The New York Times has reported that the U.S. military aims to broaden its counterterrorism drone war in Kenya. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/politics/shabab-drone-authorities-kenya.html#click=https://t.co/Lam9HALEWU Why now?A couple of things come to mind; damage control (publicity) ahead of presidential elections, and competition with China’s expanding military footprint in Africa.Seems to me that the US conducting drone strikes inside Kenya is […]
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Remembering the August 7th 1998 Al-Qaeda bomb blast in Nairobi
Dr. Silverstein remarked that he hadn’t heard a sound like that since the Norfolk hotel was bombed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1980.
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Notes on the abduction and ransom of Sylvia Aisha Romano
While a ransom was paid to Al-Shabaab, the militant group may not have been aid worker Sylvia Aisha Romano original captors in Malindi two years ago. Reports have suggested that Kenya Wildlife Service personnel were arrested in their connection with the abduction and that they hid the aid worker in the vast and dense Boni […]
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Best and worst of 2019 – 1
January 2019 did not kick off to a good start for me. I couldn’t walk, for one thing. The previous November I fell hard on my knee, not realising I’d torn my meniscus–a cartilage that acts as a cushion between the tibia and femur. Instead of getting an MRI when in Nairobi, where I fell, […]
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2019 in images
Herbert Menzer is one of the great connectors and influencers on Lamu Island. Herbert hails from Hamburg, Germany, and over the years has constructed several large, luxurious, modern Swahili rental villas in Shela village. He’s also the mastermind behind the annual Lamu Hat Contest, and The Painters Festival. Both will be held February 1-16, 2020. […]
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Quietly Killing Julian Assange
The sculptured tableaux of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning – crusaders of transparency and free speech – are true to life… their silence is ironic. Where are the voices for Julian Assange? While Manning is serving her own jail sentence and Snowden lives in exile, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange remains locked up in […]
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Thoughts on dusitD2 2 Attack
On January 15th, 2019, I flew from Nairobi to Lamu, where I’ve been living for some time. While waiting for my luggage I chatted with a fellow passenger, a young Somali who told mehe was working in the gas fields of Pate Island. We noted the gains Kenya has made in recent years in security and theuptick in international tourism. Other […]
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Big Game: U.S. Soldiers’ Secret Hunt for Jihadists in a Kenyan Forest
“The Americans are very complicated, aren’t they? On the one hand they are helping us by building roads, dispensaries, schools, but they also seem to want to kill us.”
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The Old West Wins Again
Meet my friend Bill. I’ve known Bill since the 90s when I moved to Montana. He’s a Wall St. banker with a manse in Greenwich, Connecticut and a sprawling ranch near the Missouri Breaks, a remote area the American artist Charlie Russell made famous through his Old West cowboy and indian paintings. Bill belongs to […]
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Giveaways That Al-Shabaab’s Video Of The Battle Of El-Adde Was Staged
On Sunday, April 3rd, Al-Shabaab’s media wing released a recruitment video showing the militant group’s January 15th raid at a Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) camp at el-Adde, Somalia. It was the deadliest attack on an AMISOM mission to date, killing 100-200, 12 were reportedly taken hostage. KDF has yet to release any casualty figures to […]
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Long Goodbye – How Obama Glossed Over Africa’s Troubles – The Daily Beast
LONG GOODBYE 07.27.15 2:20 PM ET How Obama Glossed Over Africa’s Troubles By MARGOT KISER To keep his visit to Kenya and Ethiopia upbeat, Obama declined to address some of the really big problems in both countries. NAIROBI — In what may give the term “birther” new meaning, it’s rumored that in Kogelo, President […]
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Obama Lands to Controversy in Kenya – The Daily Beast
“We fear Obama is coming to teach our children to be gay,” the owner of a beauty salon in a Christian town on the coast told me. In reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court decision last month to recognize a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, one anti-gay-rights fringe group reportedly plans to protest in Nairobi—and, for reasons as yet unclear, to do so in the nude.
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Sad About Cecil? These African Animals Are Slaughtered By The Thousands – The Daily Beast
South Sudan’s civil war has been a disaster for humans and animals alike. Soldiers on both sides have turned the slaughter of giraffes and other animals into an industry.
