East Africa links

• David Bowie's Somali supermodel wife joins the piracy debate: “Paying their ransom sends the wrong message. The Somalis do not lack audacity. Unfortunately, they haven’t put it to good use - like putting a government together." (Contact Music)

• Henry Oruor looks at the African Union's new chairman, Muammar Gaddafi (Nation)

• Stephen Kinzer on 1960s Kenyan politician Tom Mboya, "a visionary African politician without whom Obama might never have been born, much less won the presidency." (Guardian)