Africa Daily

In today's episode, Alan Kasujja sits down with Michayla Moss who is American-Israeli and Iyad Abu Kalusa, a Palestinian from Gaza.

South Africa then asked the international Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider whether Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

So what's it like to watch a war unfold in your homeland from thousands of kilometres away?

A regional bloc is a group of countries that team up to work together on common goals, like trade or security, to benefit all members. In Africa they include Ecowas, which stands for the Economic Community of West African States, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) amongst others.

But are they always as effective as they set out to be? Recently, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso quit the West African bloc - Ecowas. The military-led countries had already been suspended from the bloc, which has been urging them to return to democratic rule.

From Liberia in 1990 to the Gambia in 2017, regional groups have deployed troops to address coups, civil wars, and disputed elections. While some interventions, like the restoration of President Kabbah in Sierra Leone, were successful, others such as the intervention in the Liberian civil war, faced criticism for human rights abuses.

BBC Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke to BBC Africa’s Beverly Ochieng about the role regional blocs play in Africa and how their interventions impact citizens.

Religion is a close to the heart of many Africans – closely linked as it is to identity, culture and values.

So no-one will have been surprised at the ferocious response to the BBC Africa Eye documentary series called ‘Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua’ – in which a number of former followers recounted experiences including sexual abuse, rape and manipulation by the self-proclaimed prophet.

But do allegations of abuse of power – levelled at a number of religious leaders over the years – suggest regulation is needed? And how can the followers of different religious groups be best protected?

Today on Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja brings together two Christian theologians who’ve wrestled with this question: Bishop Zac Niringiye, who was assistant Bishop of Kampala with the Church of Uganda, and Rev Dr Kenneth Ofula, a priest in his Anglican Church of Kenya and currently Tutorial Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University.

"I was so thankful that at my age, at 18, I had discovered this. Grown men were moved to tears… it was a collective state of euphoria."

Before his death in 2021, TB Joshua, the TV evangelist and founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, was often seen alongside presidents and powerful politicians. But for the last few weeks, he has been the subject of furious debate, after the publication of a 3-part documentary series which exposed his rape, abuse and mistreatment of his ‘disciples’.

The former disciples accuse him of using both fake miracles and threats to win and then retain followers.

His church didn’t respond to the allegations in the documentary series but said previous claims against TB Joshua have been unfounded.

In the first part of a two-part series on cults, prophets and religious leaders, Alan Kasujja hears about the experiences of one of TB Joshua’s disciples – and speaks to Professor Maria Frahm-Arp from the department of religious studies at the University of Johannesburg.

He discusses why prophet-led, ‘single-man’ churches are so attractive to many people – and asks how people can spot if their church is actually a cult.

For more, listen to the World of Secrets 'Disciples' podcast from the BBC World Service. Or watch "Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua" on Youtube.

Table tennis lacks the glamour of football and the investment that athletics gets in Africa. However, it is played to a high standard in many countries, and in 2023, over 500 million people watched the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, South Africa, according to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

So do the young dedicated players of today believe that their game can raise its profile, and if so, what is needed for that to happen?

Alan Kasujja talks to two table-tennis playing students in Lagos, Ayuba Daniel Ikko-Allah and Ayomikun Oyenuga, about their hopes and dreams, and Latifat Ohiosumuan from the Africa branch of the ITTF to find out what needs to change to put table tennis on the map in Africa.

In November 2023, South Africa approached the International Court of Justice, to consider whether Israel is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

20 year old Rita Waeni was brutally murdered and dismembered. Her remains were discovered in rubbish bags at a rental apartment in the capital, Nairobi this month. The news shocked Kenya and led to uproar both online and offline with many saying that the government isn’t doing enough about violence against women.

Research by Africa Data Hub shows that from 2016 to 2023, over 500 femicide cases were uncovered in Kenya. Each representing a shattered life and a broken family. These numbers, though staggering, only scratch the surface of a much deeper problem rooted in intimate partner violence and systemic gender inequality.

Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke to politician Esther Passaris about claims that Kenya’s leaders have been quiet on this matter. He also spoke to Njeri Migwi, the founder of Usikimye, an organization working towards ending the prevalence of sexual and gender based violence. Usikimye, along with two other organisations in Kenya, have organised an anti-femicide march in multiple counties over the weekend in Kenya.

Malaria kills more than 600,000 people around the world every year. But this week, Cameroon became the first country to start a mass rollout of the world’s first ever malaria vaccine – the WHO-approved RTS,S vaccine.

It is hoped that other countries will follow, in a move projected to save thousands of children's lives across Africa.

But will vaccine hesitancy stop parents having their children vaccinated?

On today’s Africa Daily podcast, Alan Kasujja talks to Professor Rose Leke, an internationally acclaimed Malaria expert who’s studied the disease for decades.

We all have a beginning to our lives and we will all have an ending.

At the end it is the work of morticians to look after our bodies when we die and to prepare them for burial.

It is an incredibly important job, but one that most of us give no thought to.

One person who is trying to change that is Filinda Wakuthi Kamau, a mortician and funeral director in Kenya. She publishes TikTok videos, using the handle @frimahkuthi, which get up to 25 million views, to demystify her work and get us talking a bit more about death.

Alan Kasujja called her up at Egerton University Funeral Home where she works to find out why.

At the weekend, Felix Tshisekedi was sworn in as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo – starting his second term in office.