Kenyans are gearing up for the British royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19 June.

But what really got people talking is the price of tickets for a wedding viewing party - going for an eye watering $10,000 (£7,000) for a couple.

The six-hour event will be held at one of the country's top hotel, guests are required to wear themed wedding attire, and will be served English cuisine prepared by an English chef.

Image source, KTN

But many people would take more than 10 years to earn the ticket price - the GDP per head, external is $1,701 in Kenya.

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

The Tanzanian government has dismissed allegations that it is involved in human rights violations against the indigenous Maasai people in favour of wealthy players in the tourism industry.

A report by an independent American policy think tank, the Oakland Institute, released on Thursday, alleged that the government has been using conservation laws to violently evict Maasai people from their ancestral pastures to make way for wealthy foreigners to look at wildlife.

A statement by the ministry of natural resources says the allegations are misleading, baseless and only aiming to tarnish the government’s image.

It points out that the contested piece of land is strategic because it is where the annual wildebeest migration takes place and contains key water sources for other wildlife.

It is for that reason, the statement says, the government enacted the conservation laws to conserve and protect the ecosystems.

The report by the Oakland Institute carries testimonies from the indigenous Maasai people accusing foreign companies of denying them access to their ancestral land and key water sources and co-opting local police in beating and arresting them.

For decades now, the wildlife-rich savannah of northern Tanzania has been the stage for competing interests of the government, the Maasai, conservationists, and investors.

The World Health Organization is planning to send Ebola vaccines to the town of Bikoro in north-western Democratic Republic of Congo, which is grappling with an outbreak of the deadly virus, news agency Reuters reports, quoting a top official.

WHO Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response Peter Salama said the organisation was "preparing for the worst-case scenario".

This outbreak started back in December, about 20 miles from Bikoro, in Equateur province.

At least two people have tested positive for the virus since and at least five others, including two nurses, have possibly been infected and are being monitored.

Mr Salama said he hoped DR Congo authorities would approve the deployment of an experimental vaccine, but warned that the drug was not a magic bullet.

The WHO says neighbouring countries have been alerted about the outbreak but that the risk of the disease spreading was "moderate".

Image source, Reuters

The cast of a Kenyan film about a love story between two young women received a rousing applause when their film featured yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival.

A news site has shared the video of the moment:

The film called Rafiki, which means "friend" in Swahili, has been banned in Kenya because the film classification body (KFCB) said it "seeks to legitimise lesbian romance".

KFCB warned that anyone found in possession of the film would be in breach of the law in Kenya, where gay sex is punishable by 14 years.

The film's director Wanuri Kahiu had told the BBC: "I really had hoped that the classification board would classify it as an 18. Because we feel the Kenyan audience is a mature, discerning enough audience."

The new president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, has said he will introduce free primary and secondary education for all children from September.

He told the opening session of parliament in Freetown that the education budget would be almost doubled.

President Bio said the money would come in part from spending cuts in other areas - and he would also seek funding from international donors.

Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest countries, and more than half the population cannot read or write.

Nigerian student Lolade Siyonbola has shared with the BBC her disturbing story about being confronted by police in the US for napping at a common room at Yale University.

The postgraduate student said that, on 8 May, a white student living in the Ivy League university's hall of graduate studies saw her napping on a sofa in the shared room and called the police.

"I had a paper I was working on in the common room," Lolade told the BBC. "I was working on it for much of the day, and I was exhausted so I thought I'd have a nap.

"This is normal, you know? People sleep there all the time.

"At 01:45 [local time], I hear someone come into the room. Then the lights come on. I hear someone say 'you're not supposed to be here'.

"The force with which she was saying it was very loud. She was yelling.

"She said she could see me clearly from the doorway. I'm just waking up, thinking 'what is happening'?

"She said 'I'm a resident here, you're not supposed to be sleeping here, you're not supposed to be here, I'm calling the police'."

"White people think they have licence to use the police as a weapon against people of colour," Ms Siyonbola added.

Read the full story on the BBC website

Image source, LOLADE SIYONBOLA

The office of the chief prosecutor in Kenya has directed the police boss - Joseph Boinett - to launch investigations into the dam that burst on Wednesday killing more than 40 people and leaving at least 2,000 others homeless.

Noordin Haji said in a statement - shared by a local journalist on Twitter - that the police should file a report in 14 days:

Image source, Getty Images

Some 40 people are still missing after a dam burst in Kenya on Wednesday night.

At least 41 people have died after heavy rains caused the dam to burst in Solai, 190km (120 miles) north-west of the capital, Nairobi, sweeping away homes across vast famland.

The farm where the dam is located stretches over several thousand acres.

Witnesses said victims were trapped in the mud.

The BBC's Anne Soy reports that there are fears that the death toll could rise as the search and rescue effort continues.

BBC World Service

The UN has appealed for emergency funds to save 400,000 children from starvation in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The children's agency Unicef says they are suffering from severe malnutrition.

The Kasai region has been ravaged by armed conflict - with crops left unplanted.

Unicef has appealed for $88m (£64m) to scale up feeding centres, train medical staff, and support children who were forcibly recruited by armed groups.

It says four million people need help.

In April President Joseph Kabila's government boycotted a UN donor conference in Geneva seeking to raise $1.7bn (£1.2bn) for the country.

Read: DR Congo's Kasai conflict: 'Millions face starvation without aid'.

Today's African proverb:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news from around the continent.

