Rob Crilly - African Safari: October 2008 Archives

The Shabaab stepped up its campaign in Somalia yesterday taking war to Puntland and Somaliland. At a meeting in Kismayo in July the Islamists decided to open new fronts in their battle to force out Ethiopia and bring down the......more

Bombs in Hargeisa and Bossaso. Suicide bombings and choice of targets makes it look as if Islamists behind it. Info circulated to NGOs: Reports of multiple explosions in Hargeisa. Initial unconfirmed reports indicate 3 car bombs: UNDP office site -......more

English Fish and Chips, Moevenpick Hotel, Dar es Salaam And so a new project is born. The other day I posted about fish and chips in Kisumu. Then I find myself in a hotel in Dar es Salaam where "English"......more

Kisumu's ramshackle little airport is being renovated. Locals joke that it is so the runway is big enough to take Air Force 1 when Barack Obama wins and makes his big homecoming, visiting his step-granny an hour or so......more

Fish and chips at Kisumu's Imperial Hotel. With condiments So Friday saw me in Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria, and I'm a great believer in the Catholic/Luo tradition of taking fish for my lunch on such occasions. OK......more

George Clooney's people have still not contacted my people over the great "Put Up or Shut Up" debate he proposed last year. George has now at least been to Darfur (albeit for about 24 hours before being struck down......more

So I know no-one wants to read yet another post about the future of journalism but it's something I've been thinking about a lot recently. In particular the future of one particular journalist. After four years reporting on this part......more

Kenyan judge accused of road rage stabbing My favourite line being "It is a self-inflicted injury. He was very drunk," Kariuki said. "I am a judge and cannot engage in something like that."......more

World piracy map produced by the International Maritime Bureau Al Jazeera, I see, is furthering its reputation for impartial and balanced reporting from the Muslim world with this corker on the pirates... Somali pirates have accused European firms of......more

John Kilonzo and his wife Lucia Kamene with their young daughter Esther in the miserable slum of Mathare In his tiny one-room shack in a Kenyan slum, John Kilonzo and his family are the new faces of urban poverty -......more

Johnny Depp as Jack SparrowIt has become fashionable among some of my colleagues in Nairobi to express irritation at the level of interest the world is showing in Somalia's pirates. The argument is generally expressed by pointing out that Somalia......more

Ugali and cabbage. Mmmm For much of the 1980s I simply refused to smile. My country was being wrecked by Thatcherism, the pits were shut down and four million people were thrown on the scrapheap. The least I could do......more

Jerome Corsi at the airport yesterday. AP Two things you don't do in Kenya right now: Criticise Barack Obama when the country is in the midst of Obama mania; suggest Raila Odinga is an extreme socialist who rose to the......more

Among many of the titbits of useful advice I picked up as I worked my way through Britain's regional newspapers was one that has caused me no end of trouble. "Rob," one of the old hands at The Herald......more

Andrew Mwangura, piracy expert, in Mombasa The Kenyan government has already slagged off journalists for reporting on piracy, the UN's special representative has accused us of passing on pirate propaganda, and now it's my old pal, Andrew Mwangura, who is......more