Did Africa lose an opportunity or it escaped being raped by Europe again?
When Europe announced its grand plans of using the Saharan heat to generate electricity to feed into its grid, it seemed like a blessing to North Africa as it seemed almost obvious that a lot of people would get jobs and economies would develop. This is the abstract idea one might have entertained but the reality proved to be a little different with the project facing a lot of criticism for its focus on benefitting Europe at the expense of the African economies hosting the infrastructure. It suddenly reeked of imperialist connotations. The language used in the Desertec documents themselves took the Sahara to be an expansive area of nothingness waiting for Europe to exploit. Is this not the same approach the Europeans used as they came in to seize land in Africa? It is on the face of this hard-hitting truth of the capitalist motives behind Desertec that Mansour Cherni, a Tunisian trade unionist said, “Where will the energy produced here be used? Where will the water come from that will cool the solar power plants? And what do locals get from it at all?”

Source

Five police officers and a civilian have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a foreigner of Asian origin.

The five officers, two attached to Kiambu Quick Response Team, two regular police officers from the Kenya Railways police headquarters, Nairobi, and one AP from Kaloleni were nabbed at Muthaiga police station while allegedly detaining the victim.

Also arrested is the civilian, who is alleged to be the driver of the Probox taxi cab, that was used to ferry the victim to the station. Three immigration officials, whose identities are yet to be ascertained, are said to have fled when the police arrived.

Senior AP officers from Central and Nairobi regions held a six-hour closed-door meeting at the Thika CID offices on Saturday to discuss the issue. Thika deputy criminal investigations officer Raphael Wawire said the meeting was to assess the progress of investigations and establish why the officers operated outside their areas of command.

“Investigations to unravel the truth behind this case is in top gear. They will be charged once we concludinvestigations,” he said. Wawire said on Friday, police trailed the five policemen after receiving reports from an investor – a quarry owner – that one of his employees had been arrested by people, who claimed to be police officers.

“The investor rushed to notify Makongeni police officers, who immediately trailed the five to Muthaiga police station, where they entered after realising they were being pursued,” he said.

Source