That's all from BBC Africa Live today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

Africa Live will resume its coverage here at 08:00 GMT on Friday.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with a picture of a delivery driver making his way through the streets of Dakar, Senegal, taken by photographer Ricci Shryock:

Richard Hamilton
BBC News

A court in Sudan has sentenced a 19-year-old woman to death for killing her husband after he raped her.

The judge at the court in Omdurman confirmed the death penalty after the husband's family refused the possibility of financial compensation.

When she was 16, Nourra Hussein was forced into a marriage by her family.

She was so unhappy that she ran away and took refuge at her aunt's house.

But three years later, she says she was tricked into returning home by her own family - who then handed her over again to her husband.

After six days she says he recruited some of his cousins who held her down as he raped her. When he attempted to do the same the following day she lashed out at him with a knife and stabbed him to death.

She then ran back to her parents who surrendered her to the police.

At her trial the judge offered the husband's family the option of forgiving Nourra but they chose execution.

Her case has attracted widespread attention on social media where a campaign called #JusticeforNoura has been trending on Twitter.

Her lawyers are applying for a lesser sentence of second degree murder.

Meanwhile, the rights group Equality Now says it will also be writing to the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir to ask him for clemency.

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has suspended four high court judges after a special committee found them guilty of corruption.

They were caught on tape taking bribes in exchange for influencing the outcome of court cases.

The corruption was exposed by an undercover journalist in 2015.

Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas said he had nearly 500 hours of video evidence on tape, showing judges alleging asking for bribes and demanding sex. One even accepted a goat as a bribe.

The documentary shocked the nation at the time, and was shown to packed houses at cinemas in the capital, Accra.

More than 20 judges and 170 judicial officers were implicated in the country's biggest corruption scandal.

Twenty judges and magistrates have already been found guilty of bribery and dismissed from their jobs.

Anne Soy
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, afp

Torrential rains continue to fall in Solai village, interrupting rescue efforts. Shocked villagers shelter under the canopies of the remaining structures.

The foundation slabs of buildings that were swept away by floodwaters lie exposed nearby, along a wide path - at least 100 metres - created by the raging water.

There's a deep gully running down the hill from where the dam burst.

Household items, boulders and mangled iron sheets are strewn across the flood path.

It has been described as the biggest tragedy since heavier-than-usual rains started in East Africa nearly two months ago.

Kenya Red Cross volunteers and police and military officers are at the scene.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Image source, Getty Images

Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, the ex-rebel Renamo movement, was buried earlier today at his birthplace.

The burial ground was in Mangunde, a place named after his father, a traditional chief in the central Mozambican province of Sofala.

Thousands of people attended his memorial service yesterday in the coastal city Beira.

Speaking at the burial, Mr Dhlakama’s niece, Teresa Marceta, said she was proud of her uncle:

He died on 3 May of a suspected heart attack at his hideout in the Gorongosa mountains.

She added that his work will live on beyond his death:

Louise Dewast
DR Congo

Image source, Reuters

New potential cases of Ebola have been detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the country battles its ninth outbreak.

This outbreak started back in December, about 20 miles from the town of Bikoro, in the province of Equateur, north-west DR Congo.

At least two people have tested positive for the virus since and now we are learning there are at least five others, including two nurses, who could be infected and are being monitored.

Teams from the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation and Medicins sans Frontieres have been deployed to the area.

They are conducting tests, establishing a chronology of events, and working on identifying the reasons which could have led to this outbreak.

One person has died after an attack on a mosque on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa, Prem Balram, a spokesman for Reaction Unit SA, has told the BBC.

The man died on the way to hospital in the Durban area, Mr Balram said, adding the two others remained in a critical condition.

The private emergency service was the first on the scene at the Imam Hussain mosque in Verulam.

Police have also confirmed the attack, confirming three unknown men entered the mosque at about 14:00 local time (12:00 GMT) - just after the midday prayer.

The suspects then attacked three people before setting some of the mosque's rooms alight.

Police say the motive of the attack on the three men is currently unknown.

Witnesses at the scene claimed the men were Egyptian, and drove away in a Hyundai car.

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

Hundreds of women from across Nigeria took to the streets of the capital Abuja to demand equal political opportunities ahead of the 2019 elections.

The Women for Women's march converged on Nigeria's parliamentary complex, brandishing placards explaining their demands - including better security.

Those behind the drive for equal political opportunities say it is necessary because no woman has ever occupied the country's highest offices - from the governorship's to the presidency.

What's more, statistics show women make up nearly half the population, but that balance is not seen in parliament - to their detriment.

In 2016, a bill to grant women equal inheritance rights and banning child marriage was voted down in a parliament dominated by men.

As a result, women have started mobilising as the country prepares for general elections in 2019.

Darod Farah
BBC Monitoring

Ten Somali soldiers have been killed in a landmine explosion in the southern Wanlaweyn district, the website of the privately-owned, Mogadishu-based Radio Kulmiye reports.

"Military officials based in the Lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia, told Radio Kulmiye that 13 soldiers, including their commander, were in the car and that 10 of them, including the commander, died," the website said.

"The explosion resulted from a landmine buried in the road. The car left Wanlaweyn district and was heading to Mogadishu according to the Lower Shabelle regional officials," the report added.

Yesterday, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a market in Wanlaweyn, killing at least 14 people.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the two attacks. The Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militant group has staged similar attacks targeting government soldiers in the past.