Katherine Southwick

Articles

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Corruption in Kenya: The Plots Continue

DEVELOPMENTS Corruption is at the heart of news from Kenya these days. Last week, President Mwai Kibaki suspended eight senior officials for three months pending investigations into two corruption scandals. In one, auditors from Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed that over $26 million had been lost through a program to give impoverished Kenyans access to subsidized maize. The second scandal, brought to light late last year, concerns the loss of more than one million dollars from the Ministry of Education during a short period. In response, both the British and U.S. governments suspended millions of dollars in education assistance in December and January.

February 28, 2010
Katherine Southwick
Corruption - February 2010

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Western Sahara: Looking for Hope in the Desert

Western Sahara is never front-page news, but it deserves more attention. Its political status is the subject of one of Africa’s longest territorial disputes, a puzzle of realpolitik and rule of law that has lasted 34 years. Morocco contends that it should have sovereignty over Western Sahara while granting the region some measure of political and cultural autonomy. The Polisario Front, the government-in-exile of Western Saharan ethnic groups, holds that the territory’s final status should be decided in a referendum, with the option of independence. The protracted lack of a solution has fostered terrorism, and resulted in human rights abuses and lost economic opportunities.

August 18, 2009
Katherine Southwick
War and Peace - August 2009