MULTI AWARD-WINNING NICE NAILANTEI LENG’ETE

27 year old Nice Nailantei Leng’ete has made it on to the annual Time Magazine 100 “Most Influential” persons’ list for her work in trying to put a stop to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and ‘challenge social norms’ in the patriarchal Maasai community.

Nice Nalantei, herself a Maasai, ran away from at the age of eight to escape FGM, seen by many Maasai as I right of passage for girls.

In 2015 Nice received the Inspirational Woman of the Year Award from the Kenyan Ministry of Devolution and in she was awarded the Mandela Washington Fellowship of Young African Leaders. In February of this year she was selected as a Women Deliver Young Leader, only one of 300 young people worldwide to be chosen and a month later was awarded the Annemarie Madison Prize.

DAILY SHOW’S TREVOR NOAH

South Africa born Trevor Noah, now living in the United States and presenting hugely popular “The Daily Show” also made the Time’s 100 List.

Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o is to play the part of Noah’s mother in a film biopic of his life, “Born a Crime” (a title also used by Noah for a standup comedy show and his autobiography) charting his rise from “illegal” origins in apartheid South Africa and growing up as a “coloured” South African.

“THE CROCODILE”

A very different entrant to the Time’s 100 list in Zimbawe’s new president Emmerson Mnangagwa who took power earlier this year after the ousting of Robert Mugabe after 37 years of largely misrule.

Although many welcomed the departure of the ageing and dictatorial ‘Uncle Bob’, it’s yet to be seen whether the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, who was Mugabe’s security chief nicknamed “The Crocodile”, will that much better even though he has promised to abide by Zimbawe’s constitution.