Governance in Africa

A man seated at a conference table delivers a speech. The camera is focussed on his face, while his background is mainly blurred. He is facing away from the partially blurred microphone and looking at someone in the audience. The man, Raila Odinga, passed away in India on 15 October 2025.

Raila Odinga, Kenyan politician, 1945-2025

A perennial opposition leader and master tactician, Raila Odinga embodied both the hopes of reform and the compromises of establishment politics in post-independence Kenya

Two men hold placards at a demonstration in Washington D.C. in June 2024. They were part of a demonstration by Kenyans living in the United States in solidarity with mass protests then taking place back home.

What’s driving Africa’s youth-led protests?

While many of the protesters' demands are unlikely to be met, the demonstrations underline the urgent need for fundamental reform, not just in Kenya or Nigeria, but across Africa

The main gate of the Parliament of Uganda in Kampala, Uganda

Uganda and Kenya protests highlight corruption at the very top, which happens to be the most difficult to fight

Political corruption destroys the incentives of those in power to curb corruption and persists because it keeps the regime afloat, a function that extends beyond mere personal gain

Amisom female peacekeepers from Uganda mounting an honour guard in Somalia

Africa’s escalating peacekeeping crisis

The premature withdrawal of peacekeepers from the DRC, Mali, and Somalia will exacerbate instability in Africa's most volatile regions

Mwai Kibaki at a conference in London, in 2012

Mwai Kibaki wasted opportunity to fix Kenya

Kenya's third president initially enjoyed broad goodwill among his own population until he failed to confront the gross excesses he had promised he would reform

Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that Africa must invest in human capital

It is human capital that will provide the strongest cushion in future crises, especially those that overwhelm social safety nets

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives at Pretoria's Waterkloof Air Force Base

Chad’s covert coup is the latest example of African militaries stunting democracy

Military governments in Africa have shown little interest in building democratic governance

Idriss Déby, the reformer that wasn’t, leaves a painful legacy

Idriss Déby died from battlefield injuries days before he was to start his sixth term. Chad’s military announced a transition government headed by Déby’s son

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan addressing a large public event

The stark choices facing Tanzania’s new president

The sudden death of Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli has thrown the East African nation into a period of political uncertainty. Vice-president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has been sworn in as his successor, making her Tanzania’s first woman president. The transition is all the more challenging given the major rupture — both political and economic —

More Governance in Africa

18 March 2021

John Magufuli: a brilliant start but an inglorious end

John Joseph Pombe Magufuli was a man who deftly played the long political game. He was nevertheless a puzzle both to Tanzanians and the world

Deceased Tanzanian President John Magufuli inspects a parade

17 April 2018

Weaning African leaders off addiction to power is an ongoing struggle

African leaders continue to disregard their countries’ own constitutions and laws governing presidential tenure. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Joseph Kabila, Uganda's Museveni, and Congo's Nguesso have all refused to go after decades in power