Foreign Correspondent Margot Kiser
Letters to Annie from Kaftanistan
“Al-Shabab is entirely capable of undertaking complex attacks with or without al-Qaeda’s assistance,” Matt Bryden, former coordinator of the UN Somalia Monitoring Group, told Al Jazeera.
Fazal Virani, the owner of Sir Henry’s tailor shop on the mall’s ground floor, was one of the lucky ones. So was “David Kivoi”, a 25-year old father working at telecommunications shop on the first floor. David was on the escalator heading down to Nakumatt around noon to grab a soda when he heard the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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
Life in Mogadishu looks safe and peaceful – until all of a sudden it’s not.
“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.”
In July 2012 the British High Commission donated a $100K high speed patrol boat to Lamu Administration police to help protect the Lamu Archipelago’s once pirate-infested waters between the fabled tourist destination and Somalia. The High Commission said it planned to donate a second boat to the Kenya Defense Forces. Whichever of the two boats […]
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. […]
