Foreign Correspondent Margot Kiser
Letters to Annie from Kaftanistan
Couldn’t help but think of Venezuela’s 2018 presidential race that re-elected Nicolas Maduro to a second six-year term, and that was thought to be rigged. However it would appear that Smartmatic the multinational that builds and implements electronic voting systems is one of the good guys. Kenya’s electoral authority has condemned the “brazen” arrest in […]
On January 15th, 2019, I flew from Nairobi to Lamu, where I’ve been living for some time. While waiting for my luggage I chatted with a fellow passenger, a young Somali who told mehe was working in the gas fields of Pate Island. We noted the gains Kenya has made in recent years in security and theuptick in international tourism. Other […]
A land grab may have been behind the murder in Kenya of American conservationist Esmond Bradley Martin.
A Kenyan man was shot dead last week outside the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi after he stabbed a GSU police officer guarding the compound. Police identified the knife-wielder as Abdimahat Ibrahim Hassan, a 22 year-old from Wajir, in northern Kenya. Much of northern Kenya has been inhabited by ethnic Somalis before and since the nation’s […]
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 […]
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 […]
WILSON AIRPORT (NAIROBI) – The inevitable lull between writing gigs makes a good opportunity to catch up on the blog. 8:42 AM – Dormans coffee shop waiting for my flight to Nanyuki. Several tons of miraa or qhat (“organic” herbal stimulant) are flown out of this airport to Somalia every day. Two 30 seater planes […]
Preoccupied with pirates and ports most of the week, I didn’t notice right away the copious amounts of festive silver bunting the staff had begun wrapping around the normally naked brown columns near the entrance and foyer at “the Pink”. Who was foolish enough to get married (period), let alone on a weekday? I had […]
