Category: The Citizen

Australia’s online safety regulator has secured a legally enforceable undertaking from Roblox to strengthen protections for children after testing found that adults could still contact young users without parental consent.

The Australian eSafety Commissioner said its testing earlier this year identified gaps in Roblox’s safety systems, including allowing adults to send connection requests to children under 16 without the consent of a parent or carer. Children and adults could also view and respond to each other’s posts on forums outside gaming environments.

The regulator also found that children’s connections, profiles and biographical information, including account names, connections and avatar images, could be visible to other users on the platform.

The findings have renewed concerns over the potential for online grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse, prompting Roblox to commit to additional safeguards under the court-enforceable undertaking.

Under the new requirements, Roblox must introduce measures to prevent adults from contacting unknown children under 16 without parental or carer consent and ensure children’s accounts are private by default.

The company must also improve its reporting systems so users can easily report harmful content and receive notification of the outcome of their complaints. An independent third-party auditor will assess the effectiveness of Roblox’s safety measures, including its age-estimation technology.

Roblox has three months to implement the measures. If it fails to meet the commitments, the eSafety Commissioner may apply to the Federal Court for orders requiring the company to comply.

The action comes after prolonged engagement between the regulator and Roblox over child safety concerns. In September 2025, Roblox had already committed to making accounts belonging to users under 16 private by default and introducing measures to prevent adults from contacting children without parental consent.

However, eSafety said subsequent testing showed that gaps remained despite the measures Roblox had introduced.

The regulator said Roblox is the second-most popular game among children in Australia, with national research estimating that about 1.7 million Australian children use the platform.

The developments also highlight the need for parents and carers to remain actively involved in children’s online activities. eSafety advises families to use parental controls while also helping children develop safe online habits, noting that no parental control tool is completely effective.

The latest measures are expected to provide greater protection for young users, although their effectiveness will become clearer after Roblox completes the required changes and the independent assessment of its safety systems.

A growing generational battle between Generation Z and Millennials is moving beyond social media into everyday life in Tanzania, with the two groups developing different views about success, money, relationships and patience.

Millennials are those born between 1981 and 1996, while Generation Z, commonly known as Gen Z, comprises people born between 1997 and 2012. The two generations have come of age in markedly different social, economic and technological environments, shaping distinct attitudes towards work, relationships, money and personal success.

Gen Z increasingly embraces speed and immediate opportunities, while Millennials tend to value gradual progress, endurance and long-term commitment.

For many Gen Zs, the idea that success must take years is difficult to accept. Their digital upbringing has exposed them to opportunities unavailable to previous generations.

For 24-year-old content creator and online entrepreneur Edson Kyoma, popularly known as Eddy Vibes, waiting for traditional opportunities is no longer the only way to build a future.

“We have grown up seeing that you do not have to wait for someone to give you an opportunity. If you have an idea, a phone and the skills, you can start something today,” he said.

He said the same thinking influences relationships.

“Gen Z does not believe you should remain with someone just because you have already spent years together. If we are not compatible, I would rather leave than spend more years trying to force something that does not work,” he said. That approach is viewed differently by Millennials. For 38-year-old Millennial entrepreneur Ms Saida Hamisi, success cannot be measured by how quickly someone appears to achieve something.

“Life has stages. You cannot build something strong by always looking for the fastest way. Some things require time, experience and sacrifice,” she said.

She said relationships also require patience and compromise.

“People are not perfect. If every time you have a disagreement you decide that the relationship is over, you will spend your life moving from one person to another. You have to learn patience,” she said.

However, some Gen Zs argue that young people should date early to gain experience. Millennials are more likely to argue that relationships should come at the right stage of life, when an individual has sufficient emotional and financial maturity.

A sociologist from the University of Dar es Salaam, Ms Faudhia Mfaume, said the changing attitudes should be understood within wider social and economic changes. “Every generation grows up under different economic and social circumstances. What young people consider possible today is influenced by technology, education, employment opportunities and the environment around them,” she said.

“If young people reject everything associated with previous generations and older people dismiss everything coming from young people, society loses an opportunity to combine experience with innovation,” she said.

For his part, SAUT sociologist Mr Alfani Mduge said social media has accelerated changes in social attitudes and expectations.

“Social media has changed how people see themselves and how they measure success. Young people are constantly exposed to other people’s achievements, and this can create the feeling that they must achieve similar things immediately,” he said.

