Lesotho, Africa's medical cannabis pioneer

Yahoo – AFP, Noé Hochet-Bodin, September 4, 2019

Lesotho-based company Medigrow cultivates cannabis legally for the medical 

marijuana industry (AFP Photo/GUILLEM SARTORIO)

Marakabei (Lesotho) (AFP) - Vast white greenhouses sit high up on the slopes of Lesotho's Marakabei town, hidden from view.

It's not fruit or vegetables, however, growing under the 18 plastic covers, but thousands of cannabis plants.

The cannabis is grown legally by the Lesotho-based company Medigrow and is regulated by the government.

"We have three rows that contain 1,200 plants each. That's 3,600 plants across the whole structure," said Medigrow's head of production Albert Theron, gazing proudly over the crop.

In 2017, the tiny landlocked kingdom of 2.1 million people decided to tap into the booming medical marijuana industry, becoming the first country in Africa to allow the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

In order to meet legal standards, most traces of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- the main psychoactive constituent responsible for marijuana's intoxicating effects -- are removed from the seeds.

In 2017, Lesotho become the first country in Africa to allow the cultivation of

cannabis for medicinal purposes (AFP Photo/GUILLEM SARTORIO)

The remaining medical version is primarily made of the non-psychoactive substance, cannabidiol (CBD), and can only be 0.03 percent THC.

Investing in 'green gold'

Medigrow has invested $19.3 million (17.4 million euros) in cannabis-growing facilities around the country's capital, Maseru.

A heliport is also being built to ensure the cannabis -- commonly referred to as "green gold" -- is shipped safely and swiftly, said head of operations Relebohile Liphoto.

The investment is spurred by the industry's positive outlook.

The global market for medical cannabis is currently estimated at $150 billion (135 billion euros) and could reach $272 billion in 2028, according to Barclays Bank.

"At the moment we have almost 2,000 kilos (4,400 pounds) of biomass and we are going to produce more than 1,000 litres (260 gallons) of CBD oil," said Liphoto.

The global market for medical cannabis is currently estimated at $150 billion
(135 billion euros) and could reach $272 billion in 2028, according to Barclays
Bank (AFP Photo/GUILLEM SARTORIO)

"Depending on the market, we can sell cannabis oil at between $6,000 and $21,000 per litre."

Mostly foreign companies

Nicknamed "Kingdom in the Sky", Lesotho is the only country in the world whose entire territory sits higher than 1,400 metres (4,620 feet) above sea level.

Deputy health minister Manthabiseng Phohleli told AFP that the legalisation of cannabis presented "a huge opportunity for the country", which boasts 300 days of sunshine per year.

"It attracts investors," she said. "So far we have around 10 businesses operating on the territory."

Entirely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho is also one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 159 out of 189 in the latest UN Human Development Index.

Unemployment is high, public services are scant and almost a quarter of the population is infected with HIV.

Lesotho's deputy health minister Manthabiseng Phohleli (pictured) said that the 

legalisation of cannabis presented "a huge opportunity for the country" (AFP Photo/

GUILLEM SARTORIO)

The government charges 30,000 euros for a one-year renewable licence to grow cannabis.

But the cost is too steep for most locals, and the market is dominated by foreign companies, mainly from Canada and the United States.

Basothos miss out

Mothiba Thamae has been growing apples, peaches and raisins on 7.5 hectares (18.5 acres) of land for over two decades.

He can not afford the "green gold" licence.

"We hoped the government would give small Basotho farmers the opportunity to cultivate (cannabis) legally," said the 38-year old, referring to Lesotho's main ethnic group.

"Unfortunately they did not."

Year-long sunshine and fertile soils make Lesotho ideal for cannabis plants.

Known as "matekoane" in Lesotho's national language, Sesotho, cannabis has 

been grown for centuries in rural areas (AFP Photo/GUILLEM SARTORIO)

Known as "matekoane" in Sesotho, the country's national language, it has been grown for centuries in rural areas.

"The first historical trace of matekoane dates back to the 16th century," said Laurent Laniel, a researcher at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

"The Koena (people) are believed to have settled in Lesotho around 1550 by buying land from San groups in exchange for marijuana."

'Cannabis money is a bonus'

To this day, cannabis remains an important source of revenue for many small-scale farmers.

Shasha owns a corn field in the centre of the country, on which he has also been growing cannabis illegally for around 20 years.

