Focus on Africa
Kenya: ‘excessive force’ used during protests
Kenyan police are alleged to have used unlawful force during protests in June.
How African countries benefit from having satellites in space
And Ethiopia finally launches a stock market.
Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Frenny Jowi and Charles Gitonga in Nairobi. Bella Hassan and Nyasha Michelle in London. Technical producer : Nick Randell Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga. Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
- Broadcast on:
- 26 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Hello and welcome to this podcast from the BBC World Service. Please let us know what you think and tell other people about us on social media. Podcasts from the BBC World Service are supported by advertising. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those honours to your contracts, they said what the f*ck are you talking about? You insane Hollywood f*ck. So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month slows. Full turns at mintmobile.com. Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos, hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love, any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop game day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three gross reorders. Offer valid for limited time, other fees in terms apply. Hello, I'm Audrey Brown and today in Focus on Africa, we are talking about African countries taking up space, in space. Satellites are going up and money is flowing into government and business coffers. But what are they there for? The government and, you know, whichever positions are in charge of these programs, they generate a lot of revenue. For example, in Egypt, they operate the NYASAT series of satellite. They make over $120 million a dollar revenue. So this is a commercial venture, it's business and a lot of the countries are making good revenue from that that is contributing to economic development of their respective countries. And why if Ethiopia is launching a stock market? It's Thursday, the 26th of September. First, we go to Nairobi. Young people in Kenya have been pushing hard for change. They came out in their numbers in June to show their anger at a finance bill that raised the tax burden. Those protests quickly spread to a demand that President Trudeau, a man they thought understood their struggles, resign. The behavior of the police was particularly problematic. An Amnesty International report details the deaths of six protesters and hundreds of injuries caused by police action. The investigation, backed by witness accounts and video analysis, also alleges torture and abductions. And not for the first time in Kenya. Statistics show that one in three Kenyans say they've experienced police abuse or harassment. More than 500 people have been killed by police between 2019 and 2021. These two people have been sharing their experiences of police behavior in Kenya. They have feelings during the protests released from a ties meeting today. Someone was shot running beside me at the back. And the gun that really, really, really got me to a point that I was arrested for rape was one of my friend was hit by a tear gas gunista at a clothes shot. I stood up for her because she was left breathless. And I just had to do something. I had to control those police. I was driving a car that had an issue with the tire. The case that I had was that the police would obviously threaten that you need to go and play a fine. And in Kenya, there's a bit of, if the police were to arrest you and take you in, they would make the process to be very, very tedious. They make it very, very difficult for you to the point where you wish you had actually paid the bribe. Young people worldwide are subject to police abuse. Around 33% say they've been targeted by police. Civil society groups in Kenya have made plain that they will not put up with it anymore. So they try to take a petition to the president on Tuesday, highlighting continued complaints of people being abducted and tortured by a shadowy force that operates seemingly beyond the confines of the law. Neremawako is a director for the civil society group Siyasa Place. We've been talking to her about her concerns regarding police behavior towards people like her, especially when it comes to legitimate political protest. Well, taking part in the protest initially in June, it was something that was organic. There was a lot of support from the public. This was one of the ones where there were a lot more people involved who are not generally within the civil society sector or within a union or workers for a specific sector. These were Kenyan citizens who are concerned about their country. So that brought a lot of people together, especially around rejecting their finance bill. What we began to see was how the protests now began to be infiltrated by goons. In the beginning, there were a lot more women. And then as the days went by, you would see a lot more men coming to the front, young men and some of them were hired to instigate violence. It became really unsafe. And even the amount of tear gas at one point, one of the final protests, it was just very, very difficult to get to downtown. They had closed off the main roads, even refusing cars to pass through the CBD. And you couldn't even walk in groups of more than three people. In fact, if they saw two people gathered, they would spray tear gas at you. And so the air was just filled with tear gas. You are wearing a mask constantly. And you could see that there was a lot of intimidation as compared to before, where there wasn't intimidation, there was more standoffish stance, especially from the police. Right. So we could see a lot more force being utilized. So those protests, you say they were organic, they were organized through social media. Can you tell us what are the legal procedures for holding a protest that requires you to interact with the police? How do you go about getting a permit? Should you want one for a protest? First of all, in our constitution under Article 37, we don't need permission from the police. You just write