Another SAUT sociologist Ms Linah Kabula, said the differences should not automatically be interpreted as a breakdown of social values.

“Generational differences are normal because every generation develops its own way of understanding society. The challenge comes when those differences create conflict instead of dialogue,” she said.

She added: “People compare their lives to unrealistic standards online, which increases feelings of inadequacy.”

Digging deeper, Clinical psychologist from Bugando Medical Centre, Dr Kelvin Kiberiti, said changing relationship expectations could affect emotional wellbeing if people failed to develop conflict-management skills.

‘When we see it as a very normal thing, it is quite different from what we see. When stress is prolonged without support, it affects emotional stability and daily functioning. We might see these young people viewing others as enemies, which is not right,’ he said.

With similar sentiments, another clinical psychologist from Muhimbili National Hospital, Dr Isaac Lema, said both generations need better emotional understanding.

“People need to understand that relationships involve challenges, disagreements and adjustment. At the same time, patience should not mean remaining in situations that are harmful,” he said.

Arusha Airport has begun operating around the clock following the installation and inspection of a modern runway lighting system.

The move opens up new opportunities for tourism, business, and investment across northern Tanzania.

The development ends years of restrictions on night flights at the airfield, which previously closed at 6 pm due to a lack of lighting required for aircraft to land and take off safely after dark.

Arusha Regional Commissioner Amos Makalla confirmed the start of 24-hour operations on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, after inspecting the newly installed lighting system.

‘I am satisfied that the lights are working properly. Our airport is safe and ready for use,’ said Mr Makalla.

He noted that extended operating hours would give airlines greater flexibility in scheduling flights while making travel more convenient for tourists, business travellers, and other passengers arriving outside former operating hours.

The move is expected to provide a major boost to tourism, with Arusha serving as a key gateway to Tanzania’s northern safari circuit, which includes Tarangire, Lake Manyara, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Mr Makalla said the new operating hours would attract more visitors and strengthen the city’s economy by improving regional access.

‘This step will increase tourism and contribute to Arusha’s economic growth. It will also reduce the inconvenience caused by cancelled or delayed flights when travellers arrive after normal hours, as aircraft can now land both day and night,’ he said.

Beyond tourism, 24-hour operations will benefit hotels, tour operators, transport companies, restaurants, and other businesses dependent on visitor flow.

The regional commissioner added that the improvements form part of preparations for Arusha to host major international events, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference and the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

Extended hours will allow delegates and fans to use Arusha Airport throughout the day and night, reducing reliance on peak daytime schedules.

Arusha Airport manager, Mr Edgar Mwankuga, said the facility had been handling a growing volume of passengers, particularly during peak tourism seasons, making 24-hour capacity essential.

The rollout follows a government investment of approximately Sh11 billion to upgrade the infrastructure and expand capacity.

Mr Mwankuga said the investment included extending the runway from 1.64 kilometres to 1.84 kilometres, enabling the facility to accommodate larger aircraft, such as the ATR 72 and Bombardier Q400.

The aircraft-parking apron has also been expanded to approximately 15,000 square metres, alongside terminal improvements to streamline passenger flow.

‘The completion of the lighting project means airlines can now schedule flights beyond previous limits, improving connectivity between Arusha and other domestic and regional destinations,’ he said.

‘For the tourism sector, the change is particularly significant, as visitors arriving in the evening will no longer have to wait until the following day to reach the region by air,’ added Mwankunga.

The gambling industry spends enormous sums chasing novelty, yet its steadiest earner is a wheel designed in eighteenth century France. Roulette has outlived every fashion in the business, and the reason is not nostalgia. It is accounting.

Understood as a product rather than a pastime, roulette has a set of commercial properties that almost nothing else in entertainment can match, and the move online has only sharpened them.

A margin you can set your watch to

Every bet on a roulette table faces the same built-in margin, created by the gap between the payout odds and the true number of pockets on the wheel. On a European wheel that margin is about 2.7 percent of everything staked, spin after spin, forever. Compare that with sports betting, where one unlucky weekend can genuinely cost an operator money, or with jackpot games, where one win rearranges a month’s accounts.

Roulette revenue is boring, and in finance boring is the highest compliment. It is the fixed-deposit of the gaming floor: a small, certain percentage that compounds with volume.