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Christians Warned, Then Killed in Kenyan University Massacre – The Daily Beast
MONSTERS CHRISTIANS WARNED, THEN KILLED IN KENYAN UNIVERSITY MASSACRE BY MARGOT KISER 04.02.15 Around 5:30 Thursday morning, when Hassan Osman, a 35-year-old newlywed and an employee with Kenya’s Ministry of Health in Garissa, was in the mosque praying, he heard the sharp report of rapid gunfire rip through the still morning air. The noise came […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Kenya’s Black Gold, ‘Texas Tea’
Kenya’s Black Gold, ‘Texas Tea’ Last week Nairobi hosted the 3rd annual East Africa Oil and Gas Summit at the Kenya International Conference Center ( #KICC ). Among attendees at the two-day confab were independent exploration and production companies Simba Energy, Milio International, Halliburton, Africa Oil Corp, Tullow, and Horizon Energy. Government petroleum and mining ministers […]
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Mpekatoni – Hindi
Mpekatoni is a small town in Lamu County on Kenya’s north coast. When initial reports came out of an attack that eventually left up to fifty dead, the international community thought it had occurred in or near Lamu Old Town on Lamu island. Mpekatoni is in fact on the mainland about 30 kilometers by car […]
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London 2014
Random photos taken in London mostly via Instagram: MargotKiser Follow me on Twitter:@MargotKiser
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Militants Execute Non-Musims at Kenyan World Cup Watch
http://www.thedailybeast.com/etc/clientlibs/dailybeast2/img/globalnav-logo.png WORLD06. 16. 14 MILITANTS ‘EXECUTED NON-MUSLIMS’ AT KENYAN WORLD CUP WATCH PARTY by Margot Kiser A brutal attack on a crowd of World Cup watchers at a hotel in northern Kenya has reportedly left at least 48 people dead. One of the survivors told The Daily Beast that the assailants were killing non-Muslims execution-style. […]
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New York City
Somewhere on Bowery St. She didn’t seem the least bit concerned about anything or anyone. The story of gentrification Same story more or less. Not sure what this is supposed to mean….’Supermarket of the Apes’? Bye, bye for now, Manhattan. Lucky shot of Central Park, an angle of the city thanks to my […]
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Marooned in Morocco
MARRAKECH, Morocco – Didn’t see much of Marrakech my first week there. Didn’t even glimpse the friends I traveled from Nairobi to meet. Nor had I spent more than fifteen minutes in the swanky hotel room before receiving word that the main subject of a story I was working on – a Muslim […]
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Death Squads in Kenya’s Shadow War on Shabaab Sympathizers | The Daily Beast
Religious leaders say Kenyan security forces are targeting them unfairly for persecution if not indeed for summary execution, but the police argue they have clear intelligence linking many of the local preachers to Somali terrorists.
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Ivory Smuggler faces ruling under Kenya’s new Wildlife Act
NAIROBI, Kenya – A ruling is expected tomorrow in the case of a suspected ivory smuggler who today pleaded guilty to ivory-related charges. According to the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) Tang Yong Jian was arrested on January 18 at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for attempting to smuggle 3.4 kg of raw ivory that officials […]
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Burundi’s Black Market Skull Trade | Margot Kiser | The Daily Beast
Burundi’s Black Market Skull Trade WORLD NEWS 01.26.14 Margot Kiser Has the tiny nation of Burundi become ground zero for a new global black-market trade in human remains? BUJUMBURA, Burundi – In evenings when the hippo emerges from the depths of Lake Tanganyika to graze its grassy shores, members of Bujumbura’s expat community gather […]
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Lamu Cultural Festival 2013
2013 Lamu Cultural Week. Unlike Maulidi, the annual ancient Swahili event celebrating birth of the Prophet Mohammed, Cultural Week is a tourist event celebrating of Lamu Old Town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site with more than 700 years of continuous settlement. And for better or worse that means no cars on the island. Organized […]
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Slaughter in Nairobi: Bloody Siege in Shopping Mall Kills Dozens
Slaughter in Nairobi: Bloody Siege in Shopping Mall Kills Dozens http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/22/slaughter-in-nairobi-bloody-siege-in-shopping-mall-kills-dozens.html by Margot Kiser Sep 22, 2013 9:23 AM EDT THE BLOODY SIEGE CONTINUES at a luxury mall in Nairobi where 59 were gunned down and dozens are still captive. Margot Kiser talks to Kenyans who say they’re shocked—but not surprised—by the terror. Sadia Ahmed, a […]
