"Currently, 1 of 7 mobiles bought daily is bought by an African. In four years time 50% of continental Africans will have mobile phones with high-end capabilities.
This poses an interesting dilemma for those governments clinging to old-style autocracy or those like Kenya presidential "winner" Mwai Kibaki. They will have been rendered virtually powerless by citizen journalism, their every move documented and broadcast to mass audiences worldwide by internet.
And as broadband access on the continent grows (witness the recent sale of Africa Online to Telkom SA and the potential for satellite redistribution of redundant bandwidth from the existing SAT 3 undersea cable, as well as the new one planned to service the East coast), and suddenly even your neighbours will be better appraised and keener to push for reforms in their own countries on the evidence of repressions from next door".
