Foreign Correspondent Margot Kiser
Letters to Annie from Kaftanistan
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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.”
CHILLING 08.16.134:45 AM ET Inside the Zanzibar Acid Attack http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/16/inside-the-zanzibar-acid-attack-on-two-british-teen-girls.html Margot Kiser reports from Zanzibar on the ongoing investigation into who threw acid on two British teen girls as they visited the island, and whether the attack has religious overtones. STONE TOWN, Zanzibar—Men in long white kanzus (robes) glide through ancient alleyways like dhows slicing […]
Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations. ~ George Orwell, British author (1903-1950) It’s a rare sunshiny day in June when I pop by Harrods the famous department store in Knightsbridge to stockpile my favorite brand of knickers before heading back to Kenya. Large families – mostly […]
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 […]
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 […]