Going online removed the cost floor

A physical roulette table is expensive to run. It occupies premium floor space, needs staff across every operating hour, and serves perhaps a dozen players at a time. A digital table has none of those constraints.

One certified game can serve thousands of players simultaneously, around the clock, at a marginal cost close to zero. The margin per bet did not change when roulette went online.

The volume that margin applies to exploded, and the overhead underneath it collapsed. Few legacy products anywhere have made that transition so cleanly.

Variants are price points, not new games

The modern twist is segmentation. Operators now offer the same wheel at different speeds and volatilities: quick-fire formats for players who want more rounds per hour, multiplier versions that trade steady payouts for occasional large ones, single-zero tables for the price-conscious. It is the strategy of an airline selling one flight in four fare classes.

A mid-sized market shows this at retail level: anyone browsing online roulette in NZ through Christchurch Casino’s platform will find roughly fifteen distinct takes on the game in one catalogue, from classic European layouts to speed and multiplier formats. Same wheel, carefully differentiated shelf.

A product that travels lighter than any casino

The other commercial property worth noting is portability. A physical casino is a real estate project measured in years and millions; a digital roulette catalogue reaches a new audience the moment the platform does, in any language, on any phone. That is why the online segment has become the growth story of the wider industry.

It is the same distribution economics that reshaped music, film and retail, a shift Guardian business coverage has followed through sector after sector. Demand follows smartphones, and the product carries no freight: no wheel to ship, no floor to build, no croupier to train.

For a game whose economics were already attractive, frictionless distribution is the multiplier that turned a table into an industry.

The player’s side of the same ledger

For the customer, the arithmetic that makes roulette dependable for operators carries a plain message: over time, the margin works against the player, modestly but relentlessly. That is not a scandal, it is the price of the entertainment, the same way a cinema ticket is the price of a film. The sensible response follows directly.

Choose single-zero tables, since the price there is lowest. Treat the budget as spending, decided before the first spin, not as an investment. And ignore any system promising to beat the wheel, because the margin that guarantees the operator’s revenue is precisely the thing no betting pattern can remove.

The industry’s most dependable product is dependable for exactly one side of the table, and knowing which side you are on is the whole game.

All runners taking part in this year’s Zanzibar International Marathon will receive insurance cover from Zanzibar Insurance Corporation (ZIC), providing protection against injuries, death and disability during the event.

The insurance cover will apply to all registered participants competing at Maisara Stadium on September 20, 2026, at no additional cost to runners.

ZIC Managing Director Jape Ussi Khamis said the company had partnered with the marathon organisers to strengthen participants’ safety while supporting sports tourism and economic development.

Speaking on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, during the handover of the insurance policy in Unguja, Mr Khamis said the sponsorship would also help promote Tanzania and Zanzibar internationally by attracting visitors through sports tourism.

‘Unlike previous years, every registered runner will automatically receive insurance cover. There is no additional process or cost because the cover is included in the registration system,’ he said.

The policy covers incidents that may occur during the race, including death, injury and disability.

Mr Khamis said ZIC would also cover medical treatment for runners who experience health problems during the event, from the competition venue to hospital care.

‘If a runner completes the race with a health problem, they will not have to go to hospital and pay for treatment themselves as happened in the past. ZIC has already covered the runners, providing support from the venue through to hospital services,’ he said.

Zanzibar International Marathon Chairman Hassan Mussa Ibrahim said the insurance would cover both local and international participants.

He said the 2026 event would feature 5km, 10km and 21km races, while organisers had begun discussions to introduce a 42km marathon from next year.

Mr Ibrahim called on other institutions to follow ZIC’s example by supporting initiatives that directly benefit communities and contribute to development.

He said the marathon organisers would also promote ZIC’s insurance products while encouraging Tanzanians to develop a culture of taking insurance cover against unexpected risks.

The partnership places runners’ safety at the centre of this year’s Zanzibar International Marathon while supporting efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, sports tourism and economic activity.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan has accepted the resignation of Vice-President Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi, hours after receiving his official request, with the State House confirming that constitutional processes to appoint a successor will follow.

A statement issued on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, by Chief Secretary Ambassador Moses Kusiluka, confirmed the development.

‘President Samia has received the resignation letter from the Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Ambassador Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi, effective September 4, 2026. Her Excellency the President has approved the request,’ stated the Chief Secretary.

