By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Press Conference On Monday 29th July 2019, Gambian youth movement Team Gom Sa Bopa which translates into believe in yourself held a press conference and announced to the press and the onwatching public that security agents from the recently renamed Secret Intelligence Services were present in the crowd. The movement held a press conference on police brutality and #OccupyBAC (Brikama Area Council) protest which sparked civil unrest in the Gambia in various areas such as Serrekunda Market, Bijilo and Brikama. At least two people have been allegedly killed by security officials namely Kebba ‘Daddy Boston’ Secka…
Author: Yusef Taylor
Yusef Taylor
Yusef Taylor, commonly known as Flex Dan is an editor and practising journalist based in the Gambia with a keen interest in human rights, the economy and good governance among many others. He continues to break news on the economy, human rights violations and is highly engaged in security sector reforms, constitutional reform and the transition of the Gambia from dictatorship to a democracy, the NewGambia. Yusef has been working with Gainako as a media practitioner from 2015 to date. He has a degree in Civil Engineering with 5 years of Design Consultancy experience.
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT National Consultation At a conference organised by the International Republican Institute (IRI) various stakeholders including the media, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), government officials, National Assembly members and other actors converged at Djembe Beach Resort in Kololi for a two day conference on the transparent management of the Gambia’s natural resources. The first day started with welcoming remarks from IRI’s Resident Program Director Robina Numusisi, opening remarks from US Ambassador, Richard “Carl” Paschall, key note address from the Gambia’s Vice President, Dr. Isatou Touray followed by four different panels on the theme “turning natural resources into developmental…
By Amadou Barry and Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT President Macky Sall’s presidential limousine caught fire on Wednesday on route to Nguéniène. Senegal’s head of state, accompanied by his Malian counterpart, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to pay their last respect at the funeral of Ousmane Tanor Dieng, the President of the high council of local authorities (Hcct) who died last Monday. In a video that went viral on social media (above and below) smoke was seen bellowing from the front of the Presidential convoy with two Heads of State and their entourage out in the open for some minutes. Meanwhile panic struck…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Meeting with the CRC Yesterday morning in a conference room in Fajara a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations on Budget Transparency (CCBT) ratified a set of almost 70 recommendations and submitted them to the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) just before midday. The recommendations aim to institutionalize fiscal discipline and curb corruption in The Gambia via the Constitution. According to the position paper “there is an urgent need for the National Budget and sovereign national wealth to be distributed equitably among all Gambians”. On the CRC’s official Facebook page they posted that “Civil Society Coalition on Budget…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Fuel prices have dropped for the first time this year by over 8% for petrol and almost 7% for diesel. From the data that Gainako has been able to access, this has been the first fuel price drop since January 2019. Every month the prices of fuel have continued to increase, with fuel prices increasing by over 22% from January to June 2019. The latest prices of petrol in July is 52.65 Gambian Dalasis (GMD) down by almost five GMD from 57.36 GMD in June. For Diesel, the price per litre was 56.17 GMD in June…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Context Security Sector Reforms (SSR) is an ongoing process which “should address the actual security needs of a nation and its unique security landscape”¹. According to Alagie Barrow “typically, SSR undertakings are designed to respond to limited notions of the physical security needs of a government as opposed to a broader and transformative notion of human security”¹. This report is an overview of the SSR process which has begun in The Gambia and is set to continue into 2020. The Security Sector Assessment (SSA) was first conducted in 2017 followed by the National Security Policy (NSP)…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Not many knew much about the Security Sector Reforms and for a moment it appeared as though not many cared. That all changed this week, the buzz words Security Sector Reforms and National Security Policy have been on everybody’s lips. In the same week when President Adama Barrow launched the National Security Policy, 40 Police Intervention Unit Officers were trained on Public Order and photos of Armored Riot Vehicles marked Gambia Police went viral on social media. Mainstreaming Gender My encounter with the Security Sector reforms commenced on 30th May at the launching of the nationwide…
By Adama Makasuba and Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT The Gambia’s only Beer Brewery, Banjul Breweries, has announced that it has lost 13 million dalasis in May as a result of the government’s 75 percent excise tax on beer. Speaking to Gainako in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, Borri Darboe, commercial manager of the beverage company said “we have lost almost D13 million dalasis in May.” He renewed his appeal to the Gambia government to revisit their tax policy saying that “we are paying almost fourteen different types of taxes to government.” Mr Darboe explained how his company paid D115 million dalasis…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT CRC Chairperson Constitutional Review Commission Chairperson (CRC), Justice Cherno Jallow revealed during today’s Right2Know Diaspora Conference with the CRC that the deadline for the end of public consultations is the 15th of June. At the start of his submission Justice Jallow highlighted that “just for the information of our brothers and sisters, it seems to be male dominated I assumed from the Diaspora well hopefully you’ll have some [gender balance]”. Explaining why we cannot simply codify nor legislate the type of character criteria for elected Gambian leaders he opined that “what builds a character is more…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Yesterday while stopping by a fuel station to buy petrol I learned that prices have increased by almost 2 Dalasis from May to June. The latest price of Petrol is now 57.36 Dalasis up from 55.54 Dalasis in May. For Diesel, the price per litre was 55.34 Dalasis in May, however, Diesel prices have increased to 56.17 Dalasis. Observing the monthly prices of Petrol provided by one of the major fuel stations, Atlas Ltd, the price of Petrol has increased by over 10 Dalasis (22%) since March. The price of Diesel however, has increased by less…