The son of renowned Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed more than 20 years ago, has died in London. Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, 47, passed away after suffering a stroke, his family say.

He was a journalist who became an adviser to three presidents.

The 1995 execution of his father by a military government for leading protests against environmental degradation caused by the oil industry sparked global outrage.

Saro-Wiwa Sr led the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), which accused oil multinational Shell of destroying the environment in his home region of Ogoniland in south-eastern Nigeria.

His execution after a secret trial under Gen Sani Abacha led to Nigeria being suspended from the Commonwealth.

Noo Saro-Wiwa, sister of the late journalist, said: “It is with great sadness that we announce that Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr passed away suddenly. His family are devastated and request privacy at this difficult time.”

Funeral arrangements are yet to be worked out, the family says.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was first appointed in 2006 as a special adviser on peace and conflict resolution by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He later served Mr Obasanjo’s successor, President Umaru Yar’Adua, as an adviser on international affairs and stayed on under President Goodluck Jonathan until he lost last year’s election.

His willingness to work with the federal government marked him out as less militant than his father.

But like his father, he was committed to the cause of the Ogoni people.

In a 2015 opinion piece for the UK’s Guardian newspaper, he wrote that the effects of the oil pollution on Ogoniland had still not been cleared up.

“If my father were alive today he would be dismayed that Ogoniland still looks like the devastated region that spurred him to action.

“There is little evidence to show that it sits on one of the world’s richest deposits of oil and gas.”

A 2011 UN report said Nigeria’s Ogoniland region could take 30 years to recover fully from the damage caused by years of oil spills. The study said complete restoration could entail the world’s “most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up”.

It added that communities faced a severe health risk, with some families drinking water with high levels of carcinogens.

Shell has accepted liability for two spills and said all oil spills were bad for Nigeria and the company.

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The new Kenyan Chief Justice David Maraga has been sworn in today at a function held at State House, Nairobi.

At the ceremony presided over by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the 66-year old Justice Maraga said he would strive to eliminate corruption and case backlog that has dogged the judiciary.

A former appellate judge, Justice Maraga succeeds Justice Willy Munyoki Mutunga, who became CJ in 2011.

Justice Maraga was nominated by the Judicial Service Commission and vetted by Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament before being approved.

Justice Maraga becomes the 14th Chief Justice of Kenya since the East African country attained Independence in 1963. Other before him are as listed below.

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King Mohammed VI of Morocco arrived in Rwanda last evening, for the first leg of a three-nation tour that will also see him visit Tanzania and Ethiopia.

The King, who is accompanied by Crown Prince Moulay Ismail, will today hold bilateral talks with his host President Paul Kagame.

In June this year, just before Rwanda hosted the 27^th Africa Union Heads of State Summit, Kagame visited Morocco, where he was decorated by King Mohammed VI with the Grand Collar of Wissam Al-Mohammadi, Morocco’s highest national award of honour.

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President Pierre Nkurunziza signed a decree for Burundi to quit the International Criminal Court, after parliament voted overwhelmingly last week to remove the country from the court’s jurisdiction.

The move is unprecedented on a continent whose leaders often complain that the court disproportionately targets Africans.

On October 12, only two lawmakers voted in favour of staying under the jurisdiction of the Dutch-based ICC, while 94 voted against and 14 abstained.

In April, the ICC opened a preliminary investigation into Burundi, focusing on killings, imprisonment, torture, rape and other sexual violence, as well as enforced disappearances.

Burundi’s government was infuriated last month by a UN report that named officials accused of orchestrating the torture and killing political opponents.

Since then, Bujumbura has banned three UN investigators from its territory and condemned a UN decision to set up a commission of inquiry to probe the violence, which began last year after Nkurunziza decided to seek a third term in office.

Opponents said his candidacy violated the constitution and a peace agreement that ended a civil war in 2005. The opposition mostly boycotted the polls and Nkurunziza won a third term.

The ICC said in April that political violence had killed about 450 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

Earlier on Tuesday, the head of its governing body, Sidiki Kaba, said he was concerned that would undermine ‘efforts towards the objective of universality’ and called on Burundi to ‘engage in a dialogue’.

Since it was set up under the 1998 Rome Statute, the court based in The Hague has focused on prosecuting such politically-motivated crimes as genocide and crimes against humanity.

Most of its investigations and indictments have been of Africans, stirring criticism from many governments on the continent.

Nine out of 10 situations under investigation by ICC prosecutors are African. All five verdicts have dealt with African suspects from Congo, Central African Republic and Mali.

The decree signed by Nkurunziza, published in the presidency’s website, said the decision would ‘come into immediate effect’.

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The Constitutional Court in Democratic Republic of Congo said it had approved a petition by the electoral commission to delay a presidential election set for November, allowing President Joseph Kabila to remain in office until April 2018.

Kabila was due to step down in December when his two-term mandate expires and his opponents say they fear he intends to first prolong his term in office and then change the constitution to enable him to run again.

The ruling coalition and part of the opposition say the vote should be held in April 2018 and on Monday their agreement was ratified by delegates at cross-party talks in the capital, one party leader said.

Most opposition parties have boycotted the talks and called for a general strike today to put pressure on Kabila. They are likely to be further angered because the court appeared to breach its own quorum rules in reaching Monday’s decision.

European Union foreign ministers said they would prepare economic sanctions against Congo unless it held presidential and parliamentary elections next year.

Kabila says he will respect the constitution but has not made clear if he plans to find a way to run again. Last year, the presidents of neighbouring Congo Republic and Rwanda won referendums to change their constitutions to stand for third terms.

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