The national blood deficit is most pressing in places like Turkana, where malaria, anaemia and violence make heavy demands on transfusion services – and doctors are pinning their hopes on innovation In his small cubicle in Lodwar County referral hospital in north-west Kenya, Edward Mutebi, the technician in charge of the hospital’s blood bank, greets a nurse from the maternity ward. “We want more blood,” the nurse says. “The previous allocation was not enough.” Mutebi dashes into an adjacent room and hands the nurse a pack of blood from a freezer, leaving the paperwork for later. Back at the m ..read more

Workers in Africa have been exploited first by being paid a pittance to help make chatbots, then by having their own words become AI-ese. Plus, new AI gadgets are coming for your smartphones • Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here We’re witnessing the birth of AI-ese, and it’s not what anyone could have guessed. Let’s delve deeper. If you’ve spent enough time using AI assistants, you’ll have noticed a certain quality to the responses generated. Without a concerted effort to break the systems out of their default register, the text they spit out is, whil ..read more

Despite criticism for the use of potentially harmful chemicals, companies are still selling the products around the world It was just before Christmas, and eight-year-old Gloria Moraa sat holding a mirror as her aunt painted her curls with chemicals that would straighten every strand. “All the young girls would get matching hairstyles for the holidays, and relaxers were fashionable back then,’’ says Moraa, now 28, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya. She no longer straightens her hair because she thought it was starting to thin. But over the years, Moraa used almost every relaxer on the market, with o ..read more

Amid alarming rates of the illness, many living with it are seen as cursed. Now these myths are being challenged Courage Vidzengsi had her first epileptic seizure when she was eight. Jerking uncontrollably, she bit her tongue and fell to the ground at the children’s recreation centre. As her seizures became more frequent, her family took her from their home in the city of Bamenda back to her family’s village in Cameroon’s Northwest Region. There they saw a traditional healer, known as a “Gambé man”, who would “cleanse” the young girl ..read more

I’m working to help vulnerable women in my home country of Kenya, but millions around the world face deep-rooted injustices In February, Asenath Rotich became a widow, after the death of her partner, marathon runner and world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum, in a road accident. Unlike the majority of more than 8 million widows in Kenya, Rotich’s future is being provided for. The government has built her a house and is working to secure a job for her so she can care for her two children. In contrast, consider the recent case of Silvia that was shared with me by a community radio journalist. Silvia ..read more

Deal to send hundreds of officers to Caribbean country amid spiraling gang violence is facing intense public and legal scrutiny Haiti’s raging gang insurrection has prompted growing concern in Kenya over plans to deploy hundreds of paramilitary police officers from the East African country on a UN-backed multinational mission to counter the violence. “If they come back in body bags, what will [Kenyan President William Ruto] tell the nation?” said Ekuru Aukot, leader of the opposition Thirdway Alliance, who last year filed a legal challenge against the deployment ..read more

Exclusive: new role created after Guardian uncovered allegations against company’s security guards A vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya that supplies most British supermarkets is advertising for a human rights manager to address its “human rights challenges” in the wake of allegations of killings and violence by its security guards. The job advert says the candidate will need to “develop a detailed action plan to address human rights challenges in the workplace and in surrounding communities ..read more

Exclusive: Former guards tell of clashes on farm that is facing civil claims over allegations of killing, rape and beatings Former security guards at a vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya have for the first time described violent clashes between guards and thieves at the plantation, which is facing civil claims over allegations of killing, rape and beatings by its guards. This month Del Monte announced it would outsource its security operations at the farm to G4S, sacking its 214 in-house guards ..read more

National palace guards set up security ring after gangs attack at least three police stations in Port-au-Prince Explainer: what caused Haiti’s gang violence crisis Police and palace guards worked on Saturday to retake some streets in Haiti’s capital after gangs launched massive attacks on at least three police stations. Guards from the National Palace accompanied by an armored truck tried to set up a security perimeter around one of the three downtown stations after police fought off an attack by gangs late Friday. Sporadic gunfire continued to be reported on Saturday. The unrelenting gang ..read more

Progress to prevent female genital mutilation needs to be ‘27 times faster’, says UN The number of girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) has increased by 15% in the past eight years according to new data. Figures released by the UN children’s agency, Unicef, show that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, compared with 200 million in 2016. The trend is towards girls being cut at a younger age, said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell ..read more