News of Dr Nchimbi requesting to step down from September 4 had earlier circulated widely on social media platforms.

In his statement, Dr Nchimbi noted: ‘I am fully convinced that the President desires changes, hence my decision to fulfill my pledge.’

The former CCM Secretary-General steps down 295 days after taking office on November 3, 2025.

He served as President Hassan’s running mate during the October 29, 2025 General Election.

‘I shall resign as Vice-President in accordance with Article 50 (2) (c) alongside Article 149 (2) of the Constitution, effective September 4, 2026,’ explained Dr Nchimbi.

He recalled pledging on August 27, 2025, to serve the President and the nation faithfully.

‘I assured her that should she ever require a different Vice-President, I would step aside. I am satisfied she desires changes, and I am fulfilling my word,’ added the 54-year-old leader.

‘I sincerely thank the President and CCM for their trust, and express deep gratitude to all Tanzanians for their immense cooperation throughout my public service tenure,’ concluded Dr Nchimbi in his resignation letter.

East Africa may be approaching one of those moments when an investment decision becomes a test of a much larger political idea.

Uganda is developing its oil resources and plans a refinery at Hoima. EACOP brings Ugandan crude to the Tanzanian coast at Tanga. Tanzania, Uganda and Vitol have agreed to explore a regional energy hub at Tanga involving refining, storage, logistics, trading and distribution. At the same time, Aliko Dangote has been considering a very large refinery in Kenya.

Each project can be assessed on its own merits. But should it be?

The larger question is whether East Africa is planning these investments as parts of one regional economic system, or whether our countries are still building separate national systems that merely trade with one another.

In other words: is the East African Community becoming a true economic community, or are we still principally a common market?

I use ‘economic community’ here in a practical sense. A common market allows goods, services, capital and people to move more freely across borders. A deeper economic community must eventually influence how major infrastructure is planned, where strategic industries are located and how regional resources are used.

We have made real progress. The EAC has a Customs Union and a Common Market, regional trade has grown, and infrastructure increasingly crosses borders. The Community itself has expanded from the original Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to eight Partner States.

But market integration eventually raises a harder question: what happens when we must decide where the major factories themselves should be built?

Trading together is easier than planning together.

President Yoweri Museveni identified this problem in a 2004 speech on East African integration. He warned that neighbouring states could end up making parallel efforts instead of coordinated ones, each competing separately to attract similar investments. He also made the deeper point that a common market does not by itself guarantee the optimal use of the region’s natural resources.

Twenty-two years later, that warning is more relevant. Uganda has oil. Tanzania has natural gas and the EACOP outlet at Tanga. Kenya has Mombasa and Lamu, with major maritime and logistics capacity. The regional market is also vastly larger.

The important question is therefore no longer whether Tanzania, Kenya or Uganda can each build a refinery. They can. It is what combination of refineries, ports, pipelines, storage and related industries would produce the greatest long-term benefit for East Africa as a whole.

One way to think about this is to remove the political borders from the map for a moment. Leave Uganda’s oil, Tanzania’s gas, the ports and the population centres where geography placed them. Then ask engineers and economists where they would locate refineries, petrochemical plants, ports and pipelines if the objective were the lowest long-term cost and the greatest regional industrial benefit.

That gives us something close to a regional economic optimum.

Then put the borders back. Now comes the political problem.

Suppose the most efficient location for a major refinery is Tanzania. Kenya may reasonably ask what it gains. Suppose it is Kenya. Tanzania and Uganda may ask the same question.

These are legitimate concerns, but they are different from the efficiency question. First ask: what arrangement creates the greatest total East African benefit? Then ask: how should those benefits be shared fairly?

If we confuse the two, we may try to solve the distribution problem by duplicating expensive infrastructure. Several refineries may well be justified if they serve different functions, scales or markets. The problem arises when scarce capital creates capacity that merely reproduces what could be provided more efficiently elsewhere in the regional system.

Private investors and governments also have different responsibilities. An investor will choose the location offering the best financial return. Governments must consider a wider social return: employment, energy security, technology, foreign-exchange savings, industrial development, infrastructure, environmental costs and regional integration.

The refinery debate should therefore not begin with Tanga or Lamu, Dangote or Vitol, Kenya or Tanzania.