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Pirate Management
Pirate Management Written by Margot Kiser on 05 Sep, 2011 | Location: Tags: pirates , Somaliland 7 comments View comments. Leave a comment Farah Ismael Idle strutted into the press-packed conference room with the insouciance of a celebrity. A white prayer cap complemented a prison jumpsuit in yellow, a colour that in Somaliland’s Hargeisa prison […]
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Lamu Painters Festival 2011 | Chonjo Magazine
Art Forum Written by Margot Kiser on 29 Apr, 2011 | Location: Lamu | Column: Art Forum Tags: Fesitival , Herbert Menzer 6 comments View comments. Leave a comment Lamu Painters Festival—a funny idea realized Artists at work outside in the elements are often—correctly—labelled ‘street artists’ and pass their time sketching kitsch for tourists in […]
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Navy SEALs daring hostage rescue may signal more Somalia land raids
Navy SEALs’ Daring Hostage Rescue May Signal More Somalia Land Raids by U.S. by Margot Kiser Jan 26, 2012 12:20 AM EST The U.S. commando raid by the unit that killed bin Laden suggests that more Somalia land ops might happen, writes Margot Kiser. Plus, Josh Dzieza on Jessica Buchanan, the rescued American aid worker. […]
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How to endear yourself to local spies
While researching Inside the Zanzibar Attack story for Daily Beast I spent a lot of time in Stone Town at Baboo cafe, near the scene of the attack, where two men on a Vespa threw acid at two 18-year old British girls. The cafe, decorated with Zanzibar beds, pillows, and safari camp chairs, was filled […]
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‘A Long Walk Home, Judith Tebbutt’s memoir as pirate hostage in Somalia – Review
She asked her captors where they were taking her, and wondered whether they were headed toward Mombasa, farther down the Kenyan coast. But the man running the engine—the Navigator, who had offered her a pair of trousers for warmth—said, “Somalia.”
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A Gift for Kenya on its 50th – UK reaches settlement with Mau Mau-era torture victims
Kenya received a birthday present yesterday – the long awaited settlement between the UK to 5,200 claimants allegedly tortured at the hands of the British colonial administration during Kenya’s eight-year struggle for Independence, aka the Mau Mau Emergency. Fifty years after Kenya gained its independence, Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that Her Majesty’s government had reached a full and final settlement with […]
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Bata Safari Boots and the 680 Hotel
I took refuge from today’s downpour in the lobby of The 680 Hotel. Seems the 680 has been around forever, but, according to Trip Advisor, it’s only been 30 years. Last July, I interviewed Dedan Kimathi‘s widow, Mukami, in the lobby restaurant for a Newsweek article I was writing about the pending Mau Mau lawsuit […]
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Rhino darting clip – Economics of Extinction
Film clip accompanying my Newsweek /DailyBeast feature, The Economics of Extinction, 01.28.2013 Watch a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) veterinarian sharpshooter dart an endangered black rhino for translocation. Laikipia, Kenya. link to article – http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/01/28/the-economics-of-extinction-africa-s-elephants-and-rhinos-in-danger.html
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Video | Trip to Mogadishu 2.05.2012
https://www.youtube.com/user/margotkiser?feature=guide 1. – Feb 2012 Trip to Mogadishu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZfNDSPdE24 to Shabelle Media, Mogadishu 2. Kenya Wildlife Service Rhino Darting in Laikipia 3. Various Kenya Decides 2013 – presidential election
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Apocalypse Mogadishu – Ancient Rome meets ‘Mad Max gone wrong’
Life in Mogadishu looks safe and peaceful – until all of a sudden it’s not.
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How Somali pirates and terrorists made bank off two Western hostages – Vocativ
“It is highly unlikely that kidnappers will strike again at tourist areas on Kenya’s north coast,” says Major Emmanual Chirchir, former spokesman during Operation Linda Nchi, Kenya’s military campaign in Somalia to fight Al Shabaab. “But towns and refugee camps like Dadaab near the porous Kenya-Somali border in the northeast remain vulnerable.”
