These are extraordinary times, but human rights law still applies BY NDUNG’U WAINAINA It seems the majority of Kenyans are yet to internalize the impact of Covid-19. It is not just another humanitarian crisis. There is not a ‘normal’ to go back to. Covid-19 will cause serious disruptions to the social, economic, political, cultural, security, and financial systems of the world. Demagoguery and old school politics are going to collapse under the heavy COVID-19 earthquake. The coronavirus pandemic seems to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back of economic and financial globalization. Global supply chains will drastically change…
Author: NLM Editor
By Antony Mutunga It took more than 50 years for the world to globalize. Now, as a result of several technologies, the whole process seems to be going back in reverse. People are no longer socializing at events like they used to. Today, everything is done online – from getting the latest news to communicating with family and friends, whether they be close by or far away. Furthering de-globalization or self-sufficiency, even more, has been President Donald Trump, whose mission from before he was elected, was to make America great again by any means possible. The means ended up being…
Is Kenya the only country where a multinational abuses national and international labour laws without as much as a whimper from the government? EPRA doesn’t care By Kevin Motaroki For years now, the French petroleum company, Total SA, through its Kenyan subsidiary, Total Kenya, has subjected its dealers to unfair and unethical business practices that have gone on unabated. This has led to many business owners operating under Total to run into avoidable losses or close shop. Both Financial and Young Dealers told the Nairobi Law Monthly they are adversely affected by the unfair, intimidatory, and monopolistic practices by the…
By Joy Cherotich Kenya shelters about 500,000 refugees and asylum seekers, according to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR-Kenya. 53.7 percent of these refugees and asylum seekers come from Somalia, 24.7 percent from South Sudan, 9 percent from Congo, and 5.8 percent from Ethiopia. The rest are from Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, and Uganda. Based on UNHCR statistics, 44 percent of them reside in Kakuma and 40 percent in Dadaab. Urban refugees make up to 16 percent of the population of refugees and asylum seekers. A camp market assessment was done in Dadaab and Kakuma by…
With time, it is increasingly clear that the game was always to prop-up Gideon Moi By Kenyatta Otieno The coronavirus stopped reggae. For the first time in many decades, for a whole month from early March, nobody spoke about politics. It was not even featured on the local news where it has been a mainstay for as long as any of us can remember. Both the Kieleweke – which drives the BBI agenda — and Tangatanga brigades went on mute. Raila Odinga and William Ruto retreated to their cocoons in self-imposed quarantine. Then, in response to questions about their whereabouts,…
Three months after the first case of COVID-19 was detected in sub-Saharan Africa, the region has made progress in tackling the virus. Many countries implemented lockdowns and key public health measures early, and these appear to have helped slow down the spread of the coronavirus. However, there are concerns that if these measures are relaxed too quickly, COVID-19 cases could start to increase rapidly. “We are seeing some rapid increases compared to two weeks ago. Reported cases have tripled in five countries and doubled in ten countries, noting that most countries still have fewer than 1,000 reported cases,” said Dr…
The coronavirus testing row between Kenya and Tanzania is getting dirty with retaliatory politics creeping in. Tanzania last month called Kenya’s testing of truck drivers at the Namanga border point a smear campaign against tourism in Arusha, Tanzania. A statement from the Arusha Regional Commission said Tanzania had put in place a system of collecting samples for testing drivers crossing the Namanga border from Kenya. Curiously, the statement also gave a tabulation of infections at the border, including those of Kenyans, but kept the numbers for a certain country secret in a paragraph that reads: “Samples were taken from 44 truck drivers from Kenya on…
Kenyan authorities are potentially facilitating transmission of the Covid-19 virus while forcefully quarantining tens of thousands of people in facilities that lack proper sanitation, protective equipment and food, Human Rights Watch, Kenya Human Rights Commission, and Journalists for Justice said in May. The authorities have also held crowds of people in the arrivals area at the Nairobi airport for more than four hours with no physical distancing, sanitizers, or masks; ferried people in packed buses with little ventilation; and, at the quarantine facilities, failed to enforce quarantine guidelines issued by the Health ministry. The authorities also have forced people into quarantine…
The 2008-2009 global recession, African economies performed better than other developing countries, because of (a) higher commodity prices, which supported export earnings; (b) lower debt, which provided needed fiscal space, avoiding public sector layoffs; and (c) the resiliency of the informal sector, which continued to supply the domestic economy, maintaining incomes and consumption for the majority of households. Africa will not be able to count on these mitigating factors during the coronavirus crisis. Commodity prices are not favorable, fiscal space is extremely limited, and, as a result, the informal sector, where 60 to 80 percent of Africa’s labor force works,…
Covid-19 brings into stark relief a long-standing discourse on the role or derogations and claw-back clauses on the continent and now, more now than ever, clarity on this long-standing debate is needed. In response to Covid-19, countries in Africa have imposed total or partial lockdowns, in the process allowing authorities to take actions necessary to safeguard national security, maintain law and order, protect citizens’ lives and property, keep essential public services working, concentrate relief resources and direct them to the areas of greatest need, and in general to restore normality. While providing a degree of flexibility necessary to respond to…