Africa Is a Country

Making sense of the terror attacks in Kenya

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Making sense of the terror attacks in Kenya

By
Africa Is a Country

Follow these sources (a mix from the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook, including from some mainstream media sources that aren't that bad) to process the Nairobi mall terror attack.

Image: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid via Flickr CC.

If you, like us, are disturbed by US congressman Peter King’s suggestions to monitor Somali-Americans, the decision by the world’s most visited news site, the Daily Mail, to focus only the fate of North Americans and British victims of the terror attack on a mall in Nairobi, CNN quoting fake Al Shabaab Twitter accounts, or waiting for the inevitable Heart of Darkness-themed piece by some Western journalist or other (though they may surprise us yet), it may be better to follow these sources (a mix from the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook, including from some mainstream media sources that aren’t that bad):

Blogs

 

Twitter

  • Robert Alai, controversial Kenyan blogger and social media strategist.
  • The BBC’s Southern African correspondent Karen Allen.
  • Charles Onyango-Obbo, Nation Media Group’s digital editor. On Twitter.
  • Oliver Mathenge, a political writer of the Star newspaper in Nairobi.
  • The South African journalist Robyn Kriel, the East African Bureau Chief for a South African 24-hour news channel.
  • Kenyan journalist and news anchor, Larry Madowo.
  • Erik Hersman, co-founder of Ushahidi, who goes by White African.
  • Al Jazeera journalist Hamza Mohamed.
  • Photojournalist and columnist Jonathan Kalan.
  • Abdi Ayente, director of Somali’s first ever think and a former Al Jazeera and BBC journalist.
  • Somali-Kenyan journalist  Abdi Latif Dahir.
  • Tom Odula of the AP’s East Africa Bureau; and
  • Ory Okollah, going by KenyanPundit and co-founder of Ushahidi,

Add your suggestions (and comments) in the comments below. Ht @KenyanPundit, @Jepchumba, @Samar42

Further Reading

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.