The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party wants National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula to stop getting involved in its party politics.

In a statement on Wednesday, September 13, the Party Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna criticised the Wetangula for commenting on the decision to expel some of its members over gross misconduct allegations.

Sifuna claimed that the Speaker has clung to the Kenya Kwanza side while holding office, in which he should be non-partisan. 

“We draw a line on the involvement of the Speaker of the National Assembly, who, while holding an office that makes him both the head of the crucial third arm of government and therefore a supposed neutral arbiter in legislative and political party issues, cannot take sides in partisan matters,” Sifuna stated.

The party was responding to Wetangula’s remarks on Sunday, September 10 where he told off the ODM Party leader for expelling some of its members, instead of allowing them to serve the public. 

“We want to tell all elected leaders that the door to work with government is open as long as it is done in a Constitutional manner. The same frustrations mated to those leaders also happened to us,” Wetangula said while in Uriri. By Sharon Wanga, The Standard

The newly re-elected president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has appointed his son Kudakwashe David Mnangagwa as one of the new set of cabinet members.

Zimbabweans took part in the 2023 general elections which happened in August, and Mnangagwa emerged as a disputed winner, after garnering 52.6 per cent of the total votes.

On Monday, September 11, Mnangagwa appointed a new cabinet and placed his son as the Deputy Minister of Finance in the parliament's youth quota. 

This move sparked a lot of nepotism accusations as the president also included his nephew Tongai Mnangagwa in the list of appointments as deputy minister of tourism.

The 35-year-old Kudakwashe will deputise Mthuli Ncube, an ex-banker who retained his position as the country’s Finance Minister.

Ncube has not been spared from criticism after the economic policies established during the previous term failed to bear fruits dragging the country to $17 billion in

debt.

Rights groups condemn arrests of election observers in Zimbabwe

The mining ministry was handed over to Soda Zhemu, replacing Winston Chitando who has been the Mines Minister since November 2017.

The ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), has not made any comments on the allegations despite netizens expressing their disappointment. 

However, supporters of the son say that he is qualified for the job.

The leadership of President Mnangagwa has been questioned by a huge number of citizens who termed the elections as ‘unfair’. 

On elections day, ballot papers were delayed and voters had to wait for hours to cast a vote. Due to that situation, the election were held for two days.  By Ann Veronicah, The Standard

Britain and fellow imperial European countries are set to be hit with a demand for trillions in reparations, in the latest anti-colonial push.

A group of Caribbean countries hope to begin negotiations with Britain, France, Spain and Denmark, demanding a combined figure of $33 trillion (or £26 trillion) from the economies.

The cash demand forms just one part of a 10-part plan, which also includes a formal apology, funding health and education in the islands, cancellation of historic debts and direct payments to their governments.

Britain owes the largest of all those countries, despite the UK's historic role in abolishing the global slave trade.

After Britain's share of the equivalent of £15.6 trillion, the Caribbean nations want money from Spain and France.

 

Slavery reparations© Getty

 

The group of 15 Caribbean nations demanded the sum© Getty

The figure being demanded from Britain equates to six times' the size of Britain's entire GDP.

A lawyer and chair of the island nation's Reparations Commission dragged the Royal Family into the contentious political row, as they said said: "We are hoping that King Charles will revisit the issue of reparations and make a more profound statement beginning with an apology, and that he would make resources from the Royal family available for reparative justice". 

In April, King Charles signalled support for research into the British monarchy's slavery ties, though many warned him such a concession would lead to further demands for reparations and apologies.

The figure derives from a paper from an American consulting firm, which attempted to calculate damages for four centuries of enslavement.

 

The King And Queen Consort Visit Scotland© Getty

Verene Shepherd, a Jamaican professor of history, said: "We need a figure to begin with, a negotiating figure. The crime is huge. The responsibility for what happened is huge". 

CARICOM - the name for the 15 nations - established a reparations commission in 2013, and have since made approaches to former imperial powers about reparations.

Unsurprisingly, Ms Shepherd says their letters making the enormous demands "didn't get a positive response".

She argues in the last decade the campaign to secure handouts has "won in terms of our public presentation and our advocacy".

A second round of letters to European governments has now been drafted, and will be sent in due course.

