Foreign Correspondent Margot Kiser
Letters to Annie from Kaftanistan
Write from experience, and experience only… Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost – Henry James, American-born writer (1843-1916)
Is the International Criminal Court (ICC) guilty of political cleansing? Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), must have gasped on hearing Uganda’s Museveni lash out at the ICC while the newly sworn in Uhuru Kenyatta and Zimbabwe‘s Robert Mugabe clapping and snickering in the background. In his speech, Museveni accused […]
Salah is Islamic prayer worshipers practice five times a day – the way the worshipers hold their hands conveys to me humility and surrender. The intense look in that child’s eyes tells me I was intruding on a deeply intimate moment.
(A lot about the Land). “Uhuru will remain as president-elect,” says Betty, placing a basin of hot water on the floor. Her next client is badly in need of a pedicure. “The Court is having a recount for ‘the stupid voters’,” she says. “But we people know nothing will change.” Betty is a Giriama, a […]
Life in Mogadishu looks safe and peaceful – until all of a sudden it’s not.
Newsweek | The Economics of Extinction | Margot Kiser | video footage of rhino darting and horn amputation on THE DAILY BEAST TV NOTES from visit – The red antique scale probably older than the tusks it weighs. A foot long tusk labeled ‘CITES 0090009 KILIMANJARO – 4/10’ belonged to a sub-adult elephant, probably five […]
MOGADISHU – Mad Max Gone Wrong FEBRUARY 5-7, 2012 My American travel pal told me back in Nairobi that we’d had a deceptively smooth experience in Mogadishu. Mogadishu is the sort of place that on the surface may strike you as surprisingly safe and peaceful; residents going about their daily business of selling basics in […]
Read my award-winning Newsweek story about the tourist kidnappings. byliner.com/margot–kiser/stories/filter/award_winners Paradise revised. Difficult to imagine that anything bad can happen in a place this beautiful. Manda island, 2011 Glassy waters on approach to Marie Dedieu’s grass hut. Like fruit on an outdoor stand almost anyone living the Robinson Crusoe dream was ripe for the plucking. […]
NAIROBI – Under the searing midday sun octogenarian veterans of the Kenya’s Mau Mau Emergency danced and whooped on hearing news Friday the British High Court that the three elderly Kenyanscould pursue their case against the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) for the systemic torture they say they suffered at the hands of colonial administrators during […]
LAMU, Kenya – British High Commissioner and Kenya’s Administrative Police launched a high-speed patrol boat in a joint effort to buoy Lamu’s tanked tourist industry. The UK donated craft – a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) – will be based on Ndau island, an Administrative Police Marine Unit base, in the Lamu archipelago to help patrol […]
I gave what I’m told was a great presentation about Somali piracy and “ruthless tactics of tourist kidnaps” at this anti-piracy conference held this time in Brussels. Hope to share with the experts what happened to our community, how will military forces better protect international waters, as well as get an idea of what security […]
