Politics and Society Archives | This is Africa

Zambia at a crossroads: Preserving democracy beyond the ballot

Dr Blessing Vava — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:10:34 +0000

Zambia’s peaceful polling day has given way to a far more precarious test: a nationwide suspension of vote counting, competing victory claims and allegations of electoral interference. The emerging crisis exposes the danger of an information vacuum—and whether Zambia’s institutions can prevent electoral uncertainty from becoming political confrontation.

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Education is neither a commercial venture nor a credit facility but a basic need and a public good

Mzalendo Mutemi wa Kiama — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:55:19 +0000

Restoring Utu to Higher Education: A Sovereign Endowment Blueprint to Abolish Kenya’s Student Debt Trap.

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The third global wave of autocratization One playbook, two instruments: Legal façades and structural decay in the world, with Indonesia and Kenya as case studies

Mzalendo Mutemi wa Kiama — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:09:20 +0000

The modern autocrat doesn't need a military coup; they just rewrite the law. From Kenya to Indonesia, leaders are legally dismantling democracies by centralizing wealth, weaponizing security, and absorbing political opposition.

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The great ledger correction: Why cancelling the debt of the Global South is restitution, not forgiveness

Mzalendo Mutemi wa Kiama — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 20:33:40 +0000

Global finance treats sovereign debt as a moral absolute, but a landmark Kenyan lawsuit is challenging this consensus. Rooted in Utu—prioritizing human survival over balance sheets—this legal battle exposes the "inverted ledger" of systemic extraction, threatening to structurally upend the international debt machine.

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Zambia’s opposition did not lose this election on the campaign trail. It lost it at the nomination desk

Op-ed — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:42:46 +0000

“The result on Thursday is not really in doubt. What should trouble the likely winner is how little of it was earned in the last three months - and what that says about the state of Zambian politics”.

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