Author: NLM Correspondent

The World Bank just released a report on the economics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It provides estimates of the potential of Belt and Road transport corridors for enhancing trade, foreign investment, and living conditions for people in the countries that they connect. The report also tries to answer an important question: what happens to the internal geography of countries when they increase connections with others? The question is important for national and subnational governments. Spatial equity in development outcomes ranks high as a barometer of political success. We know from research that regions with better access to…

FUAD ABDIRAHMAN When Mwai Kibaki was elected in 2002, among his campaign pledges was to root out corruption, and recover billions of shillings looted and stashed outside by his predecessor and associates. When he appointed John Githongo as the Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics, the country believed his re-solve. When Githongo contracted Kroll & Associates (UK) to conduct an audit of the country’s economic health, their findings sent reverberations through the sys-tem; they presented data detailing the scale of looting during Moi’s tenure, re-vealing that the former president had at least Sh100 billion stashed overseas. For some reason, the…

By Genevieve Jesse and Dhruv Gandhi On June 14, the Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa released its 2019 Index and Dashboards Report, which assesses the impact of government efforts on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The assessment covers data gaps, national strategies, budgeting practices, stakeholder engagement, coordination at the executive level, and legislative actions throughout 52 African countries (Seychelles and Libya are excluded for lack of data). This year’s report repeats previous SDG Centre for Africa assessments that rank North Africa as the best-performing region on the continent and Central Africa as the worst-performing region, though individual countries…

By Antony Mutunga In March 2018, at the 10th Extraordinary Session of the African Union, attending states agreed to create the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – as well as sign the free movement protocol by order of interest and the Kigali Declaration. Although not all states signed all three instruments, the majority – 44 out of 55 – agreed to formally establish the AfCFTA after rounds of negotiations between 2015 and 2017. The next step was for at least half of the founding nations (22) to ratify the legal instruments to bring the order into effect. During the…

By Claudio Ndeleva Mutua A modern democratic state is, by necessity, supposed to incorporate the views of the people it governs in the decisions that affect them directly. While the election of representatives to public bodies, including the legislatures, has been one of the hallmarks of the traditional democracy, there has been a shift towards more participatory democracy in recent decades. The participatory mechanism was initially conceived and designed as a way for citizens’ views and input to have an influence on the political and bureaucratic decision-making process. It was also imagined that participatory mechanisms would become tools for holding elected…

By Kevin Motaroki What is your last great act as chair of the Board? That would be cleaning up the Fund – and therefore. Its image – by instituting proper structures to facilitate its mandate and operations. I , however, wouldn’t peg that on a specific activity or item for, I think, it has been a continuous process. It is a team effort, of course. We have documented our achievements, challenges, lessons and recommendations in a report, the YEDF End of Term Report, 2019. It is an honest assessment of the Board’s work, which gives the public an opportunity to…

By Kevin Motaroki There is a quote often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” It is a notoriously heated subject. Right now, on one hand, there is an increasing number of people calling on big corporations and the super wealthy around the world to pay their taxes. On the other end of the spectrum are the libertarians, soaked in the belief that tax is theft. The Free State Project (FSP) is a geopolitical movement which, according to Wikipedia, seeks…

By Anthony Pipa As countries adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the inclusion of a separate goal on urbanisation (SDG 11) – to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable – was hailed as a breakthrough, establishing the significance of cities to the 2030 Agenda. Four years in, it is clear that cities matter beyond the confines of SDG 11. Interdependencies between SDG 11 and the other SDGs ripple throughout the agenda. Even more importantly, local government officials are forming the frontlines of SDG implementation, translating the agenda’s lofty and sometimes abstract aspirations into progress…

By NLM Writer Kenya’s perennial near-bottom scores in Transparency International’s Corruption Index has not always been out of nothing. An online forum, Corruption Tracker, “an archive of corruption stories in Africa”, has documented 142 reported scandals since 2004 revealing a staggering figure of Sh6.92 trillion of mony stolen or misused. This translates to a conservative figure of Sh461.4 billion every year since 2004 (some recent estimates have placed the annual average at more than Sh1 trillion a year lost or unaccounted for). As the monies are stolen or misused, several capital projects have stalled. The tracker records that in 2018 alone,…

By Shadrack Muyesu Pity the prosecutor Prosecutors are usually the first people to arrive at the court station – at least two hours before 9a.m. when proceedings commence. The first stop is their desk at the prosecution office where familiarity ends with collecting the day’s files. Next is the serenity of the court room where they review the files and plan their itinerary for the day. In the heat of battle, prosecution is a hard task which typically doesn’t allow one time to gather their thoughts. The prosecutor has to assess their evidence and prepare all responses and applications in…