Author: NLM Correspondent

It has been four months since the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) nominated 41 individuals for appointment as judges. Curiously, President Uhuru Kenyatta went quiet after the names were forwarded to him, prompting lawyer Adrian Kimotho to sue to compel the Head of State to make the appointments. President Uhuru Kenyatta has defended his decision not to gazette all the 41 judges, citing “adverse reports” on some of them. The President argues it would be irresponsible on his part to appoint the judges who enjoy security of tenure given the integrity concerns he is privy to and reveals he will ask…

When the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement—which has created the world’s largest free trade zone—was first expressed a couple of years ago, I admit I wondered if African leaders were fully committed to achieving this historical milestone. But the progress and enthusiasm around the agreement, as well as its potential to be transformational for all Africans, have eased my reservations. As noted by many experts, including Dr Landry Signé in a recent report on this subject, the AfCFTA has great potential: By 2030, Africa will have a combined consumer and business spending of $6.7 trillion, offering some of the…

By David Onjili We all love the underdog’s story; we root for them and want to see them cause upsets during the game. And they often do. For example, Leicester City won the Premier League in 2014, against all odds, in a one of the biggest upsets in the game, and, in 2018, Iceland qualified for the FIFA World Cup. Yet, nothing comes close to the Iraqi national team triumph of 2007 at the Asian Cup hosted in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. There is a story of exiled players, civil war, death threats, and one talismanic striker. A FOX…

BY Yasin Arkanuddin My abdomen clenched like a fist, my bladder tightened, and any need I had to relieve myself instantly disappeared. I wretched and recoiled in disgust as I reflexively ducked back out of the police prison cell toilets. I have grown up in boarding school and lived in the poor areas of Nairobi city without sewerage but nothing can prepare you to board in the stench generated by the mound of human faeces that was slowly decomposing two walls away from the office of the Officer in Charge of Station Kilimani Police Station. How did he survive here?…

Brace yourself, lovers of diet sodas and sugary drinks. It’s more bad news and yet another reason to consider ditching your favourite soft drink. A new study followed more than 450,000 people from 10 European countries for up to 19 years and found those who drank two or more glasses of any type of soda a day had a higher risk of dying from any cause of death than people who drank less than a glass each month. None of the people had cancer, diabetes, heart disease or stroke before their participation. The study, published in September in the journal…

By Agencies When you first start out in the creative industries, there is a lot of received wisdom. “This is how it works.” “That’s just the way it is.” But how true are these truisms? Success and burnout go hand in hand Ah, the creative brain. A wondrous, magical, mysterious thing. Always on the lookout for untapped observations or sparks of divine inspiration. Marinated in coffee, it doesn’t conform to the nine-to-five because being busy is what it’s best at. Sleep? Sleep is for the weak! That is, until it all comes crashing to a halt. Welcome to burnout. “I…

By WALTER KHOBE The normative grounding of the 2010 Constitution sought to deal with three “sins” that have historically bedevilled the Kenyan judiciary. These “sins” are: corruption, executive mindedness, and formalist/legalistic reasoning. While the post-2010 judiciary has, to a large extent, tried to reverse the legacy of the judiciary with respect to the first two, the “sin” of pathological formalism and amoral legalism is still ingrained in Kenyan legal culture and endures in the post-2010 dispensation. This was evident in the recent Supreme Court decision in ‘Hon. Martha Wangari Karua v the IEBC and 3 Others’, Petition Number 3 of…

By Denis Ndiritu The right to religion falls right at the heart of our constitution and society. Article 32 of the Constitution espouses the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion and in doing so vests the Kenyan citizen with the power to manifest this religion whether in person or as a group through practice teaching or observance. Recently, a father sued the Education ministry and Olympic High School in Kibra seeking to compel them to admit his daughter to Form One without having to shave her dreadlocks. In JWM (AliasP) v Board of Management(Particulars Withheld) High…

By Demas Kiprono Demonstrations, public assemblies or protests are part of Kenya’s history. They form an important tool Kenyans use to show displeasure against injustices, marginalisation, discrimination, environmental degradation and oppression. As far back as 1922, protests were held when Harry Thuku was arrested. Thuku was arrested for his political agitation and involvement in the Young Kikuyu Association. It led to the killing of 20 Africans by the colonial government. A year later, Nandi Orkoiyot Barserion was arrested and deported for organizing a cultural assembly known as Saket ap Eito.It agitated for Nandi non-cooperation in protest of punitive taxes and…

By Lord Jonathan Sumption When the French political writer Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States in the 1830s, one of the things that struck him most forcibly was the dominant place occupied by lawyers in the public life of the nation. In his classic account of early American democracy, de Tocqueville suggested that lawyers, as a class, had succeeded to the beliefs and influence of the old landed aristocracy. They shared its habits, its tastes and, above all, they shared its contempt for popular opinion. “The more we reflect upon all that occurs in the United States,” he wrote,…