Somalia's new parliamentary leadership has effectively been booby trapped by a flawed governance model imposed by the international community.

Repressed by their government for years, the force for change in Gambia is likely to come from citizens finding the courage to 'seek another way, from another place'.

A Kenya court has jailed the country’s former permanent secretary of Kenya’s Tourism Ministry Rebecca Nabutola and the former Kenya Tourist Board Managing Director Achieng Ong’ong’a after they were convicted of corruption. Chief Magistrate Lucy Nyambura sentenced Nabutola to four years in jail while Ong’ong’a was given three years jail after both were found guilty 'of conspiracy to defraud the government of 8.9 million shillings (about $106,000).'

Zanu-PF has vowed not to give in to pressure to endorse a draft constitution produced two months ago by the constitutional parliamentary committee. But the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) wants to put it to a referendum. Political observers have interpreted this as a sign that Zanu-PF will spurn the mediation efforts led by the Southern African Development Community and South African President Jacob Zuma. Earlier this year, Mugabe said his party reserved the right to reject Zuma as the SADC facilitator if he showed 'any bias'.

Somalia’s presidential elections have been marred by allegations of bribery, with up to $50,000 said to have changed hands among members of parliament, Al Jazeera has learnt. Senior diplomatic sources deployed in the region to ensure honest and fair election, have confirmed that the process of vote buying has been under way over the last few days. It was hoped that the vote for a new president, the first of its kind in decades, would alter the political landscape of the nation and be a milestone in the war-ravaged country's quest to end two decades of violence, corruption and infighting.

Swaziland police tricked students into believing they were being escorted to deliver a petition to the government, but instead took them to a road with no exits and ambushed them, firing shots and beating them up. Media in Swaziland are reporting that about 100 students were forced to flee across the streets of the Swazi capital, Mbabane.

The potential cost of pesticide-related illnesses in sub-Saharan African between 2005 and 2020 could reach $90bn (£56bn), according to a UN report released on Wednesday highlighting the growing health and environmental hazards from chemicals. It said the estimated cost of pesticide poisoning exceeds the total amount of international aid for basic health services for the region, excluding HIV/Aids.The report by the UN environment programme (Unep) warned that the increasing production of chemicals, especially in emerging economies where there are weaker safeguards, is damaging the environment and increasing health costs.

Dear Comrades, Colleagues and Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

I'm afraid that I have sad news to convey. As a result of irreconcilable differences with the Fahamu board of trustees about the future, I will not be able to continue my work as editor-in-chief of Pambazuka.

I am deeply disappointed and saddened by this development. I am heart-broken.

Nevertheless, I want to assure you that my personal commitment to the vision, mission and values that Pambazuka represented remains as deep as ever. I intend to find other means for continuing to contribute to the struggles for freedom and justice, building on the achievements and aspirations that I have shared with my Pambazuka News colleagues and the large and growing Pambazuka community of contributors, readers, and supporters.

In the meantime, I will continue to share information on Twitter (@firozem), Facebook (www.facebook.com/firoze) and at my blog (www.daraja.net).

Please accept my gratitude for the support you have provided to Pambazuka and myself in the past and please accept my appreciation for the work that you are doing.

I am sending this from my personal email address - [email][email protected] - which should be used for all future correspondence. I would welcome hearing from you.

Firoze Manji

Foreign companies operating in Africa siphon US$ 1.5 trillion illicitly every year from Africa in the form of hard currency, leading to high inflation and deepening income gaps, a report by an African Union-backed think-tank said Friday. The report by the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial flows from Africa, a group created by the African finance ministers in 2011, under the leadership of former South African President Thabo Mbeki, said the funds were wired back to rich states, draining hard currency reserves in Africa.

Nigeria's main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) on Sunday asked the Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to resign immediately, after his son's indictment in connection with the US$6 billion fuel subsidy scam, being described as one of the biggest corruption cases in Nigeria's history.

Dioncounda Traore, interim president of Mali, has moved to stifle Cheick Modibo Diarra, his prime minister, by announcing the creation of new bodies tasked with ending the ongoing crisis in the west African nation. In an address delivered on television on Sunday, Traore announced he would be in charge of a High Council of State, lead talks for a unity government himself and create a committee to negotiate with the fighters who currently control the north of the country.

The World Bank has admitted that it is largely to blame for the failure of the project to rehabilitate the Beira railway system. Indian consortium RICON was the dominant partner and was supposed to be in charge of the complete reconstruction of the Sena Line. The World Bank was initially enthusiastic about the project, and backed it up with a loan of 104 million US dollars. The Mozambican authorities, and CFM, soon began to sound the alarm. Ricon kept missing deadlines, and its work failed to observe technical standards.

With Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi seriously ill, East African leaders need to start worrying about what his impending exit will mean for the region. Many analysts in the region worry about the political situation in a post-Zenawi Ethiopia, and are sceptical that the country can pull off a smooth transition.

The next few weeks promise to be interesting for Ghana as the country tries to come to terms with the sudden death of President John Atta Mills on 24 July. Known for its strong democracy, the west African country will be keenly watched over how it handles its transitions. Within hours of Mr Mills death, his deputy John Dramani Mahama was sworn in in line with Article 60 (6) of the country's constitution, drawing praise from observers.

Inequalities in South Africa are threatening economic growth, with children born into poor families unlikely to ever to escape poverty or reap the rewards of living in Africa's largest economy. The World Bank's sobering assessment, released last week, found that a child's gender and ethnicity at birth, combined with a lack of education, largely determine that person's chances of success in life - even 18 years after the end of apartheid.

The election of South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the chairperson of the African Union has earned high points for the regional body on several indicators.

To many observers, the election victory of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma against the incumbent, Mr Jean Ping, as Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) at the Summit in Addis Ababa on 15 July, came as a surprise.

What difference will the appointment of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma really make to the African Union and the betterment of people across the continent?

The international community has for years engaged in numerous initiatives ostensibly to return Somalia into a functioning state again. But according to a leaked high-level report, it is these same outsiders who have benefited most from the crisis.

A personal account of the complexity of identity and the challenges of living with the differing assumptions and perceptions of others.