"The vegetables feed my family. Cannabis money is a bonus," said Shasha. "It allows me to survive and pay for my children's education."

Year-long sunshine and fertile soils make Lesotho ideal for cannabis plants 

(AFP Photo/GUILLEM SARTORIO)

He sells his "matekoane" to a network of dealers like Jama, who smuggles up to 80 kilos of cannabis across the border to South Africa each month.

"That yields between 400 and 500 euros," Jama told AFP.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that 70 percent of marijuana consumed in South Africa is grown in Lesotho, making cannabis the country's third source of revenue.

Rwanda's Paul Kagame: visionary, despot, or both?

Yahoo – AFP, Fran BLANDY, August 1, 2017

Incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame (L) has become one of Africa's
most powerful and admired leaders (AFP Photo/MARCO LONGARI)

Kigali (AFP) - Paul Kagame is revered for stopping Rwanda's genocide and engineering what admirers call an economic miracle, but his critics see a despot who crushes all opposition and rules through fear.

The 59-year-old former guerrilla fighter is seeking a third term in office in August 4 polls after voters massively approved a constitutional amendment allowing him to run again and potentially stay in office for another two decades.

Kagame frames his run as a duty to his country, however the move angered international allies whose patience has worn thin with a man once held up as a shining example of successful post-colonial leadership in Africa.

Yet the president of the tiny central African nation has become one of Africa's most powerful and admired leaders. His counterparts, inspired by Rwanda's turnaround, have tasked him with reforming the African Union.

Shattered by the 1994 genocide and with not a franc left in the national treasury when Kagame took over, Rwanda is now growing at an average seven percent a year while Kigali has transformed into a capital with a gleaming skyline, spotless, safe streets and zero tolerance for corruption.

"Kagame is known as a doer and an implementer, not somebody who says things just like everyone else," said Desire Assogbavi, Oxfam's liason to the AU who also blogs regularly about the body.

His close friend Tony Blair hails him as a "visionary leader" for the remarkable development he has brought about.

'Unapologetically authoritarian'

The president's personality -- described as "unapologetically authoritarian" by author Philip Gourevitch, who wrote a powerful account of the genocide -- was forged by growing up in exile.

In 1960, when he was three, his aristocratic Tutsi family fled to neighbouring Uganda to escape pogroms.

While out of danger, they suffered years of discrimination and persecution that nourished the dream of going back to the homeland they idealised.

Serving in Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's rebel force before and after it seized power in 1986, he rose to become its intelligence chief.

Kagame -- the only president known to have had military training both in the US and Cuba -- later took over command of a small rebel force of Rwandan exiles that sneaked back home hoping to overthrow the regime of Juvenal Habyarimana in 1990, sparking civil war.

Habyarimana's death in an aeroplane crash in 1994 triggered three months of genocide, mostly of minority Tutsis by youths in the Hutu majority whipped into a frenzy of hate.

Kagame, a father of four, was just 36 when his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel army routed the forces who had slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people and seized Kigali, becoming the de facto leader of the nation.

'New breed of dictator'

Kagame soon became the darling of an international community deeply ashamed at having stood by during the genocide, even as his RPF was accused of killing tens of thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo while pursuing genocide perpetrators.

It was accusations Kagame was backing rebel groups in the DRC -- which he staunchly denies -- that finally pushed his allies to take a tougher line, with several suspending aid to Rwanda in 2012.

And criticism has grown louder over his rights record.

Kagame's critics have ended up jailed, forced into exile or assassinated. Rights groups slam the repression of the media and opposition.

Kagame won elections in 2003 and 2010 with 95 and 93 percent respectively. Observers say real opponents are silenced while those allowed to run in elections serve as a democratic facade.

One of Rwanda's rare critical journalists, Robert Mugabe, describes Kagame as the quintessential modern dictator.

"We have a new breed of dictators... they hire PR agencies they form a narrative and these dictators are smart enough to know what the western world wants to see and wants to hear."

Kagame, his aloof gaze piercing through black-rimmed glasses, coolly brushes off criticism over his governance and slams the "arrogant" West for dictating to Rwandans what freedom is.

"A strong leader is not necessarily a bad leader. I don't know where we would be today if a weak leader had taken over this country (after the genocide)," Kagame told Jeune Afrique magazine in 2016.