a letter to the police, notifying them that you're planning to protest. And for them is to give you security as you protest because demonstrations are our rights. So there's no permission that is required. But we began to see pushback in terms of, at some point, the police said, you're not allowed to. Then, of course, we're like, but you can't be giving us permission. And then it became like a warning. Like if you do, make sure that you're secure. You know, take care of your own security, almost threatening that things are not going to be stable. So can I ask you this very quickly? Okay. So getting a permit as in telling the police that you're going to do a protest, and is that the same as asking for permission? Or is it notifying them that this is what you want? It's notifying them that you're planning to do a protest and their job is to provide security for you. But can they say it's not safe to hold a protest because of this and this and this reason? They can't say that, but their job is to make sure that it is safe to hold a protest, not to wait for the violence to occur. What is the biggest concern that you have about the police service? Right now, we have over 60 people that have died. We have some that are missing. Even today, as I speak to you, I've lost my voice because we were submitting a letter with a list of those who have died because of their families needing to be compensated. There is no police accountability. And we're still seeing abductions happening every other day, where we have masked officers who are picking up people in unmarked cars and taking them to God knows where. So there are stories of those who have returned. They've been afraid to share what happened, but there are stories of torture chambers. And we were submitting this list asking our government and the police for accountability. There are already some images of police officers shooting young people when the protests began in June. There's a murderer. Let me say this, the murderer is a murderer. This is a murderer. He must go! He must go! This is a murderer. Who are you? He must go! And when we had gone to those offices, this group of police, rogue police, actually showed up. And they had tried to abduct Pontifex Manki. There were other women who basically made sure that he wasn't arrested, that they surrounded him, and he wasn't abducted that day. So your voice has been affected by the protests from June already? No, no, no. This happened the day before yesterday. I was screaming because they had handcuffed him, and they were trying to pull him away into an unmarked vehicle. The canyon police over the years have been implementing many changes, including changing the name of their police force to a police service. They changed their uniform, they created a police service commission. From what you're saying, those seem to be cosmetic changes. What would you say? If I said that it seems like those changes haven't changed much in the way that the canyon police treat civilians. The police is still a force, and a lot of the changes have been cosmetic, but it's a concern to us that there's another entity that is roaming the streets of Nairobi in our country, abducting citizens and masked. And we know they belong to the police. Let's talk about the police themselves and how they are treated and trained. They're not very well paid, they're poorly trained, they lack of housing, and this can affect their motivation for service. So is there some sympathy for the police in Kenya? It's not something that's consistent, because sometimes, because of how we see them behave, you know, the public sometimes sympathizes with them, but then there's more occurrences of them being what they're wrong and the public not standing with them. But have police been held accountable for these actions? Most recently, not that I know of, and that's what we are pushing for, for them to be held accountable. Do you think that the government currently, President Ruto specifically, has the will to actually reform the police, because at the beginning of the protest, he did say that he was going to hold the police to account for their behavior? He did say that, and even at their appointment of the new inspector general, he talked about them following the rule of law and how important it is for them to do that. But what our president says and what he does. We have learnt that there are two different things in totality. Nereemawako is the director of the civil society group Sia Saplace. The Kenyan authorities are yet to respond to the Amnesty International statement. The space industry in Africa is growing rapidly. Several countries are putting satellites up there, the most recent of them being Senegal. Dakar launched its first satellite in August. The nano satellite, Gendesat 1A, was developed in collaboration with the University Space Center of Montpeier in France. They started working on it a couple of years ago, so it's significant for Africa at large is not so much because this is the 60th satellite the African countries were put in space. So this is not a new occurrence to the continent, but it's very significant for Senegal as a new space-faring country. That's Temidao Onyosong, managing director at Space in Africa. He told me that the satellite aims to enhance environmental management, improve weather forecasting and ensure aviation safety. The AU passed the African Space Agency Act in 2017 with the objective of coordinating and promoting space activities across the continent. More than 20 other African nations have established space programs. Things like South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Morocco and Ethiopia. Currently, Africa has around 60 satellites in orbit and according to a 2021 report by the World Economic Forum, data from Earth observation could unlock more than $2 billion in value for the continent. We will discuss Africa's space industry and how it can generate even more revenue, but first, let's return to Senegal. Here's Temidao explaining why Senegal's satellite launch is so important. I think for the government institution that set up the program, their goal is to first of all make Senegal