The two big news stories in Africa this week are the Kenyan constitution vote and the announcement by Haitian musician, Wyclef Jean that he will run for president in the November elections.

I had expected more blog posts from Kenya but maybe it’s just the slowness of August. What an African Woman Wants writes to the ‘New Constitution’ on the hopes and dreams Kenyans voted for:

‘You see, today, August 4th, 2010, was the day Kenyans voted on the proposed new constitution. And the new constitution is expected to play a pivotal role in not only articulating our hopes and aspirations as a people, but in providing the framework within which we can make those hopes and aspirations come true. So that one day we can truly become a nation that celebrates and harnesses the diversity of its people and that is built on the rule of law and the meaningful participation of each citizen in the shaping of its destiny.’

Its great to see the excellent blog, The Kenyan Democracy Project by Onyango Oloo is back. Onyango writes on the popularity of the colour ‘Green’ [the colour of the ‘Yes’ voters] on the streets of Nairobi, not just on people’s backs but on billboards and other advertising. Corporate advertising using green in this way raises questions around commercial influence on voting:

‘Is it a coincidence that at this time when the political atmosphere is sizzling with red/green battles the Kenyan corporate world has made green their colour of choice in their outdoor communications?

‘It needs to be borne in mind that the Kenya Private Sector Alliance and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers have all publicly and endorsed the new Constitution which was endorsed by almost 70% of the voters at the August 4th Referendum.’

Can We Save Africa? is overjoyed at being ‘Kenyan’ and feels that Kenya is starting afresh and on a new path with so many new opportunities. But still there is a need to be cautious:

‘But in my euphoric celebration I remember Muthoni Wanyeki’s words of cautious optimism:

“The impulse of those who have worked so hard for this, through several generations, will be to celebrate. But only for a moment. Because, to realize the potential of a Yes vote, we are all going to have to take a deep breath and dive in again. Against the political and economic interests that have always thwarted change. And don’t imagine those interests are sleeping on the job – they are always (always!) ahead of us all.”

Wyclef Jean’s announcement that he will be running for the Haitian presidency was not exactly a surprise. In retrospect, it’s my feeling that he made this decision as far back as late January or maybe even before with the start of his ‘humanitarian’ organisation Yele. The Haitian Blogger expresses great concern over Jean’s credentials, not least of all his failure to meet the Haitian constitutions ‘residency’ stipulations. Putting this next to the fact that the country’s largest party, Fanmi Lavalas (the party of Betrand Aristide) has been barred from running on a technical issue and Jean’s known opposition to the party, is very worrying:

‘Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) still has to validate Wyclef Jean's candidacy, so let's see what happens. Let's keep in mind that Haiti's majority party Fanmi Lavalas has been barred from running in the next elections because of a manufactured technical issue by the CEP. The CEP has said that Lavalas has not provided them with a proper signature from the party head (President Aristide). Not so, of course. It will be interesting to see how the CEP justifies inviting Wyclef Jean to take part in their electoral circus. There are currently 54 parties registered and the possibility of 54 presidential candidates from each. The U.S.-France-Canada cabal must be commissioning their "mission accomplished" sign right now.

‘Chris Matthews of MSNBC's prediction that Jean will easily win the Haitian presidency aside, Jean is being scrutinized closely for a number of serious matters such as: failing to pay his taxes, the fact that he paid his mistress withmoney from his charity, for personally banking money from the charity fund, and whatever else may crawl out of his closet.

‘This morning Wyclef Jean announced he is resigning from his charity. The move hardly puts a distance between Jean and the matter of alleged misappropriation of funds, as this occurred while he was at the helm of his scandal plagued charity, Yele.’

Method to the Madness points out some of the dangers of private foundations such as the Bill Gates Foundation, running ‘aid’ programmes in Africa. Unlike NGOs, the Bill Gates Foundation is not subject to any controls other than those it makes itself. Additionally the foundation often invests in industries and sectors that are detrimental to the poor as well as upsetting the ‘aid train’ if for example too much emphasis was placed on African countries as investment opportunities:

‘I don't think the Gates Foundation is completely unencumbered. It could potentially deal a blow to aid agencies, the calculus goes, for the word to get out that African countries also present economic opportunities. With the PR machine having done such a good job of telling people how messed up things are, it would now be hard to be seen as making money from a land where everyone is poor. It'll be hard to spin that, because it'll involve a counter-narrative, one that could potentially be harmful to all the efforts to generate aid for projects all over the continent. Too many images of happy, smiling, not-emaciated children eating cheeseburgers and playing basketball after schools not in clay huts, and next thing you know the Western audience breathes a sigh of relief and thinks, "Oh, good! They're not basket cases anymore! Now we don't have to care since they can take care of themselves!" Folks would stop buying baskets from Africa with proceeds to go to the One Campaign's efforts in some random village. And the US will then feel more comfortable relaxing its 0.7% of GDP aid commitment to African countries (which they already don't meet anyway), and reducing for PEPFAR (Which, even as good as the PR machine is, they're currently doing).’

comments on the proposal by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to tackle the country’s kidnapping problem by subsidising service providers in installing special tracking equipment on every mobile mask in the country as well as other GPS tracking devices. David points out that the proposal raises serious issues around privacy and the use of telecoms companies as enforcers of the law but also it is not feasible as the GPS can be turned on or off by the subscriber:
‘Assuming NCC can really pull that off, what happens to the privacy of mobile phone users? Did they sign-up for their movements to be tactically monitored by telecom operators? Why does anything need to be installed anyway when existing cell masts can already be used to triangulate the estimated location of any mobile phone (GPS-capable or not)? Google Maps already uses cell mast triangulation for its Google Map for Mobile service. Is this “subsidy” another plot to squander tax payers’ money?

‘Telecom operators are now law enforcement agencies. Even if the NCC was allowed to implement this absurdity, how would they access the GPS coordinates of a mobile phone since the GPS feature needs to be explicitly activated by the phone user before the phone can be tracked? Do they plan to hack phones and turn on GPS on the phones remotely? Or, are they counting on phone users to voluntarily leave their GPS feature on all the time? By the way, GPS drains phone batteries. Tracking keeps the phone’s microprocessor very busy and so consumes a lot of energy.’

Black Looks has a series of posts celebrating black American writer and activist James Baldwin whose birthday was on 2 August. She also has a Black Looks.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.