G20 launches plan to fight poverty in Africa

Yahoo – AFP, July 8, 2017

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) talks with South Africa's President Jacob
Zuma in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017 (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

Hamburg (AFP) - G20 nations launched an unprecedented initiative Saturday at the group's summit in Germany to fight poverty in Africa, but critics called the plan half-hearted.

Under German Chancellor Angela Merkel's "Investment Compacts", an initial seven African countries would pledge reforms and receive technical support in order to attract new private investment.

More than half of Africans are under 25 years old and the population is set to double by mid-century, making economic growth and jobs essential for the young to stop them from leaving, Merkel has said.

Germany's partner nations are Ghana, Ivory Coast and Tunisia, while Ethiopia, Morocco, Rwanda and Senegal are also taking part. Far poorer nations such as Niger or Somalia are so far not on the list.

"We are ready to help interested African countries and call on other partners to join the initiative," said the G20 in their final communique.

The plan, as well as multinational initiatives on helping girls, rural youths and promoting renewable energy, would help "to address poverty and inequality as root causes of migration".

Some 100,000 people, most of them sub-Saharan Africans, have made the dangerous journey to Europe across the Mediterranean in rickety boats this year as the migration crisis shows no sign of abating.

Anti-poverty group ONE said that the investment compacts "promised much, but too many G20 partners missed the memo and failed to contribute.

"The flimsy foundations must now be firmed up, follow through and improved, especially for Africa's more fragile states."

The group's Jamie Drummond said that "this will be the African century and Chancellor Merkel wanted the G20 to get on the right side of history, but internal strife and division scattered the G20 away from this visionary path."

Oxfam judged that the plan "rests on the dangerously naive assumption that boosting private investment will automatically help the poorest in the continent.

"If left unchecked, the Compact might simply line the pockets of wealthy foreign investors."

Related Article:

Plan to nurture African economies unites fractious G20

New set-up for Rabobank in Africa to pool interests

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)  - (Text version)

“… The Future of the Illuminati

Now, I want to tell you something that you didn't expect and something I've reported only one other time. What about all of the money that the Illuminati has? There are trillions and trillions of euro in banks, under their control, waiting. What are they going to do with it and where are they going to use it? It's still here. They're waiting.

This group is waiting for something to happen that they know is going to happen, for they see it coming as much as I do. However, I would like to tell you something that they don't expect. With awareness comes generational shift. Those in charge of this money will not always be elders. The indigos eventually will have it.

They are waiting for something to happen in Africa - the building of a new civilization, a continent that has nothing to unlearn. Once Africa is cured, once it's ready, a new civilization can be created from the ground up. Africans will be ready to learn everything about building a foundation for the most advanced civilization ever and will do it with the most modern and inventive systems available. Eventually, this new continent will even beat the economics of China.

This is the prediction and always has been, and the Illuminati's money will fund it. Did I say the Illuminati will fund it? [Kryon laugh]The Illuminati's money will fund it, but there is a difference from the past, dear ones. The ones who inherit the positions in the Illuminati will be a different consciousness. Listen, they are not suddenly going to be the ones who have the good of everyone in their hearts - hardly. They want to make money, but what they will see instead is a way to make a great deal of money through this investment. In the process, it will automatically help hundreds of thousands, and they will be at the beginning, the foundation, that builds the new Africa. The new African states of unification eventually will create a continent stronger than any of the others, and it will have one currency. The resources alone will dwarf anything in the world.

"Wow, Kryon, how long is that going to take?"

The Humans in the room control that and those listening later and reading. When you leave this room, what are you going to do? Go home, report this, rub your hands together, and wait for it to happen? It won't. For the Humans in the room and the old souls hearing and reading have got work to do, and I've told you this before. You've got work to do.

There's an alliance that you're going to have to create with one another and with another group - the young people of Earth. The youth of this earth are changing the way things work. Can you see it? You're not supposed to sit around and watch them either, because they need you, old soul.

It's time for you to align with the indigos and the concepts of the youth of the planet. Do not think for a moment that their age shows their wisdom. These two attributes are not commensurate with one another; they're not linear. These young people may be older souls than you are! Don't think that because they've got technology that you don't understand that you can't be one with them. Their technology is social networking, the very thing we are talking about, where everyone can talk to everyone. The new consciousness on the planet starts in two areas - the children and the old souls.. …”

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

" .... Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit.. ...."

Surprise as veterans join growing anti-Mugabe movement

Once considered some of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s strongest supporters, war veterans have joined a growing chorus of people speaking out against the long-serving president.

