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'Rainbow City' is just one of dozens of 'edutainment' soap operas being broadcast on African television and radio stations today. Others include 'Soul City' in South Africa, 'Twende na Wakati' (Let's Go with the Times) in Tanzania, 'Nshilakamona' (I Have Not Seen It) in Zambia and 'Mopani Junction' in Zimbabwe. \"Donors have driven, to a certain extent, the direction of the entertainment industry and that has had a very negative effect. Our writers are being asked to create stories specifically to meet the needs of the donor agencies,\" says Kimani Njogu, head scriptwriter for Kenya Broadcasting Corporation's long-running Kiswahili radio drama 'Ushikwapo, Shikamana' (If Assisted, Assist Yourself) and regional representative for PCI. Andrew Whaley of 'Mopani Junction' is one writer who has enjoyed having the chance to meet with donors at the summit. \"One tends to think of donors as being 'them out there' and the enemy and that we have to do what they say. But it's not quite true,\" he says.

NAIROBI, May 21 (IPS/GIN) -- Bespectacled 73-year old Rebeka Njau may have shrunk with age: her slow, cautious steps are evidence of her body's frailty, but she still burns with more passion and vigour than most women half her age. It is 28 years since Njau released her first highly-acclaimed novel, 'Ripples in the Pool', which won the East African Writing Committee Prize. The pool in the book symbolizes the tragedy that befalls several elite urbanites - a thief, a prostitute, a hospital assistant - who return to their village hoping to change it. \"I welcome 'The Sacred Seed' because of the boldness with which Rebeka attempts to tackle sensitive issues close to my heart, like gender violence, manifested in rape,\" says Njau's childhood friend and pioneering educationalist Eddah Gachukia.

NAIROBI, May 22 (IPS/GIN) -- In an effort to hasten progress towards ending two decades of civil war in Sudan, mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo is drawing up a peace agreement to present to the two warring parties next week. The Kenyan mediator will travel to Khartoum to discuss the draft document with President Omar el Bashir and to oil-rich southern Sudan to talk with Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang. The SPLA claims the Sudanese army is an Islamic army. \"That is the army of the ruling National Islamic Front. It is no longer a national army of the Sudan. They purged it since they came to power in 1989. Most of the army corps now is composed of the mujahadeen, holy warriors, so why should we integrate into an army of one party?\" asks George Garang, the SPLA's Nairobi spokesperson.

NAIROBI, May 15 (IPS/GIN) -- Battles between ethnic militias in the eastern Congolese town of Bunia are raging as world leaders try to put together an international peacekeeping force to avert genocide. There are currently 600 UN soldiers, mainly Uruguayans, in Bunia, known as MONUC. But they are hopelessly outnumbered by some 25,000 militiamen. And their mandate limits them to doing little more than hand out food. \"The UPC that's just taken over Bunia is Rwandan-backed. They claim they are not there but they are there. Uganda has just left but they have left a lot of allies and proxies and weapons behind them,\" she points out.

NAIROBI, May 12 (IPS\\GIN) -- Relief supplies are being airlifted to flood-hit areas in western Kenya, where a major river has burst its banks, with Kenya Army helicopters and cargo planes playing a key role. The River Nyando in western Kenya burst its banks last weekend, displacing thousands of people. A woman and her one year old baby drowned as they tried to cross a river in Narok, 100 kilometers west of Nairobi, bringing the death toll nation-wide to 40. \"A warning has been issued to the district officers to prepare for a major flood, sudden flood that will hit the area because there's a dam that will release its water because it is full and so the sudden gush of water will flood Tana River,\" says [Anthony Mwangi].

The latest and most high-profile contender is Somali warlord Huseen Aideed. A former U.S. marine and son of the famous Somali warlord, the late Gen. Mohamed Aideed, Huseen Aideed says he wants to become the \"first president of the re-united republic of Somalia\". \"Once elected, I promise to lead our beloved country towards reconciliation, reconstruction and to build a Somali society based on the ideals of democracy, economic prosperity and social justice for all Somalis. I promise to build a society that respects and upholds the reality of the Somali culture and tradition,\" he said. Aideed, head of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), a powerful faction that controls much of southern Somalia, was nominally president of Somalia from 1996 to 1997. But his government only controlled a small fraction of the country.

NAIROBI, Apr. 2 (IPS) -- President Omar el Bashir of Sudan held a rare meeting with rebel leader John Garang here on Wednesday, boosting hopes of progress at peace talks, which resume on Sunday. A State House official said President Bashir and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader Garang were optimistic about bringing an end to Sudan's long-running war within the next three months. At State House, Bashir and Garang agreed on the need to open communication channels between them. They also discussed ways of enhancing communication at other levels. The atmosphere during Bashir's one-day state visit to Kenya was described as \"very friendly\".

NAIROBI, Apr. 1 (IPS) -- The word vagina is the biological term for a woman's genitalia. But try mentioning it in public in Kenya and you may find yourself on the receiving end of a stream of invective. Enter Mumbi Kaigwa, Kenya's feted actress, producer and director, with a daring dream - to stage Eve Ansler's award-winning play 'The Vagina Monologues' in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The play is frank and explicit, based on hundreds of interviews Ensler held with women about their relationships with their vaginas. Readings range from the jokey - 'What would your vagina wear? What would it say?' - to horrific testimonies of rape and abuse.

The 10-day African Youth Parliament (AYP), which ended on March 29, was held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The delegates, all aged between 16 and 28, chose to debate five major crises affecting the continent - conflict resolution, governance, HIV/AIDS, poverty and development. Bushra Razack, 16, from South Africa, says she is going to start youth workshops in rural areas, teaching young people the facts about HIV/AIDS. South Africa has the highest number of people living with the virus in the world. [Wachira] is at the forefront of a plan to set up a Kenyan youth assembly, a lobby group to represent young people's interests in Parliament. Each of Kenya's 210 constituencies will have a youth representative to voice young people's concerns to the local MP, as well as holding their own youth assembly meetings.

Tony Tate, one of the authors of the report, entitled 'Stolen Children: Abduction and Recruitment in Northern Uganda', tells the story of one 15-year-old boy he interviewed in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu. The child had recently escaped from the LRA. \"At the time he was taken by the LRA, he was in his home in the evening sleeping. He was taken out of his home. The rest of the family was ordered inside the hut and the home was then burned by the LRA. And he knows that his mother and his siblings were burnt alive inside the house,\" Tate recalls. \"We have made a strong recommendation to the United Nations to appoint a special envoy that would act as sort of a shuttle diplomacy between the Ugandan government and the LRA to try to negotiate for the release of these children,\" says Tate.