Advocates for reparations to the Caribbean argue that although Britain paid £20 million in compensation in the 1830s to 46,000 former slaveholders - as part of securing the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade - they didn't award anything to those formerly enslaved.

However Jamaican columnist and college dean Peter Espeut criticised the idea of handing Jamaica money for debt reparations.

"When Jamaica became independent, the British government handed us a national debt of zero.

"Any debt that Jamaica may currently have is arguably not the result of slavery or colonialism but malfeasance on the part of the Jamaican government."

He added that the UK and EU would have a strong argument in saying they have been paying reparations for decades in the form of international aid.

Rishi Sunak has previously told the Commons that he opposes reparatory justice, saying he believes: "trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward, and it's not something that we will focus our energies on". Story by Christian Calgie, Daily Express

A quick glance today at the cities of the African continent reveals a rich diversity of urban settlements, ranging in type from rural enclaves to sprawling metropolises. That quick glance also reveals a larger picture of cities that are continuously adapting and evolving as we enter the decade of the 2020s – yet this evolution in many places is taking place at the expense of those who are less fortunate. This is not happening in a vacuum, as the reason why a lot of African cities look as they do today is a result of a segregated organization during colonial rule.

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Two cities in particular that display these colonial legacies in their landscapes are the busy East African cities of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. The former city is the capital of Kenya – one of Africa’s largest urban centers which developed as a trading hub. Nairobi is a city of many architectural landmarks, famously housing landmarks such as Amyas Connell’s 1954 Tower of Parliament Building and David Mutiso’s 1977 Kenya International Convention Centre. These buildings, however, exist amidst urban division put in place by a 1948 master plan that formalized segregation between races.

 

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The ideal for colonial planners in Kenya was a city of estates with spacious suburbs – made so that Europeans could have ample room for sport and leisure. This discriminatory policy saw Kenyan tribes pushed out of their traditional homes, with Nairobi earmarked by planners as a place suitable for European habitation due to its “milder” climate. The discrimination of native Africans in Kenya carried on to employment, as Kenyans were only allowed to be employed in Nairobi under temporary contracts – which meant that they did not have permanent residences built for them in the city. Informal settlements sprung up, as non-Europeans were relegated to the outskirts of the city under la

 

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Today’s Nairobi is a Nairobi built on top of these structural inequalities. The higher-income areas are still those that housed mainly Europeans during colonial times, with leafy suburbs, like Westlands, whilst areas such as the Kibera informal settlement are direct results of colonial planning. A clear example of this divide is the Kibera informal settlement bordering the Royal Nairobi Golf Course, which is a colonial development originally built in 1906. It’s an image that encapsulates who is able to gain access to privately-owned urban, green, spaces and who is not.

Dar es Salaam is a city that unlike, Kenya, was not part of a country that was colonized as a settler colony. Nevertheless, the racial division of the city under colonial rule is still apparent today, but in a much murkier way. The German and British colonial governments put in place building ordinances that divided the city based on the ‘standard of construction’ within each area, which in effect led to racial zoning.

 

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The first German city plan of 1887 saw Dar es Salaam cut into three zones with varying building styles. Zone 1 – near the waterfront, was for “European-style” buildings, Zone 2 around the “Mnazi Moja” area allocated for smaller stone structures in an “Indian and Arab style”, and Zone 3 in the Kariakoo area was dedicated to temporary housing. Architectural styles essentially define racial segregation.

The arrival of British colonialists after World War 1 saw the expansion of European areas to live across the city. The peninsula area and Oyster Bay – places near the waterfront with abundant ocean breezes, were designated as places that only Europeans could build in, as Africans who came into work in these suburbs had to leave the area by 6 p.m. The fall of colonialism saw these areas become home to diplomatic residences, embassies, and homes of the more affluent – a present-day reminder of the racial zoning that divided the coastal city.

 

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Areas have cropped up relatively recently in both Dar es Salaam and Nairobi that rival these formerly European enclaves, with the onset of a growing middle class. The two economic hubs are cities that are not only defined by the inequality that exists within them – but it’s important to address the fact that this urban inequality, more often than not, has its roots in colonialism. By Matthew Maganga, ArchDaily