Features | - Part 168

Kenyan Court Backs President’s Vote Win, Ending Uncertainty

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s top court upheld Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential-election win, ending three months of electoral uncertainty that have slowed growth in East Africa’s biggest economy. Stocks gained the most in two months. Kenyatta won the rerun fairly and electoral authorities’ failure to hold polling in the country’s western region didn’t invalidate the outcome, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting all of the petitions challenging the vote. “The court has unanimously determined that the…

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Faces Impeachment as He Balks at Retiring

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean lawmakers are set to begin impeachment proceedings against President Robert Mugabe on Monday after he missed a ruling-party deadline to end his 37-year reign. Mugabe, 93, was widely expected to announce that he was stepping down in a televised address late on Sunday to enable Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom he fired as vice president earlier this month, to take over. Mugabe instead delivered a rambling and largely incoherent speech, in which he pledged…

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Said to Risk Impeachment If He Won’t Quit

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe could be impeached if he refuses to bow to pressure to resign, according to four officials close to mediation efforts aimed at ending a political standoff in the southern African nation. The military placed the 93-year-old Mugabe under house arrest early Wednesday and detained top officials who’d backed his wife, Grace, to succeed him. Mugabe has been made aware he could be impeached but he initially dismissed the…

Angolan Sonangol’s Fired Boss Said She Leaves $2 Billion in Reserves

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, said Sonangol will be left with a financial reserve of $2 billion after she leaves as chair of Angola’s state-owned oil company. Her firing Wednesday marks the first time Angolan President Joao Lourenco has directly targeted the family of his predecessor, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Africa’s second-biggest oil producer for 38 years and appointed his eldest daughter to the helm of Sonangol last year. She was relieved…

Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Deregulation and Proxy Recounts

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – There have been a lot of stories recently about how the U.S. government has kind of given up on financial regulation. This week the Senate moved to limit strict Fed oversight (and stress tests) to just the dozen biggest banks. Here is a story about how the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has gotten much laxer on a range of mostly consumer-protection-type regulations. (Its interim head “declared that the agency was returning…

Secession Talk Enters Kenyan Mainstream as Poll Feud Simmers

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s protracted election dispute has spawned secession calls from opposition supporters who say their vote has no influence on how East Africa’s biggest economy is governed. The increased agitation follows the declaration of President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of October’s election rerun that the main opposition alliance boycotted, alleging it wouldn’t be a fair vote. His victory in the poll, in which turnout was just 38.8 percent and clustered in…

Mugabe Refusal to Quit Is Said to Stall Zimbabwe Transition

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s refusal to publicly resign is stalling plans by the military to swiftly install a transitional government after seizing power on Wednesday, two people familiar with the situation said. The military wants Mugabe, who’s under house arrest, to agree to step aside so it can claim its action isn’t a coup and head off tension with the Southern African Development Community, which includes Zimbabwe and South Africa,…

« 1 … 166 167 168 169 170 … 259 »