The first question should be: What petroleum and petrochemical system does East Africa need by 2050?

Only then can we decide what role each location should play.

That is the real refinery test.

But before deciding where tomorrow’s refinery should go, another question must be answered. Should we judge Tanga, Lamu and Mombasa only by the infrastructure they possess today, or by what each could become after 30 or 50 years of development?

That distinction between today’s comparative advantage and tomorrow’s potential comparative advantage is the subject of the next article: should East Africa plan around the economic geography we have inherited, or the economic geography we want to create by 2050.

Early this month in Dar es Salaam, President Samia Suluhu Hassan and her Ugandan counterpart, President Yoweri Museveni, witnessed the signing of an agreement to develop a regional energy hub at the Port of Tanga. To understand why it matters, we need to go back to February 28.

When the US-Iran war broke out, Africa’s fuel supply was under immediate threat. Within days, major oil actors were declaring force majeure. Freight and insurance costs on tanker routes spiked dramatically, and countries thousands of kilometres from the Strait of Hormuz faced the prospect of empty forecourts.

The lesson was blunt. If Africa’s energy security depends on geopolitical realities it cannot control or influence, its hospitals, transport networks and economies will be held hostage to conflicts and events it is not involved in.

Six months on, East Africa’s response as a region has been instructive and varied. Some countries have continued to scramble, staying fully reactive.

Others have moved more decisively, taking a pragmatic approach and planning proactively for continued geopolitical instability.

The Tanga agreement, a memorandum of understanding between the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Vitol Bahrain, is a glimpse of what strategic planning for the new normal looks like.

The project, which builds on the nearly complete East African Crude Oil Pipeline, could eventually draw more than $20 billion in refining, storage, logistics and petrochemical investment, and potentially be one of the largest integrated energy developments anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The MOU kicks off significant technical and financial work, which will include feasibility studies, engineering design and investment decisions to turn Tanga into the operating hub the memorandum of understanding envisions.

Despite the initiative being at an early stage, the agreement should reassure citizens in Tanzania and Uganda, as it signals a strong commitment to securing fuel supplies and reducing prices in the two countries.

This development is best understood by looking at their record of accomplishment in recent months. Tanzania and Uganda were among the most proactive players in East Africa when the Middle East conflict erupted, as reflected on how they have navigated the resulting crisis.

Tanzania put together a joint task force in March, pulling together the TPDC, the Petroleum Bulk Procurement Agency (PBPA), and the Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (EWURA), to ensure a guaranteed supply of fuel throughout the height of the crisis.

Kenya, by contrast, was in enough trouble that it had to formally ask Uganda for help in guaranteeing supply.

Uganda’s resilience traces to a decision taken two years earlier. Its 2024 overhaul of fuel procurement, which put UNOC at the centre of a shorter, state-anchored supply chain with Vitol, is now credited by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with cushioning the country from the worst of the shock.

In its 2026 Article IV assessment, the Fund noted that spill overs from the war had been limited so far, pointing to Uganda’s food self-sufficiency and the short nature of its supply chain.

Tanzania and Uganda’s experience suggests that governments that had invested in their own supply chains and infrastructure had room to manoeuvre. Those that had not were left hoping the market would be kind. In short, ownership brings options.

The envisaged Tanga hub is all about controlling the national fuel supply and building a permanent regional infrastructure.

This means storage capacity to smooth out future disruptions, refining capacity to capture value currently exported along with the crude, and a bidirectional pipeline designed to move products toward landlocked markets such as Rwanda, reducing East Africa’s collective dependence on one import corridor.

This direction of travel should be seen as a template for similar projects rather than just a one-off.

The shock caused by the US-Iran war exposed a core structural vulnerability: Africa consumes fuel it does not refine, is dependent on shipping routes it does not control and is subject to prices determined by markets over which it has limited influence.

The long-term answer to this vulnerability is the one Uganda and Tanzania are pursuing. African countries must work together to build the storage, refining and distribution capacity to guarantee supply and, over time, bring down the price consumers and businesses pay for fuel.

This is critical to support effective service delivery and growing economies.

The United Nations projects that Africa’s population will grow by well over half a billion people by 2050, with much of that growth concentrated in cities that currently depend on imported fuel.

Infrastructure of the kind envisaged at Tanga is a precondition for keeping pace with the continent’s own growth.

