As Kenya prepares for a rise in novel coronavirus cases, 3D printing companies are designing and printing personal protective equipment (PPEs) and parts for medical devices to address the expected deficit in the country. Read my latest for Quartz Africa here.
An infestation of desert locusts first arrived in East Africa last June, feeding on hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops and pastureland and chomping a path of destruction through at least eight countries. Scientists say these devastating insects never left East Africa: in fact, favorable wet conditions due to above average rainfall this season means they are likely to achieve two generations of new breeding by June this year, increasing their population size up to 400 times. Read my latest for Quartz Africa here.
Ibado Mohammed Abdulle is a counsellor, friend and campaigner for women who have been made refugees in their own country by the impact of the climate crisis. Read my story from Somaliland here.
Read my contribution to this Quartz collaboration about the impact of COVID-19 on informal workers here.
Schistocerca gregaria, better known as the desert locust, has smitten East Africa like a plague from the Bible. Read my report from Somaliland about how the pests have devastated farmers and pastoralists in East Africa.
Kenyan runners are known worldwide for winning gold medals and breaking world records. But the country’s first performance athletic shoe company, Enda, ran into multiple hurdles when trying to convince investors at home and abroad Kenya could become a significant manufacturing hub.
Colombia’s culture of machismo has created a backlash in the form of a new women’s political movement.
Claudia Lopez’s election as Mayor of Bogota was a defining moment for Colombian women politicians. Find out why in my piece for TIME.
When kenya announced in June that it would issue new 1,000 shilling ($10) notes and destroy the old ones to fight corruption, many predicted chaos. India’s efforts to do the same by “demonetising” rupees in 2016 led to riots, deaths and a dent in economic growth. Read about Kenya’s unexpectedly orderly demonetisation scheme in my Economist piece.
Vermin, snakes, cockroaches, invaders—throughout history, politicians have used these words to describe people they’ve deemed unwelcome in their countries. But what happens when media outlets pick up this weaponized language, expand on it, and reverberate it throughout the nation? Are they, somehow, responsible for the outcomes that follow? Read my piece for Foreign Policy.