Odinga goes to court: what does he want? New work for De Volkskrant and VPRO

ODM opposition leader Raila Odinga has gone to court to challenge the result, describing it as "fraudulent", as he alleges there was a pre-planned effort to alter the outcome. Four of the seven electoral commissioners refused to gather behind the outcome of the elections, saying that the way the final results were tallied was "opaque".

What happens now? How do Kenyans feel about Odinga’s move? And what proof does the ‘opposition veteran’ and his legal team have? That’s what I’ve tried to explain to Sophie Derkzen, host of NPO Radio 1’s radio programme Bureau Buitenland - click here to listen to that conversation. For more on the Kenyan elections, you can also read my latest article written for De Volkskrant.

New work for The Guardian: how the Russian war in Ukraine is pushing up the price of emergency food

Frontline medical workers say the latest impact of the war in Ukraine is a dramatic price rise in an emergency treatment used to save the lives of starving children. A high-calorie peanut paste called Plumpy’Nut is used by medical staff across the world as the first response to save a severely malnourished child.

But rising prices, scarcity of ingredients and problems with distribution mean that the red and white bags are becoming increasingly expensive just as need is rising, with millions of children facing hunger in east Africa alone.

Read more about the paste and the challenges of producing it (even within Africa) in my latest piece for The Guardian. A Dutch, more in-depth version of the story appeared in newspaper De Volkskrant.

Interview: how Vanessa Nakate fights for 'climate justice'

Although Africa is only minimally responsible for global warming, the continent is disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, says Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate (25). As Europe is looking for oil and gas in Africa, African leaders have a major asset in hand, she says.

“They have to ask themselves: If I let the Germans drill for gas in my country, what does that mean for the people who live in my country?”

Read my interview with Nakate here in Dutch, on the website of De Volkskrant.

William Ruto is declared as Kenya's new president, but the battle may not be over

In a chaotic gathering hosted by the Kenyan electoral commission IEBC, William Ruto was declared as the fifth president of the Republic of Kenya. But just a moment before the announcement of the IEBC’s chairman, four of the seven members of the electoral commission said in a statement that they do not support the presented results. How the East African country will progress from here onwards, is yet to be seen. Read more in our latest for De Volkskrant here.

Election time in Kenya: will it be Odinga or Ruto?

Kenya has decided, we just don’t know yet who has won - will William ‘Hustler’ Ruto (pictured above during a rally in Karatina), or opposition veteran Raila ‘Baba’ Odinga be the next president of East Africa’s second largest economy? I’ve tried to answer that question in this piece for Dutch daily De Volkskrant, which also focuses on why this time around, the ethnic factor might be less important. In addition, you can listen to this radio segment with Met Het Oog Op Morgen presenter Chris Kijne, which was aired on NPO Radio 1. I also answered some questions about how Kenyans have prepared for Election Day, in this small online piece for De Volkskrant’s website.

A reportage for De Volkskrant: how Masai are evicted from their land in Northern Tanzania

In northern Tanzania, 165 thousand Maasai herders are driven from their land. After a violent crackdown by the Tanzanian police, at least 2,000 Masai are said to have fled across the border to Kenya, where they are taken in by other herders. "This is an untenable situation."

You can read the whole story in today’s edition of De Volkskrant, or click here. Alternatively, you can listen to this NPO Radio 1 interview with Simone Weimans in Met Het Oog Op Morgen.

For De Volkskrant: my profile of the best soccer player of Africa, Sadio Mané

For the second time in his carreer, Sadio Mané has been named the best African footballer of the year. In Senegal, where the soccer player is born thirty years ago, the 'silent, smiling assassin' is mainly known as a sober do-gooder.

For De Volkskrant, I wrote a profile about the shy but generous soccer player, who has transformed Bambaly - from the millions he makes, hundreds of thousands of euros went into the village he grew up in, in the south of Senegal. You can read the piece by clicking or tapping here (in Dutch).

New work voor de Volkskrant: an interview with Arie Kievit about mica mines in Madagascar

In southern Madagascar, children get mica from handmade mines, photographer Arie Kievit saw when he was there with children’s rights NGO Terre des Homes. Plate mica as a raw material is indispensable for our cars and electrical appliances. I interviewed Kievit for today’s edition of De Volkskrant.