Deutsche Welle, 22 Jul 2016

In a statement released on Thursday (21.07.2016), the Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) described the 92-year-old president as a dictator and announced that they would no longer support his rule.

"[Mugabe's] leadership has presided over unbridled corruption and downright mismanagement of the economy, leading to national economic ruin for which the effects are now felt throughout the land," the veterans said in the statement, issued after a seven-hour meeting of its leaders.

The veterans fought alongside Mugabe during the country's war for independence (in 1980) and continually supported the president during previous campaigns, sometimes violently.

"We note, with concern, shock and dismay, the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the President and his cohorts, which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle," the statement continued .

Mugabe is the head of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) party, which he has led since independence in 1980. He rose to power as the leader of a rebel group which fought in a guerilla war against white minority rule of then Rhodesia. He has been the president of Zimababwe since 1987.

Protests and counter-protests

The release of the statement by the war veterans comes after weeks of organized protests against the ruling party in Zimbabwe. Some of the protests were spontaneous while others were planned using social media.

Pastor Evan Mawarire took to social media this year to complain about the economic situation in Zimababwe. His posts led to a campaign under the hashtag #ThisFlag asking Zimbabweans to take pictures of themselves wearing the country's flag in a sign of protest against corruption, injustice and poverty in the country.

With his #ThisFlag movement, Pastor Evan Mawarire has become the face
of government opposition

The #ThisFlag campaign took off and the pastor used its popularity to protest the government by asking people to "shut down" the country by staying home for one day. The protests led to Mawarire being briefly detained before the case was thrown out by the court. Mawarire has stated that he is considering future actions to continue to put pressure on the Mugabe government.

A demonstration in support of President Mugabe and ZANU-PF by the party's youth wing was also held this week. Unlike previous demonstrations which were violently suppressed by the police and security forces, this protest was guarded and protected by the police.

"The youths may provide him with the muscle he needs right now, but they don't command any meaningful political stock," political analyst Gabriel Shumba, chairman of the South Africa-based Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, told the AFP.

Such events tend to attract many young men although the majority of Zimbabwean youth remain unemployed. According to some estimates by independent economists, up to 80 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed. The government puts the figure at 11 percent, arguing that most people are employed in the informal sector. Recent graduates are planning a demonstration against Mugabe next week after he failed to deliver on his promise last year to create two million jobs.

Is change coming?

Over the past couple of months, the number of protests against the President Mugabe and his government has been increasing. The absense of the war veterans from this week's march in support of the ruling party and their subsequent statement denouncing Mugabe has raised the question of whether support for the long-serving president is falling to levels which could lead to political change in the country.

"The people of Zimbabwe are not taking the situation into their own hands in registering their displeasure with the government," said Alexander Rusero, a political analyst in Harare. "We also have a government that is clueless in terms of what to do to alleviate the poverty or to calm the disgruntlement that has gripped the citizens of Zimbabwe."

Many of the protests are in response to the failing economic situation in the country. Once the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe is in crisis as the country's economy deals with hyperinflation and a currency shortage. Most civil servants are yet to be paid for June or July and even the country's military has not been paid on schedule this month.

Proposed civil servants pay dates for July out. pic.twitter.com/ZnLyGAFfsC

— Privilege Musvanhiri (@Musvanhiri) July 21, 2016

"This is really uncharted water for Zimbabwe," said Wilf Mbanga, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper The Zimbabwean which is published outside of the country. "So many people are prepared to confront the government and they all now agree that this government must go."

But Mbanga was cautious in predicting whether the latest protests would lead to political change in Zimbabwe.

"Mugabe has a very strong army which is solidly behind him but this month they have not been paid," he said. "Will they now be prepared to fight for a government that is failing to pay them?"

Somalia housing boom as Mogadishu emerges from ashes of war

Yahoo – AFP, January 3, 2016

New housing estates are being built amid an economic boom as diaspora
Somalis return and newly wealthy businessmen capitalise on the relative
peace in Mogadishu (AFP Photo/Mohamed Abdiwahab)

Mogadishu (AFP) - Somalia's elegant colonial villas were left in ruins by two decades of street fighting among warlords, and the seaside capital Mogadishu was dubbed the most dangerous city in the world.

But now new housing estates are being built amid an economic boom as diaspora Somalis return and newly wealthy businessmen capitalise on the relative peace in the city.

