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“Without the public outcry, the mass marriage would have gone on as planned.”
There’s been a lot of debate, claim and counter-claim in Nigeria this week over a proposed mass wedding of 100 couples in Niger state in the north of the country.
Concerns were raised that some of the girls involved were under the legal age for marriage, and a petition was quickly launched. The Women's Affairs Minister, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye filed a court injunction to stop the ceremony. She’s since said that the wedding can go ahead but only after an investigation has taken place – and has offered the girls scholarships as well as gifts including sewing machines and rice. She said the girls would be closely monitored in their new homes after their marriages.

Child marriages are common in the predominantly Muslim north, where poverty is higher than in the largely Christian south.
Alan Kasujja unpicks the controversy – and asks what it tells us about the marriage of young people in Nigeria.
Presenter: Alan Kasujja.
Guests: BBC reporter, Azeezat Olaoluwa and gender and child advocate, Ayotomiwa Ayodele.
Updated 24th May to reflect Minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye’s latest statement.

Kenyan President William Ruto is on a state visit to the US, the first by an African leader since Ghana’s John Kufour in 2008 and only the 6th state visit Biden has hosted since taking office in 2020
A state visit is the highest level of international visit, and its purpose is to confirm the good relationship between the countries concerned.
For President Ruto it's a significant display of his emergence as leading voice for Africa - particularly in the eyes of the West.
But some observers say that Washington is now playing catch up to Russia and China - which have both grown in influence on the continent in recent years - as well as newer entrants like Turkey, India, and Saudi Arabia.
In this episode of Africa Daily podcast, Alan Kasujja talks to Ambassador Martin Kimani, an international affairs expert and former Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations.

It’s expected to be a bruising election, with 70 political parties contesting for power.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress, and the official opposition, Democratic Alliance, are seen as the frontrunners.

Former president Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP), are expected to give the ANC a run for their money, particularly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

But on Monday, South Africa's Constitutional Court barred Mr. Zuma from running for parliament, ruling that his 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court disqualified him.

Mr Zuma was convicted in 2021 for refusing to testify at an inquiry investigating corruption during his presidency which ended in 2018.

But he remains the face of the MKP and will continue to campaign.

Presenter: Mpho Lakaje
Guests: Dr. Bandile Masuku, Solly Malatsi and Adv. Dwight Snyman

During the recent floods in East Africa it became quickly apparent just how ill-prepared most cities across the region are in the face of heavy rains.
Some of the continent's major cities are located on the coast, and therefore at risk of flooding due to rising sea levels. And meanwhile, a quarter of African cities are exposed to a high risk of drought.
The continent is home to 86 of the world’s 100 fastest growing cities, with 7 billion people expected to be living in urban areas by 2030.
In this episode of Africa Daily podcast, Alan Kasujja talks to Benin’s former minister for Environment and Urban Planning, Luc Gnacadja, who's currently a consultant with the World Bank, about the capacity of African cities to withstand worsening and more frequent extreme weather events.

During Liberia’s two civil wars, it became normal for children to be abducted by armed groups, often drugged, and forced to fight. 250,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict which continued between 1989-2003.
In 2006, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission - known as ‘TRC’ - to identity individuals linked to war crimes, but as of yet, no-one has been prosecuted.

So after President Joseph Boakai recently signed an agreement to establish a war crimes court, people started asking whether the victims of war could finally get justice.

For Africa Daily Alan Kasujja speaks to Adama Dempster, a human rights advocate who’s campaigned for the court to be set up, and the BBC’s reporter in Monrovia, Moses Garzeawu.

Male circumcision is deeply rooted in tradition and culture across many African communities but there’s a lot of controversy around the method that is used to remove the foreskin.
Some initiatives that promote voluntary medical male circumcision for the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections have been successful, in Zambia in particular.
But the question remains, is this something that should be done on baby boys or in early adolescence, or is it something that should be left as a personal choice you make in adulthood?
Presenter: Alan Kasujja.
Guests: Anthony Natif and Michael Aboneka.