Foreign Correspondent Margot Kiser
Letters to Annie from Kaftanistan
Nairobi is the Maasai word for “cold water”. With an elevation of 5,889 feet above sea level, it is by altitude the 9th highest city in the world, higher than Denver, Colorado, “the mile high city” in the storied American west. Developers and businesspeople seem to be scrambling to get out of the Nairobi’s congested […]
An acquaintance in Lamu gave me a pamphlet she said had been handed to passengers on a bus from Mombasa to Lamu on September 21, 2015. Perhaps not coincidentally the date marked the second anniversary of the deadly Westgate Mall attack. The group behind the leaflet, Kenya Citizen Coalition (KCC), appears to be pro-government, very […]
MOMBASA – Off to an interesting start this morning: I’m in Mombasa participating in a writers conference focusing on political violence. The group consists of poets, journalists, anthropologists, historians…I was in the front in a van with some from the group en route to Swahili cultural center when a matatu (ad hoc bus) passed by […]
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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“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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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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Portugal hardly ever seems in the news. I never gave the little country next to Spain much thought. Recently, however, a writer friend of mine and his wife first told me about Algarve, a largely undiscovered coastal region of Portugal. I haven’t seen refugees from North Africa or the Middle East yet. However, I guess […]
The events that have both given birth to and plagued South Sudan have as much if not more to do with oil and minerals as with religion and right-wing anti-Islamists.
Occupational Hazards – thoughts on Kenya and Somalia, Post-Garissa Attack Demands for the removal of Kenyan troops from Somalia are usually heard from Al-Shabaab, most vociferously in the wake of attacks carried out in retaliation for the ongoing occupation, and targeting Kenyan civilians. Now the Somali government is reportedly calling for the withdrawal […]
McCarthy Tactics by Kenya in Response to Garissa University Massacre, some say The state announced Wednesday that it has frozen the accounts of 86 individuals, businesses, and non-government organizations with alleged financial links to Al Shabaab. A list, released yesterday by Kenya’s Ministry of Finance, includes a dozen money-transfer companies believed to have roles in funding the Somali militant group. […]
