Voting on a new Kenyan constitution has wrapped up without a repeat of the terrible violence of two years ago. Now comes the real challenge: pulling the rug out from under old entrenched interests and implementing a new political order.

The al-Shabab attack on World Cup revelers in Uganda three weeks ago has served as a wake-up call for African Union leaders.

This weekend’s double bombing in Kampala bears all the hallmarks of an al-Shabab attack. It seems that Somalia’s homegrown strain of the Taliban has struck outside its own borders for the very first time.

In the wake of last week’s highly symbolic though hollowed-out election in Sudan, the question on everyone’s mind is no longer whether or not the south will secede in 2011, but how bloody their secession will be.

Two major developments occurred in Somalia last week: a merger between the Ras Kamboni Brigade and al-Shabab, and al-Shabab’s long-suspected but hitherto unmade declaration of open alliance with Al Qaeda. Both do not bode well for the survival of the beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu.

After decades of anarchy and disintegration, Somalia may once again soon be united, albeit under the banner of a terrorist government.