Author: NLM Correspondent

By Nicholas Kristof In the Bible, St Paul declares, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” Scholars suspect that this was actually written by some grump other than St Paul, but such sexist passages are sometimes used by conservative Christians to justify the subjugation of women — and by secular liberals to portray the Bible as outdated and misogynistic. Or take militant passages from the Quran like this one: “Kill them wherever you encounter them.” Early Muslims considered this obsolete because it applied narrowly to enemies in a…

Twenty-four years ago, environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian state. His death brought international attention to the rapacious behaviour of oil companies like Shell — and their complicity in the most violent forms of repression. Born in 1941, Ken Saro-Wiwa came of age as Nigeria gained independence and became a lifelong advocate for the importance of minority rights within a unified national identity. A member of the Ogoni ethnic group, who at only half a million hold little sway in a country of two hundred million, Saro-Wiwa was central to mobilising a popular movement that demanded accountability…

By NYT “Billionaires should not exist,” Senator Bernie Sanders said in September 2019. And, at a Democratic presidential debate in October, he said that the wealth disparity in America is “a moral and economic outrage.” “Senator Sanders is right,” said Tom Steyer, a businessman from California who happened to be the only billionaire onstage that night (as far as we know). “No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires — not even the billionaire wants to protect billionaires,” noted Senator Amy Klobuchar. It’s an idea that’s going around. Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder who is worth close to $70…

By Shadrack Muyesu EG & 7 others v Attorney General; DKM & 9 others (Interested Parties); Katiba Institute & another (Amicus Curiae) in which the High Court upheld the constitutionality of Sections 162 and 165 of the Penal Code criminalising homosexual relations was an important decision, not just because it interrogated the contentious issue of gay rights but more so, because it presented an opportunity for the Court to affirm the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, as a liberal democratic constitution. Simmering below the issues was a contest between whether the Constitution should be applied in light of acceptable public morality…

By Dennis Ndiritu In early 2019, Mwende Mwinzi, a citizen of both Kenya and the United States, was nominated by President Uhuru Kenyatta for appointment as Kenya’s ambassador to South Korea. Mwinzi went through the routine vetting process administered by the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee, where legislators questioned her suitability for the position raising concern over the authenticity of her Kenyanness. In the end, they recommended her for appointment on condition that she renounces her American citizenship. This prompted Mwinzi to challenge the matter in court via Constitutional Petition Number 367 of 2019 ‘Mwende Maluki Mwinzi v Cabinet Secretary,…

By Niall Ferguson The fundamental question the Chinese government must face is lawlessness. China does not lack laws, but the rule of law… this issue of lawlessness may be the greatest challenge facing the new leaders who will be installed this autumn. Indeed, China’s political stability may depend on its ability to develop the rule of law in a system where it barely exists.” These are the words of Chen Guangcheng, the blind lawyer who was recently allowed to leave China to study in the United States after successfully escaping from his Communist Party persecutors. Less well known in the…

BY Dennis Ndiritu Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks in October was found to be unlawful by the UK Supreme Court. The court ruled that it was impossible to conclude there had been any reason, “let alone a good reason” to advise the Queen to prorogue Parliament for five weeks. The move to prorogue parliament had been seen as one trying to stop Members of Parliament (MPs) scrutinising the Prime Minister’s Brexit plans with a longer than necessary suspension. During a subsequent speech in New York, the Prime Minister cautioned his refusal to be deterred from getting…

On November 12, Equity Group Holdings (EGH), the holding company of Equity Bank (Kenya) Limited, reported that diaspora remittances increased 28 percent during the first nine months of 2019, versus the same period last year. This is well above the 4 percent increase for the Kenyan banking system and reflects the bank’s growing market share in remittances, a credit positive. The Bank’s diaspora remittances increased to Sh102 billion ($991 million) in the period, and income generated from remittances grew to Sh602 million, an 8 percent increase from Sh557 million for the comparable period in 2018. This year’s increase follows a…

By David Onjili The coquetry between President Paul Kagame and the Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamin Bin Hamad is now bearing fruits. In April, Sheikh Tamin visited Rwanda, and his delegation alongside that of his hosts held bilateral talks on economic cooperation between their respective nations. The climax was the signing of three bilateral agreements: a Reciprocal Promotion of Investments, another on Air travel and services and a Memorandum of Understanding on Economic, Technical and Commercial Cooperation. In late October Kagame was hosted in Doha during the Information Technology Conference and Exhibition facilitated by the Qatar Ministry of…

Creatives, or content creators, need support for their work. And Patreon, a crowdfunding membership platform, does just that, through providing business tools for creators worldwide to run a subscription-based content service. Through Patreon, members are able to build relationships with the creatives and receive exclusive experiences on their work. It is not a new phenomenon; it draws its existence from the idea of ‘patronage’. Artists of yore like William Shakespeare, Mozart, Leonardo Da Vinci had aristocrats who supported their work; their quid pro quo was the satisfaction derived from the masterpieces produced. That arrangement also afforded them bragging rights to…