On 21 February 2013, the RVI’s Nairobi Forum hosted a panel discussion on the regional implications of the death of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, in August 2012. The event, entitled ‘Ethiopia after Meles: National and regional implications’, was chaired by RVI Fellow Tobias Hagmann of Roskilde University in Denmark. Political scientist Asnake Kefale, from Addis Ababa University,…
Videos of Nuruddin Farah in conversation with Binyavanga Wainaina at the Nairobi Forum and tributes by the two writers to Chinua Achebe, are now on YouTube. An interview by Tom Odhiambo with Nuruddin Farah is also available.
The Nairobi Forum and the British Institute in Eastern Africa co-hosted the launch of a special Somalia edition of the Journal of Eastern African Studies on 19 April. The meeting, entitled ‘Continuities and change: Social, political and economic dynamics in Somalia since 1991’, examined the strengths and weaknesses of hybrid political structures, the roles of local authorities, and the…
On 29 April 2013, the Hon. Mohamed Elmi (MP, Tarbaj) presented a paper at the Nairobi Forum on Lessons from the Ministry of Northern Kenya, reflecting on the work of his former ministry in supporting pastoralism and development in Kenya’s arid and semi arid lands. The former minister was one of several speakers at a seminar hosted by the Forum in collaboration with the Future Agricultures…
On 29 and 30 April the Nairobi Forum hosted a workshop to discuss the impact of war, prolonged conflict, displacement and exile on Somali men and youth. The workshop, convened by Judith Gardner (co-author of The Untold Story: The War Through the Eyes of Somali Women) and Rakiya Omaar (African Rights), initiated the first stage of a long term study on the enduring consequences of conflict on…
There could hardly be a more poignant or devastating reminder of divisive instability that has spread throughout the Horn of Africa. On Monday, I moderated a discussion panel on how arts and literature can help rebuild society in the Horn of Africa. But I shouldn’t have been there at all. Yusuf Hassan, the intended moderator and a Kenyan MP of Somali descent, was absent because of a stark…
In June the Nairobi Forum hosted a consultation on the future of humanitarian action in the Horn of Africa and East Africa with the Feinstein International Centre at Tufts University and InterAction. The Forum also held a book launch for The Golden Fleece: Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action (Kumarian 2012) edited by Antonio Donini (Feinstein International Centre).
‘Gatekeepers’ are siphoning off food aid intended for internally displaced people living in squalid camps in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, Refugees International said in a report on Thursday, calling on aid agencies to stop operating via remote control from neighbouring Kenya. There are some 184,000 internally displaced people in Mogadishu, and some 1.36 million Somalis displaced within the…
The election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as President of Somalia on 10 September was a major event in the region, bringing to an end a deeply flawed, eight-year political transition. The election of an active member of civil society who has consistently worked to end Somalia’s conflict has both electrified Somalis and surprised and relieved the international community. This may herald a Somali…
Since it declared independence in 1991, Somaliland has worked to develop a system of multi-party democracy. The result is a relatively complex but home-grown set of political arrangements, providing concessions to and incorporating different interest groups. This was the unanimous summation of various stakeholders on the 27th June at the British Institute in Eastern Africa; Nairobi Kenya where…
