Point One

A cover headline by Kenya’s The Standard newspaper wittily summed the verdict: ‘William Ruto the 5th,’ it simply stated. Vice-President William Samoei Ruto has been returned as winner of that country’s 9th August presidential election and, barring an upset from post-election litigation, will be installed its fifth president. Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati announced early last week after six days of vote counting that Ruto emerged with 50.5 percent of votes cast to narrowly defeat veteran contender Raila Odinga, who got 48.8 percent of the votes. It was 55-year-old Ruto’s first shot at the presidency, and he was lucky to hit home, unlike 77-year-old Odinga who ran unsuccessfully for the fifth time. Ruto faced down daunting odds to breast the electoral tape. He’s been vice-president for the past 10 years under outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta and should have been the default establishment candidate, but he ran as an outsider agai...

Many Nigerians are hedged in at the moment like never before in memory, no thanks to the present socio-economy. Communication is at low ebb as the means of engaging in that enterprise are  increasingly constrained by insecurity and inflationary factors in a harsh economic environment. Socialisation is endangered, and we seem well on the way back to the stone age when people lived in isolated caves. How far things will get worse before they get better is a matter of chance, but also of social conscience on the part of government. Unless for a privileged few, when people organise social events out of town these days, they no longer encourage friends and relations to be in attendance. They rather advise associates not to bother with coming unless they have essential roles to play. It’s awkward civilisation, but the reason is that the ways and means of getting to distant places nowadays are unduly exerting. For instance, owing to the scarcity of Jet-A1, the aviation sector is extremely...