Author: NLM Correspondent

Kenya exported its first shipment of oil, worth about $12 million, under a deal with the Chinese petrochemical company, ChemChina. Members of a civil society group are demanding transparency, calling on the Kenyan government to show how the Chinese firm won the bid to buy the oil and how much revenue the country is getting from the sale. After years of exploration, Kenya exported its first crude oil shipment in August. Amid the excitement of Kenya joining the list of oil-producing countries, some civil society groups are accusing the government of keeping oil deals with a Chinese company secret. Charles…

By Dennis Ndiritu Land is a very emotive issue that falls at the heart of the Kenyan people. Its management has vexed the country for a long time and has been the accelerator of post-election chaos leading to the development of a land management structure led by the National Land Commission (NLC), whose functions, apart from constitutional provisioning, have been judicially anchored by the courts through various landmark decisions such as ‘Republic v County Government of Kiambu & Others [2014] eKLR’, ‘Serah Mweru Muhu v Commissioner of Lands & Others [2014] eKLR’, ‘Hassan Hashi Shirwa & Another v Swaleh Mohamed…

By Shadrack Muyesu In some ways, I am like MacDonald Mariga; I have never voted and I am not about to. While this has never stopped me from questioning government excesses and having expectations, I am afraid that it is a luxury I won’t be enjoying for too long. Voting has become a de facto necessity enjoying a status above the entire realm of rights as the unwritten qualifier to these rights. We say that men are born with rights yet subtly emphasise that they do not deserve these rights unless they vote. Say you do not vote and you’re…

By Kevin Motaroki The subject is politics. We have understood it to be an imperfect arrangement from the beginning. Necessarily transactional, there is no pretence at love or passion in it for most, just parties conducting business: you elect me, you get cited services. Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko packaged himself as one of the few who would go beyond that description, because “I believe in leaving a better society than I found.” He was, he promised, that kind of politician. When Sonko won City Hall as governor of Nairobi in 2017, the prize was attained, in part, for campaigning against…

More Kenyans consider themselves optimists, compared to citizens of other major African economies, a new survey has found. The Global Optimism Outlook Survey found that 70 percent of Kenyans view themselves as optimists, above the global average of 56 percent, and the continental average of 64 percent. In terms of geographic regions, South America was found to be home to the largest number of optimists (74 percent). Commissioned by Expo 2020 Dubai, and conducted by YouGov, the Global Optimism Outlook Survey tracked people’s priorities for the future, looking at sustainability, economic growth, technology, travel, and more. More than 20,000 people…

The international community must do more to tackle networks of corruption that are fueling violence in South Sudan, according to campaigners. The call follows the publication of a report detailing how corporations have profited from the country’s civil war. The investigation by The Sentry organisation — co-founded by actor George Clooney — shows the links among armed groups involved in the civil war, global oil giants, and British and American citizens. May 2013 in Upper Nile State, South Sudan. Celebrations are staged to mark the reopening of the Palouge oil field. Government ministers pose alongside Chinese workers and executives from…

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…

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…

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…

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…