a space-faring country, which they achieved with the launch of a satellite. But much more important, the goal is to use the satellite project to build capacity, train local engineers and things like that, and I think that they achieved that with the project. It's a relatively small satellite, so there isn't a lot of value in the data that would be gotten from the satellite itself, but I think the significance is in the sense that they were able to put the Senegalese flag in space. So what is the satellite meant to do? It's an optical satellite that has a camera on board and it's supposed to take images of the herd, different locations, and send it to the ground station in Dakar, but in terms of actual application of the satellite data, usually data of such kind can be used in precision agriculture or even climate monitoring disaster management, or general lunges that cover studies. OK, I'm going to sound a little bit like Aladdin here and sort of resistant to progress and change and so on. I'm wondering, what is the value of having a satellite in space and planting your flag in space? I think it's a matter of prestige for some country, just being able to do what, you know, other superpowers, doing other superpowers and launching the satellite. But more importantly, I think this is tied to like the long term plan for many countries. This is not particular about Senegal, but like for a lot of African countries, they've got a long term plan to build local capacity in satellite technology development and be able to leverage on satellite and space technologies to address a lot of their socioeconomic problems and sustainable development. But you don't get to that stage, you know, in one or two years, it could take a decade or more. Now since 2022, or as of 2022, there were more than 20 African countries with established space programs, South Africa's leading with 11 satellite launches, Egypt 10, Algeria 6, Nigeria 6, Morocco 3 and Ethiopia 2. Since these countries have launched these satellites, and I know that you take a broad view of this, what benefit have those satellites been to their populations? Let me break it into two. So most of the satellite you're talking about, you can classify them either into communication satellite or air observation satellite. The communication satellites have actually helped to improve connectivity in Africa and help with the digital divide. I can use Angola as an example, I'm going to launch Angusatu thing about two years ago, and the satellite is providing connectivity to rural areas. Also communication satellite like these that are owned by Angola, Egypt and Nigeria, they provide satellite TV broadband services. Basically, they are commercial tools and the government and whichever institutions are in charge of these programs, they generate a lot of revenue from you. Nilesats, for example, in Egypt, they operate the Nilesats series of satellites, they make over $120 million in honor revenue selling satellite services, fixed satellite services, mobile satellite services, broadcast satellite services and all of that. So this is a commercial venture, it's business and a lot of the countries are making good revenue from that that is contributing to economic development of their respective countries. The second level of satellite, the air observation satellite, these are a wide range of application and this varies from country to another. Countries like Morocco, for example, Barokos air observation satellites is a very powerful satellite, so that has a lot of application in security, in surveillance, in border monitoring, in resource management and monitoring. The data I use for specific applications to improve industries like agriculture, urban planning and development, forest management, even disaster monitoring and all of that. So there's a wide range of applications for each of these satellites. So I think over the last 20 years with a lot of the countries that have built and launched satellite and especially the big players that have invested every in satellite technology development, they've gotten a lot of benefit from it. This is totally different for countries that are building the CubeSat, especially like the new entrance, like Zimbabwe or like Kenya or like Rwanda, than countries with like very small satellite, those small satellites are mostly for capacity development. And this is also one of the benefits for these countries because for many of them, they end back on this project for technology transfer, for capacity development, to be able to sort of like localize this sort of skill set in their countries. And this is working for a lot of them, you know, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, these are some of the countries that now have local capabilities to actually build their satellites in their territory. Now, African countries have always been interested in space exploration. I'm thinking about the Democratic Republic of Congo or Zaire as then was. They had a project, Zambia, other countries, South Africa with Mark Chateleworth, you know, going into near space, and the other people involved in the American Space Agency, Cameroonians, Ghanaians and so on. So that's always been there. Is there an Africa wide project sort of run by the African Union or something? Are African countries doing this together or is it sort of driven by the interests of a government and the private sector, perhaps in a particular country rather than an Africa wide communal project? So modern 20 countries today in Africa have their national space program. But now we've also got a continental space program called the African Space Agency. This was initiated by the African Union Commission and the agency is now even operational in Egypt. So the aim of the African Space Agency is to bring all of these countries together to conceptualize and implement project on a continental level and also to facilitate international collaborations with partners. Let's talk about some of the challenges. Money is a big thing, I'm sure. What else? Money is a challenge, but there is also a lot of policy challenge with respect to Africa's space program. So while globally, for