Kenyan riots flair again in Nairobi: Police fired tear gas at protesters who were calling for President William Ruto’s resignation in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday. While the new cabinet was sworn in in yesterday many protesters are still calling for the resignation of president Ruto after more than 50 people were killed in the weeks long protest action, demanding political reform and an end to corruption. The president has scrapped the new tax bill and has overhauled his cabinet to include opposition members.
Somali Returns to Democratic Elections: A Somalian Parliamentary vote, will be the final approval required to see a return of democratic election rules, that will see the reintroduction of a “one person one vote” electoral system in the country. Somalia’s cabinet approved the new bill on Thursday that, if confirmed by parliament, will revert the country’s election system to universal suffrage for the first time in 55 years. Previously the countries lawmakers had elected the president, and clan heads and elders in turn had elected lawmakers in both the federal government and regional states.
Coca-Cola “misled” Nigerian Consumers – Finding: Consumer protection authorities in Nigeria have found that the Nigerian Bottling Company and Coco Cola Nigeria Limited “intentionally applied a trade description to the Coca-Cola Less Sugar variant, that could reasonably mislead consumers as to the nature and feel of the drink.” Their report posted on X on Thursday evening, said investigations were launched in 2019 after the companies introduced a new coke drink flavour into the market “without any publicity, or prior information provided to consumers.” “This new variant was bottled in a packaging that was nearly identical to the packaging of the Coke Original,” the report stated.
Malawian President Secures Support: Malawi’s President, Lazarus Chakwera, has secured his party’s support as their nominee to run for a second term in next year’s election. Reports however indicate that his chances of retaining power may depend on the Malawi Congress Party finding a new alliance partner. They were previously in an alliance with the United Transformation Movement since 2020, who have said it would withdraw from the partnership after the death of their leader and former Vice President, Saulos Klaus Chilima, in a plane crash in June.
Olympic Highlights:
- Men’s Athletics: Botswana’s sprint star, Letsile Tebogo claimed his first Olympic gold medal, and Botswana’s first medal at Paris 24, with a blistering 200m sprint last night. Tebogo, 21, ran clear of his rivals to set a new African record of 19.46 seconds and finished ahead of American Kenneth Bednarek, who crossed the line in 19.62 and race favourite Noah Lyles who claimed bronze in 19.70 seconds.
- African Medal Count: Kenya currently leads the African Medal race with 5 Medals (1 x gold, 1 x silver and 3x bronze), followed closely by South Africa with 4 Medals (1 x gold, 1 x silver and 2x bronze) and Botswana in third position with Botswana with a single gold medal.
Market News: World markets have returned to stability after the somewhat knee-jerk that saw markets and currency in wild movements at the start of the week. Both currencies and commodities are almost back to where they started the week. Bouts of volatility can be expected from now on as the “recession watch” in the US has intensified exponentially over the past week, and should negative data continue, markets could well be in for a bumpy ride. Yesterday, we had US jobless claims which dropped by 17,000 to 233,000 for the week ending 3 August, compared to the previous week’s revised 250,000 claims, exceeding expectations of a smaller decrease to 240,000. Additionally, insured jobless claims rose by 6,000 to 1,875,000, the highest since late November 2021. This data, released by the US Labour Department, indicates a stronger labour market, which is positive for the economy and stocks but could signal potential wage growth and inflation. US treasury yields were trading slightly up on the back of this news with the 10Y yield just below 4%. The Rand traded at R18.3500 against the US dollar, and we expect the market to trade sideways today with no top-tier data being released.
