Politics and Society Archives | This is Africa

Infrastructure before enforcement: Why Kenya’s speed camera ambush breaks the social contract

Mzalendo Mutemi wa Kiama — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 14:41:23 +0000

As the National Transport and Safety Authority rolls out automated speed cameras under a rushed multibillion-shilling PPP, motorists face steep penalties despite widespread missing road signage. While framed as road safety, deploying surveillance before fulfilling statutory transparency reduces citizens to extractive data points, exposing a predatory state prioritising revenue over the social contract.

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Artificial Intelligence: Private ownership, collective risks

Globetrotter — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:15:45 +0000

As AI industry leaders fracture over existential risks and political leaders dismiss safety warnings as a hoax, unchecked tech monopolies accelerate a race toward cognitive and social destruction. Without democratic public ownership and binding international oversight, algorithmic capitalism threatens to reduce human agency to voluntary digital servitude.

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Trump’s AI ambitions demand a clearer response from Africa

Dr Blessing Vava — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:54:09 +0000

As US and Chinese superpowers weaponise artificial intelligence for global hegemony, African nations face a critical governance deficit. Without preemptive regulatory frameworks and rigorous contract scrutiny, unvetted foreign tech integration risks entrenching systemic dependence, compromising citizen data, and eroding institutional sovereignty.

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Maputo to Host 2026 All-African Movement Assembly for Activists & Human Rights Defenders

Africans Rising — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:03:27 +0000

As political instability and shrinking civic spaces intensify across the continent, global human rights defenders and grassroots organizers will converge in Maputo for the 3rd All-African Movements Assembly. The high-stakes summit seeks to challenge systemic corruption, counter digital authoritarianism, and forge a unified, borderless African future.

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The passport, the database and the State: Who controls digital Zimbabwe?

Dr Blessing Vava — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:24:51 +0000

Zimbabwe’s shift to biometric e-passports masks a critical vulnerability: digital sovereignty. With foreign firms building the state's digital identity infrastructure, convenience risks becoming a new form of dependency. This article analyses the hidden geopolitical costs of outsourced technology and ask a defining question: who truly controls the digital Zimbabwean?

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