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Tom Gardner | August 3, 2017  | Foreign Affairs How He Tamed the Opposition in Rwanda The red, white, and blue flags of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party flutter atop trees and lampposts along the highway leading north from Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, to the scenic highland town of Musanze. Tricolored banners also don the scaffolded archways that … [Read more...] about Kagame’s Unrivaled Power

 Ernest Chanda | August 3, 2017 | Foreign Policy Zambia went from a free and stable country to a dictatorship overnight. I covered it for the country’s only independent newspaper — until the government shut it down. LUSAKA, Zambia — The slide toward dictatorship was abrupt. Two and a half years ago, Zambia was one of Africa’s most stable democracies, a place so … [Read more...] about How to Gut a Democracy in Two Years

Kavitha Surana | August 3, 2017 | Foreign Policy For every problem highlighted by local journalists, Rwanda’s strongman can present himself as the solution. GICUMBI, Rwanda — Jennifer Niyonsaba was hunched over a sound-mixing board in a small production room with bare, yellow walls. A volunteer journalist at Radio Ishingiro, a community radio station in rural northern … [Read more...] about Even Critics of Rwanda’s Government Are Helping Paul Kagame Stay in Power

Kevin Sieff | August 5 | The Washington Post NAIROBI — A concrete bridge and a narrow, garbage-filled river divide the slum of Mathare into two parts, a space between ethnic groups and voting blocs that are competing fiercely — and many say dangerously — over Kenya’s presidential elections scheduled for Tuesday. Here in one of the most economically successful and … [Read more...] about As Kenya elections draw near, country reveals an electorate divided by tribe