Author: NLM Correspondent

By Mike Murphy In the near future, building a new home may be as easy as printing out an airline boarding pass. At South By Southwest today, New Story, a Y Combinator-backed charity that works to build houses for people in developing nations, and Icon, a robotics construction company in Austin, Texas, unveiled what is believed to be the first 3D-printed house that is fully up to code and permitted for people to inhabit. The two organisations came together to show that it’s feasibly possible to build an easy-to-replicate house in under 24 hours. They plan to take this proof-of-concept and start producing…

By Lord Jonathan Sumption Transcribed by Kevin Motaroki In the beginning, there was chaos, and brute force – a world without law. In the mythology of ancient Athens, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter so that the gods would allow his fleet to sail to Troy. His wife murdered him to avenge the deed and she, in turn, was murdered by her son. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, put an end to the cycle of violence by creating a court to impose a solution in what today we would call ‘the public interest’ – a solution based on reason, on the experience…

By Dennis Ndiritu On March 14, 2019, a three-judge bench of the High Court comprising Justices Francis Tuiyot, Jackline Kamau and Rachael Ngetich ruled that a section of the Banking Amendment Act 2016, which gives the Central Bank of Kenya authority to cap interest rates, is unconstitutional. In its dictum, the court suspended Sections 33(b) 1 and 2 for 12 months to give the National Assembly an opportunity to reconsider the existence of the provisions. It threw the ball to the court of the Central bank of Kenya to provide measures of clarity to the impugned provisions during this period. In…

By Bosire Nyamori Interpretive challenges are a salient feature of tax legislation. The case of ‘Kenya Revenue Authority v Republic (Ex-parte Fintel Ltd) (KRA v Fintel)’, illustrates problems that come up when the precise meaning of words in a statute is uncertain and murky. The source of the problem was the word “paid” in Sec 2 and phrase “upon payment” in Sec 35(1) of the Income Tax Act. At issue is whether the obligation by the payer of interest to deduct and remit withholding tax is based on the accrual principle or the cash basis. The Court of Appeal held…

By Jenni Avins and Jason Karaian There are a lot of creative people here, and disciplined ones at that. People whose jobs require them to have good ideas, again and again, under great scrutiny. But how do they get over the fear of the blank page and keep on creating. What do they do to break out of a creative rut? Don’t resist it: include it “Well, put effort into it, that’s what I say,” says Jeff Goldblum, actor, jazz pianist, and Internet zaddy. “I say, you need the magic of inspiration and something to happen—but those things you can’t…

I read with unflagging pleasure the feature story published in the June issue of this magazine about Wafula Buke. I salute the depth of research into facts, style and texture of journalism that the author, David Onjili, employed. I also salute the writer for his timely and brave work that.  My remarks are in tune with a new and provocative social philosophy that it is better logic to celebrate heroes when they are alive, rather than eulogising their lives when they are dead.  I too, want to share in celebrating Buke’s contribution to democracy, human rights and defence of the dignity…

By Antony Mutunga In the 20th century, advancement in technology took on a new meaning as technology quickly metamorphosed. After the creation of super-computers in the 1940s, scientists and engineers from all over the world continued to innovate. This led to the birth of the Internet which, in turn, resulted in many new developments among them, the first recognizable social media site. This took place in 1997 with the launch of the site by the name Six Degrees. The social media site enabled its users to make friends with other users as well as upload their photos. This pioneer led…

By Dr Tom Odhiambo The Kenyan economic secret was made public recently. The government statistics say that the country is doing quite well economically. But the real figures on the ground don’t seem to support the mathematics, to a large extent. Government’s own numbers show that the economic growth rate is impressive. At 6.3 percent, Kenya is doing very well. Definitely one can see some evidence of the growth – more new and bigger cars on the road; newer and taller buildings; shiny shopping malls; high-end eateries etc. The dream of prosperity doesn’t seem to be that far, at least…

By David Onjili The Kafala System is a sponsorship system used in Persian Gulf States that requires sponsorship from a national for migrant workers to be employed and reside in the country. Its purpose is to monitor and control migrant laborers who are mainly employed in the construction sector or as domestic workers. Most of these migrant workers hail from Asian countries like Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In these countries, the labour is cheap and plenty and workers are thus subject to exploitation by their employers. Kenya too exports such laborers and is not exempt from this exploitation as…

By Rakesh Mohan Broad consensus had been achieved around dominant neoliberal thinking in relation to financial sector regulation and monetary policy in the two decades leading up to the North Atlantic financial crisis (NAFC) that erupted in 2007-08. Whereas this thinking was essentially developed and applied in the advanced economies, similar policy prescriptions were advocated for emerging market economies. The general view was based on two theoretical propositions: the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) and the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH). The EMH defines an efficient financial market as one in which securities prices fully and rationally reflect all available information. The…