example, you see a lot of countries, a lot of governments taking the step back in the, when it comes to technology development or program implementation where things are now being outsourced to the private sector in order to grow the industry, this is not yet the case in Africa. In Africa, we still have a lot of government agencies trying to take the driver's seat, trying to develop the technology and all of that. And that is affecting the growth of the private sector in Africa. The other challenge is in, I would say, in the area of capacity building. For example, you know, we talked about Senegal, when countries conceptualize satellite technology development project, then it had the same student abroad for training, or they even collaborate with some foreign companies to develop this technology in order to transfer capacity. What we realize is that they refuse to actually invest in local infrastructure that would help complement the whole technology transfer and capacity development process. So what you see is that when Senegal sent engineers to France, for example, to build guy in the sets one, when those engineers come back to that car, when they come back to Senegal, there is no laboratory for them to replicate what they find. So over the years, that knowledge, that training almost end up being a waste. And the next time Senegal is trying to conceptualize another satellite project, they have to repeat the subject. Well, for my 16-year-old niece that listens, what would you say to her are the benefits of being in the space industry? Yeah. I think it's an interesting industry that, especially in the next decade, more opportunities would even open up with more countries trying to develop space programs with the African space agency becoming operational and the establishment of a lot of private companies. Of course, their specific skillset that I demand, what I think engineering most especially, could be mechanical, it could be electronics, even be computer engineering. There's a lot of technical side of the industry, there's a lot of engineering elements. There's also a lot of science elements that meet from what it's physics, or atmospheric physics, geography. So for a 16-year-old, I'm assuming it's probably trying to decide on what to study in the university. I think these are some really good, good courses to look at. Excellent. Thank you so much. Really interesting talking to you. Absolutely. My pleasure. Tammy Dayo, on your song, Managing Director of Space in Africa. Space is focused in Africa from the BBC World Service. Hey there. Looking to level up your shopping experience? Let me introduce you to Amazon Live. If you haven't heard, it's a shoppable video experience where influencers and creators showcase the latest must-haves all while you shop in real time. And for those who love some celeb gossip, reality stars like Kyle Richards, Lala Kent, and friend of the pod, Paige Disorbo. On her new show, in bed with Paige Disorbo, Paige invites top-tier guests to cozy up in her fluffy bed where they spill secrets, share nighttime routines, and even whip up midnight snacks. Stream and shop new episodes of her series, in bed with Paige Disorbo, every Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET by going to Amazon.com/live/page_disorbo. However, you can watch Amazon Live's new live TV channel on freebie or prime video under the DIY section and shop along on your phone. Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos, hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love, any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop game day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three gross re-orders. Offer valid for a limited time, other fees in terms apply. Theopia's economy was long a close shop for the rest of the world. After the deposing of the Emperor Haile Selassie in the 1970s, instability and a Marxist regime as well as conflict kept the country cloistered, but that changed as Ethiopia became one of the economic powerhouses of the 2000s. Thoughts and government action turned to setting up a stock exchange where brokers and traders buy and sell company shares and other forms of paper wealth. Ethiopia is expected to launch the exchange in the coming months. But let's explore why the country did not have an exchange in the first place. Other countries in the neighborhood, Kenya and Somalia in particular have stock exchanges. So why not Ethiopia? Hanateh Hekuk is the perfect person to invite onto the program to answer that question because she is the director general of the Ethiopian capital market authority. In other words, it's her job to educate people about stock markets and then set one up in Ethiopia. For people who don't know what a stock market is and what a stock market does, and I think I'm going to call myself among those people, what would you say it is? I would opt with a very basic definition of stock market or capital market. You know, capital market is financial market where people end in institutions. We call them investors, buy and sell long-term investments which can be stocks, shares, bonds. On one side, we have investors who have some kind of money, resources, and we have on the other hand, issuers who need some form of money, capital to start a business or to expand this business. So it's a transaction between these two parties. So this is a market which helps businesses raise money to grow and of course are low investors to earn returns on their investments. So it's literally like the physical market you can go to and the stock can be livestock because it derives from our agricultural parts, right in that sense because the language is the same. Yeah, that's true. You know, maybe we have also intermediaries in the Norman market but intermediaries in the capital market and the stock market are, I'd say, highly regulated, for example, progress and dealers. We have licensing and regulatory regime in every restrictions you go, how they operate, highest form of integrity is required in terms of avoiding conflict of interest and those kinds of things. How come Ethiopia, with the fifth largest economy in Africa, didn't