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Police in Nigeria carry out hundreds of extra-judicial killings every year and only those who can afford to pay bribes can guarantee their safety from execution or torture, Amnesty International said last week. Nigeria ranks low on the international corruption perception index and it is notorious for its high crime rate, especially armed robbery. Police officials often claim that victims of extrajudicial executions were armed robbers killed in gunbattles with the police or when they attempted to escape custody.

A great fuss is being made over comments made by the former Speaker, Frene Ginwala, to the effect that South Africa's political leadership was weak. She also said "You see the trouble in South Africa is [that] we are so inferior. We don’t know what is happening on the continent. We don't know the leadership, we look down on everybody. We are arrogant, you see. I really don’t understand it".

Kenya is facing its worst cholera outbreak in a decade, of the 230 deaths reported, nearly half have occurred in the last one month alone; the end of the short rains could push water scarcity deep into next year. Could this disaster have been avoided?