Some seven kilometres (four miles) outside Mogadishu in a formerly largely rural area, new homes are springing up, with almost 50 houses now ready on an estate, builders say.

Those returning to Somalia -- including

 investors wanting to start new business 

in the their homeland -- say the Daru 

Salaam estate offers them a more secure

 place to live (AFP Photo/Mohamed 

Abdiwahab)

Mohamed Abdullahi Ali, from Salaam Somali Bank, said it was a "great honour" to back the estimated $20 million (18 million euro) project.

Construction began in early 2015 and the project was touted as offering commercial returns and helping rebuild the nation.

"It is a new neighbourhood for all Somalis to buy affordable homes, by leaving the densely populated neighbourhoods of Mogadishu, and to come and stay with families here," Ali said.

"According to our plan, we are going to build 500 homes that can cover the residential needs for 500 families in the first stage, and then will construct more houses."

Different vision of Mogadishu

Tens of thousands forced to flee their homes still live in plastic and rag shelters in the capital, sometimes in the ruins of war-shattered buildings, and more than a million people are still in need of emergency aid in a country ravaged by famine in 2011, the United Nations says.

Car bombs and assassinations are still common, and a 22,000-strong African Union force fights alongside the army to protect the internationally-backed government from attacks by the Islamist Shebab insurgents.

The streets in the new estate offer a very different vision of Mogadishu.

Those returning to Somalia -- including investors wanting to start new business in the their homeland -- say the Daru Salaam estate offers them a more secure place to live.

Somali security forces arrive to the site

 of a bomb blast near Makka al-Mukarama 

Road in the Somali capital Mogadishu 

on December 19, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Mohamed Abdiwahab)

"I came back to this city to buy a new home in Daru Salaam neighbourhood... the houses are well built," said Abdiqadar Jimale Roble, 34, who grew up in Sweden from the age of 12 after Somalia spiralled into civil war in the early 1990s.

"I have been out of Somalia for long time but I came back because everybody needs his country -- and the country is making much progress," Roble added.

"I had to take part in that progress, and everybody should have a house in his country."

For those returning with dollars earned abroad, the estate reflects the possible profits to be made even in a still dangerous country.

'Humanitarian needs remain vast'

Sadia Sheikh Ahmed, who also grew up in Sweden after fleeing Somalia, said she had helped her relatives abroad snap up property.

"Initially we wanted to buy two houses, but now we and our relatives have bought eight homes, scheduled to be completed soon," she said.

A two-storey house can cost some $130,000, while a more simple bungalow comes in at around $70,000.

Those are hefty sums in one of the poorest countries in the world, with a gross domestic product per capita of just $284, according to the World Bank, against a sub-Saharan Africa average of $1,300.

Development indicators are "among the lowest in the world", the World Bank says, noting the Horn of Africa nation is "heavily dependent" on aid and remittances.

Migrants from Somalia stand behind a

 fence outside a temporary housing facility

 for migrants located in a former Olympic 

hall in Faliro suburb of Athens, on 

December 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Angelos 

Tzortzinis)

Over 308,000 children are acutely malnourished, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"After more than two decades of violence and political instability, Somalia is on a positive trajectory," OCHA said, while warning the "promising trend" takes place amid a "precarious" humanitarian and security situation.

"Humanitarian needs remain vast and Somalia's humanitarian crisis remains among the largest and most complex in the world," OCHA added.

But the estate is symbolic of the possible changes in Mogadishu.

"The security here is very good and there have been no problems," said Fuad Ahmed Warsame, marketing director of Daru Salaam Real Estate, which is building the new neighbourhood -- meaning "house of peace."

The company is headquartered in central Mogadishu's famous Bakara Market, the city's commercial heart, once infamous as the 1993 battle when fighters shot down two American Black Hawk helicopters. The bullet scars there have long been covered up with business booming.

Obama spends first evening in Kenya with extended family

US President Barack Obama has reunited with his extended family on the first evening of his trip to Kenya. In his first visit as US president, Obama is expected to discuss trade and counterterrorism strategies.

Deutsche Welle, 25 July 2015

 Barack Obama reuniting with his family

While the media has focused extensively on US President Barack Obama's family in Kenya, the US government has stressed that the aim of the president's visit is to highlight Kenya's ties with the US. Obama's trip is set to include talks on trade and counterterrorism strategies.

