Copies of a new book on corruption in Kenya are being sold under the counter in Nairobi as the content is considered too explosive to leave the book on the shelves.

Patric Smith of Africa confidential wrote this review about the book: Michela Wrong’s compelling book, It’s Our Turn to Eat, charts the career of a doughty opponent of this corruption: Kenyan anti-graft campaigner, John Githongo. By describing Githongo’s efforts, Wrong explains the mechanics of corruption within government and business circles and why so much western development policy in Kenya fails.

Wrong, a veteran reporter and former correspondent for the Financial Times, has known Githongo since both were journalists in Nairobi more than a decade ago.

(GIN) - Noted human rights activist, Alison Des Forges, died on Feb. 12, 2009 in a plane crash in Buffalo, New York.  She will be remembered worldwide for her tireless human rights efforts in Central Africa.
 
Alison Des Forges documented and predicted the horrific genocide in Rwanda in 1994.  Her advocacy efforts brought US attention to the brutal death of more than 800,000 Rwandans. Her book, Leave None to Tell the Story is widely considered to be the definitive account of the genocide. 

ST. PAUL – Rep. Karen Clark, Chair of the Housing Finance and Policy and Public Health Finance Committee, is supporting a report released by the Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) that highlights the economic benefits of investing in housing for Minnesota. Minnesota is experiencing a housing crisis where foreclosures and homelessness are on the rise. 

 On Feb. 3, Professor Leopold Munyakazi was arrested for overstaying his visa; Goucher College, in Maryland, suspended him a day later. He is now awaiting a hearing to see if he will be allowed to stay in this country, or forced to leave the country.

By Wendy Grossman

(Diverse Online) On Dec. 10, a NBC news camera crew barged into Dr. Leopold Munyakazi's French classroom at Goucher College accompanied by a Rwandan prosecutor. "They just rushed into my classroom with cameras everywhere," says Munyakazi, 49.
The reporters asked the French professor how he responded to being charged with genocide in Rwanda. “I don’t know what you’re talking about," Munyakazi replied.

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, chair of the U.S. subcommittee on Africa, is urging a new Africa policy under Pres. Obama “to further our national security goals while developing sustainable partnerships with Africans that advance our mutual interests and support nascent democratic institutions.”
 

Photo by James Minchin, courtesy K’naan

By Justin Schell , TC Daily Planet 

This Wednesday night marks the return of the quickly-rising Somali MC K’naan to Minneapolis. After closing the Pan-African Festival last summer, he is coming to the Varsity Theater in support of his new album, Troubadour. 

GIN) – A former U.S. banker has secured a huge tract of arable land in southern Sudan in what has been called Africa’s largest post-colonial private land deal.
 
Investor Phillipe Heilberg called the property bordering the Nile “a ripe opportunity for investment and development.” Its size is nearly twice the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
 
Heilberg’s company leased 400,000 acres from Gabriel Matip, son of Gen. Paulino Matip Nhial of the Sudan People's Liberation Army whose last visit to the U.S. included medical treatment in Minnesota.

Once a wanted man on the run, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has now received a warm welcome from western powers following his election this week as president of Somalia.
 
Congratulating the Sheikh on his victory, the U.S. said: “(We) look forward to cooperating with President Sharif and his broad-based government on their efforts to establish democracy and achieve peace in Somalia.”
 

African Union names Gaddafi as head Gaddafi 
has in the past proclaimed himself the 
'king of kings' among the traditional 
kings of Africa [AFP]

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has been named chairman of the 53-nation African Union. He was elected "by the heads of state in a closed-door session, for a one-year period", Habiba Mejri-Sheikh, an AU spokeswoman, said. In its earlier sessions, AU delegates called for a lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe. The call followed the announcement on Friday that the country's opposition would be joining a unity government. Mixed reactions Gaddafi was handed the chairman's gavel by Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian president and outgoing AU leader, to applause from other leaders on Monday.