Author: NLM Correspondent

Do you remember the good old days when we had “12 years to save the planet”? Now it seems, there’s a growing consensus that the next 18 months will be critical in dealing with the global heating crisis, among other environmental challenges. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C this century, emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be cut by 45 percent by 2030. But today, observers recognise that the decisive, political steps to enable the cuts in carbon to take place will have to happen…

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 Ali Abdi “Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, US Supreme Court Justice In my understanding of the law, the overall acting principle of criminal law is to identify conduct that warrants punishment in terms of societal well-being and in connection with the identified conduct. In other words, the ends of justice must depend not only on the kind of scrupulous forensic reasoning of the law and evidence displayed by a prosecutor but also by just as much on the informed common sense of a judge in interpreting the law.…

BY Dennis Ndiritu The Supreme Court on March 15, 2019 issued a ruling castigating the conduct of Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi. This emanated from his bareknuckle dress down of the bench in ‘Republic v Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammed & another [2019] eKLR’. In this case, the respondents were two Iranian nationals who came to Kenya on June 12, 2012 on a tourist/business survey visa. Upon arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, they took a local flight to Mombasa and checked in at the Royal Castle Hotel where they had been booked for 10 days by the Teheran Golfers Travel Agency. They,…

By Lord Jonathan SumptionTranscribed by Kevin Motaroki The 18th century sage, Dr Samuel Johnson, thought that politicians were only in it out of vanity and ambition. Mark Twain believed that they were corrupt, as well as thick. George Orwell famously dismissed the world of politics as ‘a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.’ Statements like these are timeless clichés, faithfully reflecting the received opinion of every age, including our own. So, the title of this lecture may sound provocative, at least I hope so, because I want to make the case for the political process with all its…

The Central Bank held its benchmark lending rate at 9 percent last month, with the monetary policy committee saying inflation expectations were within the target range and the economy was operating close to its potential. It is the sixth time in a row the bank has held the rate. A poll of 15 analysts and economists taken last week showed the rate was expected to be left unchanged. “However, there is need to be vigilant on the possible effects of the recent increases in fuel prices, the ongoing demonetisation, and the increased uncertainties in the external environment,” the bank said…

By Livia Yap If emerging markets are the wild child of the investment family, offering potentially higher rewards in return for greater risk, then what about their smaller sibling, frontier markets? These include countries such as Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan and Nigeria, where stock exchanges and currency markets are too small or underdeveloped to be classified as emerging markets. While frontier markets may bring investors more exotic thrills, and spills, they also somewhat counterintuitively can be a safe haven when markets are rocky. What are frontier markets? In the investing hierarchy, they are the bottom rung of three. At the top…

NLM Writer Although the Government of Kenya (B2 stable) faces intensifying liquidity pressures, its fiscal consolidation efforts and Eurobond issuance should allow it to manage these challenges, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report last month. A reported rise in the Kenyan government’s arrears to domestic goods and service providers has started to weigh on business sentiment and has had an impact on domestic manufacturers. At the same time, nonperforming loans (NPLs) at Kenyan banks have risen in recent years, a trend which can be indicative of accumulated arrears by the government to domestic suppliers. “Domestic liquidity pressures in Kenya…

By NLM Writer Google made a whopping $4.7 billion from the work of journalists last year via search and Google News, taking a huge cut from the online ad revenue of media houses which lost a crucial source of income, resulting in many of them getting shrunk or closed. News is a significant part of Google’s business, according to a study released last month by the News Media Alliance (NMA), which represents more than 2,000 newspapers across the US. The journalists who create that content deserve a cut of that $4.7 billion, president and chief executive of the NMA David…

The rise of decentralised renewable energy as a solution to electrification rates across Africa—the slowest growing globally—is also bringing with it a solution to high unemployment. As start-ups in the space continue to prove the viability of their services as alternatives to traditional power grids, they’re starting to create direct jobs at a scale that’s already comparable to local utilities. A “job census” report of the renewable energy sector shows the sector’s workforce—in terms of direct, formal jobs—is already comparable to traditional power grids and utilities in Nigeria and Kenya (the report’s analysis also included India and reflected similar impact).…