On Saturday, Kenya and the US are to discuss enhancing cooperation in the fight against the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militia, responsible for the 2013 bombing of Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall that killed 67 people. The group recently attacked a university near the Somali border, leaving 148 students and teachers dead.

Obama is also scheduled to open the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, visiting along with more than 200 US investors. Later on, he will meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in a disputed 2007 election. The charges against Kenyatta were dropped in December.

This is Obama's first trip to his father's
homeland as US president

Last visit in 2006

After receiving a warm welcome by millions of Kenyans, Obama spent Friday evening reuniting with his extended family.

At his hotel in Nairobi, the president met with the woman he calls "Granny," also known as "Mama Sarah," who helped raise his late father. His half-sister Auma Obama and about three dozen other family members were also present. The family engaged in an amiable chat, sitting at the restaurant of the hotel where Obama was staying in the Kenyan capital.

Auma said her father would be proud to see his son as US president if he were alive today. "He'd be extremely proud and say, 'Well done'…But then he'd add, 'But obviously, you're an Obama," she said in an interview with CNN.

Kenyan heritage

"I don't think that Kenyans think of Obama as African-American. They think of him as Kenyan-American," EJ Hogendoorn, deputy program director for Africa at the International Crisis Group, told the Associated Press.

Obama is linked to Kenya through his father, Barack Obama Sr., who left the country as a young man to study in Hawaii, where he met the president's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham. Obama Sr. left Hawaii when his son was just 2 years old, for Harvard, after which he went back to Kenya. The president met his father only once more in his life, when he was 10 years old. Obama Sr. would die soon after, in a car crash in 1982.

Obama Sr. was an economist who opposed the leader of his country at the time, then President Jomo Kenyatta, over tribal divisions and allegations of corruption. He was fired by the president and spent the rest of his life dealing with financial problems and heavy drinking.

mg/cmk (AP, Reuters)

Related Article:

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

" .... Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit.. ...."

Kenyan firms see US$235m in procurements with Chinese rail project

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-07-17

A military unit inspects the Mombasa-Nairobi railway, January 2014. (File photo/
Xinhua)

China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has purchased US$235 million worth of goods and services from Kenyan manufacturers for the construction of a standard gauge railway (SGR), a Kenyan official said on Tuesday.

Cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development Adan Mohamed told a media briefing in Nairobi that the locally-sourced goods are part of the 40% minimum quota for Kenyan firms.

"Construction of the 487 kilometer railway has roped in 36 local subcontractors and 300 suppliers who are playing a key role in ensuring the project is completed by the end of 2017," Mohamed said during a meeting with representatives of Kenyan manufacturers.

Mohamed said that the project will be instrumental in increasing the quality of goods manufactured locally.

He added that when construction of the railway started, Kenya did not have the technology to produce the quality of cement required for SGR project and so the CRBC was forced to import 6,000 metric tons of cement.

"However, as a result of skills transfer, the local cement industry is now able to supply the CRBC with the cement," he said.

CRBC has employed 15,000 people in the US$3.8 billion railway project. Many employees are from coastal counties and more than 20% are women.

The jobs are expected to peak at 30,000 with 400 beneficiaries of the technology transfer. The company plans to transfer technical skills to 1.6% of the project workforce which will be reduced to 1.3% by the end of the venture.

Mohamed said that before construction of the SGR began, all stakeholders agreed on a list of equipments and goods that would be imported as they are not locally available in the country.

"However, we will review the list as Kenya attains the technology to produce more goods," he said.

According to the ministry of industrialization, the Chinese funded SGR is a very important project in the country as it will help to address the high cost of manufacturing.

The government intends to hold quarterly review of the local manufacturers input into the SGR.

Mohamed said this move will help to promote local producers as well as boost capacity for local production of quality supplies.

The Netherlands to pay tax on development aid

DutchNews.nl, July 13, 2015

Foreign aid minister Lilianne Ploumen is to introduce taxes on development aid when material for projects comes from the Netherlands. 

At the moment, the Netherlands does not pay value-added tax or import levies on material sent to developing countries.

In an interview in Trouw on Monday, she said this will be changed, although emergency aid will remain untaxed. 

The minister said she will also ask pensioned tax officials to share their knowledge with the tax offices in developing countries. ‘A strong tax system collects more money which can be used to fight poverty,’ she said. 

Ploumen is currently in Ethiopia for a United Nations meeting to discuss how to finance international development over the next 15 years.

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