A veteran East African journalist talking about the devastation of coronavirus on life and livelihoods, and the recent death of Burundi president Pierre Nkurunziza, the other day said “these last 10 years have been incredible for Africa, and indeed for the world.

In East Africa, since the death of Kenya’s president Jomo Kenyatta on August 22, 1978, no EAC president has died “peacefully” in his sleep, as it were, until Nkurunziza.

Three years later, in October 2014, a so-called “Black Spring” swept out Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaoré.

We’ve seen the biggest locust invasions in 70 years in East Africa.

Between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought billed “the worst in 60 years", left a dry trail through Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya and threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people.