By Neelam Rahim

Raila Odinga challenges the Kenyan election results. In the discussion on this week’s Africa Report, Thandi Smith told Radio Islam International it is an interesting development as it brings up questions of democratic processes around African elections.

According to Thandi, the challenge was lodged at the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon. She said it speaks to the fact that functional democratic processes are happening on the continent, which is a positive thing.

Regardless of the outcome, the fact that elections can be challenged and that there are due processes for this challenge.

Thandi said media could go a little bit deeper into unpacking what the processes are, how these democratic processes can be challenged and why they can be challenged.

Meanwhile, the Angola elections are happening simultaneously as the Kenyan election challenges are taking place.

There is a very close margin of results in the Angolan elections. This speaks to the functioning of an electoral system. Thandi said media still have a role to play in unpacking deeper into some of the issues around democratic systems on the African Continent.

Lassa fever in Nigeria, the Ondo State records 171 deaths caused by the fever versus 85 from Covid-19.

According to Thandi, there seems to have been some reporting on the outbreak of Lassa fever over the last few months. This speaks to health reporting on the continent, which we don’t often get a sense of unless there is an emergency or health crisis and in this case, it is also comparing dealing with the outbreak of Lassa fever to that of Covid-19.

She says that the media plays a role when discussing these outbreaks and how countries manage endemics.

Much more can be done in health journalism reporting on these crises on the continent.

The leader of the WHO speaks out against an unbelievable humanitarian crisis being faced in the Northern regions of Ethiopia. This is not something new Thandi said the point here is that the world’s attention was focused entirely on humanitarian aid and assisting those in Ukraine when the war broke out between Ukraine and Russia.

Although we don’t seem to get the same attention to the humanitarian crisis on the African continent, she added that the questions he raises include it is a race issue.

“Are the white bodies in Europe valued higher than the black bodies on the African Continent?”

Thandi tells Radio Islam that the image of white bodies and the rush to aid is far more significant in the European countries than on the African continent.

Listen to the Africa report on Radio Islam’s podcast below.