Governments across the continent, still navigating this year’s fuel shock, would do well to take note of what was signed in Dar es Salaam last week. The next shock will come. The only question is which countries will have built for it.

The Zanzibar Government and the Norwegian Association of Disabled Zanzibar (NAD Zanzibar) have signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening the protection and advancement of the rights of people with disabilities.

The agreement, signed on August 25, 2026, between NAD Zanzibar and the Office of the First Vice President, establishes a formal framework for cooperation to strengthen the operational capacity of the Zanzibar Council for People with Disabilities and improve services for people with disabilities.

Under the agreement, NAD Zanzibar will support the development of inclusive community systems, institutional capacity building, research and better coordination of disability-related issues across Zanzibar.

NAD Zanzibar Resident Director Abdulla Amour and Acting Permanent Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President Sheha Mjaja signed the agreement, which provides for technical and professional support to the Zanzibar Council for People with Disabilities.

Speaking after the signing ceremony, Mr Amour said the agreement formalised long-standing cooperation between the two institutions.

‘It will enable us to strengthen inclusive development in communities, build the capacity of people with disabilities and their organisations, and enhance cooperation with the Government to promote rights and inclusion,’ he said.

Mr Mjaja, who was the guest of honour, thanked NAD Zanzibar for its support and said the agreement was in line with Zanzibar’s Development Vision 2050, which prioritises improved services and protection of the rights of people with disabilities.

He said the Government would ensure the agreement was implemented through a dedicated action plan.

‘We must prepare an implementation plan that clearly sets out the targets to be achieved. The plan will enable us to monitor implementation and assess the progress made during the five-year period,’ he said.

Zanzibar Council for People with Disabilities Executive Secretary Usi Khamis Debe said the agreement would also focus on improving the economic capacity of people with disabilities and enabling them to access loans.

‘We will reach all districts to equip people with disabilities with the skills and capacity they need to qualify for loans and run their own businesses,’ Mr Debe said.

The agreement is expected to strengthen collaboration between the Zanzibar Government and its partners in ensuring people with disabilities have equal opportunities to participate fully in social and economic activities and contribute to the country’s development.

Tanzania’s emerging swimming talent Lorita Borega will be among the young athletes carrying the country’s hopes at the 2026 ANOCA Zone V Youth Games, which starts today in Nairobi, Kenya.

Borega (pictured), who represents North Coast Swimming Club, will compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events as she continues her development on the regional and continental stage. The competition provides another important opportunity for the swimmer to test herself against some of Africa’s most promising young athletes after making significant progress in recent seasons.

Borega has already established herself as one of Tanzania’s swimmers to watch. In June, she made history by becoming the first Tanzanian female swimmer to qualify for the semi-finals of the Africa Aquatics Zone IV Open Water Swimming Championships, an achievement that underlined her growing status in continental swimming. Her progress has also been recognised through her participation in major international competitions, giving her valuable exposure and experience against stronger opposition.

In Nairobi, Borega will work under the guidance of Collins Marigiri, the Kenya Aquatics secretary general. Marigiri has been involved in the development and administration of swimming in Kenya and has held the federation’s secretary-general position since its leadership changes in 2023.

His appointment adds an interesting dimension to Borega’s campaign, particularly given Kenya’s growing emphasis on providing young swimmers with international exposure and stronger preparation for major competitions.

The ANOCA Zone Five Youth Games, organised by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa, are being held at Kenyatta University from August 24 to 28. The second edition has brought together more than 300 young athletes from 11 countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.

The Games feature athletics, swimming, tennis, cycling, judo, 3×3 basketball and beach volleyball, providing a major platform for young athletes to gain international experience and prepare for bigger assignments, including the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.

For Tanzania, the Games also provide an opportunity to assess the country’s next generation across several disciplines.

Besides Borega’s participation in swimming, Tanzania will also compete in tennis, with the country’s entry form allowing for two singles players. The supplied long-list form, however, does not show the names of the two Tanzanian tennis players, so their identities cannot be confirmed from the document provided.

For Borega, the Nairobi competition represents more than a chance for medals. It is another step in a promising journey that has already taken her onto the continental stage, with the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events offering three opportunities to demonstrate her progress and gain further international experience.

As the young athletes from across Zone V battle for honours, Borega will be looking to turn her growing experience into another strong performance for Tanzania.