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The Economics of Extinction | Margot Kiser | Newsweek
The Economics of Extinction: Africa’s Elephants and Rhinos in Danger | Margot Kiser Jan 29, 2013 12:00 AM EST How long before Africa’s rhinos and elephants are wiped out in the wild? You wouldn’t think a room as big as a warehouse could feel this airless — not even a maximum-security warehouse, like this one. […]
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Newsweek Magazine — See You in Court : Tales of Torture in Mau Mau-Era Detention Centers –
We Were Tortured in Kenya’s Mau Mau-Era Detention Centers Oct 8, 2012 1:00 AM EDT Waiting for justice more than 50 years—and counting, Margot Kiser reports from Kenya. The first thing Wambugu Wa Nyingi wants his visitors to see—even before he shows them the torture scars from his years in colonial-era Kenya’s detention centers—is the […]
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New York street art
Icons of celebrity and revolution. I would take Che Guevara over Bob Dylan any day of the week. Room for interpretation.
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British tourist, Judith Tebbutt, is home — but how free? The dilemma of ransom payments | Daily Beast
Judith Tebbutt is home — but how free? The dilemma of ransom payments Mar 30, 2012 4:45 AM EDT Ransom amounts keep growing, rescues are rare. What’s a captive’s family supposed to do? Margot Kiser on a truly vicious cycle. With her recent release from captivity, Judith Tebbutt may soon be able to close a […]
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Authorities arrest Somalis near Lamu
Somalis arrested in Lamu Nov 25, 2011 (photo; Abdullah Bargash) November 25, 2011 (LAMU, KENYA) Lamu police announced Friday that they had arrested five unarmed Somalis on Manda island. The Somalis are now being held in Lamu jail. Police and CID told a crowd of reporters at the police station that the men, mostly in […]
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US – Danish Aid Workers Seized in Somalia | DailyBeast
Aid Workers’ Pirate Nightmare Oct 27, 2011 11:27 AM EDT A U.S. aid worker and her Danish counterpart are still missing in Somalia after being kidnapped by Al-Shabab, an al Qaeda affiliate. Margot Kiser on the pair’s tale of betrayal and violence. After they finished their workshop on land-mine hazard reduction early Tuesday afternoon, the […]
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Pirates in Paradise: Somalia’s chaos spreads across border into Kenya | Newsweek
Pirates In Paradise Oct 17, 2011 1:00 AM EDT Somalia’s deadly chaos is spreading across the border into Kenya, where dry land is no longer a refuge from the hostage takers who infest the failed state to the north. David and Judith Tebbutt planned to wrap up their Kenya vacation in style. After a week […]
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Paul Mackenzie’s fatal words
Here’s where he says: “If the children cry because they are hungry, let them die! Where’s the problem?” https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxYxWQ6o8NJYJaeZ4_jcLzyuGHMRX8VMZp?si=VsVAsyaUbX63P0Dy
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Lord, I can’t change
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Marine recruit dies in Parris Island in Beaufort County, SC | Hilton Head Island Packet
The cause of death for a Marine who died Tuesday on base at Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina is under investigation. Name, age of recruit. Including Evans, there have been at least 10 deaths on Parris Island since 2000. — Read on amp.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/bg-military/article274510826.html
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Kenyan Poll Body Slams Arrest Of Vote Contractors | Barron’s
Couldn’t help but think of Venezuela’s 2018 presidential race that re-elected Nicolas Maduro to a second six-year term, and that was thought to be rigged. However it would appear that Smartmatic the multinational that builds and implements electronic voting systems is one of the good guys. Kenya’s electoral authority has condemned the “brazen” arrest in […]
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Lamu’s offshore amenities
First came a floating bar. Now a lone floating slot machine? The heralding of Lamu’s first casino? Jackpot! Alas, no. The standing digital petrol pump meters out fuel far more accurately than the hoses usually reserved to fill boats’ tanks. Here, as elsewhere, fuel is expensive. Every shilling counts. Fishermen say they can spend an […]