have a stock market up to now? It's a good question a lot of people ask. There was an effort to establish a stock market here in Ethiopia. In the mid-1960s, but before it was formalized and before the kickoff of the formal stock exchange in Ethiopia, what happened was there was a change in regime. So Ethiopia's lack of stock exchange can be traced back to its historical and political context. The nationalization of private properties in the 1970s, the whole process of establishing a stock market was discouraged. So even after the fall of that regime in 1990s, it was very difficult to have a stock exchange because we have had a lot of obstacles. Even if the transition has done a lot of significant structural, the glattery and institutional change, the lack of financial infrastructure, you know, limited financial literacy amongst our population and even our financial sectors and of course, concerns about market stability contributed to the delay. Not having a stock or capital market is not unique to Ethiopia. There are countries in Africa that don't have it and other countries that are as well. So what determines whether a country wants or needs a stock exchange or not? It's a very interesting question. To be honest, one thing I like about the capital market is that you can't prescribe it to a country to do this or that. One thing is the country has to do, it's on assessment if they need a capital market or not and, you know, the history of capital market in different restrictions. You can see that they used it in a way that they needed, you know, also a jurisdiction can also decide to have certain products and services that are suitable to the economy. I can give you some examples in different restrictions. For example, if you take maybe China, they use this entire capital market and stock market ecosystem starting from STMEs, which are small, medium enterprises in technology, innovation, manufacturing, from using private equity, private funds and use that as a springboard to shoot them to a listing exchange. And then contribute to a larger strategic policy point of technology innovation in the country. For example, if you take Kenya, I can say we can take REITs, it's like real estate related capital market products and they use them to finance their housing problems. You know, some countries prefer sharia-compliant products if, depending on the percentage of their population, if they have a large number of Muslim population, they can use those products. You know, maybe you can take the U.S., the U.S. used, you know, this capital market products to covering government expenditures. So I think countries can decide to go that route or not, or they can choose what, you know, what products and services they choose in the capital market ecosystem. So how will the Ethiopian economy benefit from this? The first benefit would be businesses will have an access to capital, including SMEs, as I have told you earlier, which will give them more options to secure and long-term funding. It's vis-a-vis the traditional bank loans. As you know, as most people can understand, the bank loan has its own, you know, procedures, rules, including collateral, and everything, but this gives you an alternative to capital growth. Apart from that, if you are listening on an exchange, the exchange might require you to adhere to a very stringent governance, you know, financial reporting, auditing standards. This will ultimately improve transparency and accountability. It will foster, you know, investor confidence in the long run. The other one would be, you know, foreign investors are really interested to invest in Ethiopia, and this will give them a room and give them a new opportunity to invest. So explain to us the benefits to ordinary Ethiopians. Most of them don't have access to formal financial services or the education for that matter. So how can they be a part of this? Usually when we talk about financial inclusion, it's often understood in relation to banking services, right, you know, having access to saving accounts, and, you know, maybe if you can and fulfill the requirements of the banking sector to have a loan. But I feel like it's only half of the story. The capital market can provide ordinary citizens with more investment opportunities. They'll enable them to invest in company shares, which means they'll have ownership of these companies. They'll benefit from dividend making votes and, you know, how they want these companies to operate. So this would enhance, you know, just the concept of financial inclusion and in the broader sense. So what does this mean for Ethiopia's ability to access funding? The country is heavily indebted. It's just come out of a devastating war, it will integrate, there are lots of parts of the country that are unsettled. Will it make it easier to raise capital for both government and for private businesses if you have a stock market? Yes, it will benefit the government, the general public and the businesses in Ethiopia. You know, it can diversify funding sources for the government, you know, the government can issue government bonds, which will attract, of course, both domestic and international investors. Ultimately, it reduces our reliance on external debt. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Thank you so much, Audrey. Hannah Telkru, the director general of the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority. Focus on Africa was put together by Frannie Joey and Charles Kitonga in Nairobi. Bella Hassan and Yasha Michelle were on the job here in London. Nick Rundell was our technical producer. The senior journalist in charge was Paul Batchbinga. I'm Ray Lombard and Alice Medengi are our editors. I'm Audrey Brown. Thanks for listening. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points so you can get big flavors and big savings. King supers fresh for everyone. No restrictions apply. From finding that initial spark of entrepreneurship to organizing payments and invoices, we've got you covered. So follow and listen to mind the business small business success stories on the iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. [BLANK_AUDIO]