Author: NLM Editor

Total E&P’s decision to suspend all oil activities in Uganda after Tullow Oil’s failure to sell a stake of its interests will delay Uganda’s plans of producing first oil, hurting the country’s position of meeting some of its debt obligations. Uganda has racked up a pile of debts, such as the construction of roads and power plants, in the hope that oil money would flow quickly so that the country can service these loans. Already, the country’s debt to gross domestic product ratio is at a worrying 42 per cent, a few percentage points from the East Africa ceiling of…

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By Antony Mutunga Since holding a referendum in 2016 and deciding to leave the EU, the United Kingdom (UK) has been working towards smooth separation from the bloc. However, following the resignation of Theresa May after her Brexit deal was voted down by the UK parliament three times, the process of withdrawal is now in shambles. Having already invoked Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, time is running out and it’s now on the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to try and complete the process – if he can. At the time of going to press, Finland and France had…

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By Professor John Harbeson The erosion of democracy, or democratic backsliding, has been widely acknowledged in academic and policymaking circles for almost fifteen years. Perhaps because the backsliding has been gradual in most cases, quiet resistance to this trend seems to have been the norm while systematic efforts to address the underlying causes and mount comprehensive re-democratisation campaigns have been noteworthy for their absence. What’s going on here? I believe the widely respected Freedom House may have been the first to lament the trend, but other democratic governance monitoring agencies have all attested its presence. Freedom House and others trace…

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The Kenya Information and Communication (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is the latest indicator that Kenya is morphing into a police state. Inter alia, the Bill aims at controlling the social media space by monitoring the composition of social media platforms and dictating what is to be shared. If the Bill passes, platforms and their administrators will not only need to be formally registered but also administrators will be required to keep details of members and the information posted (on their platforms) and surrender it to the authorities on demand. In case of any crime, according to the Act, administrators will bear…

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The Benefits of Forex Trading There are so many investment opportunities in today’s market that are becoming more and more accessible to interested individuals. Whereas before, the foreign exchange market largely consisted of corporations, governments, and banks, today, practically anyone can trade forex as long as they have enough capital. As with any investment, forex trading also requires a certain degree of knowledge and research — but all these can definitely be worthwhile. On that note, we’ve listed a few advantages forex trading has that may just entice you to consider investing in it. The market is open 24/5 Unlike…

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By Alice Abright Addressing today’s massive global education crisis requires some disruption and the development of a new 21st-century aid delivery model built on a strong operational public-private partnership and results-based financing model that rewards political leadership and progress on overcoming priority obstacles to equitable access and learning in least developed countries (LDCs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Success will also require a more efficient and unified global education architecture. More money alone will not fix the problem. Addressing this global challenge requires new champions at the highest level and new approaches. In an era when youth are the fastest-growing segment…

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By David Onjili There exist a group of sportsmen and women who transcend the sports disciplines they are famed for. They end up being political and (or) cultural symbols that stand the test of time. With this new found status, they sharply divide opinion. Mohamed Ali, Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio are just but a few. Egyptian born and former Al Ahly player, Mohamed Aboutrika stands heads and shoulders above all in the African continent. Born in 1978 in the town of Giza, Aboutrika was to hone his skills at second division side Tersana. It is here that the first documented…

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By Alexander Opicho Recently, over fifty officers working with the Kenya Revenue authority (KRA) were arrested for engaging in doing corruption, including receiving bribes to falsify tax records so. That incident brought to mind Shakespeare’s words in the Measure for Measure: ‘The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?’ I read the Measure for Measure when I was sixteen – this is about three decades ago. But when the media, in May 2019, reported fifty plus young men and women between the ages of twenty and forty five, earning a decent and middle-income monthly salary, living above want and poverty,…

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By Cynthia Wairimu It is said that you must be strong and not show weakness to anyone lest it is used against you to bring you down. In our age, there is a growing façade of happiness, especially where social events and social media are involved, where the idea is to keep smiling, and not broadcast your sorrows to the world but instead hide it all under a mask of pure bliss. This might have worked for a minute or two until news started to show up of suicides, homicides, femicide, angry outbursts to what would be trivial issues and…

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By NLM Writer The concept that you can get ahead on your work and talents, also called meritocracy, is something we mostly agree is good. We also equate it with a fairer society, one where the social order is not determined by birth but one which gives us some sort of agency over our futures. However the term itself was coined as a warning. So why do we believe in it so strongly? Entire cultures and societies are formed around the concept of meritocracy. It has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the…

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