Foreign Correspondent Margot Kiser
Letters to Annie from Kaftanistan
LAMU, Kenya – Al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, released a statement on its media website claiming recent attacks in parts of northeastern Kenya. At around 6 am on Wednesday, November 25th, Special Forces and Ranger Strike Force battalions were patrolling near the town of Galmagala, the outermost perimeters of the deployment area, when they encountered […]
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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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 […]
The Kenya Siege Since late last year, Western forces have dealt the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab some high-impact blows. A drone strike in September killed one of its most ruthless jihadists, Ahmed Abdi Godane. Earlier this month, a second drone strike killed Yusef Dheeq, the group’s commander of external operations. Meanwhile, according to human rights […]
According to a recent Reporters without Borders index Kenya ranks at #90. After today, with the new security bill, its position no doubt plummeted closer to #180, the bottom position, which Eritrea now occupies. Kenya’s Jubilee government reacted to press coverage of Westgate Mall attack in 2013 (exposing Kenya Defense Forces looting items […]
Poor intelligence and evidence gathering, and a weak judicial process, have resulted in reliance on dirty-war tactics such as mass arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, rape, and extrajudicial killings.
Link to published article, Kenya tourism tanks amid increasing violence http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/08/kenya-tourism-tanks-amid-increasing-violence-201481093454546196.html DRAFT of “Tourism and ‘Terrorism’ “– AJE Mombasa July 28th, 2014 MOMBASA – It is the first evening of Islam’s Eid al Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan. Wealthy Mombasa residents – mainly of Arab descent – […]
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 […]
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.
“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.