Bureau Buitenland Uitgelicht: how Eliud Kipchoge is setting up a bicycle training camp

The Greatest Of All Time (🐐), also known as Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge, is setting up a new sports camp as part of his own training camp in the northern village of Kaptagat, near Eldoret. With radio host Sophie Derkzen in NPO Radio 1 programme Bureau Buitenland, I talked about what this ‘INEOS Eliud Kipchoge Cycling Academy’ can mean for the cycling scene in Kenya.

Click this link to listen to the radio segment.

Column for De Volkskrant: are the Dutch the 'Maasai of Europe'?

In the Netherlands we have far more cows than we need, I tell the Maasai elder. He nods approvingly.

The Netherlands feels far away, here in a house made of cow dung and sticks in southern Kenya. It is hot and stuffy in the manyatta, where I sit on a small wooden stool between eight playing children. My eyes sting from the smoke that comes from a small fire, above the flames a blackened pan with heated goat's milk boils over.

Even the contrast with the capital of Kenya, which is a few hundred kilometers to the north, is large. In Nairobi, the metropolis where I have now lived for about four and a half years, I have superfast internet everywhere, my girlfriend and I order sushi through Uber Eats and our baby crawls around in Pampers – no, over there, the difference with life in The Netherlands is quite small.

Yet today the men and women who are seminomadic Maasai pastoralists from southern Kenya, want to talk about the similarities. Like the Karamojong, Fulani, Samburu or other herders and hunter-gatherers I've met in recent years, they mainly focus on what connects us.

'Do you also have cows in the Netherlands?' is the first question I get when I ask after the newspaper interview whether they also have any questions for me. Yes, I answer, much more than we even need. Ole Ndaika, the elder I am interviewing, nods approvingly.

I know why the old man likes to hear this: for the herders who roam here in southern Kenya with their cattle, cows are the greatest asset – just like for farmers in the Netherlands. The more cows you have, the richer you are. Ole Ndaika may only wear a checkered shuka cloth over his underwear, but with his hundreds of cows he is also a multimillionaire (in Kenyan shillings, yes, but still).

Then my translator tries to explain what I say next about the ongoing nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands. The elder looks at me in surprise: isn't cow manure good for the environment? I decide to take a different approach and say that there is actually too little land in the Netherlands for farmers and their livestock.

'Mmm', Ole Ndaika agrees again. ‘Just like here.’ And so we come back to talking about why I'm here in his house in the first place: just like in many other places in Africa, the way of life of the nomadic shepherd is under pressure – I'm writing a story about that.

On my way to this Masai settlement I could clearly see the cause of the problems: along the road large tracts of land have been fenced off. The land that remains for the itinerant herders is also shrinking due to climate change, or they have to make way because the government wants to turn the grazing area into a wildlife park.

Ole Ndaika, despite the challenges, is cheerful. After all, he still has a lot of cows, his walking savings account is filled plenty. The longer we talk, the more excited he gets. Are the elderly in the Netherlands addressed differently than young people? In addition to cows, the Dutch also keep goats?! The distance between the Netherlands and the Kenya of Ole Ndaika is getting smaller and smaller – we actually are a lot alike.

When I say that I should probably hit the road, the man smiles and gives me a firm handshake and a slap on my shoulder. 'We are all family', Ole Ndaika concludes with a laugh. 'Now I get it. The Dutch are the Maasai of Europe.'

Read the original column (in Dutch) on the website of de Volkskrant.

New work for de Volkskrant: how Nairobi's bicycle riders are fighting for their rights

In the hilly Kenyan capital of Nairobi, a growing number of cyclists are hitting the streets. In monthly bicycle demonstrations, they are demanding more rights and safety. Cyclists hope that the introduction of e-bikes could gain momentum for cycling.

To read my first Volkskrant reportage, click here.

I'll be the new Africa Correspondent of de Volkskrant

Some personal news: from today onwards, I’ll be the new Africa Correspondent of Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant! From Nairobi, Kenya, I’ll be covering stories in West, East and Southern Africa. Next to my work for the newspaper, I will still be available as a freelance photographer. For anything Volkskrant-related, drop me a message at joost.bastmeijer@volkskrant.nl!

New work for The Telegraph: Nairobi celebrates Queen's platinum jubilee

Prinicipal beacons commemorating Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee have lit up the night sky yesterday, as ceremonies took place right across the Commonwealth. For The Telegraph, I attended such a ceremony in Kenya, the country where she acceded to the throne, after King George VI had passed away in 1952.